what is old

…could it be new again?

Today I had intended to do a shop update and then sew all day long. Things went as they did though, and instead I enjoyed a spontaneous lunch date with my sister, followed by an enthusiastic start on a house project I have been thinking about, talking about and dreaming about for what seems like forever. Remember way back in August, when I mentioned that indoor project I was going to explore? Well I never reported those results because I never got to it, until today. The “explore” part had to do with seeing what was underneath the nasty particle board, and the slight possibility that we might just find an interesting (sub)floor under there. I pulled up the first row of particle board sections and then we discussed the ideas of painting it, sanding and staining it, or just covering the whole thing with the bamboo flooring we have been waiting to put down in there. I decided it was worth sanding some of it, to see what it looked like once cleaned up. I got so into it (I love what a sander can do!), that I will likely continue on and sand the whole thing,. With a few repairs, a thorough sanding, a nice finish, a clean trim, and a big cozy area rug this might just be a great (temporary) rustic (maybe very rustic) floor for a bedroom. We can always use that bamboo elsewhere. What do you think?

I’ll show more photos when I’m finished!

PS We are not sure what kind of wood it is. It’s definitely not pine (this wood is harder and with a different grain), and it is softer than a hardwood. Our first guess is hickory.

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transformation

Life feels so full of transformation right now, both big and small, and in most every area I can think of. It’s exciting, and there seems to be hardly a moment where I don’t recognize something new. There are even times where I can’t help but let out a little squeal! We’re excited about the continuing changes on our home. The photo below was taken a little while back, but aside from a little paint preparation it looks more or less the same. The intense pace of this summer’s project has slowed down to a more natural progression of working on what ever seems to flow with the day – not to say there is not a lot of work still to do.

I am loving this shift to autumn weather. The crisp cool mornings are beautifully punctuated by what sounds like a thousand song birds. The nights are so quiet now without the sounds of crickets and bullfrogs. And the moon seems so close and so bright. Living a little ways in from the ocean we now have deciduous trees around us, so we are experiencing a more colorful fall than we’ve seen in some time. The baby deer are getting big and the young buck is even sprouting some tiny nubs on his head already.

It’s been a little bit like summer during the afternoons still, so I leave you with a few photos as I head off to enjoy the rest of it. I’ll be back soon.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend everyone!

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roof progress

Hello! Where have I been? What the heck is going on with that house, you ask? Well, here is some of what we have been up to this month. When we bought this house we knew that the first thing it would need was a roof. You see, the house had (and yep it still has) it’s flaws, and that big flat roof there in the front was one of the biggest. There were a number of leaks, causing mold and dry rot and inviting wood eating bugs and according to the neighbors, everyone who has lived in this house has suffered the plight of this roof, for years. I won’t go into the details, but the design was flat out crazy. To just replace the flat parts really would have been pretty simple and relatively inexpensive, but it just didn’t seem right to do the same crazy thing over again and so, we ended up with what has become at least a 3 phase project. I am happy to say it seems we are entering phase 3… but for now, here is a walk-through of most of phase 1.

That photo above shows the house as it was when we bought it. In fact, that photo was taken the first time we ever looked at it.

We started by taking down that storefront type board. It was rotting, unnecessary and really unattractive.

We have tried to save everything that is salvageable, and we kept every bit of solid wood from going to the dump. There have been quite a few instances already within this project, where we have been able to reuse some materials.

We decided to completely remove the porch covering. One of the worst leaks was just to the right of the top of the door. It was very moldy in there and pretty well infested with carpenter ants, and you should have seen the inside of the coat closet, which is just on the other side of that wall. Have you ever seen a wall growing fur?? This is also the south side and on the Oregon Coast, sunshine can be a really big deal! Being the sun lovers that we are we felt like we really wanted to open this side up as much as we could. We may even add a window in the future.

Here we have cut back the overhang quite a bit, minimizing everything down, preparing for the new one over the porch, and the new fascia. The porch covering is gone and those strange blue bedposts that used to stick out of that planter box are gone too.

Part of the plan to change the flaws, was to pitch this little roof over what is now the utility room. This would eliminate the most problematic area and update the look of the house a bit. The garage roof, unfortunately, is still pretty much flat although we removed some of the flaws that were in the old design (like downspouts within the roof structure, all of which were located in high spots!).

The framing of the new little pitched roof – our contractor’s fantastic idea.

In the next few days I hope to focus on some indoor projects a bit. There is a potentially exciting discovery I want to explore, which I’ll share the results of later.

Enjoy the day everyone! And thanks for visiting.

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little discoveries

I must admit, we had fantasized a bit about the possibility that underneath all the carpeted areas of our new house, we would find beautiful old wood flooring that would just need a little refinishing… but that wasn’t the case. HOWEVER… I did make a little discovery this week…

The stairways have been an area we have not been quite sure what to do with. It can be a little bit complicated and time consuming to floor and trim such a multi-surfaced structure. We weren’t sure where this project was at at on our list of priorities, or how soon we would be ready to re-cover them if we pulled that carpet up…

Well, after taking the carpet out of that little bedroom last week and feeling the immediate improvement in air quality and aesthetic appeal, I felt pretty sure I was ready to risk it. We knew there would be some form of wood under there, and it would surely be better than dirty, stinky carpet. What I found though, beneath the dirt and grunge, was far better than I had imagined…

The wood has been marred by nails and staples and past haphazard paint jobs and trim jobs, but they are clean-able and natural and have great character. With a bit of attention, and maybe some trim, they will be beautiful. They actually bring back fond memories of the basement stairs back on the east coast when I was little.

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project 1

The very first thing I have wanted to do in our new house is to get the carpet in the main floor bedroom out.  Immediately.  It didn’t matter what we would replace it with, or even when.  Something went on in this house, which we can only begin to guess about, but this particular carpet was saturated in urine.

So here we have my first project.

My mom was visiting this week and she helped me pull the staples and carpet tackers out the following day.  It was very satisfying to get this out of there and to air out that room for real!  Simply cleaning up this one room has changed the overall feel (and aroma) of the whole main floor.

We’re starting to research paint, and are currently leaning toward natural clay plaster.  It comes in the most beautiful earthy tones, from pinks and yellows to blues and browns, and it’s entirely natural and from the earth.  And hopefully, we will have flooring ordered sometime in the coming week.  We’ll see how it goes.

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