Farmhouse Renovation Update: Framing and More Demolition

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 It has been a couple of weeks so I thought that I'd share a few progress photos from around the farmhouse.  Fortunately, the weather stayed unseasonably warm until about 72 hours ago so the framers were able to get the floor deck on the additions and the walls framed and sheeted before it turned bitter cold this week.  The photo above and the two photos below were taken over three days looking out of what used to be my bedroom window facing east toward the front of the house. 


The "front addition" will contain my new studio, the two guest bedrooms, and a full bathroom. The framing took a total of three days.  The roof still isn't on because I will be cutting all of the exposed rafter tails myself and the lumber hasn't come yet. Yes, I have control issues and I want the rafter tails to have a pattern on them...is that wrong?


I have to admit that it's really fun to be able to walk around the new spaces instead of just imagining how they will feel. I was worried that the bedrooms wouldn't be large enough (which they are) and I found out that the closet in the studio is much larger than I expected. The two photos below show the addition as it looks from the front yard. The first is standing at the south east corner of the yard and the second is taken standing in the middle of the front.






The room all the way at the front end of the addition is my new studio. It will have a wall of glass doors facing north and two windows facing east. I love north light for painting and since morning is my favorite time of day, the east side seemed to be the perfect place for the space where I'll spend most of my time. There will also  be a little covered patio on the north side of the studio which will face the new berm that I put in last summer and provide a shady space to have coffee on summer mornings..



In the mean time, we finally moved out of the house last Friday. When they broke through the wall into the bedroom while I was packing, I decided that we weren't going to be able to wait until Sunday as I had originally planned. 

I'll admit that having three adults and a 72 lb yellow lab living in about 300 square feet for 48 hours was an interesting experience but my youngest went back to college on Saturday so things are settling down.  

When I stopped by during my lunch hour from work on Monday to finish loading our second POD with the last few boxes, I found that the guys had made quick work of removing the hardwood floors. They smiled when I told them that taking out the dining room floor took us four days (I'm glad that they didn't laugh right out loud).   I'm so glad that we hired this part to be done by someone else!


The photos above show the two former bedrooms which will become my new kitchen and breakfast room. The plywood wall above is temporary to keep the heat in the building while allowing them to connect the "front addition" to the house.


When it is finished, there will be a hall off of the south end of  the kitchen which will connect the guest wing and studio addition to the common areas of the house. I set it up this way so that guests or our adult sons who may come to visit will have privacy. This arrangement would work well for an "inlaw" apartment should the need arise.

The hallway, closets, and the third original bedroom in the photo above will become the new hearth/family room. The hardwood flooring in those areas had to be as well because it was original to the house in 1950 and had been sanded to the point that there wasn't enough wood left to sand again.

The photo below was taken last night. I am standing with my back to the window where my kitchen sink will be located looking toward the front door at my new kitchen and breakfast room. The kitchen table and banquette will go next to the windows on the right..  The closets on the left will be removed and the space will become a part of the kitchen with an entry into the hearth room,  My new island will be located approximately where the electric outlet is in the center of the room.


In some areas of the house, there were two layers of hardwood flooring that had been installed on top of each other with tar paper as a moisture barrier. All of that was removed and new barrier, underlayment, and hardwood floor will be installed throughout the house to match what we had installed in the dining room and to provide a more allergy friendly environment. Another added benefit of removing the multiple layers of flooring is that our ceiling height is taller by over an inch!


The photos above and below show the smaller of the two additions that is going on the back of the house between the old kitchen and the garage.  It will have a hall to the garage and the new master bathroom. The photo below shows the window that used to be above my kitchen sink. On the right is where the new hallway will be.


These are where the windows in the hall will be. There will also be windows in the bathroom so that we can "borrow" the light from the hall since that bathroom is on an interior wall and would otherwise have no access to natural light .


Finally, today's project: the existing "breezeway" will be deconstructed and rebuilt to become the new master bedroom closet. In the photo below, the new back addition is along the entire left side of that room behind the silding glass doors.

I'm still undecided about whether or not to try to save the exposed brick in the closet. I do love the way that it looks but because it's the wall of the unheated garage on the other side, that wall is  very  cold in the winter so I may have to give in and have it insulated.  Stay tuned to see what I decide..


This part of the construction feels like it's going really quickly and it's so much fun to see progress being made by people other than us! The POD is leaving Thursday or Friday and the first dumpster is full but I was able to sell the existing kitchen cabinets, granite, and refrigerator and donated the oven and dishwasher as well as all of the interior doors so I was able to keep all of that material out of the landfill!. 

I have been working on choosing plumbing fixtures and trying to find interior doors. More updates in a week or two. The weather is bitter cold so I won't be cutting rafters for a few days but I'll show you that process when it happens.

Thanks for reading!