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!!

A few more outdoor shots

Valley overlook just seconds from the house



Property adjacent to ours

House from across the street

Springhouse from across the street

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!

Say Uncle!!

We only had 3 weeks with the last dumpster.  Sheesh.  So, we had to pedal to the metal to get it filled.  Our last weekend of packing it in was the 20th & 21st of January.  I was occupied with school projects on Friday, so Gabe diligently went out to the site and removed the plaster from the remaining areas: the first "bedroom" of the upstairs and the stairwell.  On Saturday, I came out and we removed lathe, cleaned & broke down the chute and started in on removing leftover paneling in the kitchen.  We made some interesting discoveries that day that I can't wait to tell you about!

First, pictures from Friday's work:

A small closet over the stairs removed

Looking down the stairwell:

Tin cans found again covering holes under the plaster:

Hee Hee

On Saturday morning we had a light dusting of snow and a little ice, so we had a fun commute from my parents house.  Our dumpster looked dangerously full, but after Gabe took boards and walked on it, compacting it as he went, it was fine.

Next we have a shot looking up from under, where the closet used to be:

We kept the door pretty well closed and the propane heater running this day since it was below freezing outside.

Lots of lathe to remove from walls and ceiling!

Lots of trips to the dumpster & lots of plaster bits to clean up...

I am so excited about the love letter I found in the walls of the stairwell!  As I was cleaning plaster scraps out from between studs, I found an envelope postmarked from 1918 and a card with a love note right next to it!  I haven't taken the time to clean it up and investigate it yet, but once I do, I will say more.  That was pretty exciting.  We also found some playing cards and some scripture cards in the stairwell wall.  Who would have thunk?

Now on to the kitchen.

This was a whole nuther animal, that's for sure.  After Gabe removed a weird brick ceiling stack and the yellow bead board paneling we started in on the flooring.

What a mess we made!

While Gabe was doing these things, I was removing nails from salvageable 2 X 4's.  That is back breaking work, I tell ya!  :)  

The fun part though was removing the flooring.  There were 7 layers of flooring in the kitchen that we saw!  Five layers of different colors and styles of linoleum and a layer of hardwood and then the subfloor.

The bottom layer of linoleum

In between layers of hardwood and linoleum, we found a layer of newspaper, and in one spot, the paper was completely readable and we found the front page of The Washington Post from Wednesday, November 14th, 1956!!!  That was the highlight of the day, for sure.  We are thinking about framing and including it in with the house.  See for yourself:

Discovering....

Uncovering....

And here it is:

An historian's dream!

Notice the article on the left reading "High Court Rules Out Segregated Bus Seats".  Now that's big news!!!!  There were other snippets that we found with interesting advertising and pictures that we managed to save despite the fact we are handling them with respirators and bulky leather gloves.  I also found a dime on the floor from 1904!  A very interesting day to say the least.

We did manage to get some of the floor ripped out, but didn't get too far since we were getting really tired and it was getting pretty dark and creepy looking into that crawl space down below.  There were a lot of rotten spots; my foot actually went through the floor at one point.

I'll finished things off here with a short video of the kitchen floor as we know it.  I had a respirator on, so the audio might not be very clear:

We took a break the next weekend, even though it was beautiful weather!  Gabe had a head-cold and I had beaucoup projects to work on, not to mention we got a much needed break.  

By the way, when Dad paid for the dumpster, he said we filled it to 6.5 tons, by ourselves!!  That seems unreal to me.  A friend told us that if it was filled with water, it would weigh 12 tons.  Still.  We ended up paying extra for the added weight.  It was probably all the plaster.

We are looking forward to going out there this weekend and finishing up removing the floor in the kitchen and bathroom.  I am going to try to make it out at least for Saturday, barring any major school projects.  This semester has been a doozie, so far.

Well, stick a fork in me, I'm done!