The Mission
For those of us who grew up during the 1970s, wood paneling, drop ceilings, and shag rugs were all the rage. Since neither I nor my wife approved of its styling, it meant that the off-white and gold striped wood paneling, blue green shag rug, and browning drop ceilings had to go as part of our requirements prior to move in. The list of priorities for our mission were as follows:

• Removal of the drop ceilings to raise the height of the rooms and repair of any damage to the original ceilings.
• Power upgrade
• Removal of the wood paneling
• Removal of wallpaper in the second bedroom
• Removal of the carpet to reveal the original hardwood floors
• Repair the damage to the floors in the bathroom (floor tiles were applied directly to wood and were coming up) amd kitchen
• Removal of the broken or badly damaged windows (seven out of twelve)
• Overcome surprises and unexpected problems

Implementation of these priorities would prove... interesting, but our moto throughout was to do it right. There were also some surprises.

The Drop Ceilings
The drop ceilings came down first. The two room affected were the art and living rooms (traditionally known to most people as the living and dining rooms). The 2 bedrooms were at their full height of 8' 7" already and we decided to keep the drop ceiling in the kitchen. With the thankful assistance of our friends were able to take the drop ceilings down in about 3 hours. This included removing all the wires and scaffolding.

What we found beneath was a ceiling that was in fairly decent shape. We were warned about the possibility of mold or fungus growth because of the enclose space, but were fortunate enough not to have either. What we did have were holes drilled the ceiling and six to twelve inch diameter holes haphardly punched in the walls above the drop ceilings to run electrical wire to power the ceiling fans. As it turns out, it is fully acceptible if you have a drop ceiling to just run the wire above the ceiling tiles. To fix this situation we had to hire electricians to rewire all of the lights in the living and dining room and add switches and lights to the bedrooms.

The Power Upgrade
As a computer household, our electrical usage was going to be considerably higher than the average American household in the 1960s-70s. 75amps was the original power feed for the whole house and we quickly realized it was definitely not sufficient to run the numbers of computers and peripherals we had in addition to modern air conditioners, refrigerators, and microwaves. We opted for a complete power upgrade to 200 amps per floor into the house, and 100 amps for the public. The cost for doing so ran about $10,000 in total so this could be an additional cost to keep in mind if the house you purchase doesn't have the proper electrical infrastructure. Additionally, houses of this vintage, including this one, tend to have a cornocopia of wiring through the years, including knob and tube so definitely make sure your electrician knows about it and knows how to treat it.

The Wood Paneling
When we pulled the first section of wood paneling down, we realized that in the history of the house, someone had cut away all of the original baseboards with a saw. Since the walls didn't meet the floors when the house was constructed, the missing baseboards left a 6 inch gap in the walls all the way around the rooms. This situation left us 2 options. First, we could pay to have what was left of the original baseboards ripped out and then replacement baseboards put in for ALL the affected rooms. Or we could put the wood panels back up and not deal with that problem altogether. Since we had a little more than a month until our leases were up in our respective rented units, we decided to keep the wood panels up to use as infrastructure.

The advantage of keeping the old panels up were that they provided additional insulation in winter, completely encapsulated any possible lead paint on the old walls beneath, and provided structural integrity to the wall that would not ordinarily be present for hanging pictures and wall decorations.

To the task of hiding the ugly wood paneling, we decided to use heavy textured wallpaper, a recommendation by a friend of ours. As we applied the wallpaper, we found that the grooves of the panels were completely hidden beneath the wallpaper. Our plan then was to rag paint the wallpaper in the room that was to become our artroom.

The next challenge that came about was the fact that the wood panels were not cut evenly at the tops. The solution we found was to install crown moldings all the way around in the six inch high area where the panels were uneven.

The first bedroom provided an interesting challenge since it too was lined with wood paneling but unlike the main rooms was full height since it did not have a drop ceiling. For this room we decided to paint over the panels to retain the texture of the grooves. It took 2 coats of Kilz white primer to remove all sign of the color of the paneling. We then sponge-painted the panels to give it warmth and visual texture. For those who have to paint with Kilz, I found the use of surplus Israeli gas masks left over from the Gulf War effective. They're typically not expensive (about $20) and the filters work well keeping the effects of the fumes out. Keep in mind that everyone working with oil based paints should only do so in well ventilated areas.

The Wallpaper in the Second Bedroom
Interestingly enough, the second bedroom was humid enough that the wallpaper could be peeled off the walls without a steamer. I had the wallpaper removed in about 3 hours. Like the first bedroom, the hardwood floors were revealed so beyond picking up debris, the floor itself was ready to be refinished.

