Concrete is More Complicated than it Looks

This week the rebuilding began in earnest. On Monday and Tuesday Ryan built the forms for the basement knee-wall, a reinforcing wall that would be poured to butt up against the foundation all the way around the perimeter.

Mike and Marcia (you probably know them as Ryan's parent's by now) arrived on Tuesday evening. On Wednesday, Ryan and Mike continued to work on the forms, reinforcing them. With plenty of pruning to be done in the backyard, Marcia joined in on the work. When I stopped by on Wednesday afternoon, the backyard already looked bigger, the group had really gotten into the landscaping, going so far as to take the reciprocating saw (better known as the sawzall) to the mulberry tree.

The reason for the visit and the big work for this past week was Thursday's project: pour the slab for the back addition and the knee-wall for the basement. Marcia went to work on the pruning once again and Ryan and Mike spent the morning making sure everything was ready for concrete. The first truck was scheduled for 11:30am, the second for an hour after the first truck had left the company's yard. The first truck arrived right on time full of 4000 slab mix with fifteen percent fly ash and along with the driver, the two attached the tube which the cement was to flow out of. It was not until the three-inch tube was clogged that Ryan and Mike discovered that the incorrect size of stone, 2B instead of 1B had been used in the mixture. Turns out that 1B is the standard in most places for slabs, so Ryan had just ordered a slab mix and assumed that that would be the size of the stone, but here in Lewisburg, 2B is standard for slabs. The problem with using the 2B is that it must flow through a four inch instead of a three-inch tube. That translates to a much heavier load and is cumbersome to work with. With the help of the driver, they managed with the four-inch for the first truck, but corrected the problem with the second truck and were able to use 1B through a three inch tube to finish the job.

The tube problems were not the only ones that day. The forms Ryan built for the slab and the knee-wall were the first for him and the ones in the back held up nicely. He missed the mark, just barely on the ones he built in the basement and one of the larger ones did not hold up to the cement. As a result, concrete sprayed onto the floor of the basement, making a mess and hurting Ryan's ego more than it probably hurt the project. He certainly learned from his mistakes and luckily there are more forms to be made on this project, so more practice to be had.

Despite the mix mix-up and the stability trouble with the forms, the day ended earlier than expected and all seemed satisfied with the final outcome. I had a busy week at work last week and I wasn't able to be at the house for any of the cement pouring, so on our way out to dinner on Thursday night we stopped by the house. The moonlight was shining brightly on the already firmed-up concrete in the back. Ryan said it was probably already strong enough to hold my weight, but we didn't test his theory. The slab looked smooth and level and standing there in the early night, the wind finally calm after a blustery day, I could really start to see the back room taking shape. The floor was now close to being done as we plan to maintain the concrete in the back room, finishing it off through an acid etching process. The look will be modern and clean, but with the radiant heat just beneath the surface, it will also be warm and cozy.

On Friday morning, Mike and Ryan took the forms off the back since the slab had set and did some general clean up. After a satisfying end to the week, Mike and Marcia headed home and Ryan followed for the weekend. Tomorrow, Monday, will be devoted to organization and research. Next up after that is probably more clean up and reorganization at the house and down the line a bit is the reconstruction of the floor joists in the house from the basement up.

New pictures from this past week are be up in our linked gallery.

Just Moving Some Dirt Around

Well, I do apologize to those who have been checking for new posts, as my regular pattern has been to post on Sundays. It's going to be a big week at work, so I figure I better get you all updated while I have a minute this evening.

I got a lot of responses about the recipe book, both from members of the Johnson family speculating and then confirming its origin as well as from my friends and family expressing excitement over such a find. Ed, one of the Johnson brothers has identified the book as his mother's. Turns out that Aunt Lizzie was one of her aunts who actually lived a street over on Third. Dale stopped by at the house again to drop off some more great pictures for Ryan and he explained that there had been some shelving in the kitchen that his mom kept recipe books on and this small book must have fallen down when the kitchen was rearranged and construction started on the back addition.

