To Restore a House in Church Hill, Richmond, Virginia

In what has become a yearly tradition, we walked around the area over Thanksgiving weekend with a eye for what has & has not changed in the neighborhood.

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Posted by john m at 8:00 AM | Comments (7)

November 22, 2006

recognize

Our site gets a nice mention in the December issue of Richmond Magazine.

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Posted by john m at 2:39 PM | Comments (4)

November 17, 2006

refinished floors

In what was the last hurdle to actually being able to live downstairs, the floors downstairs have been de-painted, unsplintered, sanded, and refinished. And they are bee-yoo-tee-full!

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Posted by john m at 6:01 PM | Comments (7)

July 29, 2006

on buying siding

We've been buying siding one pickup load at a time, and this is ok.

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Posted by john m at 6:59 PM | Comments (0)

July 2, 2006

this is a safety cover

We had to finish a few details left behind from our barter with the elctricians; now we just need to arrange for and pass an inspection...

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Posted by john m at 7:15 PM | Comments (0)

January 8, 2006

two new carpentry words

In researching an upcoming project, we learned two new words: cripple stud and king stud.

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Posted by john m at 12:39 PM | Comments (0)

January 3, 2006

San Francisco, California

There are some fantastic buildings in San Francisco.

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Posted by john m at 10:33 AM | Comments (5)

December 21, 2005

eating your lawn

I was recently forwarded an article about Edible Estates, an organization working to get people to use their lawns to grow more edible food.

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Posted by john m at 9:04 AM | Comments (2)

December 12, 2005

round fireplace covers

Ever since our first cold month in the house, we've been keeping our eyes open for the cast-iron round fireplace covers that we need.

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Posted by john m at 5:44 PM | Comments (8)

December 10, 2005

pigeons-eye view

Like snow, a satellite image of the neighborhood makes everything look clean...

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Posted by john m at 5:32 PM | Comments (12)

November 25, 2005

a walk around the neighborhood

Our first Thanksgiving in the neighborhood, we walked around and took photos. Last year we did it again. In keeping with this impromptu tradition, we went for a walk yesterday morning...

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Posted by john m at 11:27 AM | Comments (7)

an old Ford tractor

We've bought many tools while working on this house, none as wonderful as my Uncle Red's old Ford tractor.

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Posted by john m at 9:31 AM | Comments (1)

November 20, 2005

plastered

The lil'lady of the house took a plaster repair seminar this past Saturday.

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Posted by john m at 7:41 PM | Comments (2)

November 14, 2005

plans for a bathroom

We have an in with some architects and this is occasionally useful. One of these architects, a guy that we'll call Joe, recently drew out a plan for our downstairs bathroom.

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Posted by john m at 7:37 PM | Comments (4)

November 6, 2005

in the dark

We failed to replace a ceiling light today.

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Posted by john m at 3:40 PM | Comments (6)

November 5, 2005

a slightly off-topic suggestion

We've been running Google adverts on our site since July or so. In that time, we've made enough $$$ to pay for the site hosting and buy a nice circular saw. It seems that the old house genre generates some ok pay-outs... If you are interested in setting this up on your own site, using this link to do so might eventually kick something back to us.

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Posted by john m at 3:12 PM | Comments (4)

November 4, 2005

refining the plan

1000 years ago when we first started this, we really had no idea of what we were getting into. We know a little bit more now and have adjusted the plan.

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Posted by john m at 5:37 PM | Comments (3)

October 29, 2005

link purge

School and real life have taken over again and we still haven't finished cleaning up from the last work that we managed. What's a little sawdust, anyway?

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Posted by john m at 1:03 PM | Comments (4)

October 23, 2005

a bathroom floor!

We pulled out the bathroom floor almost 4 months ago. For some unknown reason, we just stopped there, leaving a giant hole in the floor all summer. With cold on the way, we've gotten motivated to get everything put back together.

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Posted by john m at 4:46 PM | Comments (5)

October 19, 2005

perfect plumbing indeed

Three days after discovering the leak, everything is ok.

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Posted by john m at 3:55 PM | Comments (3)

October 18, 2005

a distraction

Check out these other wonderful old houses, all of which, I'm sure, also have f*cked up plumbing and termite damage.

Posted by john m at 6:53 AM | Comments (7)

October 16, 2005

a leaky pipe outside

We discovered that one of our water pipes coming into the house is leaking.

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Posted by john m at 5:24 PM | Comments (11)

October 6, 2005

a thing that happened in the alley

A camping trailer was recently dumped behind an abandoned house on our alley. Apparently two people were living there, without the consent of landowner. Yesterday the trailer burned...

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Posted by john m at 9:26 PM | Comments (5)

October 2, 2005

a new faucet

We got new faucets installed outside, again.

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Posted by john m at 4:35 PM | Comments (1)

September 27, 2005

sidework

In a straight barter for a drawing, I've made a website for Four Winds Landscape Design.

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Posted by john m at 4:21 PM | Comments (2)

September 24, 2005

towards having a more level floor

The floor joist under the wall between the kitchen and bathroom has sagged several inches over the years. Fixing this is one of the projects that we have to do before it gets cold out, so that we can replace the missing bathroom floor.

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Posted by john m at 4:27 PM | Comments (5)

September 17, 2005

1104 North 20th Street

We've fallen for another house nearby, a small and wasted Victorian that sits right on the projects.

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Posted by john m at 8:19 AM | Comments (6)

September 15, 2005

Richmond: It Sucks Less

You can't separate the house from the neighborhood, or the neighborhood from the city...

