It. Is. Done. (The Roof That Is)

We actually finished the roof over a week ago, I just haven't gotten to updating the blog. My husband asked what I wanted for my birthday? I said, "to finish this stupid roof." Stupid roof finished. In a drizzly rain. On my birthday. But, it is done. Woo hoo!

Before we can get rid of the dumpster, we need to complete the interior demolition. Since this building had been a doctor's office, it is cut up into a bunch of little examining rooms off of the main hallway. This photo may not look like much, but it represents the brute labor of removing 2 of the walls to turn 3 rooms into 1. There's more sheetrock pulling and 2x4 smashing to come before all the walls are down, but it's looking more like a garage already!

The Weather is Wonderful!

The weather is wonderful! Or so says the fortune cookie we got recently. Maybe in China! We started work on the garage roof almost 2 months ago. As we may have mentioned, it keeps raining. And raining. In case you don't believe us, here are some hard facts from the National Weather Service in Blacksburg for June 1st through today. At least 27 of the last 42 days have had measurable rain. Measurable to the tune of 13.26 inches! And that doesn't include the rain we fought in May. We just have the ridge and chimney flashing to finish, but guess what, it's raining again!

Roofing the Garage: Days 5-6

Finally! We were home for a DRY weekend! We finished the front of the house to about 2 rows below the ridge on Saturday and the back to just below the chimney on Sunday. Woo hoo! The end is near!

Just as exciting, we got the person who is salvaging metal from the building to clear the overgrowth (and poison ivy!) from the alley between our house and the garage. Since the alley is owned by the town, we asked them if they would chip the brush and haul it away for free if we cleaned up the mess. They agreed and the work was completed this weekend too.

Now we can see the garage from our house - much better for security. We're just hoping Tommy didn't get a killer case of poison ivy from his hard work!

Roofing the Garage: Days 1-4

The rain. It's amazing how much rain we've gotten this spring. And always when we are able to work on the roof! We did finally get some shingles up last week, but not until after some drama and...rain.

Due to equipment failure and...rain...it took 2 days to replace the few pieces of decking that were rotted. We haven't turned the electricity on to the garage yet, so we're using a generator. The generator had been sitting idle for a few months and, of course, it didn't want to work to power a saw and the air nailer. Plan B: use the new cordless saw. Wouldn't you know the new cordless saw's battery charger didn't work? Plan C: back to the generator. We finally got it running, but only had an hour left that day to work. Despite the setbacks (and rain) we did get the decking repaired and shingling finally started last week!

Unroofing the Garage: Days 9 & 10

"That's the same photo as in the last post," you say. Well, you're right. Things look pretty much the same so I didn't take a new picture. What you can't see is that we've removed all of the nails from the roof. The nails that held in the tar paper, the 2 layers of shingles, and the roll roofing that was put on top of the shingles. So, yes, lots and lots of nails. We were able to pull nails for the few hours last week when it wasn't raining. On Wednesday morning, the only place that it was raining in the entire area was over our house. Go figure.

We also had a bit of excitement on one of those rainy days. See that tiny pile of lumber in front of the dumpster? Someone thought it was free for the taking, pulled his pickup in and took a few pieces. Not all of it, mind you, just a few pieces. Like he was trying to finish a project and was too lazy to drive the 2 miles to 84 Lumber. Since we live next door, we saw him leaving the yard, but didn't get the license plate number. It was less than $50 worth of supplies, but it was the principle of the thing. That and the loss of peace of mind - we've lived here 10 years and haven't had any problems with theft in the past. We're storing our lumber on the roof from now on.

We're finally officially done unroofing now and on to roofing!

Unroofing the Garage: Days 7 & 8

We had a bit of a hiatus between Days 5 & 6 and Days 7 & 8 of unroofing the garage because of this:

Who's to say no to a trip to the beach? The garage roof has been leaking for years, what's another week? We had plans to finish removing the last strip of roof on Sunday when we returned, but...it rained. All day. So it was Monday before the final unroofing was completed. That took more time than expected because one of our crew of 2 (me) came down with a cold and felt a little too wobbly to be on the roof.

