Renovation update - with LOTS of pictures
The last trip to NC was quick. We were still recovering from the previous one, and didn't feel up to snuff to accomplish much. But we did get internet set up there, and dug into the kitchen a bit. Something relating to the washing machine in the kitchen area involved leaks, and mold, and tearing up the floor. I might have been having something of a mild heart attack, but V said it really wasn't that bad. I'll defer to his expert opinion in this case.
Anyway, we left off at New Year's Eve...
Introvert dance party time. I've been drinking lots of teas, both herbal and non-herbal, which has been great for clearing out my seriously-this-is-old-tea-that-needs-to-be-consumed parts of the collection, and the herbal teas I've been using help my sore throat. So that makes for happiness. I already have 2 places to consider putting the tea collection in new home. I can't explain how happy it makes me. Tea time is happy time.
Also, note the texture on the walls. I'm pretty certain every single inch of sheetrock in this place has that texture... I wish I was kidding or exaggerating on that point. Textured walls = dirty particle collection you get to clean frequently. Not awesome for an absent-minded asthmatic. It is also hideous.
The lamp shade is torn up, but the base is fine, if a bit dated. I may just coat it with dark spray paint and use it for the time being. The green light bulb is from our random light bulb collection (V likes to collect all kinds of bulbs).
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mr. Gorbachev, tear down that wall!
One of the first things that we did when we got the place is we started tearing shit down. The previous owners also left a bunch of garbage and garbagy things around like many old chairs.
You can see the old master bedroom and closet through the wall studs, and the Grand Bathroom, which apparently has such terrible plumbing that V disconnected all the lines - it will have to be redone and will involve a serious amount of labor. Later. It's a low priority at this point.
We don't have a dumpster yet, and we're trying to compost or recycle as many materials as possible. So we've been waddling through the waste, throwing it in the compost, tearing the nails out of the wood (which is killer on the wrists, BTW), and putting actual garbage in giant contractor bags. We do have a dumpster company in mind to use, V just thought it would be better to hold off since we're only doing this part-time. We have room outside to store the ever-growing pile of stuff-that-even-V-can't-think-of-a-use-for. If V can't use it, it's DEFINITELY garbage.
This is how we most recently left it. Lots of sorting. The insulation from the ceiling is hanging down due to "investigation" to see if animals were also living there - in some areas they were. The wood on the ceiling is good, usable material. For somewhere else. The tv stand there on the green wall is built into the studs, I've been tempted to cut it off but I'll have to use the corded sawzall. We'll see.
V actually cleaned out the fireplace himself - a considerable task, there had been styrofoam and cigarettes in there not to mention the condition of the chimney - and already had the inaugural fire. Wood was burned. I did not die from smoke. Success!
Much better.
Some of these more recent photos are a bit blurry. I messed up my camera lens, so I don't know if I'm just tired here or if the camera is being wonky. I talked to Canon about having it repaired, but their baseline repair price is almost as much as the camera itself. On the right is an old shower curtain hung up, trying to keep the dust/sheetrock/whatever from going everywhere. The hope is to re-do the studs and supports here, hopefully turn it into one large room with some central poles/columns. And lot of shelves, somewhere. We still haven't quite figure out where we're putting our closet, and general in-home storage for stuff like sleeping bags and old backpacks and my wrapping paper collection (I've seen it referred to online as "deep storage" - most people put this stuff in attics or garages, but we don't have either really).
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Boat Room
This was an animal highway.
Not anymore. But it explains why when I was in the room in the middle of the morning I would get "NOT ALONE" intuitions and GTFO to be near V.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Charming, to the last...
Kitchen, from before home was purchased. You can see the un-liberated stove. The Washer and Dryer hookups are out of view, on the far left. The sink itself is nice, but the plumbing will have to be repaired. All cabinets are going. Although the previous owners agreed in writing on leaving the washer, dryer, and fridge, they took them. We were planning on replacing them anyway. Center stove area - rip out. Put in a wall, and dramatically increase cabinet and counter space in kitchen.
So once leaking was detected, this was the temporary solution. The floor was squishy.
V demonstrating how manly History/Philosophy majors can be. I did not realize he would just rip the cabinets off the wall to carefully place them on the ground, which is why I am holding a camera instead of actually helping. Also I get to drool this way and it doesn't present a hazard to anyone's footing.
Cutting it out. That's the corded sawzall I was referring to earlier. Honestly it would be wiser for me to never ever ever touch it.
Add to list of things to not breathe. I'm wearing the respirator here. V isn't wearing any protection, of course, that is how he insists upon rolling or whatever. You can see here the construction of the floor - stick-it vinyl tiles over old linoleum over PARTICLE BOARD which promptly rotted out, then insulation underneath. See the mess on the studs? V said they were fine, since the leak obviously was recent. I'm concerned there's more icky gunk behind the sheetrock walls - my nose (and lungs) still detect Bad Things in the area.
