I like houses. But then I like lots of things: cars, boats, airplanes… But houses do have a special hold on me, perhaps because I was homeless for a while, or because I have a knack for fixing anything and figured out you can rent old houses out, unlike old cars (actually, I tried that once too). I could do a whole series of posts about all of the old houses I’ve been intensely involved with; perhaps that’s what CC should really be about. I’ll do a piece sometime showing how we moved four houses in a convoy down the streets of Eugene one fine Sunday morning. How’s that for combining my two main interests? But right now I’m in the grips of another house project or two, or three; actually about five, at least. Anyway, here’s why I’m not writing about cars quite so much right now:
Some of you might remember this picture. Exactly a year ago, it ran with my second-to-last Farewell from TTAC piece. My younger son Will and I were going to renovate this old barn of a house that’s been sitting empty (for good reasons) for almost ten years now. Well, that was a harebrained idea, on several levels. The biggest one is that kids need to find their own passions in life. And working on old houses is NOT Will’s. We found that out after about two days. Actually, I knew that already, but it seems I usually have to learn my lessons the hard way.
The other problem with that idea is the fact that this house was really beyond practical redemption. Yes, one can fix anything, but this 110 year old house was sitting on a crumbling foundation, all the joists and rafters are grossly over-spanned (yes, they don’t build old houses like they used to, fortunately; that’s why they created building codes). The floors are like a trampoline, the ceilings and the roof are heavily sagging.
And did I mention it’s been leaking for almost a decade too? The whole west side of the house has been rotting away for some time. And the interior was stripped ages ago, there’s no heat whatsoever, and what’s left of the plumbing and electrical systems are not functional. Am I making the case too strongly? Probably because some part of me is having a hard time letting go of it. Knowing that anything can be fixed sometimes gets in the way of knowing what should be fixed; or not.
Anyway, this house straddles parts of two legal lots, so that was another nail in its coffin. And it sits on the corner of a two acre meadow right here in town that can never be built upon ever (now that’s another story!), so the vistas from both lots are superb. Someday, two new efficient houses will sit here and have this view…
I faced the music this winter when the last tarps blew off the roof, and the inside began smelling like a mushroom farm. I harbored this idea of salvaging as much of the wood as possible, but until I found my awesome helper, I had given up on it, and had already called some demolition contractors.
But then Mauricio appeared, and was very eager to take the whole thing down with a bar and sledge hammer, so that’s what he’s been doing the past couple of weeks. Since the house never had plaster walls (just wood, with paper or fabric on them), taking it apart is not quite so daunting. This way, all the wood will either be re-used, or recycled. That applies to the insulation, aluminum windows, wiring, etc. The total amount going into the dump will be minute.
Much of the cedar siding that was put on thirty years ago has been stripped and awaiting re-use on sheds and for siding on the new house. The fir flooring is being taken up, much of it in beautiful 18′ lengths of clear vertical-grain old-growth wood. And the ship-lap boards that made up the interior walls is also going to be re-used. And we’ll see about what else can be saved as we go along.
The challenge is to store it all. I’ve improvised this little storage shed against my back fence, which thankfully is made with big 6×6 posts. But what you see there is just the beginning; I need a warehouse! Actually, just a nice outbuilding made from the recycled framing lumber! Add one more project to the to-do list.
The big one on the list is to build a new little house right here, on the front of this lot right behind my house (out of view on right, behind the big maple). The little cottage in the way back on the alley is one of mine that I moved there, as well as the “garage” with the red door. Actually, Edward and I turned that garage into a little cottage for him when he was going to the University. It will be the third bedroom-bath to the new house that will attach to the front of it (you might be able to see the red-tipped markers).
I’ve actually never designed and built a new house from scratch, and I’m tired of dealing with old moved houses. I did design and build this new studio/loft addition onto the back of one of my rentals by myself two years ago, but it’s only some 400 sq. ft. Given how cheap the the materials ended up costing, I decided I had enough of moved houses.
It gives an idea of what I’m after. I really enjoyed not working with dirty old materials, and dealing with lead paint, etc. Old houses definitely have their pros and cons.
