Arts & Crafts exterior colors = New life

A rose by any other name may smell as sweet but a house with the appropriate colors for its architectural style surely looks much sweeter.  While these townhouses were most likely painted in dark and drab colors to accommodate Pittsburgh's early 20th century polluted air, their Arts and Crafts style was screaming for something more fitting.  Sherwin Williams Exterior Historic Palette did the trick, specially on the doors and windows where Roycroft Copper Red contrasted nicely with the surrounding Birdseye Maple details and Roycroft Vellum trim:

(more to come)

Interior painting begins

Deciding the interior colors was the hardest part of this project.  Maybe it's trying to guess what the "average" person is going to like that makes it so hard...  Some told me I should go with warm colors, while others thought cool colors were better.  In the end, Snowbound White for ceilings and walls and Extra White for trims won out.  Whoever buys it can always live with them until they let their personality make choices of their own.

Restoring the details

Most of the house's original details were there, just under many layers calling out to be removed.  Chemicals and elbow grease did wonders in removing 100 years of use.

First to be exposed were the oak newel posts and handrails.  And, how nice they turned out! 

Most of the original door hardware was able to be saved and reused.  Brass cleaner did wonders to restore the knobs and plates to their original shine.

 
And, who would think that the original 1915 Arts and Crafts mailbox could ever look so good?!

Or that layers of old soot would uncover such nice ceramic house number?!

Second floor changes

The second floor had two bedrooms, one bathroom and a small room only accessible through one of the bedrooms; this is called a "captive room" and is often not very usable.  This room was turned into two modern closets and bathroom to utilize the space better and allowed a previously added makeshift closet to be removed, making the room bigger and bringing more natural light into the bedroom.

On the right you can see the old closet and in the back is the entrance to the captive room:

And here's the new closet and master bathroom after being reframed:

In the front bedroom, previous owners had added another makeshift closet which was ugly, covered the fireplace and really restricted the view of the great bay window:

Two new closets were added on either side of the uncovered fireplace:

The tiny original second floor bathroom needed a bit of work too:

The standard swinging door was replaced with a pocket door for more usable space and a transom above to light up the stairway:

The old covered-over skylight was reopened, a new insulated and operable skylight was installed, and the light well was flared to allow lots of light into the room:

Opening up the first floor

Once the old loose plaster, unwanted walls, stained suspended ceilings, outdated fixtures, and dirty carpet are gone, the framing can begin.

The standard doorway and wall between the living room and dining room cut out *a lot* of light and made the rooms feel cramped and dark.  Removing this division and some other un-used space creates an open feel and allows light to flow from the front and back of the house to both rooms.

Before...

Original Cramped Entry to the Diningroom

... and after some demo:

Mid-Construction (Finished Pictures Coming Soon)

The coat closet was turned to better connect the two rooms and so that it was more centrally located:

Similarly, the dining room to kitchen transition was restricted to a single standard doorway.  We opened this through-way up and of course removed the wood paneled walls, revealing a great brick wall and what was once a gas fireplace behind it!  What a difference.

Original Restricted Doorway and Wood Paneling.

Removed Walls and Framing of New, Widened Doorway to Kitchen

The old kitchen was in desperate need of updating...

... so the 1960s cabinets were removed and the walls were furred out for insulation and new drywall:

Also going on at this time was the installation of new insulated glass, wood window sashes.  At some point in the not so distant past, most of the original windows had been replaced with vinyl ones.  How sad, yellowed, brittle and cracked these replacements had become.   Lesson for other remodelers out there:  vinyl is NOT forever.

Pictures of the finished rooms coming soon!