The Rebirth of the William Tripp House: What lies beneath....

The project is humming along again with cement being poured for the the basement floor, siding being removed- exposing years of ugliness and walls going up. It's amazing what the house looks like under the peeling paint of the clapboards. I guess we all look different under our skin. It's kind of neat and sometimes scary to see- read on.

Removing old clapboards

Before

After. Poor Josh the duck is still living behind this door.

I like this photo- too bad the cord was there.

The biggest surprise was the sun room. This room was not added to the house that long ago and much of it is completely rotted. Apparently the people who did the work were a little lax about where the rain would be going over time. It's a good thing that we caught it now. No wonder the floor was rotted under the blanket chest- water was pooling under it that had come through the wall. This will be easily remedied by the expert work of G&S.

Sun room totally rotted- SURPRISE!!!

ICK!

Tuesday was a big progress day. Peter and the electrician were at the barn looking where to install lighting, electrical plugs, heating sources etc. Of course I discovered this at the last minute (why tell me anything?) but decided that too many important decisions were to be made and I wanted to be a part of the process. This way I can only blame myself for where things are put. It was darn cold out there too and my feet quickly turned to Popsicles! But that wasn't going to stop me from being there (apparently needing to go to work didn't occur to me either). Dave and I both went through our respective spaces and decided where things should go. I really had no clue but added my 2 cents anyway. When you buy a house this is all done for you. You don't need to decide what is more convenient for you. Do you want your plugs near the floor or up a bit where you can reach them without bending over or crawling under furniture? What about light switches- how many is too many to remember and where do they make sense to find in the dark? Ponder this a bit as you fumble for the lights in your house. Would they have made sense to be put somewhere else if you had the chance?

I decided on 2 pendant lights and a ceiling fan for my studio's ceiling and a few wall sconces. What they will look like is anybodies guess. As for warming the space- I think that we all decided that a propane stove would be a good heating option rather than the small wood stove. It looks the same and who wants to drag wood up the stairs and wait for the space to heat up. Dave reminded me that I am not good with fire and probably better to flip a switch.

The final decision I helped with was to figure out the size of the goose neck light that will illuminate the front of the barn. That was quite a production of cutting pieces of wood to 20 inches then holding it up and trying to get a sense of proportions. The Electrician finally found a piece of something that could make a 3D circle of the correct diameter. This was surprisingly helpful! Now to find the perfect light (and one that does not break the budget)! As usual, we had a lot of laughs about everything. Well into the morning I realized that I probably should go to work and sadly I left. Before I headed to the car I looked over and saw that the walls were starting to go up. How exciting!

Dave is helping out the crew on the days that we are closed at the shop and in the mornings before he goes to open the store. He was like a little kid and went out and bought a new tool belt. He banged his initials into his tools and set them aside the night before. He got to help a bit on Tuesday and when I called him at about 4:00 he was already weary from the activity. It's like the first day back to the gym after a holiday hiatus. This morning I left without disturbing him as he was up on a scaffold banging nails along the beam. When I spoke with him later in the day he was upset that I didn't say goodbye. But, who wants your wife to come out for a goodbye kiss when you are working with guys? I have learned my lesson....

This week we got a new dumpster prime for the filling and the all the walls have gone up! The walls give the space the feeling of an actual room and instead of it seeming a little small it is really quite big!