3 years later.....Let me correct that~it has been 4 years! and 5 months since we bought this place!

A little more than three years ago we bought this house.  It's been slow going!  We haven't done anything to the house for a little over a year!  But this past week we resumed work and hope to keep on a roll for the winter if we can.  Here's a peek at what we are working on now.

 We are enclosing the front porch to enlarge the house.  It will extend the living area 8 feet across the front of the house.  I'll put some more pictures but I hadn't posted in so long I couldn't wait!

removing the sacred cupboard in a cloud of dust....

My precious cupboard has been saved! It came out in two pieces. I know it's really hard to see, there was so much dust in the air and this camera just does not do a good job, it just seems to take a picture of the dust!

more demolition

We spent one day last week doing more demolition, we are almost completely done with that. We have a few more hours to put in and then we should be rid of every shred of plaster, lath, and insulation. Our aim is to not only be done with that part, but have a clean, clear place to store things when we do move. Left to right- Standing in the 'old' kitchen looking toward the front of the house you can see to the left of the picture what remains of the bathroom. In the middle is the corner that was piled high with used insulation which we chucked out the front door and it will be covered up with an enclosed porch hopefully soon anyway. To the right you can see through the bathroom to the beloved cupboard that I want to salvage.

the basement has a window!

I'm so thrilled to be posting about a basement window. Do I have a boring life, I mean getting excited over a window, I guess it's because we plan to start our family's country life out in this very basement. Anyway, hun found this window at Menard's for less than regular price because it was some one's special order mistake! It really is the perfect window for this space and it is a good quality window too. We even recycled some of the floor joices that we were removing from upstairs. Woohoo! *recycle and reuse*. We are soooo green. Keep checking back, the bargains have been rolling in, I'm going to go take pictures of them and more progress.

more basement demo

There's not much left in the basement. All the old plumbing and wiring have been pulled out leaving a totally clear ceiling. We call this a "blank canvas".

the basement demolition

This would have been much slower going if we had not been able to borrow this front end loader.

goodbye chicken coop

Knocking the chicken coop over only took about ten minutes or so, then was pushed into a pile with the other barn and lit on fire later. It was in pretty bad shape, missing a good portion of the backfacing roof. We plan to put up a new one.

exciting footage

WOW!

no more chimney

The chimney was in the way of the new floor plan and had to go, so a couple days ago it was taken down to below the main floor. I missed out on that project. I can tell you, my feelings are not hurt at all. We ladies of the house stayed home that day. The kitchen will be located in the front of the house beyond this new wall where you can see the table saw. It's starting to take a little less imagination to see what things will look like, that's a good thing.

no more stairs

Yesterday the stairs were removed. They will be moved to a different place in the house to fit our new floor plan. For now we have a ladder! The old stairs were pretty much in the middle of the house, now they will be toward a back corner with a mud room/family entry behind them. It'll be great! The larger picture shows the old and new staircase openings from upstairs. The new set will be to the far left.

little by little

well, we have been working away here and there. Bruce is putting in a support wall here. I have taken a picture looking through to the front door while standing at the back. I have been working on the plaster and lath in the existing kitchen, Bryan is removing some cupboards for me. Imagine being able to see what's on the TOP shelf like that! Pancakes anyone? don't think so. some new framing has been done upstairs. can you see the closet plunked right in front of the window? the window will move later, but that is the beginning of a closet upstairs.

the power of fire

today we finally lit a fire and began to burn lath and some of the junk laying around. I have to tell you, I have been looking forward to this! while clearing out the house and looking over the property we rounded up a half dozen couches and chairs at least! driving out to our property and seeing that pile of couches just was down right discouraging. today, some of them burned. I haven't really let you see the junk piles yet. I don't want anyone to faint. in fact, I'm trying not to faint myself. tomorrow will be another day of burning junk and debris. maybe some mattresses? yes, there's a few of those too. we rigged up this tarp/sled thingy, it works pretty swell for dragging a pile around the house and down the hill a little ways where the burn pit is. look, only two-thirds of the lath pile left to burn! cheer up everyone. a lot was reduced to ashes today. yay!!!!

a few crow bars and a lot of ambition

well, Saturday proved to be a productive day. with tools in hand we attacked the plaster and lath on the main level. we got so much done. we were there from about 11:30 AM to 7:00 PM with a lunch break in there somewhere. we were like the energizer bunny family, we just kept going and going and going....... shovels, crow bars, hammers, a sledge and even an ice chipper were flying for hours. boy are we sore, but the main level is starting to get a more open feel, which is exciting. the piles outside are getting bigger all the time! we have been discussing different floor plans for weeks and I think we have finally settled on one we think will work, that is if we don't come up with any more little 'ideas' to squeeze in.