Right? Like that is barely any construction work in the grand scheme of things. It will probably be wayyy more noisy and involved construction stuff down the road! Obviously no one likes noise, but at the end of the day you can’t please everyone. Working during the day it should be allowed
@@zanesutherland406 I can understand from the neighbor's point of view - I had one situation where 2 apartments on both sides of me were doing full reno, from 8-4, every day for 3 months. I just lived with noise cancelling headphones on for 90 days and that was my life. However, I've also had one kind of "DIY-er" neighbor who would randomly start hammering, drilling, and god knows what just for an hour or two at a time, sporadically, over a much longer period. Basically a whole year. I would MUCH prefer the 1st because it's a known quantity and has a clear schedule and endpoint for a particular result. The 2nd option is basically like living next to someone whose hobby is to make noise for an hour a day at random times.
You should get to know your neighbor. Bring them over to see what you are doing. Get them involved and understand their work,sleep schedules. This will go a long way in good relations for the future.
Well, contractors have to abide regulations regarding the window of time they are allowed to work, typically 7AM to 7PM except for true emergencies. The contractors like to start early, and I doubt they will flex their time based on that neighbor. So part of the conversation has to be that contractors will be on site at some point, and they work during the window of time where they are allowed to work.
Yes! Beautiful comment. Reach out to your neighbors, bake them a cake or cookies or something, invite them over, get to know their schedules. Since you love to learn what's behind those walls why not learn what's on the other side of those walls.
@@ChrisHytha You should, as the comment above said, it's just a spot from firing the brick with wood. There's not much to be done about that, but he brick still looks very bright and nice after the cleaning
Yup, the 'black spots' are from uneven heating in wood-fired brick kilns. The bricks exposed to the highest heat turn black (like vitreous glazing). You can tell that these bricks were stacked in layers perpendicular to each other, because some stripes are on the horizontal, while others are on the vertical. Scrubbing it is still a good idea, if you want to put a sealer on the wall. ReadingEagleDotCom has a post from August 2021 about Philadelphia brick history: "The Historian: The story of ‘black head’ bricks".
Well that scrubbing made for a nice clean brick anyway. When you mentioned the walled in fireplace I was so keen to see what was there ,and by golly you ripped into it today ,and very nice too . Perhaps not fantastic ,but pretty good .The brick accent around the house will be very nice indeed .Good luck with finding a compatible contractor .😊
Bricks are everywhere in the U.K. and it’s exceedingly rare to find any with uniform colour - my mouth was on the floor watching him try to wash the fired tone away wtf 😭😂
So many contractors don’t care about the original details. Everything is gutted and taken to the dump. The row house next to mine was being gutted (ironically, getting historic tax credit). I was working from home and heard a lot of noise outside. Debris from inside was being moved to a truck parked outside. Watched the workers load up original doors and stained glass transom window. I ran downstairs and asked them if I could have them. I rescued trim and floor joists from the piles in the backyard. It kills me that the first round of gutting I had to go out of town and they threw out doors, trim, and the original window shutters. No one messed with these things for 140 years and that one person comes along and those items are lost forever.
Good on you for saving them! That is wild that someone would throw out stained glass. Sad to see. I salvaged a vintage cabinet door with curved glass in it last year, and turned it into a cool pendant light. Love saving those cool things!
Exactly. I was going to mention a transom window before I saw you did. I lived in an 1860 brownstone and one of my neighbors did exactly the same thing. Doors and transom window in the trash bin. My own landlords trashed the 1920s pedestal sink and a beautiful old window in the bath. I fought for the clawfoot tub to stay, and mercifully, they kept it.
Chris, some advice from a life long Philadelphian for your neighbor. Tell them that you'll trade the ability to make all the noise you want, and you'll get them tickets to an Eagles game and a Red October Phillies game.
It happens all too often. Its a shame that buyers seem to favor houses that look new, so even when developers renovate old homes, they just want them to look like a new build inside, it misses the mark. I hope somebody down the line will appreciate the vision to keep / reintroduce these historic details.
All Hail the Open Concept design. All those remodels and new construction so "I can always see what the kids are doing." My generations didn't want to see what we were doing and preferred that we stay out of sight! My wife and I refer to the type of house we grew up in as an "ant farm" house - and we mean the in the best way - where each room served a purpose rather than these vast wastelands of "open" space. I grew up in houses much like yours, @ChrisHytha. I miss them...
Depending on your neighbors, consider inviting them over to assist. It sounds funny to ask for free labor but it’s really about doing the noise making themselves, getting to explore what might be in their house without tearing apart the walls in their house. At the least, I’d invite them over to see what you’re doing & why, & get the permission for the best time to do it-& promise a dinner party when finished!
Seeing your craftsmanship and attention to detail on that wainscot/shelving area that you built shows that this renovation will certainly be gorgeous! I hope you're able to work-out a connection with a contractor that shares your love for details. If the contractor is good on camera, that would be bonus too! As always, keep up the great work and editing!
Am i the only one who loves the color variations in those old bricks? I prefer it to modern, evenly red-all-over bricks. The variation is beautiful and earthy and characteristic to me.
