The focus moves back inside

Now that I have my outside refuge, the effort has moved back inside to the living space.  On deck (no pun intended) is preparing the exterior walls for foam insulation.  It is a more expensive means of insulating but it is better at plugging the leaks and keeping critters out so we have decided to go this route on the exterior walls where we have torn out down to the studs.  In doing so we found a LOT of places where the exterior foam has been eaten by squirrels and birds and where cracks exists probably created when the house was re-sided by the previous owners.  The foam insulation will prevent so much leakage in these areas.  An it should really help in the winter when Mark doesn't let us turn the heat on!

To get ready we had to remove lots of insulation in the living room, kitchen, office (now Matt's bedroom), and lower level. In some places we had to take more sheetrock off as well to make putting up the new sheetrock easier (ie. we will be able to put up full sheets and minimize seams).

Mark and Matt taking down sheetrock in the Living Room

This sheetrock all came off in a really big piece so it was really quick.

Then we took the plastic off and took out all the old insulation.  We left the new stuff that we put up last winter as we will re-purpose it into interior walls for noise reduction and "fire blocking".

Fire Blocking is a new term that I learned.  It is part of the code that helps prevent the spreading of fires. In cases where electricians drill holes through the wood framing to run wires and the wires go up into the ceiling, insulation needs to be put in to slow the spread of fire between one floor and the next.  So there you have it you now know what Fire Blocking is too!

Insulation removed from TV wall

We also had a little framing work to complete in Matt's lower level bedroom.  We needed to build out around the block foundation so that the foam insulation can be applied.

Framing the top 

We will have a sheet-rocked ledge with a wooden shelf on the top when it's all done

Front view of the finished framing

Side view.  The cement slab will be hidden and the space turned into a useable shelf

We spent the rest of the afternoon tearing icky insulation out of what used to be the master bathroom and re-doing the electrical system as we have a light that was in the closet and an outlet that was on a wall that doesn't exist anymore that we don't need.  Of course, those two items are the power into the bathroom area that we will eventually remodel.  We need to do this wiring now because it is a lot easier to drill holes and run wire when the foam insulation is not in place.

While Mark figured out where all the wires went and how he would re-run them, I took out the insulation and then scrubbed the nasty mold that I found.  I am convinced that we will have the cleanest inner cavities of any house around once I get done with them!

This fun work will continue the next couple of days then the contractors will be here on Monday and Tuesday of next week.  I will write another update and show you all the exciting final results after they have finished their work.  Have a great weekend, everyone and thanks for reading.

Moved in..... so what's next

We got ourselves moved in right as Memorial Day was approaching.  So what should we do now????

Moved in + unpacked more or less + long weekend = DECK BUILDING

There is so much to do on this house but my #1 request once we got moved in was to have the deck built.  Mark couldn't understand my thinking.  I don't have a kitchen but I want the deck done, really?

Yep!!  I was tired of looking at the pile of deck boards in the side yard AND it's summertime.  I wanted to be able to enjoy time outside and what better place than in "our woods".  I had visions of working hard and sweating in the summer sun to make progress on the house and then being rewarded with an opportunity to relax in the sunshine on the deck in a comfy chair with a nice cold beverage!  After 32 years together Mark can recognize when it's in his best interest to indulge my whims even if he thinks I am crazy.  Thus we spent 2 days of "family time" and the end result is a beautiful deck (perhaps not up to code right now but beautiful nonetheless - who needs a railing anyway?)

We started by putting on the railing posts so that the deck boards could be installed around the posts

Mark and I worked together on Friday while the kids were at work to put up the posts. It seemed so simple. Cut it to the right length and screw it in, right??  Even the simplest tasks seem to take forever until we get the hang of it.  But we got it and on a beautiful sunny day we finished all 8 posts.  

We put up an easy one first.  The corners were more complicated so we saved those for last

On Saturday our "deck building crew" showed up for a hard day's work! We decided to start with the lower section of the deck that is by the living room. Mark and my brother, Tim, started measuring for the first board and planning our strategy. They quickly figured out that the entire span of that section is less than 16 feet and if we had 16' boards we would not have any seams in that whole section. So Matt and I were sent on an errand that I don't recommend anyone ever attempt..... Going to Home Depot on SATURDAY. We were up for the challenge.  First stop....Chanhassen to borrow Tom Dewitz's trailer. Thank you, Tom! Then to Home Depot get the boards and come back to Comet.  Seems so simple. Of course, it wasn't. There were not enough 16' boards on the display floor and the ones there were warped so I wouldn't buy them anyway! Thus, we had to get help - almost impossible on the weekend! But if you are Deb it's possible. I just had to find "my lumber guy" and he made others get to work to drive the forklift over, make the people putting lawn furniture and grills together in the lumber aisle get out of the way, close off 2 aisles of the store for safety, haul down the giant pile of boards and put them in place so Matt and I could pick through then to get the straight ones that didn't have an ink stamp on the top side.  Never did figure out why the manufacturer would stamp the top side, but they do.  We left those ones for the next customer.   After our 2 hour adventure we had the boards we needed back on the work site.  

