Friday, February 03, 2006
Finding ways to procrastinate
Normally I would have posted a remodeling update Sunday night, but there really is only so much you can say about putting up sheetrock. . . We almost got it all up in the living room, and should be able to get the last few pieces up on Sunday. Hubby started working full time now, and will be Sundays, and ever other Saturday. Later today, I’ll start taping the seams, and then for the next two weeks the remodel update will consist of “Sanded walls, wiped them down and put up more mud”
I’m kind of particular, so I plan on putting three layers on all seams, maybe four or more in problem areas. I don’t know how the “experts” do it; I’ve learned my methods by trial and error – and watching my FIL really make a mess of things.
Our first experience with sheetrock was finishing the basement in our first house. FIL came over to “show us the quick way to do it.” That is the main measure for success with anything my FIL does, how QUICKLY you get it done. So he came out, took the tools out of my hands (literally) and went to work. My hubby and I watched in horror, wondering how quickly we could get him out of the house so we could remove what he’d done before it hardened up. He put a thick coat of mud over the seam, put on the tape and spread another thick, uneven coat over the top. The he announced “I’ve watched the professionals do it this way, wait till it dries and then sand it smooth.” We could already see the bubbles under the tape where he didn’t get it imbedded in the mud.
Then he said “I can get this whole room done in no time” and proceeded to the next wall. I went up stairs and begged my MIL to come up with some excuse why she had to leave NOW, which she did, knowing her husband’s ways.
A week later, they came back out, and FIL went up to the wall he had worked on. “Boy that seam looks great” he exclaimed, admiring “his” work. We never did tell him that as soon as he left we dug it all out and did it our way. The next time they showed up unannounced, we just put the tools down and said it was time for a break anyway.
I know it will take me some time to get the walls done to my satisfaction. No, it will take some time before I get tired of it and say “Good enough” and paint. But then I’ll have a few spots that will always bug me, because I’ll know that if I’d just spent a bit more time, another coat or two of mud to get them just right . . .
We do spray texture our ceilings, but I’ve found that the only way to get a decent ceiling, is to have it done as good as I’d want if I wasn’t going to spray it. I don’t think texture hides near as much as people think it will. And I hate that “orange peel” look that seems so popular in newer homes. I consider that a cheap way to hide a bad mudding job.
I’m rambling, guess I said way more about sheetrock than I thought I could LOL!!
Here’s a current picture of the bay windows. This, and the bit above the opening into the dining area, is all we have left to put up. Well, we still haven’t figured out what to do about the transition wall between the dining area and living area, but that will be cement board and tile, so it doesn’t really count. . .
That’s Oliver up on the ladder. Trust a cat to find the highest spot for a perch.
Here is the south wall, dividing the addition into the living room and hubby’s gun closet.
Once we get the living room/dining area done, we’ll move on to the half bath, which is at the end of the laundry room, where we started our remodeling.
This picture shows where the bathroom will eventually be. The toilet will go in the corner where the boxes are, with the sink on the other side of the doorway. I’m standing where the shower will be.
I’m not certain what well do with the floor. When we started almost two years ago, we weren’t quite as enthusiastic, and decided the floor in that room was good enough (not meaning vinyl, but the actual floor). However, we know we’re going to have to fix the end where the shower will go (that is where the water heater had been) as we realized after we moved the water heater that its weight had created a significant depression in the floor in that area. So, we know we’ll be tearing up the floor, but just how far back will we go? It would be nice to beef up the whole floor so it didn’t shake when the washer was running its spin cycle, but that would mean not having use of the washer/dryer for a while, and possibly messing up the walls we’ve already finished . . .
We do plan on fixing the ceiling. Once it’s a bit warmer, I’ll start hauling out the cellulose insulation and replacing it with batts, and once we have the new walls in place for the 2nd bathroom, we’ll put up 3/8” sheetrock over the existing sheetrock and go from there. At least in this area, we don’t have to do anything with the existing ceiling joists, and there is no lath and plaster behind the sheetrock, so we don’t need to tear it all down.
