re/staining the floor

DO OVER!!!!

so we decided to re sand the floors.

this looks much better!

loving it!

i like this picture because this is how far i got before i ran out of stain.
7:30 pm trips to lowes ROCK! NOT!

all done!

the final product

love it!!!

the library/dining room

the room once known as the library will become the dining room.

but, until we get the house more situated, the "dining room" is going to become our den. last week i primed our new drywall. now we are ready to paint! 

as you know, the pine floors (mostly heart pine!) in the house need to be redone. we decided to go ahead and redo the floors in the future dining room:

dining room: we rented a sander from lowes

this lowes sander is a pain in the rear end. the sandpaper only lasts like 5 seconds. 

ugh, the price we pay for gorgeous floors!

sanding the floor

now that the floor is all sanded, its time to stain. 

we chose rustoleum kona.

(yo dude. don't judge me on my method!)

first coat

hmmmm....looks a little funky! but i keep going anyway. 

(will this be a problem later? you betcha!)

next picture is so you can see the progression:

before sanding right half of picture
after sanding bottom left
first "attempt" at staining left middle

it is a little uneven

but not too bad right?

uh, yeah....we're going to have to redo that. apparently we didn't take off all of the previous polyurethane. hehe. OOPS!

tearing out the drywall/plaster

catching up: january 10

while beginning to tear out the drywall in the laundry room we found someone's home:

UM, EWWWWWWW!!!!!

i will also add that we found a matching and slightly bigger nest on the other side. what is better than that? we found the old tenants...i wish i was there to take the picture when nick opened the wall.

 but there it was. a bird, dead and preserved in the wall, and his friend mr. squirrel (who unlucky for us still had a bit of an unpleasant odor!)

squirrel and bird remains!
UM, SUPER EWWWWWW!!!!
anyhoo, here's the open walls.

a little drafty in this room you say??

more nests.
also, take note of the lack of a header on this doorway. so safe!
don't worry. nick will fix it!

 i like seeing the backside the lathing, where the plaster hangs. so cool.

in the laundry room looking towards our  current living room

cleaning up the mess

replacing the girder underneath the laundry

the laundry room moved to the kitchen. mmmmm....that floor underneath looked yummy!

 tearing out the old beam

rotten rotten rotten 
here's the thing. when you are "going through" a massive home renovation, it is extremely important to try and keep your glass half full. so...it will be really nice, when we run the washer and we don't fear it will fall through the floor. now, how can that ( insert dramatic pause)....not be something to be half full about?

thats one way to do it

bathroom ceiling

saggy ceiling. 

many people who buy old houses like ours put drywall right over the old plaster. thats not going to work in this case! and we're not getting into this mess right now. the plaster was so saggy in here, we could barely get our "band aid" to stick. looks like we'll be tearing out the old plaster in the ceiling... 

we'll put that on the "to do" list!

friday night madness

the front half

this is a picture of the "front half" of our house (aka the twilight zone) as of today. this is where we don't live right now. to access the front half, we walk out the back door and around the house to the front.  all in all, its looking much better than it did a few days ago!

where we sleep

this is home. for now. this one room is where we live.  our four dogs (two of those are basically disabled senior dogs), one really feisty cat, nick and i.  our dogs rule our world. the rugs all over the floor are for them so that they don't slip and fall on the hardwood floors. its tight in here. sometimes slightly claustrophobic. we are making due. (oh, and we also have a kitchen and a bathroom). but as we sat in our "sanctuary" last night, nick pointed out this....

the corner of our room

no. that is not a shadow where the old wallpaper was ripped off. that is actually where another wall appears to be separating from the house.  there also seems to be  a dip in the wall. as if it broke?!?!? 

um, we weren't going to re do the plaster in this room! uh oh!!!

we will keep you posted on this one.

drama and some really great finds!

update!

New header for the three windows in the foyer 

oh but wait!

these three windows were actually three seperate windows. they were held together by one single screw in between every single one. niiiiiiiice. no wonder they were sagging! these three windows aren't fitting toether so well. going to find some replacements! 

in progress. 

SUPER SCORE!!!

new tiles!!! whew hoo!! seven cases for 40 dollars at the habitat home store. the picture below is my inspiration! its going to be fabulous! i hope :)!

and...our new windows. 

we were lucky enough to find two matching surplus windows at

blue ridge salvage and surplus! 

and one more thing. it appears one of the joists under the laundry room is rotten. looks like we got more under the house stuff to address. ugh!!! but at least we have the piece of mind to have some really awesome folks here to help us with these curveballs! wshew!!!!

front porch roof

we're almost done with the framing of the roof!

holy schnikees!!!! what a mess!

front of house before

after the front porch roof was demolished

bye bye vinyl vents!
we will replace you with something much lovelier later.

who lives in there???
hmmmm....you need to find a new home buddy.
this house is ours!

rebuilding the roof over the front porch

and then the unexpected....

so its pretty dramatic to be in the house when the demolition begins. its loud. its really messy. you find walls that might fall off.  if your roof is as bad as ours, the ceilings start to crack in other rooms, sag behind ceiling wallpaper and crumbles in (thank goodness for that paneling hammered to the ceiling in my closet! otherwise my clothes would've been plasterized). eventually you get a little numb to it (as best you can) and just keep plugging along. you take a shower at the end of a long day, pop open a beer, start some that laundry and then walk around the house to snap some pictures of a hard days work... but then, the unexpected happens.

melted dryer plug

melted receptacle

close up

another close up

flames up the wall!

nick capped off the wire from the wall

our drier had a weird smell for a long time. we checked the dryer tube and the vent, they were clean. we were running the dryer on low heat. it didn't seem to help much with the smell. then tonight, nick smelled smoke. he knew it was from the dryer but hoped it was from the pizza cooking in the oven. then he followed the smell to find flames shooting out of the dryer receptacle.  he unplugged the dryer. (NOTE TO SELF: BUY FIRE EXTINGUISHER!!!!!)

the fire never progressed. nick capped the wire. the next morning our electrician came over and replaced the wire and the receptacle. the explanation? 

something called arc-ing. nick could tell you what the means...now,  the dryer works fine!

few more night shots:

plastic in the living zone. the only thing separating us from the twilight zone!

future living room, all cleaned up for today

new beam where the corner of the house was rotten and the wall was separating

hello tarp! thank you for being the cocoon that separates us from the elements

the sky up above. post tarp, pre-plywood

future dining room, new beams holding up the rotten corner

oh, yes. that's where the rain came in. this was the day of the inside demolition remember? well, the roof was completely framed. the plywood was mostly up. the small remainder was covered in tarp. but it wasn't enough to stop the rain. 

where the plywood ends and the tarp begins. new framing looking good!

and so tomorrow begins a new day!