The Den

The den was a complicated mess. It had some of the same problems as the kitchen with several additional twists to the plot.

The floor sagged, termites had eaten part of the main beam and a longstanding roof leak  had rotted the area near the front door.

The fireplace was a useless behemoth that had to go. I'm not sure what I am going to replace it with yet. The wall between the Den and Dining room needed to be moved anyway.

Unwrapping the Box

When you buy an old farmhouse you expect to find some problems.... Boy did we find problems...

Between rot, termites and strange electrical issues, we have been busy just trying to get to where we can begin remodeling the house.

 The Kitchen

 At first glance the kitchen did not look so bad. We removed the cabinetry and appliances only to find layers of paneling.

Under the paneling, we found tongue and groove slat wallboards. At that point I was defianetly wondering, "What were we thinking"

 

The flooring had to be removed so we could level the house. We nailed 2x4x12s to the existing floor joists to level the areas which were not leveled by the addition of the  new main support beams.

We have now added a new sub-floor, which is something the house did not have before. The tongue and groove flooring was nailed directly to the floor joists.  

Time for a change

After twenty six years of living in the suburbs my husband and I decided that it would be nice to live in the country. The kids were all grown and the youngest was looking forward to moving out on her own.

We first decided to buy some land and build a house. Thoughts of a country cottage with a big front porch ran through my head constantly. I even bought a set of house plans and started calculating the cost of our dream home. Then reality set in, my dreams were bigger than my budget. It was time for a different plan.

So, we bought a house. You could call it a fixer-upper. The price was right and the location was great. But...the one thing you could not call it was my dreamy little country cottage with a large front porch...

And Yes; that is the front of the house.

So...the adventure begins...