The front porch is taking shape on the Adobe. As you can see it is full width of the front section with a huge picture window from the living room. The posts are substantial and really make a statement of their own.
We’ve got more in store for this porch, but I’m not telling. You’ll just have to check back on its progress
Now that the roof is on, and we have made good progress drying in the Post Office, its time to move on the interior of the Adobe.
First thing to do was repair the floor. It wasn’t too bad but once the rotted subfloor areas were repaired we were able to start framing the interior. To make plumbing and electric easier and to add insulation, we added framing inside the walls and then framed out the rooms. It still looks less like a house than I like, but the rooms are taking shape and we can start to get the feel for how this place is going to work.
The more we do, the more I like it. This is a really nice, small family or a comfortable couples house. 2 bedrooms and 2 baths. The kitchen is small but with the outdoor fireplace and patio, it works for entertaining too.
Well, not quite – but as you can see. We’ve added metal roofing, windows, drywall and texture, and the electrical is roughed in, some steps to get in, and a door! But look, we’ve got solar power. It keeps the tools charged and the carpenters happy.
Its kind of amazing how fast (and also how slow) it can transform from a ruin to a home. Well, we are almost there.
As anyone who has done a project of this scale knows, before a new roof can go on, the old one must come down. In this case – well just take a look.
Sorry about the delay here. My photographs were misplaced – but now they’re found!
Its been a while since we’ve been able to see much progress. Then, all of a sudden, things start happening quickly. The Post Office has most of its drywall up, the holes in the floor no longer exist, windows, siding, steps, some electrical work, and more is happening. No, none of it is done, but, its moving forward.
We’ve got flooring picked out and ordered, kitchen appliances are on their way, bathroom fixtures are picked out – not ordered yet, bathroom tile is ready to go in. Its the fun stuff!
There comes a time when you just need to spend time getting things together – getting organized – this includes gathering supplies and sorting them out. Well here we go. . . . At least its a start!
The first critical step in a modern house is – – – plumbing!
Its been roughed in for the Post Office. Components include: the bathroom (shower, toilet, sink), the utility/laundry room (hot water heater, washer/dryer), the kitchen (sink, gas for stove, the refrigerator water line), the living room (gas for fireplace). Its a simple house but even a simple house has lots of need for plumbing if you really want to stay here.
I found some old photos of the buildings we are renovating. Not as old as I’d like, but definitely older than we have taken. The quality is poor as they are scanned from photocopies. But if you look you can see just how much degradation a few years can be.
Some of the photocopies are from articles dated from 2019, others are dated from 1990. I don’t know when the photos were actually taken.
Not long after the front porch was taken down, we had to start working on cleaning up inside. We began an initial demo in order to determine the condition of the walls and roof structure. As it turns out – not too bad. (Other than the rat and bat poop).
Some interesting things we found were:
Two different widths of wood flooring had been used. The narrower width was found in the front room, kitchen and bath area. As there is also a subfloor and the because the floor in the front room is in pretty good condition (dirty but in good shape) we will work to preserve this section of the original flooring. Flooring in the kitchen had major water damage due to windows being broken out and no porch covering to prevent rain from coming in. The bathroom are had major damage. The bedroom area had a later era of wide flooring and it is not in a condition that is restorable.
The walls in the front room had been plastered from floor to ceiling, they had damage from human abuse and time. Walls in the kitchen and bedroom area had plaster on the top portion and bead board on the bottom, separated by a chair rail. Interesting is that there a two different styles of bead board and chair rail that change mid-wall in the bedroom. Looking closer, we could see that there had once been a wall dividing the bedroom space into two rooms. The bathroom walls had been plastered. There was no indication that there had been tile or any other water-resistant finish. None of the plaster in the house, bead boards, or chair rails were salvageable.
Behind the kitchen, there was originally a back patio with a ceiling. It had been poorly enclosed at some point with a screen and later with plywood. It clearly was an exterior space as the two walls adjacent to the rest of the house were clad in exterior shingles.
Between the Kitchen and the bedroom space there was a brick chimney. Interestingly, the chimney began about 3/4 of the way up the wall, suspended with wood cross braces and good workmanship. The chimney had an opening on the kitchen side, clearly designed to connect to a wood burning stove’s pipe. On the bedroom side was another round opening. Hmmm??? But, looking further there is another round opening leading to the bathroom, and still another that leads into the front room, and another from there to outside. It appears that the stove vented through the pipes in those 3 rooms in an effort to heat those spaces perhaps? There is no evidence of fire damage and the openings were in good shape. It would be nice to see just how these were interconnected.
Demo took over a year to complete mostly because we wanted to draw up plans for its restoration and needed to determine what to save and what needed to go.
A front porch is a place of peace, a place to relax and enjoy life as your neighbors pass by, wave, and even stop in to say “Hello, how are you?”. Without a porch, a house seems bare and just a little less lived in. A porch adds “curb appeal” and a “Well loved” feeling. Without one, well, its just a house.
In this case, the front porch lacked a floor, the posts that supported the roof and ceiling were hanging on by a thread. 2 of the three posts connected to nothing at their base. It was a disaster waiting to happen. So it needed to come down.
The plan is to replace it with the same style and up to today’s standards. Once the hazard was down it will take a while to get it replaced. First the main structure needs to be repaired – keep following our progress. It will happen.