The past week was a big one for the basement. If you check out the rest of the photos in our gallery you'll see. Ryan spent quite a few days digging and leveling dirt last week. The basement looks so much larger and tidier even though it is still just dirt. At first he dug down so that the height of both the front and back basement rooms were almost seven feet, a usable space. If you recall, previously the dirt basement only housed the mechanics of the house and one would have to crouch when walking around. At this point it will be a nice dry space for the mechanics as well as storage once the concrete slab is poured. The movement of the basement dirt is the interesting part of the story. The preparations that we did last week for the pouring of the back addition slab were still waiting on about two feet of dirt, so up went the dirt from the basement into the back addition. Ryan constructed a ramp that he planned to push a wheel barrow up full of dirt from the basement to the addition. When this ramp proved too steep with a full wheel barrow, the plan turned to hoisting buckets of the heavy clay soil up from the basement to the back addition. By the way, if this work sounds grueling, it is. Ryan, although a very active athlete before the project, has lost five to seven pounds in the last month of physical labor on the house project! By Wednesday afternoon the basement was cleared out and leveled, but then a hitch...the back addition was not filled. As if not enough dirt had been dug, Ryan ended up having to dig down even deeper in the back part of the basement in order to provide enough dirt for the addition.

The basement was finally cleared and leveled off and the back addition was full. We had a few days of rain last week so some of the outside work preparing the addition went slowly, but it is now fully prepared and ready for the concrete pour this Wednesday when Ryan's dad Mike comes down again to lend a hand. Despite the rain he managed to put down a sheet of vapor barrier and a layer of insulation. Ryan put in 1/2" diameter steel rebar horizontally around the footings that will help stabilize the concrete. On top of the vapor barrier and insulation layers Ryan put down a layer of reinforcement mesh which will also help to stabilize the concrete slab. Apparently the mesh sometimes comes in sheets and is fairly easy to work with, but around here, I found out, that they only sell it in rolls. I managed to stop by the house after work one day at just the time Ryan started battling the huge roll of mesh. This stuff really has a mind of it's own It's about five feet tall and rusty with jagged edges. We finally tamed it enough to cut it into sheets, flatten each curling sheet of vicious metal and lay it flat on top of the insulation.

After writing it down, it doesn't sound like as much got done last week as in previous weeks, but in fact Ryan says it was the toughest, physically, so far and will probably hold the record over the duration of project. The current dumpster has only been out there for a week, but compared to pace we were going through them at first, it feels like forever. Really, though, most of the demolition is done, probably almost ninety percent. What's left is the side porch, which will also be rebuilt at some point. Besides that, nothing else, including exterior brick on the second floor which is getting bumped out for some more upstairs space, can be taken apart without being reinforced first. This week will be filled with pouring the concrete slabs for the basement and back addition and keeping our fingers crossed that it doesn't dip below freezing here on Wednesday and Thursday nights after the concrete is poured.

Ryan and I spent yesterday working on the layout. I think we pretty much finished the entire house, even placing appliances in the kitchen and bathrooms and closets upstairs. I hope to be able shrink our drawings, scan them and let you in on the plans soon. In other exciting house news, we just discovered a number of construction and building supply warehouses that sell reclaimed parts and materials that we hope to visit soon. This could be a good find for both our green plan as well as our budget!

And finally, in the work clothes department, as I update the blog, Ryan tames his manly side by countering it with a domestic moment. He is currently lengthening the straps on his work overalls by sewing in elastic extensions to accommodate is 6'5" frame. Who knew he was so multi-talented...I'm sure once the renovations are complete he will be moving onto the upholstery and the window treatments while I continue to help when I can, but mostly just document the process.

Facts and Figures

Items of Note:

I was going to wait for more items before posting again, but built into the extension of the chimney that was added to the back of the house in the 30's, Ryan found a small 3x5" recipe book. No way to tell when it dates from or why it was built into the chimney. I can't imagine that it would have been hidden there on purpose, but also can't think how it would have ended up in the pile of bricks and mortar... There are some great looking treats, mostly baked goods, often credited to a certain person as in the case of "Aunt Lizzie's Meal Cakes." Does this ring a bell with any readers out there? There are some good recipes in the book and it's surprisingly intact.

