Lots to be Thankful for!

In the spirit of the season, looking back, we are very thankful we weren't more affected by Superstorm Sandy.  Our thoughts and prayers go out to those who are still dealing with the aftermath.

We inspected our little house for damages incurred from the storm, and found nothing except for a downed dead tree in the yard that we were going to have to take down anyway!!  wow, yay!

This one:

The first weekend in November, Gabe and I worked to secure the post at the east end of the porch.  We had neglected its presence up until then, but we were able to position it where it was needed without too much trouble.

More deck boards, yay!

It was a chilly and blustery day, so we decided to work on replacing the window in the study upstairs.  Mom had been in Panama on a birding expedition and Dad was in Boston on business, so it was up to us to make good progress this weekend.

Here is a before shot of the window from September, since the old window has been out for a while:

Gabe started by removing the blocking from the bottom,  and cut off the rotten dimensional studs that went down to the foundation wall (remember balloon framing does that--studs span from the foundation to the highest floor) and replaced them up to the lintel at the top.

Here is Gabe removing the rotten parts:

We also had to take down and re-cut the header that our contractors had placed previously since it no longer worked with the new window size.

The tricky part was cutting the hole out so that our large egress windows would fit.  They are not the same size as the original windows.

 

The old, existing windows were also not plumb.

Bottom is all framed up!

The stucco on the outside also needed to be cut out to make room for the window trim on the exterior of the house.  So Gabe used the circular saw to shape it up.  A messy job!

Getting dark and getting done.  Or at least done enough for now.

From the outside:

In the daylight:

Easy as pie!!  Ok, not really.  This whole process took us about 5 hours to complete.  We have three more windows to replace...hope they don't all take that long!!!  This one was one of the worst, so maybe not.  These new windows should last for years to come!

We must remember to start earlier---daylight savings time ends this weekend!!

The next weekend was very busy.  It was Missions week at our church, so we had additional activities, which was great, just very busy!  We had the missions banquet on Friday night, so we took a break.  But, we still made it out to the house on Saturday with our good friend John Ulrich.

We started out by removing the old bead-board from the ceiling of the porch.  As it turns out, it is heart pine, so we will be holding on to that.  It was a messy job, but it needed to happen to reveal the condition of the porch roof.

More demo!!  I am glad to see this nasty roof go.

Watch it fall!

The plan is to utilize some of the existing roof, but since it doesn't extend all the way to the end of the addition on the east side, we will need to extend it out.  Dad and Gabe worked to stabilize the ceiling rafters to the house more securely while our friend John and I worked to attach the rest of the floor boards.  Needless to say, we were in each other's way today!

I had to leave early to get some homework done.  John stuck around and got all the porch deck flooring done, minus one row closest to the house, that will probably not get done until the door gets moved and replaced.  Go John!!

Gabe and Dad worked to tie in and secure the roof posts and beam all the way across:

Lookin' good guys!!

Later, during that next week, our framing contractors came and extended the roof for us.  Talk about progress!

They also spent some time on the inside of the house.  We now have a 4" soffit in the kitchen, the soffit that divides the dining room from the living room framed in, the foyer framed in, and the fireplace corner wall built up.  The space is really taking shape.  They were smaller framing projects, but nit picky jobs that had to be done.  They also framed in the window in the 2nd bedroom upstairs.  I have to say Gabe did a more thorough job framing the other window though...  But what can I say?  My husband is amazing!!  :)

We got the HVAC and plumbing inspected, so we are good to go there.  The HVAC system will be all complete once we get the walls drywalled.  It is imperative that dirt and dust not get into the ducts, so we have them covered and protected for now.  Framing inspection is still to come.

The next Friday, Gabe and I took a look at another property to flip, except this time, we were going to look for one (preferably a duplex) we could live in and fix up, with income potential.  The home we looked at was a duplex in a nearby town.  Afterwards we met Dad at the house to do a few things to the inside.  I inspected the electrical upstairs and decided to add another outlet to the 2nd bedroom, so both nightstands could have a lamp.