New 16' deck boards on the pile of 8' and 12' boards

Now we could really get to work.

Careful work being done around the tree

Emily supervising

Matt hard at work driving screws

Tim getting in on the action

Working in tandem made speedy work of getting this section done

My job was to put the boards up on the deck for the "installers" and to take pictures in my spare time.  Grandma Nancy was with us to lend moral support! 

Dixie watched too until it was just too much for her and she had to take a nap

That "white spot" is the real reason Dixie needed a nap.  Cooper, Tim's dog, is a great companion but Dixie can't quite keep up. Cooper even tired himself out this day!

At the end of Saturday we were almost done! It was awesome how quickly the work went once everyone got into the groove of it.  

Boards all installed, just need a bit of trimming on the ends

At the end of the day we had just a couple rows left to do. 

Mark and I got back at it on Sunday and it took us all day to finish the last few rows and to put the support under all 4 door thresholds.  It was so tedious but we did it.  The ends are all trimmed as well. 

Mark completed the finishing work around the tree also.

I now have my afternoon relaxation spot.

Mark's Father's Day addition to our deck

On to getting ready for foam insulation inside the house.  Thank you for reading.

Moving In

I knew the day would come that we would move in and I had been preparing for it but it still didn't seem real.  I sat down with Mark and talked about "Now, what do we really need to have to live here".  Tops on the list was carpeting for the upper level.  We also needed a table in the kitchen area to prepare food on, a table to eat around, a place to wash dishes, Internet service (can't work for WilliamRobert Apartment Brokers if I can't connect to the internet), and some kind of living room to relax in at the end of the day.

We had to be out of Hightower by Noon on Wednesday May 21st so we spent part of the weekend getting started.  There was one small complication and that was that Kylie (Matt's girlfriend) was still visiting us from VT so we didn't want to spend the whole weekend working.  It was much more fun watching Matt, Kylie, Emily, Bennett and Gavin play around and eventually IN the pool even though it was freezing cold.  Had to use it one last time.

We moved all of our stuff ourselves.  We got a big help from Emily (even though she was already working full-time), Matt (who delayed starting work an extra day to really help us when we got down to the wire), Uncle Tim (I will think of him every time I do laundry in this house since he helped move the washer and dryer THREE times),  and Grandma Nancy - doesn't she always help us!

The dining room became a dumping ground for the stuff we were using inside the house.  At one point we could have slept, watched TV, paid bills at the desk, printed fun stuff and gotten a snack out of the cooler all from one room.

Doesn't look like much but it took days to put away

Before we would put all the furniture upstairs, we had to deal with the floors.  I didn't really want to have to wear shoes ALL the time and I certainly didn't want to walk on dirty plywood floors and then crawl in bed.  And what about going to the bathroom in the middle of the night.  We couldn't really expect to put shoes on every time.  I reached out to Suzanne Huss, who's brother sells carpet, and Randy helped us find remnants of carpet that, while they might not be showcased on a Home Tour the way we have pieced them together certainly are huge improvement over plywood floors.  We have an excellent mishmash in each room that helps make this house our home.

Master bedroom/office waiting for the desk to be carried in

Emily's room all ready for a bed

Matt's room featuring the oriental rug that we had at High Tower - gotta use what ya have!

We are all quite comfy now that we have beds, tables and even lamps in our rooms.

Matt's room

Emily's room with her favorite lamp that she got at a garage sale in Rochester, NY

Excellent view from my desk out the new window in our Master Bedroom.  Lots of morning sunshine too.  

When we bought the house half of the master bedroom was a closet (you can see where it was by the dark spot and wires hanging from the ceiling).  We took the closet out and will make a new one in an addition we will do over the garage.  We wanted more light so we added a window and the french door.  It's great to have a window on the east side of the house...... until you are woken up by the rising sun at 5 AM!  We will have to get some pretty good blinds for that window to prevent the daily retina searing that we have been experiencing.  It was quite a shock the first morning we woke up here.  In the meantime, we have been compensating by turning upside down in the bed in the wee hours of the morning or placing pillows just right to block the piercing rays. Definitely something we didn't think about when we put the window opposite the most logical place for the bed!

