Foundation Repair

Once the kitchen cabinets were out, the next step was to level the sagging floor. Les. Did. That.
That man can do anything he sets his mind to!
He cut a big whole in the floor. Then he placed new concrete slabs on the dirt, and put new piers on them. He placed a jack under the beam and raised the beam until it was level, then slipped the new piers in. Finally, the floor was not only level, but feels much more solid and secure.

Tearing Out, Scraping floors (Thank God for friends)

This post has been in the works for over a week....lots of technical problems.
I've been too busy to blog, but we have been working on the house.
Last Wednesday, we had some very much appreciated help. Stacy Cole and her sons Shad and Zane came over to help, wow, they were a huge help.
The boys jumped in and helped Les take out the kitchen cabinets and tear down the furdown that was above them, which hid fluorescent lights which were hanging by chains, as in the style of a mechanics shop!

While the guys disanteled the kitchen, Stacey and I worked on the living room floors. The wood was in great shape, but there were traces of glue from the pads, as well as nails, staples to remove. 

The process that I had come up with to remove the glue was to spray on Goo-Gone, let it set a few minutes, then scrape it off, with the glue; then use a scrupper to remove the rest, and finally rub with a cloth for the residue. It is quite a process. And, we are still not finished. We had to move in with some sticky areas in the living/dining room, and front bedroom. 

Tearing out

Friday was a big day. Les started working on the kitchen. He pulled out the dishwasher, the oven and range. It was hard work. It was also hard because the appliances are in working order. The dishwasher is fairly new and in really good shape. It is NOT like us to take out perfectly good appliances just because. But, it doesn't make sense to put in pretty, new cabinets, and put the old appliances back in.  Our first plan was to keep the dishwasher, and to just replace the small oven and electric range. After we ordered the new refrigerator and stove, Les went back and ordered the dishwasher to match, so that for the first time, we will have all new, matching appliances. Never had that before! So, here he is taking out the old...

 

Poor thing, you know it never fails, when he started to disconnect the dishwasher, the plumbing and electrical wiring was a home done, rigged up mess. But, he finally got them out. 

 While Les did that, I painted the inside of the drawers and the shelves in the linen closet and the master closet, then put nice bright shelf paper in.

If your wondering why I just painted the shelves...
1. I don't like to paint.
2. I make a mess when I paint.
3. With as much work as we have to do, it seemed silly to spend a whole day paining the inside of a closet.
4. Les can paint the whole thing at a later, more convenient time.

While we were working in the house, a friend we had hired was trimming trees on the outside. He got on the roof over the sun room to cut branches, and stepped through the roof. Wasn't hurt, but, wooooo.
The roof is only 2 years old, but it seems that maybe the roofers put shingles over bad spots in the roof without repairing the wood deck, leaving soft spots that break through easily. Before we left, Les had to put a piece of plywood over the hole to hold until the next day, when he went back and repaired the decking and replaced the shingle. There was a place in the garage roof he found that had the same problem.
Makes us wonder how many other soft spots there are.

 
Temporary fix.
Les made me get up on the roof. I don't do ladders. I can climb up the ladder ok, but, I have hard time backing up and stepping off the roof or other high place onto a ladder, then climbing down backwards. Les insisted that I get up and look at the hole. I did climb up, and enjoyed the view from the roof.
Here I am looking down at the ladder. Then, I backed up and climbed right down! How bout that?

Art Show

Tuesday we took time out to go to a reception for the Stephenville School District Anual Art Show.  Our daughter Emily is the high school art teacher and puts this together every year. When she began teaching, the show was a small show for High School art students only, with about 100 pieces. Emily opened it up to the whole district, and, this year, included over 4000 pieces! Wow.  We sooo enjoyed seeing this. Here are a few pictures from the show.

Of course, this is Emily.
And here is the show.



The pictures below are self portraits done in pencil by her high school students.
The first one is from a student in Art 1. Fantastic. 

 

                             This picture was honored in the state art contest.
                                            And a few more pencil drawings.

The show included pieces from every grade, K-12. 

This is one of my favorite pieces of the show; a water color by a 2nd grader, so pretty and whimsical. I love it.
The show included photography pieces. 

This breathtaking photograph was taken by our grand daughter, Lexi, who is in 3rd grade. She won best of show for her school. I am amazed at her eye for composition.  In case you can't tell, she took a picture of our court house refelcted in the window of a business downtown. She is quite talented, don't you think? 

