lisa October 27th, 2002
Had a very productive day, today. Got lots done - the front is completely finished now, as far as all the structural work goes. We were going to have the plumbing start this week, but Mark’s talking to another plumber to try to get a better deal, so that’s been pushed back. Electricians should be finished with the rough work this week, then we can get that inspection done and get the insulation in. We’re still trying to get a committment from an insulation contractor - unfortunately, it’s the wrong time of year to be trying to get this done, the contractors are pretty booked up.
lisa October 10th, 2002
We have a new bay window in the back wall of the house ? the window is in the kitchen. It makes a huge difference in the amount of light coming in since the back faces south, and it’s going to be a great place for plants.
We’ve decided to go with tile floor in the kitchen ? either ceramic or porcelain. We were at Lowe’s tonight, and found a good ceramic tile (only $2/sq. ft!) that looks like slate but has less variation than real slate and isn’t as rough. The counters will be black granite ? 3/8ths of an inch thick, so not as expensive as the real thick slabs. Maple cabinets, fairly light stain. It’s going to look nice.
And as for the downstairs bath, we’ve decided to just put in a toilet and sink. We had talked about putting a shower in as well, but it doesn’t make any sense since there’s no bedroom on the first floor, just public space. We’re going to take out the old clawfoot tub upstairs and put in a modern shower, with white tile, rather than those acrylic-walled units. We’re also going to take out the large, original window and put in a smaller vinyl one. The bathroom is actually directly over the kitchen.
lisa September 23rd, 2002
We’ve just finished applying for a home equity line of credit so we can hire some people to get some work done. Cold weather is coming very, very soon and we have to get the walls insulated and re-plastered before it gets cold.
All our kitchen appliances have been acquired, and we got some really good bargains (yay, eBay!). We also scored a great deal on a huge old bow window (free) and a smaller, newer Andersen bay window (eBay) for the back of the house. Still have to acquire the sliding glass door, decide on what kind of flooring to put down in the kitchen (ceramic tile? slate? cork?), and get another sink and a dishwasher.
We have almost finished the work in the basement - took a year to jack the house up completely, but it’s done. Five of the eight lally columns (the permanent supports) are installed. A little more concrete work on the front foundation and we’ll be totally done with this phase of the house renovation!
lisa August 13th, 2002
Hurrah! I picked my first ripe garden tomato today (?Heat Wave? was the first variety to finally ripen). And I harvested a bunch of basil and oregano. Too bad I don?t have a kitchen. Ah, well ? I?ll do my canning over at the in-laws? place, and freeze or dry the herbs for later.
lisa August 2nd, 2002
I’m going to plant more bulbs - new bed around the hawthorn tree. Mulching with the leaves - chipping up the brush pile - planning out the irrigation system for next year.
I want to buy daylilies that are re-bloomers. Pardon Me, a red variety, and Happy returns, a yellow one. Want to find a couple early tomatoes for next year - Glacier and Brandywine are two to try. And next year’s veggie plot will have lettuce, cucumbers, and maybe carrots. Need to plant a green ash tree and a plum tree.
lisa July 24th, 2002
The house is coming along. We?re almost done with the leveling project. It?s been almost a year, but we?ve had to take it really slow in order to keep the house stable. The last part of this phase is pouring concrete footings and putting in lally columns in the basement. Mark found a good deal on a concrete mixer yesterday, thank god. Mixing concrete by hand is a terrible job.
We?re also about ready to get the rewiring project going. We?ve found an electrician to do the panel and most of the rough wiring, and once he?s done we can do the finish work. After the wiring?s done we can insulate and drywall on the first floor, something that has to be done before it starts getting cold. So we?ll have the first floor back together in just a few more months ? everything but the kitchen, anyway.
The kitchen will be a winter project. We?re going to build the cabinets ourselves, which means even after we?ve put the walls back in downstairs, we?ll still be confined to the second floor ? first floor will continue to be the workshop. It?s okay, I?m used to it now. I hate doing dishes in the bathtub, but other than that, our upstairs makeshift kitchen is fine. I love being able to design the kitchen from scratch and make it exactly how we want. I can be patient.