At least, that is what we planned when we started, and it would be a ton more work to do it otherwise at this point in time. After what we’ve been through and done, if I had to do it all over again, I would tear down the ceiling when I had the rest of the room gutted. But that was when we just got started, and had not realized just how extensive this remodeling project would end up. When we bought this place, we never planned on rebuilding exterior walls and floors. I don’t think we even planned on “adding on” when we signed the purchase papers, that idea came later.
Some may wonder, had we known what we were getting into, would we have still bought this place? But the truth is, properties like ours with outbuildings and small acreage (yes, in SD, 40 is considered “small acreage”) are almost non-existent. Sure, you can find old farmsteads, but usually they have been divided off the main farmland, and you get one or two acres. And many, many times, the old farmer stayed on the homestead while the younger generation built a new home up the road, and the old homestead just went into decay until the old folks moved into town or passed away. And if there wasn’t a younger generation, the land was rented until the old folks were gone, then it was sold, usually to a neighbor farmer who had no use for the old homestead, so it was left to rot, or dozed over. You can drive all over this area, and see lots of small clumps of trees along the road. If you stop and walk around, you’ll notice the clearing in the middle, and can usually find the old foundations. Many times, as the trees die off, the land is cleaned up and put back into production, removing all traces of a once proud homestead.
We don’t have neighbors within a mile of us in all directions, but if you looked around, you’d probably find half a dozen old farm sites within that area, including the one right across the street from us.
We’ve been lucky to find out so much of the history of our place, because the farmer up the road use to live here. I don’t know the whole story (will have to hear it all some day soon). I did recently find out that our neighbor was a school teacher for many years, and farming is his second career. His children all have careers off the farm, and it doesn’t look like any of them have any interest in taking up farming, so when he is ready to retire, things could get interesting. From what I’ve gathered, he owns 140 acres including his current homestead, and the remaining 1,300 acres is held in a family trust. Our homestead is surrounded by land owned by the trust. I don’t know at what point it was subdivided, I’ve never actually seen the abstract our land (on this area, it’s normal for the title company to keep possession of the abstracts). There are also lots of open records at the courthouse, which I plan on digging through some day.
I do know that our neighbor’s family was not the original settlers of our homestead. At some point in time, his family owned both this and the homestead to the north. They built a new home on the north homestead. Don’t know exactly when, but it is what we would consider “normal”, with copper plumbing and sheetrock, and a breaker panel (remember those old fuse boxes?). Our house was originally built without plumbing or electricity. I’m sure at one time, this house had cast iron pipes and a fuse box, but by the time we bought it all the plumbing had been replaces with copper and PVC (and an assortment of other components) and had a breaker panel, though much of the wiring to the lights and outlets was the old black, ungrounded wire.
Ok, where was I? When the generation living in the newer home decided to move off the farm, our neighbor moved his family into that home, and this one went on the market. Our neighbor says his Dad thought this home should be dozed over, but they had recently put money into the outbuildings (Grandpa wasn’t planning on moving off the farm, then changed his mind a few years later). So the homestead and 40 acres was sold. We are the third owners since it left the family. I don’t know why it was sold with 40 acres, since the family owns all the surrounding land. Maybe it had already been subdivided that way long ago, or maybe no one wanted the run down farmstead without land. I’ll have to ask next time I see our neighbor. He likes to stop in and check up on our progress from time to time.
Sure, we’d have loved to find something in better shape, but sometimes you take what you can find. We started looking in March, and this one came on the market the very end of June. During that time, we considered (briefly) three other properties. The price wasn’t really a problem; we never did see any property with 10-50 acres that was out of our price range. However, we did see several nice properties out of our price range because of the amount of acreage for sale.
Hmm, maybe I’d better end this hear, or I’m going to bump into my other story!
Cathy
