Small Steps For Man, Giant Leaps for Construction

Hi there! Its us, the renovators, the parents, the crazy people working on “that” house. Things for the past few months have seemed to CRAWL by. We feel as though we have been stuck in the renovation rat race for an eternity, waiting for our chance to get off and move on. Alas, here we are, mid-June and we are getting so close to having our house back together we can taste it! Things are finally coming together and we are only mere weeks away from a complete overhaul of the exterior, as well as getting the interior ready for sheetrock. Lets dive in and get you caught up with how things have been going!

Framing, Framing, and more Framing

March

Since taking our home down to the studs we have had the luxury of being able to reconfigure the layout of different spaces. With that luxury, also comes the work of framing new spaces and/or re-framing deteriorating existing spaces. Back in March, we started to frame in the old entrance to the basement. This hole in the floor is where the stairs leading to the previous basement were located. Since moving our home, we reconfigured the first floor to where the new location for our basement stairs is now in line with the existing second floor staircase. The process of getting this hole 100% covered has now taken us 3 MONTHS. As I type that out, I feel how absurd that amount of time seems, but in reality, it took so long because of factors out of our control. We are placing the first floor bathroom right where this hole is getting covered, so we have had to wait for plumbing to be completed in that location before we can secure our subfloor in anticipation for bathroom tile.

A huge layout change to our second floor was the reconfiguration of the entire east side of that level. We took an existing bedroom and created our master closet and bathroom out of it. We then took what used to be a hallway, the bathroom, and a hall closet and turned that into our son’s room. In turn, our son’s room does not have a closet. We did some mapping and designing and decided to build him a new closet nestled between his corner wall and the south window. It only took a few hours, and we had a closet!

The next framing project that was completed was done by our contractor Brennan Johnson, and his crew from Elite Construction. We hired them to install the new staircase to our basement, and as part of that project they needed to frame in and create head room as you walk downstairs. We are so glad we had their expertise to help us with that project, this job definitely needed to be handled by the professionals and we are in love with how it turned out!

Our basement has two entrance/exit points, one interior and one exterior. The exterior entrance needed a door framed into the opening we created when we designed the basement. We purchased a door from our local home improvement store and after a half days work, we had a fully installed a functioning basement door. We had never installed a doorframe before, so there were some bumps along the way. But thank goodness for internet videos and phone calls to family members that helped us get it done!

April

The next framing project was one of our biggest and most important framing projects to date. Mid-April we started the task of completely rebuilding 8 feet of the southeast corner of our first floor wall.

This project was in the works for quite a while before we actually started demo and reconstruction. It was a big project and we wanted to make sure we took a lot of time getting all our measurements and calculations correct. We needed to redo this section of the wall for structural reasons. Our homes original back porch was built at the same time our house was, so the wall studs along this section of backwall were only sitting on the original subfloor. We needed to redo them so that they went all the way to the houses base plate that was supported on top of our new foundation. This would ensure that the load on this section of wall was adequately supported for generations to come. Once this project was underway, we knew it had to be done that same day. By tearing out the entire wall we exposed our home completely to the outside elements. If we did not get it sealed back up in a timely manner, we ran the risk of letting mother nature and all sorts of wildlife take over the interior of our house, both things we try to avoid at all costs. We started by making sure the entire home was supported adequately enough while we took the wall apart. We applied support jacks to the basement to support the first floor, then we put up support jacks on the first floor to support the second floor.

After everything was level and secure we began to demo the backwall. Demo truly is the best part of renovation, of course other than the completion of a renovation. After all demo was done, we started work on rebuilding. In the rebuilding process we had to make sure to include an opening for our backdoor entrance.

Once we had the wall rebuilt we installed plywood to the exterior and were done! This project was incredibly rewarding. The sense of accomplishment and reward from knowing WE DID IT was an amazing feeling.

After our back wall rebuild was complete, we moved upstairs and started our next framing project. Our two daughters will be sharing a room up there and since moving our home, we have done quite a bit of work to their room. We took the ceiling out and made the decision to vault the entire room. We then started to plan and design their space, and in doing so realized that there was not a lot of storage space for clothes. This problem is typical in older homes. Closet and storage space was not something that was built into older homes, so we are now trying to figure out how to do that, but still keep the feel of the space. We decided to take the corner of their room where the exterior architecture jets in and create a “built in” space for an existing dresser that we already own. This project was not integral to the houses structure, but was really exciting to do because it will help our home function at a higher level. These projects bring their own sense of accomplishment because we love taking something that was nothing, and turning it into useful space for our family.

