Heater room

The water heater and furnace sat together in a little cubby hole between the bathroom and the little room that nobody knew what to do with. The idea kept being batted around about what to do with this little space. The heating guys said that the furnace couldn't be moved so at first we were just going to replace it, then we decided it would be best to take out the wall that surrounded it. I happened to have Cort over helping out for the day and there was no way that I was going to pass up on the opportunity of using his muscles and willingness to volunteer.

He used the saws all and just cut right through the studs after we'd pulled off the outer wall. It came out in one big piece and we just took it right out to the dumpster. That was so much easier than hauling it out in buckets one stick at a time. I don't think that I've ever admitted that to Dave and Roger, it really wasn't me that day it was all Cort.

After a few more days of discussion the water heater came out and went into the dumpster. That was all Ben one morning early before school. I'm so grateful to be surrounded by men with muscles. The new water heater will be put into the utility room and the heater will replaced with a new one right where the old one stands.

One last chimney

We had one last chimney to go, the one in the kitchen. This one didn't go up through two floors, just one level so it went pretty fast. The rock that sat under that little chimney was huge. There was no way it was coming up. Whoever put that chimney meant for it to stay. But they had never reckoned with  a sledge hammer wielded by me, a woman with a goal in mind. A chimney-less house. Well not really, just an open floor plan.

The Beam

See this little beam up there? It really isn't little at all, it is huge. Once the kitchen wall was completely removed the joists had to be tied into something to hold up the kitchen roof. Crazy right? Who knew? Not me, another one of those times when I'm just amazed at how very little I know about anything. This little house on center street totally would have collapsed on top of us if we'd tried this on our own. Roger is worth his weight in gold. And all he's gotten out of this is the 11 cents he's found under the floorboards.

November 11 - The Utility Room

It was time to face the utility room. Pretty sure this is where most of the old lady house smell was coming from. It smelled pretty yucky in there, but it had to be faced. There is a kind of tile board like ish stuff, then some more wallpaper, then the infamous cork/insulation board and finally we could see the studs. Roger had already cut into the floor trying to find where the crawlspace was so we knew that it wasn't going to be pretty down there, but we really had no idea. There had been a lot of leaking for a long time and where you have leaking you have mold and that is not a pretty sight.

November 8 - time for the kitchen floor

The time had come to pull up the kitchen floor. I'm pretty sure that day I had something really important that had to be done when this point reached us. I bailed on Roger and Dave, I'm embarrassed to admit and now I can't even remember what was so earth shattering that had to be done. The first layer was ugly, it had to go. The second layer - first linoleum - Roger thought might be saved. It might be salvageable, he had some in one of his rentals that he waxes and buffs up every time a renter moves out and it has stayed beautiful through the years. Ummm, well, this became one of those negotiation points. After a bit of give and take, me doing most of the taking, I got my way and it went. What a baby I am. I didn't even pull it up after saying that we weren't going to keep it. 

It may have been beautiful to the original owner who put it in, but I just wasn't seeing it. That stuff really stuck to the floorboards. It came up in huge chunks that had to be hauled out and dumped.

So remember that flooring that Roger wouldn't let me throw out because he had a long term plan for it? That plan has been from the beginning to save every possible penny that could be saved and use up what could be used again. This is one of those places.

This is where the staircase was originally. Roger put in new joists across the floor and used the pieces to fill it in so that Tanner's room will have a floor in it. Every piece fits together just like a puzzle. It always works out, I don't know how it does, well yes I do, it's because Roger stays awake all night figuring out how it's all going to work the next day. And just like that...he does it!

Where does this all come from?

So this is kind of hard to see, but it a little bit scary when you're right there in the middle of it all. See that little pile of rubble there, under the window? Well it just kept getting bigger and bigger. It was tiny on the 7th of November, and I'm afraid that I got caught up in other things and it just kept growing expedientially. There was a time or two that I thought somebody was sneaking in at night and dumping in more debrise onto the pile. It wasn't until the Thanksgiving team came in that it was all finally all dumped out the window into the dumpster.

Puzzle pieces

So a lot went on today, Dave and Roger had a little look see to figure out a game plan for the heat ducts and wiring that would run under the floorboards. They also did a bit of tearing down upstairs and got it all by the door for me to haul out. Oh look at that glorious sunshine shining in there. And don't forget, nothing goes out that can't be used again. A couple of times Roger has had to go dumpster diving after I got a little overzealous with my throwing out binges.

And somebody went back up into that attic again. Eeek!

November 7 - That kitchen wall is coming down

Yep, the kitchen wall had to come down. I know things are skipping a bit here, you can see in this picture that the stairs are in their new resting place. It's the magic of time travel, well not really, it's that, well remember how I got all excited earlier about showing off the stairs and the difference it makes having them on the other side of the room? Yep, we're starting to catch up with posts and real time here. Only have about a month's worth of work to show off and then you'll be all caught up.

But oh dear, look at that wiring that needs to be fixed. That little wire hanging there has the switch for the kitchen and the stair room. Kind of odd that they'd both be on the same side of the wall, but we are going to fix all that. We really are, right Dave?

