House Remodel, Exterior Phase II

In Phase I of this remodel, our pictures showed the work that the hired crew had done in removing the old second floor and building a new second floor and new roof.  That took about two weeks with 4-5 guys working 8-10 hour days.  After that, we went to one guy (albeit a very competent one!) working 8 hr days by himself and being interrupted by animal chores, interested children, and rain, rain, rain.

It was interesting for me to see all the stages involved in tearing off old siding, installing insulation, and putting in new windows.

First, all the old siding and tar paper was torn off.  Matt did this with some help from friends who stopped by to lend a hand at demolition.

After the siding and tar paper were off, the old windows came out.  Matt cut holes for the new windows and then replaced studs and sheeting to cover holes where the old windows had been.  If only it was as quick to do as it is to write!  In the picture below, the new window holes are covered up with boards for the time being.  The new windows are actually the last thing to go in.

For awhile, we had no natural light in our bedroom save for a few small slanting rays that came through the cracks in the sheeting.

When Matt reached the porch, he discovered (as he had guessed) a lot of rotting wood.  Most of the porch walls had to be rebuilt.  This door would be replaced with a full height one that can actually open and close, rather than being spray-foamed shut.  The joys of an old farmhouse!

Working on the porch:

Matt poured a new concrete slab for the basement door.  The kids watched him mix the concrete. They didn't realize until later that he had written each child's initials in the wet concrete.  :-)

I thought I had been taking good pictures all along, but I don't seem to have a picture of this east side with the blue foam.  (If you scroll back up to the top picture in this post, you can see what the rigid insulation looks like.)

So, the process was this:
1) Remove siding and tar paper, take out old windows.
2) Cut new holes for windows, replace studs and sheeting where needed.
3) Cover in new tar paper.
4) Attach 3" of rigid foam insulation, in two layers of 1.5" sheets with staggered seams.
5) Place window bucks. (You can see these in top photo also. The windows will sit inside them.)
5) Wrap in Tyvek wrap, seal seams with tape.
6) Fasten furring strips on top of Tyvek. To these we'll attach our siding (LP Smartside).
7) Finally, install new windows!  (Let there be light...!!)

Again, if it were only as quick to do as it is to write!

Here is the east side with Tyvek and furring strips up:

It was always a thrill to get the new windows in place.  Then on to the next side.  Here is the north side with tar paper and siding removed.

Work continues on the porch.  The entire porch wall had to come out and Matt had to build a completely new one.  Matt's friend Peter put in countless hours helping this summer.  We are so grateful for his help as this project could not have happened without him.

While the guys worked outside, this is what I dealt with inside:

As holes were made in the house (in the case of our kitchen, a VERY big hole), Matt tarped things off to try keeping the dust down.  We had a dark kitchen for awhile.  The blue tarps made a pretty backdrop for the girls' wildflower bouquets though!  Nora and Clare had a fun time picking flowers for our kitchen table.

Here's Karl eating lunch with ear muffs on because Matt and Peter were using a loud framing nailer just outside the window.

When the guys got the new window box framed, we had more light in our kitchen.  And plenty of flies and moths as well.

For a few days our dining was... al fresco.  You could practically sit on the scaffolding and eat lunch off our table.  Besides the bugs, it was quite nice.  And the view was amazing.

The McGann's lumberyard truck was a frequent sight this summer. Here the truck is dropping off sheeting and blue foam insulation.

Work continued on the south side of the house.  One day we saw Karl out there with his play pliers and ear muffs, helping Peter.  You can see right through these walls into our living room.  Nothing like taking a house apart and then putting it back together.  It made our house seem... fragile.  That there really isn't that much between us and the elements.

We had a lot of this: big holes in the house where new windows would eventually be.

 From the inside, we first got a big hole, a bit of a mess, and more light as they tore out old windows.  Then the tar paper went up and it got dark.  When they put up the new window framing we got light again, and with the light, bugs.  Then the Tyvek wrap went up and we lost our light until the new windows were finally placed.

The new kitchen window spans the current bathroom and stairwell.  It will look funny for awhile.

 Telling Matt it's time for lunch:

 Here is our old playroom window:

 And here's the hole for the new one.

Matt and my brother Matt getting ready to set the new window.  When this window was set, that marked the end of the exterior work.  Windows are all in.  Tyvek is up.  Furring strips await siding that will be painted and installed next summer.  It was cause for a celebration!  We picked up some favorite ice cream the following day to celebrate.

This past Saturday, we insulated the roof.  The previous Saturday, we hung drywall on all the ceilings.  Well, I just managed the kids; Matt and my brothers hung the drywall.  And Matt and Peter blew 18" of cellulose into our ceiling cavity.

Here's a little example of just how amazing insulation is: two weeks ago, we were struggling to maintain 63 degrees during the day.  Our living room (which had a shed roof with exposed rafters - nothing to stop the heat from heading up and away) was usually 55-58 degrees.  One day Clare said, "I can't wait to get on my school bus; it'll be warm."  There were many mornings that we woke up to 59 degrees in our kitchen, the warmest room in the house.  A bit chilly, to put it mildly.

After we insulated, we have burned less wood during the day and we're easily maintaining 70-73 degrees.  It's almost too warm for our 63 degree-acclimated bodies.  What a difference insulation makes!   I went from wearing socks with crocs and four layers on top (and sometimes a hat in the evenings) to a t-shirt and bare feet!  I've been soaking up the warmth.  It's especially nice to have our living room and play room a comfortable temperature.  Those were the coldest rooms before.

Looking back at these picture to write this post makes me realize how far we've come and all that we've gone through to get here.  It's been an adventure, living through messes and bugs and cold.  But we have a goal and an absolutely wonderful, beautiful house in our minds as the end result (eventually) of all this chaos.

We had friends over the other night who are wondering whether to "tweak" their old farmhouse or go large with renovations that will be a bigger inconvenience.  This kind of remodel isn't easy.  Matt's been working long, long days since spring and there's still a log pile to be cut for this winter's wood. We haven't had a date night since who-knows-when; the evenings we spend loading wood into the basement don't count.

For me, it's been a lesson in humility to invite people over when there are big sections of dry wall missing from my living room, sections of flooring missing, wires for future switches and outlets hanging from the ceiling.  But, if you leave my house feeling better about yours, that's not such a bad thing.

Some day we'll have the house of our dreams but it'll take a lot more work to get there.  For right now, I'm content with heat and windows that both let in light and actually open and close.