Renovations

2020: Our realtor, Jessica Pankratz, suggested adding a closet to this upstairs room to convert it into a legal bedroom. Many historic homes don't have bedroom closets because back-in-the-day people had fewer clothes and used chests or armoires instead.

Renovations

Since 2003, Barb and I (Dave Sullivan) have carefully restored nearly every aspect of the N. H. Allen house. This page describes some of our work. Throughout the process, we took lots of photos and the entire archive of photos can be accessed through this link: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B96RDYYjMm7dV2JubDZIVUpFbm8?usp=sharing

When we bought the house, the main stairway and upstairs hallway had hand-stenciled red paint. In the late 1980s, this must have looked great, but many years of plaster repair and other problems left these areas dingy. We decided to install stained glass windows in the stairway ceiling to let outside light shine down the stairway.

The finished project as seen from the stairway. These pictures really don't do the project justice -- the depth of the stained glass is wonderful when light shines through it.

Adding a stained glass window

2004: The windows we bought were made around 1880 and spent most of their life in an English home. Barb and I couldn't agree on which windows to purchase, so when we finally found a pair of windows we both liked, we put in quite a high bid on eBay. We hoped other people wouldn't bid as high -- and we were wrong, so this became a very expensive project. Once the windows arrived, we had extra metal strapping added on their back side so they could hang horizontally without sagging. You can see these additional metal straps running down the center of the window and through the fleur-de-lis pattern.

We cut a hole in the roof and installed a plexiglass window to let light into the attic; then we installed mirrors to guide light onto the stained glass. Below the mirrors, I installed two banks of florescent lights and wired them into the hallway light switch. Now whenever hallway light is turned on, the stained glass windows light up beautifully.

The eave over the kitchen had a lot of rotten rafter joists. You can see the first new replacement cedar rafter sticking out.

Bruce Taylor of Do It Again Decor contracted to do the roofing. You see him here in the midst of tearing off the old roof. He did a super job -- highly recommended.

Roof repairs

2003: When we bought the house, it urgently needed a new roof, so we tore off nearly all the old roofing, and this uncovered rot needing repair. Then we installed plywood sheathing and a 50-year architectural roof.

Bruce Taylor replaced the original soldered-tin metal gutter system by:

removing and replacing any boards showing dry rot.
nailing a fiberglass mesh to reinforce the gutter's valley,
using a metal flashing so the gutter would look identical from the street
installing a "torch-down" rubberized membrane topped with composition roofing. Bruce welded this top layer to the fiberglass by heating it with a gas torch.

We removed the cresting and took it to MEI Powder Coating. They sandblasted and gave each piece two coats. It came back looking super and should stay that way a long time. Everything was reinstalled with stainless steel fasteners.

The paver project began because Barb was tired of walking through the mud to get from the car to the house. She didn't like the stepping stone approach of avoiding dirt.

After spreading, leveling, and packing the gravel, I would spread an 1-inch thick layer of sand. Next came the easiest part: actually placing pavers in the sand.

Pavers and fencing

2009: We ordered up a full truckload -- 17 pallets -- of pavers from Western Interlock. That wasn't enough, so we ordered another 6 pallets later to supplement the first load.

We also ordered two pallets of brick. While the brick is actually new, it looks used because it has been tumbled. Also, we blended four different colors of brick to give it more character.

We ordered up over 200 feet of historic fence from a cemetery outside New Orleans. It had been damaged by hurricane Katrina. It took me over a month of cutting, welding, grinding, sandblasting and painting to straighten and repair all the pieces and assemble the new fencing properly.

We bought an authentic pendant lamp from Hippo Hardware in Portland.

The bedroom wall initially had bright green paint and electrical outlets without covers. Barb painted the walls white and hung wallpaper before we moved. Then we purchased antique wall sconces on eBay that had been removed when a Chicago hotel was demolished.

Lighting

Overall, the lighting was a complete mess when we bought the house: lots of missing or inappropriate fixtures.

For example, the upstairs hallway looked bare without a ceiling lamp -- all it had was an uncovered electrical outlet box. In a 2008 email to us, Vicki Yeste, the prior owner, admitted she removed the previous light fixture prior to the home's repossession by the bank.

Barb ordered white ceiling medallions and spent days carefully painting them. The gold paint took three coats before it covered adequately.

Here is what our stove looked like when Barb found it sitting in a farmer's field in New Jersey.

Antique wood stove

2005: The home came with a truly awful built-in range, and Barb began looking for a replacement. It turned out reproduction stoves with an antique look are really expensive. So Barb began looking to buy an authentic wood stove, and she found one in a farmer's field in New Jersey. The next step was to get the stove shipped to a restoration dealer who took off all the chrome pieces and had them re-chromed, sanded and repainted everything, and installed electric burners, knobs, and an electric oven.

