All of her crap took up most of the dumpster. It was nasty.

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OI000020 by Paul Bubel, on Flickr

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OI000069 by Paul Bubel, on Flickr

The drop at the rear door is significant. Very significant. It went unnoticed do to all the crap in that room. The bill for the foundation just became a little worrisome.

Did a little exploratory work as well.

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OI000074 by Paul Bubel, on Flickr

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OI000075 by Paul Bubel, on Flickr

Two layers of wallpaper capped with 1/4" drywall. Very thin stuff. It looks like tearing it all out should be easy. Replacing is going to be problematic with the thickness and wood trim. I'm going to have to figure it all out before digging in too deep.


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2016-05-20_11-54-39 by Paul Bubel, on Flickr

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OI000078 by Paul Bubel, on Flickr

I do know the wall on the left is going bye-bye. Looking forward to that.

And the kitchen floors under the particle board appear to be completely shot.

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OI000061 by Paul Bubel, on Flickr

I'm not expecting perfection with 120 year old floors, in fact I like them with character, but I don't think these can be saved.

That's pretty much it over the past 2 weekends. The rain made everything fun. I owe a ton to about 10 sweaty good friends who for some stupid reason keep showing up. I think it's the breakfast tacos. Gotta be the tacos.


Here's hoping the foundation isn't catastrophically bad. That could delay things by months. I also need to get good at window repair. They all have issues. Most of them still have the original glass though, so that's cool.


Any advice on whether removing them before foundation work is warranted? I've heard yes, I've heard no.

The safe answer is yes, the lazy in me wants to hear a bunch of no.

I love your progress!

I'd remove the windows to be safe because they are original; otherwise I'd just level the house and pray.

Looks tons better already. Looking forward to seeing more progress.

The kitchen floor you think may be unsalvageable may surprise you.

How thick are the wood strips on the walls? They may not be original - I'm used to seeing narrow furring strips with plaster and lath. Wide ones like that wouldn't work well since there isn't much space for the first coat of plaster to key in, and the walls couldn't have had drywall once upon a time since it didn't exist for another 60 years or so.

Maybe with the wood strips gone you'd be close to a single or some combination of multiple sheets of drywall?

If I remember correctly, around 3/4" thick? I'll have to double check.

If that's the case I'd pull it all (good time to mess with wiring/plumbing too), insulate interior and exterior walls, caulk the 1/2" layer of drywall to the studs, attach a 1/4" layer to the 1st and enjoy trim that fits the same as the original stuff did, and a much quieter and energy efficient house at the same time.

They were interior walls too, which could have been added later. I'll know more when I dig further.

Currently on those two walls it was just very thin burlap, and two layers of wallpaper. No interior doors have a transom either, which unless they're covered by drywall, would indicate a later remodel is very possible.

Thanks Fife.

For your ant problem, a cheap fix (if it is fire ants) is to get a bottle of Advion and sprinkle the yard when it is dry and there is no rain forecast. It will be hauled back to the colony and kill them all in a couple of days. Once the main group are taken out, then a tablespoon of the stuff sprinkled directly on the mound will usually take care of it in 24 hours.

Nice work! Love watching the progress of these.

From stalking your pictures a bit, the wide boards may be original after all. I see them in the attic space. Also I asked around and the burlap is probably the original wall covering. It was apparently just thought of as an inexpensive wall covering that was often times painted or stenciled.

Also I am 100% sure the doors are original because I see either a painted rim lock or the place where one was installed on one of them. They're readily available either old or reproduction if you need replacements. I have a bunch of them, one key fits pretty much all. Most are made from cast iron.

I would be very surprised if you found a transom above any of the interior doors. It's possible that the trim was swapped at some point but if that's the case someone had to have been pretty thorough about it and done it long ago.

Similar construction to halconegro's house in Monte Vista with the 1x6 wall boards, fabric and wall covering. I'll ask him to chime in on this thread the next time I see him. He's had quite a bit of work done and still has some in progress. He had a kitchen update thread in this forum but I don't think he's updated it in a while.

Heh. I've met him a couple of times, actually.

I like shiplap.

I'll keep some of it exposed, but don't want to go overboard with the stuff.


I do like Fixer Upper though, I'll admit it. I have two chimneys along that central wall somewhere too.
Normally I would keep it pretty original but since it doesn't have, or likely never had, any real wood work to salvage I'm not constrained as much.