A pry/wrecking bar would have given you better leverage for getting that plaster off than a cold chisel. Edit: Pretty sure the black on those bricks is artifact from kiln firing. Modern bricks are fired in continuous tunnel kilns, usually heated with electricity or gas, which results in a more consistent product. In old brick kilns, the bricks were stacked in a chamber and fired with solid fuel. Fired bricks are often made from naturally iron-rich clays. The basic red-brown colour of the brick is iron in its oxidised state (the parts of the kiln where lots of air was able to reach the fuel and it burned cleanly). The black is iron in its reduced state (the parts of the kiln where less air was able to reach the fuel and it burned incompletely).
We subscribed from the first video. My wife and I bought an 1890 brick Victorian near downtown Denver 31 years ago. We 've been working on it happily ever since. Yep, the blackened brick is clinker brick, not meant to be seen back in the day but they became popular during the 20s and 30s to use as exterior brick on craftsman bungalows because of their rough-hewn aesthetic. I always got my neighbors numbers so I could call and tell them "Tomorrow's going to be a noisy day." Now, we just text.
@@ChrisHytha I believe the thought was to place the pretty bricks where the would be seen and the not as good looking ones where the would be plastered over...
2:14 they make fake logs on iron stands that light up and look like smoldering fire. in my 1920 home the original fireplace isn't safe to use for fires so i put an electric fake wood stove in it that looks great and is cozy
Thanks for joining me in the process. Once I get a contractor on the job, I think most of the heavy lifting will be done within 6 months, then I can move in, and slowly work on the trim, floors, fixtures, etc. Can't wait!
I LOVE that wainscotting you made for your other apartment. Really nice. I hope you'll be able to get furniture up and down that crazy stairwell. Looks way tight. And I think the black marks on the brick are burned in, maybe something from the original manufacture. Anyway it all can look cool, if you adjust your aesthetic sense to look at it that way.
The tight staircase to the upper floor would be a death trap after even a moderate night of dinking. 🤣Great update the fireplace in the bedroom is going to look great 2x👍
Im a contractor and every time we do a renovation project we rip out all the old solid wood doors and replace them with those cheap hollow core crappy doors! I hate how people think that looks much better! You can punch you're hand right through it 🙄
@@ChrisHytha Yes Lowe's and home depot have direct fit hardware to install locking mechanisms in those old doors they even have the gold plates and the skeleton key. They look like the originals.👍
As you are talking about some of the original features and your plans of how to use some of them I was taken back to many years of watching "This Old House". One of my favorite show in its days, but now I've got your channel. I'm thrilled, wishing you all the best with your endeavor.
Just a suggestion. When you take those doors down they need to be numbered so that you will know where they belong when you go to rehab them. Excited for your journey.😊
i absolutely love this series!!! this is not something i'd be interested in usually, but you explain the plans in just the right ways to not dumb it down but still let average people like me understand it and it rocks. i love seeing the plans and hearing about the history and all of the little things that go into something like this. i'll be following for as long as you keep uploading :)
It's an 1875 house. If you want artifacts it might be worth excavating the privy. For history enthusiasts who buy row homes it's kind of a rite of passage. Costs nothing and they threw all sorts of rubbish down there, including crockery, pipes, oyster shells, broken tools and anything else they would otherwise have to pay to have removed. I remember reading somewhere that prisoners from Eastern State Penitentiary cleaned them out occasionally, but privy pits took about 15 to 25 years to fill and I've never known anyone to dig out one of these pits and find nothing. That little alley between you and your neighbor should lead to the pit.
TKe the doors to the professionals....they submerge the doors in tanks ....viole! Fabulous clean doors ready to be oiled....no paint, please!!!! Love your channel! Use an old crockpot to boil hinges and hardware for several days...then drop in ice water...paint has been softened...metal contracts...nasty old paint comes off easily...repeatedly as needed :)
your editing style is so snappy and addictive to watch, i don’t normally engage as much as i have with your channel but it’s quickly become one of my favourites :)
I've been loving these weekly episodes! As someone currently growing up in the greater philly area, I hope to one day do what youre doing and preserve a piece a history! Keep it up!
Seeing that brick chimney exposed was so cool, it’s funny that back then, they covered up that standard workmanship as a matter of course. The 1970s were bad, but even today I’m watching several houses in my neighborhood get additions that are basically just space-maximizing boxes that lack character, and for some reason people are replacing/covering perfectly good hardwood floors with “luxury vinyl plank” (plastic) flooring.
Brick is notoriously DIRTY. You expose brick and your house is ALWAYS dusty. And dust sticks to the bricks and builds up and is tedious and almost impossible to keep clean, unlike plastered and whitewashed or papered walls. Seems to me it's always men talking about how cool an exposed brick wall is - because they don't clean and don't notice how much dirtier brick walls are than any other surface.
My fireplace is brick, and I haven’t found it to be a source of dust…but more generally, it isn’t 1970 or 1990 anymore, the idea that men don’t clean is hilarious. I’m a stay at home dad, do most of the cleaning, all the cooking…
Love your ideas for showcasing the history of the house, the brick wall with a skylight above is going to be stunning. It's also great that you are meeting with contractors that were interested enough to reach out after seeing your video. Great idea.👍
My Dad had a row home in Fishtown in the 80s and 90s. It was a dirt buy back then. Your place brings back good memories of the place from my childhood. I love the stairs, but I've slid down them on my butt more than once.
