Victorian House Relocation/Restoration

[austinado16]

Thought I'd share some photos of our house after a few people on a recent thread expressed interest in seeing more of it.

The short story is that in Feb. 1993, my wife and I were engaged, didn't want to rent, didn't have any money. I hatched a plan to use my architecture/construction/restoration/auto-mechanic background to get us into a "fixer" on the cheap and if all worked out well, we'd wind up with something not only unique and custom, but also worth a whole lot more then we'd have in it.

I'd been driving past this little 1,200 sq. ft. early 20th century Queen-Anne Victorian for literally, about 15 years. It was in such bad shape that my wife cried and ran outside after barely stepping into the Foyer. This is how it looked on our wedding day:

Part of the deal was that it had to be relocated. Finding a buildable lot was impossible, but by some strange miracle, not only was the Developer required to pay us $5,500 to take the house, but my wife found an empty lot right near downtown, in the old railroad district.

We were able to save that big palm tree, as well as a second one in the middle of the lot, and after taking my archictural plans through all of the City's review boards (Architectural, Historical, Building Dept., Fire Dept.) we had the house moved over the first weekend of Dec. 1993

Work began immediately with me acting as the general contractor and doing as much of the work as I could. We were both working and my wife had gone back to school to get her Master's. By Oct. 1994 we were signed off by the City and able to occupy it, but we'd left it a shell inside so that we could finish it on our own terms and time table.

The plan early on was to restore the house using period furnishings, and do a real working early 50's kitchen with everything being real working appliances. Hidden inside the house is a modern boiler driven baseboard and floor heating system, that also supplies the domestic hot water. Windows are dual pane with E film. Walls are blown-in R12 with R30 blown in the ceiling. Completely new wiring and plumbing. Exterior siding is the original redwood that was hiding under the asbestos tile siding. Ceiling and floors are original (T&G redwood & doug fir respectively) interior walls were rough sawn barn lumber with muslin stretched over, and then wallpapered. The original barn lumber is now covered by sheetrock, screwed in place for sheer. Trim is all my design, but is just MDF and made/installed by a professional.

I'll give you some before and after shots of a few areas, and then a finished outside view:
Kitchen Before:

Kitchen After. All of the appliances were found and restored by me. The kitchen cabinets are my design to reflect the Eastlake doors that the house had/has:
Looking into the right side...

Looking into the left side...

Looking back out at the right side...

Looking back out at the left side...

Westinghouse Twins have their own alcove in the back right corner of the kitchen:

Living room before (I opened up the wall you're looking at, in order to create the large opening "into" the kitchen):

Living room after:

Parlor before:

Parlor after:

I don't really have a good before of the bedroom, but here's how it looks now. There were 3 small bedrooms down one side of the house. We kept the front one original and then turned the next 2 into a larger master bedroom, plus a full guest bath. The bed is a Bernhardt:

Here's what we did in the guest bathroom. The clawfoot was a rusted water trough at a local ranch. Sink and toilet are repops. Vanity is something I found on ebay and restored:

Here's how it looks on the outside and that palm tree continues to grow:

We painted the exterior in 9 shades of purple using Sherwin Williams Duration. Even the white has purple in it.

 

[mattl]

Totally impressive!

Definitely a labor of love, in this case well worth it. Glad your marriage survived, some might not with the scope of the project. Well done!

 

[whirlcool]

What a huge undertaking that was. But then look what you ended up with and you know everything is of high quality.

Congratulations on such a great job. You probably spent literally thousands of hours renovating that home!

 

[rp2813]

Awesome job! That house did exude tons of potential and charm even in its sad state when you bought it.

The city of SLO should bestow some sort of recognition on you for your excellent example. I'm sure the house would have been pushed over if you hadn't rescued it.

 

[mielabor]

Wow, that was a great job. I've never seen a whole house being moved like that. I suppose that you had to make arrangements as it is using the whole width of the road?

The bathroom floor is original too? A would have thought that a wooden floor is prone to rot in such an environment.[this post was last edited: 8/9/2010-12:36]

 

[joelippard]

Now that is simply amazing. I hope you enjoy your hard work for many years to come.

 

[a440]

What an amazing job you both did!
Your home turned out so beautiful!
Thanks for sharing your story and pictures!
Brent

 

[tlee618]

Just amazing! Thanks for sharing this with us. It just goes to show you what can be done!!

 

[sambootoo]

Absolutely stunning! That's something I've always wanted to do but have never had the chance. Good work!

 

[~sudsshane]

What a fantastic story.

You are a very talented man, Todd!
Best of luck to you and your wife.

 

[mistereric]

Good Lord~!

What an awesome restoration and a beautiful home!

 

[jons1077]

I'm speechless

That's just breathtaking!

