Transformation in Progress

For the last several weeks, we have been finishing drywall, painting, tiling, cleaning, installing lights and alarms, scraping, oiling, and the list goes on.  We have been working right along one room at a time.  It seemed not so long ago that weeks of work produced little in visible results; now that is not so.  When the rooms first started to come together with drywall, it looked like it would be livable.  When we applied paint, it started to feel more like home.  Now, with the lighting in and trim back up, I'm amazed.  It's beautiful.  Aside from more cleaning, flooring, and oiling woodwork,  we are finished upstairs.  Finished.  It's a glorious feeling.

At the end of last week, we moved all of our supplies downstairs to start renovations.  Jack had a picture in mind when it came to our kitchen design and I can't wait to see what the end result will look like.   I have had plenty of input when it comes to where I want cabinets and appliances, but I trust his ability to make it elegant and functional.  We are re-purposing old cabinets, and it will be my job to sand and refinish them. I will get to that as soon as the Potter County Fair showing is done. I love working on the house, but I do have my priorities. :)

I'm having trouble deciding what to do with the old yellow pine flooring that is throughout the upstairs, and I could use your suggestions.  Should we carpet the bedrooms and paint the hall floor  to add more comfort, or should we paint all of the pine floors (which, btw, are already painted a mustard color and they are quite uneven, making them hard to sand) and have area rugs in bedrooms to keep the old house charm?  Either way, we plan on adding a carpet runner up the stairs and down the hall.

Landing

Library

Bathroom

New hallway.   

Laundry room

Cleaned woodwork with new walls

Inner Beauty

It's been a long time since I have written, but for good reason.  We have been working as much as we can, and real progress is being made.  For the past few weeks, we have hung and finished drywall, primed, painted (who knew picking paint colors would be so stressful!), installed a powder room, cleaned woodwork, and worked outside.  It is becoming more beautiful every day and we're more eager to move in all of the time.  However, it's good that we are able to work on it without living there, because the dust is near and far throughout the entire house.

We have had so many people come and help with various projects, and we are grateful for their help.  In fact, we're gearing up for a crew to come and help us tomorrow with some tasks, and I am excited to see what will be accomplished.  As I write this, we are almost finished with the upstairs and will be moving our tools downstairs next week.   In just over three weeks we have finished a laundry room, 2 bedrooms, a hallway, a stairway, a mudroom, and a powder room.  That's pretty amazing.  To everyone who has helped in any way: thank you.  You are a huge blessing to us.

One room down!

New drywall in the hallway. 

It's a family affair.

New balcony floor.  We will install the railing as soon as it's fixed.

 

Moving Right Along

The week of June 8 was not as busy as the week before, but productive nonetheless.  The main roof was finished on Wednesday evening with the help of a few great guys. By Friday, both porch roofs were stable and shingled, the scaffold was removed, and the balcony had new flooring.   Jack's former student, Dan, was able to assist Jack for the entire week and was a huge help.  My mom,dad, mother-in-law, and I worked outside cleaning up the mess that was once a garage.  We pulled nails out of salvaged boards and burned the rest.

This week, we were able to start some new projects. It was refreshing to have a quieter week and let down a little bit.  Jack replaced exterior trim while his mom, my mom, and I worked outside and in the attic.  The attic was full of debris from ripping off the old roof, and it took several days to get it completely clean.  Nancy, my mom-in-law, has been my attic companion since we bought the house.  We've cleaned it over and again after different projects. It should be immaculate by the time we're moved in!  The last couple of days we have been putting up insulation and drywall.  It's great to see the walls come up and the rooms come together.  It won't be long and we'll be painting.

 It is a relief to be completely done with all things roof related.  As a clean up girl, I can say it would be just fine if I never saw another shingle, shake, or piece of tar paper ever again in my life.  :)

Front porch roof, rebuilt

Former garage

Drywall delivery!

An Epic Week, part 2

By Thursday morning, the roof was half-finished. The most challenging part of the project was done, and it felt great to have it behind us. While running errands, I would drive by that side of the house just to see the finished work.  I'm the kind of gal who likes to see results, and it felt good to see one side of the house completed.  All week long, passersby would slow down or even stop on the side of the road to see what we were doing.  We  received shouts of approval, honking horns, and even a thumbs-up.  It felt like our community was cheering us along, and we were encouraged to press on. By the end of the day, the portion of the roof we were working on was stripped, sheathed, papered, and partially shingled.  We replaced the rafter tails on the front porch and a lot of the trim that was damaged.  The day ended with a quick rain shower that resulted in a double rainbow right above the house.