More Great History and Corrections

I got an exciting email this morning from Peggy, daughter of Dick, niece of Dale, and granddaughter of the Johnson's who bought the Zeller House in the 1930's. I am pleased that Peggy corrected some of the family names and relationships that I posted earlier. I would really like to get all the history right, so please don't hesitate to let me know when I am off, thanks Peggy! The Johnson's were Joe, which I had correct, and Kitty, not Betty, which was short for Mary Kathleen. Remember Fred? He bought the house numbers and mailbox at our garage sale, because he was married in the Zeller House living room in 1972 to Dale's daughter Trish. Peggy also included a number of great photos of the Johnson's and the Zeller House through the years. This photo is of the back/side porch on the house before it was enclosed. This photo shows Marian, Peggy's mother and wife of Dick, one of the Johnson brothers. Kitty can be seen in the doorway on the right side of the photo.

Also, Peggy has a blog of her own (pjsplanet.blogspot.com) and I was excited to see that we got a mention and a link, check it out:

My grandparents lived in a Federal-style house in Lewisburg, Pa. All the kids and grandkids loved the house; we'd imagine ourselves in the miniature cabins Pa-Pa built around the fish pond; we'd toddle down to the kitchen each morning, summoned by the aroma of cantaloupe and toast; we'd laugh at Nana bustling around the dining room table, never content to sit down and enjoy what she had prepared until all her family was taken care of. It was home.

After my grandparents died, the house changed hands a couple times. The subsequent owners had big dreams for remodeling -- but no real plans -- and the house fell into disrepair.

Until recently.

A young couple just bought the house and they're documenting their remodeling on a blog (see the last entry of my blogroll). They're planning to use green materials and methods to bring the home back to life. I love everything about that. Not only is it a blending of the old and new, it's responsible, and it's... well, just the right thing to do.

It doesn't matter to me if they cover the entire place in baby-poop-brown shag carpeting and hang disco balls and black velvet Elvis paintings in every room -- the house has a heart again, and once again, it's home.

Inch by Inch and Brick by Brick

Well, looks as though it has been another week again. I really need to quit my job and start blogging full time! It really is addictive, I had no idea what I was getting into when I decided to start the blog.

The majority of the work this week was focused around rebuilding the back addition that Ryan and his dad took down. I have observed that demolition can be quick work compared to building. The original foundation, just an outline of cinder blocks and brick, is mostly still intact, since there is no reason that take it out. However, the original measurements and leveling that were done, or not done, left little direction for the new back structure. Ryan spent the week insulating the area around where the concrete slab will be poured. Once he finished with this, he moved back inside until the weekend, when I would be able to lend a hand. I arrived at the house on Wednesday morning on my way to work to find Ryan sitting IN the back chimney, probably somewhere halfway up the second floor wall (it's hard to tell now, since there are no floors or ceilings in the area to divide the levels). He proceeded to take down the chimney on the inside, brick by brick, lowering himself as he went. That back fireplace along with all the others in the house is no longer functioning. Dale even mentioned to us that they weren't during his childhood. We will be rebuilding the original addition on the back of the first floor, but making it two-stories this time. So, the chimney had to come out, because we will be pushing the back of the second floor out as well as opening up the space between what was most recently the kitchen and the back addition. We are saving the very bottom, the hearth area as I may have mentioned earlier. I know it's tough to picture all of this as I write about it, but we're going to lower the hearth by taking out some of the brick, then drop the large beam that is across it back down on top. We plan to incorporate this as a peninsula in the kitchen that includes cabinetry and appliances on the kitchen side and an eating area on the back addition side, which we envision as a den or family room type of area.

After taking care of the chimney, which didn't take long as most of the brick in house is in need of re-pointing and therefore easily removed, Ryan took out the last floor existing in the back of the house, the kitchen floor and the stairs from the first to the second floor. Remember, we are saving all of the wide-plank pine to be refinished and put back in later on in the process. The visual affect of removing the floor is pretty extreme. When you walk through the front door, you can walk only to the back of the large front room, then you are met with three and a half stories of open house, no floors, ceilings or interior walls.

