We began our renovation career buying and selling old houses. The houses that we bought were the victims of severe “deferred maintenance,” meaning that old windows were falling apart, lineoleum squares had been glued down on heart of pine floors, bathrooms and kitchen structural joists and beams had rotted through and through. Termites had feasted on beams and crawled their way up studs, eating as they went. Doors were damaged and missing. Mantels spotted layer upon layer of paint. And in many cases, weird walls were erected to create tiny rooms for boarders
The first step is always demo: get rid of the extraneous. Tear out the weird closets and oddball walls and dropped ceilings. Uncover the damage behind the crumbling plaster and soggy floors. Once the framing was exposed, you could do the necessary surgery to knit the all-important bones of the old house. Because like people, the skeleton of the house is what everything else hangs on
After the structural is repaired, you can look at your clean slate and design, within the confines of the house, and create a functional, beautiful floor plan
Next step is running new systems in the place of old scary knob and tube cloth wiring, new plumbing, and new HVAC systems and hot water heaters. Insulate everything and replace or mend windows and doors as necessary.
And then comes the glamor. Hang sheetrock. Restore the trim and beautiful woodwork and put it back into the space. Refinish and patch hardwoods, and install some beautiful kitchens and baths. Piece of cake
We’ve renovated 30+ whole houses in the intown Atlanta area (and have done countless projects all over the City and suburbs). And having done so means that we’ve touched nearly every issue and detail in home renovation.
