The Guest House

Before...

This is the only before picture I have of the guest house. Nevertheless, I think wood paneling and 1970's carpeting pretty much sums it up. This cozy one-room apartment is where we first lived while we were gutting the main house.

Before we moved in, we removed the carpeting (relieved to discover hard wood floors) and painted all of the wood paneling.

After...

I bought this pie safe when hubby and I were dating back in Idaho. Unfortunately, it doesn't fit in our kitchen in the main house, but it works quite nicely here in the guest house.

The kitchen cabinets are original, we just put a fresh coat of paint on them. The oak table came from Maine and had been my kitchen table for many years. The oak chairs are from my Grandmother's house.

The guest house had been rented out as an apartment and had a stove and refrigerator in it when we bought it. We removed those items but someday we would like to install a small refrigerator under the counter top.

You can see the main house in the reflection of the cabinet glass. This little cabinet was purchased back in Maine, but looks like it's been in the kitchen forever.

To the left of the pie safe is the bathroom door.

Small but sweet.

I love this old Eastlake nightstand. I got this for $95 in the city and just fell in love with all of the intricate notched carving.

Both the dresser and the mirror are pieces I picked up in Maine. The door to the left is a closet.

We still have some work to do in the guest house. Eventually, we'll refinish wood floors, put in new windows, install new kitchen counter top, add little refrigerator...and other odds and ends. For now, it offers guests a rustic little space of their own while visiting.

Resource List

RENOVATION RESOURCE LIST:


Rejuvenation. By the end of our remodel, we knew many people by name at Rejuvenation, and they us. That is because we purchased a great deal of items from them and also, relied on their expertise on plumbing, design and knowledge of historic house details. They're the best!

The following items were purchased at Rejuvenation:

*All lighting fixtures throughout the house. We went with antique brass on all fixtures.
*All door hardware (except front exterior doors). We went with glass knobs and burnished antique finish.
*Both of our claw foot bathtubs.
*Our kitchen faucet, our bathroom faucet (downstairs), and both of our claw foot tub plumbing fixtures and hardware.
*All of our bin pulls on our kitchen cabinets.
*Our pedestal sink in our downstairs bathroom.
*Many salvage and antique items such as the hardware on our linen closet.
*All window hardware on our replacement Marvin windows (surprisingly, Marvin doesn't provide hardware with their replacement packages).
*Oodles of vintage and antique items - and at great prices. Everything from bathroom glass containers, to soap dishes, to kitchen canisters, to glasses, clocks and picture frames.

Marvin Windows. We went with Marvin because of their great tilt-pack systems (we replaced eleven existing windows with these). Plus we ordered fourteen new windows. Also, for any readers who live in the Portland area, Classic Sash and Door will offer you the most knowledge and guidance in purchasing Marvin windows. They are located on the second floor of our favorite old house resource store Rejuvenation.

Simpson Doors. I also looked at several different door companies but again, Simpson had a display in Rejuvenation so we were able to look at them closely. As far as cost, Simpson doors seemed to offer good quality craftsmanship without the expensive cost of custom.

Architectural Grille. I came across this company in my search to find a more antique looking grille for our various heat and ventilation sources.The standard plastic or metal grilles just wouldn't do. So I ordered two ventilation grilles for both our bathrooms, a ceiling vent for heat transfer from downstairs to the upstairs, a grille for our toe-kick heater in our kitchen and a floor grille for a floor heater in our new dining room. You can pick from a variety of patterns and request it come primed to paint or choose from their custom finishes.

EMTEK. I looked at every specialty hardware store in the city. Most of what I found was either too modern or we didn't care for the finish choice. I found that burnished antique was the common choice for many, but it often had a strange red underlying hue we did not care for. Then I discovered EMTEK and we are so thrilled with their product. All of our new light fixtures are antique brass (from Rejuvenation) and I found that is a difficult finish to find in door hardware. But EMTEK has this fabulous finish called French Antique. Also, the designs they offer surpass any company I've looked at. And the price is right. We paid only $125. each for our front door hardware.

Benjamin Moore. We ended up using Benjamin Moore's Ecospec on all of our trim and walls. It's a no VOC paint and it comes in flat, eggshell and semi-gloss.

Our wall colors:

Simply White, semi-gloss: all trim, mantle, cabinets and windows.

Simply White, flat: upstairs bedroom, office, closet, downstairs living room.

Simply White, eggshell: upstairs master bath, kitchen.

Exterior house:

Pure White on all siding and trim.

Porch floor:
Platinum Grey (Benjamin Moore, Porch and Floor)

Sherwin Williams.

Our green front door paint is by Sherwin Williams. It's called 'Evergreens.'

Safecoat. We used their stain product for our kitchen counters. We chose the color 'cedar' and used their satin finish as a top coat.

McCoy. We were able to find all of our wainscot and stair accessories here. They have numerous displays of stair railings, porch railings, and tons of different kinds of trim. The best part is that it's all on display.

Horizon Shutters. I love the look of classic white shutters. I did a lot of research both locally and online and discovered a fabulous business that makes affordable, high quality shutters. They give you many paint chips to choose from so you can have them custom painted to match your trim. We love our shutters, they add such a wonderful look to our rooms.

Rowe Furniture. The furniture is by a company called Rowe Furniture. We knew we'd choose something from their line because they are committed to natural fiber fabrics, eco cushion cores and wood from replenished forests. They are also members of the Sustainable Furniture Council (SFC).The chairs are 'Carlyle' and the sofa is 'Fairfax.' Fabric for the chairs: Q10447-19 Sofa fabric:Y1348-91

Go here to read more about their green initiatives:

http://www.rowefurniture.com/about-us/eco-rowe.html

Upstairs Master Bath

BEFORE

Not a true before as this room had parkay flooring. There was also a superficial wall up but it wasn't in the right place for bathroom placement so hubby framed in a new wall. This was before the contractors showed up. In fact, we had the upstairs plumbing put in when the downstairs bathroom was gutted (black pipe is sink line). By stacking the bathrooms, one on top of the other, the plumbing was more straightforward (a.k.a. more cost efficient).

