3 posts tagged “house”

We got started on the renovation this weekend.  It was all hands on deck for the demo part, which I think everyone likes because it is really just destroying stuff.  I can't tell if the rainy weather was a benefit or not.  On the one hand it was not a benefit b/c the weather was cold and raw and since the heat was removed from the house it was cold and raw inside the house.  On the other hand you certainly didn't feel like you were missing anything having to work inside during the rainy weather.  And if you were working you didn't really feel that cold. 

So lets see where we are at

This was my living room:

 

 

... this is now my living room:

 

This was the view from the other side:

 

 

 

This is the view from the other side of the room:

 

You can see my shiny new kitchen in that picture!!! Ahhh at least that room is done!

Now, before we tore these walls down we thought that the wall that seperated the middle room from the living room was the old counter from when this house was a gas station

 

But turns out that might not be so...when we removed that wall the hardwood floor that is in the middle room/living room ran directly underneath the wall. So the floor had to come before the wall and I  know the floor isn't original.  But how old is the floor - well we haven't been able to figure that out yet.  But we do know the heat was installed around 1993 and that was put in AFTER the mop board... but the floor might have come after that b/c the floor doesn't run under the mop board.  The mop board is looking original but the floor is not.  And if you take a look at the picture above and then look at the landscape of my house I am starting to doubt that this house was even in this location to begin with.  Questions are popping up in my head about this whole thing.  I know the house was lifted to put the basement it is not a stretch to think that it had been lifted AND MOVED!  My neighbors behind me have some ties to this house, I need to  pop over and talk to them as well as just go to city hall and see what I can find. And where did the gas tanks go that were in the front yard?  They would have had to have been dug up at some point but at what point?  I have much research to do.

 

Take a look here, that large beam running upwards in the middle is almost a dividing line of the house - and the framing changes on either side - one side has boards that are in line with the floor and others are open further down.

 

 

 

 

In the meantime we continue to work on this, I won't like I am  nervous becasue it appears my dad might not be able to finish this and my electrical skills are limited.  I was accidentially electricuted on Sunday when my dad left some tools attached to a live wire, which isn't like him, which leads me to believe he might not be able to finish.  That being said I wonder how much knowledge I can cobble together between me, Brian and some books...

between now and then the planning continues:

 

 

 

You have probably seen pictures of it if you read this blog.  Its tiny - now it might not be that tiny for someone just starting out or but for someone with several active (or used to be active) hobbies there isn't enough space.  I thought at first it was a matter of organization.  If I just had things cleaned up and in order then I could create a space to work on photos, make cards, scrapbook, etc.  But what I found it out of site out of mind takes over and I haven't touched a scrapbook in over a year!  I haven't made cards in months!  Of late I have thought that it was a matter of too much clutter.  So I am trying to get rid of alot of items that are not necessary and just take up space.  For example, I am trying to archive my sketches and sketch books from last year.  I usually don't reference them back as they are just a place for me to look.  I am also DESPERATLEY trying to figure out the best storage systems for my photos.  I purchased a couple of years back and large flat file like this one.  THe ones that archietects use to store large blueprints and flat files.  Well that is GREAT but in this house I have to store it in the basement b/c the 

downstairs is too small (less than 700sq feet) but the basement has too much water so you can't really store photos down there.  Good grief the dilemmas.

Add to this the fact that I had hoped within a year I could undertake the renovation project I had planned on when I bought this house (new walls on the downstairs, new rooms on the upstairs) but things have not gone well at my job as of late (early and late) and I had to replace my furnace, my washing machine and tires on my car in the past 30 days.  Things are not good in the house renovation area.

Which brings me back to my original dilemma of hobbies and space and feeling like there isn't enough time.  Is that the problem?  Did it just come out in a stream of consiousness?? Is time my problem!  Well certainly I feel that is part of it, I don't have alot of time.  I have a job that keeps me away from home 12 hours a day and weekends are a race to get it all in.  And I think time will continue to be a problem until I am working from home and doing what I love.  Until them I could maximize what little time I have left 1. having a better systems for keeping all my stuff or 2. not caring and just taking it as it comes.  I like option 2 - just doing what you see in front of you except I miss my scrapbooks and I think some of the photograhs I have taken have gotten ruined b/c I don't have a place to keep them.

I have a weird little room upstairs that has no heat and is the dumpiest room in the house.  It has basically been a dumping ground because I refuse to use that room as storage of any kind because then I would have to admit that I am not getting a renovation any time soon.  You see if I keep saying:  I can't put anythign/spend any money in that room because I am going to renovatione it then hope lives on!  But as soon as I buy some shelves for that room and use it to help me organize all of my life I have admitted defeat.  Maybe I shouldn't see it as defeat, maybe I should see it as maximizing my life today UNTIL I have my renovation!

Here is my house:

it snowed at my house yesterday for the first time.  I took this picutre of my carriage house.   I like it but it might come out better at sunset than sunrise.