The garden is coming along, too. I?ve put in some mums last weekend, and the zinnias and beebalm are blooming nicely. Still haven?t got any ripe tomatoes, but I?ve been harvesting and drying oregano, thyme, and basil. Of course, I don?t know when I ?ll have a kitchen where I can use these lovely fresh herbs, but that?s beside the point.
lisa June 14th, 2002
Black-eyed Susans from the Amanda have finally recovered from being transplanted and look good. Zinnias are coming up! Milkweed getting huge. Everything else is just sitting there. The only thing blooming is the moss rose, peppermint vinca, and irises (plus lots and lots of buttercups! but those are weeds). The mock orange and ninebark are done and need pruning - the vanhouttes got pruned last weekend and look good. This week I planted some seedlings I got from Carol: purple cone-flower and blue morning glories. I also planted some seeds I got last weekend: shasta daisies and something else that I’ve forgotten. And tonight I bought a Sedum Matrona and some coleus, which I’ll plant tomorrow. It’s been raining most of the week, which is good, but it’s been pretty cool, fifties and sixties, which is not so good. We need some good hot days for the tomatoes. Irises are blooming - two purple (something like “Graphic Arts”) and one blue (something like “Codicil”) and the white one is about to pop any day. I planted about tweny bulbs last fall, but only half the bed gets enough sun. Plus Irises take a while to get established sometimes. I’m dying to order more for next year, but I really don’t have a good spot for them - even if I move the bloodroot out of that bed, which I definitely need to do.
Other plants on my wish list: tulips, gentian, monkshood, variegated lamium, epimedium, rose of sharon, hellebores, cyclamen, grass of parnassus, toad lily, primulas, basket-of-gold, phlox, heathers, bee balm, money plant, peonies, campanula.
I ordered a couple of plant ID books from Amazon - the National Audubon Guide to Wildflowers (Eastern Edition) and Peterson’s guide to Trees and Shrubs (Northeastern US Editions), and i’ve been enjoying looking through them. Unfortunately there are still some trees and shrubs I haven’t been able to identify. I think one of them is a White Spruce, and one might be a Fringetree, and I think one is a broadleaf Spirea. But there are a few that I can’t pin down yet.
lisa June 5th, 2002
Saturday, we worked on the house - mixed a bunch of concrete and poured footings in the basement along one wall. The sills on the East side of the house are all rotten, so that’s what we’re preparing to replace. Meantime, the house is being held up by about twenty five screw jacks, some spit, and some hope. It has to be done, though. We’ve started this renovation at the skeleton. Once the bones are back in shape, we can worry about the rest of the house.
Mixing concrete by hand is a pretty tough job. I think we mixed up 10 bags of Quikcrete altogether.
lisa February 11th, 2002
In the last entry I mentioned insulating the attic. We finally got that done in January, with the help of Todd, who came out on a Sunday and helped Mark finish it up. I am eternally grateful for our friendship.
Mostly, since then, we?ve been working in the basement. We installed three more hydraulic jacks and we?re slowly getting the house level. It?s a slow, slow process. The other big thing last month was that we had a big tree come down in a bad windstorm, and I got a quote on getting more trees taken down ? but although it was a very reasonable quote, we ended up not getting the work done. Mostly because we?re broke.
lisa November 25th, 2001
Mark is currently engaged in trying to insulate the attic. It’s a ton of work. First, we have to pull up the boards, then put down the insulation, then put the boards back down. And pulling up those boards is hard-ass fucking work. And the insulation is prickly and gives you a rash. And if you don’t wear breathing protection, you inhale all these horrible microscopic fibers and when you breathe, you feel like your lungs are on fire. Not pretty. I helped some today, but Mark did most of the work. Poor baby.
I dug a couple of holes today, one for the hawthorn that my step-mother-in-law gave us, and one for the mums my mom bought us. Then I cut down a few trees, and raked (of course) and that was about it for this weekend. Last weekend was a lot more work: I took down all the wallpaper in the hallway upstairs and in the upstairs sitting room, and stripped paint from the wood trim on the doorways and baseboards upstairs. It’s a pretty wood underneath the paint: fir or pine, probably.
We have a small, live xmas tree that I cut down from our back woods today. It’s some sort of spruce, about four feet tall. Unfortunately, we can’t have it in the house, becase Toby, the new cat, wants to climb it all the time. So we’ll put lights in it and keep it on the front porch and it will all be fine.
This houseblog describes our adventures renovating a five-bedroom house built in 1890. The blog is not updated very often these days, but feel free to explore the archives!