Sweet equity
Perspiration, inspiration transform a smelly cat house
Steve Rodgers and Marah Hall always wake up with a smile, no matter how gloomy it is outside. Who could be glum in this blue, white and mellow gold master suite? The best part? They did most of it themselves, for $13,500.
The couple’s century-old Bloomfield house was chosen as a small project finalist (under $50,000) in the 2016-2017 Renovation Inspiration Contest, which is judged by staffers of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and Design Center Pittsburgh. As this year’s contest gets underway (see story at right), let’s look at how one couple did a wholehouse renovation for about $30,000 —with beautiful results.
At first sniff, there wasn’t much to love about this house. The previous owner had many cats and the odor of urine was “pretty strong,” Ms. Hall said. But it also had a pretty nice floorplan.
“We loved how open it is,” she said. “It’s very bright for a row house.”
His parents — George and Marie Rodgers of Franklin Park —- weren’t the only ones who had their doubts.
“We had that oh-my-goshwhat-have-we-done-moment,” Mr. Rodgers said. “But as you get it cleaned up, you start to see what it could become. That’s the exciting part.”
Job 1 was to get rid of the smell, which had seeped into the old plaster walls and pine floors. When cleaning didn’t help, the couple decided to seal the first-floor walls and ceilings with three coats of shellac. Then they tore out the soft pine floors and replaced them with hardwood — Kentucky-milled Appalachianhickory to be exact.
With help from his parents, they installed the flooring themselves, did all the demolition, stripped two brick fireplaces and restored and repainted original
five-panel doors.
“You gain more confidence as you go from one part to another,” he said.
One early confidencebuilder was turning a closet into a built-in bookcase. It was easy compared to stripping three layers of paint from the brick fireplace in the living room.
“This process was very tedious and took many hours,” Mr. Rodgers wrote in their contest entry.
When it was finished, they hired Absolute Chimney & Fireplace Restoration of Elizabeth Township to line the flue with stainless steel and convert the old gas burner to wood.
His 14-year daughter, Emma, took turns with the wire wheel to strip the chimney in the master bedroom, where the couple continued to build their DIY skills. Using the free home design software Homebyme (https://home.by.me/en/), Mr. Rodgers reimagined two bedrooms and a small bathroom as a master bedroom, vestibule with laundry and wardrobe and bright blue bathroom with exposed brick, ferns and an urban vibe. A transom and sliding French doors hung on barn door hardware carry sunlight throughout the master suite.
To make it happen, they removed one wall, gutted two others and exposed brick on a decorative fireplace and a bathroom wall where a gold vessel sink rests upon a vanity created from a repurposed desk left by the previous owner. W.J. McNabb of Robinson did the plumbing Grabenstein of and Butler Jason laid the brushstroke oyster tile. Everything else is the work of Mr. Rodgers, Ms. Hall and his parents. His mother refinished the desk/vanity and his father redid the original doors, filling hundreds of nail holes and repainting all of them. They also surprised the couple by landscaping their front yard while they were away. Since the birth of their daughter, Tomma, nearly 6 months ago, the couple have slowed but not stopped their work. They recently finished converting the unfinished basement into a TV/ exercise room with colorful carpets from Wayfair and a fabric ceiling made from Oly-Fun polypropylene, which is flame-retardant and inexpensive. The fabric draped across the 20- by- 17foot ceiling cost about $75 online and neatly covers plumbing and other utility lines. LED lights mounted behind the fabric give the room a gentle glow.
“I Googled fabric ceilings and found lots of photos,” Mr. Rodgers explained. “Apparently they were a big thing in the 1970s.”
He also has ideas for updating the kitchen with white cabinetry, another exposed brick fireplace and maybe butcher-block counter tops. They plan to preserve the unique whale’s tail cabinet pulls left by the previous owner. Now that the odor is gone, the pulls are all that remain of the cat house that once scared his parents.
“I think they’re very surprised how nice it turned out,” Mr. Rodgers said, laughing. “They’re tickled pink.”