Carpet and Panel Removal

A couple of days ago Mike spent a good chunk of a day removing the barn siding and paneling from around the fireplace. We found that under the barn siding was contact paper and under the contact paper was this green striped paneling and under the paneling was the original brick. We also found that behind where the shelves were was a large hole that lead all the way to the basement. It has a pulley so appears to have been a dumbwaiter of sorts. We are actually planning on drywalling where it was and possibly putting in a shelving unit. We will then use the hole and build in a linen closet accessible from the hallway.

We also have ripped up a large portion of the carpet. As you can see the living room has the original hardwoods. There are also hardwoods in all the bedrooms, the upstairs hallway and the stairs. We will be finishing all of them. Exciting stuff!

Before

After panel removal Dumbwaiter area
Backside of fireplace.
This is the hallway that leads to the master bedroom, bathroom and extra room. Window at the end of the hall is in the extra room.

After removing panel. The linen closet will go on the right at the end of the hallway (before you enter the extra room).

We also finalized plans last night with our contractor for the kitchen and main bathroom. We also got two new outside doors, all our windows we are replacing and a huge dumpster ordered. Today we will be demoing the bathroom and kitchen so work in both those areas can begin! We are pretty excited to see things start going!

Landscape Removal

So here's a quick visual of the changes that have taken place outside the house. Thanks to Uncle Mike and Papa, all that was left when we arrived in town were stumps. Then Jenn's Uncle Jeff came over with his Bobcat to help us pull the stumps and re-level the driveway.

We hate to tear out trees, but they were all so overgrown they were damaging the house and buildings. We loaded all the debris and stumps into this trailer and dumped them at the local compost. This is the last of 5 loads taken. We look forward to showing you the new landscaping we'll put in next spring.

A First Look

In case you haven't heard we bought a house. After pulling in Wednesday afternoon we were eager to go and take a peek. We immediately fell in love with the amount of land that we have and all the buildings that we own. We were a bit taken back by the amount of work that needs to be done but at the same time are eager to get started and make it our own. We have decided to start this additional blog to keep everyone updated on our progress. It will also serve for a place for us to share our before and after pictures and keep record of our experience.

So here are a few of the initial picture we saw. These were all taken by my dad and they are what we based our decision on. These and of course the opinions and advise of many others.

This is a picture of the main house taken from the garage. The house is on the right and the guest house is on the left.

When you come to visit us this will be where you get to stay. This is the guest house. Hopefully this winter we will be remodeling this and it will be ready next spring .

This is the 3 car garage taken from the back door of the house. Guess we will have to buy a few vehicles to fill it (or we will just keep all our junk in there)

This is behind the garage. It is the future site of the garden!

Now for the inside...
This is the living room and the fireplace taken from the picture window.

This is the picture windows taken from the fireplace.

This is the dining room taken from one end. The built-in you see is mirrored on the other side.

This is the master bedroom taken from the door.
The open door is a walk in closet.

This is the boys room (obviously before a girls). It is upstairs and has a huge double walk through closet.This is the kitchen. We are talking about redoing the whole thing but will see how the budget holds out.
This is the main bathroom. We will be totally gutting this and actually moving it across the hallway.

So there it is. We have already started and have gotten a ton of stuff done. We will start posting before and during pictures as the remodel happens. Anytime you want to help out give us a call. We are always looking for the help!

Happy Remodeling!