Archive for the ‘House’ Category
October 18, 2011 – Fall Color
Here’s the little tree we planted in the front yard – growing up quite nicely.
We planted an ash, maple, and oak along the north side of the driveway many years ago to grow up to replace the old spruce, and two maples. With age and all the wind of late, the spruce tree blew down this summer, and one maple is down to about 25% of its original branches from storm damage. So, it looks like these trees might add some meaningful shade on the south side of the house by the time the other trees are gone.
one year ago…”Mini-van Driver No More”
October 4, 2011 – It Always Takes Longer
I’m redoing the back room of the house (yeah, the last room to redo on the first three floors of the house!). I’ve got the old stuff ripped out, insulation in, walls drywalled and about 3/4 finished.
These are some of the wainscoat boards drying in the garage. The extremely warm October days have been great for this kind of work. Once this stage is done, I think the rest might take as long as I’m planning all kinds of built-ins in the room.
one year ago…”Linda in the Flower Garden”
July 3, 2011 – Great New Insulation Cutter
I found this great new insulation cutter – named Martin!
xxx.
June 13, 2011 – Back Room
It’s time to remodel the final unremodeled room in the house – the back entry way. When we moved in, it was a laundry room, we turned it into an office of sort and just did some painting to spiff it up.
Here, I’m debating more about pounding out the plaster ceiling. Part of the room had a plaster ceiling, part had a beadboard ceiling, and nowhere was there insulation to be found in the original part of the house.
August 24, 2010 – East Side of House Done (well, almost)
The late summer project to remove the old garage and reside and reroof the east side of the house is complete, except for some door frame painting, caulking, screen door and window screen installation.
We’ll get around to the rest of the hose at a later date. An added bonus is the new patio where the garage used to be. We still have another garage and shed for the cars, so the patio seems like a good idea!
one year ago…”Worst of the North Side Barn Staining”
August 8, 2010 – House Progress
Slow but steady progress is being made on the cascading garage tear-off project. It has spread to putting new siding on the entire east side and both the additions to the original house.
Although with dew points in the 70′s and even in the 80′s some days, and rain every other day or so leaves much to complain about, slow but steady progress is being made. Today I ripped off the old siding off the second floor and removed the old storm windows and frames.
July 21, 2010 – Garage Tear-off Project Continues
Yeah! Today I got all the masonite and aluminum siding tore off the back additions to the house while the contractor messed with other things and wrapped in tyvek
To me, it already looks better, as long as we can avoid the red-neck house wrapped in tyvek for 2-3 years look!
June 29, 2010 – Garage Gone!
Phase 1 of this stage of house updating is complete.
The garage is gone and the mud room wall framed up. Nature abhors a vacuum, and the old cement pad makes for a great makeshift patio habitat. No injuries in garage deconstruction were suffered! Next is siding and reconfiguring the inside of the mud room.
one year ago…”Blue Mounds State Park”
June 27, 2010 – Garage Progress
The garage tearing down continues. It’s been a pain through the rain – another downpour in the middle of the night.
Here’s how the garage looked late last night – down to pretty much a skeleton.
There was great progress this afternoon – the rest of the sheeting off the roof, the rafters removed and the front and backs felled with the push of a hand after a couple of strategic cuts! It was satisfying to watch them fall en masse.
It’s starting to look pretty wide open as only the walls remain
one year ago…”20th Anniversary Trip to Dayton House in Worthington, MN”
June 22, 2010 – Father’s Day
For father’s day, everybody helped with garage deconstruction for a few hours. Although it’s not a traditional gift, it beats sweaters, socks, or a tie!
Great progress was made – the trailer was filled with shingles -we almost got the whole roof stripped and started ripping off the siding as well. Soon the eyesore will be gone. Another day with rain – hard to keep berries and the like from molding.
June 14, 2010 – Putting Martin to Work
Martin put in about three hours working pretty consistently tearing shingles off the roof. It was about as long and hard as he’s worked on a project with me.
He was a bit fascinated with the pattern and arrangement of the shingles. Unfortunately, there are two layers – I had hoped for just one.
It’s been hard to get much done lately. It’s been an exceptionally rainy June to date – it’s rained 12 of the 14 days this month – and many of those heavy thunderstorms. The garden is really starting to get out of hand with weeds.
June 12, 2010 – How Do I Hate Thee…
I have detested the attached garage to the house since the day we moved in. The garage suffers many ills, none of its own making, but rather in those that imagined and constructed her.
The garage is the 3rd addition onto the traditional foursquare farmhouse – The first addition was a mudroom and back bedroom – not in a contiguous line mind you, but adding a “U” shape and dead space in the center of the U. For this addition, the previous owners chose steel siding with large vertical lines, to no doubt set it apart from the traditional 3 inch lap siding that it juts up against. The garage, added onto this addition, made yet another statement when the wide masonite siding to offer another view. So in 15 feet or so, there are three vastly different looks.
The garage leaked soon after we moved in – but the problem that makes the garage salvageable is the fact that the floor is below grade and every time it rains, it fills with water. So, rather than re-roof, reside, putting a new door and window on, I decided it is time to tear off the garage and start from scratch some day. So the demolition begins!
one year ago…”Strawberry Season”
May 17, 2010 – Garage as Test Case
We’re moving the color scheme of the house from white and green to butter yellow and green. We’ve already put the new siding up of the dormers when we did the 3rd floor of the house and used the leftover siding for the peaks of the garage. I hadn’t come around to painting the rest of the garage the same color yet.
In this photo, the first coat is about 80% complete. I did manage to finish this side and prime another side today.
one year ago…no post
April 11, 2010 – New Front Door
I’ve given up on the fancy weathertight storm doors. It seems like no matter what, the doors last less than two years before the wind destroys them. I even made sure to get one with two pneumatic closers the last time, but it seems once the wind catches them from a certain direction, the closed glass fosters an uncontrolled opening that rips the hinges off and/or rips the closers out of the frame.
So I thought I’d try something a bit more charming and lo-tech – this screen door. My hope is the lack of glass will prevent the wild backswing that wrecked the other doors. To top it off, it looks like it fits the house!
