Risky "Bees"ness

This morning, while much of Genesee was still asleep, we were abuzz with excitement at the brick house.  Friends Tim, Dan, and Colby came to help extract the honeybees from the soffit.  Tim raises honeybees on his homestead, so he offered to come and help with the venture and take the insects home with him.  After suiting up and climbing the scaffold (no small feat for Tim who sprained his ankle a couple of days ago), the guys tore off gutters and shingles and the honeycomb was revealed.  They were all covered with bees as they gathered the swarm  into buckets for travel.  After an hour and a half of working, it was deemed a success.

Men at work

Layers of the honeycomb.  So amazing!

Colby wears many hats.  Right after this pic, he put his Genesee Reds cap on and went to coach his team at a tournament.  

And you thought pegging pants was cool.  This get-up is the bees knees.

Shout out to bees.

Unexpected Adventures

Next week we will start a huge endeavor: the roof.  If you've been following along, you know the roof is in rough shape.  The shingles are crumbling, and the roof is leaking in many areas, causing moisture, damage, and mold in some areas.  The completion of the new roof will be the biggest milestone for us so far.  Once it's finished, we can move on with the clean up and repair of the interior of the house.

Even though the roof is a big enough project in itself, there are some snags that we have to untangle before we can tackle it.  One obstacle we have already taken on is the poison ivy.  Alongside the porch, a vine was wrapped around the pillars and lattice underneath the porch.  We were unsure what this was until last weekend when my cousin Jason came to visit.  He noticed that the vine was growing "leaves of three".  It was the first time we noticed any leaves, and so we researched them, and found that they were identical to poison ivy.  Lovely.  So, taking all precautions, Jack suited up and started to remove the dreadful plant, taking several showers intermittently throughout the day.  Not only was the ivy hard to remove out of the ground, but it had wrapped itself around the pillars of the porch, and around a column.  When the ivy came out, out popped a column, and down came the porch roof.  Thankfully, Jack was prepared and not in the way of being hit.  This was unexpected, but that's what we are in the market for when dealing with a house in disrepair for so many years.

This Friday, we will tackle the honeybees living in the soffit of the roof.  Life is exciting in our neck of the woods.

The columns under the porch are over 12' apart.  We figure the poison ivy had a span of about 20 feet.

Roof before.  It was in bad shape anyway.  Notice the ivy around the pillar and lattice.

Roof after.  

New life for an old shed

Now that the electrical and plumbing work is done inside the house, and most of the demolition and debris removal complete, we have moved outside to spruce things up a bit.  We are at somewhat of a standstill on the house until we can get the new roof on.  There are many leaks, and we don't want any new progress to be damaged by water. Since the weather has been beautiful, we'd rather be outside anyway.

 When we purchased the house, there were three outbuildings.  Even though they were all standing, two were beyond repair.  One we thought was worth saving, and that is what we are in the process of doing now.  We love the look of the weathered wood, and we are trying to salvage what we can as we remove it.  According to a tax assessment from the 1950's, this was a "goat shed".  We will be using it as a chicken coop and a place for our lawn equipment in the future.  It has been a family affair, and a great learning project.  Jack is teaching me how to roof, a skill I've always wanted to learn.  I'm content with shingling the chicken shed; I'll leave the house roof to the experts and less faint of heart.

The shed on the left is the one we are redoing.  There were many holes in the roof; it had been in disrepair for many years.  The one on the right has been torn down.

Bringing new life to an old building.  It's a work in progress.

Building Character

I haven't posted in a while, mostly because there isn't a lot of exciting work happening at the moment. That does not mean that progress isn't being made, however.  We are learning that this is a slow, often monotonous, process.  It's fun to work when you can see visible results, but when you can't see much, it's hard.  This work needs done though, and so we trudge on.

Almost all of the electrical and plumbing is done, and that is a huge accomplishment.  Jack has been able to teach the boys some electrical skills along the way that will benefit them for the rest of their lives.  He has also been putting in vents throughout the house.  Nancy has been my constant sidekick, helping me remove old insulation mixed with bat guano.  Gross. She has been an amazing help to us.   We sound like Darth Vader with our respirators on, and we have to practically yell to hear each other talking.  It's fun in a character building kind of way.  We have found some treasures beneath the insulation, one of the best being a box of hinges and other hardware that were used in the house originally.  They were wrapped individually and are brand new.  It's amazing to see the difference between a new hinge and one with 115 years of patina.  Another fun find was a bottle of Foso Bark Soap in it's original box.  Foso Bark Soap was used for hair growth, namely in women who were losing their locks. I imagine it was similar to snake oil.

As the weather has taken a turn for the better, we have also spent  more time outside.  The sheds and their contents need sifted through, and most things need thrown out or burned.  In the only viable shed we found the original interior shutters.  They are in mostly good shape, even though they need a little TLC.  We took them inside, and I will work on refinishing them at a later time.  The cool thing is that the butterfly hinges on the shutters are the same as the ones on the built-in pantry, and the same ones we found in the attic.  I really feel like it's all going to come together someday.  

Foso Foam- None Genuine Without the Golden Head.   "Removes all scalp diseases, and produces a luxuriant growth of hair upon a  Bald Head and stops hair from falling."

Standing Tall

The new chimneys are in, and are looking great.  Miller and Richard did an excellent job of reconstructing them while preserving their original look.  We also had them lined so that they will be functional.  I was thinking of how lovely a fireplace would be to sit in front of on a day like today.  If it has to snow in April, we might as well enjoy it in front of a fire.  :)

The final product.  A work of art!

Steve Keefer worked diligently rebuilding these.  We are very pleased with how they turned out.

Putting in the liner

A penny for your thoughts

As the chimneys have been going up outside, we have been making headway within the house. We've been plenty busy, but most of the work is behind the walls, so it's hard to see progress.  While rooms are being wired by the men (young and old), my mother-in-law has been helping me scrape wallpaper from the rooms downstairs.  She often comes many days a week to help with this tedious work, and has been a huge blessing to us.

While she was helping Jack in an upstairs bedroom, a coin between two floorboards caught her eye.  She pulled it up and found this 1904 Indian head penny, in great condition.  What a great find!  It isn't really valuable in the monetary sense, but it's unique and will be a piece of history for us to treasure.

Movin' On Up

One big project that needs done before we can tackle the roof is repairing the chimneys.  These brick beauties have withstood the elements for 115 years, and it shows.  Jack is capable of doing masonry, but we decided to leave this big project to the experts.  Our friends at Miller & Richard Masonry are capable of restoring them not only to look great, like they were original to the house, but perfectly functional too.  We plan on using gas inserts in the fireplaces, and will cover them with the original cast iron covers.

This week when I saw the Miller & Richard trailer pulled in front of our home, I was really excited.  We have put in countless hours there already, but seeing someone else putting some TLC into the house really made me feel like progress is happening on a bigger level.  Once the chimneys are repaired, and Jack is on break for school, we can take on the biggest project yet: the roof.  It really is in dire need of replacement; the shingles are literally just crumbling away.  

I find myself driving by a couple of times a day, just because it's so good to see the old girl getting a makeover.  She deserves it. 

Miller & Richard to the rescue!

Climbing the scaffold is not for the faint of heart.

You can see how the bricks are coming apart

Kind of like the Castle Park...for adults

115 years later