So my take on the black brick, our house was built in 1971. It’s most likely from a hot spot with firing?? But all in all i love your videos on the house! You’re living the dream 😂 good luck and can’t wait to check in to see more! :) 14:35
12:04 - get yourself some proper cold chisels for removing that stuff. There are some with a very wide tip that will go through that material much faster.
I am in love with the fact that you're not just painting the whole thing landlord white it's a nice change of pace from seeing a lot of flippers on here (especially the flippers who don't know what the hell they're doing... I have seen things... load-bearing drywall...)
This is so much fun to watch! I’m already worried what I’m going to do when you finish the whole project…..🤔😏 Hopefully you’ll invite us to accompany you on future ones, too! 🤗
Depending on how the brick were originally "fired" the black could be from a wood fired kiln and its just part of the character of the brick. Since these bricks were actually supposed to be plastered over, they were "inferior" quality and that too might be the black traces on them.
Second this possibility: I'm guessing if they are packed in tight, some of the bricks get less oxygen leading to a reduction firing. The red in bricks is basically iron and oxygen, but without oxygen iron goes black. This is sometimes done intentionally (those black bricks you see in some new construction, I know this from working with pottery to get different colors in a glaze or in the ceramic itself)
Nice that you had an original fireplace behind that wall! My house had everything stripped out. I did put in a faux fireplace--got an old mantel on eBay that was (allegedly) pulled from an old Phila mansion, tiled the surround, and placed an old tin cover in the middle (also eBay). My house also had a nice cornice on top that was largely intact, and a half-moon window and carved molding around the front door (all had been covered with siding, but I exposed them). Those are about the only nice details my house had left. When I exposed the brick, I simply used a dry wire brush. They came out very clean, and I had the mason put a matte sealer on them after tuck pointing.
As I've mentioned in a previous video, I'm doing a house renovation at the moment too. I've actually ripped my fire place out and am replacing it with a wood burning stove. Sure, they're not as nice as an open fire, but efficiency wise, they certainly take the cake. Would recommend something similar if you are looking to get a "fire" for the main room
So glad you exposed that brick in the bedroom. How lucky to have found such a beautiful lintel on that fireplace! Also, thanks for sharing the footage of the wainscoting at your other house. I'd noticed it in one of your videos and paused the frame to zoom in. Well done.
I love all of the exposed brick. Schoolhouse Homestead (UA-cam Channel) also had to find a process to clean and preserve newly exposed brick. Theirs is beautiful and I recommend their channel. I can’t wait to see more progress on your home and I’m so excited for you!
The black in the brick may still be there, but the rest of the brick looks so much better. My uncle liked the 'klinkers' he'd get from an old San Diego brickyard, a lot of them had that same black staining. BTW, I bought one of those Craftsman shop vacs in 1978 and it's still going strong. It's held together with duct tape and pinch clamps, but during our remodel, our contractor burned through two newer ones before I told him to stop buying them and just use mine. It finished the project. It will not die.
I am so excited to see this renovation!! You have such fantastic ideas! I hope you can find something to clean that brick. You are bringing back the former glory of this house and I can't wait to see it!
I will start architecture school next year and seeing your videos just makes me more excited! Love the house and the plan you have for it, keep it up 👏👏👏
I think once a week is about the extent of my ability right now, but eventually I might do some mid week recap videos, like at the 6 month mark, or maybe some in between videos about other topics
I absolutely love these old homes, there were some I saw that needed a lot of work that had many details maintained, but they were well out of my price range unfortunately, so now I get to do my best in recreating them! I hope to make those craftsman of the 1800s proud
Fair chance that the bricks are just gonna... look like that. They often "leach" from ambient moisture coming in one way or another. Wouldn't know what makes it black (I've seen white, usually), but I suspect it's the same process.
For the living room fire place, if you wanted to reproduce the look of an actual fireplace, you could go the electrical fireplace route, encased by the mantle you plan on putting there.
Hey buddy. Great to see you & the house. What a treat the fireplace was , shame about ya neighbour. Very considerate off you to go the long way round well done. Your house will be beautiful when it’s finished I’m sure. Good luck with the dust. It’s a rainy day here in 🇬🇧
Hey really admire what you are doing, after living through a few of these old timer renovations I would strongly recommend that you take the home back to its bones and repair or replace as needed, so much easier, quicker and at the end of the day it will work out to be cheaper. Strip all of the lathe and plaster out and any drywall, that should be your starting point. Hey best of luck, I am watching hoping you find a path through all of the dust. Oh you should also do a hazardous materials test of the homes interior finishes looking for any asbestos and lead paint.
Thanks for creating this channel and posting regular updates. I moved to Wheeling WV to restore a an old row house. There is something magical about it that simply can’t be put into words.
I totally agree! I have lived all my life in homes built before 1930, and I always love to think of the many families that came before me, and what their lives might have been like. I love old homes!
