Our house on the last day of the year

Part of one year down, and many more to come.  Make sure you check out ALL of these....including the burnt wires at the end.  You'll have to ask Curtis for all the details on this one! 

Love my new doorway...it was abt 26", now it is 42". Nice!!

Electrical outlets and switches almost done, plumbing in progress

Marcie and Trekker came to check out our house today.

Original brick inside the pantry

Main water shut-off, plumbing for the icemaker in my fridge

How many times can a person (previous owners, not us!) try to burn down a house?

 

This is the wire Curtis pulled out of the floor that started the fire above. Copper burned and all.

Awesome cabinet hardware

See...... now this is the fun stuff for me.  I saw this cabinet hardware and thought it would be pricey, but it actually isn't too bad. 

The Newest Addition to my Wishlist

I just have a minute because it is Christmas Eve and we are headed to visit Grandma Roche, then off to have dinner at Aunt Sylvia's.  

Brent & LeeAnn... the neighbors across the street.... wanted us to go to their son's home this morning so see how he did the island in his kitchen.  Neither one of us thought we would be interested, but Brent & LeeAnn are good friends and have great taste, so we went anyway.  And I am SO glad I did because it is just the thing I wanted.  Even though I didn't know I wanted it.  Yes, the patina will always be random and changing, but it actually looks really amazing.  And I love it. It fits perfectly with what I want my kitchen to be. 

The top of their island is copper.  I know, it sounds strange.  But it is beautiful!!!!  And in terms of price, very doable.  So, I think we just might go for it.

Building in the Kitchen

During the last week, there has actually been some construction going on in our house instead of demolition.  Part of the sub-floor is down, and the two walls are framed now.  And, Curtis has framed in the spot for my fridge.  

Meanwhile, back at the ranch..... I have been busy trying to design my kitchen and get it drawn out for Curtis.  I just want to get to the fun stuff, like picking cabinets, appliances and tile.  And he doesn't want all the details yet, he just wants to know where to put things.  I had no idea that something as simple as where to put the microwave could be so difficult to figure out.  But.... I think I have it. 

Here are a few more pictures... not too exciting yet, but it will be a long time before there are cabinets, so hey, it is something. 

Re-doing the kitchen floor

The original floor, with just a little sag. 

 Curtis started laying the new kitchen floor today, and he started framing in one of the two walls where the cabinets will go, but I don't have pictures of that yet.  He figures that he will be able to do plumbing and electrical next week.

It is hard not to get too excited about the kitchen.... even with all of the new stuff, we are still a long way from being able to pick out cabinets and tile. 

Plumbing and electrical found under the kitchen floor

A nice thick layer of old concrete

Concrete , non-essential wires & pipe, old wood floor, gone.

 

 

 

New floor framed in.

After-Thanksgiving Day Sales

On the Saturday after, we were in Lowe's to pick up some things Curtis needs for the house.  While Curtis was running around getting what he needed, me and Janice were walking back to the appliance section.  I walked right on past the clearance rack and its little sign that said "everything 90% off lowest marked price."

What can I say? I am not a shopper. But Janice is. 

She stopped to look at some solar lights and she tried to get me to be interested, but they weren't my style, so I tried to continue on to the appliances. The next time she got my attention, she had a very nice beaded glass sconce that would be very pretty in my house.  I told her it would just be better if there were two of them, but she finally convinced me to take the light home, and if I didn't use it in my house, she would use it in hers. And at that price, I would have been crazy to argue.  

Original Price:  $88.20        Clearance Price:  $17.90    FINAL PRICE:  $1.79!!!!

So, I got the light, and Janice kept rummaging through that clearance rack. Me... I was getting bored fast.   Because I love shopping so much.  But while I was wandering aimlessly, waiting for Janice, I happened to look way up high in the lighting section, where I just happened to find THREE MORE lights.  And yes, the manager said they could all go for the same price of $1.79 each.  

Thank goodness for Janice..... I would have walked right  on by and never seen them. 