Drywall helps rooms take shape.

AFTER...

It's a small master bath, but it feels like a luxury to us as it's our first.

Upstairs Master Bedroom

When we first saw the house, it reminded me of an old Cape Cod. Capes are simple structures, often with half-stories, and often found with large shed or gabled dormers. Having lived in Maine for over a decade, and having lived in a Cape the entire time, I quickly saw the potential for the upstairs half-story.

Shed dormers have flat roof lines and offer more ceiling height than a gabled dormer. I knew that by adding such a dormer to our half-story space, we could really transform the upstairs into a really wonderful master bedroom. The half story was plenty long, had a back ell extending off from it (which would become the future walk-in closet) and with only two bedrooms downstairs, it would really add to the spaciousness of the home.

Here are a few pictures of the upstairs before the dormer addition.

Before...

As you can see, the stairwell going upstairs was quite dark.

As you come up into the half-story, you can see that there is very little light. There's just one window at each gabled end and one small window at the end of the back ell. The window you see in this picture is the window to our future master bath. The large open room in the foreground is our future master bedroom. Walk-in closet is off to the right.

This is looking towards the east end of the house. The proposed dormer will be going in on the right side of this photo - the south side of the house. Notice the limited floor space on right side of stairwell. Also, the window you see in this picture will be the window in our future home office.

This is after they took the ridge of the roof line out to make room for new support beam.

Once the beam was in, the roof was removed to install shed dormer. This is me taking the first swing.

They moved fast as it was their goal to get the dormer up in one day.

Stairs are illuminated.

Dormer framing up! Look at all the extra floor space and ceiling height!

New Marvin windows. We put six, six over one double-hungs in new dormer.

Over the course of the next several weeks, came insulation, electrical, drywall and paint.

After...

As you can see, the new dormer created a significant amount of floor space. Originally, there was only about a foot of space to the right of the stairs. 

The Upstairs Closet

Before...

The entire upstairs was very dark. This back gabled ell, which extends north off of the main house, has a low gabled ceiling so we thought it would make a great walk-in closet.

After framing, insulation and electrical.

The closet door. We rounded off the top and I think it looks quite charming.

After...

We looked into doing a closet organizer for clothes but it was really pricey. So I looked around and found a good deal on some large over-sized white dressers.

We got two, his and hers.

UPDATE: Photos added February 17, 2010

We used plastic covered wire racks that you can custom fit to your space. This ended up being the most functional and most affordable option. The only thing that doesn't fit in our closet are my dresses and Hubby's suits. Those are stored in our downstairs guest room closet.

Vanity is a matching piece to the two Empire dressers in our bedroom. The set comes from my Grandmother's house, which were originally purchased by her Grandparents.

My favorite part of our small closet is the wonderful window that offers a spectacular view of the surrounding countryside with Mt. Adams (way over in Washington state) as a backdrop.

Upstairs Office

BEFORE

This is the upstairs half story as it was when we bought the place. It was a seasonal space, perhaps used as a workshop or for storage. In Phase II of our remodel, we put in a large shed dormer (shed dormers are flat so allow more head room than a gabled dormer), transforming this space entirely. What you're looking at is the east side of the house.

Here is that same east end after the new dormer went in. Notice all the extra floor space to the right of the stairs. The framing you see is the beginning formation of the office. The threshold to the office is dictated by the massive support beam that had to be lifted by crane into our roof line and what will support the large dormer addition. Where the threshold of the office stands, provides the resting place for the beam above it. Ditto for the other side of the room where the bathroom was created.

The drywall, door, trim and new Marvin window start to shape the office.

After paint and new hardwood flooring throughout upstairs.

After...

We had to disassemble the old desk (another Great Great Grandparent piece) due to its weight and size. But once reassembled, it fit quite well in the new space.

The office is mostly used by me as Hubby has an office at work. My collection of antique gold frames rests against the wall waiting for the right piece of art.

The gabled portion of the room offers enough head room for storage.

The Entry

BEFORE

This is not a true 'before' because it doesn't show the parkay flooring or the blond colored paneling - with plastic shelves lining the walls. I believe I tore the shelves down within mere seconds of taking ownership of the house. The white walls are new drywall we installed. Also, you can see the old porch railing (wasn't original) before the wrap around porch was put in.

The parquet flooring was removed down to the tar paper, which you can see above. Then we got to thinkin' that perhaps there was another layer beneath the plywood. Hmmmm. We suspected that the room was probably a covered porch that got closed in at some point, so we really didn't know what we'd find.

Ta da! The classic porch gray paint confirmed our suspicions of this once being an outdoor porch. The entry is off from the living room so we painted the walls the same color and also matched the casement window to the large casement windows in the living room (all new Marvin windows). So the rooms although separate, blend well with each other.

Here is hubby (the cutie pie that he is) putting in the last of the base trim. You can see that the floors have been striped and refinished to match living room floors. Also, there's a new door (Simpson) and a new window (Marvin). The window has a great view of the mountains and countryside so it's a nice preview to the larger windows in the living room.

After...

I found this old Victorian hall tree on one of my excursions into the 'big' city. I was originally looking for something a bit more informal but it was such a good price and such a fine example of great Victorian craftsmanship, that we decided to get it. It's also pretty cool that you can look into the hall tree mirror and see the view that's outside the window.

The entry is nice and sunny thanks to a large picture window.