The stove, liberated. It has since been liberated to the porch. You can see the wood covering up what was torn up in the previous photos, another temporary set-up.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Future music/tea zone
This is V's indoor work set-up zone. Note the dying Mac - the Mac OS partition has died - we think the hardware itself is dying - but the Windows partition is functioning, albeit barely. We can only get it to run in safemode. I have loved that Mac.
Anyway this space is planned to be my future music/tea zone. I'm thinking the family piano and melodeon* will go along this wall, but we'll have to see. I want at least one wall in blue grasscloth, we'll see how I feel once I start pricing it out. This room will have enough room that other people who play musical instruments can come over!! Making music again would be awesome. There's even enough room for me to bring over the ENTIRE Hamchuk sheet music collection, which is sizable. This makes me even more excited than the tea. I told V that if somehow a hammered dulcimer makes it way to us, I will use my genetic inheritance** and totally learn to play for him.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The mystery window
So this is the east side, on the outside. I don't know why it looks so yellow and dirty here. Anyway, what you see is actually an outer shell that was placed over the original part of the home. What I realized on last visit, is that last window there on the left? It is actually much much bigger, but covered up by the white "shutters" - and there's at least one layer of house between the window and the closet on the other side of it. It's actually a good place for a window, it already has a screen and if opened, and that layer of house wasn't present, it would open up a good east-west airflow into the home. Why it is covered up, I don't know. I have also noticed a trouble scent in said closet on the other side, so there's stuff to investigate there in any case.
Those hydrangeas will be GOING, although not before the previous owners get some cuttings. The bushes were from cuttings from old family land. I want to put a raised bed with our gorgeous azalea as the feature specimen there. Maybe some carolina jessamine, going up the walls, if we can get it to survive the winters here. The local extension service said to treat the area more as zone 6 than zone 7 (technically the house is 7a). But perhaps against the house it might be okay? Gardening is a lower priority than getting the house to a livable condition.
So we're about to take another trip up there, and it's going to be a big one - we have supplies to re do the kitchen floor, and an old washer and dryer V's old boss gave us. V's totally awesome Mom is once again coming up with her giant van - she's strong and fun and experienced with this sort of thing (last time we had a big trip his parents dropped off stuff but his father hates getting dirty so they left ASAP). Renovation work is filthy, and it would save us the hassle of ferrying dirty clothes back and forth if we could just wash them up there. So even as I'm tired writing all this down, there is Much excitement!!!
*This pimpass melodeon is from a picture from the internet, not the one my family has, which is considerably grubbier. The ivory keys have yellowed and some of the beautiful trim has been lost. Still works, and is from the late 1800s. It is best suited for playing hymns, and other music involving slow chords.
**My musical talent is genetic, you can literally trace it through our family tree - from the family that had the melodeon, actually. I'm not sure if I have more than my brothers, or if I just studied music for longer (and harder). I would gladly give up some cells to science so that others could potentially benefit someday.
Anyway, we left off at New Year's Eve...
Introvert dance party time. I've been drinking lots of teas, both herbal and non-herbal, which has been great for clearing out my seriously-this-is-old-tea-that-needs-to-be-consumed parts of the collection, and the herbal teas I've been using help my sore throat. So that makes for happiness. I already have 2 places to consider putting the tea collection in new home. I can't explain how happy it makes me. Tea time is happy time.
Also, note the texture on the walls. I'm pretty certain every single inch of sheetrock in this place has that texture... I wish I was kidding or exaggerating on that point. Textured walls = dirty particle collection you get to clean frequently. Not awesome for an absent-minded asthmatic. It is also hideous.
The lamp shade is torn up, but the base is fine, if a bit dated. I may just coat it with dark spray paint and use it for the time being. The green light bulb is from our random light bulb collection (V likes to collect all kinds of bulbs).
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mr. Gorbachev, tear down that wall!
One of the first things that we did when we got the place is we started tearing shit down. The previous owners also left a bunch of garbage and garbagy things around like many old chairs.
You can see the old master bedroom and closet through the wall studs, and the Grand Bathroom, which apparently has such terrible plumbing that V disconnected all the lines - it will have to be redone and will involve a serious amount of labor. Later. It's a low priority at this point.
We don't have a dumpster yet, and we're trying to compost or recycle as many materials as possible. So we've been waddling through the waste, throwing it in the compost, tearing the nails out of the wood (which is killer on the wrists, BTW), and putting actual garbage in giant contractor bags. We do have a dumpster company in mind to use, V just thought it would be better to hold off since we're only doing this part-time. We have room outside to store the ever-growing pile of stuff-that-even-V-can't-think-of-a-use-for. If V can't use it, it's DEFINITELY garbage.
This is how we most recently left it. Lots of sorting. The insulation from the ceiling is hanging down due to "investigation" to see if animals were also living there - in some areas they were. The wood on the ceiling is good, usable material. For somewhere else. The tv stand there on the green wall is built into the studs, I've been tempted to cut it off but I'll have to use the corded sawzall. We'll see.
V actually cleaned out the fireplace himself - a considerable task, there had been styrofoam and cigarettes in there not to mention the condition of the chimney - and already had the inaugural fire. Wood was burned. I did not die from smoke. Success!
Much better.
