Everyone Needs a Little Support Now and Then

Check out what Steve accomplished last week both inside and out.  We were blessed with 3 or 4 balmy days, so he took advantage of the good weather and alternated installing rafters in the yoga room with extending those beams all the way to the outside corner of the porch roof and placing two new support beams to hold that roof up.  The old posts were so rotten that when Joel pushed one to see if it was still doing its job, it just swung freely!

Steve and I met with August Raulli on Wednesday to discuss the details of the deck that he is going to create that will extend off the yoga room, facing the lake.   At this point we are settling on an 4 foot by 18 foot iron structure with really cool posts and railings.  I was excited to learn that we will not need cables to support it from the top or support beams that will extend to the ground.  With the size that we have chosen, August can secure it to the building with angle or T brackets and through bolts, thus no visual obstructions.  I am all about not seeing the supports anywhere inside or outside of the house just as long as they are there doing their work!

Getting Down!!

Cathy and I met again this past week at her house for phase 2 of the big chair re-upholstery adventure!  Since our last get together she sewed 10 little pouches, leaving a part of one side open so we could stuff each with goose down.  The feathers literally flew in all directions once we slit open the down pillows that we had purchased at the fabric store.  It took a bit of time, but we accomplished our goal for the day which was to get these 10 little filler pads stuffed and sewn up.  The clean up took almost as much time:)  We are thinking that one more full morning of work will be enough time to complete the job!

Steve met with a second heating/cooling company late in the week to procure another quote for the job.  Two more places still have to weigh in with their ideas and bids and then we will make a decision.

The Rustic Room got insulated, the dining room and downstairs bathroom got an application of foam insulation all around the edges and corners as an added protection against leaks, and Steve started work on the rafters in the yoga room.  All good stuff!

The Steve and Joel Show Continues

Boy is it ever cold up at the house these days!  Every time I pop in, though, Steve is happily working away.  He has the heaters and the radio blasting and seems very content with the project.  This past week he concentrated on shoring up the ceiling in the den because the Jacuzzi soaking tub will be installed right above.  He showed me where the floor joists were only inserted into the main support beam by about a half an inch.  That and the charred wood from the long ago fire make the room very unstable.  No worries!  Steve is systematically strengthening each joist with steel plates and 2 by 8 planks of wood.  Over the weekend, Joel set about disassembling the pantry by taking up the floor, pulling down the ceiling, and knocking out the walls.  Once he exposed the rough hewn ceiling beams, we realized that they weren't really holding up anything!  Joel set a board in place to temporarily support the ceiling.

Lenny Showed Up!

Our mason, Lenny, has been promising to get to the dining room fireplace project for weeks.  He began work on it yesterday!  Joel and Steve and I have been discussing various scenarios for the rebuild, and we think we have come up with a neat idea.  Rather than recreate the bread oven dome (which is going to be covered up by Sheetrock anyway) we plan on keeping the front facade of the oven, but only a few inches deep...perhaps 12.  Behind that we intend to recess my kitchen counter and the cupboards above so that when you are seated in the dining room, your view into the kitchen will not be as obstructed.  We'll see how this thought pans out.  In any event, Lenny is busy removing the old bricks.  Hopefully sometime towards the end of the week he will begin the re pointing and rebuilding of the chimney.