I was getting so tired of living out of boxes.  There was so much to do that my clothes just had to wait!

Once we got the basics done in the sleeping space, the focus shifted to the first floor living space.

Living room BEFORE

Kitchen BEFORE

Kitchen AFTER - a day or two in

 With a coffee maker I had everything I needed.  I could get back into the routine of brewing a pot and taking Dixie on a morning walk.  So awesome to get back into a very familiar routine!

The tool box makes and excellent counter space for the Toaster Oven and Coffee Maker

One of the other must have items was a place to wash dishes.  We don't have any water or electricity in the kitchen area. So I set up and an extension cord and ran it into the living room to power the toaster oven and coffee maker.  The bathroom on the first floor, just outside the kitchen has water but the counter is so small there is no room to wash dishes.  Therefore, we have to use the upstairs bathroom.  This is most certainly a case of when God gives you lemons, make lemonade.

Here is our one full bathroom that we are all sharing.

It is quite an adjustment for us as we have never shared a bathroom with our kids since they were born. Never really planned to have our own,  it just happened and boy did we become aware of sharing the first few days here. It was incredible how much "bathroom stuff" we accumulated in 5 bathrooms at Hightower.  A family of 10 doesn't need the amount that we had tucked away! But I digress from the dishwashing.  

Here is how I made a bathroom into a dish room:

I quickly realized that the square bucket was not going to balance on the round hole of the sink so I did what any creative wife would do.  I scrounged for a scrap 2x4 to extend the "counter".  Works great.  It was not bad leaving the dishes to dry and coming back in a little while to carry them back down stairs and put them away.  But it was really annoying that the dish drainer was holding water and therefore dripping when I wanted to put it away under the sink.  Scrap wood to the rescue again.  With a 2 foot piece of 2x2 or something like that, I could prop the back end of the drainer up and it would drain better into the sink.  This lasted for a couple of days until Mark made a "Help me" call to Tom Dewitz.  

The conversation went something like this.  "Tom, washing dishes in the sink sucks.  You remodel homes. Certainly you have an old dishwasher laying around. Can I buy it from you?" Tom said "I don't have one but the Jensen's do.  Call Ann."  Mark must have really felt bad for me since he wasn't the one even washing the dishes. About an hour later we became the proud owners of a dishwasher and Ann was happy to get it out of her garage.  It turns out the Jensen's are getting a whole new kitchen and had just pulled the appliances out and were trying to get rid of them.  It really is all about WHO you know isn't it.  Thank you Tom and Ann.  

Here's the new setup! I would have thought you had to have a sink in order to have a dishwasher.  But Mark proved that that is not the case. 

Dishwasher sounds like a jet engine when it is running but man does it get the dishes clean.

One extension hose is all it took.  Well and a couple of electrical wires to hold it up.  The white hose is pushed really far down into the black sink pipe so it reaches to the vertical black pipe and drains perfectly. 

We made a couple of other "improvements" to the kitchen area in the first few days since we moved in.  We are using the laundry room to store dishes and prepare our meals and the closet just outside of the laundry room to store more kitchen items and food. 

Emily's bookcase repurposed into a "cupboard" to store plates, bowels, silverware, sharp knives and utensils. Plenty of space for our recycle bag and trash can too. 

Other side of the laundry room with table for food prep.  The toaster oven and coffee maker have been moved too.  They kept having to be moved off the tool box to get at the tools.  

And everything else................ 

It really is glorified camping but I keep reminding myself that I will have an all new beautiful kitchen at the end of it all.  I am more and more sure that I am never moving again. 

We also worked on the living room area so today we can put a drink on the "end table", watch the TV that is at just the right angle for "perfect" viewing, read a book in the recliner or stretch out on the "couch".

I knew that pink bucket would come in handy as did the yellow and red milk crates.  Do they even make mike crates any more.  There's even room for Dixie's bed, not that she is using it.  Plywood must be more comfortable!

Mark reading a book in the recliner with a nice view of "our woods".  There's even room for the cat's bed and Dixie's "little" bed. Oh and it wouldn't be home without the wall of tools!

We do have more chairs for the living room.  They just happen to be outside around the fire pit right now.  So come on over for a visit. It's even better in person.  

Thank you for reading and for all the encouragement and congratulation on selling the old house that you have all been giving us.  It really is an adventure and it's fun to share with all of you.

Next up..... progress we have made in the 4 weeks that we have lived here.  New deck... replaced electrical panel and more.