Dad and Gabe worked to condense the framing around the soffit separating the living room and dining room.  The contractors didn't get it as close as we would like.  Here's their progress for that evening:

 

It might or might not be apparent the stair stepping action on the soffit in the pictures above; this was done to create a soffit as snug to the ductwork as possible to eliminate wasted space.

We had a friend of mine from college come down for a visit that evening, help out on site the next day. Joe was a big help!  We worked to move the reclaimed lumber into the crawl space first while Gabe and Dad worked tirelessly on the porch roof.

They work to sister up the rafters with new 2 X 4's as well as frame in the porch ceiling.

Joe and I worked together to sound proof the inside walls closest to the road (the house is about 15 feet from a busy street) using resilient channel pieces.  We needed to hang them every two feet in horizontal bands.

Here's Joe cutting the metal strips to fit:

I helped him to get them level.  Here's 2 of the 3 walls:

MBR wall

2nd Bedroom wall

A realtor living just up the street stopped by to ask who did our metal roof and who was doing our electrical.  This was a real boost of confidence about our roofing choice.  I was also able to show her around and see what she thought about the asking prices we were kicking around when we go to rent/sell.  She affirmed our ideas and must have said a dozen times how exciting this was!  She mentioned it looked a lot bigger inside than she thought from the road!  also good. All things you want to hear from a real estate agent when you are fixing up a house to rent/sell!

I left early that day to work on some school projects I had deadlines for coming up soon.  Gabe and Dad worked on the sheathing for the porch roof.  They actually finished it up!

Here is a before/after for your enjoyment.  :)

Before:

March 30, 2012

After (during):

November 24, 2012

Notice the porch roof has sheathing!

The next weekend (Thanksgiving weekend) we took a visit down to my brother Ian's place.  It was our first time breaking bread with his new fiance, Kate.  They did a wonderful job hosting and providing a 21 lb. turkey that tasted quite delicious!

We needed to work off a bit of the abundance, so we braced ourself for the cold on Saturday, the 24th. There were temperatures in the 50's and 60's for a couple days, but it took a dramatic downturn to the 30's and blustery that day.

We are looking forward to a home that is buttoned up!!

We came to find that the electrician had made lots of progress on the second floor rough-in.

A ceiling fan:

Cords running from upstairs to downstairs:

Outlets upstairs:

Recessed lighting fixtures:

A sea of cords and outlet boxes:

We are still waiting for the electrical to be complete downstairs.

Dad and Gabe had previously worked to recess the refrigerator a few inches by adding a header in this location:

A look at the angled fireplace wall, framed in:

Currently, the good view of it is blocked with insulation and a window.

Here is the wall that hems in some storage at the end of the jacuzzi tub/shower:

Gabe and Dad got to work on the porch roof in the bitter cold.  Here are a few pictures of their progress:

Looking west

Looking east

I worked on nailing hurricane ties to the rafters on the porch roof.  That was a chilly job!  Mom was out to help too, after making a trip to Home Depot to gather a few necessities for the day.  She and I also worked to clean up after the guys, which seems to happen a lot!  Mom also spent some time outside, digging around the Springhouse, removing rocks and poison ivy roots.

The porch post closest to the road was the next order of business for the guys.  I like this picture of Dad measuring it up:

:)

Finished post:

I left with Mom then, since it was so cold.  I worked on shopping and ordering lighting and plumbing fixtures that will be needed soon at the house.

Meanwhile, Gabe and Dad started on replacing one of two main level windows left.  They didn't finish before it got dark, but made some progress re-sizing the hole for the opening.

I will leave for now with a video tour of the house at it's current state.  It helps to get a 3D perspective of the space to get a lay of the land!

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Final weekends of Demo

These past two weekends have been dedicated to finishing the demo.  This included many things, like removing more rotten flooring, a ceiling fan, and porch to name a few.  I was able to spend all of last weekend with Gabe working on the house, but last Saturday I had a school project jeopardize my time, so I don't have pictures of the house with all the floors removed yet!