Destruction and Progress

There is been a lot going on in Hyrum and not so much on the blog.  Part of it… I am the Queen Procrastinator.  And part of it is…. I can just never keep up with Curtis.  

The good news is…… the roof is almost done.  Done enough that I don’t have to worry about the rain and snow getting in.  What a relief that is.  Wow, it looks so good.  And it didn’t get done a minute too soon….. he finished what had to be done on a Friday and it was immediately covered with several inches of snow.  

Now that the roof is done, there are several other things that need to be worked on.  So many it is hard to pick just one. 

 

Curtis finished taking down the entire ceiling in the kitchen…. Not just the wet stuff, but the entire thing.  He went through all of the insulation and pulled out the wet stuff, leaving the dry stuff there so we don’t have to replace it all.  We bought the cans for my lighting and they are roughly installed so I could have an idea where they would be and how many.  I am a very visual person and I just can’t imagine things like Curtis can.  

Then, Curtis went to work on demolishing the pantry. The pantry used to be the back porch on the old house.  The ceiling was still slanted and after fixing the roof, there was room to raise it up – and it is now higher even than the kitchen ceiling.  What a project that was!

When he removed the shelving and the ceiling in there, Curtis found where the washer and dryer used to be in there.  The electrical outlets were still in there, and still live!! During the demo, he also found the original wall of the porch was still there….. including the windows, glass and all!  Demo included tracing wires and finding out what the circuit panel powers.  Curtis has pulled wires, plumbing, you name it. 

Which then leads us back to the kitchen.

Curtis was trying to figure out where the plumbing entered the house and where to access all of the plumbing.  So, he pulled up the carpet and laminate floor.  He is so glad he did.  When he got down to the old floor, he found that a large corner of the kitchen has NO floor joists.  The floor is sagging quite a bit but you couldn’t tell because there was a thin layer of cement over the top to level it all out. 

Look closely at the wood floor under the blue door...... no floor joists, so the floor is sagging.

Part of the kitchen was about 10 inches of concrete.

The concrete was mixed with rocks, boards, paper, you name it.

It is kind interesting  when, in the same breath, Curtis says to bring a sledge hammer…. and the camera.

I will say, you just have to see the pictures. Part of the old floor was actually all concrete.   It is all gone now. And there was no crawl space, so he dug it all out and hauled the dirt to the garden spot in the back. 

We have always thought the bathroom located just off the living room was a little strange, so we planned on making part of it into a closet, and changing the access of the bathroom to the back of the house, near the kitchen.  So, when Curtis started tearing things out of the bathroom, we found another doorway.  That makes three now.    But this one is kind of cool….it has a bit of an arch made right in the brick, so we are going to try and save that. It will be nice back there….. enough space for six people to drop shoes and coats, and a small bathroom.    This is one part of the house that I almost have designed how I want it. 

The most recent surprise was found in the living room.  Curtis has been working on the floor in the kitchen, and naturally that includes the entry into the living room, which had some sag to it.  And….. that wall between the two rooms was SO  thick…. 28” thick!  Well, once you get into it, we found it was layers, like much of the rest of the house.   

Rock wall...gone.

First was the old original brick wall…..that part will stay.  It is about 14” thick. In the center is a thick layer of bricks and mortar to fill in space between what used to be a rock wall in the living room.  The final layer is a steel-framed wall covered in sheetrock and about 8-10 layers of wallpaper.

the rock wall that was buried between a brick wall on one side and sheetrock on the other.

                                                                 

A reprieve for a minute

The rain has stopped, for a minute.  Per KSL:  2.53 inches of rain here in Brigham City. The wind was crazy here last night, so I can only imagine what it was like over in Hyrum.   We got snow in the mountains last night.

I went over to the house this morning.  The 5-gallon bucket I put in the kitchen last night in Hyrum was full to the brim.  There are more places where the water is starting to drip into the kitchen.  The ceiling (over the bucket) fell to the floor, and there are at least two more places where the ceiling is probably on its way down.  