Bro, I don't know what possessed you to take your thumbnails in this direction, but they're so unique & charming. Using the Rowhouse photoset was truly inspired & they have such an avant-garde feel. I really wanted to commend you on them bc they're such an important aspect to growing your channel. It should be a crime that you biked all over America & those vids don't even have 1k views. Can't wait to watch you on HGTV one day! Rooting for you my dude.
Thanks for your support! Lots of thumbnails out there that are all the same, I thought just using the art without any text or distraction would be refreshing
My grandfather's house had an exposed brick wall in the family room where the fireplace was and it was one of my favorite features in the home growing up. It has a very cozy feel to it. There's another series I started watching where the owners took great care in trying to reveal the brick for their inner walls. "Schoolhouse Homestead" -- they posted a video about 4 months ago detailing how they went about clearing the plaster off and sealing the bricks. ("6 months of exposing & "sealing" our brick walls + the school's FIRST cocktail party!") Maybe something there might give some ideas on how to approach cleaning the brick? You might be able to consult with a masonry expert but I don't know how much of a dent that'll put in your budget. I'm excited to see how this pans out!!! 😁
Thanks so much. I am thoroughly enjoying this series. I love that you are using a different image for the thumbnail each week. Clever. Your production values are excellent.
Thank you! It was fortunate that I just so happened to have this collection of 100 rowhome images ready to go for this series. It is really full circle! Thanks for following along
I did the exposed beams in my basement. I had to move all the plumbing from the radiators up and reroute the electric through the beams. I left about 6 inches visible and used sheet rock to hide the wiring and plumbing. Nicest room in the house now.
neighbor already knocking, 5% into the build. they better strap in 😂
Right? Like that is barely any construction work in the grand scheme of things. It will probably be wayyy more noisy and involved construction stuff down the road! Obviously no one likes noise, but at the end of the day you can’t please everyone. Working during the day it should be allowed
They knocked? At which timestamp? I missed it somehow...
@@Swedish_Remixer 11:41
@@uderzo1984 thank you!
@@zanesutherland406 I can understand from the neighbor's point of view - I had one situation where 2 apartments on both sides of me were doing full reno, from 8-4, every day for 3 months. I just lived with noise cancelling headphones on for 90 days and that was my life.
However, I've also had one kind of "DIY-er" neighbor who would randomly start hammering, drilling, and god knows what just for an hour or two at a time, sporadically, over a much longer period. Basically a whole year.
I would MUCH prefer the 1st because it's a known quantity and has a clear schedule and endpoint for a particular result. The 2nd option is basically like living next to someone whose hobby is to make noise for an hour a day at random times.
You should get to know your neighbor. Bring them over to see what you are doing. Get them involved and understand their work,sleep schedules. This will go a long way in good relations for the future.
Yeah, I was going to comment this as well. Doesn't mean you have to lean in to all their demands, but a little communication goes a long way.
Well, contractors have to abide regulations regarding the window of time they are allowed to work, typically 7AM to 7PM except for true emergencies. The contractors like to start early, and I doubt they will flex their time based on that neighbor.
So part of the conversation has to be that contractors will be on site at some point, and they work during the window of time where they are allowed to work.
Yes! Beautiful comment. Reach out to your neighbors, bake them a cake or cookies or something, invite them over, get to know their schedules. Since you love to learn what's behind those walls why not learn what's on the other side of those walls.
14:31 It does look like it brightened the rest of the brick, just not the stained portion...
Agreed, I might still do that technique for the rest of them, haven't decided.
@@ChrisHytha You should, as the comment above said, it's just a spot from firing the brick with wood. There's not much to be done about that, but he brick still looks very bright and nice after the cleaning
It's beautiful and adds charm. ❤
The "black" on the brick may well be from firing the brick by burning wood back in the day. Post a ??? on a forum ("brick layers are we"???)😄😃
Yup, the 'black spots' are from uneven heating in wood-fired brick kilns. The bricks exposed to the highest heat turn black (like vitreous glazing). You can tell that these bricks were stacked in layers perpendicular to each other, because some stripes are on the horizontal, while others are on the vertical. Scrubbing it is still a good idea, if you want to put a sealer on the wall. ReadingEagleDotCom has a post from August 2021 about Philadelphia brick history: "The Historian: The story of ‘black head’ bricks".
Well that scrubbing made for a nice clean brick anyway. When you mentioned the walled in fireplace I was so keen to see what was there ,and by golly you ripped into it today ,and very nice too . Perhaps not fantastic ,but pretty good .The brick accent around the house will be very nice indeed .Good luck with finding a compatible contractor .😊
absolutely correct! And these bricks were never designed to be exposed.
Bricks are everywhere in the U.K. and it’s exceedingly rare to find any with uniform colour - my mouth was on the floor watching him try to wash the fired tone away wtf 😭😂
That is very common in the bricks on the interior, and it even sometimes is found on the exterior bricks. Part of the character of an old house.