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I like their designs building wise but her decor is the same in every single house. I also think that all that all that staging she does goes out the door with the camera crew.

Still, there are much worse shows on TV.

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Yeah, the staging goes, but the new owners have the option of buying some of it if they really want. Usually don't have the budget for it, though.

And yeah, there's MUCH worse on tv.

Personally, I hate shiplap. Hate it.

Awesome transformation so far....subscribed!

Awesome progress. Glad you started a thread.

We might be in SA for 4th of July weekend. Might be able to put in a few hours of help. The Mrs. can take the kids and go hang out with friends at Friendly Spot.

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Awesome progress. Glad you started a thread.

We might be in SA for 4th of July weekend. Might be able to put in a few hours of help. The Mrs. can take the kids and go hang out with friends at Friendly Spot.

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Of course man, would love to see y'all.

NEED UDATES!!!!!

No work gets done during the week, I wind up working 12 to 14 hours a day during the summer months. I'm still waiting on foundation estimates before anything significant occurs.

I might pull all the drywall in the living room this Saturday though to see what I'm dealing with.

So I guess I might check back in.


Foundation guy number two was out at the house today. Both of them so far just want to start over with the foundation. It's overkill, honestly, but what do I know... There's a 4" drop to either side of the home, which I expected. There has been no significant movement in the place for a while judging by the drywall. I'm not hard up and expect perfection in such an old place.

The posts, 48" in the ground, appear to be in good overall condition. But it's easier to quote and warranty a full replacement. I'd hate to get the place back to "level-ish" only to have the rotted below the surface cedar posts keep on moving so I understand where they're coming from.

The prices have been double what I anticipated, which I'm sure I need to get used to, but the inspections have been quick and cursory. It's hard to not feel like the address is adding the bottom line - or at least the amount of work/replacement but I've dealt with that before in Alamo Heights.

Estimates for the two range from 35 to 45 piers, some joist and beam replacement (just under 1200 sf) First one, the guy that actually bothered to check to the depth of the piers, $14k. The second $17k.

Got another one lined up tomorrow. I'm pretty sure I know which way this one will go. Oye, I should learn Spanish again.

Fun and games along the rio.

Honestly though, for the amount of work they're proposing to do the prices are pretty reasonable. So, I'm not upset or anything.

True, and if you aren't able to remove the floor while digging footings it can be an absolute nightmare. I put in about a dozen that way, no way I'd do it again unless the floor was removed. In your case I would avoid pulling the floor out since it's likely to be original to the house and difficult / expensive to replace.

I saw this thread and was wondering, are the piers cedar posts. Most old houses in SA had cedar posts that lasted a very long time. You usually can see shims between them and the floor joists.

Also, the 1/4" drywall over the original 1x6 was a very common "upgrade". It helped with sound and insulation and was much more durable than the original burlap with fabric or wallpaper over it. the only problem is that it made the trim appear flatter because it takes away the depth.

You really have your work cut out for you. You might need some plumbing work after you level the house. I'm guessing you have cast iron waste pipes. They tend to come apart if the house gets raised where they connect underneath.

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You really have your work cut out for you. You might need some plumbing work after you level the house. I'm guessing you have cast iron waste pipes. They tend to come apart if the house gets raised where they connect underneath.

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From my experience they start leaking from internal corrosion after about 100 years anyway, and I'm talking in the living space. No telling what's going on underground.

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I saw this thread and was wondering, are the piers cedar posts. Most old houses in SA had cedar posts that lasted a very long time. You usually can see shims between them and the floor joists.

Also, the 1/4" drywall over the original 1x6 was a very common "upgrade". It helped with sound and insulation and was much more durable than the original burlap with fabric or wallpaper over it. the only problem is that it made the trim appear flatter because it takes away the depth.

You really have your work cut out for you. You might need some plumbing work after you level the house. I'm guessing you have cast iron waste pipes. They tend to come apart if the house gets raised where they connect underneath.

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Yeah, almost all are the original cedar posts. The internal ones will last forever if you keep the termites away from them.

I'm 100% sure the plumbing will be toast once the property is leveled. I'm going to be spending a lot of time under the house this summer one way or another.

I'm waiting on the final bid from the third foundation guy. He was thorough and explained a lot of the problems as we crawled under parts of the house. I've got a huge bill coming up for sure. ...but it needs to be done and done right.