Old House Handyman: Family tradition of old-home renovation continues into 2023
The final week of the old year was filled with ups and downs. Up the stairs to measure for crown molding, down the stairs to cut it, back up the stairs to install it and measure the next cut, and then down again.
The lowest I went, other than to the basement of Daughter No. 2’s new-to-her old house for tools and supplies, was to spend a day on my knees stripping blackened varnish from her dining room floor.
But then I soared up to a new high on New Year’s Day by fulfilling one of my New Year’s resolutions: to straighten up my basement workshop and workbench. I’ll come back to that shortly, but first a little more about the work at our daughter’s house.
She bought the century-old house in July and has accomplished at least as much in six months as her mother and I did in almost 30 years of working on our current old house. It is a testament to her vision, planning, fortitude and hard work.
Old House Handyman: How one couple revitalized a 200-year-old eyesore in Granville
It also helps that she hasn’t had to live there amid the dust and paint smells, and that she hasn’t had three little girls running around while she’s trying to strip wallpaper or floors. My bride and I would send our kids to Grandma and Grandpa’s house for the weekend when we were doing some dirty work like stripping varnish from floors. Twice that happened, coincidentally, on our August wedding anniversary, and we both were so focused on old-house renovation that we forgot our anniversary. (Thank goodness we both forgot, and it wasn’t just me!)
Our daughter has had some help along the way, but she drove the project. Her initial move-in target date was Halloween. It was a good goal, but there was plenty more work to be done by the time 1,200 kids were trick-or-treating on her street. (Not making that up. It happens every year.) She adjusted as needed and set the new year as the new target.
She and I used our week off between Christmas and New Year’s Day for the final push. The punch list included finishing the dining room floor, painting the kitchen, finishing the woodwork in the upstairs bathroom, moving in some furniture and straightening up the garage, which had been a staging area for furniture and renovation supplies.
There will be plenty of work to do in the future, but the big things on her immediate punch list are done, and she can live there while she continues to work on fine touches.
Old House Handyman:Insulation and storm door replacement among the Miller family household projects
After a week of working on her house, I felt compelled to do something other than eat and sleep at my own house. I set New Year’s Day as the day to clean up my workbench. I’m a pretty organized person, generally speaking. I’m organized in the way that a gravel company operator has neat and tidy piles of different sized gravel and knows exactly where each pile is and what’s in it.
But when I’m in the middle of a project or two, my workbench becomes this mixed-up, messed-up pile that is indecipherable. I have struggled with this malady for years, and the only solution I have found to date is a hard deadline for a cleaning. Unfortunately, it has been at least a year, and the cleaning took an entire afternoon.
But I’m happy to say that a small mountain of nuts, bolts, nails and zip ties have been dispatched to their proper homes, and I am starting the new year on a high note with a clean workbench. Bring on the 2023 projects.
Alan D. Miller is a former Dispatch editor who teaches journalism at Denison University and writes about old house repair and historic preservation based on personal experiences and questions from readers.
@youroldhouse
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Old House Handyman Old-home renovation is a family tradition
