A view of the Neighborhood

Here is a picture of the Drummond Revere Home circle. There are three more I don't have pictures of yet.

Lets Open things Up

Since I am replacing the furnace and increasing the size of the bathroom I was able to remove the bathroom ceiling and the hallway ceiling to open the rooms up.









I am going to be adding a linen closet against the short wall of the bathroom to help disguise the new ductwork.

The ductwork was moved to the other side of the wall separating the bedrooms from the hallway. I am planning on using sliding doors so that the doors will stack in were there are just a few studs left in that wall. This will allow the bedrooms to feel open to the rest of the house. By moving the ductwork I am able to use the same small soffit to hang the door track and run the ductwork. I also got rid of the extremely low ceiling hallway.

I've Turned the Corner

I've gotten a lot of work done in the lower level. I've reframed the wall that stretches behind the kitchen cabinets and into the dining room. I've managed to squeeze in a half bath behind the kitchen. As you can see the plumbing is in, we removed the existing cast iron drain stack and are putting in pvc drain piping. The water and drain lines were all run in the slab and many of them were leaking. The furnace is half way in, I switched the orientation of the furnace and its location so all of the ductwork had to be moved. I've been removing the linoleum all week and I'm about half-way done, and I'm beginning to think linoleum stands for a thin layer of an ugly steel like substance.

The beginnings of a Model

Here are some images of what I have been up to this week in the evenings. I decided to make a 3d model of the Revere home so that I can work out some of the cabinet details. The model is allowing me to show everyone what I am planning to do.

On a More Personal Note

On Tuesday I asked Jessica to marry me, after some begging and pleading on my part she said yes. The house is officially our first together, so now I have to listen to some of her wants and wishes. She is a big Mod fan but she thinks a lot of the things I like are weird so I guess this will be a good exercise in compromise...................... well she will have to compromise anyway.

After Two Dumpsters

I am working on the design of some sliding doors that will allow me to make the bedrooms open to the living room. Post and Beam homes are great, ultimate design flexibility.









The bathroom framing was a mess, along with the ductwork that comes up from below. I am going to be able to rework some ductwork to increase the efficiency and give me some more room in the bathroom. I am going to be able to vault half of the bathroom which will make the shower much more enjoyable since the original ceiling is 6'10". I am going to reframe the bathroom and increase its size to 6' by 12' it will be a huge improvement from the old bathroom.













Once the dividers were removed the bedroom space became much nicer. One large room is a bit excessive so I am going to go back to a two bedroom model. If you look closely at the upper right of the photo you can see the framing for a supply vent. There is only one problem, there was not a vent stemmed off of the duct. So the middle bedroom was without a supply duct which had to make that a very uncomfortable room.

















After removing the two layers of paneling off of the walls and tearing out the carpet the living room I am ready to start wiring. The lighting in this room is proving to be a difficult task. The staircase cleaned up nice and with a little refinishing could be reused. You can see how open the home is when the hallway wall is removed.





After removing all of the rotted lumber and waterstained plywood this is what was left in the kitchen level. I am going to replace the furnace while I have everything opened up. Improving the efficiency of the furnace from its current rate of 50-60 % to a high efficiency 93% unit. With the improvements in technology I am going to be able to squeeze the furnace, hot water heater, and a stacking washer/dryer unit in the back corner. That will allow me to rework the plumbing and add a half bath down here.

One Dumpster Later

This is a picture of the one spot of some wood rot I found. It is behind the bathtub in the bathroom. This is a view of were the bathtub used to be showing what the insulation looked like when I removed the tile and plywood. This wall of the tub had two layers of the same color tile. The floo in the bathroom was tile set in a thin layer of concrete with metal mesh reinforcing. The tile was not easy to remove but was a piece of cake compared to the cast iron tub. It was wedged in, so it ended up coming out in pieces. I am just lucky I have a 16 year old brother who likes to swing a sledgehammer.






The lowest level of paint in the middle bedroom was this yellow green. It is close to matching the color of the sliding panels between the kitchen and the living room. The VCT Tile I found underneath the carpet in the bedrooms was falling apart and had carpet glued over it in one bedroom.
















A view of the kitchen/ dining after the walls and cabinets were removed. The wall at the back of the kitchen shows the color of the stain that was on the paneling. I don't know if that is the original color of the stain but I am assuming it was. This area of the house flooded a few times, so a lot of the framing was rotting in this lower level. I am removing all of the framing and going back w/ treated lumber. The kithen and dining rooms are going to be combined to open up the space.