This bedroom however was unusual in that it had no window but a slot cut out in the wall by the previous owners for an air conditioner and a single door to the enclosed porch. However unlike the first bedroom's wallboard ceiling, it had an original plaster ceiling.

The Hardwood Floors
Pulling up the old shag carpet in the living and dining room area was simple compared to pulling out the several hundred staples applied in the hardwood floor to keep the carpet down. Pliers, or a leatherman in a crunch, are the best tools for the staple pulling. It is absolutely necessary to pull all the staples out or the floor sander will be destroyed. Disposal of the extremely heavy quantity of carpet is pretty much possible only in a dumpster, so make sure you rent one as construction and demolition starts. We managed to fill an entire 30 foot dumpster with debris once all was said and done, so plan your disposal accordingly.

The hardwood floors were in amazingly good condition despite the passage of time. Much of it had been protected by the undercarpet layer which had disintegrated into a fine powder and caked itself to the wood floor. With a pair of heavy duty garden gloves on I was able to scrape it off (just using the gloves) and reveal the encased wood. As mentioned before, make sure you've removed ALL the staples before you do this or you might hurt yourself. Fortunately neither bedroom was carpeted so once the carpets were removed they were all ready to be refinished. In our particular case, we did the ceilings and walls first so we could use the carpet as a drop cloth that we could just roll up and dispose of when everything else was done.

On the right, you can see the refinished hardwood floor of the room that will become the artroom.

The Bathroom and Kitchen Floors
The bathroom floor tiles were applied directly on top of wood. These tiles were the small square and rectangular tiles common to earlier bathrooms. The effect not having a waterproof layer between the tiles and wood had was dramatic. We watched as the floor literally came up in handfuls in our contractor's hand like soft brittle kindling. The wood had rotted all the way from the door across to the tub and necessitated an entirely new bathroom floor to be installed. So to those novices out there, remember that grout is not waterproof! Therefore, don't even think about applying tile directly to wood.

The kitchen floor had suffered heavily over the passage of time and was worn out and coming up in several locations. Fortunately in the case of the kitchen, no excessive heroics were required to make it functional again. However it did require a new waterproof floor base on top of the layer of old tile before the new tile could be laid. I didn't know that often layers of tile were kept and new layers applied on top, but I was told that 4 was the magic number. The moment a floor had 4 layers, all of them would have to be removed before it could be retiled.

The Windows
Because some of the windows were nothing particularly interesting and were broken or cracked on rotting frames, we chose to have them replaced. The one thing everyone should know when dealing with a house of this vintage is that windows are all custom sized. No really. Windows that look the same and that you think should be sized the same as another aren't. They are all slightly different sizes. We replaced the broken or dying windows with the top of the line double-paned Harvey windows. At $300/window they're not cheap, but they'll last you in the long run and you'll never need another window again.

Unexpected Surprises
There were a number of unexpected surprises that we found once reconstruction began that the home inspector could not have caught. First was the extensive wood rot damage to the bathroom floor. Fortunately that was caught and the floor replaced before any unexpected accidents could happen.

Second was the corroded drain pipe for the third and second floors. First hints that there was a leak were found in the first floor bathroom ceiling which was being redone. The plaster was constantly wet and our contractor was suspecting there was a water leak of somekind above that ceiling. What he found was a pipe that was corroded all the way through. Fortunately it was caught early enough before any major water damage could occur. As an illustration of strange things you can find down pipes, while he was investigating the third floor drain he broke his snake and found seven adult sized toothbrushes stuffed down the drain.

The third item was actually something our home inspector Ray Jackson had pointed out. This had to deal with the brown water coming out of the hot water tap on the second floor. He called it 'tea' and told us it was a sign that the hot water heater was on its way out and needed to be replaced soon. The previous owners claimed that it was just dirt from the street cleaners, which wasn't at all unreasonable a claim since often the streetcleaners used the hydrant taps and didn't know how to fill their reservoirs properly. As a consequence, if they opened the hydrants all the way, they would create a suction vortex in their water tanks and get dirt and debris that they had just swept off the street into the cold water taps and hence hot water heaters of residents.

As it turned out however, this wasn't the situation since the problem wouldn't go away. We had flushed the hot water heater completely 3 times so that it was clear afterwards and the water continued to suddenly again become a reddish-brown that stained the tub. Well, eight months after we had closed on the house, the hot water heater quietly exploded. The plumber took a look at the hot water heater and told us that judging by the soaking in the insulation and rusty water it was now producing when he drained it, it had been on its way out for some time. So the moral of the story is, if your home inspector says you have 'tea', the hot water heater is at least eight years old and the hot water heater doesn't clear out after repeated flushings, it's probably a really good idea to replace it or insist that it be replaced as one of the conditions of the purchase and sale.