Finishing Phase 1

We have been working hard to finish the first phase of our construction so we can maybe have a couple of weeks without dust on and in everything in the house. Ugh! Hopefully we will begin Phase 2 of this project starting the first week of September. Rowan went off to the UK/Wales last Tuesday, Aug. 11 for a family get together and I remain here to finish up the window installation, painting, cleaning up and starting to pack everything in the living room, dining room and kitchen. When Rowan returns on the 26th, we will move everything for storage.

We were able to get everything cleaned up and moved back into the master bedroom before Rowan went off to the UK. We repainted the entire bedroom as it was the easiest way to get rid of the plaster dust. You can see the wonderful light that comes in now from the new double awning window. Rowan and Fergus couldn't wait to have a nap once the bed was in place.

We are in the middle of an extreme heat wave here in Southern Indiana. It has been between 92 and 110 degrees for the past 3 weeks. Some days it is so humid you can't even go outside. It makes it CRAZY hot when we have to knock a window out and there is a big hole in the side of the house. We try to isolate that room and close it off to the rest of the house so we can keep the AC running. All of this makes for a very early start to our day too as we try to have the old window out and the new one in before 1pm.

Here are a few photos of us finishing up the remaining windows.

Steve does some amazing acrobatics while running the circular saw (kids, don't try this at home!). Here he is cutting the cedar siding so the cedar window trim can be installed. I think we need to enter him in America's Got Talent. Maybe I could even be his assistant in my sexy bib overalls. :o)

Steve and Rowan giving it some heave-ho to get the window up on the scaffold.

........and into the new hole.

The last window to be changed in this phase is the bathroom. This is the only window we did not need to cut a bigger hole and add a new header for (all the other windows are bigger than the original windows). We saved the easiest one for last.

Trimming that nasty plaster. Achoooooo!

We had to get really creative about building a scaffold over the new air conditioner so we could get to the window just above there. We came up with cinder blocks, saw horses, some 2x4's, an old door, some shims here and there and a bunch of screws. Works perfectly. Glad my mom isn't here to stress about seeing us stand on it :o)

Here is the FABULOUS bathroom window. We found this retro pressed glass for the window that we special ordered. It is exactly the same glass that my grandparents had in their old french doors in their bungalow house in California. When I saw it, I just HAD to have it. It's called florex.

A close-up of the florex glass

Here is the finished product. I decided to repaint the entire bathroom too since it has been 9 years and it was ready for some new paint.

I'm so happy this Phase 1 window/closet job is done that I could just go ride a hog! :o)

Stay tuned for more on getting ready for destruction coming soon...............

The Plans

Sorry it has taken me so long since the last post. All this construction work is making it hard to have the strength to blog when I finally get a moment in the evening.

So, here is the before and (planned) after pictures for our house:

The house as it is now

Planned after drawing- including the new stone screened porch and dining room

We are adding lots of new windows/skylights for extra light and warmth in the winter when the sun is lower in the sky and will shine directly in the windows (it snows here). The eves on the roof will be extra deep (18 inches) for added shade in the summer months when the sun is higher in the sky to keep the house naturally cooler. The new windows will be double hung so they will open from the bottom and top for air flow in the mornings and evenings to keep the house naturally cool. We added a new duel-fuel Train HVAC system (made in the USA) last fall that is both gas and electric. It has a brain that switches back and forth to use the most efficient fuel depending on the temp outside (we are already saving money with it). We will use closed cell expandable foam insulation in our new vaulted ceilings, nearly 100% efficient. There will be ceiling fans throughout the house to keep the air moving. The limestone for the porch will come from less than 50 miles away. None of that Drywall from China. Ours comes from local gypsum mines in Shoals, Indiana. We will use local red oak (a renewable resource) for the new dining room floor to match the rest of the house. We are very lucky to have had a LEED certified architect (and also our good friend) Kris do the drawings for us.

Fingers crossed, our finished product will come out performing and looking as great as the drawings.

Steve and I continue to work on the back of the house. We have been busy replacing windows and finishing up the pocket door installation. We hope to be moving back into the master bedroom the first week of August. The cats would love that more than anyone!

Here is a photo of our current bedroom in the basement. Two single foam beds on the floor. It's kinda like camping in a dark, cool cave (about 68-70 degrees. Great at this time of year when it is 90+ outside). We keep trying to look at the positive side of living through this :o)

Giant holes are being cut in the walls in the bedrooms to install new larger windows. We are excited about more light in the house and are looking forward to adding an extra window in the master bedroom.

A video of Steve cutting a hole for a new window. Notice the shop-vac hose he is holding between his legs to catch some of the plaster dust from the saw. I thought he was going to smack me when I took this picture of him in that wonderful position. He has seen the blog, so he knows how hilarious it will be. At least he isn't giving me any plumber butt too! :o)

So, you can imagine after hearing that noise in the video, how much fun our cats are having when they think the sky is constantly falling. Here is how Lulu deals with it. Not a bad idea as it also keeps the dust off of her.

Here are the new master bedroom windows. We are keeping with the original 1953 trim work and then building out new sills (there were none before), so we have salvaged what original trim we can and then will have more milled at Indiana Lumber (yes, we still do have a mill that can actually fabricate stuff for you). We are using the original douglas fir and pine. LET THERE BE LIGHT!

Here are a few photos of Rowan and I putting the room back together. She is taking down the ceiling fan to clean the thick sheet rock/plaster dust off of it. Notice how her face is covered in dust. I'm not sure, but I think the look on her face is not one of delight :o)

Jenni is painting the newly textured wall. We re-painted the entire bedroom just to freshen it up after 10 years.

We have also had to do some extended patching of our VCT (vinyl composition tile) floor in- between the kitchen and Rowan's office, where the new pocket door is being installed. We will do more of this once the kitchen is expanded too.