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Posted by john m at 4:09 PM | Comments (19)

September 9, 2005

time suck

Summer is over and suddenly our free time is just gone. Grad school and the new teaching job started this past week, so it looks like the house will be on hold for a little while.

Posted by john m at 6:03 AM | Comments (1)

August 22, 2005

it is like having a new door

We have 6 doors to the outside word, 4 of which are downstairs. A legacy of the house's history as unsavory rental property, half of the doors were completely inoperable when we got the house. This weekend we opened one of these for the first time...

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Posted by john m at 9:01 PM | Comments (3)

August 21, 2005

ghetto brick

In the mid-20th century, before there was aluminum or vinyl siding, asphalt shingle siding was the alternative replacement siding. Some of this siding was stamped to appear to be brick or stone; this is ghetto brick.

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Posted by john m at 12:16 PM | Comments (12)

August 20, 2005

an amazing stripper

Having recently pulled down a mantle, we've spent a few days experimenting with removing the paint.

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Posted by john m at 8:20 PM | Comments (11)

August 19, 2005

prepping a fireplace

We pulled the mantle off of the 3rd fireplace downstairs and gave everything a good cleaning.

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Posted by john m at 8:54 AM | Comments (2)

August 18, 2005

drywall estimates

We're starting the process of getting estimates on drywalling most of the downstairs. We really want to get this going again.

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Posted by john m at 11:52 AM | Comments (4)

August 14, 2005

cleaning up

Having pulled a bunch of shingles off of the house and been banned from the dump, we've created something of a refuse problem.

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Posted by john m at 4:40 PM | Comments (0)

August 5, 2005

restoration near by

Removal of the stucco from a former fish market a few blocks away has uncovered an old Bromo-Seltzer sign.

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Posted by john m at 5:48 PM | Comments (7)

July 27, 2005

hot as $@#!

It's 82 degrees at 1:30 in the morning. Tomorrow the temperature is supposed to hit around 103, and that doesn't even account for the heat index.

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Posted by john m at 1:52 AM | Comments (5)

July 24, 2005

a small vacation

It is stupid hot here these days days and we've been working so hard recently that we rewarded ourselves with a vacation to a hotel downtown that has a roof-top pool.

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Posted by john m at 2:01 PM | Comments (2)

June 30, 2005

all of the local neighborhoods

I built one of those Chicago-style crime info websites for Richmond.

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Posted by john m at 4:54 PM | Comments (2)

June 28, 2005

banned from the dump

Six months ago, at about the same time that we pulled the wall down from the entrance hall, I got banned from the dump. This should've been posted months ago, but I needed time to get some perspective.

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Posted by john m at 1:56 PM | Comments (5)

June 24, 2005

ACORN to offer plaster workshop

For anyone local, ACORN is offering a hands-on/on-site workshop on how to repair decorative plaster detailing in historic homes. Find out more.

Posted by john m at 9:12 PM | Comments (0)

June 1, 2005

another older house

ACORN has info on a a neat old house for sale in Manchester.

Posted by john m at 12:26 PM | Comments (0)

May 22, 2005

at a much older house

It was beautiful yesterday, mid-70s and partly-cloudy, a great day to work on the house. We had made a prior commitment, though, so...

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Posted by john m at 11:39 AM | Comments (11)

April 24, 2005

barton heights

We took a drive through Barton Heights, another neighborhood of old houses.

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Posted by john m at 5:08 PM | Comments (16)

March 31, 2005

petersburg, virginia

We recently took a day trip to Petersburg, Virginia. It is only about 25 miles away, but it is enough of a different city so that we know we've left town. There are many interesting old houses and buildings in Petersburg, and some really weird sh*t, too.

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Posted by john m at 4:31 PM | Comments (19)

March 27, 2005

old house stats

"In 2001, only 8.3 percent of all U.S. homes were built before 1920. That's roughly 9.9 million old homes out of the nation's 119.1 million housing units. Most of the pre-1920s homes are in the Northeast (4.3 million) or Midwest (3.4 million). There are fewer in the South (1.4 million) and even fewer out West (800,000). By contrast, 19.1 million homes were built between 1990 and 2001. Almost half of those, 9 million, were built in the South."
[ via houseblogs.net ]

Posted by john m at 9:59 AM | Comments (2)

November 26, 2004

Walking Tour

Last year we were just discovering some of the streets around us when we walked through our neighborhood over to Union Hill. This year we made a similar walk with an eye towards what is going on in the neighborhood...

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Posted by john m at 9:53 AM | Comments (4)

November 13, 2004

A visit to Caravati's

Columns are painted; we meet neighbors out and about in Manchester; more.

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Posted by john m at 7:38 AM | Comments (2)

September 13, 2004

a house in Highland Park

The neighborhood of Highland Park is 'one of Richmond's original streetcar suburbs' and 'features the most extensive collection of Queen Anne architecture left in the city'. The area also has plenty of challenges. Among the area's collection of Victorians is, we think, Richmond's most interesting house.

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Posted by john m at 5:41 AM | Comments (1)

July 16, 2004

there used to be a trolley here

One hundred years ago we could've caught the trolley 2 blocks from our house.

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Posted by john m at 11:29 AM | Comments (0)

June 20, 2004

siewers, our new best friend

We learn where we can get the siding and other stuff made out of wood that we will need.

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Posted by john m at 10:54 AM | Comments (0)

March 25, 2004

Less Tires, Stumps, Walls

A neighborhood clean-up; a service is provided; more walls come down.

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Posted by john m at 9:55 AM | Comments (0)

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