So many contractors don’t care about the original details. Everything is gutted and taken to the dump. The row house next to mine was being gutted (ironically, getting historic tax credit). I was working from home and heard a lot of noise outside. Debris from inside was being moved to a truck parked outside. Watched the workers load up original doors and stained glass transom window. I ran downstairs and asked them if I could have them. I rescued trim and floor joists from the piles in the backyard. It kills me that the first round of gutting I had to go out of town and they threw out doors, trim, and the original window shutters. No one messed with these things for 140 years and that one person comes along and those items are lost forever.
Good on you for saving them! That is wild that someone would throw out stained glass. Sad to see. I salvaged a vintage cabinet door with curved glass in it last year, and turned it into a cool pendant light. Love saving those cool things!
Exactly. I was going to mention a transom window before I saw you did. I lived in an 1860 brownstone and one of my neighbors did exactly the same thing. Doors and transom window in the trash bin. My own landlords trashed the 1920s pedestal sink and a beautiful old window in the bath. I fought for the clawfoot tub to stay, and mercifully, they kept it.
It absolutely blows me away that people don't reach out to reclamation places to at LEAST say "come get this stuff" How incredibly sad. What loss 😢
Chris, some advice from a life long Philadelphian for your neighbor. Tell them that you'll trade the ability to make all the noise you want, and you'll get them tickets to an Eagles game and a Red October Phillies game.
Its good to see someone preserving a historic house instead of defacing it and turning it into the generic millenial bland style
It happens all too often. Its a shame that buyers seem to favor houses that look new, so even when developers renovate old homes, they just want them to look like a new build inside, it misses the mark. I hope somebody down the line will appreciate the vision to keep / reintroduce these historic details.
All Hail the Open Concept design. All those remodels and new construction so "I can always see what the kids are doing." My generations didn't want to see what we were doing and preferred that we stay out of sight! My wife and I refer to the type of house we grew up in as an "ant farm" house - and we mean the in the best way - where each room served a purpose rather than these vast wastelands of "open" space. I grew up in houses much like yours, @ChrisHytha. I miss them...
"Generic millennial bland style"? What?!?! You mean to tell me you don't find beige on gray accentuated with Grey stimulating; thrilling even? 😂😂
Depending on your neighbors, consider inviting them over to assist. It sounds funny to ask for free labor but it’s really about doing the noise making themselves, getting to explore what might be in their house without tearing apart the walls in their house. At the least, I’d invite them over to see what you’re doing & why, & get the permission for the best time to do it-& promise a dinner party when finished!
Seeing your craftsmanship and attention to detail on that wainscot/shelving area that you built shows that this renovation will certainly be gorgeous! I hope you're able to work-out a connection with a contractor that shares your love for details. If the contractor is good on camera, that would be bonus too!
As always, keep up the great work and editing!
Thanks for your support! That project is a great teaser for what is to come!
Am i the only one who loves the color variations in those old bricks? I prefer it to modern, evenly red-all-over bricks. The variation is beautiful and earthy and characteristic to me.
Yep, just you, everyone everyone else hates it
- of course you’re not, what a weird question :D
A pry/wrecking bar would have given you better leverage for getting that plaster off than a cold chisel.
Edit: Pretty sure the black on those bricks is artifact from kiln firing. Modern bricks are fired in continuous tunnel kilns, usually heated with electricity or gas, which results in a more consistent product. In old brick kilns, the bricks were stacked in a chamber and fired with solid fuel. Fired bricks are often made from naturally iron-rich clays. The basic red-brown colour of the brick is iron in its oxidised state (the parts of the kiln where lots of air was able to reach the fuel and it burned cleanly). The black is iron in its reduced state (the parts of the kiln where less air was able to reach the fuel and it burned incompletely).
Exposing that brick fireplace adds a fantastic amount of architectural quality and interest. Simply amazing. Well done.
We subscribed from the first video. My wife and I bought an 1890 brick Victorian near downtown Denver 31 years ago. We 've been working on it happily ever since. Yep, the blackened brick is clinker brick, not meant to be seen back in the day but they became popular during the 20s and 30s to use as exterior brick on craftsman bungalows because of their rough-hewn aesthetic. I always got my neighbors numbers so I could call and tell them "Tomorrow's going to be a noisy day." Now, we just text.
The black you see in the brick was from the way the were fired back in the day... It is part of the brick, not a stain...
Thanks for your insight! I can live with that
@@ChrisHytha I believe the thought was to place the pretty bricks where the would be seen and the not as good looking ones where the would be plastered over...
2:14 they make fake logs on iron stands that light up and look like smoldering fire. in my 1920 home the original fireplace isn't safe to use for fires so i put an electric fake wood stove in it that looks great and is cozy
You’re doing great, man. Your editing is superb. I’m here for this whole journey, however long it may be.
Thanks for joining me in the process. Once I get a contractor on the job, I think most of the heavy lifting will be done within 6 months, then I can move in, and slowly work on the trim, floors, fixtures, etc. Can't wait!
I LOVE that wainscotting you made for your other apartment. Really nice. I hope you'll be able to get furniture up and down that crazy stairwell. Looks way tight. And I think the black marks on the brick are burned in, maybe something from the original manufacture. Anyway it all can look cool, if you adjust your aesthetic sense to look at it that way.
