@pattimagee posted this to twitter, so I can only imagine it's okay to link to from here:
He's rehabilitating the Onion House in TGS.
He's rehabilitating the Onion House in TGS.
- 2,075
hehe - that's me. 
We're doing some more chronicling over at the IG too if anyone is interested.
https://www.instagram.com/theonionhouse/
We're doing some more chronicling over at the IG too if anyone is interested. https://www.instagram.com/theonionhouse/
- 6,157
^Sweet! Good luck! I'm not aware of too many Victorian frame jobbers quite like that around town. That should be quite the looker when its all done. Neat!
Incidentally, I feel your pain on the floor stripping. I stripped my staircase. I have . . . oh . . . four more rooms to go. (The second floor, plus eventually the kitchen.) The horror shows of layer upon layer of bad flooring choices is . . . exquisite.
Incidentally, I feel your pain on the floor stripping. I stripped my staircase. I have . . . oh . . . four more rooms to go. (The second floor, plus eventually the kitchen.) The horror shows of layer upon layer of bad flooring choices is . . . exquisite.
- 2,075
Haha - it really is harder than I would have imagined. Because of the combination of layers, it makes using any chemical a complete waste of time. I've had my best luck just scraping dry and then covering up my mistakes with a sander.
- 6,157
^That's kind of what I did too. I just really don't look forward to doing that across my whole second floor. What with me actually being in the house already and all that. 
(I suppose I could just close off the second floor for a while. Move everything downtstairs and into the basement. Might be the only way to do it, really. Could maybe do it one room at a time.)
(I suppose I could just close off the second floor for a while. Move everything downtstairs and into the basement. Might be the only way to do it, really. Could maybe do it one room at a time.)- 2,075
Haha - luckily when I bought the house it was already split into three, so I already had things sectioned off. Unfortunately for me, the work (demo) got way ahead of me, so it didn't really matter, lol. Shouldn't have only asked tenants to move one at a time, hah.
- 1,864
Please tell me this house is haunted. It really should be based on its appearance alone.
- 2,075
I haven't experienced anything yet... but they did use the outside it for some local independent film a few years ago?
- 1,864
There's always time - just let me know if/when anything occurs and I'll be right over!
@pattimagee How is this project going? How did you all finance this, if I may ask? I looked into financing vehicles for my own home and the one I'm going with is on an 11-month limit so I will need the pros in to do almost everything so it's done on time.
Were there any concerns re: insurance and liability while your home was also a job site?
Do you have anything that you already feel like you would have done differently, either process or design wise?
Were there any concerns re: insurance and liability while your home was also a job site?
Do you have anything that you already feel like you would have done differently, either process or design wise?
- 2,075
Sure.
We did a 12-month interest only construction loan with a 2nd close at the end of construction. In hindsight, it didn't have a hard 12 month block on it... it took us 14-15 months total from permit to occupancy. We lucked out with our project ending at the lower end of the rate dip.
A lot of the difficulty "we" had was getting the appraisal to make everything work. There's always a weird cart/horse issue where you don't know how much you "can" spend, because you don't know what your appraisal is going to be - also values were all over the place when we started this process. We even had 1 appraiser walk out on us because it was too hard to do, which was a blessing because our 2nd appraiser did what we hoped and took comps from Compton Heights instead of TGS.
As far as insurance goes, our contractor gave me a copy of their "construction" insurance and I just reviewed it with our insurance agent and kept very minimal insurance outside of that. I did get burned when our closing date got pushed out after occupancy and someone stole our A/C units - oddly horrible timing.
We did a 12-month interest only construction loan with a 2nd close at the end of construction. In hindsight, it didn't have a hard 12 month block on it... it took us 14-15 months total from permit to occupancy. We lucked out with our project ending at the lower end of the rate dip.
A lot of the difficulty "we" had was getting the appraisal to make everything work. There's always a weird cart/horse issue where you don't know how much you "can" spend, because you don't know what your appraisal is going to be - also values were all over the place when we started this process. We even had 1 appraiser walk out on us because it was too hard to do, which was a blessing because our 2nd appraiser did what we hoped and took comps from Compton Heights instead of TGS.
As far as insurance goes, our contractor gave me a copy of their "construction" insurance and I just reviewed it with our insurance agent and kept very minimal insurance outside of that. I did get burned when our closing date got pushed out after occupancy and someone stole our A/C units - oddly horrible timing.
- 991
Stolen AC units from construction sites has to be a common thing - I believe a few under construction home were recently hit in Botanical Heights.
Sorry to hear you had to deal with that!!
Sorry to hear you had to deal with that!!
- 2,075
As far as process/design goes...
The lender we worked with let us do all of the demo, painting, staining for the project, which save us almost 1/4 of the project's cost. We were lucky to find a lender/title agency that allowed us to do that.
As far as design goes... we were kind of held to historic and we weren't really changing too much. We were able to have some pretty constructive conversations with them about what would be required of us - they were more flexible than we were told they would be. We had a few hidden chimneys in the house that we were able to remove since they weren't "stable" after removing the plaster from them. It also assisted in leveling the floors "almost" to normal.
My wife is in the architecture industry, so she did most of the drawings/design work. I wish we had more money to do all of the siding at the same time but its quite costly doing real wood.
This is probably a good moment to ask if anyone has any resources/thoughts on victorian paint themes - we're going to be trying a few out in the next month or two and its a bit of a daunting task...
The lender we worked with let us do all of the demo, painting, staining for the project, which save us almost 1/4 of the project's cost. We were lucky to find a lender/title agency that allowed us to do that.