The floor is still soaking wet.... but it looks like the underneath will all be ok. 

I can't wait til Curtis comes home.    

Did I mention that it's raining a little bit?

OK, more like a an almost steady downpour.  Day two.  I know Curtis tarped the roof the best he could, but I have just been worried about it today and I kept feeling like I needed to go check on everything.  So I did.  

Why, I don't know. 

As soon as I stepped inside the house, I could hear water hitting the floor.  In multiple places.  This can't be good.   That spot where Curtis ripped out the kitchen cabinet and found a door?  Water is just running down the walls. Dripping of the wires.  I didn't even dare turn on the lights to see just how bad it was.  The counter top was wet. The pile of insulation on the floor?  All wet.  The laminate floor 3-4 feet in front of the counters?  Wet, all the way to the wall. From the new old door all the way over to where the fridge is supposed to be. 

I hear dripping in the pantry. But its dark and I am not going in there. 

More dripping at the wall over by the laundry room... the carpet is saturated here, in a space at leat 3' x 3', maybe just larger than that.  Squishy saturated. But I could at least put a bucket here and catch the water.

There was more leaking at the sky lights in the laundry room.  But I KNOW all of that is getting replaced so I am not too worried about all of that.  

The floor is wet over by the door going into the garage. But I couldnt figure out for sure where it was coming from. 

Now, where the water is running down the wall, there is brick there, the old exterior wall.  That should be OK.  Not sure about the floor... it might be concrete under the laminate but I dont really know.  The other spot? I dont know about that either.

Now..... I understand this is not entirely as bad  as it could be.  I mean, the house is OLD.  It has not been taken care of.  So many things are being replaced anyway.  But still, it just freaks me out because Curtis isn't here and it is hard to guess what he would want me to worry about. 

If I thought he would be home today or tomorrow, I wouldn't worry so much.  But.... when he says "I'll see you when I see you," I have no idea what to expect.  It could be several more days of rain and waiter before he gets home.  

And so, I just worry about everything. 

No new progress, just random photos.

This week's renovation has been interrupted by what else but.... the deer hunt.

The reality is, Curtis is living with a houseful of girls and hormones now, so I am quite certain he needs some time with the guys. Deer hunting is a good excuse for that because we -- the girls -- aren't interested.   And besides, today is day two of a pretty heavy rain.  So, he wouldn't be getting much done on that roof anyway. 

Before he left, Curtis got the floor in for Cara's dormer, and he has a couple of the walls framed in. All of the above has been carefully covered in blue tarps. I don't have any pictures of the walls yet. But, I do have some random pix from last week.  

Curtis loves to have people stop by so he can give them the grand tour.

Yeah!!!! Uncle Maurice brought a roll off - that ought to help the clean-up!

Think it is close enough to the house?

In front of our surprise door.... LAYERS.

New roof, old roof, which roof??

The brick here was once the exterior of the home.

Got my irises from home planted in a temporary spot.

Some of the "treasures" we have found... the shoe was in a tree.

And... because it is almost Halloween..... this was left in the kitchen. :)

Surprise-surprise!!

Last week was been full of surprises! 

After Curtis got the building permit, he went back to work on the roof, tearing apart half of the back section, the part over the kitchen.

Well, we stopped in to see him one day and found quite a mess in the kitchen, which surprised me – I thought he was working on the roof, right? 

It turns out that when he started digging out the insulation on the roof, he found the old, very old electrical wiring…. I think he called it hook and loop wiring.  

old old very old electrical..... it is gone now.

Well, there is no way Curtis was going to leave that in place, so he had to find just what those wires went to. So, one of the cabinets came down. Sheetrock came down. 

 Can you believe….. one piece of sheet rock started at the floor and went just up to the wire, and the other piece of sheetrock started at the ceiling and came down to the wire…. which was then mudded right in between the two pieces.

Well, in the process of making a mess and tracing those wires, we found another surprise:  there was a door hidden behind the kitchen cabinets. We have no idea if it was an exterior door or maybe an entry to the kitchen at one time.

