Moving Day

We moved our stuff from Georgia to Missouri. A DIY (do-it-yourself) move is always more work than having a moving company. Anyway, we made it before the snow started to fall.

Great memories of a time now past

We have now moved from Georgia to Missouri, leaving behind a house that we loved for a new adventure.

Dinner is not ready yet!

We'll start with the kitchen, drywall has been hung with the help of some friends and the missionaries from the church. (Here I am working with Elder White)

Chris did the mud and tape, so it is almost ready to be painted.

Space is at a premium in this small kitchen so we created a small storage space above the pantry. When we took down the lath and plaster, there was a vacant cavity so we decided that it would be a great storage area. However, we will need a ladder to reach it.

These are not eyes in the wall. The description of the house and its construction that was made with the blueprints talks about "speaking tubes" or a historic intercom system in my words. We found these speaking tubes in the kitchen and decided to preserve them. However, we do not have the porcelain mouthpieces that were attached to them. (We have found similar tubes in the servant's room and in the upstair's bathroom.)

The story of the birds and the bats

Okay, what's up with the wildlife here. A friend told us that we would have "Missouri Moments" living with the wildlife, and so we have. When we got back from our short trip, late Monday evening around sevenish, I opened the basement door and to my surprise, I discovered a bat flying around in the basement. It managed to escape. (As of today I still don't know where it is hiding). Then we replaced a window in the tower bedroom, which meant that I removed the window and the casing. Chris was vacuuming out the mortar and rotten wood when she found what appeared to be a small piece of wood. So, she tried to vacuum up the wood until she noticed that it had a face and started to move, yes it was a bat. A few days later I discovered a bird flying around in the attic tower. I thought that the birds and bats were supposed to leave for the winter. However, they seem to like our house, as well as the flies and Asian beetles (which we thought were ladybugs).

Oh the weather outside is frightful, but the furnace is so delightful

After an absence of a couple weeks, we are back. We had a little vacation to attend a wedding in Utah for one of our sons, and then off to Washington state to visit a son and daughter and two grandkids, a nephew and niece, followed by a visit of parents and siblings in Idaho. So now the weather is getting cold, but Botts and Tye of Chillicothe worked on the heating in our absence. So here is the finished product.

With custom-built ductwork.

And a large heat pump.

We have heat, but it will take a minimum of two units and possibly three to completely heat the house, so we opted on one unit at a time. The downside to all this is I haven't sealed all the holes in the windows and other areas, so we may be the only house in Trenton that has no snow in the yard when it starts snowing since we may be heating the outside until all the leaks are sealed. It is nice to have some heat. Many thanks to Boots and Tye for their help and professionalism.

"Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair" (continued)

Leon doing some replacement frame work inside of the tower.

The tower has a new facia up top, and the lower part is now framed and covered with roofing material.

Cedar shakes are getting painted. (Looking better, but still a ways to go.)

"Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair"

You know the story of Rapunzel and her tower...

Well, this tower would be a challenge. (The internal gutter has been removed.) The bottom half was also removed due to damage.

Now it looks like a rocket ready to launch.

The tower work begins

Lester finished his brickwork by completing the tower. Now you see it, now you don't!

The boom has left, but some of the painting is done

David painting the upper window area. Notice his feet, he may really be asleep up there.

This is the east side of the house. Chris is not sure she likes the color. It is supposed to be sage green but it has too much blue, so next summer I will probably be painting it again. I'm glad I have a sprayer.

South side of the house, or the front door. The trim was not completed before the boom was returned. (Oh well, next summer unless someone has a lift to loan us.)

Current Tally

Facia and Soffit...done
Gutters................done
Brickwork...........almost done
Tower..................pending
Inside...................in progress
Painting...............in progress

Some Progress

Remember the tower bedroom? Here's what it looks like now...I am thankful for progress, even though the room is not finished.

Let it rain...not really

Samuel and his crew have installed gutters for us. The gutters are white, but the downspouts are rosewood to partially blend with the brick.

Kudos to Samuel and crew!

Soffit and Facia

Remember the missing facia and soffit on the west side? Well, Jimmy, Nate, Leon and Jim got busy and replaced it all.

Thanks guys!

Take down

We have rented a 6 cubic yard dumpster for the demo trash. We had a two cubic yard dumpster, but it wasn't big enough, so after a month we went to six cubic yards. It has been dumped three times so far.

Squirrels no more...I hope

Lester and I removed branches that were hanging over the house. The squirrels used them to get on the roof.

Weary Travelers

We were visited by a group of Monarch butterflies who must have been migrating south for the winter.

Fourth of July in the House

We had to have a structural issue solved, namely how do you fix a dropped header? By welding of course. Zach welded some steel panels to an "I" beam to keep the floor from dropping.

 

Brick problems with creative solutions

We needed some bricks so we went a hunting (that would be "huntn" in Georgia language). The bricks came from a building that is scheduled for demo. The interesting thing is that the building belonged to Bones (nickname) Lionberger who was the second owner of our house.

Mark, Sally and Lester took the bricks off the building.

Yes, we had permission.

More work, sheetrock sure is heavy

We had 100 sheets of drywall delivered by Lowes.

They dropped the sheets off. Kyle did help me with about twenty sheets. I moved sixty sheets by myself and then Russ Hopkins, a church member, helped me with the last twenty sheets which we took upstairs.

Facia and soffit

Work in other areas has also begun. Jim also sealed the leak on the top of the tower.

I got up to the top but had the wrong materials. Note: How do you get someone else to do your work? Take the wrong materials up with you.

International Harvester Red

The beams in the basement that David primed were painted Inernational Harvester red, sorry John Deere people!

Always there is demo

David did more take down.

The hole is gone!!! Yeah

Let me remind you of our first brick issue, remember that hole?

Well, Lester got to work and the hole was repaired.

More from the ceilings

This photo came from a bedroom ceiling.

And this souvenir world's fair coin dated December 1, 1891. Probably for the Chicago World's Fair that was in 1892-1893. (No, it is not a silver coin).

Little treasures???

Lester found these bottles in the joists when he started to take down the bricks. I wonder???

This was a picture that was found in the ceiling of one of the bedrooms.

We don't know what this is. It looks like a back brace. It also came from a ceiling in a bedroom...

as well as the belts...

and box of letters...

Help, I need someone, not just anyone, Heeelllp!

We hired David to do some of the work that needs to be done. The first day he came with his kids to see what work we might have for him to do. He did not work that day.

The next day he took down the ceilings in three rooms. That was quited a job. He filled the dumpster with the lathe.

The following day he repaired the basement stairs, and

as for the steel beams, he removed the rust and started to prime and paint the beams to keep them from rusting.