Ok Santa, we're ready for you.

 Today,  Bundy helped me install a chimney.  Technically the chimney was already there, but we did install a chimney liner and extend the chimney out through the roof.  Now the boiler/burner has a place to exhaust through.

I'm one step close to having a warm house this winter.

  

Happy Holidays

      I took advantage of some warm weather this year and hung my Christmas lights on the house.  The goal was simply to do a better job than last  year, which was not a tough goal since last years lights were an embarrassment.

     I find it strange that Christmas lights are the hardest thing to photograph, too much daylight and they don't show up at all, but as soon as the daylight goes away, they glare and look blurry on the photo. My wife Robin and I took nearly twenty photos with our digital cameras and our phones but nearly every one came out terrible regardless of what settings we put them on. The best result I got was on a video I took with my phone.     

     Anyhow,  here are the two pictures and the video of the lights. They definitely don't capture it well though.

Before & After (4 years of change)

    For those who are not aware, I bought my Lackawaxen house in 2016.  I got it real cheap due to the condition that it was in. A quick look at the early entries of this blog will show some of the poor condition, but to really appreciate how bad it was, click this link:  https://www.oldhousedreams.com/2016/03/22/c-1900-lackawaxen-pa/

     Around the same time that my wife Robin and I were placing a bid on this house, Kelly featured it over at Old House Dreams. When I learned that our bid had won the house, I joined oldhousedreams.com and began posting on that thread. It was there that a few members suggested I create a blog and document the rehab process.

       It has been almost exactly four years (first post 10/1/16) since I created this blog. I was thinking about it a few weeks ago, and I thought it would be neat to be able to see the before and after shots of some of those original views that Kelly has in her thread over at OHD.  I downloaded some of the old 2016 photos and then loaded them onto my mobile phone so I could see them while at the house(there is no cell reception there).  Then I captured the same angles/views as they are now in 2020. 

      I blended the pairs of photos together side by side so as to see the contrast and appreciate the progress. Please take a moment to view them and comment either here or at the thread at oldhousedreams.com

Thanks, Fritz

 

edit 2022:  kitchen cabinets installed with original upper doors & hardware. 

We discover a message from the previous owners.

       Today, was a really satisfying day of work at the house for three reasons.  Let me tell you about the first reason.

       Robin came along and began demolishing the piano room. I had her rip out all the wood paneling and the trim moulding.  She discovered that the wall that backs up to the kitchen was re-framed, re-wired, and sheathed with plywood rather than drywall under the paneling.  This will make for a perfect structure to attach the sheetrock to.

       She also discovered the old wallpaper on the plaster walls was in fairly good condition under that paneling.  But the best thing she found was some writing on the wall in the corner where the south wall meets the west wall:
 

        Yep, we found the build date! I had estimated the house to be built in 1875 from photos I found online, but this is the first piece of evidence found during the renovation that indicates that the house is actually fourteen years older than my estimate!
        Rob and I had found a date on the lumber of the second floor addition when we demo'd it three years ago, but it was a date that the lumber was milled. It was in the 1940's and it had the name of the customer who ordered the lumber: Dr. Maxwell Cohen.  This extremely cool message that Robin found is signed by Christine Cohen, the doctors granddaughter.  The house was built in 1861.

     Since buying this house in 2016,  I knew that the source of the water damage was the failed flat roof on the addition above the kitchen.   I knew it leaked bad, and I knew it leaked for a long time. 

    What I did not know for sure, but strongly suspected, was that the water was also running down around the outside of the chimney on the back wall of the kitchen.  The demo two weeks ago confirmed this.  Water had been pouring down the outside of the chimney because there was no roof slope  or flashing to divert it away or around the chimney.

The water not only rotted/destroyed the kitchen floor and back wall, but it eroded the stone foundation and the timber that acted as a sill for the rear wall to be built on.  See this photo:

 
There was nothing left to start building off of.

Rob and I had to pour concrete around the chimney and create a place to attach a  2 x 8  pressure treated sill plate.  From there we were able to create a pressure treated "header" type beam or ledger board. This was made from two 2 X 8's  sandwiching a piece of 3/4" plywood.

Finally we were able to install more floor joists and start framing out the new rear wall and doorway.

 

The back wall is all done.  Siding went well and looks nice,  I used Hardieplank cedarmill and  we overlapped it at 5 1/2 inches to replicate the cedar wood that had been there.

We also got the soffit in at the rear eve.  And yes Mike, it was difficult like you said, but it wasn't impossible. I originally tried sliding it it from the end, but that wasn't happening, so I perfected a method where I flexed it in an arch and popped one end at a time into its channel.

The finished  product looks good too.

When you look at a before and after shot, it really is impressive how much we accomplished in 4 months of only working weekends

With the exception of paint on the front and sides of the house, I'm done for this season.  The money I set aside for 2017 is all gone and its time to start saving for school & property taxes. Updates to this blog will slow down for a while until some bills get paid.

 Thanks for following along, and check in from time to time, as the next big project will be new floors and drywall inside.

Fritz

 

Interesting side note, I found a couple polaroid photos in the house.  One is a snapshot of the back of the house in 1986.  Notice there are a few pieces of siding that appear to have been recently replaced but not yet painted?

Here it is in 2016, and it appears as though they never got around to painting that siding.  The chimney got replaced, and the mudroom got a roof extension, but those same five pieces of siding remain bare.