Post-Demo Days Update (and Announcing a Demo Day for February)!

So, for two weekends in January, we had a huge crew of our friends come to Brenham and help us smash, bash, and chuck debris into a dumpster. The changes are colossal, but there’s still more to go.

First, we had to butter up the crew by showing them a good time in Brenham. Those early arrivers on the first weekend got introduced to our local Home Sweet Farm Market where we got to catch up, and those who didn’t know each other introduced themselves.

Our friend Miranda and my husband Heath in the biergarten of Home Sweet Farm Market.

Our friends Scott, Charity, and myself getting wacky at Home Sweet Farms Market in Brenham, Texas.

Many of our friends (including us), have at least one very little child, too young to help out at the Zeiss Building. So they got to have play time with each other at our temporary home.

All the “littles” stayed home out of the way, playing video games and running amuck.

Younger kiddos hanging out while the teens and adults worked.

We are so lucky to have found a place to rent that is a short walk from our renovation project. Made it very easy to run supplies, and helpers who needed a break (or injured themselves) could come back to take a break.

Miranda, the dog-whisperer, taking a break when she reactivated an old foot injury.

Here’s our entire crew from the first weekend, including my uncle, who is a licensed electrician, two of my husband’s coworkers (and one of their wives), a collection of friends old and new, and a pile of their teenage children.

First January 2016 Demo Day Crew

After work, we fed everyone, and those who were staying on to the next day showered off the dust. And then most of us moseyed back to Home Sweet Farm, which is also within an easy walking distance.

We had the sillies!

Very tired after a day of hard work.

Our crew made some awesome finds, like wall paper, and old signs.

Several different wallpaper samples that were uncovered. We’ve sent some to a framer to preserve them and hang them up in our new place somewhere. Fascinating note: They all had fabric backing.

Found between drywall and brick: House Rules for the Elks Lodge that was located on the second floor for many years.

Our crew the second weekend consisted of some of the same folks, and a few new ones. Due to a huge wine festival the first weekend, we were unable to occupy parking spots outside the building for a dumpster, so we had one for the second demolition weekend. My husband, Heath, built a great chute using leftover air-conditioning ducts. In addition to tearing down more walls, our crew filled an entire 30 yard dumpster in one weekend!

So many changes happened over those two weekends, it’s hard to document them all. The next four pictures are part of my “four corners” series.

View from the NE corner. All remaining drywall from this area is gone, and half of the shiplap and walls have been removed.

View from the NW corner. Half of the light fixtures are gone, thanks to my uncle. The walls in the center of the building (just behind the orange ladder) are nearly gone, as well as a lot of the unneeded duct work.

View from the SW corner. In the foreground is a pile of metal we’re collecting for recycling. The wall between this area and the dancefloor is gone, as is an unused AC duct and the drywall surrounding it.

View from the SE corner: Original window openings now exposed. All shiplap and drywall has been removed. Most of the debris will probably go in the dumpster, but any usable lumber will be reused.

View from the middle of the east wall. On the right are hand-made sawhorses that my husband constructed. The stack of lumber in the corner is waiting to have nails pulled from it so we can sand and reuse them. Straight ahead, this hallway is no longer a dark storage room, but flooded with light.

We have another demo weekend on Valentine’s Day! A lot of folks have off on Monday the 15th for Presidents Day, so we decided to throw together another work weekend. We’ll be working only a half day on Saturday, February the 13th, so anyone who is going out that evening will have plenty of time to clean up and relax. Sunday the 14th we’ll be up in the Zeiss Building as early as we can manage, but will put in a full day. We’ll do another half-day on Monday the 15th. Feel free to join us if you can – check your Facebook Events Page to find more details and sign up. Don’t make our kids do all the work! 😉

Our three kiddos (no, we don’t really let them work in the building).

So what’s next? After we take the last of the walls down, we’ll finish taking down the dropped ceilings and remove the ceiling tiles that are glued up in the main dancefloor area. We’ll also need to remove any remaining fans, lights, AC units, etc. And get even more debris out of our way. Hopefully, with a little help, we can knock out most of that list on our next demo weekend.

After the walls and the ceiling, comes the tricky part – removing flooring. We need to get a look at floor joists and parts of the subfloor. We’ll be soundproofing the floor, running plumbing and electric lines (as far as we know, there aren’t any right now), and anything else that needs to be done under our feet.

Removing the floors will be nearly the last step of our demolition process. The very last demolition section will be removing the wall that is on the back deck as well as the only existing (and functional) bathroom on the second level. Can I dream and say this will happen in April? Hah! Of course, before we remove the walls of the deck, we need to fix all of the flooring issues so we don’t flood our tenants on the ground floor.