Roofing supplies arrived on Monday also. The delivery truck didn't have equipment to place them on the roof, so that was up to us. We rented a ladder hoist. Which was fine, but it didn't come with instructions for putting it together, or using it, so it took a couple of trips into the house to check the internet to get it right and then we only figured out that it would dump the load at the top of the roof by accident. The hoist also had a partially stripped belt so it would only lift 2 shingles packages rather than the 400lbs it was rated for. The other problem is that one of us (me) isn't strong enough to be hefting squares of shingles. So that left it all to the man on the roof. Load the hoist, send 'em up, climb the ladder, place them on the roof, repeat.

It took all day Tuesday to get all of the shingles and roofing felt up on the roof and placed, but he did it. Direct quote, "Don't ever let me replace an entire roof again." Duly noted.

Unroofing the Garage: Days 5 & 6

We had the dumpster pulled from the front of the garage and a new one placed in the back on Thursday. Our end-of-week plans changed so we ended up with the gift of two extra days to work on the roof.

After waiting for the roof to dry out after torrential rains on Wednesday night, we got to the roof Thursday afternoon. Friday was downright chilly with a stiff wind, but actually good weather for roof work - no worries about overheating.

 
Just one more day of unroofing and pulling nails and the roof will go back on!

Unroofing the Garage: Days 3 & 4

This whole unroofing thing would be going much faster if we had more stamina, fewer other commitments, and control over the weather! We got the rest of the front portion of the roof off in Days 3 & 4. 

This led us to the conclusion that...we had to get the dumpster moved. There was just not going to be any good way to get the shingles from the backside of the roof to the dumpster on the front side. We tried throwing them and missed about half. We tried putting a tarp on the ground and dragging the tarp full of shingles to the dumpster, but overfilled it and spent more time emptying the tarp than we did taking down shingles. That just wasn't going to be sustainable. 

Since we'd also been working on removing plasterboard and insulation from the interior, the dumpster was already over half full, so we decided to pay the extra fee and have it pulled so we could get  a new one placed on the back side of the garage this morning. We scrapped the #1 copper that was in the valleys of the garage yesterday and that paid for cost of the extra dumpster pull. Win-win! 

Now we're just waiting for the roof to dry out after yesterday's rain. Before it rains again this afternoon.

Measuring To Create New Plans

We hit a milestone of sorts last weekend.  We finally finished the major part of the demolition of our project house.  There are still a few saggy ceilings left to go and some other odds and ends like removing the siding from the interior of the kitchen(!), but the walls are finished.  We spent some time this weekend remeasuring all of the spaces so we can draw out the plans to get our building permit.  We'll be adjusting the existing floor plan to make it work better for the way people live today and to correct some changes that were badly made in the past (e.g., closing up a window to create a bathroom in an awkward place).  

The house will probably have 4-5 bedrooms and 3.5 baths when we're done.  None of the rooms currently have closets, so we'll have to make space for them, preferably without making the bedrooms any smaller.  The laundry room will be moved from the unheated back porch to the second floor where it is close to the bedrooms.  We'll open up the kitchen so that it flows into the rest of the house rather than being closed off as it is now.  The 2 front rooms will likely become one large livingroom.   And we'll have to figure out how to handle a couple of oddly shaped spaces.  

Drawing the plans will help us make some of those decisions as well as determining where the electrical, plumbing, and HVAC should go.  The house was obviously cobbled together and expanded over the years and really had no character-defining features on the interior, but it has good bones.  We can definitely create a warm, livable home for the 21st century while maintaining the house's street presence and improving the neighborhood.

A Preservation Success Story - Pulaski Depot

Photo from The Southwest Times

 

Back in November 2008, we were all heart-broken to hear of the fire in the historic Pulaski, Virginia train station.  A beautiful stone passenger depot built in the late 1800s, it housed the town's museum and Chamber of Commerce.  The fire was electrical, starting in the ceiling of the museum and probably smoldering for quite some time before breaking into flames during the night.  There wasn't a fire alarm system in the building, but a passerby saw smoke pouring from the roof and called 911.  The volunteer fire department went far above and beyond the call of duty pulling museum items out of the structurally unsound building in the heat of the moment, saving far more than one would have imagined given the intensity of the fire.  

