Have you ever watched the movie "The Money Pit"? This movie is a must
for anyone who is considering renovating a home, especially an old home.
We purchased a circa 1895 Victorian home in March 1990. It was a 3500 square foot slummed
out wreck. Some slumlord had converted it into a duplex and eventually lost it in foreclosure. This is when we came into the
picture. Alan was in his third year of residency at Vanderbilt and was also moonlighting as an ER doctor for extra cash. We
paid $62,500 for this unlivable home and convinced a skeptical banker to loan us money for construction. He took one look
at the project and shook his head.
The contractors we hired to do the job told us that for $40,000 we could have a showplace.
At the end of the project we had spent $110,000 in renovation costs over and above the purchase price.
We totally redid the whole house top to bottom. All the wiring had to be updated as well
as all the plumbing and heat and air systems. There were a few surprises which accounted for some of the extra money spent.
One was a main support beam that was rotten and had to be replaced. Another was the brick had to be tuck pointed all
around because much of the mortar had deteriorated over the years.
Some nice surprises were that all interior trim was intact though with many coats of paint.
Beautifully carved trimwork with rosettes. Another is that there were transoms over all the doors. All of these were still
operational. At the turn of the century there were no air conditioning systems so to get better air circulation all you had
to do was reposition the transom window to allow for more air flow. There were beautiful, intact nine foot
pocket doors closing off the parlor from the entry foyer, and when the walls from the parlor to the dining room were torn
out we found tracks for a second set of pocket doors. Before the project was finished we found a set of doors at this arcihitectural
antique warehouse downtown. Nine foot doors are fairly rare, as most pocket doors were eight feet. The ceilings downstairs
were 11 feet high and upstairs they were 10 feet. All of the interior doors were intact. They were heavily paneled and
solid core doors. A lot of the brass doorknobs were still there and we had them all re-brassed and shined. The doors
which did not have doorknobs we replaced with some we found in architectural shops in Memphis. We didn't find too many
matching sets but this only added to the character of the house. We also had all the brass window hardware replaced and
re-brassed. On the following pages will be a pictorial history of the renovation project. The job began the beginning
of April and it was livable enough for us to move in near the end of August.
Just click the link at the bottom of this and subsequent pages to navigate this section.
