Built-in Buffet Ideas

Since my Built-in buffet doors were removed some time ago, I have been gearing up some ideas on how to make them. I have tossed around the idea of three doors or just having two doors like they origioinally had.

I took some pics of my neighbors built-ins. Her house was built in 1914. I don't know if my house was built by the same builder or not. However, when her house was finished being built, ours began immediate construction.



The bin pulls are just like the ones our built-in used to have. When I stripped the paint off, you could see the impression. Also, we had the same kind of latches. The only thing different is the hinges.

Floor Plan

Here is a very,very rough scetch of our home's layout. I did this so you can get a perspective on where the rooms are located.

The Attic

The attic is decent size. However, If I ever plan to build a room up here I will have to add two dormers making it an airplane bunglaow. One dormer would be for the stairs and the other would be a small room. This would be done far into the future. There is soo much that needs to be done first. I am standing about halfway towards the back of the house looking towards the front. This shows the attic vent in the porch.


This is a shot looking towards the back of the house.

The house Has Settled

Over the last 95 years, the house has settled. In some places, the house has settled two inches. The lowest spots are the dividing wall between the kitchen and dining room and the wall between the back bedroom and bathroom. The one I am really concerned about is the wall between the dining room and kitchen. There is a chimney between the walls that have really contributed to the house settling. I have ordered four screwjacks from Ellis Manufacturing that will serve as new joists. I have found the dirt to be soft as the pier blocks sink in the ground as I jack up the house. Soon, I am going to pour a concrete slab under the house so I will have a firm foundation. This will allow me to raise the house without any sinking.


I'm using a 10ft 4x6 pressure treated piece of lumber to line up against the crossbeams. I'm using 4x4's as the stalks inside the screwjacks. I also have two 40,000lb bottlejacks to help in this process. The top pic shows the screwjack being forced in the ground by the weight of the house. The screwjack is on top of a 1ft high pier block made of industrial concrete. Going slow is vital!! 1/2 inch a day is max. Too much will result in alot of snap, crackle, and popping and will ruin the drywall. EVERYONES EXPERIENCE WILL BE DIFFERENT. SO DON'T TAKE MY WORD FOR IT BECAUSE I AM NOT A PROFESSIONAL HOUSE RAISER.



I am in the process of digging a 2ft trench under the dining room and kitchen wall. I am half way done digging.


08-28-2010 I poured 4 bags of concrete in the 70" long 2 1/2 ft deep trench. I ran short at least 4 bags. I need to fill it 1/2 ways up so it can stand the weight of the house. I can't fill it too much because the screwjacks and 4x6 lumber takes up its share of space.

Attention to Detail

All of the light switches in the house have the period correct push-button light switches used from the 1890's till around 1935. The switches are $18.00 each, but well worth it for aesthetics as well as a conversation piece.


All of the door hinges are half mortise ball tip type. They are solid forged brass from Rejuvenation.

The Master Bedroom Before

After I finish the kitchen, we will start renovation on the master bedroom. The Master Bedroom is much larger than the back bedroom where I currently sleep. I'm sure I will have this room completed before we get married on June 25, 2011.

Dining Room & Living Room

The first thing I did prior to buying the house was pull the carpet in the corners to make sure the decorative wood floors were still there. And they were!! These floors are in the dining room and living room. They are one inch planks of quarter sawn oak with the origional stain.


After I pulled the carpet, I used Murphy Oil to clean the wood floors that were very dirty. They have not seen the light of day in almost 40 years. After I cleaned them, I used Beeswax to add moisture back to the wood.I'm not sure if the floors were ever polyurithaned or not. If they had a protective coat, it is gone now.


I was soo mad when I discovered that the colonnades were removed. Basically, there were two colonnades (Bookcases with pillars) on each side of the room separating the living room from the dining room. I will have them custom built in the future.


This is what the dining room and living room looked like when I first bought the home. In this photo, I was using it as a staging area while I waited for the dumpster to arrive.

Built-In Buffet

When I bought this home in 2009, I took a good look at the built-in buffet and knew it would be a job to strip the many layers of paint off.




I started to strip off the paint. What you see here took 3 hours or so to do. Since it wasn't top priority, I did not continue with it right away. During this time, my bathroom was undergoing construction.


My Mom came and stayed two days with me and stripped all the paint off the built-in buffet. Currently, I need to sand it so I can stain it. Right now, I have the beadboard removed from the back of the built-in so I can flip it. Since the back side is unfinished and unstained, I won't have to strip the paint from all of the grooves. Jeremy and Dawn from Bungalowcious gave me this idea.

