Lost & Found, Demo Phase 2 & beginning of Demo Phase 3

While Bartlett & Gunnar lounged on the deck all weekend looking for squirrels and ducks to chase, we were busy inside finishing Phase 2. Let's re-cap since my last post was Jan. 1st and I am a little delinquent in filling in what we've been up to. Phase 2, was gutting, rewiring, insulating, and drywalling and mudding of the existing part of the house. We are nearly done with this Phase 2.  

 I decided if we wanted to finish this phase 2 business, we needed to clean out the little room at the top of the stairs. Originally, when we first moved in I had boxed all unnecessary items in our life and put them in storage, in this room. When we built the addition for the mudroom, we had a space that we thought we could potentially use as storage. Phase 3 is to gut, rewire, and insulate the 2nd floor. So I needed a place to put everything that was in this room. So I removed everything- looked through each box and evaluated if we still needed it. If it made the cut it went in the storage space above the mudroom. The photos below show the built-in that were left over from the Capano family.

There were two beds and a corner unit to fill in the awkward corner of this room. It is really a small room, and this is a good solution to where to put the beds. Not sure we will do anything different to the layout, but we are so far away from furnishing this space. Time to demo....

 Below are the little "treasures" I found in the built-ins. A little kid's watch, a toy soldier's gun, and a goth ring that had some tape on it. I imagined these belonged to Debbie. I believe this was her room growing up.

 Erik in the meantime worked painstakingly to rip up the old kitchen floor. We thought we could salvage the existing pine floor, but it was filled with too many holes from various plumbing and patches. It wasn't worth saving. It looked like at one time there was a wall in the middle of the small room as well? Of course the flooring was attached with spiral nails. Spiral nails are just about like screws. Impossible to remove. It took a good two days to get the all the old pine up. Beneath the pine was the subfloor which was in fairly good condition after we removed the 40 lbs of dirt that was laying on top. Of course, what wasn't laying on top, slipped down through the subfloor and went into the basement. So, lucky me, I got to clean that up too.

 Below is the line where there had been a wall. This part of the house just get's more curious. Maybe it was a stall for some animals? The amount of dirt on the floor, it looked like they were still living there.

The photo above is the subfloor all clean and ready for new flooring. Stay tuned for more on that later.

2011 recap- kitchen before & after

As per request, here are some great before & after photos of the new kitchen. The photos are courtesy of Bill Lee Imaging- who is an artist with the camera. My camera doesn't do the house any favors, so it is a special treat to have Bill shoot some photos when he stops by on his way to a paying job. We really appreciate Bill's ability to capture these moments. I think they show the space & Erik's craftsmanship the best.

Ps. Lynne if you look close at the photo of the sink, you'll see a piece of Kate's pottery under the dish soap & the begonias from her baby shower.

See ya 2011

Erik and I ended our 2011 with a walk at Crescent Beach with Bartlett. When Erik and I first got Bartlett, almost 9 years ago, we would drive from Portland where Erik lived on May Street to bring her for a walk on the beach. Serendipitous, now this walk is literally down the street from our house. Amazing that we have been together for almost 10 years now. I just teared up. And only married for almost 3... where does the time go? It's moments like today and the ones when we would bring Bartlett to "the beach with the purple sand", that I remember fondly. I guess I don't remember most of the mundane and the trouble, which is why this blog is helpful. I can look back and see all the work we did in the past 2 years

That's Bartlett in the water, after this shot she lost her beloved ball and cried. Literally, she cried for it. She also body surfed a wave in, according to Erik it was amazing. We all were sad about the ball, mostly because she cried.

Last days of 2011, have seen some progress in the mudroom. This fall the sheetrock went up easy when Brian King came to visit. And then it was duck season. Friday night, Erik put up the first coats of mud over the seams and screws. Today, in 5 hours Erik finished the first round. All the tape is on, and in some places 2 coats were applied. Maybe we'll be ready to lay flooring ?

While Erik was putting mud up, I lugged from the basement all the wood on an 8ft rack for our fireplace.

In the New Year, I look forward to finishing phase 2 of the house renovation. When asked what I wanted most for Christmas, I said "for the house to be done". I am getting tired of everything coated in dust, vacuuming 3x a week, living in one room (although it is spectacular), I would like to unpack ( I just found a bin with jackets & hats I was looking for last year), getting back to things we love to do, skiing, biking, hiking, I am anxious to get the upstairs done so we can have our life back. Things I am looking forward to the most; having people over, having a christmas tree, having a place for friends & family to stay over, and being able to do something else other than fill trashbags with dirty insulation, 2 years is a long time to be living like this, and we are looking at another year at least to finish the upstairs.