Our Valentine’s Work Weekend will likely be the only official work weekend of February, however, we usually spend at least a few hours every Saturday and Sunday pounding away. Some of our local neighbors have been very diligent about helping us out at these times. So very grateful to get to borrow Tony and his teenagers!

Between our eldest’s birthday, spring break, and Easter, March is pretty much a wash as far as work goes, so look for future demo days happening in April.

After the floors are exposed, construction begins. When? I have no idea. For how long? Again, no idea, but I really dream of being settled in to our new home by Christmas 2016. A big dream. A very big dream.

Four Corners

I don’t have some fancy video software for morphing pictures, so here’s my best take on it. I’ve been taking a shot from each of the four corners of the interior of the building periodically to keep track of the progression. The three consistent dates I have so far are:

• August 2014 – we first viewed the building when it was still for sale
• November 2015 – after the asbestos and lead paint removal
• January 2016 – mid-demo, but before the big demo day

And here’s a description of the corners:

• NE: This started out as a pink bathroom. In the first photo, I’m actually standing in a bathroom stall, and you can see some of the lead-paint pink stall on the left. Not much to see from this angle right now, but after those walls come down this weekend, you’ll likely be able to see all the way to the other end of the building.
• NW: This is where I hope to have my corner office/craft room. I love that the windows look out on a pretty part of Main Street with a tree just below. This area held lots and lots of dances and balls at one time. In the second picture, the paint is stripped down to the plaster, and doors removed. And in the final one, we’ve got walls down.
• SW: I’m standing in what possibly will be the master bath eventually. This room was carpeted, and there was a closet where I stood, which is now opened up. During the asbestos removal, the plaster was taken off the brick wall, and the lower half of the wall separating this area from the dance floor was removed as well. And the carpet, too. Then Heath got all of the ceiling tiles down (though, the dropped ceiling remains, and needs to go), as well as a whole bunch of pipes and electric lines.
• SE: This was most recently a kitchen for a small apartment that was upstairs I think in the 80s. All of the lead paint was stripped, as well as the cabinets. I didn’t get a chance to take a picture of the wall post-lead paint removal, because Heath took out the whole wall. Eventually this will be part of the deck belonging to one of the two apartments that we’ll be constructing in addition to our own.

So that’s all for now. Time to go clean house before house guests arrive on Friday.

Lots of Changes!

So, to update you all on what’s been going on on the project specifically before we have our big demo weekends, let’s look at some new pictures I snapped with my cell phone yesterday while we were up in the loft meeting with a roofing contractor.

Heath has taken down nearly the whole wall between the front and back half of the building.

Parts of it were challenging, as not all of it was dry wall. Some were huge wood planks that we’ll happily reuse elsewhere in the project. Heath also has taken out most of the old air ducts, and tons of ancient electric cords (don’t worry, everything was cut when the pros came in to turn on a tiny bit of electricity for us).

We’ve also removed all of the ceiling tiles in the large room on the south-west side of the building. Next up will be to remove the drop-ceiling structure, and reuse the wood. Heath also took out the wall to the closet that I’m standing in.

And I forgot to snap a picture of it, but about 2/3rds of the drywall on the east side of the building is gone, now, too. Historical documents suggest that there used to be a door on the west side between our building and the Bassett and Bassett Bank building next door to us, but we’ve yet to find it. Maybe it will be found this weekend during demolition?

Still to be done? Tons! We have to remove all of the ceiling tiles in the huge “dancefloor” area on the north east side, carefully remove shiplap and tongue and groove panels from the north west section, remove the dropped ceilings on the south half of the building, carefully remove 2 air units hanging from the ceiling, and remove a few more walls. Hoping we can tackle all of these tasks this weekend.

The following weekend we’ll have a dumpster ordered up. We’ll finish work not done one the previous weekend. And then we’ll need to empty the loft of all of the unusable bits, and there are a lot.

The (nearly) final item on the demo list will be taking up the floors. Huge project, as we want to save as much of that gorgeous hardwood flooring as possible. Last demo item I believe is removing the current rear wall, windows, and bathroom where the deck will be, but we have to repair and seal up the floor first, and construct the new rear wall further in.

Really old bird’s nests in the walls (nope, not insulation – lots of feathers and related debris). This is a rear wall that will be removed once we finish out the deck.

I might have forgotten something on the demo list, but there you go.