Some of these more recent photos are a bit blurry. I messed up my camera lens, so I don't know if I'm just tired here or if the camera is being wonky. I talked to Canon about having it repaired, but their baseline repair price is almost as much as the camera itself. On the right is an old shower curtain hung up, trying to keep the dust/sheetrock/whatever from going everywhere. The hope is to re-do the studs and supports here, hopefully turn it into one large room with some central poles/columns. And lot of shelves, somewhere. We still haven't quite figure out where we're putting our closet, and general in-home storage for stuff like sleeping bags and old backpacks and my wrapping paper collection (I've seen it referred to online as "deep storage" - most people put this stuff in attics or garages, but we don't have either really).
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Boat Room
This was an animal highway.
Not anymore. But it explains why when I was in the room in the middle of the morning I would get "NOT ALONE" intuitions and GTFO to be near V.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Charming, to the last...
Kitchen, from before home was purchased. You can see the un-liberated stove. The Washer and Dryer hookups are out of view, on the far left. The sink itself is nice, but the plumbing will have to be repaired. All cabinets are going. Although the previous owners agreed in writing on leaving the washer, dryer, and fridge, they took them. We were planning on replacing them anyway. Center stove area - rip out. Put in a wall, and dramatically increase cabinet and counter space in kitchen.
So once leaking was detected, this was the temporary solution. The floor was squishy.
V demonstrating how manly History/Philosophy majors can be. I did not realize he would just rip the cabinets off the wall to carefully place them on the ground, which is why I am holding a camera instead of actually helping. Also I get to drool this way and it doesn't present a hazard to anyone's footing.
Cutting it out. That's the corded sawzall I was referring to earlier. Honestly it would be wiser for me to never ever ever touch it.
Add to list of things to not breathe. I'm wearing the respirator here. V isn't wearing any protection, of course, that is how he insists upon rolling or whatever. You can see here the construction of the floor - stick-it vinyl tiles over old linoleum over PARTICLE BOARD which promptly rotted out, then insulation underneath. See the mess on the studs? V said they were fine, since the leak obviously was recent. I'm concerned there's more icky gunk behind the sheetrock walls - my nose (and lungs) still detect Bad Things in the area.
The stove, liberated. It has since been liberated to the porch. You can see the wood covering up what was torn up in the previous photos, another temporary set-up.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Future music/tea zone
This is V's indoor work set-up zone. Note the dying Mac - the Mac OS partition has died - we think the hardware itself is dying - but the Windows partition is functioning, albeit barely. We can only get it to run in safemode. I have loved that Mac.
Anyway this space is planned to be my future music/tea zone. I'm thinking the family piano and melodeon* will go along this wall, but we'll have to see. I want at least one wall in blue grasscloth, we'll see how I feel once I start pricing it out. This room will have enough room that other people who play musical instruments can come over!! Making music again would be awesome. There's even enough room for me to bring over the ENTIRE Hamchuk sheet music collection, which is sizable. This makes me even more excited than the tea. I told V that if somehow a hammered dulcimer makes it way to us, I will use my genetic inheritance** and totally learn to play for him.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The mystery window
So this is the east side, on the outside. I don't know why it looks so yellow and dirty here. Anyway, what you see is actually an outer shell that was placed over the original part of the home. What I realized on last visit, is that last window there on the left? It is actually much much bigger, but covered up by the white "shutters" - and there's at least one layer of house between the window and the closet on the other side of it. It's actually a good place for a window, it already has a screen and if opened, and that layer of house wasn't present, it would open up a good east-west airflow into the home. Why it is covered up, I don't know. I have also noticed a trouble scent in said closet on the other side, so there's stuff to investigate there in any case.
Those hydrangeas will be GOING, although not before the previous owners get some cuttings. The bushes were from cuttings from old family land. I want to put a raised bed with our gorgeous azalea as the feature specimen there. Maybe some carolina jessamine, going up the walls, if we can get it to survive the winters here. The local extension service said to treat the area more as zone 6 than zone 7 (technically the house is 7a). But perhaps against the house it might be okay? Gardening is a lower priority than getting the house to a livable condition.
So we're about to take another trip up there, and it's going to be a big one - we have supplies to re do the kitchen floor, and an old washer and dryer V's old boss gave us. V's totally awesome Mom is once again coming up with her giant van - she's strong and fun and experienced with this sort of thing (last time we had a big trip his parents dropped off stuff but his father hates getting dirty so they left ASAP). Renovation work is filthy, and it would save us the hassle of ferrying dirty clothes back and forth if we could just wash them up there. So even as I'm tired writing all this down, there is Much excitement!!!
*This pimpass melodeon is from a picture from the internet, not the one my family has, which is considerably grubbier. The ivory keys have yellowed and some of the beautiful trim has been lost. Still works, and is from the late 1800s. It is best suited for playing hymns, and other music involving slow chords.
**My musical talent is genetic, you can literally trace it through our family tree - from the family that had the melodeon, actually. I'm not sure if I have more than my brothers, or if I just studied music for longer (and harder). I would gladly give up some cells to science so that others could potentially benefit someday.