Remodel

We lived in musical rooms like the old game we used to play with kids called musical chairs! The bathroom fixtures were moved to the kitchen, the kitchen was moved to the living room and dining room, and the dining room and living stayed where they should be even with the stove and dishwasher next to the couch! In a flurry of a month, the outside of the house was repainted, the picket fence was mended and painted, the shower was torn out and tiled along with the bathroom floor and the walls were painted and new lighting fixtures and trim finished it off. Then we said, hmmm, what about the kitchen? so we painted more walls, refinished the cabinets, and moved the appliance out and repair old sub flooring and put tile on top. Then we cleaned and dusted and put away or gave away the rest of the mess and we were finished just in time to beat the rush of harvest before the frost! Here are some before and after pictures: Outside painting of the house was completed by College Pro Painters. Outside clean up from painters and all fencing and detail work completed by Tim.

The Bathroom: There were two major leaks. One was evident at the shower, the other one was not so evident at the toilet. Both were repaired, sub flooring replaced, sheet rock, shower wall, and plumbing repaired and fixtures replaced. The bathroom project took one week. The toilet was out of order for 24 hours of that week! Phew!!

Then it was time for the kitchen to be painted, refinish the cabinets, and repair and replace the floor. Initially, we just planned to paint so the appliances were moved out and then returned to position. Then we decided to change the flooring so the appliances had to be completely removed to another room while the work was completed. Tim and I painted and refinished the cabinets. Nathan Sheets did all of the tile work. It took 5 days to complete the kitchen and the appliances were out all five days. Don't worry, the essential item, coffee, was made accessible at all phases of construction!

At last the chaos of construction is over and we have settled back into the routine of harvest chaos! More of the harvest soon ~

The Traveling Kitchen

Sunday evening we moved all of the appliances out of the kitchen and into the living room. They didn't travel far, but far enough to make the floor available to tear up linoleum, make repairs, and replace the old linoleum with tile.

The old flooring has been removed, the thin strips of wood that formed the sub floor and were laid down in 1930 were showing damage in just a few spots. These were cut out and the bottom layer of floor and very old timber was exposed. The area cleaned and prepped and then replaced. Notice the walls and cabinets? We painted the walls about two weeks ago, then the cabinets were scrubbed down and refinished a couple of days ago. The only thing left to do is the floor!

The replacement of the sub flooring was a sturdy piece of plywood. This formed a solid layer for building the next layer of flooring is ready to go down and it is called cement backer board. This is the layer that will hold the tile. It is now in place and so are the tiles with spacers and they are drying and setting.

In the meantime, the kitchen has only been moved a few feet away and it is not available for canning or chopping or cutting or cooking in anyway. As soon as the kitchen project is finished, we will be ready to get back to our regularly scheduled preserving!

Home Improvements

The old farmhouse was built in 1930. We have made many renovations in the last 13 years, mostly to maintain the craftsman quality of the home. One of the rooms that has been neglected in the downstairs bedroom. Several years ago, a cougar came to the property for a chicken dinner. Actually, the cougar helped himself to many chickens for dinner that night. In the excitement, yours truly thought to bang on the bedroom window in order to distract the cougar. It was not a successful strategy and in fact, it broke the inside pane of glass. Well, now it is years later and with the help of the outer storm windows, the broken window has been ignored. Now it is time for the replacement!

Here is the old, tired looking window, and the last of the evidence of the dreadful night of a cougar in the barnyard.

Here is the after picture of the new windows and freshly painted walls. Next will be the trim around the windows and the ceiling and floor. The light fixture will also have a makeover, but for now this is good progress. The garden planting season is later than usual this year because of the wet, damp spring, so the finish work just might be complete by the first of June!