I thought I was taking a lot of pictures, but that is all I have. 

I was extremely impressed by the quality of many of the pieces in the show. 

 BUT, I was equally impressed by the pieces proudly shown that were not so great. 

Emily has a kind of moto, that art is for everyone. She welcomes students of all abilities in her classes and encourages them to create, in different mediums, with different styles. She brings out talent in students that thought they had none. She encourages students with special needs to create in whatever way they may be able to. The art show reflected that. They did not display only the best pieces. They displayed pieces that reflected the students who created them. The show was fun, not stuffy. Students were proud of their pieces, and parents were able to enjoy seeing their childrens pieces on display. 

We are very proud of what Emily has brought to the art department of SISD. 

Getting started

It's Saturday, and my hands are feeling more up to typing. We are about to babysit our youngest grand child, Nora, so the post may not be completed today!
Friday, after we closed on the new house, Les had to go to the old house to be there for the appraiser.
I went right over to the new house to get started. I started cleaning the bathroom, but decided I needed to wait for the shop vac...too many dead bugs and worse in the drawers and tub. I decided to start pulling up the carpet. I had all the carpet and padding pulled out of the living/dining room before Les made it over.
 Les was shocked.
Sometimes I am amazed at what I can do when I set my mind to it! It was HARD. I'm not sure which was harder, cutting the carpet into pieces, or dragging it outside.

 I was thrilled with the condition of the floors, just some glue left and residue from the pad, but they look great.

 

                                      The very last piece of pad I pulled up revealed this.

We think the plywood covered a where a floor furnace once was. We may replace the board with hardwood planks to match, OR, I am thinking an antique china cabinet would cover it quite nicely.

When Les got there, he tore the carpet out of the two bedrooms and I took out the tack strips from all the rooms.

With the carpet out, he started on the kitchen. The biggest job, the one he most dreaded, but the top priority. This beautiful house with so much charm has a terrible kitchen, courtesy of a 1970 era remodel.

 Where is the kitchen from 1930? I want it back.
We are not ones to tear old out and out new in, but these cabinets are really bad. They are laminate, and coming apart. So sad...I am getting custom cabinets!!!!!   We checked into cabinets from Lowes, and ready to assemble from the internet, but decided the best way to go is custom.  We know that we will get exactly what we need, the quality will be top, and  the price is very competitive.
But I digress. I was saying that we have to tear out the old cabinets. Worse, we have to tear the floor out and raise the foundation in the kitchen. There is a definite slope across the kitchen, laundry room/ hallway, and back bathroom.  All of that area needs to be reconfigured, too. We will pull up the two layers of linoleum tile, and, if the hardwood under is salvageable, repair the floor after shoring up the foundation. We may have to lay a whole new floor, but I'm hoping that we can refinish the hardwood.

To start on the kitchen, the first step was to tear out a large built in wine cabinet, which turned out to be much harder than expected. Dang, that thing was well built.

 

That is where it was. 

And this is where it is now. He plans to use it somehow in the garage. He worked VERY hard to get it out in one piece...well sort of one piece. 

I cleaned the bathroom while Les worked on that. It didn't look too bad, but under the cabinet and In the drawers, I swept up lots of dead bugs, mice pellets, some of them large (I can't say r.a.t.) , and one tiny, smashed, dried up baby frog. Nothing worth taking pictures of, but I do think an exterminator just moved up the priority list.

We got a lot done in one day, and a really good start on the newest adventure. Are we sure we're not too old for this?

The New Old House

We closed on the new old house today, and got right to work. After all the work we did today, I am tired and hurting. Of all my aching parts, my right hand is the most achy. I pulled carpet up and removed tack strips from three rooms. I can barely type. So, I will post pictures of the house tonight, to get us all started on this new adventure together. 

This is the front (obviously)

The yard is huge, 1/2 acre, and has trees, very pretty. The house has a large sun room on the back, where the windows are, and a den with a fireplace.

 The pictures keep rearranging themselves. I give up. So. The pictures may end up in random order, you will just have to figure things out yourself. 

This is the living/dining room. I took the picture as soon as I entered the front door.

This is the living room, looking from the door into the kitchen.

Add caption

Master bedroom, needs work...

Master CLOSET! Yes.it. is. 

 

Master bath...nothing to write home about,
 but at least it has one! 

We pulled back a little of the old carpet
 and found this!