With the kitchen flooring removed, Ryan was able to build a ramp from the basement up through the open back of the house. He will continue to dig out the basement so it is deep enough to pour a concrete slab. The ramp will allow him to walk a wheel-barrow up from the basement into the area where the addition will be rebuilt. The dirt that comes out of the basement will be used to fill the area underneath where the concrete slab will be, about sixteen inches deep in a sixteen by sixteen area.

You can bet the brick from the chimney left us ready for another dumpster. We did some investigating, trying to find somewhere that would take old brick and reuse or recycle it, but had no luck in the area. If anyone out there knows of a local place, please let us know, there will certainly be more where that came from. The bill on that dumpster full of brick is going to be a good one, I'll be sure to let you know.

I must confess that I convinced Ryan to take Friday off and get some more layout planning done on the house. The confession is that I really just needed him to help me on my 20 mile training run. I'm running the New York City Marathon in just a few weeks and Friday was my last long run. Here in Lewisburg, Friday was our first frigid day of the fall starting out below freezing, so Ryan agreed, even after a hard week of work, to meet me for my last eight miles. Ryan's a great athlete and not a bad runner, but he doesn't love it like I do, so I know it was tough, thanks! I think Friday off was time well spent, though, the layout is really shaping up. We have decided on the location of the stairs from the first to the second floor, which pretty much affects the layout of both those floors. When it's all done, we'll try to scan it in and post it.

Anyway, the house stayed closed on Friday, but Ryan was back at work Saturday while I was away with my team at a regatta in Philadelphia. Sunday was another brisk morning, so we strapped on our quilted Carhartt overalls, yes we both have some (I got mine first, a few years ago), and headed over to the house. I must admit that it was my worst day of work so far. It had been a long week and I was tired. I know that I was not the most cheery of helpers, but I think we got done what we needed to. Rather than a day of hard labor, which is all I have known of the project so far, we spent the better part of the day measuring and leveling the area of the back addition and installing the forms (wood wall-like structures that confine the concrete footings and slab to the correct areas). Good thing Ryan was there, because geometry was involved and I'm sure my Mom remembers how good I was at it then! We pulled layout lines to measure for squareness and then once we had a perfectly square outline of where our forms were to go we set our forms in the square layout at the proper height using a laser transit (a surveyors tool for setting level heights at different grades) as well as levels just to double check. That description might sound brief, but this step is so important, because everything about the structure of what goes on top depends on the accuracy of the measurements made for the foundation. We spent the day measuring, measuring some more, and measuring again. In the end Ryan was very happy with our accuracy and to have finished the four-handed work while I was available.

What lies ahead this week is simply transferring dirt. The dirt from the basement will be loosened, heaped into wheel barrow and moved up the ramp to the back addition. If Ryan can finish that work this week, the concrete pour for the addition will be in the plans for the last week of October.

Be sure to check out the link to our photo gallery, lots more good pics up from this past week.

The Back Addition: Gone! (for now)

First of all, I apologize for the delay in posting recently, it has been a very busy week at work for me and I just haven't had the time to sit down and collect my thoughts until today. I've also been thinking about broadening the scope of the posts a bit. I had some suggestions from an avid reader of the blog and so I am going to be offering some more diverse information on the project. Some of this may not be of interest to everyone, so feel free to pick and choose what you read. I also want to welcome new readers. I know that the audience is growing and we appreciate your interest in the project. We are especially excited to be in contact with Dale Johnson who grew up in the house and who still lives in town. He has been very supportive and offered lots of great information. I know Dale has informed his friends and family about the blog and we're glad you will all be joining us. The more information about the house the better, so please don't hesitate to use the "Comments" link at the bottom of each post or to email me directly at: khstrum@yahoo.com. I have yet to meet you Dale, but I hope we will cross paths at the house sometime soon!

Another important matter is a big "THANK YOU!" that goes out to Mike Champagne, Ryan's dad, who has generously given so much of his time already to the project. As you know from my last post, he made the trip down from Saratoga, NY for the second time and spent the good part of this past working on the basement and demolishing the back addition. Mike, your assistance is invaluable and it's great to see you more often that we usually do!

