We've gotten a lot done over the past couple weeks, but we're also realizing how much more needs to be done before we move in! Before house project pictures, here are a few more outdoor/yard pictures. My wonderful, helpful, energetic, photographer-mom came to visit last weekend, so many of these photos are hers. (Thanks again!)
The house and barn from the field:
Out for a family walk in the woods behind the house:
Trout lilies - next to the stream in our yard!
One of the lilac bushes:
Enjoying the (short-lived?) novelty of a lawn to mow, and a new tractor with which to mow it:
Mom transplanted a bunch of lilies that would otherwise be excavated/trampled when our water service is connected (later this week!)
I planted a few fingerling potatoes (which I had started in the greenhouse at work from too-old potatoes that had sprouted in our pantry). I used a chunk of fence that I had removed from elsewhere in the yard. We hope to eventually have a much larger garden, but don't really have time this spring!
On to the house! Meg has been in charge of painting, and she's made excellent progress on the kitchen. We decided to paint the existing cabinets white, and the walls a light orange. Started by removing cabinet doors - most were just a matter of unscrewing hinghes, but the false drawers in front of the sink were tricky. Turns out there were two screws on each one that needed to be removed (with no access due to the sink), and then a sort of spiked spring clip on either side needed to be pried up, which finally released the false panel.
We had very generous help from some friends last weekend also - many hands! Thanks Sarah and Sue!
And Meg watching THREE babies (Sarah brought her little one; so far there aren't any problems with our two boys and only one lady-friend...)
One interesting thing we noticed while painting was that in some areas, a brownish color from the cabinets bled right through the first coat of primer. We used a better oil-based stain-blocking primer on those areas, and that took care of it. The smell of oil-based paint sure made Meg appreciate good Organic Vapor cartridges for the respirator, and low-VOC latex paints that can be used in most other applications!
Brighter kitchen - everything's primed!
Tireless Multitasking-Momma paints while Eric looks on:
Here's the first coat of orange; Meg just finished the second coat tonight. I also installed the microwave vent and mounting plate - almost ready to install the microwave itself.
Close-up of the microwave mounting plate, vent hole, and new microwave outlet. The old range hood (which just recirculated air back into the kitchen) was powered by wires that were hanging out of a duct-taped hole in the wall. This interior work wasn't too difficult - the outside part of the vent is what kept me from getting this done earlier.
The reason I was hesitant to start the outside vent work is that I had to cut through our old fiber-cement siding, which almost certainly contains asbestos. I had heard that these siding panel/tiles were very brittle and hard to cut, so I was nervous, but eventually decided I just had to go for it. I ended up using a diamond blade in my angle grinder, and the tiles cut very nicely. (A regular abrasive wheel did NOT work well). The diamond wheel cut very quickly and smoothly - it was dusty, but I wore my super respirator under a full-face mask, and long-sleeve clothes & gloves that I removed before entering the house. Also, the siding tiles were surprisingly easy to remove (one nail in each bottom corner), so I was able to remove the upper tile and re-install it OVER the flashing on the vent. Glad I don't have to rely solely on caulk to seal this!
Also in the kitchen, we have marked out (in blue tape) the future location of the kitchen island. It was helpful to mark out the size of our table in the dining room (background), and the size of the island (foreground), to be sure we'd have enough room for both.
One other little project - removing the knotty pine paneling that dated the living room, and cutting a passage door so it's easier to get from the front bedroom to the bathroom (without walking all the way through the living room).
What actually surprised me about this wall was how very normal it was! Paneling on one side, modern 2x4's in the middle, and a single layer of drywall on the other side. Woah. Just need to frame in the new door, put a layer of drywall on this side, and we're set. (This wall was clearly added after the house was built, and is not structural - the flooring goes straight underneath, there was no header above the wide opening, and there isn't anything directly above it to support.)
Now on to the front corner bedroom, formerly known as the Turquoise Bedroom, now known as the Boys' Bedroom. With help from mom & our friend Rachel, the turquoise carpet was removed, revealing this fine linoleum. Henry inspects the work so far:
Under that linoleum was... wait for it... tar paper! (Huh?) Here's the original floor (check out those wide planks!), thoroughly stained with tar.
Apparently someone was concerned about drafts under the baseboard (even though this was never an outside wall), and stuffed some fabric in the crack over a floor board:
After painting is done in this bedroom, I'll work on installing the new floor (cork-topped laminate).
Now out to the garage briefly - I need to at least install some sort of shop floor before I move the bulk of my shop. I can work on walls/insulation/electrical/ceiling later, but it'd be tough to do a floor after I move in! There's currently a poured concrete floor, which is in decent shape, but is quite uneven. So the first step was to find out exactly how uneven it was, and measure to find the high and low spots. With help from friend Josh, I stretched a maze of string over the whole floor, using a water level and 6' bubble level. Then we measured down from the string to the floor, and wrote the measurements on the floor. I have since transferred these measurements to some graph paper, and now need to decide what I'm actually going to do with it. I'm thinking I'll scribe and shim pressure-treated 2x4's at 12"OC to make a level floor, add a little bit of foam insulation between each joist, and cover the whole thing with OSB. Anyway, here's a detail of the string network:
And finally, I've spent quite a bit of time upstairs ripping out flooring, ceiling boards, closets, etc. Here's a Before shot of the purple bedroom - you can't see the sloping ceiling, but note the tiny closet...
In process - carpet gone, closet gone, ceiling started.
Ceiling on the floor! (Felt a little like Chicken Little; glad I had a hard hat while working on this...) Still haven't found any insulation in the attic, besides one little wad of fiberglass sitting on top of the knee wall. That's surely helping. We're planning to hire someone to do spray foam in this attic section - seems to be the best choice since we only have 4" of space to work with.
Another view of the ceiling removed; you can see the lack of a ridge beam at the peak of the roof. What's that against the far wall? Yes, a CHIMNEY, mostly hanging out over the room, obviously not still in use.
This chimney must have vented an old woodstove (or something that is no longer in the house), and a previous owner completely removed it on the first and second floors, but they left this tiny chunk in the attic. Strange. Looks like I'll be removing that before the insulation goes in. I'm a little nervous that there's so little support underneath it - I'll remove it carefully! (All kinds of beetle & wasp activity up there too, most of which is thankfully not active, and most of which will be scraped off before insulating.)
Next steps for me are to work more on the shop floor, install flooring in the boys bedroom, install a vent fan in the bathroom ceiling, and start on flooring the kitchen (as soon as painting is finished). After kitchen flooring goes in, I'll construct the island and move appliances back in. Then refinishing hardwoods, and re-doing the bathroom (at least new flooring, maybe a new wall as well, if we decide to really dive in and remove the vanity... We'll see!)
Next steps for other people (that we're hiring) are to connect us to public water (this week), install a new roof with a dormer (next week), and install 6 new windows (main floor living areas plus boy's bedroom, probably 2 weeks from now).
