D Day

Our "D Day"...ahem....Drywall Day has come and gone, and boy, does it look different!!

Yesterday, about 5 drywall contractors came and completed 90% of our drywall hanging in one day!

Last night, Gabe and I took his truck to the house since they needed about 16 more sheets of drywall and different buckets of "mud" for the next step.  I was excited-- I didn't think I would get to see the progress so soon!

It was dark when we got there and the contractors were still there cleaning up the site.  We found a totally different looking space:

Looking towards the front door from living room

The living room:

Fireplace wall

Angle from the kitchen

We now have a kitchen:

The niche to the right is to recess the frig in our compact kitchen

The 2" track on the ceiling is a soffit footprint for the cabinets

And a dining room:

Another shot looking towards the living room entry wall and coat closet:

Moving into the upstairs space, which wasn't lit at all:

Stairwell shot

Looking into the master bath:

           From the hallway                  From the master bedroom

Master bedroom:

Large windows!

Vaulted ceilings! 

Looking down the hall from the 2nd bedroom:

More pics to come when there is better light.  As you can see from the above picture, they also need to finish some parts of the upstairs.  Not to mention the mudding, sanding and finishing of the drywall.

It is a good thing it is on the warmer side these past few days.  One logistical thing I have learned from this process recently, is the delivered drywall mud can't be subject to freezing or else it will be ruined.  In the cold of winter, in an unfinished or renovated home, it will not be heated at this point.  The HVAC duct work doesn't get connected and turned on until after the dusty business of drywalling is done---no one wants drywall dust in their ducts forevermore!!!  So we are among many who must think of how to keep the drywall mud above freezing before it gets installed....and after as well!!  It will be an interesting week.

Look at our full dumpster!

Beyond this, we had about 8 friends come to the house Saturday morning to support us in moving 130 sheets of drywall.  That was super fun, since we really haven't had a group come out to the house since last February.  The guys finished up moving all of the drywall in about an hour and a half while us ladies toured around the little historic town.  Here's a few pics of our fun morning:

As you can see us ladies tried our best to stay out of the way:

Silly Angela!!  :D

We went exploring:

An old school being restored

And at an old house that looked to have been abandoned for some time:

That afternoon, our buddy Mark stayed a little bit later and helped walk me through measurements for trim and discussed door trim details.  He has been so helpful!

We had plenty of little things to do before the drywall was to be hung on Monday.  We must have been there until 8 pm working on those last pesky things!

The soffit bulkhead had to be clad with plywood:

Shower shelf needed to be roughed in:

Windows and doors needed to be properly sealed:

the excess foam was also cut off

Refrigerator water line had to be re-jigged:

And last, but not least, the window and door frames were adorned with scripture before they were to be covered over with drywall  :D

If you can't read my chicken scratch, this one quotes Psalm 127: "Unless the LORD builds the house, those who build it labor in vain.  Unless the LORD watches over the city, the watchmen stay away in vain.  It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil; for He gives to His beloved sleep."  I put up a few others as well: Deuteronomy 6: 4-9, Psalm 1: 1-3, and Numbers 6: 24-27.  I thought it nice to later remember these verses behind the walls.

Apparently the siding contractor had been there yesterday as well, since we are having warmer days.  Hopefully the siding will get done today too!!

That's all for now....

Floor-less house & Friends

Howdy!  Bethany here.  It has been a while since I have last posted about our adventures--this is because I have been so busy with school, not for lack of progress.  I have promised pictures of our little floor-less house in the mountains....so here goes!

As I stated in the last blog post Gabe and Dad had pulled up the remainder of the first-floor flooring in the house the weekend previous as snow flurries were deciding whether or not to stick, the wind was howling, and I was finishing a school project.  (Mom was away on a birding boating trip that weekend.)  This particular weekend we had the most gorgeous weather imaginable for the dead of winter--not to mention we were having friends come to help us out!  God is blessing our socks off!!

Friday we worked to pare down the pile of wood flooring sitting on the porch.  I have a mind to re-purpose it as wood panel wainscoting in the dining & powder rooms.  It is good flooring, minus the 100 years of wear in some spots.  It looks like it has been sanded down and re-finished a couple of times.  Our friend Mark, who has his own construction business remodeling old houses in D.C. and came over to help the next day, thought our wood flooring is heart pine, a desirable wood that isn't sold in stores anymore, and can only be found reclaimed from old houses.  That was exciting news!  So, Gabe sawed off the un-salvagable parts while I worked to carry the goods upstairs where we actually still had flooring.