Now to progress made this week. When I last posted Mike and Ryan had gutted the basement and begun the arduous task of digging out the wet, moldy basement to prepare it for a cement pouring. When they needed a break from that work they took out the floor and ceiling between the first and second floors, allowing a view from the ground floor all the way up to the attic in the back of the house.

Since we'd like Mike to come back again and help and we just like him in general, Ryan decided that although back-breaking, the basement digging is a job that can be done alone. With a day and half left of his visit, the pair started work on demolishing the back addition, a job that called for two. As much as the inside demolition really has changed the way the house looks and the way we picture its possibilities, removing the entire back of the house seems to be the biggest visual change to this point. Because the addition was in such bad shape, it only took a full day on Thursday to take it down. I wasn't there to see it all happen, but according to Ryan the process went like this. First, they peeled back the tin roof, removed the roof decking, and cut the roof supports. Next, they cut the outside supports and dropped the roof down. With just the unstable walls left up, they began to slowly take apart the walls and then came the most scientific part of the whole process. Once you get to the big pieces, as Ryan describes it, "You just push them down and run like hell!" Rudy, the faithful black lab, was banished to the truck during much of this day (see the photo album) since he seemed to prefer running towards the falling walls rather than away. Rudy is the sweetest dog you'll ever meet, but not one of the brightest! He has an unwavering loyalty to Mike and almost an unhealthy attachment. Ryan and I love having Rudy stay with us, but after two sleepless nights with him early in the week, we let him stay with Mike so we could all get some rest. Rudy also likes the familiar. Although he was excited to be "on the job" (he goes to work with Mike everyday), he was confused and feeling a little out of his element in Lewisburg and let us knew how he felt about the house project by opening the day on Tuesday with a "present" right in the middle of the living room!! Wednesday he was trying to be a good dog, but got a little confused again, understandable since the basement is a dirt floor, and left another surprise down there. Despite his antics, Rudy is the most lovable dog and he always has an open invitation.

Judging from their appetites and chatter at dinner on Thursday night, the day was a tough but rewarding one. Mike had a half day left on Friday and so I stopped by to say goodbye in the morning on the way back from my morning run. The addition was definitely gone. All that remains now is the cinderblock foundation that outlines where the room was. Ryan and Mike worked on digging out and leveling off the dirt floor, which will be getting concrete just like the basement before the rebuilding begins.

This past week we had some new and old visitors. I think I've already said this, but meeting people in town has been the most exciting and rewarding part of the project so far. Everyone we have met is grateful that someone is finally going to restore the Zeller House to the condition it deserves and have been so forthcoming with pictures and stories about he place's history. This week Mike had the pleasure of meeting Dale on Wednesday as I posted last time. Also stopping by this week are a couple who restored one of the buildings with a storefront on the main street in town, Market St. They live in Lewisburg during the school year were interested to check out our project. Not new visitors, but ones we haven't mentioned yet are our neighbors to the right, Bonnie and Art. Both are retired and very friendly. As we spend more time at the house we learn more about them. This week Art stopped by before lunch on Thursday to chat with a glass of wine in hand, ah retirement! In the afternoons this week Mike and Ryan were treated to some great blues, both guitar and vocals courtesy of art and the open window in his second-floor music room. Greg, our neighbor to the left who works weekends on his own place also stops by frequently. He was nice enough to give us a tour of his house a few weeks back. Another new face this week was PJ, a young builder himself who owns a business in town. PJ is also working on sustainable building and remodeling, so he's a great contact to have. He and Ryan may get together on some work in the future. And last, not a visitor to the house, but we met Peggy, a relative of Dale's through a comment on our blog. It was great to hear from her and she adds yet more fuel to the fire on the question surrounding the actual birthdate of the Zeller House. Peggy included some great info. She told us that at one point our house was featured as the "House of the Week" in the local paper and at that time the build date was listed as 1828. In case you're keeping track: We originally thought the house as built in 1855, Dale brought by a real-estate info sheet from 1990 that listed the date as 1825 and now Peggy has brought to our attention yet a third possibility, 1828. The plot thickens!

