Philadelphia

Curating: New Look, Old Feel

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Sometimes, we get called in to design a job in an older home with particular style design features that have worked for decades and still look great, but are just worn out. That was the case on this Mount Airy project, where we were asked to provide tune-ups for three 90-year-old bathrooms.

Where another contractor may have come in with something off the shelf from a home center, we scoured our sources for fixtures that would look like the original 1920s items did back when they were new. Of course, we had to gut the rooms and replace all of the old wiring and plumbing, insulate and level the floors, retile, and repaint to make it look like it was always there.

Some of the details in this bathroom were to find a modern replacement for the original, sleek porcelain 1920s bathtub, new replacement subway tile, new 1-inch hex tile on the floors, and new modern-function traditional-looking chrome fixtures. This house is craftsman in flavor, so we selected accordingly. We even found new ceiling lighting fixtures to use with the customer’s beautiful original glass globes.

Renovation Diaries: Roxborough Art Studio

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We’re in the middle of a really cool project for an artist couple in Roxborough: a his-and-hers art studio. When complete in Spring 2011, the interior finishes of this studio will make it feel very much like a work space. It will have plywood walls and floors, and simple heat and A/C, but lots and lots of great windows and skylights, big glazed doors, and a nice stucco exterior with a sunny yard and off-street parking. We will also retain many old features like the slate sidewalks.

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How To; Plumb, Level, Square

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Here is an example of one way to get an old rolling floor level. This is a kitchen we are doing in Queen Village, an area of South Philadelphia. It’s in a very old 19th Century building, probably once a small factory, which was turned into a home in the 1970’s.

This is the new light cement product subfloor with imbedded electric radiant heat. It was just poured and as you can see its very wet still. Once set, we will install beautiful limestone tile on this surface. It will be nice and warm on the feet when it’s done, and this heating system is very efficient!

The old floor was out of level by 3+ inches on a few places. The boxes you see are just temporary protection for the HVAC outlets in the floor. These will be removed once the liquid floor leveling product sets.

Older Homes – More Energy Efficient Than You Think

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Older homes tend to get a bad rap for being energy inefficient. The truth is, many older homes have built-in energy-efficient systems that a homeowner should learn to use and, if possible, enhance. Here are some fake rolex examples of what I mean:

A stone or brick home with thick walls will retain heat in the winter and cool in the summer by way of its mass. Often, the older home will also have small windows on the third floor or attic. These are meant not only to allow light into the house, but also to allow hot air out in summer. Opening these small windows creates negative pressure inside the house, which then draws cool air from the basement. This is natural cooling at work. That’s because a basement’s mean temperature is between 60 and 70 degrees in summer. Utilizing this cooling air convection, combined with the thermal mass of the brick or stone home, means many of these homes can go several days at a time during a heat wave and not require any artificial air conditioning or cooling.

Since it’s heating season, we should also focus on some “passive” methods for making and keeping an older home warm.

Sash locks — These are the small closures on your double-hung windows you turn to lock them shut. You probably think they are for security, but they are really there to push the two sashes tightly into the sash frame and also to pull the sashes tightly together. This small piece of hardware makes your older wooden windows much more efficient by creating a tighter seal. Many older double-hung windows have not been properly maintained over the decades. The top sash might be stuck with paint, or the sash frame may be “out of square.” Other common problems are weights and chains that have failed. All of these problems can be fixed with some TLC and good carpentry. Happy to help; just give us a call.

Taking Control of Your Home Reno Experience

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When our company begins any new home renovation project with a client, I ask the homeowners what kind of remodeling experience they want to have. They always look at me blankly in response. Whether they’re planning major home overhauls or making minor improvements, they seem to think their renovation experience is out of their hands. They couldn’t be more wrong.

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Working in Small Houses is Tough

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When we come to work on your home, we will need a lot of space to stage materials and tools. Here are a couple of photos to show you what I mean;

This is just the set up for the electricians who are in the basement installing a new electrical panel and service in this 1200 sf city home.

On the second floor,

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1960’s Ranch Update

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We recently did a project for a couple with two young children who were looking to downsize from their old, Victorian Chestnut Hill home. They wanted to move to a home that was located in a great public school system and had lower maintenance costs than their old house. But they knew they would miss many of the comforts of their large, old home. So they called our designers in to help come up with a plan that would bring more comfort and style to their serviceable but not very stylish 1960s “new” ranch home.

At the top of the agenda for this couple was a proper master bedroom suite. The existing master bathroom had a small bathroom with a shower, but not much style. The bedroom was not very private from the rest of the bedrooms on the floor, and there was a serious shortage of closet space. In general, the old finishes were very plain and worn out.

Our team claimed the small neighboring room, which was probably originally a nursery or study, to be part of the new, larger master suite space. By putting the new bathroom here, we were able to use the old bathroom space and part of the hall as a walk-in, his-and-hers closet space.

This left the couple a nicely sized bedroom space with room for some family heirloom furnishings, a king-sized bed with night stands, and a spare “off-season” storage closet.

Overall, their new master bedroom suite now has a light, open feeling, even though the footprint is not especially large. This is because our design team planned for the use of each square foot of these rooms, so the spaces “fit” and are very logical.

The Truck Tells the Whole Story

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You can tell a lot about a craftsman by how he keeps his truck.

At our Maryland Street project, the bank that owned the property before us had drywall screws driven into all of the locks except the front door. So we called this locksmith to switch out the locks and have them all keyed the same. This pro was a true pleasure to work with, and — just like his truck — he was super organized! He also likes the replica watches very much.

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