We spent Memorial Day working on the house. We thought the house was going to be moved that week, so we wanted to finish removing the 1st layer. The boys brought their target and did some archery. The three kids also enjoyed the company of two stray dogs. Phil worked on the east side of the house, while I worked on the north. At the end of the day, we still needed to remove the higher portions of the west and south sides. North side 1st layer complete within our reach
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Phil was able to spend a small amount of time removing siding last night before Samantha's ballgames. He worked on the east side of the house, and found some more signatures! They were on the wrap underneath the top layer of siding. This time it was Ed Kitten and George Buescher (my great-grandpa), dated January 10, 1950. Interestingly, it was on the outside of the house in almost the identical location of the builder's signature, dated 1902, that Blake found on the inside of that same wall back in September! Chris and his crew were able to get the support walls built in the basement, in preparation for the house being able to be placed back on top of the basement. Carter, Connor, & Phil Blake, Caleb & Carter (nephews), Connor, & Phil Looking west Looking east Northwest corner of basement
For some reason, today I recalled my great-aunt Colleen sending me this photo last summer. Thought I should post it. Looks like I was enjoying myself during this visit to the farm! The open staircase is a part of the house that I've always loved and plan to preserve. Hopefully I will be able to strip and stain the wood and get the outcome I desire.
Today we started the process of removing the siding. There are two layers to be removed. With the help of Phil's parents, his sister Sara, and her husband Travis, we got a start today. It was very windy, which added to the challenge of being up on a ladder...for me anyways! I'm not very fond of heights. I'm predicting there will be some sore muscles for some of us tomorrow. Good workout for the arms today! Phil getting started, and me checking things out. I didn't really enjoy this view...with Phil up there. It was much higher up than what it appears in the picture! This picture allows you to see the concrete between the styrofoam walls. West side of house at the end of the day North side East side South side/Front of house Phil, Sara, Travis, Carolyn, & Ron Cleaning Up Phil, Travis, Sara, Carolyn, & me Calling it a day...very thankful for everyone's help.
Saturday, April 30, 2016 Phil and I finished removing the remaining plaster in our house. We had to finish the bathroom and the two hallways on the main floor, including the ceilings. It was a great feeling to finally say we were done removing plaster! Half of the basement floor was poured the week leading up to the weekend. Rain has interfered with the process of pouring the basement. However, it was much needed, so no complaints! Basement... Blake & Connor...muddy mess! Connor Main hall complete! Looking south from living room The 2nd Week of May, 2016... More work was done on the basement. The floor was finished, and the walls were poured as well. These are styrofoam walls, with concrete in the middle. Phil began digging our basement over a week ago. He has spent several evenings there, and both days last weekend. It is really neat to see the progress. The house was purposely lifted and slid over to the side of where it will actually be. Once the basement is poured, the house will be slid back over it. I believe Chris started forming up for the footings today. I have included some photos of Phil's digging process over the last couple of weeks. I know there are a lot, and probably not real exciting, but wanted to make sure to capture the different stages of progress. Last weekend was very productive. Phil had torn off the north porch on his day off for President's Day during the week. This was in preparation for the house getting lifted. Going into the weekend, we knew we wanted to get as much done as possible, as we would likely be lifting the house in a couple of weeks. So...Saturday afternoon Phil and I spent a couple hours working after Blake's basketball tournament. I worked on the southwest bedroom walls on the main floor, while Phil began removing windows from the enclosed east porch. We made a little progress, but not a lot due to the lack of time we had. Sunday ended up being a big day for us. We went to church, followed by the kids' CCD. Phil decided to get started tearing out the ceiling in the southwest bedroom, while I waited at church for the kids. After lunch with my parents, Phil, the kids, and I got busy on the house. Phil tore out the chimney in the bedroom, while the kids and I started cleaning up the huge mess on the floor from the ceiling tear out. Not one of our favorite jobs. Connor and Blake hauled the chimney rocks to our pile, which was a big job for them. Samantha's job was to remove remaining nails from the studs on the main floor. Blake was a huge help, as my bucket dumper. The scooping, bending over, and carrying buckets was a workout! We knew the lifter was going to be stopping by late afternoon to look things over one more time, and Chris (builder) also stopped by to go over some final details with the floor plans. When Phil told me the lifter would be coming out, my response was, "Ok, but I hope he knows we aren't ready for him, and that he's not expecting to start on Monday or something crazy like that!" Well, that's exactly what happened! Before he left Sunday, he informed us that he and his crew would be back Monday to start the lifting process. We were in a scramble to get as much done now as we could! Luckily for us, both sets of our parents chose this day to come help us. We had not asked for help, but I think Someone knew we needed it! Our dads helped Phil get the east porch removed, and then helped him to remove the south porch as well. They carefully removed the decorative spindles before tearing the porch off. I would really like to use these, but they are in pretty tough shape, and the new porch will be a bit larger than the original porch. Even though the porch was falling apart, it was apparent that without it, the house looked even rougher! Before removing the floor of the porch, the toilet sitting on it really added quite a "touch" to the appearance of