Nov 1 - All sorts of wallpaper

The weather is still holding out and old wallpaper samples are popping out all over. Some are lovelier than others. These little lovelies are in the kitchen.

October 31 - What did you do on Halloween?

So Halloween this year found us upstairs chasing out any remaining haunts and spooks. Pretty sure there aren't any hiding up in the attic space. But there is a lot more insulation that we thought at first. But it still looked pretty scary up there. The upstairs chimney came down today and the upper vent...well it had to wait a day until Ben could come and pull it out. But down it came and out it went.

New Electrical box

Yep, out with the old and in with the new, lovely new electrical box that doesn't use fuses and real wiring is starting to go in. Even with this handy dandy helper kid the electrical is and was the slowest part. It's mid-December and it's still not all of the way done. But maybe if the designer would quit coming up with new bigger and better ideas...Nah that couldn't be the reason.

Finding the floor boards

Well the house is secure, the downstairs interior walls are disappearing and now it's time to look downward, the floorboards are ready and waiting to be discovered. So you'd think that you'd just rip off the old and get ready for the new right? Wrong. Roger carefully removed and saved each and everyone of the sub-flooring pieces. He said that he'd need them again, remember the hole left in the floor upstairs where the stairs were? Right that's just one spot where they'd be used again. Nicole Curtis is beaming down on us.

Slowly but surely the flooring is appearing. Now this wood is amazing. It is in every width imaginable. This wood is what separates the house from the rocks and dirt underneath. Some of them had to be cut, but even the split ones were saved to be puzzled back into the floor once we're ready to put down new sub-flooring. Remember the motto? Everything that can be used again can and will be.

Oct 27 - The hole in the floor

So one morning when I showed up at the little house on center street Roger had his feet dangling over the side of the floor into a pit that he was digging out of the foundation (or lack of) under the house. He had a little shovel and one shovelful at a time he was filling up buckets and taking the dirt out to the trailer. I started helping, finally, and could barely keep up with him and that shovel. He had pulled out a rock, no, more of a boulder - that I had to have Ben take to the trailer because I could barely scooch it across the floor to get it out of the way. All of this in about a 3 x 3 foot space. He reached down into that hole and pulled out that rock. I do not know how he does the things he does, have I used the word amazing yet today?

Anyway this spot is the heart of the house. After it was all dug out Roger poured cement into a mold and secured a post to it to hold up the retaining wall. It sounds easey peasey when you read it here in a paragraph or two, but believe me this was a feat that no mere mortal would ever think of undertaking himself, but Roger did think it, and then he did it. I think that it was at this point that I began to realize what we had actually had the audacity to ask a neighbor to do to help us on this project. He'd been here before, he knew what we were asking and still he said yes. Sometimes there are just too many blessing to count and too much gratitude to express. It most likely would have been better if we'd just added another layer of wallpaper and coat of paint and waited for the little house to just disintegrate into the earth, but at this point (a month and a half down the road) I am so glad we didn't just do that because as it all starts to come together I can't tell you how excited I am to see this project coming to fruition.

Oct 23 - Revelations

This is in the little room on the ground floor, This wall was a retaining wall, it seemed to be the one wall that held the whole house up. See that stud that seems to be leaning up against the one on it's left? That gave the support needed to hold up the house. The little cross piece, about an 8 inch 2x4 braced the leaner and leanee. I felt so much better after Roger put up a sturdy post mounted in cement to make sure everything didn't come tumbling down. 

Isn't it lovely how the lathe and plaster settles at the bottom of the studs. It actually becomes cement like when its settled that long and you have to take the prybar to it to get it out. Then you shovel it up into a bucket and pack it out to the trailer.

October 22 - Layers upon layers

Every time we reveal a new layer I wonder how the lady of the house felt when her rooms got a facelift. Nothing makes you feel better than a fresh coat of paint or new curtains. But there are times that you just have to start again from scratch because carrying all that weight around can really start to weigh you down. But there were some really lovely wallpapers in the little house on center street. And then there were some that I'm pretty sure Erv and Sherley found at a garage sale at a wonderful price. Did I say hideous? No not me! All fresh and clean now thank heavens. Why did we ever think that wallpaper was a wonderful thing. Especially a wonderful thing if it was just added on top of the old stuff.

October 20 - Such good kids

These kids are absolutely the best. They don't always like to hang out with grandma down at the little house on center street, but they entertain themselves one way or the other when I'm distracted with my fun projects for the day. This was really a good feeling once that old back porch was torn off. I don't know why it gave me the heebie jeebies so bad, but it was like a breath of fresh air. I love that old wood back there, I don't think it would hold up too good through the winter so we'll have to cover it over a bit until we decide what to do about siding.

And there's that stump. My nemesis. On this day we were still friends and I was thinking that it might be fun to cover it over good with polyurethane and use it on a back patio. I'm really glad Roger was wise enough to see beyond my wild craft dreams and squelch them before they became nightmares.