It should be no surprise this approach wasn't any cheaper than just buying a brand-new reproduction stove, but we like it much better. Not only does it work as well as any modern stove (except it doesn't have a self-cleaning feature), it has an absolutely authentic pedigree.

Here's what the newly restored stove looked like when it arrived after being shipped from the east. Later we added a marble floor-to-ceiling backsplash, and we raised the stove by putting a brick layer under it.

Before: Here is what the living room's fireplace looked like when we bought the house in 2003. Evidently the prior owners, Cory and Vicki Yeske, thought a modern gas fireplace made sense in this historic home.

Fireplace surround

The living room's fireplace has always worked well for us: We could flip a wall switch, and natural gas flames would instantly appear. We also enjoyed the warmth while watching TV on cold winter evenings.

But the fireplace looked wrong as you can see in the nearby "Before" picture, and painting the sheetrock didn't help much. Fortunately Barb found an elegant solution: Buy an authentic antique fireplace mantle system on eBay. As you can see in the "After" picture, the fireplace looks like it now belongs in the living room.

Both Barb and I think the gold trim on the fireplace should be painted black, but we will leave that project to the next owners ...

After: Here's what we did to make the fireplace look appropriate: We surrounded it with an antique oak mantle system along with black granite tiles.

This stub of an original chimney (below the dining room) only went to the basement ceiling. A prior owner had removed most of the chimney. I decided to remove the rest and was surprised at how easily the bricks were removed. At times, I could grab bricks by hand and simply yank them from the chimney. This left me quite concerned about the mortar in the basement walls.

Dave Sullivan took a welding class at LBCC to learn how to weld the steel tubing for the foundation strengthening project.

We tried to do as much welding and cutting as possible outside where it was easier to work. Here you can see a beam that has been fitted with supports to extend under the sill beams so that if all the bricks in the basement were removed, the house would still stand unchanged. You also can see lots of tabs that have been welded onto the beam to accept lag bolts. In an earthquake, those lag bolts will hold the house firmly to the steel beams.

I used 4-by-4 posts with all-thread bolts on top to build temporary supports.

Bill Cutler and I prepare the steel beams prior to moving them into the house. Each beam weighted 450 pounds, so they weren't easy to move. Here you see Bill grinding to get a clean surface where I would later weld on brackets.

This image shows the first of 28 pages of engineering drawings and calculations done by HTE Engineering for the foundation strengthening project. This link leads to a Google Photos album with all 28 pages: https://photos.app.goo.gl/YKvmUyBeDqWiAtTE8

Foundation strengthening

2003-2005: The Allen house sits on an above-ground basement constructed of bricks held together with poor quality mortar. So with son-in-law Chris Reiter's prompting, we decided to use steel tubing to strengthen the basement walls in case of an earthquake. This involved hiring Paul Hightower, an engineer to prepare professional drawings and structural calculations so that the end result would meet current building codes ... along with a lot of hard work.

Getting the right fit was critical ... it made welding beams together much easier and resulted in stronger connections. These pictures show how the main beam through the central part of the basement attaches to supporting beams across the front of the house.

The welds may not have been pretty, but they are super sturdy.

To provide proper support for the house, each outside steel beam needed to have struts that would extend under the home's large sill beams. This required Bill Cutler to remove bricks to create a pocket for each strut. He used a drill and chisels to remove bricks carefully. The goal was to create pockets that did not extend all the way through the wall, leaving the external appearance of the home unchanged.

Barb Sullivan pretends to be lifting the 450-pound beam into place. In actual fact, it took Bill and I several hours of hard work to slowly lift and shift each of these central beams into position.

Dave Sullivan plays ping pong with his father, Wes Sullivan, on the new floor.

Tile floor

We decided the uneven floor needed improvement, so during Christmas break 2005, I laid tiles on the floor.

When I took this picture, I still hadn't cleaned out the grout joints and put mortar in the joints.

Dave prepared the carriage house plans with Visio.

I decided to build the garage from real 2"x6"s ... rather than the 1-1/2"x5-1/2" studs sold at lumber yards. So I went to the Thompson Sort Yard in Philomath to pick out logs. After having the logs delivered to Gene Cooper's small one-man log mill in Blodget, Oregon, I went to help Gene cut up the logs. Gene didn't need much help, but the trip was fun. Here you can see that Gene has placed a log in the mill and the circular saw blades are cutting away from Gene toward the end of the log.

This photo shows what the garage hinges looked like on eBay. I bought these massive hinges from a guy in New York and had them shipped across the country. Then I had them sandblasted and powder coated black. Once again, it seemed more historic to use recycled hinges than newly manufactured commercial hinges.

Placing, leveling, and screeding the concrete. I'm on the left, the guy from Chuck's Concrete Pumping is in the middle, and my friend, Dave Helton, is doing the back-breaking work of screeding the concrete level.

