In the spring I’ll start with a few seasonal maintenance items and then focus on electrical wiring so I can then insulate the walls. Assuming I get at least that much done in 2023, I can keep the house open in the winter even with just a space heater. Hopefully, though, I’ll be able to get some of the radiant floor heating installed as well.

I did manage to complete 3 of 4 exterior sides, so I’m pretty happy with the final effort. That said, I was thwarted by bad weather twice in October/November and basically lost about five days of effort. I could have easily completed that last side in 2-3 days, so this is a minor disppointment.

Here’s the visual summary of the progress. First, let’s look at the before and after from a single view:

And here are just a few different shots of the exterior now. Some of the trim paint isn’t complete or has the wrong color – this was done just to get a coat of paint on as much exposed wood as possible and when I do the second coat in the spring I’ll be more attentive to the final detail.

See you again in the spring!

The painting project is a slow one for a number of reasons. First and foremost, T-111 siding is rough and dry, so getting a good coat on it takes extra time and effort. Then there’s all the cutting in around windows and doors. Not to mention that I don’t have the stamina to go for more than about 3-hours at a time.

Nevertheless, the front of the house if complete now, and here is the before and after (going all the way back to the original house layout):

I’m darn happy with the new look! And my goal right now is to get a coat of paint on the entire house before winter. This first coat won’t be perfect, but I’d like the house to be ready to weather the winter so I can do the second coat and detail work in the spring.

The painting is likely the only remaining project I’ll work on this year, so probably no notable updates till the spring. See you then!

When the siding was installed, we opted to simply put up the full sheets, thus enclosing the porch, as a matter of speed. The porch didn’t have a full floor and wasn’t otherwise a usable space, anyway, so this made sense at the time. It also allowed for some flexibility in how the windows would be cut and framed for the screens. There were a number of different ways to do this, so it gave me a chance to think this through.

Ultimately. I decided to attach the screens to the frame on the inside of the porch. Later, I’ll add exterior trim to cover where the siding has been cut and to cover the 2×4 framing. This allows for the maximum window sizes which is most desirable in this space. I used aluminum screen which is more durable than fiberglass and nearly as “see through”. It was a little more expensive, but not much – and since the entire screen was less than $75, we’re not talking about a notable expense.

Ultimately there will be electric, lighting, and a ceiling fan on the porch, so this will be a very comfortable space. In fact, at nearly the same size as the living room, I expect the porch to be the most used space in the house. Once there is the ability to truly start actually using the house as, well, a house, rather than a construction site.

Fast forward to the last few weeks and there has been a flurry of activity. I decided to have the contractor do the siding because, for the time and cost it would take him, I’d end up spending weeks to complete a fairly short project for him. Of course, once we scoped the project, we added a few things – most notably, all the new windows on the rear elevation, a replacement window for the kitchen, and raising the electrical main line a few feet above the roof ridge. (This was done because the low point from the house to the electric pole at the street was low enough that a box truck could run into it. And this height wasn’t even at code – now it is.)

Below are some photos of the latest work. There’s one more substantial project that needs to happen to complete the exterior work and assure that all of the existing framing is soundly holding up the house (with its new roof) and tied in properly to the foundation. This may or may not get done before winter is in full force depending on some discussions with the contractor next week.

And once the exterior is complete, I can begin working on my efforts inside the house. This will be weather dependent as far as winter is concerned, but hopefully I’ll get a little done in the winter and then start to spend a bit more time on this in the spring.

I replaced several sections of board, then caulked any gaps between the boards, and also added a waterproof paint to the new boards. Ultimately these will be covered in house wrap (Tyvek) and siding, so there won’t be any exposure to water, but the paint is just an added protection. And filling the gaps is for weatherproofing/sealing the exterior as best as possible. This helps with interior heating/cooling and also helps keep the bugs and critters out.

Additionally, there was a LOT of rain during the week that the trenches were dug so mud kinda slogged all over the place. This left the property a huge mess and while “curb appeal” isn’t really critical at this point, there is the matter of simply navigating the grounds. So after the area had mostly dried out, we got the grounds cleaned up quite a bit. Further, there were some significant stones unearthed in the process so these were placed strategically around the property. It’s hard to see here, but the footpath from the shed ended with a pretty big step up onto the wood porch. So two of the larger, flatter stones were used to create a couple of steps up from the path to the porch.

