Updates! a big picture glance at our current house project

Hey folks!

We are still beside ourselves with just how well our first flip went.  We are hoping the second turns out just as well!!  While the first one took about 2 1/2 years to complete, we envision the next one taking even longer.  We have a little boy now and progress is slow.

It has been a while since I last wrote!  A lot has happened in the meantime.  The current house to flip is where we are residing, so projects/updates are fewer and farther between.

You can review the last post about our current house here.

I would like to give an overview of where we are headed with this one.  Since I last wrote, we had big plans to renovate this house eventually--tripling the square footage of the home.  This plan has been put on hold since there has been some community developments come up that we weren't aware of when we initially made the investment in the property.  There are two water towers that have been approved for a nearby conscientious development with million dollar homes next door.  The towers will be a stones-throw from our property (visible from our land).  We have heard rumblings from developers (my dad is doing some architectural work about 5 miles down the road) nearby that say there is the possibility of re-zoning which would potentially enable us to sell our property without doing any major renovations at all.  We are planning on sticking around through the coming community development changes (hopefully it won't take too long for things to pan out!!) to realize this potential doubling of our initial investments.  This is not something we knew going into it, so here's hoping we are playing it smart!!

In the meanwhile, we are making "small", more cosmetic changes to the property that will improve our own quality of life living there.  Generally speaking, we would like to finish most of the 1000 sf unfinished basement.  Specifically, this includes an alteration of the basement stairs to make way for a bedroom and bathroom addition in the basement that makes sense.  A rec room/livable space is in the works as well as sectioning out a good chunk of space for storage, tools and the like.  These endeavors will permit us to live more comfortably in our 1000 sf home, with the thought that we would like to expand our family someday.

House project details to follow soon!

Memorial Day Weekend

Back so soon?  Why yes!  We bypassed a Memorial weekend trip away to the beach to stay home and work on the house.  What a sacrifice, I know!!  :D  Jk, there were other things holding us back as well, which made the decision to stay easier--a visit from my brother Ian, and a friends wedding.

We (when I say we, I mean "I") are learning we have to be committed to this project.  Dad and our timeline help motivate us to stay on task.

We came to the house, as per usual, on Friday afternoon, working about 5 hours.  We were gearing up for a scorcher of a weekend.  Humidity was high, so we packed lots of water.  It was good we didn't have to do too much unshaded work.  I worked predominantly that day on cleaning up the perimeter of the main space.  The crawl space needed to be vacuumed since we created so much debris and mess taking out the stairwell.  It's a good thing we had a wet/dry vac...we had to empty it out a couple of times.  I also vacuumed out the crevices along the walls where most of the plaster and debris would fall.  Eventually we will be closing up the walls again, and we don't want to leave cobwebs in there if we can help it!  Gabe and Dad worked on removing all the pieces of the stairs remaining.

There were some small pieces of heart pine under all of it, so we kept them, and I took the nails out of those boards.  Once that was done, they removed some of the ledger board that was rotting on either side.

Here Gabe is working on removing few remaining rotten floor joists:

Then Gabe filled in the top of the stone rubble foundation with a flat mortar base for the new ledger board to sit on top of.

Here I am doing the cleaning duty I do best...

With all the debris clean up and how hot it was, we really needed a shower, bad!

The next day, Saturday, we didn't make it out to the house, since Gabe helped a couple friends move and then we went to a wedding later that day.  My bro Ian was home for the weekend and wanted to help out, so he and Dad went out to the house for a couple of hours.  They were able to nail in some joist hangers for the joists that were hung last weekend and remove the rest of the bricks off of the porch.

We came out to Mom & Dad's on Sunday afternoon and enjoyed a good meal for Ian's birthday at a nearby vineyard with stunning views.  We were in vacation mode when we came out earlier that day, so Gabe forgot his tool bag that he brings from home every weekend (for security sake), so we were a little bit handicapped the next day when we went out to the house to work.

Day 32, Monday was really hot, and there was only a slight breeze.  They had ripped some 2 X 8 pressure treated boards down with the table saw at Mom & Dad's before we left, to use as the ledger board.  On site, Gabe first sawed down the studs so the ledger board would fit under them.

Then, Gabe and Dad placed it on top of the smooth surfaces Gabe created previously with the concrete.

They spent a little bit longer than expected getting it level and getting it to fit under the studs.  The board had to be trimmed out in certain spots, so it was about an hour going back and forth trying to get it to fit.

While they were doing this, I was securing joist hangers:

Action shot!

Once they got the ledger board in place, Gabe let me use the nail gun.  It was heavy!  Here is a short video detailing the experience:

It was the supported by two more boards, side by side, nailed into place.