After demo, we’ll likely start from the ground up, starting with installing a soundproof sub-floor, plumbing, and electric. Then walls, ceiling and insulation. Easy-peasy, right? 😉

Again, anyone who wants to come help, we welcome an extra set of hands. Just bring your own gloves!

Big Update

An update is long overdue here on our Zeiss Lofts blog. There’s so much news to report.

First of all, lead paint and asbestos removal is complete. Yay! The changes made inside the loft are astounding. Check it out:

With the removal of the window trim, our window situation has become a bit more urgent. This week we’re meeting with window contractors to get quotes for replacement. None of the windows can stay – they’re all a mess – but we’ll be giving them to a reconstruction company who can reuse them, rather than throwing them in a dumpster. Win!

Another important bit of news: we have received our first two building permits (you need a permit for every little thing, apparently). The first is for construction of a wall in the lower level storage area, at the back of the home health care office. We needed a secure place to store the doors and some of our tools, and eventually strollers, bikes, etc. The second permit is for DEMOLITION! Woot!

Which brings me to the last topic – labor. We will accept any and all assistance for labor, whether it be in the loft, or watching our kiddos while the both of us work. We’ll pay in room and board and beer or wine. Nearly every weekend for the foreseeable future we will be spending  time up in the loft working. That’s where you, our friends and family, come in. If you offered to help, please get in touch with us to put you on the calendar.

Here’s some of the pictures from demolition today:

This pile doubled by the end of the day.

Found a pretty copper pipe.

There’s a lack of connection between these two walls.

Nails found behind a wall, left from a previous project and walled up.

Fall Plans

So, I was so tired last night after all of the work we did over the weekend that I forgot to post what’s happening next at Zeiss Lofts.

Trim that will have to be removed (and then replaced) to make way for electric and plumbing lines.

This week we’ll have asbestos removal. I drove by the building this morning, and the crew was already there and working. There’s very little asbestos to remove, luckily. Next week they’ll be removing all of the lead paint.

After that, demolition officially begins! Hopefully we’ll soon have our final plans in hand from the architect. Walls will be exposed to the studs, trim removed where we need to run electrical lines, rip out all of the nasty old carpet, the ceiling will be exposed, and the floor needs to be carefully taken up so we can run plumbing and electrical lines.

To save money, we’ll be doing all of the demolition ourselves. And hopefully those of you who have offered to help can come do so. I’ll be posting work weekends as soon as we finalize a few more details. Demolition will likely continue thru January at least.

Stay tuned! Next post in about two weeks, hopefully with pictures post lead-paint removal!

Doors Doors Doors

We’ve spent the last two weekends working on removing doors and other items from the second story in preparation for the lead paint and asbestos removal that starts tomorrow morning. So many new items found, and original designs revealed!

More pretty shiplap!

Transom window painted mint green

So many doors! We’ll get to reuse many of them in the new construction. Most we’ll strip the paint down to the original varnish.

Heath found an original window casing that opens up into a rear room. The room used to be a deck, and it might be once again, by the time we’re finished.

A second window casing found. You can see the original exterior wall.

Picture for prosperity – the bottom trim work of a door frame. Unfortunately there’s too much paint on it to preserve, so we’ll attempt to recreate it.

More trim, a little more simple, but again, we’ll have to recreate instead of restore.

On a previous renovation, someone turned a piece of trim work upside down and used it as a support for a light switch panel. Uncovered it when we tore into the wall.

Heath kicking in some sheet rock.

More pretty wood that is hiding under carpet. Unfortunately a little dry-rot, too.

Close up of the dry-rot.

More wood floors, more dry-rot.

Anyone missing their Shape Master 1000?

And last but not least, about 30 doors safely out of the way and in storage. Man! They were heavy!

First Help Request – Doors

We’ve got our architect. We’ve got our lead paint and asbestos removal company. We’ve got our abatement monitoring company (yes, required). Now, it’s time to remove the items we really want to keep before everything gets scoured clean.

We have a bunch of odds and ends, mostly doors and doorknobs that we’ll have hand-restored.  Especially the really cool “Dutch Door” or split door that is located in a dilapidated kitchen. Hopefully it will have new life as a pantry door in the loft.

As of this post, we don’t have an exact date yet of when the abatement will take place, but since they are required to give the state of Texas a 10 day notice, we have at least that long. So, over the next two weeks or so, we’ll be removing doors from hinges and closets and moving them downstairs into a storage area. If anyone is free in the evening or for a few hours on the weekend to help us knock out this task, we’d really appreciate it. Just let us know.

Progress!

Finally opened up doorway from front to back area on west side of building.