So what's up next? The plan for the next few weeks involves finishing digging out and leveling the basement and the back addition. Ryan then plans to dig footings (creating holes for the supports beneath the concrete slab) for the back addition so it is ready for a concrete slab to be poured. He'll be laying radiant tube piping for both the back addition and basement. As I said before, we won't be finishing the basement, but it is a good idea to heat the basement to maintain a low moisture-level and therefore create a healthier environment in the home and avoid the major mold build-up that is currently a problem in the house. Speaking of the mold, Ryan will also be spraying the entire house to kill the mold that has been growing for years. With the rapid pace of work up to this point Ryan sat down today to draw a plan of the existing layout so that we can start to play around with the possibilities.

Be sure to check our picture gallery, (link on the side of the blog) there are tons of new photos up.

KEEP READING! This isn't the only new post. Below are two new sections that I'll be addressing every so often. Let us know if you enjoy them.

Greening The House

Another new section that I think will be important to update is the green philosophy that we are working with. At this point in time green building is a relatively new principal, certainly more common than ever before, but not at all mainstream yet. We feel that it is really the only way to go about construction from this point forward given the abuse that our environment and natural resources have suffered. Green building encompasses a wide range of principles and applications. As much as we would love to do it all in our first house, we know that we have limitations for a variety of reasons and so our plan is to do the best we can and continue to upgrade our green practices as we learn more and as situations allow us to do so. For example, it would be great to use solar heating, but because we are in a historic district we cannot put panels on the front of the roof which is the east facing side of the house, where they would need to go to attract enough light. Not to mention that we're on a budget and they don't come cheap, which is another issue that we face. The West Coast of this country is way ahead of the rest of the country in green and sustainable building and there are many grants available to subsidize the cost of some of the newer green technologies that make it more possible to implement them. The largest obstacle is that we are renovating an old house, not building a new one, so we can certainly make the most of energy efficiency and use green materials for the additions and interior renovations, but thee are limitations when you are working with such an old base. Much of what will be green about our work is our preservation of what already exists and because our labor is free we have the time to work with much of the old wood and use it new ways. We also try to think practically about what this town is ready for, what is really marketable. If no one wants to buy the house and carry-on with green practices, then nothing has been gained.

So far, we've recycled our metals and saved a bunch of wood. The wood that has been saved is in the form of large beams, both pine and douglas fir that Ryan will be able to re-mill into who knows what. We will be re-using all of the 1" wide-plank pine flooring and two twelve-light (glass panels) french doors. Ryan has saved five identical two-vertical flat panel doors that will likely be made into pocket doors around the house with the idea of saving space and maximizing our 1700 sq. ft. Another saved door is the old garage door that moves side to side on a track. We hope to bring it inside the house and use it to make the layout flexible and changeable in the downstairs.

Many of the materials we plan to bring in either come from sustainable sources or are made of recycled materials themselves. We are constantly researching and hunting for better products, so don't hesitate to contact us if you know of a great new product out there. I will be updating readers on this issue regularly as we actually start bringing new materials into the picture.

Fun Facts and Figures

This is one section that I'm experimenting with at the request of the reader. It's hard to think back to all the interesting facts info we have learned or experienced so far, but here are a few fun facts and figures from the project so far.


Dumpsters:
We've gone through six dumpsters so far courtesy of Frey's Disposal, and we're working on our seventh. Apparently to anyone who knows anything about dumpster capacity and use (not me) that's quite a few. As I've recently learned a roll-off (another term for a dumpster) is twelve cubic yards. It costs us $100 to get one dropped off and then when they get picked up and weighed we are charged $45/ton. The bill so far(just for the first four): $893. If you do some quick math that means we've hauled 13.7 tons of debris out of the house!

Recycling:
Believe it or not, that's not all of what we've pulled out of the house. Ryan and Mike brought all the metals that have been taken out so far to Price's Salvage and Recycling last week. Copper is really what's worth separating, because it can be used again in more ways than general scrap metal. For our dirty copper (copper that hasn't yet been stripped of any fittings that may be made of other metals) the going rate is $2.25/lb (apparently very high) and Ryan made it out with $175 for the copper, which means he went in with almost 78lbs of copper. For the mix of other metals that came out of the house the pay-off is $40/ton, we got $15 back for that.