The last joist in the main area, that had previously been hidden under the stairs was finally supported like the others with a 2 X 10 and leveled and blocked to the ledger board, as seen below:

Gabe works to secure the two areas together, even though it is under the one wall and really awkward to get to:

Since we didn't have all the tools we needed, we called it a day earlier than usual.

Gabe's last tasks of the day were to attach the remaining joists to the porch section (future kitchen area), two on the south end and one on the north.  Here he is finishing up the one on the north end:

Here is an interior shot looking east, down to the bare bones!!  Doesn't it look good??!? (it kinda looks like a robot face...hehe)

The board below on the diagonal is the one that will hold up the addition when we remove the rotten sections from it next time:

There was a little bit more cleaning up to do.  Mom stopped by with a large box fan since it was so hot, but we were winding down at that point.  She helped us organize the place and I cleaned up the debris down below and we called it a day.

                                                                                         Cleaning up shop!                                     All clean!!!

Rats, Foundation Walls, & No More Stairs

With it being about a month since I last wrote, a lot has happened on our little house!  After two wicked weeks of school at the beginning of May, I am finally done with the semester.  And not only done, but also sporting my first 4.0!  Yay!!!  I must like interior design.  Meanwhile, only a little of work got done on the house during those two weeks for various reasons--whether it be Gabe helping out a friend with his concrete pouring project, hosting Gabe's dad, or attending my honor's society induction, we were super busy.  We stopped at the house on the Saturday Dad Cropsey was here so they could do a few things, one being to gather up the copper piping on the second floor so we could get it out of the way, which we ended up getting $200 for--not bad!  We also met with the president of a local organization that is working to fund different restoration efforts, who gave me some information for the project I was doing for my Historic Preservation class case study on the historic district of our little town.

Here's a little better shot of the work Gabe and Dad did on the east side of the house building up the foundation:

The weekend of the 18th was the next weekend we were able to really get out there to work.  Gabe's sister Eva was in town for a visit too, so she came to help on Friday.  I was ready to get back to work since I had been gone so long--so I started with the task of moving the bricks from the porch, including removing most of the mortar off of them, to a concrete pad out of the way where the barn used to be.  It was a dusty, hot and unglamorous task, to say the least.  Eva worked with Gabe for a while on supporting the kitchen roof. Then we worked at cleaning out the space under the stairs in which Eva found a nasty surprise:

We have no idea how it was preserved from rotting.  Gabe was busy removing some of the old sheathing in-between the porch and the bathroom additions so that the next day he could work on getting floor joists hung above the cement pad in the porch area.

Oh, and we got the new electrical box hooked up this past week!  No more ghetto fabulous electrical wires hanging out on the front porch anymore.  Yowza.

The next day Gabe and I went out to the house and Dad met us there later.  We sprayed poison ivy killer since the grass is getting really high which makes it really hard to see where it is, and believe me, it is everywhere.  I moved all the tools down from the second story because we planned to remove the stairs today.  The hardwood flooring is still up there, but that is ok, since there really isn't a better place to put it.  Gabe and Dad worked on building up the wall from where they left it last time to the pier under the bathroom addition.  Here is a video showing some of the work on the foundation wall:

Views of new foundation wall from opposite ends

View from farther away (from east)

Then they worked on hanging floor joists in the old porch area (in the photo above to the right).  I did random gopher tasks and acted as the photographer until I left for a bachelorette party for most of the afternoon.  It was really hard to get good images because they were working in an area with really dark and light areas--indoor and outdoor areas at the same time.  Here's a good shot of the new wall from crawl space height under the existing walls:

As you can see in the next image it is hard to even get more than one person in the space at a time.  Gabe is careful to wait to take down walls (the one right in the way) until entirely sure the weight is being supported (and for security--out of sight, out of mind).

We plan to outsource the majority of the construction and framing, but the job of leveling out the floors and building the foundation are tasks for my fastidious husband.  It is a cumbersome task and we just don't want to pay for that.  It has been fun to listen to my dad and husband interact on this project.  Dad says Gabe is "the boss" and really wants him to have ownership of it, so he lets him make a lot of the construction decisions.  My father has been very involved in construction and design and is a great motivator.

Here is a "before" and "after" of that day's work outside constructing the foundation walls and joists:

Before

After

This next shot looks into the kitchen/dining room area.  The wall with the opening will be removed, we are just keeping it up as long as possible for security sake at the end of the day.

The lighting on Gabe's face is washed out but it shows the space beyond nicely

Detail of the joists hung

Here are some angles from the north:

The last project of the day was to remove the stairs.  I had just gotten back from the party and Dad was winding down.  Here is a video of Gabe removing the stairs:

It gives a good perspective of the inside of the house.  It looks very strange without the stairs!  We are moving the stairs about 7 feet to the east so we have more space in the main living room.

The progression:

Here is a shorter, silly video of Gabe getting down from the second story:

And done!

I'm outta here!

That's all for last weekend!

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!