The tight staircase to the upper floor would be a death trap after even a moderate night of dinking. 🤣Great update the fireplace in the bedroom is going to look great 2x👍
It’s been 19 years but this series is very much making me miss Philly.
Im a contractor and every time we do a renovation project we rip out all the old solid wood doors and replace them with those cheap hollow core crappy doors! I hate how people think that looks much better! You can punch you're hand right through it 🙄
The one issue is these old doors are very narrow, not sure typical hardware will fit in it. Will have to figure that out
@@ChrisHytha Yes Lowe's and home depot have direct fit hardware to install locking mechanisms in those old doors they even have the gold plates and the skeleton key. They look like the originals.👍
As you are talking about some of the original features and your plans of how to use some of them I was taken back to many years of watching "This Old House". One of my favorite show in its days, but now I've got your channel. I'm thrilled, wishing you all the best with your endeavor.
I've watched a bunch of excerpts from that series here on youtube through the process. Thanks for following along!
I love all the small details. Nice to see the old character of the house coming back ❤
Just a suggestion. When you take those doors down they need to be numbered so that you will know where they belong when you go to rehab them. Excited for your journey.😊
So glad the UA-cam algorithm recommended the first video in this series to me. Been watching every update since and will keep watching!
Thanks for your support!
i absolutely love this series!!! this is not something i'd be interested in usually, but you explain the plans in just the right ways to not dumb it down but still let average people like me understand it and it rocks. i love seeing the plans and hearing about the history and all of the little things that go into something like this. i'll be following for as long as you keep uploading :)
It's an 1875 house. If you want artifacts it might be worth excavating the privy. For history enthusiasts who buy row homes it's kind of a rite of passage. Costs nothing and they threw all sorts of rubbish down there, including crockery, pipes, oyster shells, broken tools and anything else they would otherwise have to pay to have removed. I remember reading somewhere that prisoners from Eastern State Penitentiary cleaned them out occasionally, but privy pits took about 15 to 25 years to fill and I've never known anyone to dig out one of these pits and find nothing. That little alley between you and your neighbor should lead to the pit.
very interesting idea. I need to read into the history of the privy to get a better idea for where it might be. Thanks for the tip!
TKe the doors to the professionals....they submerge the doors in tanks ....viole! Fabulous clean doors ready to be oiled....no paint, please!!!! Love your channel! Use an old crockpot to boil hinges and hardware for several days...then drop in ice water...paint has been softened...metal contracts...nasty old paint comes off easily...repeatedly as needed :)
Thanks for your tips! Can't wait to get to all the little details of the project
Viole? I guess I should be grateful you didn't write "wallah."
My sister once played the viole.
your editing style is so snappy and addictive to watch, i don’t normally engage as much as i have with your channel but it’s quickly become one of my favourites :)
Thanks for your support!
best part of my day
Thanks for tuning in!
I like the modification ideas. A shelf in the entry way with a lamp and some plants with the backdrop of brick is gonna look sick
I've been loving these weekly episodes! As someone currently growing up in the greater philly area, I hope to one day do what youre doing and preserve a piece a history! Keep it up!
Always great to hear from locals! thanks for following the project, and I hope you get the opportunity to do the same one day
Seeing that brick chimney exposed was so cool, it’s funny that back then, they covered up that standard workmanship as a matter of course. The 1970s were bad, but even today I’m watching several houses in my neighborhood get additions that are basically just space-maximizing boxes that lack character, and for some reason people are replacing/covering perfectly good hardwood floors with “luxury vinyl plank” (plastic) flooring.
at least that LVP is preserving that old floor for someone who will appreciate it done the line!
Brick is notoriously DIRTY. You expose brick and your house is ALWAYS dusty. And dust sticks to the bricks and builds up and is tedious and almost impossible to keep clean, unlike plastered and whitewashed or papered walls. Seems to me it's always men talking about how cool an exposed brick wall is - because they don't clean and don't notice how much dirtier brick walls are than any other surface.
My fireplace is brick, and I haven’t found it to be a source of dust…but more generally, it isn’t 1970 or 1990 anymore, the idea that men don’t clean is hilarious. I’m a stay at home dad, do most of the cleaning, all the cooking…
dude I'm on for the long run here. keep going!
Thanks for following the process! Its going to be a long one
So glad I found this channel. Been very fun to follow the series so far.
Thanks for following along! I appreciate it
I'm managing to catch your uploads mostly at lunch time (in New Zealand). Not too short, not too long, just a perfect video length to eat lunch to 😁
Always cool to hear from the international audience! Would love to visit New Zealand some day
I'm really enjoying Michael Cera working on renovating an old home, cool to see him branching out from acting!
I had to leave acting behind
Love your ideas for showcasing the history of the house, the brick wall with a skylight above is going to be stunning. It's also great that you are meeting with contractors that were interested enough to reach out after seeing your video. Great idea.👍
My Dad had a row home in Fishtown in the 80s and 90s. It was a dirt buy back then. Your place brings back good memories of the place from my childhood. I love the stairs, but I've slid down them on my butt more than once.
So my take on the black brick, our house was built in 1971. It’s most likely from a hot spot with firing?? But all in all i love your videos on the house! You’re living the dream 😂 good luck and can’t wait to check in to see more! :) 14:35
12:04 - get yourself some proper cold chisels for removing that stuff. There are some with a very wide tip that will go through that material much faster.
