Decrepit Old House Refurbishing: My Life in a Construction Zone

Living under this giant unpruned maple tree is an adventure. When windy storms come I park in back. After I paint and floor the middle bedroom I’m moving into it- further away from the mighty maple.

My Cheapskate Tips series on fixing up an old house while living on board it continues here with linen closet repainting and flooring.

My big rose. I usually cut it back but this year I forgot and it got pretty wild. Every spring the buds always dry out before fully blossoming.

But first a tour of my old 1967 suburban 3-bdrm house near Dry Creek in old Roseville, California.

My brother gave me this tiny cute succulent-in-a-shoe and miraculously it is thriving and even trying to bloom.

I love this decrepit old house in a great neighborhood, and feel lucky to be working on it again.

Glad arthritic and age related inflammation and strain have receded enough for me to work. With constant breaks. [This was prior to my recent hammer-toe surgery.]

Lots of spots to hang out in this old wood frame family 3-bdrm tract house, one of three in a row right in the flood zone of Dry Creek, hence the elevation of most of the houses.

It’s a perimeter foundation, wood frame, gorilla cage, built 16-inches-on-center and hell for stout. Strong, flexible, quake resistant. Easy to burn though. Stay alert for termites.
A previous porch upgrade was recycling my late dad’s knotty pine garage shelving into porch flooring. Natural ‘relic’ condition with mondo patina.

Painting I especially dread because of the contortions needed to see what you’re doing. Pretty important that I keep my spine aligned with my head, and dead level most of the time.

Before prep and paint.

But I folded myself successfully into this small 36 inch wide x twenty-something inch long hall linen closet after removing and painting the closet door.

Putty and paint make the carpenters what they ain’t. Gallons of the bright white, quality, Sherwin Williams acrylic latex interior paint was abandoned by a deadbeat tenet years back, but it still spreads and covers fine.

I do the brush work on corners and edges first, before I finish the panel centers with a roller. Leaving the fast and relatively easy roller work for later when I’m tired, smelly, hungry, and spotted like the milkman, white with foam.

Only light brief block and hand sanding was needed. Wiped it with ‘TSP’.

Taking the shelving in and out requires brute force, stupidity and guile. Who designed this closet? Anyhoo… I’ll burn that bridge when I get to it.

I toted the shelves and door down my probably eventually fatal back steps, and on to saw horses to lightly and briefly block and hand sand with 120 grit paper.

My gravity chair under my Black Cat class dacron sail awning is calling to me so I’d better get back to painting.

Wiped shelving and door down with fake TSP (not-tri sodium phosphate any longer) before roller painting. Only one coat necessary for white over old white.

I bought $20 worth of 120 grit paper, trays and liners, masking tape, rollers at Jimmy Carter’s Restore 2nd hand building outlet. Thanks for your service, Mr President.
Spackle, ‘TSP’, brush, roller, stool.

Luckily the brush work went pretty fast before my near paralysis set in from forced bad posture.

Tired paint but not bad even before I started, minimal spackling, scraping, and sanding needed. One coat covers.
Brighter now. I left off the bottom shelf until the floor is cut and installed. The top shelf will need custom cutting so I’ll fit it later. Installing shelves required that I remove a nonvisible trim piece inside the door casing.

I found some of my dad’s white particle board book shelving in my garage so I decided to cut it up to make it the closet floor. The floor will closely match the shelving in color.

The bookshelves are 3/4″ thick particle board with vinyl coating, good for insulation and sound damping. Too bad I don’t have enough for the big front foyer closet floor.

Tomorrow I’ll cut these two particle board bookshelf planks to drop down to floor level, then jigsaw a 3rd board to exactly fit the door frame left and right.

I have some nice square 3/4 inch trim pieces I’ll install last around the edges of the new floor planks to hide the cut ends and edges. Not sure if I’ll varnish the trim sticks or paint them white to match.

Pic taken the next day, today, after cutting and nailing down salvaged bookshelves, salvaged square trim sticks.

I varnished these initial two trim sticks but gave that up because of the polyurethane varnish smell. I used carnuba car wax on the rest of the trim after brief 120 grit block sanding.

Closet floor is also out of square. I’m cheating here making it appear more square by splitting the difference with the trim piece. One more difficult cut, then final painting of the door casing and trim, the work concluded by re-hanging the door.

The square varnished trim is not strictly necessary, but it hides the particle board end cuts and disguises the board butt joints.

Looking down the hall after installing all the shelves, nailing down two out of three floor boards, and all of the trim pieces. Top shelf needed a custom cut because the closet is out of square.
Had to open the house and aim my dad’s massive 1964 shop fan at the closet to dissipate the varnish smell, I’m so delicate.

I’m stumping around lately on a right foot that’s somehow both numb and painful, torquing up with hammer-toe: and sideways with arthritis and neuropathy. PT is my only friend.

After bending over to nail down each trim nail for about 45 seconds, I had to pull myself upright and walk a spell down the hallway lest paralysis set in to hips and legs. But ain’t it the life. And I’m still moving every day.

I’ll need to cut the final plank to exactly fit the door casing and trim. And more white brushwork is needed on the door casing. Then I’ll rehang the door to finish the job.

Cost totals around $20 for tape, gloves, brushes, rollers and trays. The bookshelf planks and trim wood for the floor I inherited from my dad. The nice bright white interior paint came from a fled deadbeat former tenant. Thanks!

Some light sanding and the door came out nice. I took it off and painted it on sawhorses in the back yard, yet few bugs.

I wrote most of this post before my hammer-toe surgery, but I finally took pics and finished it just now.

Here it is all painted, floored and partly loaded with my junk. Next paint job will be the middle bedroom.

Unless noted, all text and images by todgermanica.com.

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