Office Renovation – This Old Dean House

The office renovation was supposed to be easy. Pull the old laundry room sink and paint. We ended up having to remove the ceiling, reframe the roof, and install a new roof (with insulation this time). What was supposed to be an easy room turned out to be a bear! Along the way, we found …

Master Bath Renovation – Part 4 – Finishing Electrical, Plumbing, Drywall, Tile

Moving water pipes, never-ending demo, moving walls, and now we are finally finishing up. We made our final decisions on where everything would go. Emily went into war room mode, figuring out the “design”. Once that was finalized, we completed the electrical, plumbing, drywall, painting, and tiling. For me, this was more fun because I …

Laundry Room Renovations – This Old Dean House

The dirtiest part (so far) of our entire renovation (and that is saying something) was our laundry room renovation. I had to pull the ceiling in this room, and half of the back yard came out of it. I guess a family of squirrels had lived in there at some point over the past 135 …

Master Bath Renovation – Part 3 – Framing The Wall (This Old Dean House)

Build That Wall(s)! I’ve framed an entire basement remodel in the past. This was much less than that…but…it was not easy at all. In order to minimize demo (and not tear into the entire house), I had to tie my new framing into the existing framing. The existing framing was “wonky” to say the least! …

This Old Dean House – Sideyard (Phase 1) – HVAC Area

The side yard of our house was a disaster from earlier projects. We’d replaced both HVAC units and the water/sewer lines from the street. I needed to level it out and get the area around the HVAC units put back together. I brought in my heavier equipment for some ‘light’ landscaping work. This made the …

Master Bath Renovation – Part 2 – Never Ending Demo (This Old Dean House)

This bathroom was like demo’ing a lasagna…layer upon layer upon layer. Paneling, drywall, wallpaper, beadboard, wood lathe…you name it, and this bathroom had it. I was already planning to remove one wall entirely. As I dug deeper, I realized I needed to get all the way to the studs to make sure the structural walls …

Master Bath Renovation – Part 1 – Find The Missing Water Pipes (This Old Dean House)

Our tiny “master” bathroom had the pipes for the upstairs bathroom running through it. We think they added the upstairs bathroom in the 1940s. Both bathrooms have been remodeled several times since then. To repipe the entire house, I had to find those pipes. This was one of my very first projects. It started a …

Dining Room Renovation – This Old Dean House

We repiped the house, and the upstairs bathroom was above the dining room. The quest to find the plumbing led to the excavation of the dining room ceiling. This eventually led to the entire drop ceiling coming out to complete the room’s renovation. It was interesting to try to piece together 135 years of home …