DIY is Just Code For “My Arms Feel Like They’re Falling Off”
Rebuilding a Beautiful, Vacant Historic Detroit Home (Episode 24)
This Week In Manual Labor
With the week of the 4th of July upon us, Brandon and I both had the week off of work. What a better way to spend one’s vacation time than 9 straight days of sun up to sun down manual labor we figured?
My mother arrived over the first weekend to help us get started. Our mission: to teach ourselves how to skim coat and repair damaged plaster walls on the 3rd floor. With nearly 100 years of settling and the massive amount of weight in junk stored in the attic, the cracks in the walls of the 3rd floor are extensive. One of the discoveries we made from removing all of the 3rd floor’s wallpaper was the extensive amount of non-repaired or poorly repaired cracks in each room.
We began by carving out loose plaster from each crack and forming a V groove with our blades that would later hold fresh drywall compound. We then went across each crack with a layer of compound, mesh tape, and a second layer of compound to strengthen and repair each crack along the walls. Brandon taught himself now to redo the corners of the rooms with paper tape. A few bedroom walls had sunken so far from the weight of the stuff in the attic that a full 1in. drop could be seen from the difference in height of the picture molding from one wall to the next!
We worked on and tried many different techniques, from watering down compound and rolling it onto the walls with a paint roller to full on skim coating. We think now that a combination of repairs of large surface imperfections and the roller will end up being our final solution to provide a good wall to paint. They won’t be perfect, but we also aren’t professionals, so we’re trying our best to find the correct balance of hard labor and quality.
Cleaning Out The Garage
Another task we took on this week was the removal of all the junk from our garage. It was full of removed damaged baseboard, doors, windows, and things like old bicycles, grills, and junk from the previous owner. Of course we decided to clean this out on the hottest day of the week, but better than working up on the 3rd floor with no AC, I suppose.
We started by putting all of the junk on the curb, which was quickly picked over by scrappers and collectors till there was nothing left within a couple hours. Next, Brandon and I focused on sorting all of the baseboard and casement into usable and unusable pieces by their condition, and then removing all of the nails from the pieces we wanted to keep. This allowed the pile to get much smaller and then we swept and moved everything to one side. We can actually pull a car in the garage now!
New Sash Cords!
Another issue in our 3rd floor rooms was the original windows had broken sash cords. These pieces of rope are what hold the window and lead weights inside the walls together. The lead weights counter-act the weight of the window via a pulley and make the windows easy to open. Each window had 1 sash cord that had snapped which meant not only were the windows heavier to lift, but they wouldn’t lift straight up due to the unbalanced nature of weight on one side. We found new sash cord at ACE Hardware and got to work disassembling our windows to replace these cords.
The sash cords were a HUGE hassle to replace. A few times we’d test the window, see that it was working great, re-attach all of the casement wood and then test again and suddenly the window wouldn’t move and we’d have to start all over to figure out what we did wrong. Eventually we got them all working and back together correctly.
Grand Staircase Gets a Makeover
As the week drew to an end, Cal and Christian arrived to begin the disassembly of our grand staircase for repairs. The first thing to go was the old, nasty carpeting! Once the carpet was removed we realized that our stairs are actually made of two different woods, with a darker wood on the edge of each landing creating a two-toned color effect! It’s so nice to have one of the last remnants of the 70s gone from the house!
Floors start today!
So as we end the week, our flooring subcontractor arrived today to begin refinishing our floors! We’re excited to see all of the work done on repairs and get a fresh new look!
A Week of Hard Work
This week felt like one of the hardest working weeks we’ve had since our project began with filling 4 dumpsters with junk. We are so very tired. We worked on the yard and our terrible Japanese Knotweed for many hours, days in the 3rd floor with no AC, and out in the garage and got nearly no rest. We did end our week however with a wonderful day with neighbors and friends and visiting the Detroit Symphony Orchestra at the Edsel Ford Estate as they played in the gardens for a picnic with fireworks over Lake St. Clair. A nice reward to the end of a work-filled “vacation.”
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Thanks to Detroit Curbed for following our story!