We’ve been super busy having two of our three children in school and in extra-curricular activities. But that doesn’t mean that our renovation project has come to a standstill. We’ve made some progress and have started some forward momentum.

Our two youngest play with a bag of toys we discovered in a sealed cabinet.

First, we’ve picked our architect: Upchurch Architects, Inc.  We really like their style, and their passion for restoring the past and bringing new life into Brenham. We’ve already had a few meetings with them, and plans are slowly starting to take shape. The planning is very complicated for many reasons. The challenges include working in a perfectly square space, floors at different levels, a few permanent walls that can’t be moved or removed, giving access to both stairwells, and having an entire side of the building without windows (the wall that connects to the building next door).  We think that Mr. Upchurch and his team are up to the challenge, however, as evidenced by his past work.

We’re also in the process of setting up the lead paint and asbestos removal. We’ve had three companies evaluate our project. All have said that pretty much all of the walls, and sadly all of the trim has to go due to lead paint. Unfortunately the cost to remove the paint from all of the trim would be astronomical. Luckily, most of the trim we should be able to recreate. There are a few doors and doorknobs we’ll have to remove ourselves and have a wood specialist take care of, such as the adorable Dutch (split) door in the kitchen. The asbestos spots are very small, and they appear to be the easy part of the job.

Once the lead paint and asbestos has been removed, we’ll be setting up work weekends, where we’ll ask friends and family to come down and help with deconstruction and even some of the renovations. We’re hoping to get all of the deconstruction and window replacement done during the winter months, because it gets so super hot up there right now. If you are interested in helping, just drop me a line.

We have discovered more areas where there are original wood floors. Yay!

And the best find yet was when my husband uncovered a plain dry-wall column to discover this bead-board treasure underneath!

 

 

 

 

 

Unfortunately, someone destroyed the lower half of it, and damaged it significantly when they added electrical. We hope we can remove the plug and wiring and restore the column as it was originally.

 

We’ve also run into a problem. We were hoping to leave all of the brick exposed as we uncovered it, rather than putting it back behind drywall. Unfortunately, when we started tearing off some of the walls, we noticed that the brick is very dry and crumbly. If you just gently run your fingers across it, dust will come off on your hand. We’ll have to seal the brick with a special process, and may have to consider covering up some of it with dry wall.

And lastly we popped open a cabinet above a closet that had previously been sealed shut with paint. Inside we found all sorts of odds and ends, including a really nice volleyball net, an angel food cake pan, a grocery bag full of parts for a children’s train set (practically new!), a box with someone’s baseball cap collection (nothing seemed notable, other than the smell – hoping nothing is dead at the bottom), three brand-new professional sling-shots, a nearly flat bean-bag, and a bag of just an odd assortment of junk. Surprisingly, nothing was dusty, moldy, or eaten by bugs or mice – it seems the cabinet truly got sealed up with paint, probably since the 1980’s.

That’s all for now. Hopefully our next update will have pictures of the project after the lead paint and asbestos removal.

In the news! (Sort of)

My parents, who live in the Dallas area, were watching the news this evening, and lo and behold, our building popped up in the background of an article about Blue Bell Ice Cream! The article discusses the economic downturn of Brenham since the factory closures and layoffs. If you watch the video below, right at the 0:55 mark you’ll see the nicely renovated grey three-story building, and a larger two-story green-ish building next to it. The two story is our building.

http://www.nbcdfw.com/news/business/Alabama-Health-Officials-OK-Production-Sale-of-Blue-Bell-Ice-Cream-320772211.html

Thanks to my mom and dad for spotting our building’s 10 seconds of fame!

On the move!

Yes, we’re on the move, and we don’t mean moving from one place to another. We met with our two architects this week! Each one had a different style and approach to design after touring our loft. Now we wait to see what they can do with our ideas. Once we receive initial quotes and plans, we’ll have the tough job of deciding which architect to go with.

In the meantime, in an effort to help the kids make friends, we’ve signed them up for a whole bunch of classes that they started this week. And Heath and I went out on a date to a local market/biergarten to hear some live music. We even got to pick up some farm fresh goodies to take home with us at the end of the night! I’ve taken a break from doing historic research to research items for our loft. Today it was rooftop access doors and skylights. Just one of many things to think about and plan for our renovations.

Our temporary home in our townhouse is shaping up nicely. Still a handful of boxes to unpack, but we have our first visitors from our old hometown of Conroe arriving on Friday, so hopefully we’ll be in pretty good shape by then.

Overall, we’re doing great here in Brenham!