Extreme Home Make-Over Update: Gutted

So, the house is gutted...well, nearly all the house is gutted.  There are two walls in the parlor with plaster remaining and the kitchen and bathroom are still fairly intact.  We are heating the kitchen and bathroom to keep the pipes and well in good working condition...so they are blocked off from the rest of the house and we aren't doing much with them yet.

This weekend, Jut and I had the fun of cleaning out the old coal bin that was under the current living room.  That was an adventure.  We found lots of neat things...mason jar chicken waterers, a hockey stick, a cow bell, sleigh bell for a horse, a wooden barrel, an old harness and a few other random objects.  There were wooden slats for the floor and extra trim from the house.  Interesting treasures.  We also found a lot of junk.  It was intriguing to play the 'what will we find next' game.

This picture was the kids for the first time at 'our' house.  We had just experienced a fairly severe ice storm and things were slippery but they were excited to see what the house was looking like.

We lost several branches from the big tree in front of the house and there are several more that are loose but are caught up in the tree and need some 'help' in coming down safety.

E is standing in the former living room.  We wish we didn't need 4 bedroom upstairs and could leave this room with the vaulted ceilings...if we could extend the field-stone fireplace up, wouldn't it be pretty?!  But, we need the space upstairs...so no vaulted ceilings for us.

This picture is taken from a 'trap door' in the attic.  It is looking down into the former living room.  The stone fireplace would be directly at the bottom of the picture.  We are still hoping we'll be able to keep the wood flooring.  It is in great condition, but the floor joists aren't up to code...I think 'code' will be a major headache throughout this process because everything has to be brought up to 'code' since we are doing such extensive remodeling.

The wall of windows are going soon.  It is such a character trait of the house that we hate to see them leave but the lack of energy-effectiveness of them has them looking for a new home.  But they did give the house fun character.  People comment to us about them all the time now that the cedars are gone because you couldn't see them for so long that no one knew that they were there.

The stone pillar on the north side has had bird nest residue coming into the house for awhile...well, we can see daylight from the top of it...easy to see why the debris was coming in now that everything is torn apart.

This is taken from the west wall of the dining room.  The white fireplace is no more.  The china cabinet is sitting in the middle of the floor because we don't know how we are going to get it out of the house...That thing is a beast.  So, it keeps getting gently shifted around out of 'danger' areas.  The electrical was a crazy mess.  Our contractor laughed at the crazy roundabout ways that things were wired. There were bare wires around the fireplace.  We're lucky that the house didn't burn to the ground.

My grandparents' bedroom and staircase is this next picture.  This area will change greatly.  The staircase is going to run perpendicular to the current passage, and the wall separating the bedroom from the dining room will disappear once a few new beams are place across the house.  I'm interested to see how all these ideas are going to look in reality because despite all the time we've spent talking and discussing all of this, I still can't quite visualize all the changes.

The picture below is standing at the top of the staircase looking south.  The wall to the little bedroom is gone...and it is shows how truly small that little room was!

This area will be completely different from this design.  We will have 4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms and the laundry room in this space.  I believe that the room will begin coming off this week (in completely frigid temps, I'm glad I'm not doing it!) and re-framing the upstairs will commence.


Our contractor continues to marvel at the structural integrity of this house.  The foundation could not be any more level.  It is perfect.  He was leery at first of trying to build up but with the wonderful condition of the house, he no longer has those concerns.  We are praying all goes well as construction finally begins.

Below is another view from the upstairs standing at the attic wall and looking toward the stairs.

The thing I found funny was that in the little closet at the top of the stairs, the beautiful hardwood floors continued all the way to the roof line.  I remember asking G'ma once if I could crawl into the part that was blocked off and she said that I'd fall through the ceiling into the parlor.  I laugh now knowing that it is a completely solid (and beautiful) hardwood floor.