Higher Ground

Maranda and I spent a week tearing out the old oak hardwood floors upstairs with the hope we could reuse them later. Each piece only had about 3 fasteners in it so taking nails out was a breeze. The only treasure we found to speak of was an old Trojan condom box someone had stuffed under the floor. None of the neighbors want to own up to it. I also managed to salvage an old chestnut door which I will reuse. The ceiling joists are shot so they will have to be replaced. I thought it would be great to store the flooring in the shop until I realized it would take up all my floor space. Oh well here is to lack of planning...you're guilty too.

Back To Work

I took an 8x8 locust beam and used it as a centerline girder under the house. I had a 22' section which worked out very well to take out the 5" sag in the floor above. It popped all the drywall and door frames when it was all said and done.. but who cares it is all coming out anyway. I finished clearing out all the rubble and trash from under the house...plates, a small broom, pottery shards, hangars , and old paper batteries...the usual stuff.

Sweeter Things in Life

In the midst of our work it has always been important not to work our lives away. We save time for our families, our garden, Chewbacca, and our latest addition...Divot, Chewbacca's son.
The pups are good company when I don't feel like working by myself.

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.