As far as design goes... we were kind of held to historic and we weren't really changing too much. We were able to have some pretty constructive conversations with them about what would be required of us - they were more flexible than we were told they would be. We had a few hidden chimneys in the house that we were able to remove since they weren't "stable" after removing the plaster from them. It also assisted in leveling the floors "almost" to normal.
My wife is in the architecture industry, so she did most of the drawings/design work. I wish we had more money to do all of the siding at the same time but its quite costly doing real wood.
This is probably a good moment to ask if anyone has any resources/thoughts on victorian paint themes - we're going to be trying a few out in the next month or two and its a bit of a daunting task...
We were very lucky that our HVAC guy was so nice - he sold us new ones at cost and installed them for free.
- 3,762
^ i've mentioned this before, but our caged A/C condensers were hit twice in a row over in Dutchtown. we're pretty sure it was a kid from two doors down, welcoming us to the 'hood. anyway, you better lock them up good or put them up high if you can.
- 991
Serious question - what's the black market for AC units like in St. Louis?! Are they stealing to tear apart to sell for scrap metal? Cause it's not like you can post AC units on Craigslist repeatedly without drawing attention. I'm sure it's already happening here and there, but if I was a general contractor I'd hide a GPS tracker in these things until owners move in.
Yep, exactly that. ACs are full of copper, aluminum, even platinum components that can be sold for scrap. You can get $2/lb for copper, $1/lb for brass, $0.50/lb for wire, $.020/lb for aluminum, etc. You can get a whole $12-18 from the scrap of a single stolen AC unit.Laife Fulk wrote: ↑Oct 07, 2020Serious question - what's the black market for AC units like in St. Louis?! Are they stealing to tear apart to sell for scrap metal?
-RBB
- 2,075
The AC unit that was taken from ours didn't have any substantial copper in it. I actually got a visual of the two white dudes running off with mine, and the way they were taken our GC (very clean) said they were most likely contractors spying our project for a moment to move them to one of their other projects outside of the city.
My HVAC rep said AC units made in the last few years are all being made with much less copper as a result of AC units being stolen for copper over the last decade.
I do have dino cages on mine now.
My HVAC rep said AC units made in the last few years are all being made with much less copper as a result of AC units being stolen for copper over the last decade.
I do have dino cages on mine now.
- 3,762
^^ interesting. ours were torn apart on-site for the scrap, and he left the outer (steel?) housing and compressors behind. sawed right through the steel cages. all for probably < $50 cash. local recycling places need to stop accepting AC parts without documentation of ownership.
- 2,075
My HVAC guy said the recycling center has stopped accepting them - someone put through legislation in the city and county... but what I thought was interesting was that he said there's enough residential construction in the area right now for some less desirable contractors to bid projects expecting to steal some supplies.
Some thoughtspattimagee wrote: ↑Oct 07, 2020As far as process/design goes...
The lender we worked with let us do all of the demo, painting, staining for the project, which save us almost 1/4 of the project's cost. We were lucky to find a lender/title agency that allowed us to do that.
As far as design goes... we were kind of held to historic and we weren't really changing too much. We were able to have some pretty constructive conversations with them about what would be required of us - they were more flexible than we were told they would be. We had a few hidden chimneys in the house that we were able to remove since they weren't "stable" after removing the plaster from them. It also assisted in leveling the floors "almost" to normal.
My wife is in the architecture industry, so she did most of the drawings/design work. I wish we had more money to do all of the siding at the same time but its quite costly doing real wood.
This is probably a good moment to ask if anyone has any resources/thoughts on victorian paint themes - we're going to be trying a few out in the next month or two and its a bit of a daunting task...
I think early victorian aesthetics were more sophisticated (late 1800s) than the mass-produced designs later on in eg the aesthetic period. Also feel that in urban vs rural/prairie victorian houses, colors were used differently.
I would suggest touring local historic houses like the Campbell house, Cupples house, Demenil House, Eugene Field and the Lemp Mansion to see what catches your eye.
Stalk pinterest for modern interpretations of victorian interiors.
And if you have an old clawfoot tub still, you almost have to paint the outside a cheery fun color
Good luck.
Personally the dusty pinks with muddy purples and greens
- 2,075
And just for the record, I'm mostly talking about exterior colors (we're siding the entire house with wood). Here's our more detailed window trims to show you how many possible colors we could use...
I thought I would bump this thread to see if anyone has any thoughts on what we're putting in our story today: I uncovered a hole a few years ago and I just re-earthed it this last few weeks and finally got a camera + flashlight + video down in it... The consensus is it could be a handful of things.
Parker Russell Coal and Clay mines did own the property before it was developed, it doesn't hold any water currently, we have stories from old tenants mentioning both a cistern and a coal mine shaft. There are cast iron drains into it from what we can see. Our neighbors had an excavation a few months ago and there were wooden framed tunnels in our alley. So, it could go a few ways - thought you all might find this interesting or know a bit more than I do.
https://www.instagram.com/theonionhouse/
Parker Russell Coal and Clay mines did own the property before it was developed, it doesn't hold any water currently, we have stories from old tenants mentioning both a cistern and a coal mine shaft. There are cast iron drains into it from what we can see. Our neighbors had an excavation a few months ago and there were wooden framed tunnels in our alley. So, it could go a few ways - thought you all might find this interesting or know a bit more than I do.
https://www.instagram.com/theonionhouse/
- 340
Not a question, but a comment. You're practically living out my dream by renovating this beauty, and you're doing a damn good job at it! Besides the Franz Artz house in Soulard, no other derelict single-family building quite compares to the distinctiveness of the Onion House. Thank you for bringing us along for the ride; it's always intriguing seeing a piece of history so quirky being restored to its former glory. Looking forward to when I get an Onion House project of my own!