Photo from WSLS

Despite the depot's stone walls and slate roof, the building did not fair well in the fire.  The roof collapsed, taking parts of the upper walls with it and interior features were incinerated.  Even given the best efforts of the fire fighters, the fire was too far advanced when they were called to have had a better outcome.  With current budget constraints and the state of the depot, many municipalities would have decided to give up and demolish the building.  The Town of Pulaski is resilient.  They've been through town fires, the closing of their furniture factories, flooding, two fires in their historic courthouse, and, since the depot fire, a tornado.  The Town decided to use the insurance money they received from the fire to reconstruct the train depot and restore many of the depot's original features.

Last Saturday, June 11, 2011 was the grand reopening of Pulaski's depot.  It was exhilarating to see how many people gathered for the celebration.  The exterior of the building has been restored to its appearance prior to the fire.  The slate roof with its distinctive cupolas has been reconstructed along with the upper sections of the stone exterior walls that were lost to the fire.  The interior has been returned to its original appearance with fireplaces at the ends of the main rooms and beadboard covering the walls. Some changes were made to reflect the new functionality of the building.  A new museum will be built across the street, so the depot will become a meeting space for local groups and those looking for retreat space.  New restrooms and a ramp were added.  Probably the most important new feature added to the building?  An alarm and fire suppression system.

Salvaging What We Can

We're currently in the demolition phase of the rehabilitation of our project house.  That means we've been wielding our sledgehammers and have got a dumpster outside.  We're pretty selective about what we're throwing away though:  

• The old wood windows will stay and be reworked.  We'll add storm windows to make them just as efficient as new double-glazed windows.
• Some of the doors will stay and be stripped and repainted.  The front door is a new door so we'll get rid of that.  Not all of the interior doors match and we'll be changing the layout of the rooms, so we'll be visiting our local architectural salvage to buy some solid wood 5-panel doors.
• The wood floors just need to be refinished.  The old yellow spotted linoleum kitchen floor and vinyl bathroom floor will go.
• Lumber and trim will be reused in this house or another.
• The bricks from the chimneys that are no longer necessary will surround planting beds and create a retaining wall in the yard.
• The acoustic tile ceilings?  Outta here.
• Old insulation? What old insulation?
• Old metal pipes, electrical wiring with copper in it, and the old appliances will be recycled.
• The old kitchen cabinets will find new life in the shed in the backyard.
• The old blue bathroom fixtures will be donated to the local ReStore.  (Can you believe the architectural salvage place wouldn't buy them from us?!?)

It's in everyone's best interest to be selective about demolition debris.  The bottom line for us is money savings: a lighter dumpster means cheaper tipping fees and reusing materials means we don't have to purchase them new.  The less that ends up in the landfill and the more that we can reuse, the better.  Reused materials mean less energy is consumed in making new and probably inferior products.  It's a little more effort for us, but worth it in the long run.

How National Register Listing Can Attract Business

Our small town was once a bustling metropolis.  Okay, not really, it's always been a small town, but all of the empty buildings downtown used to be full of stores, restaurants, and other businesses.  Today, we have a few businesses and some traffic, but nothing like the photos of 50 years ago.  What happened?  The main road bypassed town.  Fortunes changed as employment at the chemical plant dropped to less than a quarter of its peak.  Reliable cars and improved roads made it easier to drive farther for supplies.  So today, we're left with a downtown full of empty storefronts.

In the last several years, a renaissance of sorts has begun with the old hotel reopening.  The owner has helped restore several other buildings so we now have a cafe/coffee shop to complement the well-known locally-owned home style restaurant and an artisan's shop to complement the art gallery that has been here for years.  These are wonderful businesses for a county that has embraced tourism as one of its future economic drivers.

The town has outgrown its old office building just off of Main Street and needs to either build new or rehabilitate an existing downtown building.  This is not a rich town so all expenditures undergo extensive scrutiny.  A local developer has offered to purchase the empty old furniture store on Main Street, rehab it, and rent it to the town with the option to buy in the future.  The idea is that this could bring a viable entity to downtown that could entice others to rehab other buildings and make downtown a vibrant place once again without costing the town as much as it would if they were to pay for the construction themselves.

So what is the sticking point?  The developer won't begin the project unless the downtown area is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.  This makes perfect business sense.  If the building is listed or in a district that is listed, then the developer will be able to take advantage of federal and state tax credits to reduce the cost of the rehabilitation by up to 45%.  Furthermore, National Register listing can help attract other investment downtown because other developers can take advantage of tax credits as well.   