the house! Carolyn (Phil's mom) helped the kids and me tear up the carpet in the bedroom, and tear out part of the walls in the bathroom. The bathroom was sheet rock, which is not as easy to remove as plaster. When my mom showed up, she got busy with some cleaning up. Everyone's help was definitely appreciated. My dad helped to knock out the upper portion of plaster that was remaining in the hallway, that was out of my reach. Phil's dad ran the tractor to remove the south porch, and the east porch floor. Monday the lifters began preparation for lifting the house. They were there all day digging out so that they could get the beams in. Tuesday they began setting the beams, and we were told that they would lift the house up after lunch. We were all anxious to see this, and therefore allowed the kids to leave school early to go with Phil to see the house be lifted. They were going to get to push the button that lifted the house. However, upon getting there, they found out that this wasn't going to happen until the next morning. Bummer! Because all three kids were concerned with missing school, they did not go back the next day. This was disappointing, but Phil went down later and at least took some pictures for us of the house in the air. Tonight, Connor, Samantha, Phil, and I went to look at the house. Blake had basketball practice, followed by his middle school play practice. When we arrived, we saw that today the lifters rolled the house to the west. I couldn't believe how high in the air it was! Connor could stand straight up under the house! We are definitely making progress, and much faster than we had anticipated. It is exciting! As I have not been the best at updating, I will try to recap what has happened lately with work on the house. Phil worked about a month ago, and was able to finish the upstairs. He tore out the hallway ceiling, and the carpet that was in the southeast bedroom....Upstairs...done (well, you know what I mean!) Last weekend, February 6, 2016, we were able to get a little more work done on the main floor. Phil went down early and got started prepping the room. The boys, their friend Sam V., and I came a little later and got in on helping as well. Samantha had to stay back, as she had to leave early for her basketball game. I found myself grinning as the boys entered the house and I heard Blake say, "Sam, do you still think you need to take your shoes off before you enter?!" Sam was being very polite, and soon discovered that taking off his shoes would not be necessary! :) The boys were eager to do some destructing today, so with their help, we all got busy. As time was limited, we didn't get a ton of work done, but once again, we are closer to being done than we were before we started that day! I worked on the hallway, using a sledge hammer to get rid of as much of the wall as I could reach. The guys worked on the walls in the southwest bedroom. Blake and Connor enjoyed giving Sam a tour inside the house, and outside around the yard. They had lots to show him, but with all the snow on the ground, they weren't able to do as much as they wanted. As we are getting closer to raising the house up (in about a month), we are feeling the "crunch" of getting the house completely gutted and the three porches torn off. Phil is planning to work today on the porches. Last weekend, January 10, 2016, Phil and the boys spent an afternoon tearing out plaster. It was a very frigid winter day, which required coveralls... Although the weather wasn't ideal, we are really hoping to get all the plaster removed in the next month. Wishful thinking....maybe. Samantha and I had errands to run, so we missed out on working that day. Phil chose to work on finishing the upstairs hallway. The pictures show the progress made that day. From what I hear, it sounds like the boys helped quite a bit, but then decided to do a little hunting. Trekking through the snow with the golf cart and pellet guns in tow, they had a fun time. Saw a few rabbits, but never got off a shot. So, the only plaster left to remove upstairs is the hallway ceiling and the small amount of wall on the south end of the hallway. We still have a bedroom, bathroom, and hallway on the main floor with plaster that needs removed. "After" picture of staircase.
It was a beautiful, not so typical, late November Day (Nov. 23, 2015). Phil was on vacation, so chose to spend a day working on the house. The kids and I had school. Amongst the hustle and bustle of the morning, as we tried to get out of the house and on our way to school, I asked Phil to please not get up high or do anything crazy, since he'd be working there alone. My fear was that he'd try to "tackle" the ceiling above the open staircase. Phil tends to be a bit accident prone, so it should be of no surprise that I would ask this of him. It wasn't until several days later that I asked to see the pictures from his work that day. I came across the following photos: I wasn't sure what these photos were, so proceeded to ask Phil. Of course he grinned, and responded that they were the windmill blades. "It was a nice calm day!" Phil reasoned. So much for staying close to the ground that day! Oh well...he survived and it was much better that I wasn't around to watch! Many of the blades are missing, so he was hoping to get a model number so that we can try to find replacement blades. As far as work that day, he totally finished the north upstairs bedroom, including clean-up, which is a big job. He then proceeded to tear out the north and east sides of the upstairs hallway. The pictures below show the "before", but he didn't snap any "afters". We'll get those the next time we are there. As the weather is colder, it isn't as tempting to go work on the house, with the windows open for ventilation. However, we are really quite happy with what we've accomplished so far. We have the following left to remove walls: one bedroom on main floor, 3 walls in bathroom, the hallway on main floor, the west side of hallway upstairs. We have far more done, than what we have remaining to do for tear down; that's a great feeling!
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AuthorI'm just your ordinary small-town type of gal. My family is my world. Gardening, running, camping, and boating are my hobbies. Teaching youngsters is my career. Archives
July 2017
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