I am in love with the fact that you're not just painting the whole thing landlord white it's a nice change of pace from seeing a lot of flippers on here (especially the flippers who don't know what the hell they're doing... I have seen things... load-bearing drywall...)
Thanks for your support! I strive for more than the landlord special.
This is so much fun to watch! I’m already worried what I’m going to do when you finish the whole project…..🤔😏
Hopefully you’ll invite us to accompany you on future ones, too! 🤗
Your wainscoting is beautiful! It has so much more personality than so many of the DIYs I’ve seen on UA-cam!
Thank you! Can't wait to get into all these little details on the new house
I just found your channel and have been binging it with Grandpa (contractor). Thanks for giving us something to watch together.
Depending on how the brick were originally "fired" the black could be from a wood fired kiln and its just part of the character of the brick. Since these bricks were actually supposed to be plastered over, they were "inferior" quality and that too might be the black traces on them.
Thanks for the insight! Might have to live with them, just part of the character
Second this possibility: I'm guessing if they are packed in tight, some of the bricks get less oxygen leading to a reduction firing. The red in bricks is basically iron and oxygen, but without oxygen iron goes black. This is sometimes done intentionally (those black bricks you see in some new construction, I know this from working with pottery to get different colors in a glaze or in the ceramic itself)
Love people who know their history.
Your photos are amazing. And yes, that stucco is beyond bad. 😬 I am sure it’ll look great when you’re finished with it.
Nice that you had an original fireplace behind that wall! My house had everything stripped out. I did put in a faux fireplace--got an old mantel on eBay that was (allegedly) pulled from an old Phila mansion, tiled the surround, and placed an old tin cover in the middle (also eBay). My house also had a nice cornice on top that was largely intact, and a half-moon window and carved molding around the front door (all had been covered with siding, but I exposed them). Those are about the only nice details my house had left. When I exposed the brick, I simply used a dry wire brush. They came out very clean, and I had the mason put a matte sealer on them after tuck pointing.
As I've mentioned in a previous video, I'm doing a house renovation at the moment too. I've actually ripped my fire place out and am replacing it with a wood burning stove. Sure, they're not as nice as an open fire, but efficiency wise, they certainly take the cake. Would recommend something similar if you are looking to get a "fire" for the main room
So glad you exposed that brick in the bedroom. How lucky to have found such a beautiful lintel on that fireplace! Also, thanks for sharing the footage of the wainscoting at your other house. I'd noticed it in one of your videos and paused the frame to zoom in. Well done.
Great job on this video. I like the drawings on the wall, the shots of different rooms, but the dialog kept on a rollin. Atta boy!
Thanks for the support! A bit of a different tone in this video with the calm "look back in history" type music. Glad you enjoyed it. Leave a like!
That will be a really lovely feature brick wall in that bedroom.
Goated series
Glad you're enjoying it. Its fun documenting the process!
So happy to see you exposing the brick!!!
I love all of the exposed brick. Schoolhouse Homestead (UA-cam Channel) also had to find a process to clean and preserve newly exposed brick. Theirs is beautiful and I recommend their channel.
I can’t wait to see more progress on your home and I’m so excited for you!
The black in the brick may still be there, but the rest of the brick looks so much better. My uncle liked the 'klinkers' he'd get from an old San Diego brickyard, a lot of them had that same black staining. BTW, I bought one of those Craftsman shop vacs in 1978 and it's still going strong. It's held together with duct tape and pinch clamps, but during our remodel, our contractor burned through two newer ones before I told him to stop buying them and just use mine. It finished the project. It will not die.
I am so excited to see this renovation!! You have such fantastic ideas! I hope you can find something to clean that brick. You are bringing back the former glory of this house and I can't wait to see it!
Thanks for following the project! Its going to be a fun one
Love the unveiling of the fireplace!
5:30 thats a fun transition!
That fireplace detail is awesome!
I love the wainscoting you put into your apartment, it was beautiful!
I wish I had your talent! That home is going to be a masterpiece when you are done! Keeping my fingers crossed that your permits come in next week!
Thanks for your support! I hope so too
I will start architecture school next year and seeing your videos just makes me more excited! Love the house and the plan you have for it, keep it up 👏👏👏
Good luck in school! Enjoy the process
Love an exploratory demo moment
So pleased to see the upstairs' fire place and chimney have survived.
Its a nice little feature to uncover! Thanks for following the project
That trim cutter is awesome!
Wow that wainscoting is beautiful
Thank you!
yess my favorite channel
Welcome back!
Cool, please post more often! (Easier said than done!)
I think once a week is about the extent of my ability right now, but eventually I might do some mid week recap videos, like at the 6 month mark, or maybe some in between videos about other topics
God i love this series. Its amazing the algorithm blessed me with your channel, and i hope it continues blessing you as well.
Thanks for your support! Always happy to hear that people are enjoying the series. Make sure to leave a like!
@@ChrisHytha thank you for the great weekly content, can't wait to see how this comes along. Always!