Barb helped to install the insulation and seal off the windows.

My friend, Dave Helton dropped by to help me put up the drywall on the walls near the ceiling. I simply couldn't lift, position, and pin these sheets in place by myself. Here you see Dave installing a nailing surface for a sheet of drywall.

Carriage house (garage)

When we purchased the home, we received a notebook full of house history items. This notebook contained a complete set of garage plans for a 16-by-40 foot garage. We thought that design was rather long and skinny, so we modified it to be 20-by-36 feet and ran our ideas past Albany's Landmark Advisory Committee in Fall 2004. Since their approval required actually constructing the building within three years, Dave finally began work in May of 2006 before the three-year window would expire.

Hot weather and an out-of-shape body make for some ugly pictures while preparing the garage's foundation. Sorry.

The foundation is nearly ready for concrete.

Rather than buying factory-made garage doors, I thought it would look more authentic to build the doors from scratch.

The first step in finishing the interior was to move most of the equipment from the garage. Next came wiring: if the walls were going to be covered up, then I wanted to have lots of plugs, lights, and 220-circuits for heat, cooling, and tools.

This photo shows how I installed the air conditioner. The commercial-grade unit was heavy, so I used a block-and-tackle to hoist it into position. I also installed a 60-gallon air compressor in the corner on its own 220-circuit. Other 220 circuits were needed for the table saw, heater, planer, and radial arm saw. This left the electrical panel box nearly full.

Barb applied most of the initial mud and taping.

lumber-evalution.pdf

The city building inspectors had a fit when they found out that the garage was being built from lumber that lacked professional grading stamps. The solution I selected was to hire Paul Hightower, a registered professional engineer, to write a letter certifying the strength of the construction. His letter is worth reading ... and it also includes a number of nifty photos.

The solar kiln under construction.

Garage storage areas

2014: I cut down a black walnut tree growing at 338 6th Avenue SE and wanted to use the wood to make kitchen cabinets for the three apartments in the home. So I hired Justin McMinds of Logs to Lumber use his Wood-Mizer to cut up the black walnut tree into a lot of wet lumber. This meant I needed to find a way to dry the lumber.

After some research, I found an OSU Extension plan for building a solar kiln on a south-facing wall ... and the plans seemed perfect for adding to the garage. My next step was to buy used sliding glass doors from Discount Windows in Junction City ... and I framed out my new solar kiln. About six months later the lumber was dry, and we built three beautiful sets of kitchen cabinets from it. I've since removed the fans for circulating air throughout the kiln.

In addition to adding a solar kiln on the south side, I found some recycled metal shelving at Burcham's and set them up at the back of the garage. I was careful to build these small garage additions so they could be removed without doing any real damage to the main part of the garage.

Before: floors were painted and dusty.

After: the original old-growth Douglas fir flooring was cut vertical-grain with many rings to the inch. This wasn't too much of a surprise because N. H. Allen listed himself as a lumber dealer in the 1880 census, so he certainly knew how to buy quality lumber. It really polished up well.

Floor refinishing

2003, 2020: The home's original fir flooring was in pretty bad shape when we took possession at 4 p.m. on Wednesday, August 13, 2003. A month earlier, we had scheduled American Hardwood Floors to refinish the floors -- starting Thursday the 14th at 8 a.m. That was cutting it pretty close. In two days, a four-man crew laid missing flooring, sanding off many layers of paint, and applied three coats of finish. They worked hard and did a super job. Highly recommended.

We decided to lightly resand and refinish the floors in 2020 to get them looking tip-top once again. Here, Buddy McClure is mopping on a layer of polyurethane. This process was FAR easier than the work done by American Hardwood Floors in 2003.

John Burritt painting the front porch. John did so much painting, his hand would cramp up.

Monica Potter did super work ... cleaning, painting, and even some mortar-and-brick work.

I (Dave Sullivan) am dirty but happy after spending the day pressure-washing the sidewalks and driveway.

Prep for sale

May to August 2020: We had a whole crew of people working on the house off-and-on for four months. I am really proud of what they accomplished, and so I want to close this page with pictures of them at work.

I wish I had pictures of John Adams and Gary Anderson to show off their good work. John Adams hung the sheetrock and Gary did mud and taping. A lot more sheetrock work was involved than you might think. For example, we had difficulty removing wall paper in the upstairs bathroom, so we decided to apply a 1/4" layer of new sheetrock throughout that bathroom.

Ron Borst and Hunter take a break while replacing floor boards on the kitchen porch.

Buddy McClure and Ron Borst take a break from working on the kitchen porch. Ron has just finished reinstalling the ballisters; Buddy just finished painting all the dentals.

Page updated

Google Sites

Report abuse