Outbuildings are a sorry lot. They generally are “creatively” constructed, receive the least maintenance attention, and often undergo heavy use. There are countless garages throughout Rochester that were built on a shoe-string budget 100 years ago that gently lean or twist in the direction of the prevailing winds or sink toward an improperly routed downspout. Many have not seen a coat of paint in decades, some have half-rotten vehicle doors, while others have boarded up windows. Back when we were house shopping, nearly every house in our budget had a garage that was afflicted by one if not many of these conditions. Continue reading
Author: mastermodelhome
Rehabbing the Radiators
It’s been bitterly cold this week with lots of snow after near spring like conditions began to force some early bulbs to flower last week…thanks upstate New York. What better time to talk about the incremental saga of tuning, upgrading, and rehabbing our steam heating system.
Our house was originally outfitted with a cutting edge American Radiator Company steam heating system comprising of an Ideal Redflash Boiler and Corto radiators. I have a strong affection for Corto radiators, Continue reading
Surprise! Bathroom Rehab
We kept busy over the warm months this year, primarily focusing on the garage…which still has a way to go…maybe next year! One not so busy weekend, Kit suggested that we tackle finishing the bathroom as it was literally in pieces. We had rebuilt the shower valves, re-grouted the tile, and added a bathroom fan last year, but the wall fabric that had originally been installed in 1928 to prevent moisture seeping into the walls was literally peeling off the walls. The original pedestal sink had a odd 1980s Delta mixer faucet and hand sprayer. The medicine cabinet had relieved itself of the mirror shattering pieces all over the floor as mentioned in the last post and the original bare-bulb light fixture had shorted out and could not be disassembled to allow replacement of its internal socket. Continue reading
Taming Our Thorny, Overgrown, and Bland Wilds
We have accomplished some of the things from our list of juggling, but have done a really really poor job of keeping you all up to date. If you have seen our instagram photos you probably know about our bathroom rehab, garage progress (new roof going on last week), and our newest fuzziest addition to the family, but this post is about our landscaping progress thus far.
I Was Never Very Good at Juggling
A number of small projects were begun over the past several months. Some were intentional, and others were forced upon us by fate. I told myself that we would be much further along with these projects by now…much like I was supposed to have already begun taking my architectural licensing exams. Here’s a list of the loose ends yet to be tied: Continue reading
My Perfect Little Money Pit 