Paperwork:
Outside of the physical labor there's not only planning to be done, but permits to be obtained. Because Lewisburg is classified as a historic district, all renovations must maintain historic integrity on the street facing side of the house. We filed for the historic permit last week and we must appear at the meeting of this historical board this Tuesday evening to present the work we plan to do so that we can get their approval to go ahead. Luckily, the idea of preserving the exterior of the house is exactly our plan, so this part of the process should go well. In conjunction with the historical permit we have to file for a zoning permit, even though we don't plan to change the existing footprint of the house. Lastly, we just need a basic building permit for the work we are doing as a whole. Although none of these should present a problem, it will be nice to have what we need so that there are no holdups in the work.

Skilled-Labor:
As far as any tips or instruction on what has been done so far, most of it has really been grunt-work. Of course Ryan has supervised, but when I have been around he has pretty much just handed me a hammer or a shovel or a crow-bar and given me free-reign. Some of the specifics of labeling the "hot" (active) wires and taking out the dead ones has certainly taken some more skill, but I hope to keep readers informed of some of the more skilled work that is up and coming.

Items of Note:
Last but not least, we like to keep track of anything interesting we find as we go through the house. So far two things of note. One, a barely readable postcard found in one of the fireplaces with a postmark from 1898. It seems to be a short note and recipe, but we can't decipher who it was written to or who wrote it and where they sent it from. The only other item of interest is a large, long, fully intact snake-skin that was hanging from the ceiling of the back addition. Hard to tell how long it has been there, but we're hoping it's the only one we find!

The Work Moves Underground

Mike, Ryan's Dad and his faithful black lab Rudy arrived in Lewisburg Monday afternoon to tackle the hardest, dirtiest job thus far, the basement. Besides the now decrepit 1000 gallon oil storage tank, the coal burning furnace and many rotten sewer pipes, the basement remains exactly as it was first constructed in 1855, or was it 1825?? More on that later. Anyway, the foundation walls are constructed of 18" blue stone and the floor is dirt. When it was first excavated the height was probably less than six feet, but at some point in the early 90's one of the last two owners started to drop the floor. The basement is currently about seven feet deep in many places and our plan is to finish the job, pour a concrete floor and secure the basement as a sealed, relatively dry place for storage. Lewisburg is in a flood zone, so finishing the basement is not in the plan, but it certainly needs to be upgraded so that it can continue to be a good support for the rest of the house. All things considered, though, the basement is in very good shape structurally.

Before the digging could begin, the useless mechanical pieces of the house had to be removed. On Tuesday, Mike and Ryan made quick work of all that junk, cutting it loose, cutting it up, and hauling it up the stairs. Wednesday morning took the pair to the scrap/recycling yard separating the metal into brass, copper, and scrap. With the contents of the basement out of the way the digging began in earnest on Wednesday afternoon. Ryan doesn't have much good to say about the digging, just that it's back-breaking work and he'll be glad when it's done!

On Wednesday afternoon Dale Johnson, who grew up in the house from 1933 on and still lives in town, stopped by again. Ryan met him a few weeks ago, but this time he and Mike and Ryan were able to chat. As per our request Dale brought over some photos of the house from his childhood. I haven't had a chance to see them all yet, but we hope to be able to photocopy some to have better records of the way the house looked in its prime. Ryan did bring home a beautiful, almost haunting copy of a picture of Dale's mother Betty, sweeping the sidewalk in front of the house. The porch, which the Johnson's had removed in lieu of the bay window in 1936, is in the background of the picture that depicts the front of the house. Dale also gave Ryan a copy of the real estate information sheet that was put together when he put the house on the market in 1990. The most interesting item on the work-up is the birthdate for the house. Up to this point, the documentation we have found lists 1855 as the date the house was built, so we have a contradiction on our hands. You can be sure we will begin looking into this and get an update out once we have some more information.