Our pile of pine

Here is from whence it came:

Notice the rubble stone foundation

                                                                                            Remember this?                                       Now this

                                                                               Plywood for ease of walking     Crawl space opening on left

Gabe and I (mostly Gabe) then worked on removing the mess of electrical wire from down below.

Isn't he a cutie??!?

My dad stopped by to check out the scene:

Here's how the conversation went regarding this photo:

Dad: That was my sexy pose!

Me: That was the first thing that I thought of.

Gabe: chuckling from the background :)

Dad made a fascinating discovery---the 1955 kitchen/dining room addition was completely level from front to back!!!

Impressive!

                                                                                         silly series of a photographer in a new jumpsuit

Done for the evening!

Saturday was an awful lot of fun.

We were all prepared with water bottles, snacks and gloves for friends and fun to begin.  Three couples from our small group were to come out to help.  The first couple, Evan & Sarah arrived promptly at 10:00 am, then Andrew and Becca with their toddler Carter, and general contractor Mark (his wife/toddler couldn't make it).  While the guys were trooping around, getting a general tour, Sarah and I realized we had a mutual acquaintance in the area!  My friend from church growing up, Kim, is Sarah's sister-in-law!  What fun is that?  Kim was in the area with her three little girls, so they were able to stop by and bask in the sun with us!!

The guys got right to work after examining the plans Mom & Dad brought out after while.  Us ladies took a walk around the small little town and then sat out on a blanket in the side yard and watched the kiddos play.

Barn nearly across the street from our house

                                                               Walking down the center of town    beauty in Eye of the Beholder

Another beautiful house nearby

View of our house from the furthest point on our lot

See how the house is nestled in the side of a mountain?

In the above photo, Dad is removing unnecessary plywood from the side of the house.  Mom wanted to get to work too, so she worked upstairs carefully removing nails from the floor boards of heart pine.

The order of the day was to get a vapor barrier and gravel to cover the floor in the crawl spaces.  Another job cropped up too, the need for a few underpinnings (additional supports under the existing foundation) on the shallow side of the north wall.  Mark and Andrew worked on that while Evan leveled out the ground and assisted Gabe on the other side.

Here is a fun video of the guys at work:

Gabe filling up some buckets to carry gravel inside:

Good picture of Evan:

The results of their hard work:

Here is Mark and Andrew working on some serious underpinnings:

I thought it was funny that they were chucking dirt out this window onto some plastic outside.

                                Chucking dirt out the window                          Those are some pretty sweet underpinnings

Meanwhile outside, us ladies were chillin' on a blanket watching the kids and talking :)

Becca pointed out this sweet cloud:

Around 1:00 pm, Becca, Carter and I went a couple miles away to a country store to get us all sandwiches.  They were delicious!!  Kim left after lunch.  It was so good to see her and meet her three lovely daughters!!

Carter was exploring all around.  He saw the commotion with his daddy chucking dirt out the window and wanted to check it out:

He even found a cute perch on the dumpster:

Becca and Carter left mid-afternoon so he could get a good nap.  All that excitement must have worn him out!!  Dad Andrew and Mark, in for the long haul, intended on carpooling back to Reston together.

Evan and Gabe eventually moved outside to clean up debris under the bathroom now that the plywood around the foundation was removed.  I warned them of poison ivy....

The branch/stump like thing in the middle of this photo looks pretty un-obrusive, but not so.  They were working for a while to uproot that pesky thing!  Eventually, the next weekend, Gabe had to attach it to his truck to pull it free.....  Also notice the bowl Gabe was chucking in the bucket trash can.  I pulled it back out as an artifact to keep.  Silly Gabey!

See, its a part of a still-life we composed, artfully inspired by Andrew.

All in all, it was more than a success, thanks to all of our amazing and wonderful friends.

I even got a sunburn!!!  YES!!!!!!!  Hey, anything that reminds me it's not the dead of winter gets me going.  The forecast had said around 55 degrees, but really, I think it was upwards of 70.

Many hands make for light work!!!  Or something like that.

Thanks again folks!!