Neat wall paper border

[CrealCritter]

Doing a little work in the kitchen on my rental house. I found this 2' boarder when I pulled down some back splash over the kitchen cabinets. Only one piece and very thick for wallpaper. Anyways my wife saw it and really likes it but I knew she would... I thought you all might like it also. I would guess this is from sometime in the early 1940's based on how thick the paper is and the design. The house was built in 1919.

 

[CrealCritter]

The top of it is in pretty rough shape from nails holes. I tried hard to get it off the wall with out damaging it more but glue was strong in one place and it tore.


Even though it's damaged and because my wife likes it. I decided I'm gonna make wooden a frame for it. So she can hang it on the wall. I'll try and do a frame in some some weathered / distressed pine like old barn wood to try and make it look old.

 

[CrealCritter]

I stand corrected after a little research the rental house was built in 1900. When we pulled up two layers carpet and one layer of pad throughout the house and two layers of plywood and laminate flooring in the kitchen we found wide board old growth tight ring white oak tongue & groove flooring that had two layers of brown paint on it.

So what do you do? well you rip out all of that flooring out of the kitchen and use it to replace some bad boards in the other rooms. Lay down plywood in the kitchen for a new laminate floor. Then you sand your ass off and put down polyurethane on the freshly sanded floors.

I ain't gonna joke - this stuff is simply gorgeous... A few deep scratches, nails, and sawmill marks give it unique character.

My son in law running the edger

My son running the floor sander. It helps to have someone with experience. He took the floor sander apart and ran just the head. Doing so made it work a lot better (floor sander hack -:lol)

I couldn't resist... after the first room was done being sanded. I just had to see what it would look like with a coat of clear gloss oil based polyurethane. So I brushed on a small section and it about blew my mind. This is what old growth white oak looks like with a clear coat of polyurethane.

When I went to look at this house before I bought it. I could swear I heard the old girl say "Help Me!" well she's getting the love she has been longing for. I still can't believe I bought this bank repo for $15,000.00. I paid cash for it and the old girl just keeps on giving.

The only reasons I bought the house was because it was old, has a brand new 50 years shingle roof, 12" sq ceiling tiles in every room, brand new high efficiency heat and air unit and a very recent master bath addition. After tearing out layers of remodels she's starting to look beautiful again.

 

[CrealCritter]

When you finish the remodel, why not put her up for sale? Take the money and run. You should make a tidy profit. It will only piss you off to rent it again and renters mess up your hard work.

The floors are gorgeous. Those are the kind of floors that flooring companies try to duplicate, but just can't get there.

My next renters are my youngest daughter and her husband. So I'm not at all worried about it getting messed up. As a matter of fact they are going to help with the work

I got the first coat of polyurethane down on the two rooms and hallway.

And I've finally decided on trim. My take on Craftsman style trim. Its really easy to make in the shop and I think it kind of goes with the house.

 

[CrealCritter]

Looking at pictures when I first bought then after fixing it. Yep I agree she's looking great...
Before

This was above the drop ceiling in the kitchen. It scarred me, so I just rewired the entire house to bring it up to code. And yes all wires are run through the walls and ceilings like they should be now

Now
The door to the left is the second full bath off the kitchen. Remember bathrooms off the kitchen?

 

[CrealCritter]

Starting to come together now. Here's my take on Craftsman style trim. I wanted to keep it simple yet give it a little more. So I did quarter round on the shoe and top caps 1/2 rounds on the mullets and lower caps.

Here is the general idea for the Craftsman style trim. I just jazzed it up a bit. I'm very happy with how it's turning out and it's very easy to make in my shop and install.
I also plan on doing the plate rail all the way around the kitchen but not for plates but canning jars.

Son cutting out for door hinges. They don't call hard maple rock maple for no reason it is very hard to work. You can see the 5 piece base trim profile lower left.

Some finished (ceiling, door, base)

Still lots left to do but I have most of the trim made up already, just needs to be cut, nailed in place and finished.

I love working on old houses - they have so much character...

 

[CrealCritter]

That's awesome! The ol' gal is getting a full body make-over! Can you hear her breathe a sigh of relief?

She's starting to be happy again. But in all honesty I'm really starting to grow tried of fixing the screw ups of remodels past.

Believe it or not. She had her 10' ceilings dropped down to 8'. With that tacky 2'x4' suspended ceiling pannels. I took one look at that and told my wife rip it all out and take it to the dump. When we did there was 12"x12" celling tiles and original crown moulding in the kitchen and living room. now that's something I can work with right there.

 

[CrealCritter]

CC, am loving this old house remodel! Thank you for detailing it for us and doing pics...I LOVE that. I have such a love for old houses and their lovely construction and wood that you can't get nowadays. I love it too that you want to restore instead of redo...those floors are gorgeous and the trim you are adding is incredible. Such a handy, handy man, you are.

Thanks... They just don't make houses like this today that's for sure. I just got back from installing under cabinet LED lights. First time working with them... I really like that they run off of 12volts DC and consume next to no power (9 watts). The 24" light bars cost me $1.86 each and the AC (100 ~ 240) to DC (12v 36watt) step down transformers $4.89 each. Amazing how much light they put out. The cool thing is if the power ever goes out you could run the lights off batteries.

My 3rd oldest son who has helped me work on this house a lot. Took a length of the old oak kitchen floor and made a cool coat rack in my shop out of it with some 1/2" gas pipe and floor flanges. I think it's pretty cool in the house and goes right along with the real old theme. Sometimes simple is better, this is one of those times. It finished in mineral oil and beeswax, he also used my propane torch to darken the wood where he had to cut it, to have it match the uncut natural old color.

 

[Britesea]

I've lived in older homes most of my life, and every time I've exposed old wallpapers etc, it's been multiple layers and each one uglier than the last, lol

 

[Hinotori]

I wish our house had neat things like that hidden.

Someone ripped out all the cool stuff and remodeled to crap.