With the
windows in Tim gets back to work on the plumbing. That massive thing he's
working on is our new hot water heater. With the
windows in Tim gets back to work on the plumbing. That massive thing he's
working on is our new hot water heater.
This is Tim's first plumbing experience. One of his flying buddies is a plumber so we've gotten our materials and some tools from him, and he's always there for a quick question.
But it turned out very well. There were only a couple of small leaks in the pex tubing that he found and patched right away.
When the plumbers here in town were putting in our heating and cooling systems (Tim tackled that job in our old house and decided that wasn't his cup of tea) they inspected his work. They told him that he could come and work with them anytime.
Once I had finished with the refinishing of our new exterior doors I started my next project... insulation.
Tim had his brother and a friend out one night to help get the insulation project started. I didn't have to work that night, and I hate being left out, so I joined their little party.
Since I didn't mind the work of filling in the pieced together mess that is the frame of our house I was elected to finish the project.
Of course I could only work on insulating the upstairs since the electricians still had to wire the downstairs.
Luckily as I was working upstairs the electricians showed up to finish the downstairs and move our yard light.
This is a picture of our kitchen where the main run of wires runs to the electrical box in the basement below.
While I was busy insulating downstairs Tim started hanging drywall on the ceilings upstairs. He had his brother and buddy back out to help.
Even with the jack it wasn't fun work. But since our drywall guy isn't able to come yet we might as well get a jump on the project and maybe save a few dollars in the long run.
Yes our drywall is blue. We are using a process called skim-coat plaster to refinish all of the walls in the house. The blue paper over the "normal" drywall is moisture resistant. Once the board is up three coats of plaster veneer will be added over the entire surface. The first two coats are done with a rough texture plaster and the final is a smooth coat. The ceilings in all of the rooms except the pantry, kitchen, and foyer will have a brush technique done to them. The final coat of plaster will have a silica sand mixed in, and a large brush will be swirled through the plaster before it sets. This will give a nice visual separation between the walls and ceilings.
The process is more expensive than regular drywall work, but some friends of our had the technique done in their home and we fell in love with the result.
At the end
of the month Tim got out his new purchase, a '77 Oliver with a deck mower, to
work up the ground in front of the house.
The previous owner had driven tractors over the ground and it was in pretty rough shape. We borrowed my dad's old John Deere two row plow and Tim spent the afternoon playing farmer in the front yard.
He was a very happy boy.
Not a lot got accomplished this month. We are still waiting for the dry wall guy to get finished with his previous job. Tim's still doing odd plumbing jobs, and I'm still working away at that pile of woodwork.
We did get enough money saved away this month to hire our neighbor to come over with his excavation equipment. Yes, we are sad to say that the chicken house and garage are going to be "taken care of." We would love to save them. Our already barren looking farm site is going to look much worse for the ware with their disappearance. We know all that. But we can't save it all.
The chicken coop had fallen off of it's foundation. The only reason the garage hadn't tipped over is because the only remaining elm tree was holding it up. But don't worry we won't let them near the barn. The grainery is going to get a stay of execution too. The little tin lean-to attached to it is the only place were Tim's tractor fits.
The night before the bulldozer came I remembered my outhouse. It was sitting next to the garage and I didn't trust my outhouse-hating husband to remind the bulldozer operator to keep it.
So at 10:00 that evening we hooked a chain to a piece of plywood. We tipped the outhouse on to it and hooked the chain to the back of my dad's truck. He then pulled it over next to the barn where it will stay until I figure out where I want to return it to.
It was a sad day.
In preparation for the skim-coat plaster work Tim installed our two shower enclosures. The one on the left is in our master bathroom, and the one on the left is in the guest bath. They were remarkably harder to install than they look. Mostly because the floors of these rooms are no where near level.
This pretty much wraps up the plumbing projects for now. So Tim had to find something else to do to occupy his time.
His new project is installing sheets of plywood on the ceiling so we can put up...
A TIN CELINING!
Yes, after much battling I am getting this amazingly expensive super splurge. I am so excited. I love tin ceilings!
Now comes the hard part of deciding which pattern would look best in the space. I love the big twelve inch patterns, but I think they would be overwhelming in the small, dark space. Also I like the more boxy-looking patterns while Tim likes the more swirly-flowery patterns. I suppose I should give in and let him have some say.
In other exciting news the skim-coat plaster work has begun. The photo to the right is what the first (rough) coat looks like in the hallway upstairs. It really brightens up the room not having that dark blue color on the walls. Merry Christmas to us!
Speaking of Christmas, since we didn't really have time for a tree (plus it's not like we're ever home to look at it) we opted for this huge wreath in its place.
I think Martha would say "It's a good thing."