The Holbrook House

The Holbrook house needed a serious project. From the day I first walked the house in 2016 almost 2 years before we took ownership I had been planning the future renovation. The first night I saw the house I sat down with a notebook and started to sketch the house’s floor plan. I had a habit of taking videos of houses I went to tour and they proved helpful. I wanted to think through where would an en suit go and how would that effect the original floor plan.

I was obsessed now with wanting more info and it would be a month or two before I could get back for a home inspection. Then from there, well over a year before I got to return – only then as an owner. It was hell and thats behind us. Careful what your heart desires because the project I was about to embark on was not not for the faint of heart. These TV shows where renovations go sideways and the new homeowner gets a little stressed as the team of 20 pros solve the issue in a month ending with a glorious walk through. Tears and smiles…. Oh they say…. its amazing… I am so happy for us and our family…. Oh and we have another baby due and the Property Brother shows the surprise bedroom all decorated… then the wife fans her face in excitement…. Fuck them

(my wife probably wrote them, this old house and others a note despite my wish to get hands on)

Sorry to be so jealous, we want that who doesn’t (to be so naively successful)? Still, its the one bad word in my blog and its well supported in fact. Fact, thats not what we went through. Fact, we did have a 2nd baby just born as we did with our 1st when we waited 2 years to move in. Oh and we did moved in… so this is not a homecoming renovation. Fact, this is not a 2mo project even if we had 20 people (I had a lot). Fact, I am not sure how these TV shows have such small all in budgets, in areas where big old houses are reasonably priced. Then these small budges somehow cover the entire house with furniture. Here in New England, that might cover painting my exterior or a modest kitchen. As my own home surgeon, cant tell what my final budget will be. There is just too much blood. I am experienced enough to know what I was getting into, I just need to put this in context.

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Let me tell a story. Homeowner John buys an old house and decides to renovate the kitchen. He calls a plumber and gets a quote. Sounds good and his GC delivers a wonderful kitchen. Ah the woes of renovation, so much fun point, pay and enjoy. Then John decides to renovate that 1933 bath and the 1953 bath above the kitchen easy call the plumber and the GC. Plumber says NP we will rip up the ceiling above the new kitchen and Sawzall through all the joists cause the old pipes are trash and you cant relocate the toilet…

No, better yet, we drop the ceiling and build soffits & chases to hide the plumbing as it traverses and descends in plain view to the basement to avoid all the new cabinet and counters, YUCK. Then, John decides to finish the attic and asks “can I add a bathroom up there.” Do you see where this is going? The now “X” pipe needs to be a “y” inch pipe and the venting needs to be increased but the bathrooms below are not allowing the adjustment. If John called one contractor for this entire project John better be filthy rich and I have been quoted 10x TV budgets. My point is you need some vision with an antique and ability to plan every detail of that end state. That and some good gloves (many actually) if you plan to afford it. If I lost you, buy a renovated ranch where all your technical bits run through the easily assessable basement cause thats not even the beginning. Don’t buy a 1885 Queen Anne with no working utilities cause you saw that Hallmark movie and she’s pretty and has old charm. Define old charm…. Can you fix shutters, wood gutters, wood window sashes, slate roof, scalloped shingles & fret work….. Yeah neither does Joe the contractor move on….

What does that mean for my family? Phases and this first phase would include 3 floors of every pipe, electrical, network, home-automation, gas, service, multiple AC runs, future electrical services, laundry relocation, well water storage/filtration, septic and steam heating adjustments to name many. I was the surgeon and would thread the needle and design so these necessities did not impact aesthetics. Be sure I was prepared all future possibilities before I closed up my 135 year old patient. Did my wife see that part of our project? NO. Neither would any average home owner. Fast forward to my plumber and I roughing in the house. We both agreed after days of ad-libbing ideas that had I missed the lesson of this story, had I just installed that kitchen then I would have been royally limited (I wont swear 2x) and screwed. Did I have bad news & stressful moments even with all this planning? Of course not it was all peaches and sweet tea…

So with the stage set we dismantle – Its demo day April 22, 2019. I will go back to the boring parts of planning in my next blog. That 1950’s kitchen I restored into operation… My buddy Dan and I grabbed some demo equipment namely a 20lb sledge hammer and wielded Thor on that kitchen! Pulled the ceiling to the floor, pulled the cabinets from the walls, ripped layers of lath and plaster, 1950’s soffits, original walnut wainscoting, counters, sink, linoleum… We gutted that kitchen.

We moved the laundry from the back door to the basement and gutted that pantry and its laundry chute (long sealed off) and shelves. Remnants of the old butlers pantry and hardware now exposed (long removed not by me – glass doors, icebox door and other moldings identified in the barn).

We sacked the powder room once part of the pantry the ceiling, walls, floor, window, until you could not walk. It was like a bomb exploded every once and awhile I would stop. Dan who’s no stranger to the gym and physical might laid waste to anything trying to hold onto a stud our a joist. The room was full of plaster and 100+ year old dust.

The smell I will never forget…. This ancient wood, plaster, lime maybe it was. You would go into that room and it was a strange sweet smell – it honestly might be one of the things I really like to remember about all that labor. I also had a cinnamon air freshener on one of my lights. No idea where that came from and it mixed well. I remember sitting in that room at night marveling at the fact this is it, its happening. I guess my wife Gorette must trust me… Am going to get through this? I must. Im in motion and no going back.

Here is a clip of a pre-demo walk through and then Dan tearing into the kitchen and the upstairs bath. I guess it looks like I was standing around. Trust me when I say we both trashed that room and shovel full after another into the dumpster (Dan if you have proof send it my way).

It was idyllic, I was in my moment in my dream victorian with no boundary this time it all had to go. I had seen so many shows and had my own projects too. But this time I was pealing back history. I was part historian as I saw where walls once stood, cast iron stoves once sat, windows long removed and gas lines for lighting long forgotten. I picked up playing cards, a mason jar, newspaper clippings, wall paper, old cigarette packages, and other valueless bits from the rubble each connecting me with the house. A contractor would care less, another house and another mess and all discarded. I tried to imagine who had these items and how they got there. Yes i kept it all.

Of course I did not take to much time because Dan was volunteering his precious time so we pushed on. BTW not many people work like that and it was good to have Dan there. That leads me to enquire about the people that built these original rooms and updates. I doubt any had freely offered up help like Dan. Here we were, it was 90+ degrees we were filthy and I cant understand why he offered but I was just grateful. Dan, thank you as I could not have done this without your help and will play it forward!

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I will never forget when he called me over to see a wine/cider bottle behind a wall. We found a note in that bottle essentially a wood stick and written on it in pencil, “This bottle was opened the 1st of Sept 1885 by Jonathan Holbrook and Fabiola & Sons Builders” (the builder name may be incorrect doing my best).

So far it has been the biggest discovery in the house and Dan had the honor of finding it!