Another door?

Once the wiring was replaced, Curtis went back to the roof.  Or should I say….. roofs?

The back portion of our house includes the kitchen, the pantry and the laundry room.  It appears what is not the kitchen was added on first….. you can actually see it in the old photo I posted the other day.  Curtis thinks the pantry was probably added as a porch to begin with, because the roof is sloped away from the kitchen. 

The old kitchen roof and the old porch roof are still there, under the existing roof. He found another small chimney also, although who knows what that went to. 

 

 The good news is that the support spanning the kitchen is heavier than Curtis anticipated.  And I guess it was well insulated, with a nice thick layer of sawdust, topped with a good layer of loose papery insulation.

Curtis took Cara up on the roof so she could stand in her bedroom – she was quite pleased with herself, silly girl.  

And then, Curtis took ME on the roof to take pictures. 

I think I turned green. 

I know I wanted to puke. 

Hope he doesn’t need help up there anytime soon because this girl is afraid of heights!!! 

We have a building permit!

OK, so that is today's news, in its entirety. But it is a good feeling just the same. Curtis will be calling to order the materials today and he should be back on the roof in a day or two.  

Weather permitting of course.

Oh, speaking of weather, particularly COLD weather, the new boiler is on order as well.  Not so exciting, but these are some of the major, yet basic projects that must be completed before we can move in. 

No, the roof isn't done yet........

It rained a lot this week.  Seems like a good time for a break.

OK. You know Curtis.  He doesn't take breaks. 

So, just a change in focus for a minute.  In between storms, he did finish the roof on everything but the garage and the two add-ons in the back.  There are two separate pitches on the roof here, which is just beggin' for trouble.  Add to that a little girl who wants a window-less room upstairs to be her bedroom.  

To proceed, Curtis needs a building permit. He went in to the Cache County Building and Development office with a nice set of drawings on Tuesday, but the dude wanted them drawn larger. So, Curtis spent most of the night redoing them, and we went back .... now we are just waiting on the official OK. 

In the meantime.......

Curtis went to work inside...... in the dungeon, haha.  I don't like it down there much. Creepy.  And I can only imagine how many spiders are down there.

Before: this room looked so small when it was full of stuff.

The creepy stairs going down into the creepy dungeon.  Did I mention I don't like going down there?

Well, OK... this is kinda cool...... I have been told this is where the old coal chute was.

There is a cellar/partial basement in our house, with one larger room and one bitty room, where the furnace/boiler/water heater go.  Well, now that the old furnace and  water heater are gone, that bitty room is a lot bigger..... 9' x 4' . 

Curtis had to take everything out and upstairs in pieces.

All  of this out of the dungeon.

Then, he dug out the dirt floor ..... about five inches of dirt, or 100 5-gallon buckets up the stairs and out the window to the wheelbarrow. Who counts this stuff?????  Yeah, Curtis does.   Oh ..... and the giant boulder  that had been pulled from the cellar wall to put pipe where it needed to be....  I was waiting for Curtis to tell me that he ate his spinach and hauled it up the stairs by himself.  I was impressed when he said he didn't. That boulder is now buried in that dirt floor,

Curtis hauled a bunch of square pavers down into the dungeon, so the bitty room has a nice concrete floor now. It is still creepy in there .

the smaller part of the dungeon after Curtis got done with it.

The cluster of pipes that will heat my home.

In the upper-righthand corner of this photo, you can see a portion of the hole that the boulder came from.  Curtis said that boulder was at least two feet in boulder. 

We went  up to the house together today.  My house is all but done and on the market now, so I can go to Hyrum more often.   We didn't do much.... just cleaned up his mess in the yard.   Shingles, shakes, nails everywhere.  He filled in one flower bed for me so I could get my irises in the ground.  It isn't perfect yet, because let's face it... he isn't done making a mess. But it does look like a house again, instead of a demolition site. 

Curtis should have his building permit tomorrow, so he should be back on the roof in a day or two.