Only one picture

We now have only half a house of electricity - YAY! That's good because Mike G, electrician from Buck's team, has sorted out the two sides of the house and we will go through an inspection before the electric coumpany can hook us up. While he worked on that, Bill and Mike worked on getting siding and soffit finished. Take a look:

Moving along

More pipes have been sweated, more floors laid, and now siding must go up. Mike G., the electrician from Florida, has arrived to hopefully finish his work - completely. And more walls may go up before the week ends. In the meantime, Mike has to keep moving along with his preparation for all the classes he will be teaching. FOUR. That's an awful lot for a new teacher who is also doing adminstrative work. But he will get it all done, I know. In the meantime, see below some of what's been done.

Big beams went up in 3 rooms to make things more structurally solid.

We think that all the copper pipe is finished by now. LOTS of pipe.

Lots of pipe was under the house. He rigged up this dolly with tools and 2 ropes so that he could send out things and I could send in things. :-)

This is my favorite floor. See how the wood runs one way in the small room and perpendicular in the kitchen?

Siding was going up at 8:30 last night - and the rest of it is going up now!

I think they DID work

I thoroughly enjoyed my two week intensive class in a particular type of music instruction called Orff Schulwerk. Never mind. While I was gone Mike, with the assistance of our carpenter neighbor, Bill, did their own playing around. They even had one day of help from a volunteer group who was working here through our church. Here are a few of the changes.

Lonesome Bill at work.

We have some new walls.

And some new floors.

LOTS of new copper pipes - courtesy of the internet trained plumber, Mike.

Whew!

Mike, Fred, Buck and Mike G.

It was an intense 4 days; these guys just don't know when to quit! The twists and turns of this old house, along with the wishes of the owner (especially the female part of the two) made a lot of the work really more of a challenge than anyone would ever have anticipated. But this bunch never flinched. Buck never stopped figuring and thinking when presented with impossible conflicts; Fred kept cutting weird pieces and making them fit; Mike G. gave up some touring to keep working; Bill kept working with the "foreign" crew, making friends while doing whatever he was asked; and Mike worked every step of the way plus before and after. We came away with most of the electrical finished, FRAMING finished in closets, small bath and shower in our half, large bathroom (Buck's ONLY 4-day bathroom!) and kitchen. Still always more to go, but since I am now in a class in Baton Rouge for 2 weeks, neither you nor I will know what is going on. Mike and Bill plan to keep any progress (or lack thereof, he says) to themselves. So don't expect an update for a couple of weeks.

WUURK!

The cry around the house as each new job is begun is "wuuurk". Our own Buck with 2 of his crew, Mike G and Fred, are back to join Bill (from last post) and Mike to blitz the house once again. It's a mighty lively place! And to top it all off, the water board decided to fill some small holes in the neighborhood sidewalks yesterday. Before 8 AM they were here with a front loader, big flatbed truck, dump truck, a couple of pick-ups and a crew of 7 with several bosses coming and going. That was BEFORE the concrete truck came. I couldn't help but contrast the 7 guys working on our 1 foot square sidewalk hole with the 5 inside the house doing a dozen different jobs at breakneck pace.

We have upstairs closets framed in and the big bear - the upstairs bathroom - was finally conquered. Due to all sorts of space issues, the engineering of that room is a small miracle. And the beauty of it is that it will all seem so effortlessly planned and have everything I wanted, only better. Kitchens are both being worked on - electrical and plumbing work nearly finished - and an extra shower being added has added to many headaches but is on its way now. Mike began his work day at 6:15, working on ducting since we now have both air conditioners working. I have no kitchen sink any more, and the coffee pot is in the bedroom (I wanna be like Vicki!!) but wow, is it worth it!

Just a few shots.

Mike began his day at 6:15 while others slept. He quit last night at 11:00. It's HIS house!

It's hard to tell, but the washer area, under the skylight, is sunken, as is the tub. Kewl!

One of the upstairs closets - full of more wood.

Kitchen wall framed.

Calling in help

It's hard to remember all the bits and pieces of things Mike has been doing since Saturday, but some of it involved plumbing, some framing - as well as having to go to school some. Today we called in reinforcements. We asked a neighbor, Bill, to help out - at a good time for him because he's between construction jobs. So while Mike mostly crawled around under the house today, connecting pipes and pulling out old ones, Bill worked on framing a closet and straightening out some problems left by whoever did the remodeling in the 1930s. No pics of Mike - or even of Bill today - but here's the closet frame.

Demo Day!

The day began with Mike and his brother, Terry, carefully deconstructing the front part of the rental side of the property. From the beginning we had planned for this to be a parking area, and we had long since closed it off from the rest of the house so that we could no longer use it as a work room. This makes a huge difference in the overall look of the house - as all our neighbors keep saying.

Terry and Mike begin the dance.

First break about 9 AM. The weather was great but they were already sweaty.

New, young help arrived: Jake works hard outdoors all the time.

Jake brought his work truck and TRAILER!

More Demo

Terry in front of the last of two big loads to the dump.

Its all gone!

Clean-up AFTER the clean-up. Mike, Jake and Terry working on bricks.

Sydnie in front of the new temporary fence.

A little more than planned

Tomorrow Terry, Mike's brother, and Jake, our nephew, are coming to help tear down the part of the house, so Mike has been doing a lot of prep. As he did a bit of cutting away, the whole front of the house shifted and became unstable, so he realized he needed to pull it on over. Soo look at this:

Floor soon

More work today for Mike - mostly getting the floor ready for the rental kitchen.

Out goes the old.

The old 2 crowbar technique.

Lovely sub-floor ready for plumbing and flooring.

Clean and sort

Thursday and Friday have been productive days with Mike working on several projects. Though he did a bit of plumbing and some work on the floor, he mainly worked on a frame for air-conditioner ducting in our kitchen AND on cleaning and sorting the back junk pile.

The junk pile - to be hauled off Saturday.

Seeee? All neatly piled for use - and that cleaned out corner!

No imagination needed

Some of you may have had trouble visualizing things in the bathroom, so Mike did this work today just for you! No, it's not nearly finished, but it's closer!

Can you see it?

Years ago, before the seminary had a steeple on the chapel, students used to say that it was there for those who had faith enough to see it. Today, by the way, it is back up after having been lost to Katrina. Well, I want to see how many of you can see the washer and dryer in the space that Mike began to make for them today?? They will sit back under the skylight, and he moved the bracing (cripple wall) back for them today while working on the floor of our bathroom. Can you see all the nice tile there??

More old stuff

I tore out some nails and screws in prep for drywall in the near future and got to what remains of the old lath and plaster. Mostly just remnants but I finally found some bits of the old plaster we'd been told about. It used horse hair as a filler or binder or something. I also found a cool old peg that's still holding something together.

Whoo-hoo again

Mike spent his whole work day yesterday in bed! He got up at 4:30 AM throwing up and was sick all day. No work. No air conditioning. Today he woke up feeling better, and by 10 AM we decided we'd join my brother and his family at my mom's for Mothers' Day. When we arrived back home at 8 PM I did NOT expect to work, but Mike had other ideas in the sticky warmth. By 9:30 we have an AC working. It's not elegant or pretty; not finished; not on both sides of the house, but nonetheless we have AC and it's coming into the bedroom on the opposite side of the house by a series of fans. YAY, MIKE!

Up on the housetop

Look at those chimney caps!

New chimney tops

Our chimneys are fake. It's sad and a bit embarassing but true. They have lots of concrete in them, but sometimes they still leak. So, as a break from working on the metal roof, Courtney made chimney caps and then put them up there. Gorgeous material! And he scared me to death getting it put up. I love them!!