Something Different

With a house like this there are opportunities to include some unique features. We both liked the idea of small French doors in place of windows in the family room. I lived in New Orleans for a time, and small doors like this were common. Luckily our very handy brother-in-law who owns a glass installation company was willing to take up the challenge.  

Remember this?  It's hard to believe that this door and window are what will become the French doors. 

We had to remove the window first and cut out the brick below. 

The new doorway. 

Putting them together. My sister is also pretty handy. 

They're in! Good view of the doors, plus a little clean up of wallpaper by grandpa. 

Our oldest is assisting in modeling the *mostly* finished product. Beautiful and unique. 

It's Getting Hot in Here!

We decided that we want to be hot and/or cold in the house whenever we feel like it.  It came down to wearing self-cooling neoprene suits all the time or installing a heating and cooling system. We figured the furnace and ductwork thing would be a better fit, and less awkward, especially for guests. 

 

Thought I'd throw a photo of the water heater and water softener in to finish off the post. 

She's a Brick House

Repairing the brick was an important part of restoring the home. Over the years, and because of settling, significant cracks had formed. The brick chimneys were very deteriorated and had to be rebuilt as well. Part of the original goal with the house was to salvage brick from the walls we removed. Once we started chipping away mortar from the salvaged brick it became apparent that the brick was too soft to save and reuse, so we found an acceptable new substitute. The result, though not perfect, was a pretty close match. 

The new and the old coming together on the chimney. 

It's Amazing What A Few Porch Posts Can Accomplish

I'm not gonna lie, I was pretty excited for this part of the project. In my mind it felt like if we could get to this point we would be able to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Beyond that we were happy to see the house finally taking shape. 

When people come to visit the house they inevitably comment on how nice it will be to sit and relax on the porches; we couldn't agree more!

First step: more concrete

The back porch is more than meets the eye. It is a suspended slab over a cold storage room.  It took nearly 90 2x4's underneath to support the weight while the concrete set!

Nice. But it gets better. 

I love the posts. They look traditional, but they're PVC, so no painting on those bad boys. 

We are really happy with the result, and we can't wait to sit out there and relax. Maybe someday. . . right now, there's a lot more work to do. 

Windows!

I really didn't think it was possible to install all the windows in one day, but we recruited lots of help and everyone worked hard. We removed all the old windows and installed nearly all the new  windows by 6:00 pm that evening.  Not too shabby for one professional and a bunch of willing volunteers. 

It's starting to look really nice!