22 December 2008 - YTM

It's been freezing cold for the last few days - on the way home tonight it was a balmy 4 degrees out. Brrrrrr! As Natasha noted in her blog entry below, yes, we did rip out a rather large section of the dining room floor in the hopes of evening out a sharp drop to the east. But the big news is that plumbing has started! Thanks to John Kothe and Andrew Vassoff, the first feet of PVC were put in place today for the upstairs. Heating work should kick in sometime in the next week. Progress! It's been a while since we posted any 'finds', so here are some of my favorites:

1. 1955 Sears Book Club magazine - "Women like Prue Martin have made history--though they believed at the time they were only making a home....." This was in between wall layers in the old 'blue room'.

2. The above was was accompanied by several pages from what must have been a Bible story book - we found that we had Jonah (with whale), David (with harp), Pharoh (with struggling Isralite), and Moses (with water coming from the Rock) all in the blue room walls.

3. Dad found what was perhaps the original 'extra key' for this house up above the original door:

4. The ink bottle seems to have appeared out of thin air - no one can remember where it was. According to what I can figure out, Sanford was in business by this name (and making ink) between 1866-1940. Big range, I know.

5. ...and HERE is today's find! I was brushing out all the dirt, dust, and old plaster that had collected beneath the floorboards on the old 8x8 sill plate of the original house, when I found the coin below. It is a one penny token from 1854 from the Bank of Upper Canada (located in Toronto at the time). Apparently, the pieces were given the nickname "St. George Pieces" because of the design - you can see St. George trampling on the dragon below.

22 December 2008 - Natasha

Dear Family and friends -

So far we have a huge hole in our floor! My Dad says, "Don't get close to it or you can fall and hurt your self very bad." Oh, also, my Grampa is coming out to Michigan to help us work on our house. I can't wait until he comes because we get to open Christmas presents with him! Well, that's all that has been happening on our house. I wish you a very Merry Christmas and an awesome New Year!

Last Saturday, my Mom, Dad, and I tore off a section of the floor because the floor was not even. First, we tore off the green and red tile that was on our floor. Next we saw boards and junk on the floor. There was an old fence post, a card that said 9 on it, and some beads. My job had a lot of steps. First, I had to clean the junk on the floor, next I had to pull out the nails, and last of all I had to sweep the floor. Now it was my Mom and Dad's turn to get the floor boards off. When they got them off, I had to carry them to the dumpster. When I carried the stuff to the dumpster, it made me feel cold. I didn't really like the job, but I had to do it. My favorite part of the job was probably sweeping because it was very easy. It was kind of interesting finding the 9 and the fence post. Right now we have to put on boards so we can make the floor even. it's a great thing we only had to do half of the floor because that half was already very even. i cannot wait to see no hole. When the floor will be even it will look much better and better to walk on. I hope we get it done soon because that will be very exciting to see.

Well, also, Grampa Dunc is coming to our house for Christmas and working on our house. It's a great thing that Grampa's leg is doing much better. He is coming the Tuesday after Christmas. He is an awesome worker. I hope that he will like the gift I gave him. Sshhh don't tell anyone! Well, I probably should not tell even you. So I'm going to keep my mouth closed! When Grampa comes, I'm going to be very excited to see him. I am going to see him everyday after school because he might be working on the house. I especially see him at dinner. Last time I saw him, we were driving home one day and making up songs. Our song kind of went like Jingle Bells, but we used words like nails and nail gun so it turned out to be a working song. it is always fun to have Grampa here!

19 December 2008

Well, it's been a while since we updated this....our apologies for the delay. Life is well into the holiday time craziness, and it seems like there just isn't time to get pictures taken and then posted! However, progress is being made. Craig (roofing/siding person) has been making significant progress on installing all the trim pieces necessary for the roofing and siding, and we now have *full* roofing up on the monitors! Kinda hard to see in the pic below, but it's there and beautiful.

Builders Bob and Bruce have been getting the tile work done on the front porch...that's the reason for the plastic you see covering the porch on the pic above, and you can get a glimpse of the in-process tiles below.

And Scott has been making tremendous progress on trim. If you take a look at the pictures above, you'll see that almost all the cornerboard is on, and he even has one window with trim!

7 December - Natasha

Dear family and friends -
So far the house has been doing okay. My Grampa got hurt pretty bad. Oh also the basement is much warmer than the upstairs!

