As tenants left the properties there was more of a chance to have a good look inside the buildings and see some of the idiosyncrasies and hidden challenges that lay ahead. As work progressed on the buildings it became increasingly clear that the best thing to do was to take the buildings back to the studs and do a complete interior renovation of the buildings, so in this post I am showing you the before and after for various photos to give you a peek into the idiosycracies…...
This wall was in one of the rooms of the better maintained apartments, and you can see a pretty funky piece of door framing here with some curious angles to the tops of the doors. After stripping the old plaster off the reason for this was evident - behind the plaster was an old chimney built in 1900, which was the only part of the property that did not settle a few inches. As years past the rest of the house gracefully sunk around the chimney - not just to the left and right in this picture but fore and aft as well - resulting in some "character" slopes to some of the floors.
The quality of the finish in this lower apartment was by and large good, mainly because the tenants had invested some effort in improving the look. It was all superficial though - 'we bodged it' was the parting remark of the tenants - and in their shoes why wouldn't they. The landlord had not been prepared to invest for them.
In the upstairs apartment of #20 Lincoln there was some very creative building work done over the years - you can see in the two pictures to the left some interesting room boundaries at the back of the house, which was a result of building extensions on extensions over the year. In the second picture you are looking at the original exterior of the house and its clapboard siding, which after adding the second extension because an interior wall, complete with the original window.
To the right of this picture is an even older extension which was probably added when indoor toilets became common. Behind this wall is the bathroom with two roofs - the original roof was never removed when the extension roof was added resulting in an expectedly low ceilinged bathroom.
Below you can see the same views after stripping away the exterior layers - revealing yet another exterior window for what is now the bathroom.
The funky extension process resulted in similar idiosyncrasies one floor down in the first floor apartment. This area was an oddly shaped kitchen with additional annex room, too small for any proper purpose - probably mainly built in this way to provide some additional structural support
Finally in case you are still wondering why we started pulling everything apart, one final example to left and below from the rear cottage. The fine looking wood paneling on the walls seem pretty distinguished - it was only on closer inspection that the wood paneling turned out in fact to be ………… hardboard - one up from cardboard I guess but barely!
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| Before... |
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| And after - the framing attached to the brick never had a chance to settle! |
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| Why waste money on a lock when you can just batten the door shut! |
The quality of the finish in this lower apartment was by and large good, mainly because the tenants had invested some effort in improving the look. It was all superficial though - 'we bodged it' was the parting remark of the tenants - and in their shoes why wouldn't they. The landlord had not been prepared to invest for them.
In the upstairs apartment of #20 Lincoln there was some very creative building work done over the years - you can see in the two pictures to the left some interesting room boundaries at the back of the house, which was a result of building extensions on extensions over the year. In the second picture you are looking at the original exterior of the house and its clapboard siding, which after adding the second extension because an interior wall, complete with the original window.To the right of this picture is an even older extension which was probably added when indoor toilets became common. Behind this wall is the bathroom with two roofs - the original roof was never removed when the extension roof was added resulting in an expectedly low ceilinged bathroom.Below you can see the same views after stripping away the exterior layers - revealing yet another exterior window for what is now the bathroom.
The funky extension process resulted in similar idiosyncrasies one floor down in the first floor apartment. This area was an oddly shaped kitchen with additional annex room, too small for any proper purpose - probably mainly built in this way to provide some additional structural supportFinally in case you are still wondering why we started pulling everything apart, one final example to left and below from the rear cottage. The fine looking wood paneling on the walls seem pretty distinguished - it was only on closer inspection that the wood paneling turned out in fact to be ………… hardboard - one up from cardboard I guess but barely!
Once everything was stripped from this room, it turned out to be the right decision - most of the building was held together by accident rather than design, with unsupported rafters and ceiling joists sitting on non bearing walls like the ones below. It also provided some inspiration to open the room up to the rafters and create a cathedral ceiling in the redesign.
My main learnings from this process have been:
1. If you think you can save existing work, and you have even a hint of perfectionism in you, think again! Plus by stripping everything out it frees your imagination as to the possibilities of a space.
2. If you are planning to invest for the long term, rather than flip the properties, bite the bullet at the start and do things properly - you will save a lot of pain in the long run knowing you don't have to rip the house apart again because you cut corners. (At least I hope that is true!).
3. Expect your tenants to be rational human beings - if you don't look after them in a reasonable way they will return the favor and cut corners as well.
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