Two additional framing projects needing completed were too large for us to tackle on our own. After accessing the scope of both projects, we decided to hire our contractor Brennan, and his crew, to help us. The first project was opening the front entry way to our home. Originally, when you walked in the front door, you were immediately met with another swinging door. The interior swinging door was 100% my favorite part of the entire home when we took our very first tour back in February of 2022. I remember telling Eddie that I would take the house solely for that door, it is INCREDIBLE. It is half beveled leaded glass, other half hand carved solid wood.

However, when you walk in the front door, both doors were so close together you could not open them at the same time. This was a huge turnoff for us, the thought of not being able to fully open either door at the same time was not something we wanted. We decided to remove the swinging door completely. It will get relocated to the entrance that divides our new kitchen and mud room. This will allow for a wider opening when you come in the front door and will also now let the front door completely swing open as wide as possible. We cannot wait to host family and friends into our home knowing our front entry will not create a bottleneck effect any longer.

The other framing we had completed was in our girls room upstairs. Since vaulting their ceiling, we needed to frame the new wall all the way to the roof. We originally were going to take on this project ourselves, but after considering the structural components of the job and the different angles that needed created, we knew we needed expert help. Brennan and Chad did a fabulous job and we are so happy with the end result.

May

Our master bedroom was next where we completed a version of framing similar to what we had done in our daughters’ room. We took a spot where the exterior architecture angled in and created an opening/nook where we plan to place a dresser/TV console. We are so excited to see these spaces come to life!

A complete transformation of our first floor happened during May. We were able to frame for our new mudroom and first floor bathroom. Both areas are going to help our main floor function so much better. We had some space constraints, so we were forced to build our wall that divided the bathroom and mudroom sideways. Meaning the 2x4s were not parallel to the south wall, but rather perpendicular. This helped us gain the extra 1/2in – 3/4in space we needed to clear the window in our now mudroom. After the framing was complete you could really start to see what that space was meant to be!

June

The architecture of our home is perfect for completing built-in nooks, so we figured why not add more built-in space in our sons room. The space we created in his room will act just like the space we created in our daughter’s room. It will house a dresser that fits perfectly. Another win for utilizing unused space!

Floors, Doors and More(s)

April

The first flooring project we tackled was the installing of a brand new floor in our attic space. When we took ownership of our home, the only things in the attic where an old cistern, roughly 15 planks of wood to walk on, and about 12-15 inches of blown in insulation.

We will be putting in a separate AC unit that will provide air solely for the second floor of our home. That unit will sit in the attic space so we decided we needed to have a proper floor to allow for both the unit and any storage space we might be able to utilize up there. We placed about 15 sheets of ¾ inch plywood in the attic to create a new sturdy floor. And can we just say that the worst part of the whole project was hauling 15 sheets of ¾ inch plywood up 4 flights of stairs, woof! Once it was all up there, the actual laying it down and fitting it together seemed like a breeze. When it was all done, we were amazed at the space it gave us. It looked like a completely different place.

May

Patching and sanding our hardwood floors on the first level was a major task we had on our list to complete. But before we could begin, we had a few questions regarding the quality of some of the flooring that had been covered with linoleum in the 70s. When we took up the linoleum, there was a large layer of tar left on top of the wood floors and we have been trying to figure out the best way to remove it and see if the floors under are worth saving. We decided to try a floor sander with the most aggressive grit sandpaper available to us(36 grit) and see what happened. After sanding for only a few minutes, the tar faded away to reveal beautiful wood below. We only sanded the area with tar on it, we are waiting to get further along in our project before we sand all of the floors. But for now, we are thrilled to know that all of the wood floors downstairs are salvageable!

Since reconfiguring the layout of the first floor, we uncovered a lot of spots in our hardwood flooring that needed patched in. There were multiple places where we tore down walls and the floor did not extend under the wall. There were a few places where old HVAC venting had been placed and there were holes in the floor. After all of the framing downstairs was completed, we decided it was time to patch the entire floor. We had saved every last piece of flooring we took out from doing different projects and were left with quite a bit of flooring to be able to use to patch in.

The actual patching of our floor took about 2 weeks. We had to start by removing a large section of flooring from the center of the room. This wasn’t completely necessary, however, to achieve a more uniform feathered look in the end, it was needed.

After we had all remaining flooring removed, we started cleaning every last piece we had saved. 118+ years of wear and tear on the floors had made each piece quite dirty. The edges were caked with dirt and grime and had to be scraped clean. We also had to remove the nails that were used to originally install the floor. This process of removing nails and grime took roughly 3 days and multiple chiropractor visits. But after hours of tedious labor, we were ready to patch!

I must admit that patching the floor was incredibly fun. I love a good brain game and this was like a life-size version of tetras. Every piece needed to fit flush but also be feathered in in a way that made the floor look as natural and original as possible.

