Mini update:   Work has been progressing, but computer issues have hindered updates.  New PC is on its way, and with it will be updates with photos.

In the meantime, here's one photo of the dining room.  The floors are all gone except for the joists, and the wall between it and the hallway is gone also.  Three temporary load bearing 2X8's are holding up the ceiling from all the way down in the basement.

 

This past Sunday, Rob and I removed/burned all of the debris and wood from the garage demo. We filled about half of the dumpster, which is good because we have room leftover for the debris from the dining room wall which will be torn down this coming week.

Once there was no longer any evidence that a garage had ever been there, we moved on to the kitchen floor.   We installed new floor joists which were attached via joist hangars to the new
quadruple 2 X 10 beam that we installed the summer before last.

On the other end the joists rest on the new poured concrete foundation.  We started putting down the new 3/4" tongue & groove subfloor,  but the batteries in the camera died. I'll try to get photos next week.

The first Joist installed:

Yes I know, the wainscoting is shot. It will be replaced after the floor is done.

Mother Nature has been cruel and heartless this year, as spring has yet to be sprung.
Snowstorms and temperatures below freezing have delayed any work. That is, until today.

Today it was 39 F , but we had to accomplish something.  So, we contemplated fixing the roof on the garage.  That was, until we emptied it out and realized it was too far gone.  The roof had caved in,  the overhead door was trash, and the two  interior stone walls were falling in.

Judging by the dimension and color of the lumber used, the garage was likely built in the 1950's or 60's.   It was not original to the house, so the decision was made to demolish it.

Last photo before the demo:

   

 Here is a video of me pulling it down with the truck:

 

We also completely demoed the kitchen floor including the rotted floor joists today.

New joists and 3/4" tongue & groove plywood subfloor begins next week.

Been a long winter, but warm weather is right around the corner. 
I met with Rob last week and we have a gameplan. We're making a lumber and drywall order, so that we can do the floors and interior walls this season.

 I also have a painter named Tom who will finish priming and painting the exterior, and my friend Matt will re-wire the house with new romex & grounded outlets.

Stay tuned, we should get going in March 2018.

So, scraping and priming continue.  A little bit each weekend, and we finally have more than half of the houses exterior prepped for paint. I can not wait to begin applying the blue paint. Soon.
    Here is where it's at, the front and back are complete, the side walls need the 2nd & 3rd levels primed:
  

Last week my wife Robin and I, began the overwhelming task of scraping the siding in preparation for paint. We got about a third of the south facing wall scraped and we began to apply oil based primer to it.

This house probably has not been painted in at least 35 years.  The paint fell off of the house, and many of the cedar boards were bare wood when we were done.  We have many more weekends of scraping and priming ahead of us before we begin to apply the new glidden blue exterior paint.

Here's where we left off:

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