Most of the rest of the grounds got covered in gravel to make it easy to manage, especially during the construction phase. Water drains nicely preventing a mud bog, and this gives a decent surface to work from as we determine what to do about the front where the old, rotted wood porch was removed.

Next up? Siding!

But the bigger problem is the rot caused by exposed wood (and structural wood, at that) being in contact with the ground and allowing water to both run over the wood and get soaked into it as well. So we had to dig out a nice trench under the front and side elevations in order to build a new foundation, add a new sill plate, assure all the wood is either above grade or at least pressure treated, and add new drainage. The upshot is that, once complete, this is truly a one-time effort. With the new foundation in place, the house will be very stable, the wood structure will be protected, and the crawl space will remain clear and dry. There are a lot of benefits to this work, so as much as this was not part of the plan, getting it done is very worthwhile.

Below is a gallery of various stages of this effort. Basically, the trench was dug out, the house was jacked up, new cinder block piers were installed along with a new sill plate and the house was lowered back onto the new structure. Then a cinder block wall was filled into to complete the crawl space and a french drain was filled into the exterior to keep water away from the foundation.

To complete this room, we had to pour an 8-inch deep slab of concrete to raise the existing slab to match the existing floor height. Here’s the slab in progress and the room before the existing walls were removed to combine the space into one larger room. It’s hard to picture here, but eventually there will be a queen bed from the wall on the left. And at the foot of the bed, the wall to the right here will have a large picture window overlooking the woods and the creek. Facing east, it will be a very peaceful and natural way to wake in the morning as the sun rises through the trees.

When the slab was complete, over 8,000 pounds of cement had been mixed and poured. Thanks to my helper who just loves to move heavy objects, I didn’t have to move any of those 8,000 pounds. And, if I did, the job still would not be complete. And in this photo, the wall at the far end is the one into the existing room, so this room will be larger, and will have the new small bathroom as an “en suite” addition. Tracy really created a new focal point of the house with the addition of this room and I’m excited about it.

First, rather than enclosing the crawl space with some piecemeal setup of cinder blocks, poured concrete, and wood framing, the whole thing will be concrete and block for the most secure system. This will also be the most weather and pest-proof, too.

Second, and related to above, the rear of the house will be jacked up when the new concrete is added to properly level the rooms in the back of the house that were added in the early 1970s and put on footings that have since settled.

Third, a new sill plate will be installed in various locations to both assure the framing remains level for years to come and separates the foundational element in the ground (which need to be rot resistant and concrete) from the wood framing above. Right now at least one corner of the house framing is sitting in the dirt and rotting because of this lack of separation.

Fourth, a new french drain will be installed around three sides of the house. Since the property slopes clearly from front to back, water today runs up against the front of the house and, with nowhere else to go, will cause damage over time. The new drain will redirect all water flow away from and around the house. While this isn’t entirely “necessary” this will assure the driest possible foundation and crawl space which is probably the Number One best way to avoid lots of other costly issues.

What’s Been Done?

Basically, the first three items above are now complete for the rear of the house, with the other sides to be completed in conjunction with the digging for the french drain. Following are a set of captioned photos of what’s been done so far.

One thing I discovered when I got back to the house was the pile of bluestone seen here. All of this was pulled from under the back of the house – it was part of the previous foundation. While it was fairly sturdy, it was definitely not up to code, had sunk about 3/4″ causing the floor to slant, and it wasn’t “closed” so both water and critters could get into the crawl space quite easily.  So all of this was hauled out from under the house. I decided that with so much functional progress, I could take this weekend to do a little beautification work, so I decided to make a bluestone path with these stones. If I’m going to keep the shed clean (for now) having a path will help assure that I’m not walking in mud all the time and tracking it into the shed.

The path runs from the house to the shed along the same path as the electrical conduit, adding another layer of protection that no one will dig there. It then runs from the shed to the street as the shed will mostly be accessed from the street. And, well, it looks good this way! Plus, as seen here, there’s a slope to the shed and the path allowed me to make some “steps” to soften the slope. The result, seen below, isn’t a perfect path, but it’s a start and I’ll either plant some clover or pour pea gravel around the stones in the future, making the path very clean and visually appealing. Besides, it also gave my “partner” somewhere to lay down on the job where she can be nicely framed for the photo!