Stop the Draft

I tore off the front porch deck to replace the old sill plate with a concrete footing and an insulated wall. There was open space under the front of the house so cold wind could blow under the house and up through the cracks in the floor. I poured 45 bags of quickcrete to finish the pour and installed treated plates and posts for support. I bought a laser level which proved to be a much better investment to date than this rotten old house.

Dig Dig Dig

The winter and spring of 06/07 was spent mostly on excavating by hand the crawlspace under the house. I started with 5 gallon buckets but after a month or so it took forever to get one out. The hours and beers spent deciphering my problem resulted in what you see here...more backs, more recycle bins, and a yard full of dirt, rocks, and trash that would make even the blindest moles salivate. We would gain a foot or two each whack but it finally paid off when I realized we had made it under the kitchen. I have a great appreciation for old timers after this operation. The end result was taking a 12" crawlspace to 3' and raising the price of Advil stock $10.

One Mans Junk

Wade, Maranda, and I got the little shed torn down in the back yard. It only took a chain and a Toyota and that baby was history. We were able to salvage some good barn wood out of the deal to use later. Other than that it was all junk. Nothing a small fire cant fix. Hopefully one day we can rebuild the garden shed but that will have to take a back seat for now. I also rebuilt the doors to my shop using recycled decking from a previous job. Dad gave me an old Fisher wood stove to install in place of the burnt out tin stove.

whoops

As with every remodel project it is always(never) a good idea to begin with unplanned demolition. The first project we started with was tearing out all the old 1/4 inch sheet rock upstairs to expose the framing. Little did I realize at the time but that drywall played a big part in stopping the cold wind draft in the wintertime. It felt like a good thing at the time. I also spent some days building new shop doors to be able to have at least one secure building on the property. I figured it was good to get some little tasks done while the weight of the total project began to sink in. Maranda worked on cleaning out the root cellar which is underground in the back of the shop. I tore out the old ceiling joists and raised the height from 7' to about 11'. I was able to reuse the joists for collar ties. We hauled away two dump trailer loads of trash to the dump.

Ignition

I have always heard tale of a "diamond in the rough"...ours just happened to be an old farmhouse in the weeds.