The weekend previous on Friday, we finished removing the flooring in the kitchen that we had started earlier.  The new dumpster had arrived (thanks to Mark!) the previous day and was ready for filling.  There was only one spot in front of the doorway to the main living space that wasn't rotted out!  We actually counted 6 layers of linoleum and 2 layers of wood and subfloor that have been there since 1956.   Gabe also opened up the wall in-between the kitchen/DR and living room:

                                                                                        Gabe removing boards                         OPEN!!!          

While we were removing flooring, I made it my business to make sure that I sifted through the layer of newspaper to capture readable and interesting tidbits.  The coin I had found from 1904 last weekend was, on closer/cleaner inspection, from 1962.  Too bad, I was way off!  The oldest coin we have found so far is from 1945.  Gabe also found a classic glass "Royal Crown" (R.C.) soda bottle from 1936 under the kitchen floor!  That was an interesting find.

Gabe also removed the fan from the DR space; here is a silly video of him taking it down:

Gabe taking out subfloor

Here is a floor cross section.  Pretty rotten, eh?

Gabe ended up taking out the floor joists, as they were rotten too.  Narsty.

The next day, Saturday, we commenced by breaking down the porch area outside since we were looking at a forecast of rain/snow for later.  It was probably a cute little spot at one time, but now it is in terrible shape with windows broken and rotten floor boards.  Too bad!

Before pic with me and my mom

And "after" with a view from the north side:

A few pics of the process:

I'm not just the camera person!

This was a cold day--below freezing, so it was nice to have Mom & Dad's RV to reheat and eat lunch in, in from the cold.  :D

In the afternoon, Gabe worked on preparing the kitchen floor (or lack thereof) for cleaning by removing floor joists, removing electrical wire and covering the crawl space hole with plastic.  

He also removed the wall partition from the upstairs that was separating the two small rooms.  It looks so different!

                                                                     Before                       After partition was removed-see
                                                                                                                                                          the line of demarkation

Notice the dividing wall boards stacked in the right corner

While Gabe was doing all of that, I was a busy bee removing like a thousand drywall nails from the ceiling joists.....my arms were sore after that!

As a part of this chore, I also removed some more debris from the same part of the wall under the stairs where we found a love letter from 1918.  I was very careful to sift through it in case I found anymore artifacts.  And I did!!  There were more letters, post marked 1911 and unknown because they were a little bit more chewed through than the first.  I haven't taken the time to really analyze them yet.  I also found a small 8 X 8 clipping from a newspaper from 1909!!!!  Wowzers!  It was very dirty and crumbled up, but I was able to take it home and get it semi flat in-between pages in a large book.

This past weekend I only spent a couple of hours on site as I was busy with my school project with equals limited pictures.  Gabe has yet to seem the least bit interested in documenting, so it has been my employ! 

We brought the truck this weekend since we had to get plywood to lay down on the joists since we were taking up flooring.  Most of our time on Friday afternoon was spent clearing out the kitchen crawl space to make room for some gravel to be laid next weekend.  We got all of the joists removed, holes filled in and the grade raked smooth.

                                                                 Remember??                                 Flooring's out!!

Note the stone foundation on the right!

Then I tackled the stack of 2 X 4's upstairs that needed nails taken out.  After a while this is backbreaking work, I tell ya!  Gabe was worked on fitting some 2 X 8's around the perimeter of the kitchen to support the studs where rotten floorboards/joists were taken out.  He got one of the two sides done.  

Our last project for the evening included taking the flooring out of the bathroom.  The floor was already rotten in some spots so it wasn't that hard.  The photo isn't very good since we didn't have much light.

Our goal for this weekend is to have all flooring removed before next weekend.  We have some eager and gracious friends coming to help us put a vapor barrier and gravel down in the crawl space.   

Gabe was out by himself for most of the day on Saturday until Dad came out and braved the cold to help remove the main room flooring.  This was the oldest part of the existing structure and I was very curious to see what was beneath the flooring.  Oh well.  As Gabe reassured me, "It will be there next weekend".  So, sorry folks, you will have to be patient with me as we wait for pictures of the floor-less room! Our plan is to keep any floor boards that are in decent shape and use them to create a wainscoting in the dining area (and possibly the powder room) with them.

Thus completes Day 10 of Demo!