118 Henry Street

When the West Bedroom was originally completed and time to move DeShawn upstairs into his planned space, he was afraid to go. He didn’t like the idea of being alone on the second floor, and the way the closet doors opened into the attic stoked his fears. So we decorated the bedroom as a study and gave him time to grow up a little. During the interim, we built out the closet so it wasn’t so foreboding.

The scared little boy of 2006 has grown into the fearless “tweener” of 2010 and wants to take his anointed place in the “best” room of the house.

In the Zen physics of old house living, any move upstairs must also involve a corresponding move downstairs. Ergo, the current series of mini-projects.

With DeShawn’s leave of the Master Bedroom, Carole and I can move our bedroom into the final space. With our bedroom moved from the Front Study, all the computers/bookshelves/etcetera (some of which currently reside in the West Bedroom) can move into their final space.

As part of the downstairs part of the move, we decided to get Carole’s workspace out of the East Bedroom and into it’s final space. The East Bedroom is, at this point in our narrative, the most “undone” and primitive of all the rooms of the house. Right now, it’s mostly a storage area having had little but de-construction work done on it. Carole has a small, open floor area to do her projects and the whole room is really too dusty for any cloth or sewing.

Appending Carole’s work area move to the “Move DeShawn’s Bedroom” project adds the restoration of the kitchen back wall to the task list.

More or less, here is what needs to be done in each of the affected rooms:

West Bedroom (no big deal)

1. Finish putting sash locks on the windows
2. Make the cable TV jack live
3. Install some window blinds

Front Study (couple of days under the house)

1. Re-wire approx. 1/3 of the old knob & tube electrical circuits of the 1st floor
2. Terminate wall jacks on the network lines ran with Howard’s help

Electrical circuit 2, to be more specific

Kitchen/Addition (opening the box on kitchen restoration)

1. Restore the back kitchen wall
2. Some electrical re-wiring for new fridge and dryer placement
3. Rough out plumbing for the washer
4. Rough out dryer vent
5. Modify gas line to existing heat stove to target for cook stove

Image redux from Part 2

Master Bedroom (too much to do with this project)

1. Way too much!
2. Some cleaning

And, yes, in case you were wondering, we are doing all of this work ourselves.

During the blog hiatus between 2004 and August 2006, we weren’t exactly idle. One of the projects conceived, executed, and completed in January/February 2006 was building out a closet in the west bedroom. The original space was more of an attic storage area than a closet. All that separated the conditioned space of the bedroom from the unconditioned space of the attic was the closet door.

In fact, the goals of the project were, primarily, to stop heat loss thru the attic. Secondarily, create a “real” closet.

The start of framing

Looking into the original space, you can see the roof decking and the waste vent pipe. Virtually no stopping heat from leaving the room and exiting the attic vents.

Another view of framing

Thermal barrier…thanks Deborah and Mike

For the final finish, we matched the look of the downstairs bathroom closet, beadboard for the walls and simple moldings. We still needed access to the attic, so we built an insulated access panel.

First coat of primer

Detail in progress

Completed and in use

Detail of completed

The hanger pole is the same piece of iron pipe used as a hanger pole in the original attic space. We bought antique yellow pine for the floor. Still needed to stain it to match the rest of the room. The access panel turned out pretty well.

Access panel and finished floor

DeShawn was out of school today so I took the day off work to hang out with him and Howard. Howard is my stepson, Carole’s son, whose lives in Columbia. He came to Chester around supper time yesterday. Although he and Carole regularly communicate via phone, we don’t get to see him as much since Carole moved to Chester. We were glad to have him visit.

The weather was cool and partly cloudy. DeShawn and I spent almost all the day outside. He, digging in the dirt, riding his bike, squirting his squirt guns, and all the other things an energetic little boy can get into. I finished up my Sunday project, the rehab of an old desk.

The desk was left by the PO’s (previous owners) in the shed and looked to have been used as writing table or drafting desk. After stripping all the old paint, I added some trim, cove cut the legs, and stained everything with a russet colored deck stain. Here is a picture of it, stain still drying, hinges not yet added:

Rehab’d writing desk

We’re going to put it in the West Bedroom, now being used as a study. There is a bit of history behind the designation of “West Bedroom” that can be found here. Since that time, the room has always been designated for DeShawn. Yet, as we swung into the perigee of moving him up there, the time didn’t seem quite right. So, at least for the temporary, we have elected to use the room as a study/guest room.

Here are a couple of pictures:

My computer and view of the backyard

The “guest bed”