Monday, March 31, 2008

progress

Things are moving along!

First, the dumpster came today. It's quite larger than he thought, and after placing all the debris from two rooms in it, he said it barely covered the bottom!

I told him, he can dump any broken furniture left behind by the former owner. Speaking of which, the dumpster driver, stopped in to leave a receipt, and told my Hubby, that the first big load he removed from the house for the previous owners, was nothing more than papers and magazines! Oh wow....that's a lot of papers!

The plumber came today, he thought it a good idea to replace the water line from the street, as I asked. The shut off was so badly rusted, he said he couldn't guarantee the condition of the pipe. So ...he may have that estimate tomorrow.

The contractor showed up, told us the electrician wants wasyyy to much for the work. Seeing as how all the walls are bare, no plaster or lathe, it's a no brainer job..and he can't understand why he wants so much..so he will stop back in on Saturday with his price, and to relook over some reconstruction problems.

He feels, having the fourth bedroom upstairs is really unnecessary, we should enlarge the bath, and divide the remaining space up between the two bedrooms on that side. So...if the bath being 5' wide, is enlarged, what would you say, four feet maybe? makes it 9 feet...and it takes 4 feet off the fourth bedroom..making that one only 5 1/2 feet wide, hmm...adds 2 + feet to the two bedrooms...sounds about right. Sounds good also...I like big rooms! That would make the two bedrooms, about 14 x 18!

Hubby completed removing the plaster from bedroom #4...and started one way down the hall to the bathroom...(past bedrooms #3, and #2) Tomorrow he will remove the plaster on the other side of the hall... (and he says he didn't get anywhere today!) Laughing.

There's a small hallway to the bath, and to the #1 bedroom.Then there is the staircase area...and down the stairs...and today is only Monday! He's there till Saturday! at the rate he's going, he could (in my opinion) probably finish the downstairs also! Well, maybe all but the kitchen. He wants to take special care removing the bead boards from the kitchen walls and ceiling.

But OH what a mess it is! The dust, and accumulated dirt...I can only imagine! I saw the dust clouds in just the one room!

Gosh it was such an informative day...did I forget anything?

OH..in our backyard...there is a garage, to the left of our Carriage house. It's up for sale. Our property isn't large...and there is only the carriage house, so I had hubby go look at the garage. It will enlarge our property, and leave us a place for tool storage. Sadly, the guy wants $11,000.00 for it. It needs a roof, or a roof paint job (it's also metal) and it has no concrete slab underneath..just pea gravel...and in all honesty, hubby doesn't think a car will actually fit through the doors, although they are garage doors (two of them), I don't see why not... Hubby wants me to offer only $7,500. for it. He said for that price it is definitely worth it. I don't know if the owner will go that low, but Hubby is sure he will counter.

I don't mind, but it's me he wants to place the call! I hate that kind of stuff!

Oh well! That's about it for now, Maybe tomorrow will bring more news!

Sunday, March 30, 2008

Work is progressing!

Well, The Hubby took a week off to do some damage to the house...he went up yesterday...got there about noon time...His sister came to lend a hand, and they did a load of work!

Two of the four bedrooms are completely empty..all the plaster and lathe are down. The third bedroom has 1/2 of the walls down, and he is pretty happy with the results. He found himself an easier way to do the gutting...and it is definitely working!

The dumpster comes tomorrow, but the forecast says rain for three days...not good. If that plaster gets all wet in the dumpster, Hubby is afraid it will add poundage to the load..I am being charged $70 per ton. Think plaster can accumulate a ton of water?

I told him to continue just letting the plaster sit on the floors, till there is hope of dryer weather...or else he will probably have to pay for a tarp to cover it..and at that it could cost a good $70.!

Anyway, I have no pics yet..but Hubby swears he has been taken them..and has loads for me to see!

I'll keep ya posted!

Tuesday, March 18, 2008

More photos

Here is a photo of the wall without plaster..and loads of dust!



One more pic of the exterior..(The better part of the house)

Monday, March 17, 2008

Finally started something!

Well, we went to the new house, with all intention of just removing some old chimneys, hidden behind the walls, and just sitting in the attic, adding weight that isn't necessary..and before we correct a structure problem in the cellar, we thought it best to remove the added weight sitting on those beams.

So..we did. (Laughing) although we accomplished a lot, I am afraid, I had the first casualty..My Husband went up into the attic, and as he knocked bricks off, he piled them into buckets...lowering those buckets down to me, (by rope) so I could take them out to the garage, and dump them, then sending them back up to him.

Well...after about 11 buckets, and things were going great...one broke loose of the rope, at ceiling height. and came crashing down...on to....my toe! (ouch)

Well...I'll live. It's sore...may be broken, quite swollen...and I know the nail is a gonner...actually it's a nice shade of aqua right now, but..things happen!

Now I took some new pictures of the house, two different views...



While we were there, my Husbands Sister stopped in...to lend a hand..which was so sweat and unexpected (did I say sweat? LOL I meant sweet...but yes there was sweat involved!), so she started to remove the plaster from behind the chimney in the wall, that we were taking out, and as long as she was there...she started on the walls, which all have to come out anyway, and she did a great job!



It's a messy job, but it's going great! It was so nice of her to come over and help out!

So, we got things started, and more will be getting done in a couple of weeks, my Husband took a week off from work, so he can plough through the walls!

OH...I got the estimate from the Electrician too! it's pricey...$14,000. (us) pinch me..pinch me...

Sunday, March 2, 2008

Maybe a kitchen?

OK...I may be dreaming, but we thought about some things...a bit...

Since we have to completely remove all the plaster from the walls...we thought maybe, since the kitchen was oh so far away from the rest of the house...I mean, if you are in the kitchen, you seem to be all alone in the world, so....we thought, dreamily ...that we could do a bit of rearranging!

OK..it seems like a lot to me...but as long as we were there, we would move the bathroom from where it is, and relocate it..and open up the kitchen/dining room area a bit.

This picture is just a thought process..what we would like the kitchen to look like. If you look at the photo, the sink is actually in the corner, but we had to show it in a straight line, for the drawing process.




We will also like to have an island, across from the sink, kind of on an odd shape, when it's all drawn up, I will display it.

I guess you have seen the cabinet doors are all bead boarded. Well, we are hoping to reclaim all the wood from the present kitchen walls/ceiling!

It all has to come down to have the electric installed, so we are hoping to remove it carefully, clean it up, and make the doors with it...are we dreaming? I hope not.

There is a load of that wood on the walls, it should save us loads of $$ ! Hopefully.