There is some concern among residents that having a National Register Historic District will limit the town in some way.  This couldn't be further from the truth.  Unless the town creates a local historic district with local zoning ordinances, building owners are able to do as they please with their National Register buildings.  Being registered encourages owners to be good stewards of the buildings, but there is no legal means of making sure that happens.  Registered buildings are eligible for state and federal rehabilitation tax credits of up to 45% and technical assistance from the Virginia Department of Historic Resources for such projects.  

A small investment of $10,000 for a consultant to prepare the National Register nomination will help us to get a new town office building, and potentially attract businesses, and their accompanying tax dollars to downtown.  The town can help its residents embrace the future through the county's tourism initiative and other local business so the next generation will live in a bustling metropolis and the empty buildings will be but a memory.

Finding a Little House in a Big House

Last week I talked about the hidden treasures you can find inside the walls of an old house and the stories they can tell of the occupants and their lives.  The walls themselves can tell a story also.  In this case, its the story of different iterations of the house and how it has grown and changed to accommodate different uses over time.

We are in the midst of demolition on the Westview House.  And yes, gasp, we are removing the old plaster.  This house dates to the early 1900s, and has absolutely no remarkable features on the interior.  It's more important to us to make the house warm, comfortable, and safe for the new occupants.  So, we are removing the 1970's paneling, old sheetrock, dirty plaster, and who knows what all else so we can add insulation, new wiring, and new plumbing and adjust the floor plan to better fit today's lifestyle.  

We knew that this house had been changed to three apartments in the 1940s when local industry boomed.  We could also tell that the stairs to the second floor was not original since it is in the back of the house and ends at a side door.  Great for apartments.  Weird for a single family house.  Lo and behold, as we demolished the walls in the front room, we found the diagonal framing for an old stairway.  Next to that was a closed in doorway that would have provided access to the stairs and the other now-closed-in front room.  We could also tell that the existing doorway was new.

 

In the same room, the back wall had several other hidden surprises.  One was that the existing doorway was once much larger and may have once had French doors.  The French doors were probably not original though because the lumber, though old, wasn't as old as the framing.  But also because the other hidden surprise was that the wall had window framing inside!  That means that this house was once much smaller (and means I need to take a trip to the courthouse and see what I can find out about the property).  We're not going to be able to tell on the first floor if there's a matching window hidden in the next room because of the doorway configuration, but we may be able to tell upstairs when we get to the rooms above.  

Looking at the outside of the house, the windows match on the upper and lower floors only one room deep: this was probably a vernacular I-house that was heavily added onto.  It will be interesting to see what else the house tells us as we move through the demolition phase.  We had already expected to find some additional exterior windows, but what else might be hiding behind the old plaster? 

Help Preservation LEED the Way!

Preservationists are well aware of the confusing disconnect between green building and historic preservation.  For some of us, this is a no-brainer: if you are reusing an existing building, that saves our natural resources, keeps building materials from the landfill, and often maintains some pretty significant environmental design principles like building orientation, wind breaks, energy efficient solid brick walls, and other features.  Unfortunately, many of those in the green building world see old buildings as the enemy that must be eradicated!  New technology is best!  Tear it down!  Build it new!  It can't possibly be energy efficient unless its new!

LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) is an international building and construction rating system being used in many states and localities to develop green buildings.  In LEED's earliest forms, it gave very few points for building or material reuse unless the materials were bought elsewhere.  The National Trust for Historic Preservation has been diligently working with the U.S. Green Building Council to improve the LEED standards.  The most recent LEED draft is out with a comment period through January 14th.  Check out the National Trust's blog posting to learn more about how you can comment on the new standards.

A great project in our area that brings together historic preservation and LEED principles is the Blacksburg Motor Company building.  This 1920's Art Deco building was built as an automobile showroom and service station.  When Blacksburg needed more space for its Planning and Engineering Department, the Motor Company building next door was a good location.  After restoration and environmental remediation, the building has improved the streetscape while keeping the offices in the walkable downtown, a geothermal heat pump conditions the building, and many historic features of the building were maintained including the tin ceilings and large showroom windows.  The town received  state and federal historic tax credits while achieving a LEED Platinum rating for the building.

