INSULATION....IT'S A WRAP!

See the yellow foam between the studs?  The insulation is complete-under the floor, in the attic, and in the walls.  

 This is the "every day" living room.  Rick is going to build the mantel to look like an antique one.  The box you see above the fireplace is for the TV, and the mantel will be built around it.

I have one picture from a Knight descendant that shows just a little piece of the original mantel in this room.  It was beautiful.  All the original mantles were removed and replaced with brick surrounds at some point.  I can't wait to see the fireplaces when we put our antique mantels on them!

Tape, bed, and texture is on tap for this week.  Rick will also be putting the plywood on the outside, so siding will be going on before you know it!

TV in-just waiting on our gas logs--and cold weather.

HISTORICAL MARKER UPDATE

Next winter, we should be seeing one of these for our historical marker!!  I've spoken with the Texas Historical Commission in the last few weeks about the progress of our marker.  Once again, she said they are under-staffed because of budgets cuts, so the process has been delayed.  I told her we were trying to have the ceremony next Fall, so she checked with her superior and said that they would try to speed things up.  We might have the wording finished by the end of January for approval.  If that happens, the marker might be cast by the end of summer.  Keep your fingers crossed!

HARRY POTTER CLOSET...

That's what my kids call the closet under the stairs.  If you've read the books, you'll understand.  Riley has claimed this area for his toys.  I'm sure baby brother Jack will claim it, too!

In the picture below, you can see 100 year old wiring and new electrical boxes in one place!  I'm saving all the old insulators and a little of the cloth covered wire for displaying.

Harry Potter closets are great places for electronics and tubs of toys!

Old, cloth covered wire is hanging at the top and the blue box is for new wiring.

CHIM-CHIM-A-NEY...

Today, Rick is busy cleaning up the old brick, so we can build the chimneys.  He has to chip away all the old mortar, so the brick layers will have a clean product to work with.  The picture below shows the framing for the chimney.  It looks skinny, but once the brick is on, it will look like it's supposed to.  The brick layers will cut the face of the brick off and lay just that part on the chimneys.  They do it this way because we aren't building the entire chimney back up through house.  The only parts that will be bricked inside the house are the surrounds and the hearths.  The chimney on top of the house will be bricked with the "half" bricks so they won't weigh so much!

All four fire places have been framed and are awaiting brick.

Rick has a lot of brick cleaning to do! ;o)

SHEDDING HER SKIN

All of the original siding is now off the house.  We are saving it for future projects, like furniture, etc.  We will also use some of it inside the house as wainscoting.  In a couple of weeks, we should be insulating and putting on the new siding.  The insulation will be spray foam, sprayed on the outside and underneath of the house and in the attic.  Rick uses this type of insulation in all the houses he builds.  It is very energy efficient, and our heating and cooling costs for this big, old house will be better than most new houses that don't have this type of insulation.  It's possible that we won't even have to run both AC units at the same time!

See our new windows?

Quite a difference!

THE WRITING ON THE WALL...

Because I have truly enjoyed researching the family that built our house, I decided to make it easier for whoever owns this house a hundred years from now to research us!       (Also, because I realize now how important Federal Census information is to a researcher, I will always participate in the census in the future.)  All my immediate family members have written their names and birth dates on the dining room wall.  I also wrote that the Knights originally built the house at a cost of $4500.00, and I wrote what the house will cost once we finish the remodel.  After the sheet rock goes up, the next person who reads what we've written will, hopefully, be our descendants.  If not, whoever reads it will have a head start for their research.

Grandson Riley signing his name on the wall.

Same wall--we won't be seeing those names again but someone will many years from now!

BACK TO WORK...

Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas!  Workers are back and porches are coming along!  Here are some before and after pictures, or maybe I should say "before and during".

This is what the back porch looked like when we first saw the house. 

I like this one better!  Don't you?

Then we tore it all off so we could move the house...

 ...new porch!!

Notice the before and after pix of the upstairs.  There were four windows on the right side at one time, just like the four on the back.  The elevator will go where the  fourth window would have been.

The next picture shows the work being done on the front porch.  This is what I've been waiting for!!  Now it's beginning to look a lot like...

                                                                   its supposed to. ;o)

In the next picture, you will see the gable going up.  This is the one we took down and put in storage.

Now, it's really looking like it should!!  For a long time, until Rick started working on the roof and eaves, we couldn't tell what the gable material was.  It's concrete!  I guess that's the 1914 version of stucco.

Things are moving along nicely.  In the next couple of weeks, the siding will come off, and the plumbers, electricians, and insulators will begin working.

A NEW PROFESSION?...

We've saved the glass from the original windows, and Rick has been making stained glass for the transoms and other decorative items.  There will be one of these in each corner of the openings in the music room.  This is the first piece of stained glass that he has ever made.  It turned out beautifully!  Once it's cleaned up and put in the frame (which he also made!), it will be ready to hang. 

Rick's handiwork!!  Beautiful!

We bought these at an auction.