We've Moved Back Home

Knowing that the homeowner would return and need his home back at any moment, we readied what we could of our house for our return. My office, and the little boy's bedroom is now our sleeping space, and the only fully enclosed, and therefore, able to be heated rooms.

We have a makeshift kitchen and eating area in the parlor. We brought the old drop leaf table in from the front porch, and cleared off some bookshelves for food storage. A workspace for coffee maker, microwave, and toaster was made from scrap wood secured over boxes and the now-unused fish tank stand.

The actual kitchen is coming along great. All wiring has been run, burnt-out wall repaired, and new insulation hung. The range and refrigerator are powered up and in use.  Now we just have to hang drywall, install cabinets and sink, paint walls and ceiling, and refinish the floor.

Oh, and in case you're curious, here's where I do dishes.

Update on House Progress

We are scrambling as quickly as we can to get at least a portion of the house livable, as our temporary housing will soon come to an end.

We've got nearly all the electrical wiring replaced, the broken windows have been replaced, most of the damaged plumbing has been fixed or capped off.

Some structural issues still remain, such as replacing the bathroom subfloor and joists, and repairing some of the burnt out walls.

Things remaining left to do are: insulation, drywall, paint, installing some flooring and the bathroom components, installing lighting throughout. On the outside of the house, I believe we are only lacking getting the damaged siding replaced. And a lot of cleanup!

Cleanup Begins

Cleanup began the very next day after the fire, but not before we opened our Christmas presents in the front yard! It was, after all, Christmas Day now. 

Once our makeshift celebration was complete, it was time to get down to the nitty gritty. 

In the following days we began work to sort through the rubble of our belongings ... salvaging what we could, discarding whatever was ruined by fire or water. 

We also began tearing out the water soaked Sheetrock and insulation from various rooms. We quickly filled up the largest dumpster that we could rent, and we will likely need to rent another one at some point, as our trash piles grow ever larger. While the debris removal takes places, it becomes increasingly obvious just how much work will remain ahead of us for a very long time. It is daunting, certainly, but we are not ready to give up on our home. 

Ways to donate: 

YouCaring

GoFundMe

Spa Room Transformation, Part 1

I think the last time I really talked about the "Spa Room" is when we were planning on turning it into a baby room, when we were expecting Baby W.... which was all of five years ago. 

Obviously, time and life had other plans, and that spa room has sat there untouched these last few years. Finally this year, we hit it hard.... and finally got it DONE! 

I'll be posting this in two segments, one to show the work-in-progress, and one to show the finished project. These posts will be pretty picture-heavy. 

Beneath the old tile floor was the original wood floors,

but part of it was rotten from an old water leak under the whirlpool tub. 

Plywood was screwed down directly onto the original floor.

Little I loves to help!

The new wiring going in nicely. 

I'm pretty happy with my first time hanging insulation. It was much easier than I expected. 

Sheet-rock going up. This is always the part where we discover just how NOT square this old house is. 

We left this wall in the original siding. This was the outside of the house at one time. 

Mud is drying. 

Handy Husband took his time making sure the sheetrock looked really good.

Lots of mud, sanding, mud, sanding. 

Adding the window trim and sills.

Eventually we still plan on replacing these windows, but there's no hurry. 

Another look at the old siding on this wall. 

In PART 2, we'll see the new lighting, paint, and carpet go in. 

The Upper Floor & Closet Project

The upper floor of our house consists of two large bedrooms, a small unfinished closet that connects both bedrooms, and an "attic" room of sorts, which is actually a room above the kitchen.

After pulling off two layers of wallpaper (of which I saved a couple of samples- just because I like old things), the first thing we did to the upstairs was add some new electrical outlets and lights/ceiling fans, as there was virtually no electricity on the second story.

My four year old loved to help rip off the old wallpaper.

My handy husband cutting in some new outlets.
The original walls in the house are all solid tongue and groove boards.

We then framed in nice sized closets in each bedroom. There will be "nooks" on each outside end for shelving, as well as plenty of storage space inside the closets themselves.

This is the not-quite finished framed in closet in the 12 year old's room.
See the bricks from the original chimney? So cool!