6 August 2017
It's been a little while since my last post. A week long vacation to Lake Anna, VA and a fair bit of hot, stifling weather slowed things down a little bit.
We continue work on the front porch: replacing the rotted sill beam, cleaning up all the trash (natural and man made) that has ended up under the porch, and rebuilding the skirt wall.
First we cleaned up the space behind the two sets of steps. These appear to have been built after the original skirt wall and actually pushed the skirt wall over over the years. Then we poured footers and went back in with concrete block because it will be more stable and you won't see them behind the steps.
Finally we built the new support beam across the front. For now, we're going to leave this area open until we've got the primary skirt wall under the house walls done. It will be a lot easier to do with easy access from the exterior that this give us.
With the front porch handled for now, we turned our attention back to the parlor floor. We need it back in place so we can demo the first floor bathrooms. I replaced the one strip of flooring that I cut apart with some pieces from the floor in the back bedroom.
We used new square cut nails to put the flooring back down. In order to minimize damage, I used nails one size larger than the originals back into the same holes.
With the floor all back in place, I moved Amy's furniture repair project into the room. She had been working on it upstairs in a room with only one window. That's a rocker that Amy purchased at the auction from this house.
And then we hauled the claw foot tub out in to the parlor and demo'd the bathrooms.
We moved him/her to the barn then went to task busting up the old cast iron drain pipe.
It's been a little while since my last post. A week long vacation to Lake Anna, VA and a fair bit of hot, stifling weather slowed things down a little bit.
We continue work on the front porch: replacing the rotted sill beam, cleaning up all the trash (natural and man made) that has ended up under the porch, and rebuilding the skirt wall.
First we cleaned up the space behind the two sets of steps. These appear to have been built after the original skirt wall and actually pushed the skirt wall over over the years. Then we poured footers and went back in with concrete block because it will be more stable and you won't see them behind the steps.
Next we rebuilt an original brick pier that was between the two sets of steps and we believe used to be the front left corner of the original 1850's house front porch.
Then we set about rebuilding the skirt wall. We made an effort to reproduce the skipped brick venting that was in the wall. This will provide ventilation for the space under the porch. Later we will put some 1/4" screen mesh across the back of the holes.
When we removed all the porch floor and cleaned up under the porch we found a few odds and ends and a couple items of interest.
With the front porch handled for now, we turned our attention back to the parlor floor. We need it back in place so we can demo the first floor bathrooms. I replaced the one strip of flooring that I cut apart with some pieces from the floor in the back bedroom.
We used new square cut nails to put the flooring back down. In order to minimize damage, I used nails one size larger than the originals back into the same holes.
With the floor all back in place, I moved Amy's furniture repair project into the room. She had been working on it upstairs in a room with only one window. That's a rocker that Amy purchased at the auction from this house.
And then we hauled the claw foot tub out in to the parlor and demo'd the bathrooms.
We finished one day with removing the drywall and cleaning up, then came back the next day to remove all the old plumbing. It took a few minutes, but we finally noticed we had a visitor in the bathroom.
Then we removed the partition wall framing.
Then we started demolishing the floor. I want to lower the floor about 8" so it will be even with the bedroom and parlor floors. I'll have to check with our building inspector to see if the way I want to do it will get his approval.
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