Make your voice heard and help preservation LEED the way with more great projects like the Blacksburg Motor Company building by commenting on the new LEED guidelines!

The Great Rearrangement

One sometimes huge disadvantage of living in the house that you are rehabilitating is the constant shuffle of furniture, etc. to work on rooms.  We have also inherited a lot of furniture since we moved into this house and, not having the proper place to set it up, we've got several rooms that look more like storage units than rooms of the house.   Complicating matters is the fact that we've changed the purpose of several rooms multiple times.  Fortunately, we had never actually finished these rooms so changing our minds hasn't had major consequences except for how to refer to the room that was to be the library, then the dining room, and now the office.

We have a lot of books, so having a library was a given.  We envisioned a darkish room with lots of wooden shelves built in and a cozy seating nook.  The former doctor's office  waiting room at the front of the house seemed perfect.  The leaded glass window added some elegance for the room.  We had it all planned, right down to the dark wood ceiling.  

We used the front half of the living room as a dining room.   This wasn't a perfect solution because it is a long ways from the kitchen, but the table fit there.  Then, we inherited a dining room suite and we realized that though we might not use it as such, the house really should have a formal dining room.  At this point, it isn't obvious which room was the original dining room in the house.  The rooms have been repurposed over the years so it is not immediately clear if our kitchen was the original kitchen.  If it was, there isn't a candidate for the dining room immediately contiguous.  Possibly, the room that will become the downstairs guest bedroom was the dining room, but by the time we got the house which had, by then, had 3 apartments carved out of it, that large room contained just a toilet and evidence of a tub and sink.  

We decided that the former doctor's office waiting room/library should be the dining room.  This wasn't a perfect solution and would still require carrying food down the hallway, but it would fit the inherited dining room suite.   We still have lots of books, so we still had a need for a library.  We also have an odd area with 5 doorways as you enter the house from the back porch.  There are too many travel lanes here to place much furniture, but we could fill the walls with bookshelves.  So that room has become our library and is mostly completed and filled with books.

Throughout this period, our working office with desks and computers has remained just off of the kitchen.  The more we thought about it and what in the world we were going to do with all that furniture, we realized that the office should become the dining room.   The kitchen is right there and the room is big enough and bright enough to withstand the heaviness of the furniture.  That means that the doctor's office waiting room/library/dining room would become the office.  

Now this, finally makes perfect sense!  The old doctor's office has its own exterior door and can be shut off from the rest of the house so as we move towards our goal of self-employment we could actually see clients here.  The room is large enough for our drawing tables, desks, and other office stuff with nice natural light and the leaded glass window for inspiration.  We spent Sunday working on this great rearrangement.  From a room packed to the gills with furniture and "stuff", there's now room to roll out a rug in the middle of the doctor's office waiting room/library/dining room/office floor.  Of course now we've got to paint so the room is office color instead of library color, but we're getting there!   

Things Are Looking Up in Blacksburg

If you've driven around Blacksburg lately, you'll have noticed that there are several buildings jacked up.  Either the latest road construction is an elevated highway so people can avoid downtown traffic snarls or there's some pretty serious building rehabilitation going on.  Unfortunately for those of you tired of navigating Main Street's big dig, the latter is the case.  There are at least 3 historic buildings in the midst of some big changes.

The first, which has been sitting on pilings for a while, is the 1897 Alexander Black House on Draper Road.  This historic home of a descendant of the town's namesake was moved to make way for the Kent Square parking garage and is to be the home of the Blacksburg Museum when restoration is completed.  Some pretty serious changes are going to take place with this building to make it look as it did during it's hey day in the Victorian era.

If you've been observant as you drive down Main Street, you'll see that the former Taylor's Frames and Things building has recently been jacked up.  The story here is that the house needs a new foundation.  The town's Historic or Design Review Board saved the house from demolition.  When construction is completed, including the demolition of several unstable additions, the house will become the new Blacksburg Tavern restaurant.

The third house is on Progress Street.  This is a tiny little house with an even tinier little lot.  The owners want to make it a slightly larger little house and since there's not place for them to expand outward, they're expanding upward.  It looks a little strange today, with the porch swing inaccessible on what will one day be the second floor porch.  A great answer for a building site too small for many other choices.

