Category: Uncategorized

Framing spaces.

fake-napping in the mid-level guestroom.
kitchen below, guest room above.
kitchen on left, stairs on right.
going up?
kitchen, facing the stairs.
kitchen, facing the back of the house.
hiding on the midlevel.
midlevel landing.
across to the hayloft.
attic, above the lower level bedrooms.

So we wanted to get these photos up before Tom comes to town and makes more ridiculous progress.  It’s amazing what he can get done on his own, nevermind with helpers who actually know what they’re doing (read: not me and Billy). Anyway, last week, Tom and his crew (Dave and Adam) came and did a whole mess of work; in just a day, they completed the ceiling joists in the downstairs guest rooms, framed out the kitchen, built some temporary stairs, and started on the mid-level guest room.
Pretty amazing.

But please ignore the lousy photo quality: it was dusk when we got there (which means poor lighting), and didn’t we didn’t have our camera (which means cell phone photos only).

We’re relieved to be making some forward progress with construction, as we’re not making forward progress with the loan.  (We’re still waiting on various and sundry organizations to get their collective acts together…… and we’re loosing time, money and patience).

Ah well.  In due time, I suppose.

Small steps forward.

gearing up is a team effort.
removed some of the hay mow….
….to make room for our future kitchen.
office wall.
that’s where the stairs will go.
bedroom ceiling = attic floor.
ceiling joists above the guest bedroom.
OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

We’re all sick of waiting.

So, in an effort to be productive (and not entirely stagnant as we wait on various organizations to do their job so we can close on our loan), Tom, Marie and Emma came up this past Saturday.

And the five of us put in a work day.

Small steps forward.

(un)settlement day.

We were supposed to have settlement on our construction loan today.
(I really wish that sentence read “we had settlement on our construction loan today.”)
But, alas, it was postponed.

So, the property we own is what’s left of a former 40 acre dairy farm.  The barn and the farmhouse were subdivided into their own parcels in 1976 and 1977 with the rest of the neighborhood.  The only map of our property we were ever shown and have ever seen was the one from ‘77.  Apparently, information on our property was either poorly (or not at all) recorded before or since then, and now we have to wait until we can put the pieces together.

We just found out about this last Friday, and needless to say, it didn’t get straightened out in time for us to close today.

Unfortunately, it looks like we’re cleaning up a mess 35 years in the making. 

……we just hope it doesn’t take too long.

A bit more waiting.

On Christmas Eve, we got an email from our bank guy, Tad at First Savings Bank of Perkasie (https://www.firstsavingsonline.com/), that the commitment letter for our loan was in the mail, and once we had it in our hands, we could schedule our settlement date.  Awesome!  Then, there was Christmas day, then a snow storm, then the New Year’s holiday.  So the USPS isn’t exactly rushing it to our door. We’re a bit anxious, but realize we will close on this loan sooner rather than later.

So to move forward (as we wait), we ordered a dumpster and it was delivered last week.  Today, we cleared out that unsightly pile of rotten / water damaged / unusable boards (that appear in a photo or two).  So the space is ready to continue framing, once Tom is able and our loan is done. 

Alright, 2011. 
Let’s do this.

First framing.

first floor bedroom 1.
guest bathroom.
first floor bedroom 2.
a lousy picture of all 3 framed rooms.

Needless to say, we’re a little anxious to get started on work.  We couldn’t even begin the application for the construction loan until the farmhouse was sold and out of our names.  So there’s a bit of lag time…… and we’re getting restless.  In the meantime, Billy placed our first lumber order with Tague Lumber (http://www.taguelumber.com/).  They were great: had everything in stock, delivered quickly, and came with a forklift so that they could distribute our order to the locations we need it.  Awesome.

Tom (TGWoodruff, LLC) has also been eager to move forward.  So, on Sunday morning, Billy and I got call call that he, and my father, were on their way to us.  We were going to do some preliminary framing!  So exciting.  Since this process has entailed a lot of waiting, it’s nice to see some progress.

We framed out the two first floor bedrooms and a bathroom; they are in the space over the garage.  One we call my parents’ room, so that they have a place to stay when they’re visiting us in PA.  The other is an additional guest room.  Those two rooms share the full bathroom in the hall.
The remaining space over the garage has been dubbed the “pool room,” since Billy acquired a free pool table (thanks, Andy!).

Here are some photos of the finished products from that day!
(Please ignore the trash piles, (as we didn’t have a dumpster yet), and the lousy photo quality.)
How cool is this?!
We’re on our way!

Demo

big wall BEFORE demo.
big wall AFTER demo.
mud room BEFORE demo.
mud room AFTER demo.
middle room BEFORE demo.
middle room AFTER demo.
work room BEFORE demo.
work room AFTER demo.
work room / middle room AFTER demo.

While we wait for our construction loan to go through, Billy and I have been busy with demolition.  It’s not demo in the traditional sense, as we’re trying to salvage all that we can to reuse it elsewhere in the renovation.

Towards the north side of the barn, there was a giant wall of 11″ wide planks, separating the main room (by the hay mow) from the room that’s over the garage.  We’ve taken out that entire wall.

On the south side of the barn, there were three rooms below the hay loft.  The side entrance led into the mud room, there was a room in the middle, and then a work room towards the front of the barn.  In our drawings, the mud room will remain in roughly the same place, but the other two rooms will come out to form the great room.  So, board by board, we tore those out as well.

Here are some before-and-after photos of demolition.

Interior tour

main room; looking out the barn doors.
main room; view from barn doors
main room; view from front corner.
hay mow; view from hay loft.
hay loft; view from ladder.
room over garage; view from small door.
hay loft upper left, 3 rooms underneath.

These are a few interior shots of the barn before we did much demo.  We had done a little work (as evidenced by the piles of salvaged wood in a few of the photos).  The biggest change was the hay mow; that space had been entirely walled in (about 5 ft. high, with a short ladder to get inside).  We pulled down each of the boards to reuse them elsewhere. (All were tongue and groove and toe-nailed in, and we’re trying to keep them in good condition…… so needless to say, demo has been a relatively slow process.)

Exterior tour

east elevation (front of the house)
south elevation (side entrance)
west elevation (back of the house)
barn door and side entrance
under the overhang

Here’s a quick exterior photo tour of the barn before we did much work.  The only change we’ve made shown in these photos was painting the milk house; (when we bought the property, it was a light blue to match the farmhouse, and we painted it gray).