OK, so this is just a picture of me and a big giant fiberglass rooster. We found this really bizarre fiberglass figure manufacturing shed out in the country the other day when we went out for a drive after being at the gym, and I just HAD to pull over and take some pictures because it was so surreal. I mean how many times in your life do you come across this stuff? Comic relief............that's what it is, and what we need right about now :o)

It was like a petrified zoo!

I want the rooster to put in our front yard!

Go here to see why I am attracted to these kinds of things:

http://mythmuseum.wordpress.com/

I used to hang out at these places when I lived in the SF Bay Area. The little things that make life interesting.

More soon (I promise!)........

Time for a change

Hello dearest family and friends!

You-all must think that we have dropped off the face of the earth! It has been a few months since we've shared anything with all of you after our return from our sabbatical adventures in Philly, California and India earlier this year. Well, let me tellya.......just recovering from the India part of our trip has taken some serious getting back down to earth time. For those of you that have followed our travel blog, you can imagine what the adjustment back to midwestern life was like. Being thrown back into a culture of excess isn't easy.......Not to mention the fact that soon after our return to the states in the beginning of April, we went right into the planning of the remodel of our house! Rowan would tell you it's the best thing for Jenni to keep her mind moving forward, so forward we go..............best for me not to dwell on my mid life adjustment to hormonal chaos..... So, this is the perfect segway into the change that is starting to happen at our house too! :o) Our architect has delivered the plans, we are collecting estimates (Jenni is acting as the general contractor) and we have now begun the preliminary work on the back of the house where we will try to live once ALL HELL BREAKS LOOSE on the entire front of the house the first week of September. We will be adding photos and stories about our addition process as we go along. We hope you will enjoy following us as we go through this new adventure.
I find myself looking with renewed interest at the little brass Ganesha that sits above my kitchen sink, stopping to ask him for his power of removing obstacles from my life (a valuable lesson learned from Hinduism while in India). Fingers crossed, he will hear me (doesn't hurt to have the back-up of JC as well! Hmmmm, I'll even give Buddha a shot too!). As everyone who has done this kind of work says, if your relationship can survive a remodel on your house, you can survive anything.........we will hold on to that! :o) Thank god we both have a really good sense of humor.

So, here are some photos from the beginning of our remodel work.

The house as it is now, before we start ripping it apart

And, here is the new garage we built in fall 2008, in preparation for our current project.

The rest of the house will look similar to the new garage in no time (fingers crossed).

This is where the new pocket door will go between Rowan's office and the kitchen. Don't you love the sexy plastic curtain?

Demo of the plaster walls between the master and guest bedrooms to make the master closet bigger (a dream come true! :o). What everyone says about 1950's era plaster wall dust is true. Aaaaaaa-chooooo!

Here is our carpenter, the FABULOUS Steve Neuenschwander (say that fast 3 times! :o) exiting into the guest closet from the master bedroom closet. Cough, hack, cough! He told me if I keep taking pictures of him, he's going to take his circular saw to my camera. Of course, that means I'll just keep taking pictures :o)

Here is a photo of the master bedroom covered in plastic. Of course this will keep the dust off of everything. Yeah, right!

And, here is the extremely wonderful new 3x's-the-size opening for the bedroom closet. Rowan is filling the nail holes in the trim. Sorry guests, yours is now tiny, exactly 10-day stay size closet! :o)

The guest room closet showing Jenni's fabulous plaster matching texture method. It really is hard to tell the difference between the original 1953 plaster texture and the contemporary gypsum board and mud/texture method. It was like being back in art school discovering how to do it. What a blast! And to think I get to do this around all of the new windows too :o)

OK, so not to disappoint those of you who expect some sort of food item within our blogs, here is a special treat. Our carpenter, Steve (say-his-last-name-fast-3x's Neuenschwander :o) just happens to be a fungi fan. He hunts for wild mushrooms in the forest. Lucky us! He brought us the most ENORMOUS bag of wild chanterelles and cinnabar chanterelles that we just HAD to make into some wild mushroom pasta. Here are the photos: YUM!

Shiitakie, porccini, cinnabar chanterelles, chanterelles

So the fact that we are still alive makes us really happy! :o) Steve does know what he is doing with carpentry and wild mushrooms.

The best wild mushroom pasta we have ever tasted!

Back to construction.........Here is the antique douglas fir 5 panel pocket door Jenni restored. Stripped/sanded 3x's/steel wooled 2x's for Rowan's office. Only five more doors to go. Ugh! This one is hand rubbed with danish oil and tung oil (brushed on and hand rubbed 2x's then hand rubbed 2x's with tung oil). The history of the door just speaks to you when done this way.

The almost finished door.

And, the start of the next door.........notice the fabulous shop space in our new garage-mahal. Makes the job more enjoyable especially since my daddy and I made the table I am doing all of this work on :o)

OK, so the biggest trauma for us in the project so far (and we are just at the very beginning!) is that we are closing up one of the doorways from the kitchen to the main hallway that goes to the bathroom and the bedrooms. Call us crazy, but if we want more cabinet space in the kitchen we must close the doorway. We have had it closed off with plastic for about a month already to get used to not having it. Our architect suggested we do this so I won't bitch about it when it actually happens. Well......... it is now closed up and I must confess I bitch about it every other day, but will get over it once I have more cabinet space in the kitchen :o) We decided to add the most wonderful cabinet on the hallway side of the enclosure, so it all has turned out great. Once the cats stop slamming into the new wall that was their favorite 'chase each other into the kitchen path', the whole family will be very happy. It is all extremely funny.

The cabinet taking form

Making the cabinet doors

The fabulous finished product. It looks like it has always been there.

Stay tuned for more construction news in a couple of days...................