Night Shots

I am still trying to capture our home at night. I still need to make some adjustments to my camera. I will try using a slower film setting like 200 instead of 400.

Adam & Jovita

Jovita and I waited 35 years of our life's to find each other. We share many common interests and we love restoring our Craftsman Bungalow. While she has taught High School English in a very small town for ten years, I have worked in sales for the last 14 years. We are engaged to be married on June 25th 2011.

Antiques for the house

I have collected antiques since I was ten years old. I first started collecting lanterns and telephone insulators. Before and after I bought my house, I have bought and aquired antiques.

Our latest purchase were two "Teachers Desks" at a thrift store for $70.00. They were a steal!!


On top of my desk is a railroad telephone on a scissor mount. These phones were mounted on the desks of train depot stationmasters used to communicate on an open line with nearby depots. This phone is dated 1909 and made by Western Electric.


Here I am sitting in front of one of my many restored General Electric Fans. Before I bought my house, my hobby was restoring General Electric fans dating from 1912-1922. I buy my fans on ebay for around $75.00. Some of them were completely rusted and not running. I will get more pics of them on here. I love antiques so much, even my eyeglasses date back between 1910-1920's


This is my Occidental Stove I bought for the house. I paid $1,800 for it. I bought it at Buckeye Appliance in Stockton. Their specialty is refurbishing old stoves. I also buy my doors from them as well. They have alot of antiques that are hard to find.



This Pan Light I found for $35.00 at an antique store in Jamestown California. It needed to be rewired. So I rewired it. These chandeleirs were common in homes built between 1910-1925. One of my restored General Electric Fans can be seen on the bookshelf.


This is my Dale Tiffany Lamp which is not an antique. The Victor Victrola that it is sitting on is an antique made in 1923. The telephone was made in the late 1930's.

Kitchen

Over the last year, I began to remove the kitchen cabinets. I also got rid of the stove that was purchased in the late 80's or early 90's. I went to Buckeye Appliance & Antiques in Stockton California and bought a refurbished Occidental Stove made between 1915-1919. They told me at Buckeye that all stoves had temperature regulators by 1920.



This stove works very well and it is my most favorite thing in the house next to the clawfoot bathtub




To begin the kitchen remodel, I will first convert the back storage room to a pantry. In doing this, I have to open an access door that leads to the kitchen and remove the california cooler.


This is where the doorway will be. The california cooler to the right will come out.




The California Cooler was double walled in thickness. There was only one drip shelf left in it.




This is the ventilation shaft on the top where a suction is created due to the screened hole at the base of the cooler. The Ice Man would come and place the block of Ice on the lower shelf which kept the groceries cool or cold.




This is one out of the seven drip shelfs left.


California Cooler completely removed as well as the wall.


Four new plugs will be added to the pantry


New electrical wire was ran to the junction box. There was also a light switch added since the previous light operated from a pull chain.


This doorway will be entirely closed off since the refrigerator will be here.


The celing was completely pulled and drywalled. There will be beadboard on the walls and celing.


All walls will be insulated.


I added an Air Conditioning vent in case it gets hot in the pantry.


All walls and celings in the pantry and kitchen will be beadboarded.




After I remove the cabinets and sink, I will take the windows completely apart and refurbish them.




Here is one of the kitchen windows being sanded. After sanding, I primered them and painted the exterior.




All the windows will have new rope and tied securely to the weights.


Hunter Green will be the new color of the windows. The trim will be white and the house will be an olive color.


The old knob and tube wiring insulators will be salvaged and used for a later project.








This is the dining room built-in hutch. You can see the pass-through now that I have removed the kitchen wall. I am very much considering on keeping the pass-through.








Here I am beginning to remove the back of the built-in. Reason for this is because the front is caked with 5 layers of paint. It will not only be easier to flip the beadboard but will look much better when I am done staining.


The Kitchen Floor
This is the origional sub floor that was painted grey. I am not sure if this was used as an exposed floor or not.


This is the marmoleum or linoleum that was buried inderneath the partical board. It is layed out in 3ft wide strips and not the square tiles you normally see this in. Not sure how old this is. It very well could be origional or put here in the 1930's.


Here is a shot from a distance


This is the linoleum flooring that was put here in 1990-1993ish.


This is a sample of our new hex tile that will be used in our kitchen, pantry, and laundry room.


08-28-2010 The kitchen ceiling is 1/2 ways done with the beadboard.