Renovation Vacation

Back in August my wife and I decided to each take a week off from our respective works and embark on a "Renovation Vacation" at the Akron almost-mansion. The impetus behind the trip was two-fold. One consideration was our realization that it's really hard to make any kind of concerted progress when you live two hours from a job site. By the time we get everything packed for a typical trip, drive to the house, get our work area organized and start working, it's just about time to head back home. The other consideration was that with all the delays we've seen with this house, we thought it would be good for morale if we could make even some small progress on our own.

The plan then was to spend a week "camping out" at the house and doing light projects and cleaning while we were there. I say camping out since it's kind of what it was like. Yes, the house has electric and 70% plumbing (including two functional toilets), but there's no heat, no kitchen, no shower, and no furniture. We made the most what we had though, and overall we were satisfied with the accommodations.

An interior bedroom is pictured with an air mattress on the floor on a rug, IKEA shelves against a wall, and a set of French Windows in the background.

The room above will eventually be our bedroom. I don't think it was technically a bedroom when the house was built. It was probably more of a sitting room for the master bedroom. We love the French windows though and we love seeing out into the tree canopy. Here, it is decorated with an air mattress and a set of IKEA shelves for coffee, tea and snacks.

As to the aforementioned view; this is what we'll see when we wake up. Lovely to be sure, but it's not all sunshine, bird songs, and mature trees.

A photo looking out a set of French windows and towards a backyard filled with mature trees.

Reader, note the radiator. If it looks familiar, it's because it's the same cracked radiator from a few blog posts back. Yes. It is still in the house and it is still cracked. "But Jeff!", you exclaim, "You have to get that replaced! You can't run a hot water heating system with a cracked radiator. It won't work. Plus, it's almost October. It will be getting cold soon. You don't want to have winterize the house again. You've made so much progress with the plumbing. And didn't you want people moving in soon?".

Oh anxious Reader, I wish I could allay your concerns more thoroughly, but you have hit on the very thing that vexes me the most right now. The best I assurances I can offer are these; after being ghosted by a previous heating company (who clearly wanted nothing to do with this project), I've found a contractor I believe can manage it. We have a radiator on order and we should know more in the coming weeks. In the meantime, if there is a patron saint of residential heating, and you're the praying type, please feel free to offer up some intercessions on our behalf.

Moving on, the master bedroom got a nice cleaning and we were able to take stock of what it might need.

An interior room featuring a cast iron radiator, a fireplace, and wood floor is pictured. The room looks presentable mostly, save the holes in the ceiling and the plaster pulling away from the lathe.

Overall, this room is in good shape. The walls are solid and the wood floors are in remarkably good condition. The ceiling will need work though, but I feel like we've got a contractor who can manage that. We expect this room will function more as a study/library/lounging room. It's spacious, and really does have a lot of potential.

I also had the chance to clean out the third floor a bit. This space is interesting as it basically offers two additional rooms, and a third floor bathroom. It's been neglected to this point mostly because it saw the worst raccoon damage of any area of the house. There was a lot of debris on the floor, and a lot of holes in the ceilings. It was also the stinkiest part of the house owing to its proximity to said raccoons.

 

A photo depicts a view of two rooms seen through open doorways and hallway in an older, decrepit home. On the right hand side in the foreground is a cast iron radiator. In the hallway in the center of the photo is a shop vac. In the far room one can see light from an open window and a fan. Vibes are kind of creepy and kind of Kubrick.

We don't need this third floor space right away, so this area is very much a "Phase II" project. If we can make the first two floors habitable, we can close the door to the third floor easily enough; taking it on when there are less pressing concerns (like heat and a kitchen for instance). That said, it's a cool space and with a little work and some climate solutions (it's the one part of the house that gets really hot in the summer) it's going to be lovely.

Will it surprise you to know that having bought the former home of a successful Akron wallpaper baron that we are still not done taking down wallpaper?

A woman stands on a ladder in an older bathroom and uses a steam machine to remove wallpaper.

My wife really has perfected her technique over the last few months and was able to get this bathroom wallpaper down in short order. We're trying to keep as much of this bathroom as we can, so the wall tile (original) is staying, as is the original basket weave tile on the floor. Here I should note that in addition to removing wallpaper, my wife has also been teaching herself the finer points of tile repair. All of which is to say this bathroom is going to look amazing.

In the process of taking down the bathroom wallpaper, we ran across an old friend.

A dated signature in pencil is pictured on a plaster wall. The name appears to be D.L. Heuser-Der and the date is June 1, 1925

This is the same signature and date we found when we removed the wallpaper in the dining room. Some have suggested that D.L. Heuser was the person who did the finish plaster work on the house, while others suggest they were the person who hung the wallpaper. I suppose one could find out by searching the census records or city directories to see if there's a match of that name with a corresponding occupation listed. Maybe one of my librarian friends would be interested in researching that?

All to say, it was a week. In addition to all of the above, we also enjoyed some yard work, a trip to Lowes, joint compound fun, priming, painting a dehumidifier, demolition, family visits, a night at the BLU-tique Hotel, and an evening at Stan Hywet Hall (we're members now!). Really, the time flew by, and it was over before we even knew it! It feels fitting then to wrap this post up with a return to the Planter of Hope. 

A woman stands on the balcony of an older home tending to a planter hanging from an iron railing. She is smiling for the camera and her heart is full of hope.

We didn't get as much done during our renovation vacation as we'd hoped, and that's OK. In fact, it's something of a recurring theme. Sadly, many efforts at repair end with things being worse off than when we started.

The house remains stubborn and strong-willed as only a one-hundred year old house can, and sometimes things do have to get worse before they can get better. That's true of many things I suppose. 

Still, I was glad for the chance to go. By my best guess, we were probably the first people to spend a night in that house in five years. Given it's history, I'm happy to report we saw no ghosts, and no raccoons. We did see progress though, and with that progress the sense that we're maybe a little closer now than when we started.