What we accomplished this year, has been amazing; we finished the great room & kitchen, we gutted the downstairs of the existing portion of the house, we built a mudroom addition, we replaced all the windows on the first floor and 1 window upstairs, we sided and put a roof on the addition, shored up the Sh-arn for another year, and got new electric and insulation in the addition and the existing portion of the house. Erik rebuilt a tractor. And in that year I passed 2 of my architectural registration exams. I know, it's exhausting!

Well, we look forward to 2012 and Hope you all have a Happy, Healthy, Prosperous New Year!

Fall Wrap-up-Part 3.2

From this view it almost looks finished. *sigh* The new mudroom/entry. Which now has radiant heat in the floors, insulation, lights, and drywall up. Still needs flooring, doors, and to be mudded, sanded, mudded....

View from the kitchen- to the mudroom and entry. Bartlett doesn't love the open stairs. She would not like to see through, it makes her nervous.

We desperately need to put down a walkway, we track sand inside and it isn't good for our floors. Erik made a temporary gang plank, so only 1/2 the dirt comes inside now.

Fall Wrap-up-Part 3

That's the inside of the foam truck. Yah. I guess, we were lucky, it wasn't too cold this Fall. Although, the last weekend of October was bitter cold with that freak snow storm. It was awefully cold actually, since the electricians were here that Saturday wrapping up the job, the power was shut off for most of the day, and I was trying to study.Luckily, we didn't get too much snow either, since most people were without power on Sunday and Monday and we had it. Brand new wiring in fact. Finally, on Wednesday we got insulation.

Since the older 1/2 of the house, has nominal 2 x 4 construction we had a closed cell foam sprayed in there. Which gives us an R-21 at the wall. The closed cell also is a bit more rigid and stiffens the walls up a bit. Which also helps. The new construction, roof and 2nd floor got the open cell foam, since it expands more, this fills the entire 2 x 6 cavity and doesn't allow air & moisture to convect or condense in the wall. We are already seeing a difference with the boiler in the older section of the house, not continuously running all day either. Already, we are feeling like the house is more efficient.

Fall Wrap-up-Part 2

So after 2nd floor was reframed, we needed strapping on the ceiling- to accept the drywall, which in an old house all needs to be shimmed- cause this house hasn't been square...uh.... ever! So that took a while. New walls in the mudroom for a closet and powder room were framed. Pocket door for the powder room, which was tricky, needs special framing. But not a big deal, cause you just get a kit at the hardware store. New walls for the laundry room and Oh, I nearly forgot, new windows on the front of the house. Not to mention, Erik had planned on a hunting trip to the NEK with cousin Bob and his friends. A ton to do and not a lot of time to do it.

Bird Camp

After work & the weekends that were available, Erik managed to do it all. New framing, new windows, and the electricians were able to come in the last week in October and pull out all the old wiring, which was called "2 tube" newer than Knob & tube, but encased in a fabric sleeve that screamed "fire" everytime you turned on the switch. It also made a very loud noise, which I was always wondering if that was a spark and if I just turned the house on fire? It was very unsettling, to say the least. Now, all the basement lights come on when you hit one switch, instead of the one light that was on, when you turned off all the other lights. Bowdler Electric also ran wiring for the 2nd floor, so when we get to Phase 3, we'll be wired in and ready!

New wall at mudroom & wiring for outside lights and mudroom overheads.

New framing & wiring, strapping beyond.

Fall Wrap-up-Part 1

It's been a busy few weeks here at 528. In order to get ready for insulation, we needed to re-wire the electric, which needed to have all the walls ready, which meant we had to re-frame and build new walls. Brian King came up one weekend to help Erik reframe the living room. It was a little sponge-y when you walked up stairs in the bigger bedroom, turns out the 2nd floor joists ran the lenght of the existing part of the house. That's why it felt like walking on a trampolene. Erik & Brian ran new LVLs in the 2nd floor framing and cutback and hung the existing framing off of the LVLs to stiffen up the framing. It was a ton of running into the basement, jacking up from below, building walls to hold up some of the framing, cutting back the joists, running down into the basement, jacking up below, then moving the LVL into place, tiring just trying to remember everything that was done.

Brian contemplating where the post can be located.

Brian & Erik framing in a new header between the Living & Dining rooms.

Looking down to where the posts are going.

This was a HUGE push, and we couldn't have gotten ready for the electrical portion of Phase 2 without Brian. Thank you for spending your weekend with us. It is greatly appreciated.