Part 4
We’re finally getting to the interesting part LOL!!
Our first project was the laundry room/entry way.
Here is the main entry before we started messing with the house.
The house was laid out so the first thing you saw when you walked in the door was the washer and dryer. Not exactly the “first impression” I was after . . . Then you walked into the kitchen and had to walk all the way through to get to the dining room. Then you had to walk through the dining room to get to the porch, and the living room, and the bedrooms and stairway to the second floor. BTW, the main bath was on the OTHER side of the kitchen, with a half bath tucked behind the water heater in a closet by the front door.
We decided to move the door from the west end of the laundry room to the east end, and partition off a real entryway with real closets! That way people would not have to walk through the middle of the kitchen to get to the rest of the house. So we started by taking down the sheetrock. Our first surprise was the lack of headers over the door and windows. Ok, so they sort of had headers, but 6 – 2x4’s laying flat isn’t exactly my idea of a header . . . Lack of headers seems to be a recurring theme in this house. I think all the lath and plaster is what has kept it upright all these years.
The next step was to replace the old leaky double window. We had planned on reusing the existing opening, until we realized we had to put in a header first. That wasn’t too bad. Since we were working in the added porch, this area wasn’t all that difficult to deal with. We did discover upon removing the sheetrock from the inside wall, that there had been an interior door where we planned on opening the wall up (no header, of course . . .)
This picture shows the patched old opening. The laudry tub is sitting where the washer used to be, with the dryer along side. I realized while writing this, I didn't take all that many pictures during this phase, but that was before I decided to share. I take lots more pictures now. This was actually taken in November, after we'd replaced the windows and moved the appliances.
This was actually taken in November, after we'd replaced the windows and moved the appliances.
Now, back to the septic. We called the contractor, he said he’d call back . . . We were into October, and were having second thoughts about opening up a hole in the ground this late in the year. Finally told the contractor that we didn’t want to dig for the basement this fall, and he misunderstood and thought we didn’t want to do anything. So he didn’t show up as planned, and when we finally got things worked out, it was the end of October when we finally got our new septic put in.
Here is a picture of the old outgoing septic.
And a shot of the new outgoing pipe. Once this was done Hubby had to tie into the new system, but since we knew it would be temprary, he kept the main pipe long so we would have enough pipe to work with once we were ready to hook the pipes after we moved the bathroom and kitchen.
A week later I get a call from the first contractor. He was upset cause he had showed up at our place with his equipment and discovered someone else had already done the job. Had not heard from this guy since he told me he didn’t think he could do the job back in August, then he shows up in November expecting to start digging without even telling us he was coming out. Some folks I just don’t understand.
The outside of the house, ready for the siding.
And with the siding patched in. This was also a temporary measure, as we intended to reside the whole house eventually.
November was starting, we had a new septic, and a start on the entry way, – then my husband bought a wood stove. . .
That story is for the next installment
¶ 7:47 PM
