This Old House
Since 1999 when I found this 1/2 acre urban Stockton waterfront property, I have spend have my life and much of my money fixing up this old house. The ranch style home was built in the early 1950's and though it is basically well constructed, having a good foundation and hardwood floors, it also had suffered decades of horrible additions mistaken repair work. Within weeks after we moved in, we pulled up the old carpets covering the red oak hardwood floors, and then I crawled under the masterbath and found soaked and rotten floor joists.
We didn't like the pink and charcoal colored tile, and the toilet under the window anyway, so I spent nearly a year in demolition and then complete reconstruction of a grand masterbath, complete with large copper water pipes and ABS drains below, and new porcelin pedestal sinks, matching toilet, and a larger doorless stepdown shower above. Since it is the masterbath, I put in all the bells and whistles I could imagine except the whirlpool tub. The picture shows the results of a 500 sq ft addition that was designed to eliminate a maze of children's bedrooms that faced the back patio, which by the way tended to drain toward the house. The old concrete patio was uplifted by the Magnolia tree, and so it was time to dig, expand, and reinforce a new subterranean wall that would contain the tree roots, without doing damage to the lovely forty year old backyard center piece that shades our home on the south side. In any case, the rear of the house was expanded, making the fireplace a center piece in the family room, and providing much needed ambient light via new skylights, patio side windows, and eight foot high French doors. That old family room, being down two steps onto the slab foundation was a cool spot in the summer, but a freezing place to congregate in winter unless the fireplace was used.
The second photo shows the solution to that problem--radiant floor heating. With the help of a company based in New Hampshire, I wrestled with pex tubing and soldered huge copper pipes to produce the strange looking system that now makes the family room the most comfortable room in this old house during the coldest of winter evenings. Meanwhile the Kayak sits waiting to be pulled down to the dock.
We didn't like the pink and charcoal colored tile, and the toilet under the window anyway, so I spent nearly a year in demolition and then complete reconstruction of a grand masterbath, complete with large copper water pipes and ABS drains below, and new porcelin pedestal sinks, matching toilet, and a larger doorless stepdown shower above. Since it is the masterbath, I put in all the bells and whistles I could imagine except the whirlpool tub. The picture shows the results of a 500 sq ft addition that was designed to eliminate a maze of children's bedrooms that faced the back patio, which by the way tended to drain toward the house. The old concrete patio was uplifted by the Magnolia tree, and so it was time to dig, expand, and reinforce a new subterranean wall that would contain the tree roots, without doing damage to the lovely forty year old backyard center piece that shades our home on the south side. In any case, the rear of the house was expanded, making the fireplace a center piece in the family room, and providing much needed ambient light via new skylights, patio side windows, and eight foot high French doors. That old family room, being down two steps onto the slab foundation was a cool spot in the summer, but a freezing place to congregate in winter unless the fireplace was used.
The second photo shows the solution to that problem--radiant floor heating. With the help of a company based in New Hampshire, I wrestled with pex tubing and soldered huge copper pipes to produce the strange looking system that now makes the family room the most comfortable room in this old house during the coldest of winter evenings. Meanwhile the Kayak sits waiting to be pulled down to the dock.
