Making a rundown house livable in just 6 months

Strings attached

But then there was that magical tower, holding eight-sided rooms on all three floors. A friend showed us a picture of the house taken just four years after it went up, and we knew that with new siding and a restored porch, it could once again stand proud.

Though Merle was fairly new to the world of home renovations, I'd fixed up several places, most recently a 1920s house in the same area of upstate New York, while working as a musician. Of course, making this place livable was going to be a real challenge, and the only way to afford it was to do the work ourselves.

A local bank agreed to lend us the full purchase price plus the cost of renovations, but with a sobering string attached: We would have just six months to make any major structural fixes and get the plumbing and electrical up to code.

Our plan, which our friends immediately deemed crazy, was this: I'd ignore my other work and do the demolition and electrical and structural repairs full-time while Merle would log hours at night and on weekends scraping off wallpaper and pulling up carpets and linoleum. We'd hire a carpenter to restore the main porch, using the 1891 picture as a guide. And because Newburgh requires plumbing and roofing by town-licensed pros, we'd get help there, too.

Shown: The front exterior before renovations. Homeowners Merle Becker and Chris Hanson in front of the house after the crumbling first- and second-floor porches came down.

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Old 'charm'

We steeled ourselves as we prepared to move in. It was February and freezing. Bats were still nesting in one hallway, and we could hear pigeons cooing under the floorboards in our bedroom. Before the end of move-in day, we got hit by another surprise: The old water main burst. No running water.

Shown: The foyer before. The balustrade and newel post were covered in old varnish and black grime.

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Refreshed, yet preserved

We joined a gym for its showers, started "borrowing" water from a neighbor's spigot — and learned to pee in a bucket. Gross, yes, but true. We also had no heat. That meant sleeping in jeans and sweatshirts, and throwing on coats when venturing beyond the bedroom.

While waiting for the water main to be repaired — it would end up taking a couple of months — we made new wiring our priority. Some rooms had no outlets, and the ones that did supplied voltage too weak to run power tools. Luckily, I was able to snake wires through walls, so I didn't have to rip through them. Tedious, but Merle and I were adamant about preserving the plaster wherever possible.

Shown: Becker and Hanson stripped and stained the woodwork. Several 1940s magazine covers found in the house became a stairwell gallery.

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Painted molding

To stay on schedule for the plumbers — who would be putting in a boiler and water heater, replacing several radiators and waste lines and roughing in our kitchen and a new first-floor bathroom — we set up shop in the living room with a table saw and a sawhorse for stripping doors and adding another coat to the salvaged painted molding.

Shown: A painted medallion sets off a fixture and echoes Hanson's stencil work. Wall paint: Valspar's Beachcomber

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Kitchen nightmare

Back when the house had been converted to a two-family home, a tiny bathroom was jammed into a corner of the main kitchen. I decided to take it out and let the kitchen reabsorb the square footage. We realized we needed to reframe and insulate walls in the kitchen, so Merle added demolition to her will-do list as we donned masks, grabbed hammers and pry bars, and took it down to the studs.

Shown: The kitchen before. Extensive water damage had made a sad situation worse.

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Salvaged breakfast bar

Shown: After gutting the room and annexing a tiny bath, the homeowners finished the kitchen with a ceramic-tile floor and a breakfast bar fashioned from mahogany floorboards and poplar legs left over from previous projects.

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The kitchen after

We figured the original hearth would remain the perfect spot for the stove. While tiling the surround, I caught sight of a piece of plywood and pried it loose, and a ton of bricks came crashing through the flue within inches of my head. Guess that was one way to remove the remnants of a crumbling chimney. At least we were able to use the bricks to line a path in the backyard.

Shown: Sunny walls, crisp white trim and cabinets, and an embossed aluminum backsplash brighten the cleanup area. For added warmth, the ceiling was painted a metallic bronze. Cabinets: Lowe's; wall paint: Valspar's Fools Gold (below picture rail).

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The living room

The other chimney got a new cap and gas insert, and a window company replaced 33 windows. With help from a plumber, we turned a spare room into a spacious downstairs bath, converted the upstairs kitchen to a bathroom, and made the old upstairs bath a laundry room.

Six months later, we made our deadline — with an extension to finish the siding. With the loan in hand, we were able to pause and plan other fixes in the rest of the house.

Shown: A new gas insert made the living room fireplace functional once again. Becker and Hanson sanded and stained the pine floor themselves.

Wall paint: Valspar's Bonsai

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Vintage dining room

In the octagonal dining room, the couple created a vintage look with painted pressed-cardboard ceiling tiles and a ribbon of gold trim. The piano was the one Becker learned to play on as a child. The chandelier came from a home center.

Wall paint: Warm Mahogany

• See this rundown house's complete transformation on ThisOldHouse.com

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Design center Get ideas for your home with our inspirational rooms and direct access to real products. Click here to begin exploring.