Well, one night, Grampa, Mama, and I were helping Grampa get the door in my parents' bedroom on. Mama told me to go and get a pair of blue gloves for me. So I went and tried to look for them, but there was not a pair. While I was looking for my gloves, Grampa was trying to put a screw in the door. I heard a thud and I heard Mama yell "SCOTT!!!!" Papa came rushing in. I ran outside and saw Grampa hanging from a yellow thing that helps you get up, but not a ladder. He was hanging by one hand and looked like something broke. Papa yelled for me to get a ladder. So I got it. Grampa went down limping. It looked like he was hurt very bad. He kept on limping to the jeep. Mama told me to get the purse. I got it and she put the Vibe keys in my coat pocket. Mama rushed Grampa to the hospital while I was getting ready for basketball practice. The next morning, Grampa got a thing that helps you walk [YTM: crutches]. He said that he found a way to do everything except bend down. He is doing pretty good. I really hope that he gets better very very quickly. It's a good thing his ankle did not get broken!

Before Grampa fell out of the door we had pizza for dinner. There was a heater downstairs. It was much warmer than the upstairs. Boy I was warm. When I got upstairs it was freezing cold! My goal is not to get cold during when I work on the house!

YTM: Just an addendum: We are *very* thankful that Dad wasn't hurt more seriously. Dad was working on the door that will open up onto what is now an imaginary deck ouside the master bedroom on the second floor. Thankfully, the scaffolding was still up right outside the door opening, and he was able to catch himself on it and thus did not fall all the way to the ground. However, he has a *very* pulled or torn muscle in his hip. Dad flew back to Colorado this morning to recuperate and get things all set for winter back at his house.

30 November 2008

Hope everyone had a blessed Thanksgiving! These pics were from yesterday when it was about 40 degrees and absolutely beautiful....it's snowing hard right now and feeling very Christmas-like.

Tremendous work inside upstairs has been occurring - we have all the rooms framed in! The view below is from the office door looking down the 'hall'. Not shown is the fact that the old flooring in the guest bedroom was torn out, and new flooring was laid down -- and the closet framed in.

The very first pieces of roof trim (vs. soffit and facia) have been put on! If you look closely, you can see the green. It's a lot easier to see in the final pic below. The person hopping about on the roof like it's a flat piece of geometry is Craig, the person who will be installing both roofing and siding.

23 November 2008

We managed to get some sunshine yesterday, so we even have cheery pictures to post! As you can see, the windows are in (all except the one in the main floor bathroom, and that one wasn't on the premises when window installation was occurring). Almost all the fascia is on (thanks B&B!), and Scott has been working hard on getting the skirt board trim on. After that, Scott will be working on corner board. Roofing will be kinda starting this coming week with trim work.

The grey board on the porch wall that you can see is tile backer board. We've got some bamboo-pattern porcelain tile coming for that, plus 4 glass blocks.

Sadly, today we had to say goodbye to Gayle, who needed to head back to Colorado and a cat that is going to *really* want to be inside again! Gayle, we can't thank you enough for all your help. We'll miss you - especially playing Hand and Foot!

19 November 2008 - from Natasha

Dear family and friends -
So far we have gotten the windows on and Tyvek. The house looks so so different. We are so lucky to have Grampa and Gayle work on our house all of the days of the week and hours!

On the eighteenth of November we got our windows in. It looks so so much different from the inside and out. When we were driving to the house, I saw a peek of it and felt surprised. When I went inside, it looked like a lot cleaner and more sunshine inside. Especially when I went in my room. There are 6 windows in my room. When I went to my loft and looked out the three windows, it seemed I could see everything. Especially Dexter. [YTM: Dexter is a town about 10 mi NE of Chelsea]. After I looked at all of my windows, Mama took some pictures of the windows on our house. It especially looks good with the terracotta trim!

About the Tyvek, we got it on two weeks ago. PS - I am talking about the stuff you put on the boards so it's kind of weather tight. I helped staple the lower parts. The Tyvek is kind of fat white paper. Mama and Gayle did most of the really high parts [YTM: I did none of the high parts! That was all Dad and Gayle.]. With the Tyvek on it looks so so much different!!! I cannot wait until the house is all finished and we are living in it!