A House Renovation Update

Some of these pictures are from February, and some are from this past weekend. We are still insulating and sheetrocking and most weekends are spent working on the house. It is a slow process, but mainly because we have minimum funds to spend on supplies. But it is coming along..

In February, Dave and a friend from work, John and his two sons Christopher and Spencer came out to help with the insulation and sheetrock. Here is Dave getting more supplies---notice the small wall to his right in this picture and the next...

Here is the other side of this small wall (gold)

We gave our friend Derren the charge to get rid of that wall and ~voila~ the wall is gone. We've decided to open up this whole area between the living room and what was the dining room/pool table roomJohn, Christopher, and Spencer hanging sheetrock in the hallway


Here is the wall we decided to move out into the dining room/pool table room about 4 ft so that we could increase the size of the master bath. Note the lid of the toilet tank on the floor---the toilet is going to be moved to this space so that we can put in a double sink.

Here is another view of the extended bathroom

Here is this wall enclosed now.

Danny working in the hallway by the kitchen--it's almost done!

Danny and Dave worked the better part of yesterday finishing the insulation and sheetrock in the kitchen. The sink will be below the window.

More of the finished kitchen. Dave and Danny also moved back the stove. Unfortunately, it's still awaiting a good cleaning and an evaluation of whether it still works. It's had all these months to dry out. And, both the fridge and the dishwasher work. However. the dishwasher makes new loud noises. The interesting part about the dishwasher is that it is currently in the rental house. The dishwasher in the rental didn't work (it runs, but doesn't clean), so we brought ours over and Dave installed it. It was thoroughly cleaned and sanitized and works great--but the noise it makes is horrendous. I don't think it'll be coming back to our house--but who knows...

While Danny and Dave worked inside, I pulled out the lawn mower/garden tractor that Dave and Derren resurrected (it was completely submerged for 5 days) and mowed the lawn. It's not without its quirks, but it works. It was fun seeing the lawn emerge from all the leaves that were never raked during the fall. After mowing, I collected branches and pieces of wood that had floated from the logpile near the barn. Note the pile to the front of the picture. I'll burn it when there is a day without wind (yes, burning is allowed).

Our yard from another view.

I took this picture a couple of weeks ago while out at the swamp house. I just thought it turned out pretty well. Not bad for a compact camera, huh?!

I ventured out to the pond to find it green with algae. At least it is not black like it used to be. That was just downright weird and eerie. There are minows in the water!
So, all in all, progress is being made. Although it is slow, it is really starting to show. Dave has spent just about every weekend there. It's exhausting, just to think about it.

These are the rooms that are completed with insulation and sheetrock:

exercise room

guest room

hallway

den

bathroom off the kitchen

These are almost complete with insulation and sheetrock:

kitchen

kitchen hallway

dining room/pool table room

living room

These rooms still need to be finished:

master bedroom

master bathroom

main bathroom

Once the sheetrock is finished we will hire out the taping, mudding, texturing, priming, and painting. Then we will lay the floor and fix the bathrooms.

Our plans for now (could change at any moment):

We will finish the kitchen, the den, the 3/4 bath off the kitchen (next to the den) and the living room and move back in. Then, we'll just finish the rest as we can afford. Hopefully there will be no major storms, but just in case, all of our belongings will be hiked to the attic that Dave and Derren have installed flooring in. We'll add a couple of exhaust fans to keep the heat down. We'll live with only the furniture we have (our tv and computers are on folding tables)---table, bed, couches and side tables. Once the house is finished we will probably attempt to sell it or just rent it out.

We did get a bid on raising it. It is out of our current budget. The man who bid it out quoted us 50K! but, that includes raising the house, rebuilding the foundation and chimney, rebuilding the porches, and bricking the new foundation.

The latest on the mortgage company saga:

After throwing my tizzy-fit (see previous post from a week or so ago), we have seen some action. We were sent a contract that would allow for the insurance monies to be applied to the balance and the remaining 5K would be waived (but we lose all our escrow monies--so it actually comes out to about 3K) leaving the house free and clear (the lien would be released to us). Hallelujah! We have signed it and faxed it back, but I have yet to receive word that the faxes (I sent a copy to two fax numbers at the company, as instructed) were received (I will follow up yet again). Hopefully this will all be done before our April mortgage payment is due! All in all, we are hopeful. However, I was made hopeful back in December and we all know that nothing happened there. I will believe it when I see the documentation that the swamp house is OURS!!

So, that's it. Keep us in your prayers. The mess is still not over, but we're getting closer to some resolution. Now, just to figure out what we're doing...stay tuned, it could change tomorrow...

We are truly blessed! Things could definitely be worse. We're just exhausted---but that's better than many alternatives.

Have a good week!