I’m designing this new house one to be as expedient to build as possible, and make a suitable rental, at least for now (our rental market is healthy indeed, thanks to the ever-growing University). About 950 sq. ft., one-story, one bath, two bedrooms. Plus the “garage” unit attached to it. Very sparse, unfussy and basic, in a modern loft-ish way. And hopefully inexpensive to build. Wood is dirt cheap right now. I’ll do my own electrical and plumbing too. If Mauricio is still around, we’ll frame it together. Foundation: maybe do it ourselves; maybe not.
And we also need to finish renovating the little cottage in the back of that lot while I wait for my permits, and I need to build a guest apartment out of the gutted attic over our garage. And…
Let’s just say the old Ford and I are going to have a busy season, depending how our decrepit bodies hold out. And when the rain re-appears and the days get short, about the end of October or so, I’ll be ready to crank up the car-writing again. In the meantime, thanks to our growing cadre of contributors, Curbside Classics with wheels will hopefully keep rolling through these pages.
Since you grew up in Europe , I’m surprised how easily you’ve taken to the idea of timber houses. I grew up in a brick house, I now live in a stone house – it was built as a school in 1885 – and most builders here use concrete blocks. I still find American “shingle” roofs hard to fathom.
Funny that you mention that, since my own house is actually brick, but that is very unusual around here.
The arguments of wood vs. concrete/block are endless. The durability of block/stone/concrete is obvious. But America has endless cheap lumber, no more so than here in Oregon. Lane county is the number one wood-producing county in the whole country.
So from a cost point of view it’s a no-brainer. There are other reasons: wood is of course a renewable resource, and much more energy efficient than concrete products, which have a lot of embedded energy. Also, wood houses are intrinsically easier to insulate. And this is earthquake country, and wood houses naturally do much better in quakes.
I’m drawn to non-wood houses for their durability, but I’ve come to accept that a well built wood house can last as long as anyone would ever want it too. There are wood houses hundreds of years old Europe, Japan and some now in the US.
Out here in the West, houses were often built quickly, cheaply and lightly, and I suspect their builders never had it in mind for them last forever. I suppose the idea of a “disposable” house is unpalatable to some, but after a hundred years or so, is that really a big deal? It’s just a pile of wood, that can be recycled, unlike concrete.
This house is utterly obsolete. The actual value of a basic house frame is only some 15-10% of the total finished house value. Builders can put up a basic wood house shell in a couple of days. If everything else is obsolete, and the house is sitting in the wrong spot, and energy inefficient, why bother?
By roof “shingles”, I assume you mean the fiberglass/asphalt roofing material so commonly used here? Again, it’s cheap, and that’s what drives the market. And they last some 30-40 years, which is longer than most Americans ever stay in one house.
There are some builders here that have put up some European-style houses with impeccable build quality, metal roofs, etc, but some of them are still sitting empty. Folks just won’t pay the substantial extra cost.
I’m beyond trying to put a value judgment on the two approaches. They both have their place, their pros and cons, and are rooted in the cultural traditions of their respective places.
Speaking of disposable houses I too own a number of rental properties. Most of them are duplexs built by the Army core of engineers for Boeing employees in the 40’s. They were intended to be temporary housing and many were eventually demolished, many were moved (a friend’s dad bought 2 for $1 each one is used as a storage building the other a chicken coup) but many like mine still remain as they quickly approach their 70th birthday. I went through most of mine upgrading the plumbing and electrical so they would make it till they were paid off and/or the value of the land far exceeded that of the building. Unfortunately the city where they are located spent years deciding how to rezone the area and didn’t make the land really “valuable” until the market for new houses was saturated and collapsed. So I get to wait it out for a few more years. I also have a house that started out as a fruit stand before being moved to it’s current location over 100 years ago and it’s still going strong. The land in that case is also where the ultimate value lies being zoned commercial.
Paul: I heard the story but the images you posted really drove your project situation home. Man, you are driven!! Three major projects in one season. But with your loyal assistant, I am sure you will succeed.
Down here in Florida most of the homes are concrete block/stucco for mainly moisture reasons but the few that are all wood tend to survive the hurricanes more successfully due to their ability to bend with the breeze. And, unfortunately, we have builders who are building for today and not for the future but that seems to have become the American way.
Whoa….back to Curbside Classics. We got your back. Go have fun and build somethings unique and enjoyable. We all have some great Curbside Classics to share.
All the best.