However, we knew from simply looking at the shear volume of area that needed patched we did not have enough original flooring to cover everything. We decided to not patch under our new kitchen island. Once the cabinets for the island are placed, you will never see the floor under, so it doesn’t matter what is there, so long as it is level with the rest of the floor. We had salvaged some boards out of one of the upstairs bedrooms that were being used as shelving. They were the perfect thickness and we were able to lay them down where the island will go. Another solution where we were able to use items salvaged from our home to help us improve our home. We are so proud of how it turned out and we cannot wait to sand the floors down so we can get an even better look at how they blend with the rest of the original floor.

June

From the beginning of our project, we have been committed to saving and restoring as much of our home as we can. We hate wasting perfectly good material for the sake of modern convenience. It has been our goal to restore all of the first floor original windows in our home. I started the process in what we are calling our ‘Piano Room’. I took out both the upper and lower sashes and began sanding down the exterior wood trim as well as the jamb. After sanding I applied an exterior primer to each window and then an all weather exterior paint. They turned out better than I could have hoped and I cannot wait to see what they look like once we get new siding on the entire home!

The stairs leading to our attic space have been on our to-do list from the very beginning. The original stairs were narrow, they were only 6 inches in depth and would not fit an entire foot. To get up the stairs safely you had to sidestep your way to the top. We should have changed them before we carried 15 sheets of plywood up them, but alas, after the attic floor was laid, we decided that was a good time to rebuild the stairs.

All The Small Things

March

Back in March we were able to finally finish backfilling around our entire basement. We had been waiting on some finishing concrete work to happen that would block off our future entrance into the basement. Once that brick work was complete we finished backfilling.

When the brickwork was completed at the back of the house, our masonry contractor also put all the finishing touches on our basement safe room. The roof, constructed from metal, rebar and concrete, was laid and poured in early April and turned out amazing! Now we have a completely finished basement safe room that we are thankful to have, but pray we never need.

April

We started yet another incredible journey in the mission to build our homestead in late April. We began transplanting native cedar trees from a nearby field and putting them in a row at the back of our property. One of the downsides of the piece of land we chose as our new homestead was the lack of vegetation, of any kind. The only thing growing when we moved were a few weeds and an occasional patch of grass. We have known since moving that getting trees planted and growing is an important task. So we transplanted 4 small cedar trees with the hope of getting more as the fall months roll around.

We also transplanted a few cottonwood trees in early June. They have not been as easy to keep alive, but we are trying our best and are praying for growth!

June

As we slowly get our house put back together, we are constantly thinking about the next steps. How can we do things now that will make our lives, and those of the people we hire, easier. A large project we didn’t really see coming was the task of insulating our attic space. We are putting a separate HVAC unit up there that will supply for just the second floor. We knew our attic needed to be a conditioned space, therefore needing insulation, but we were unsure of the timing of putting all the insulation up. After talking with our HVAC contractor, he made us aware that he would be starting the installation of our attic unit within a few days. That’s when we started to realize that if we wanted to install the insulation without any obstacles in our way, we had better get on it, and fast. So we purchased insulation and within a few days we had a completely insulated attic. What a sweaty and itchy job it was, but so rewarding to have it finished!

On-going Odds and Ins

There will be a bathroom on each level of our home, and we decided to design the first floor bathroom, as well as the master bathroom upstairs, with pocket doors. The actual doors will be extra doors we removed from our house during demo. We have picked out both doors and installed the pocket door assembly kits in anticipation for installing the doors when ready. I am in the process of stripping and refinishing one of the doors we will be using. It was the old entrance into the basement and will now be the door into our master bath.

During our design process, we have been trying to save money wherever possible while also reusing materials we have available to us. If we do not have to buy unnecessary items but can use reclaimed or handmade pieces in our home, that is what we prefer. We decided that we wanted to try our hand at making our own butcher block countertops for the counter space we will create in our kitchen. This process is still ongoing, but we have been incredibly lucky to have my dad Ron helping, as well as my brother John. We spent a few late nights after the kids went to bed putting pieces together like a puzzle. We are testing different stain colors and finishing techniques and hope to have each piece completed in the next month or so.

We have recently been able to start working on the exterior of our house. Up until now all work has been focused on the inside. But now that the weather is turning warm and we are nearing the finish line for the interior, we have been able to switch more of our efforts to the exterior. Eddie recently began prepping the exterior in anticipation for both new siding and our new wrap around porch that just began construction last week. We hope to have all of the old siding removed before mid-July and we will be getting our home re-sided in late July.

Family & Fun

Our renovation journey often seems to overtake every aspect of our lives lately. However, we are learning more about each other and our children than ever before. They are the most resilient little kiddos out there and we love taking them on this journey with us. They seem to grow inches over night, they are all getting so big and we love watching them grow and learn with us. Here’s a glimpse into our crazy lives as a family of 5 with 3 little ones under 4yrs old.

March

April

May

June

Until next time! Happy summer adventures!