so, one of the challenges of buying a century home that has been converted into a rental duplex property is that rather than fixing something, it is usually patched up. To what extent I had very little knowledge. Maria (house's name till ya'll come up with something better than the name of the street she is on... Maria St) has had many hands on her over the years. Not saying she's been an "easy" house but rather one with many touches... ok, I'll stop with the innuendo. So here's what we've discovered so far in our quest to green Maria.
- The main floor visible hardwood is the THIRD flooring material used (with at least 2 layers underneath). In some places its 2 layers and others 3 which leads to uh... interesting elevation changes. I'm going with the theory that our feet weren't made for perfectly flat surfaces and that these changes in flooring height are better for the feet!
- The first addition of the house was originally one storey i.e. the second storey floor has been places on top of what must have been a low-pitched roof.
- The ceiling on the ground floor of the original house has at least 5, yes, I said FIVE layers to it! Check out the photo on the left for the cross-section of a part that we opened up! So, our thinking is that with every change or leak etc that occurred the landlord/lady just added another layer on top rather than remove and start fresh. This lead to the debate of do we remove it all and send it to the dump (which has a physical and an eco-cost) or add another layer on top as it looks like crap and the stucco finish is very difficult to match. After much thinking and meditation, I think we will go for removing the layers as it will give us easy access to fix the
knob&tube wiring which looks like it only exists in the ground floor ceiling. We can also then assess if we need to beef up the joists or fix anything that might be have been cut (including one joist that we already discoverered) and am trying to find a product that we can use as a ceiling that is attractive, not so expensive and removable so we can fix/change things without putting in a brand new ceiling everytime... we woulda scored big time! :)
Oh, and today on the second floor, I believe I've discovered the original (pine?) floor boards that were under the laminate. Luckily the laminate came up easy and will be donated to
Habitat For Humanity Restore Here's to bring lucky and that we can salvage the boards and use them somewhere else in the house, just like the old studs! :)
Well, I hope I haven't bored all ya'll! Buenos noches! :)
Sounds like a tremendous job brotha! Good luck!
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