John
Paul, you’ve touched on my other great passion. I’ve been utterly fascinated by architecture and construction for as long as I can remember. When I was a kid, I wanted to be an architect (instead I’m now a 25-year-old hack electrical engineer) and someday I’ll fix up an old craftsman to make up for the years I spent growing up in my parents’ various shoddily-built, cookie-cutter houses.
I, for one, would be more than enthusiastic to read more posts about your “real” job. Moreover, those of us here in flyover country could learn a thing or two from the, uh, different way they do things up in your neck of the woods. Frankly, modern American homes are absolutely deplorable from a space and energy efficiency standpoint. For all the lip service we give to conservation, it amazes me that that almost never applies to our homes – our most important possession, and the one with the biggest impact on the environment. I’m no environmentalist, but the engineer in me has a thing for efficiency, innovation and quality – things that just don’t exist in your average spec-built house anymore. Hell, in my area every last bit (save the copper) of your subject house would go straight to the landfill, no questions asked. That’s just not right on a lot of levels.
Best of luck in your endeavors this summer and keep us posted.
That old truck is a great one. I sure wish I could find a long bed step side in a similar year. The high walls and 9 foot strait bed of the step-side makes it ideal for hauling aggregates, grain, and/or dirt, trash, etc. But it seems step-sides are a rare thing.
I just found one the other day, a very nice f-250 long-bed stepside. I’ll do CC on it one of these days.
“hair-brained idea”
Should be “harebrained idea” a hare is a Lagomorph, like a rabbit.
I thought it had to do with hair in the brain! Which is why I recently stopped buzzing my head and letting my hair grow out, so as not to impede my brain functioning. It actually seems to have helped a bit, oddly enough.
I live in New Orleans. After Hurricane Katrina, many buildings that were already in pretty poor shape and were finished off by the flooding had to be pulled down. Several volunteer and for-profit groups had a steady business in pulling down old buildings plank by plank and salvaging building materials and fixtures for reuse; stuff that you just can’t get anymore. Efforts like this are really admirable; kudos to you.
It is just crazy how much good material is discarded in this country. I had a 20′ x 20′ workshop built in my backyard last year, and I was able to build all the workbenches, tables, pegboard walls and storage shelves out of discarded lumber from work or just sitting on the curb in my neighborhood.
That little 400sqft loft is exactly what I’ve been looking for for me and my 2 dogs(and 3 cars, sometimes more,sometimes less…). I’m just in the planning stages but I’ve found a lot of great premade plans out there.
I’m tired of old houses not just from living in them but also from 20+ years of working on them professionally.. It burns you out after a while!
(ETA. Nice to see you’re recycling the materials. It’s hard work for sure but it pays big in the end!)
In thinking about how to compare how houses are built with how cars have changed over the years, while walking the dog after dinner last evening, it came to me: Wafer board. Really bad stuff. As this pertains to house construction, nothing, in my opinion, after particle board infiltrating everything related to cabinetry and furniture, has there been a worse material in the last 40 years.- Wafer board – wood chips/chunks glued together – used as structural materials parallels how the auto industry has cheapened-out many elements of the cars we drive over a similar period of time. Probably all because of bean counters.
Do you mean OSB (oriented strand board)? I had a workshop built in my backyard last year, and the builder used OSB for the sheathing behind the vinyl siding and as decking under the roof. I’m not thrilled by it, but being it’s not inhabited space, it doesn’t bother me that much. Otherwise the materials and workmanship are first class.
However, one thing that I have seen that amazes me is the use of OSB in floor and ceiling joists, where the joist’s cross-section looks like an I-beam with the horizontal pieces made of wood and the vertical part made of OSB. Mike Holmes says they’re OK, but this is one case where I don’t agree. After all, if they do go bad, how in the world are you going to replace them?
Yes, that’s exactly what I was referring to. It’s a substitute for standard plywood. The OSB I-beam thing really scares me. My home was built in 1981, so none of that stuff – all real beams and plywood. There’s no way I would ever have a house built with any of this “newer” stuff.
I left an important point out about this. OSB, particle board, all that stuff, admittedly may be pretty efficient as nothing is wasted, so that’s good. It’s the formaldehyde that bothers me. Whether the vapors vinyl gives off in car interiors (“new car smell”) is any better, I don’t know. To use OSB material as structural members? I am not at all comfortable with that.
A question for you, Paul: Which is better: timber framing or stick-built for houses? Kind of like asking: body-on-frame or unibody!