The excitement began to wear off by Friday. We were all tired, and it was hard to keep motivated even though the end was in sight.  However, we kept chugging along, and by the end of the day the part of the roof we started was shingled, and the columns were put back on the porch.  We had an abundance of workers and not enough to do around the house, which was a great problem to have.  Some of us started tearing down the garage, which was in terrible shape.  The roof on the building was in disrepair for years and it was caving in.  Just before supper time, the clouds crept in and it started to pour.  After dinner, we finished cleaning up and called it a day.

On Saturday, the front porch roof was rebuilt, and the side porch roof was stripped.  Some friends, my dad, and I continued working on the garage, salvaging what we could.  The more boards we took off, the more unstable the building became.  When we saw supporting beams swaying, we knew it was time.  My dad was able to use his backhoe to knock the rest of the structure down. Even though the garage wasn't officially condemned, it was definitely a safety hazard.

It turned out to be an epic week. Almost finishing the roof was a huge accomplishment, but we were also able to tackle other projects that were not on the agenda.  We are so thankful for everyone that came, whether they were able to work or just give words of encouragement.  Our community is the best.

Replacing the columns

Our yard looked like a parking lot.

Notice the rainbow over the house.

An Epic Week, part 1

June 1st marked the beginning of "Roof Week", a week we looked forward to and loathed at the same time.  We knew it was going to be a huge task, and having people up on that mountain of a roof was unnerving for me.  As the time grew closer, some people we thought we had lined up for work backed out, mostly for reasons beyond their control.  Needless to say we felt a bit stressed.  However, we still had some great workers that were planning on helping us.

Sunday morning came, and the blessings began.  Our church stepped in and offered to help out with planning meals for the group of workers for the entire week.  Lunch and dinner were provided from Monday to Friday.  This was amazing and unexpected.  I was prepared to feed them, and it probably would have taken up most of my week, planning and executing meals.  Not only did these ladies step in and help, but we were completely spoiled with wonderful food all week long.  Other people also helped and dropped off cookies, coffee, water, and other things.  Amazing.

The weather was calling for rain on Monday, but we started anyway.  It was a bit drizzly to start, but it cleared up in the afternoon.  We had several guys there to assist us, a few of whom were Jack's former students.  The roof had three layers of shingles: two layers of asphalt and the original cedar shakes.  The cedar shakes were especially messy and were harder to remove than the asphalt shingles.  A group was on the roof working and others were on the ground sending up supplies and cleaning up debris.  We also had people working around other parts of the house tearing down porch roofs, trimming bushes, and tearing out that ugly antenna (thanks Dad!).  What a crazy and wonderful day! After working 13 hours, we went home.  The first portion of the roof was stripped, sheathed, papered, and partially shingled.  Nobody fell off the roof, and I breathed a sigh of relief.  Day one was complete.

On Tuesday we had more people, and the amount of work that was completed was awesome.  Our friend and pastor, Mel, and his construction crew came to help out for the day.  Friends and family were there once again, many just volunteering to help, even when their schedules were busy.   It was humbling and wonderful.  Day two ended with the most complicated (and leaky) part of the roof stripped, sheathed, papered, and partially shingled.  

On Wednesday, we finished shingling the section of the roof that we started the day prior and continued to work on the porches.   It was not our intention to work on the porches so much, but in order to roof the small gable above the balcony, we had to make the balcony straight and support it.  In order to support the balcony, the roof below it had to be rebuilt, and so on.  It was kind of like the book, If You Give a Mouse a Cookie.  It all had to be done eventually, so we went for it.  The porch roofs were in rough shape.  They were rotted out in many areas, and were very unstable.  Minus Jesse falling through the porch roof up to his waist, it went well. Wednesday ended up being very productive, even though we didn't work on the roof itself as much as we had planned.  We had new helpers come on Wednesday, as well as many others who had come the day prior.  We were full of gratitude.  

To be continued...

Assessing the porches

Shingles delivered, scaffold set 

Our Monday crew

Sheathing the roof 

Support system for the balcony gable.  The entire beam and some of the porch rafters needed to be replaced.

Our friend Trevor came to help out with one of the many dirty jobs.

Getting Ready to strip the old roof

Tuesday morning.  What a crew!

Tuesday afternoon

Every night (except Friday), we worked until we were out of daylight.

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.