Those interiors you showed at the beginning were gorgeous. Very cool to see
I absolutely love these old homes, there were some I saw that needed a lot of work that had many details maintained, but they were well out of my price range unfortunately, so now I get to do my best in recreating them! I hope to make those craftsman of the 1800s proud
Keep cooking brother. Once again commenting for the algorithm. Always looking forward to your weekly vids
Thanks for your support!
Love your ideas. Looking forward to watching your progress.
I love the pictures of the houses, the house itself is beautiful but the colors are great!
You're doing a great job! It is awesome to see the history preserved yet modified.
History with a twist
Fair chance that the bricks are just gonna... look like that. They often "leach" from ambient moisture coming in one way or another. Wouldn't know what makes it black (I've seen white, usually), but I suspect it's the same process.
Thanks for the feedback!
Awesome update! I appreciate the time and effort it takes to post consistently. Can't wait to see what happens next
Thanks for following the project! I enjoy the process of documentation, and it helps keep me moving on the project, and gives me time to reflect too!
For the living room fire place, if you wanted to reproduce the look of an actual fireplace, you could go the electrical fireplace route, encased by the mantle you plan on putting there.
So stoked to find this channel early on in the process!
You did a great job on that wainscoting. Looks great! That is a cool house!
Wonderful video. This has been a fascinating ride. Thanks for sharing this informative and entertaining journey. Stay safe and have fun. All the best!
Excellent and informative drop. Thank you
This is my favourite series on UA-cam. Thank you for sharing your journey with us.
Hey buddy. Great to see you & the house. What a treat the fireplace was , shame about ya neighbour. Very considerate off you to go the long way round well done. Your house will be beautiful when it’s finished I’m sure. Good luck with the dust. It’s a rainy day here in 🇬🇧
I really appreciate you treating us to a tiny demo each episode regardless the delays🥲
Just one little project at a time until the permits come through
Hey really admire what you are doing, after living through a few of these old timer renovations I would strongly recommend that you take the home back to its bones and repair or replace as needed, so much easier, quicker and at the end of the day it will work out to be cheaper. Strip all of the lathe and plaster out and any drywall, that should be your starting point.
Hey best of luck, I am watching hoping you find a path through all of the dust. Oh you should also do a hazardous materials test of the homes interior finishes looking for any asbestos and lead paint.
LOVE this series.
Thanks for your support!
Thanks for creating this channel and posting regular updates. I moved to Wheeling WV to restore a an old row house. There is something magical about it that simply can’t be put into words.
I totally agree! I have lived all my life in homes built before 1930, and I always love to think of the many families that came before me, and what their lives might have been like. I love old homes!
Black dog architectural salvage is in Roanoke, Virginia. They had a television series.
I like the dark spots, it breaks up the uniformity and really shows the age
7:48 wow! Such beautiful work. All the trim details really elevated it compared to most DIYs I've seen
👍 I like your thinking. 😊
I can’t believe you had a whole other video of another cool project, and we get to see these awesome videos each week?! Thank you for sharing :)
Bro, I don't know what possessed you to take your thumbnails in this direction, but they're so unique & charming. Using the Rowhouse photoset was truly inspired & they have such an avant-garde feel. I really wanted to commend you on them bc they're such an important aspect to growing your channel.
It should be a crime that you biked all over America & those vids don't even have 1k views. Can't wait to watch you on HGTV one day! Rooting for you my dude.
Thanks for your support! Lots of thumbnails out there that are all the same, I thought just using the art without any text or distraction would be refreshing
My grandfather's house had an exposed brick wall in the family room where the fireplace was and it was one of my favorite features in the home growing up. It has a very cozy feel to it.
There's another series I started watching where the owners took great care in trying to reveal the brick for their inner walls. "Schoolhouse Homestead" -- they posted a video about 4 months ago detailing how they went about clearing the plaster off and sealing the bricks. ("6 months of exposing & "sealing" our brick walls + the school's FIRST cocktail party!") Maybe something there might give some ideas on how to approach cleaning the brick? You might be able to consult with a masonry expert but I don't know how much of a dent that'll put in your budget.
I'm excited to see how this pans out!!! 😁
Thanks for your tip, and thanks for following the project! I have seen some of that schoolhouse homestead series, very cool
I’ve seen a product called Lincrusta used as wainscoting with a dark stain in an historic home-very durable!
Thanks so much. I am thoroughly enjoying this series. I love that you are using a different image for the thumbnail each week. Clever. Your production values are excellent.
Thank you! It was fortunate that I just so happened to have this collection of 100 rowhome images ready to go for this series. It is really full circle! Thanks for following along
I did the exposed beams in my basement. I had to move all the plumbing from the radiators up and reroute the electric through the beams. I left about 6 inches visible and used sheet rock to hide the wiring and plumbing. Nicest room in the house now.
Good video editing and content. You did a wonderful job with the wainscoting. It's the details that make the diff. Those Kreg jigs are great btw. 😊
Thanks for your support! That project was a great warm up for many more to come!
Been following since week 2, and this really reminds me of old episodes of This Old House, in all the best ways.
Thanks for following the process! This Old House is a great series, I've watched a ton of excerpts on youtube