More to Come

I am a little crunched for time right now, but I will be updating soon showing the house in its current state. Three weeks have passed since these pictures were taken. Two dumpsters later I have the interior of the house completely gutted out. This weekend I am starting to redo all of the plumbing and electrical. Stay patient more pics to come.

One Very Small and Cozy Bathroom

The Three Small Bedrooms

Some Views of the Kitchen and Utility Room

Come on Inside

The interior of the house has had some work done to it. The fireplace is original and in good shape. The paneling on the walls is not the original paneling. With this picture you can see the openness of the plan. The hallway up above that leads to the bathroom and the bedrooms. You can see down into the dining and the kitchen when the panels are in their up position. You can see Runnells standard detail of 2 2x10's on 4ft. centers. The roof decking is visible, its 2x8 tongue and groove planks. The piece of stained glass outside the window in the screened-in porch was originally in the opening you see in the stair railing in the next picture.


The stair is original, the detailing on it is very nice. I believe the color of the stain on the stair was the original color of the paneling on the walls. A layer of wood paneling has been added over the original, the original layer of paneling has a layer of paint on it so it is hard to tell what the original finish was. The sliding panels make a big difference when they are up, for being such a small house the openness makes the spaces flow into one another to make them feel larger.
















A couple of views of the dining room the way it was. The light that looks like stained glass in the picture is actually just lines drawn with a marker and the color is achieved by tissue paper. The Nelson Bubble lamp was left with the house, the Estate Sale women said she just couldn't remove it, it fit the house too well she said. You can see into the living room since the sliding panels are in their up position.




I don't know if the stained glass over the windows are original or not. They look really nice when the sun is shining outside. You can see one of the original built in light fixtures. It consists of a very simple piece of frosted glass that covers two simple bulbs that fit in the space between the 2x10's. Simple but effective. The ceiling finish is just a very simple dark stain, It makes the space feel very small.

I don't even know where to begin.

The back of the house has been altered the most. I believe the pool and the porch have been added, the base of the porch is brick and is in need of some work. Eventually I plan on removing the screened-in porch and putting something that is more in tune with the original design. The pool itself is in fair condition and will stay. The fence is in need of immediate attention many sections have already fallen down. This is the side of the house that needs the most work, but I see a lot of potential. I can't wait to put on Frank, Dean, and Sammy and sip on a martini.



This is the north side of the house. This portion is not going to see a lot of work in the coming months. The garage may eventually be enlarged to a two car garage. I have one of the few original one car garages in the cul-de sac, most of the garages have been widened and deepened. Many of the original garages were carports and were not enclosed. I think mine was always enclosed, thanks to the construction photos on KC Modern.




This is a view of the balcony that is accessed from the bedrooms. Originally this balcony did not have roofing, it was covered by small wood slats. The slats provided shade for the windows, since this is the south face. My balcony has been extended roughly 1ft from the original and has been roofed to protect it from the elements. I hope to get the balcony to cantilever like the original but that may not be feasable.

Well here goes nothing!

I guess the best way to get this blog rolling is to show everyone the mess I got myself into. In the process of buying this house I got a lot of weird looks. I heard your nuts, your crazy, why in the world would you want this old run down thing, and that was all just from my family. I ignored everything I heard and just kept focused on what I thought house could become. I have always wanted to remodel a Modern home and I always hoped to live in one, well here I am 24, six months out of college and I came across the exact type of project I was looking for I just found it about 12 months earlier than I had planned. Well there is no turning back now, so here goes nothing.

I'll start this thing out by taking you around the exterior of the house in the condition in which I received it. This is the approach to the house, with the detached garage two the right. As you can see the front walk needs a lot of attention as well as the sunshade that defines the entry sequence.

The next picture shows a view of the detached garage and the house beyond. You have to appreciate the metal garage door that matches the pecky cypress siding. The house has been touched very little in its 50 years which was part of its appeal to me. However there are many things that now need work, my attempt is to tastefully restore this great home. I have no intention of trying to bring this house back to the way it was in 1951, my only hope is that the small interventions and work I put in to this house bring it into the 21st century while maintaining the beauty of Drummonds work and Runnells design.