To my surprise, I learned this evening that tomorrow will not consist of digging all day. I don't know what's so rough about digging through clay for 8-10 hours a day, but apparently Mike and Ryan plan to break up the basement work tomorrow by taking out the floor between the first and second floor in the back part of the house and completely taking down the back addition that has stood, although not very well lately, since 1936. The pictures of the basement are up and are pretty cool to look at but definitely check back for more pictures as the structure and layout really start to look different.

With A Little Help From Our Friends

During the week of September 25th Ryan continued to work on gutting the house. We had finished most of the second floor by the end of the first weekend, so he finished up the second floor and moved downstairs. The last thing to go on the second floor was the false floor in the back bedroom, part of the 1936 addition. Ryan noticed that the floor in the addition on the second floor was not wide-plank pine like the rest of the house and that the kitchen ceiling below was a few feet lower than the front room's, so he started to pull up the floor and discovered wide-plank pine that was in even better condition than the flooring in the rest of the house. It's hard to picture if you haven't spent some time in the house, but Ryan figured out that the back room was only partially an addition. Once he had all the plaster off the walls, you could see where brick was added onto what had originally been the slope on the back of the house where the roof sat. So, the back bedroom that had at first appeared to be entirely an addition, had originally been the attic which is why the floors were original to the house. With the bathroom gone and the space on the second floor rear of the house opened up both horizontally and vertically, we have begun to picture the location for a possible master bedroom suite. Eventually, we plan to lower the ceiling above that room, now that we have lowered the floor, and loft the attic above for extra space in the master bedroom suite.

By Tuesday afternoon the second floor was completely gutted. On Wednesday Ryan moved to the first floor. The back addition and most of the kitchen was gutted when we bought the house, so Ryan finished clearing out both. When he removed the kitchen Ryan found a fifth fireplace. It was massive, much larger than the two on the first floor and those directly above them. The one behind the kitchen is more like a hearth. It's huge, with a beam accross the top that is probably larger than 8" square and 6' long. Although it is too damaged to be restored as a working fireplace, we plan to incorporate it decoratively into the design of the kitchen. Later in the week Ryan tore out all the wiring on the first floor and made his way down to the dirt basement to do the same.

We had been holding onto the full, never-been-used kitchen installed in the early 90's, hoping to make a few extra bucks to put into the house. Finally, on Friday afternoon we found a taker. We added almost $750 to the budget and finally the house was cleared.

As the week drew to a close, we looked forward to the arrival of two of our closest friends from college, Mark and Kate. They live in Boston and we recruited them for the first of many work weekends that we have our friends lined up for.

Mark and Kate T. arrived on Friday afternooon and were in our apartment with Ryan when I arrived home from work. We took a quick tour through the house and headed out to dinner. I had to work on Saturday morning and by the time I arrived at the house around lunchtime there was no doubt that hard work had been going on all morning. The project for the weekend was to finish the gutting of the house with the biggest room, the front room on the first floor; walls and ceiling. When I arrived, they broke for lunch. That afternoon we finished stripping the walls, dropping the ceiling and even more time-consuming, cleaning it all up. By the end of the day on Saturday, the house was gutted, dumpster number four was full, and four friends were tired and ready for dinner and few drinks. Mark and Kate T. had to leave on Sunday morning, so we took a stroll around town and walked past the house one more time. They had so much fun that they have already signed up for more weekends! So far, one of the best things about our house project has been a good reason to have friends and family visit and help out. With our busy schedules and various locations over the last few years we haven't kept up with friends and family as much as we would have liked, so we hope to make up for some of that this year if you are willing to work for pizza and beer.

Ryan and I can't believe we are only two weeks into the project. He is ahead of schedule, so even though we know there are sure to be obstacles to come, so far so good. Ryan's dad Mike is already proving to be unbelievable generous with his time and knowledge. He arrives for most of the week tomorrow, Monday night, to help Ryan tackle the basement.

*We've finally posted our pictures of the pre-con and demo phases. Check them out at: www.KStrum.photosite.com or just click on the link on the side of our blog under "Links."