We were fortunate: for all the other work we've needed to do on this house, the structure and foundation are strong and the house is large enough that we've not needed to  do anything with hydraulic jacks and cribbing.  We have joked that we could pay to pick up the house and move it to a new lot Blacksburg and make a killing when we sell it, but I don't foresee that happening anytime soon!

Did You Walk or Bike To School As a Kid?

There's an interesting poll at Preservation Nation's blog about community-centered schools.  Historically, schools were located within walking distance of most of the pupils.  This was especially true in the days of one-room school houses when people weren't as mobile as they are today.  Generally, though, schools were built in the centers of towns because the center of town was just that - the place where people came to shop, be entertained, do business, and go to school.  And, of course, the place where many people lived within walking distance.  Unfortunately, many towns are dying out, particularly here in Southwest Virginia where we've had main streets bypassed and industries closed.  

With school budgets as they are, there is certainly talk about closing or consolidating schools in many towns.  That was all the rage in the 1960s and seems to be the talk to solve budget woes again.  Unfortunately, that is often a death knell for communities hanging on by a thread.  The schools are often the center of the community with everyone, young and old, rallying around the high school football team on Friday night or attending other school functions. 

People want the newest and best for their children.  There's even a School Board member in these parts who said his goal is to build all new schools to get the kids out of the old ones in the district.   And, unfortunately, a lot of times, schools are targeted for closing just because they are old.  Often they are.  But you know what?  Many of these big brick schools built in the 1920s and 30s, can last centuries longer than many of the new schools being built today.  Many have big bright rooms with (gasp!) windows that open and close.  They were built with materials that have stood the test of thousands of students.  Engineers and developers can always skew the numbers in their favor, but the fact is that it is generally more economical to rehabilitate the old school and make it more energy efficient than it is to tear it down and build a new one. 

Check out Helping Johnny Walk To School for more information about the importance of community-centered schools.  And if you must close your school, repurpose the school as a community center or other function that takes advantage of the classrooms, auditorium, and gymnasium located in the center of your town rather than letting it fall to ruin.  You never know when it might be called back into educational use again due to, say, a gym collapse.

They Do Steeples Better Than Us

We just returned from a trip to New England where, yes, they do steeples better than in the South.  The steeples up there are tall and slim, reaching for the heavens and anchoring the towns where they sit.  Here, more often than not, the steeples are short, squat, and questionable as to whether the building might be better off without the appendage at all.  Don't believe me?  Check out this book The Steeples of Old New England: How the Yankees Reached for Heaven and see for yourself. 

Another thing that New England does better?  Appreciating and reusing old buildings.  Very seldom do you see an old house falling into ruin up there.  Whether in town or further in the country, the houses are often bigger with many attached buildings (known as Big House, Little House, Back House, Barn: The Connected Farm Buildings of New England).  Somehow, despite the complaints of high taxes and property values, people manage to keep the buildings presentable and often looking worthy of a spot in Better Homes and Gardens.  

What's the difference between New Englanders and those who live in our area?  Maybe its Yankee thrift.  The building is there, so it should be reused, not torn down or left to rot while the owner lives in a far less subtantial building next to it.  People aren't afraid to turn the barn into a house or studio, change the layout of the rooms, and celebrate the workmanship and quality of a house built prior to the Civil War.  They'll even move buildings rather than tear them down.  The attention to detail has created a market for craftsmen who can restore old windows, install clapboard siding, and duplicate old woodwork, a la This Old House.   All those beautiful buildings tug at the heartstrings and generate tourism dollars from people who  want to experience the ambiance of New England and feel the pull back to a simpler time. 

So what's happened here in Southwest Virginia?  There is a strong tie to one's "homeplace".   Unfortunately, the homeplace is often weeded up and falling to the ground.  No one has lived there since several generations ago and the family either hasn't been able to agree on who owns the property or can't afford to do anything with the house.  So everything collapses.  Some of us have surmised that this might be tied to the Appalachian way of life that has so been shaped by outsiders coming in and exploiting natural resources, creating a throw away existence for many.  Due to mining, lumbering, and industry, people are less bothered by the raping of the landscape, including collapsing homes and towns.  What would be completely unacceptable in New England becomes an every day occurrence experienced by generations of Appalachian dwellers.  

Sad, but a possible explanation as to why historic preservation is so much more difficult to sell in this area.  Not so sure that explains the steeples though...