So this is an extremely unique job for us. The clients purchased this great 1893 Victorian in NW Portland, while living in London, without having even personally seen the property. With great faith and desire for a new residence, thousands of miles away, the journey began. The house had been well lived in throughout the century(+), but little updating was done and many alterations are necessary to make the house appropriate for the new owners and their children.
Another leap of trusting their realtor for the appropriate design and contract team, Clarkbuilt and Mellissa McCall were recommended to bring the old house to a functional, classically detailed and modernly equipped home.
Finally the visit to Portland to see the house and personally meet the "team". Delight and excitement was the energy when first walking in. So many details needed to be covered (particularly for Melissa) yet everyone seemed to be in unison with desired product(s). After only three meetings the clients were back off to London, not to return until after the renovation is complete.
This is primarily a photo blog to keep the international clients up to date with what is happening in their house and who is doing it.
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| Giant pocket door |
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| Double Pocket doors |
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| Under stairs. Location of proposed new main floor hall bathroom |
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| Dated kitchen. Archways to be taken out. |
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| Kitchen closet. Proposed location for refrigerator |
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| Door to original lower level bathroom. To be relocated |
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| Soon to be gone |
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| Aged balusters |
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| Existing office cabinetry to be removed |
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| Existing Master bedroom closet to be removed and new built in unit designed and built |
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| Entry to upstairs main bathroom. Two doors being changed to one pocket door |
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| Clawfoot tub being relocated to basement |
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| Main household bathroom |
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| Old fixture |
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| Memorable wall paper. |
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| Bedroom #3 water damage |
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| Lovely handrail to be replaced |
DEMO!!!!!!
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| Office cabinetry. GONE |
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| Tub in a hallway |
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| Master bedroom closet. GONE |
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| Second floor main bath; toilet and vanity. GONE |
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| Second floor main bath tub. GONE |
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| Kitchen archways GONE. |
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| Main floor bathroom. GONE |
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| Kitchen; sink, cabinetry, refrigerator. GONE |
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| Kitchen range and hood. GONE |
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| Basement to be completely remodeled with full bath, guest room, finished family area, utility room and laundry room |
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| Posts to be removed and steel beam installed |
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| Old, old plumbing. |
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| Posts to be removed |
9/15: This next set of photos is the continuation of demo and the start of rough-in for the plumbing, electrical and HVAC.
Jason the electrician for Precision NW Electric has been onsite to demo the electrical wires to make framing the basement easier. Fortunately the electrical service had been updated recently and plenty of power for use to not need more supply.
Brian the plumber also demo'd his old galvanized water lines and waste pipes from the old half bath on the main floor. He also got the new water supply line pulled from the street and was able to rough plumb the new half bath and put in a temporary toilet for us to use during construction.
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| Brian |
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| Old Supply |
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| Pushing the drill towards and into foundation wall |
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| Drill on its way |
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| Perfect shot |
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| Hooking up the new water supply line to be pulled back to the meter |
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| New hall bath location with temp toilet |
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| New waste for hall bath |
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| Old water heater, gone |
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| New water supply |
Kenny the wall finish master also has made an appearance to start tidying up some walls!
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| Main floor chimney wrap: recoating |
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| The animal print wallpaper is lost forever |
Finally some more demo pictures:
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| The metal pile: growing and shrinking |
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| Our new lights! |
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| Growning: the old duct work coming down |
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| Growing: a scrappers dream |
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| Clearing, clearing, clearing |
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| Uncovering another unique wall feature |
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| Kitchen ceiling down for new lighting |
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| Old closet storage |
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| Clearing |
October 13-
At this point the demo is pretty much done and we have begun the rebuilding process and evolving the layout and design as we go along. To start out with we had the water line inspected and put the meter box in-
The basement looks like a war zone as there is a temporary shoring wall and slab floor was cut and dug out for two large footings. The framing lumber is also stored in the basement to make things a bit tighter.
A total of 4200 pounds of concrete was needed for the two footings used to support the new steel post and beam engineered for design-
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| Jesse cutting out the original wood girder beam |
Finally, the concrete.
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| Alex and Jesse navigating the piles |
The second floor bathroom wall and pocket door are framed in and the plumbing layout is being arranged for the shower, toilet and vanity.
We encountered the first of many changes during the building phase. The original design called for the bedroom and office to be separated by the master built-in closet. When we opened the wall and added the header for the new built-in it was determined the two spaces should be connected and the closet moved to an adjacent wall. A nice amount of light is added from the office opening.
Finally the bedroom that had the water damaged ceiling has been smoothed out.
This week will be quite exciting. The paint strippers are starting on stripping the finish and stain from the original woodwork on the main and second floor and the basement framing will be plugging along.
3 November 2013
Two weeks ago we put the beam in got delivered and installed. This is a 20', 625 lb piece of steel.
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| On the truck |
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| Off the truck, on the genie lifts |
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| Into the window |
Skyler was able to get a time lapse of the beam going into the basement window, onto the genie lifts, raised into place, and the posts secured.
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| We unfortunately had part of the basement excavated for the plumbing inspection |
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| Beam coming in |
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| Beam is up! |
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| Temp wall down and basement framing. |
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| The "office" and utility room. Hard to envision at this point. |
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| The basement bathroom, shower and tub area |
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| down the hallway |
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| The basement framed in. |
Another monumental task was the stripping of the original stain and finish from wood work at entry, living room, and landing area at top of stairs. Comparing the natural wood to some of the pictures from the very beginning will really give you perspective to how much build up there was. It looks absolutely amazing.
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| You can just see the contrast between the stained and stripped material. The skirt board at the bottom of the picture has not yet been stripped |
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| A truly amazing newell post. Hand carved mahogany |
