A 1948 cottage that needed systems, not a new personality.

Fictional house in Wagener Terrace, north of the Crosstown. Seven months from permit drawings to the last paint. Sample demo figure $468,000. The family in the story lived elsewhere from March through July.

Gray shingled house with a white porch, dormers, and black shutters — Porch-and-dormer stand-in. The written house is a smaller 1948 cottage than this photograph.

Place: Wagener Terrace
Built: 1948, in the story
Duration: 7 months
Demo figure: $468,000

The cottage had its porch, its hip roof, and a floor plan of small rooms off a center hall. Wiring was cloth in places. The one bath still had a linen closet converted into a shower that never quite drained. The kitchen faced a neighbor’s wall. Nothing about the street front was the problem, and the scope left it alone except for paint, a rebuilt stair rail, and new screens.

Drawings took six weeks. The noisy work — electrical, a heat pump and ducts, plumbing, and the bath rebuild — sat in the middle five months while the house was empty. Finish, the kitchen, and the porch deck were the last eight weeks, and the family came back before the porch ceiling was painted, which the schedule had allowed.

Systems

New panel, replaced cloth where it was still in the walls we opened, and a heat pump with ducts in a lowered hall ceiling rather than a chase that would have eaten a bedroom. Demo portion of the $468,000: $96,000.

Two baths

The hall bath was rebuilt with a curbed shower that drains, beadboard to the chair rail, and a window that already existed. A small bath off the back bedroom replaced a closet. Demo portion: $74,000. Photograph below is a newer bath, used only as a fixture stand-in.

Kitchen

Turned to face the back yard. Painted doors, soapstone, and the same brass as the baths. The exterior wall stayed; a wider window went in under the existing head height. Demo portion: $112,000.

Porch, floors, paint

Cypress decking, column bases that were soft, screens, and plaster repair in the front rooms. Heart pine in the hall was sanded, not replaced. Demo portion: $81,000. The remainder of the sample total is drawings, permits in the story, and a contingency.

$96,000 + $74,000 + $112,000 + $81,000 = $363,000. Drawings, permits, and contingency in this demo make up the other $105,000, for a sample total of $468,000.

Open living and dining space with wood floors leading to a kitchen — Interior stand-in. The story keeps the center hall; this photograph is more open than the plan.

A bathroom vanity in blue-gray cabinets with a white stone top and a glass shower — Bath fixture stand-in, not the beadboard hall bath described in the scope.

Back to the kitchen sample Whole-home scope