I'm back......

I know it has been months since my last post.  It's not that we gave up and sold the house... although some days that seems like a really good option.  Nope, we got distracted with a Spring Break trip to Park City, Utah, the re-listing and selling of the Hightower house, and celebrating a college graduate!  Many of you know that we remodeled 3 of the 5 bathrooms in the Hightower house and re-listed it at the end of March.  We were ecstatic to close on that house on May 21st but there were so many things that distracted us from this house and my blogging about it.  So I will give you the 50,000 foot version of what has happened here since the beginning of February. Then I will try really hard to write weekly updates so you can all see our progress.

Most of our work in the depths of the winter months was done in the basement.  Matt's bedroom and the bathroom both saw a good deal of progress as did the fireplace framing.

Eventually Matt will call this space home! It now has lights, outlets and heat ducting.

The fireplace will be a great addition to the basement.

We will add built-in shelves and cupboards on each side

We have also added a gas line and electricity here (but I didn't retake the picture)

Eventually it will look somewhat like this!  

The house had a bathroom on the lower level when we bought it but most of the finishings had already been torn out because of the water damage.  What was left we had to tear out because it was really poorly built.  We started with digging up the floor so that the tub/shower can be installed where it was intended to be installed when the house was built in 1978.

Getting at the drainage pipe

Tub/shower drain pipe ready for the plumber

Bad plumbing and framing that we ripped out

Ready for the fire pit!

New framing on the bathroom walls and ceiling

Ceiling framing so new sheetrock can be hung

Mostly cleaned up and ready for the plumber to put the new stuff in

A bit of work was done on the first and second floors as well.  The messiest job that we did was taking the texture off of the ceilings in the kitchen, dining room, lower part of the living room, hallway and the office.  We went from this:

To this:

It really wasn't that bad once we discovered that there was a sprayer (previously used for weed killer on the yard) in the garage that worked great for wetting the surface and then it practically fell off. Scraping it wet really helped cut the dust but boy did it make for some fun cleanup.  Luckily I had some left over tyvek laying around so I spread it out on the floor, wet away, scrapped it off the ceiling, let it dry on the drop cloth and then swept/scraped it up and dumped it in the garbage.  Not really that bad if you have the patience to let it dry.  

We also spent quite a bit of time installing lights, re-wiring outlets and light switches and working with an electrician, HVAC guy and plumber to do the things that we are opted not to do ourselves. 

I learned how to "pig tail" wires.  Who knew such a thing even existed?

Cutting holes for new lights in the kitchen

Ready for the fixture

A really great HVAC guy fixed all the bad heat ducting in the house.  Thanks to him, Emily's bedroom is actually connected to the heating/AC system.  No longer does her vent lead to never, never land.

Heat duct leading to Em's room

He also ran 5 gas lines for us.  My favorite one of all is this one:

Gasline on the deck ready for the grill

We also have lines for 2 fireplaces, the new cooktop (the old was electric) and dryer (also electric in the past).

Main floor fireplace with gas line (yellow), electricity (white) and tube for TV/Cable cords (black)

 Our neighbors are having a wedding reception for their daughter in their backyard at the end of June so we took some time to improve things on the west side of the house. This meant completing some more siding and removing a broken down fence. At the end of April it was finally warm enough to get outside.  We had to remember how to hang the siding. We quickly learned it's like riding a bike.... just get back on and it all comes back.  

Putting on trim

Many people have asked us if the exterior is all done once the siding goes on.  No, it's not. There was an option to get pre-painted siding but we opted to just get the primed boards.  We will have the house painted sometime this summer.  No, we are not doing it.  It's time for some expert help to speed things up.

The other giant eyesore on the west side (besides the weed-filled lawn) was the falling down fence.  We saved this job for when the kids were back from college and it just so happened that Matt's girlfriend, Kylie, was visiting from Vermont.  She fit right into the chaos of this family.

Is this a city road crew.... 1 person working and 3 watching?

That's a big board, Matt!

Prying the clips that hold the chain link fence from the posts.  

Kylie doing her part.

Matt breaking out the heavy weaponry - pry bar and sledge hammer

Fire wood! 

There's no shortage of "house parts" to burn around here

Matt and Grandma Nancy goofing around on the rolled up fencing

2 of 3 rolls of fencing ready to be taken to the metal recycle center.

Kylie, Grandma and Emily relaxing after a hard day's work

This work was completed on Saturday May 17th, 4 days before we moved in.  Moving in was our next focus but I will write about that in another posting.  (soon, I promise).