 

[austinado16]

Thanks for all the compliments.

It's been a fun project and the house has been on the City's Master List of Historic Properties since we moved it. It/we received an "Obispo Beautiful" Award about 3 years ago. In April it was featured on a local home tour and we had about 250 people come through in about 4hrs. It was also just published in a local book that features something like 75 local significant buildings.

One thing that was fun during the process was doing the historical research. We eventually located one of the 3 surviving daughters who had been born in the home. She was 85 at that time and living about 140mi away. I called and told her I was saving her mom's house....the phone went silent. Her husband finally picked up and told me that she was crying. Still kinda touches me, even in telling that story here. We kept a video log and would send her updated VHS tapes of the process, and she and her family came and visited once or maybe twice. On one of the trips, she gave us a large oval framed bubble glass portrait of her mom, taken in 1918 when her mom was 18:

We also have a copy of her mom's wedding photo, standing with her dad, taken that same year. Both have always hung in the Foyer as the first things seen when entering the home.

Re: The Guest Bathroom floor. Yes, that's the original doug fir flooring, sanded and stained mohagany, but that area was originally part of the middle bedroom.

Re: The move. That was really an amazing experience. The movers were as bad as the folks you see running the rides at a carnival (at least here in the US). They drank all 3 days, and by the early Sunday morning move time, were so drunk/hungover that you couldn't stand next to them for the smell of booze. The move did have to be "permitted" but we chose a route that was all side streets, and cut the roof off. The house was narrow enough to make it. Nothing like seeing a house go down the road at 30mph. I rode up in the roof filming the whole event.

 

[dishwashercrazy]

What an incredible restoration project! I feel like I just stepped back into the mid 1950s. Your home is absolutely beautiful.

 

[austinado16]

West Peoria? My mom was born & raised there...

...and still lives there. She's in your sports hall of fame for being a gymnast in the 1960 Rome Olympics and the first Peorian to be in the Olympics since the 1893 Athens Games.

Thanks for the kind words about the house. I love finding, collecting, and restoring vintage stuff, so the whole project has really fed my cravings. We've been here 17 years now, and I'm still searching for "things".

My latest score was the complete meat grinder attachment for my Oster Can Opener/Meat Grinder. Oh, and the 3 cool irons that I've asked about in another post.

The latest "thing" I'm after for the entire house is still life oil paintings of flowers. I'm after paintings that have a lot of paint texture, a lot of color and detail, and that have a color that matches the color of the room they're intended for. Swap meet, garage/yard/estate sale only, and on the cheap, of course! So far I've found 2 that are fantastic.

 

[sudsmaster]

You've done a great job restoring and transforming that house into the block beauty. Congratulations!

I grew up in San Francisco and was always a little in awe of the more ornate Victorians around town. But after I left in 1969, the city really went through a rebirth, with people lovingly restoring them with fantastic paint jobs and restored bric-a-brac woodwork. I'd have to say yours ranks right up there with the best.

I'm most impressed with the fact that you removed that ugly fake looking wide plank asbestos siding and restored the original redwood narrow plank siding.

 

[austinado16]

Just like countless other little "gifts" in this project, the asbestos tile siding actually saved the house. It had only been painted once, right when it was built. They let it go for decades until whom ever (Sears?) came through offering to wrap a home in building paper and indestructable siding. I don't know when that was out here in Cali...maybe some of you know?

Anyway, when we broke off the siding and pulled off the building paper, we found pristine original redwood siding, except for the south facing side (which now faces north and is the right side in the above front views) which was heavily weather and groved down into the grain. The thin original paint almost wiped off with your bare hand. Made for a fairly easy repaint. We saved the weather siding by simply using very heavy coats of primer, letting it dry, and then heavy coats of color. It filled right in to the point that it looks fine. Not perfect, but from 5' away, you'd never notice if I didn't mention it.

She's nothing compared to the grand homes up in San Francisco, but certainly in this little cow town, she does hold her own pretty good.

 

[58limited]

I'm in awe! I can't imagine all of the work you put into that house. You saved a nice place that most people would have demolished. I like the parlor stove, I have a less ornate one in my living room too. I actually used it in college to heat my rent house.

I live next door to a big fancy house that is in similar condition to what you started with. I tried to buy it, but the family signed it over to one of the sons, who just happens to be in jail and probably won't be paroled until the house is beyond saving Fortunately, I was able to purchase some of the light fixtures before they signed the deed over.

 

[austinado16]

We found that Parlor Stove in a big 3 story Antique Mall in Peoria, IL while visiting my mom back in '94. My brother took it all apart and shipped it UPS to use. I bead blasted the whole thing, repainted it, and sent the nickel plated stuff away for new nickel plating.