The Brush & the Barn

2015 work on the Manor is officially in full swing. Even though the final soffit was the first thing on the list, we decided to take a little break from that small nightmare & work on the barn. Plus we're notorious for getting a project an inch from completion & moving on to another. Don't do that by the way. Anyway, Yes! The Manor came with a barn. You probably wouldn't know that unless you drove by it during the winter months because that's the only time you can really see it. When the jungle starts to grow it pretty much disappears.

We thought it might be a novel idea to actually get to "use" the barn this year so we tackled the brush surrounding it first. I really wish I knew how many trailer loads of vines, thorn bushes, small trees & weeds we've actually carried off the property over the last 2 years. I know it's unreal. I kinda feel like we've wiped out a small habitat but it had to go.

Plus having trees this big growing out of your barn's foundation is no bueno!

There was a point in the deforestation process where I asked Jeremy, "So what's worse...this or soffits?". I think we both agreed that it was a toss up.

There is still a little LOT more work that can be done as far as pulling up vines but for the most part it is cleared out.

Getting to the barn was only half the battle. Of course it was full of junk. Of couuurrssse iiiittt waaaaaasss!!! And a barn full of someone else's junk is not very useful if there is no room to store any of your own junk. I admit, I was REALLY excited about this project. If you watch American Pickers religiously like I do you know that a barn that has been sitting for 23 years full of "stuff" is a treasure chest waiting to be opened. As we're driving to Bevier I'm daydreaming about uncovering some rare antique or coins...maybe a first edition book by Poe or a Rembrandt. Maybe there's a secret door that goes underground with a vintage car in pristine condition in it! Ummmmm....yeah, it was all actually just trash. We removed about a million worthless plastic flower carriers, rusted cans, soggy cardboard boxes full of soggy clothes, an innocent looking chair that a cushion fell off of to reveal that is was actually a toilet, the most disgusting mattress & box spring that I think I've ever seen...the list goes on.

I did have a keep pile & seeing how small it was in regards to the fact that I am a borderline hoarder just proves that the barn treasure hunt was really a bust. It is nice to have it cleared out though & besides a couple of small leaks in the roof it seems to be in pretty good shape.

I did find a pretty cool "wooden thingy" that looks like it was attached to a bigger & cooler "wooden thingy" that's long gone. I also found a pretty cool little table. By the way...Rule #1 when treasure hunting in barns: Open drawers carefully & slowly. Mice can apparently take flight when discovered & if you have a bad heart, you're toast!

This years list is pretty ambitious:

Fix final soffit
Attach decorative trim around finished soffits
Repoint the brick
Finish cleaning the attic
Rebuild terrace on the front of the house
Fix decorative trim on the peaks of the house
Scrape paint off of peaks/primer

....and IF we get that finished...and that's a big if....it will be time for the big kahuna: NEW ROOF/GUTTERS!

Loooooonnnggg road ahead but seeing this old picture is pretty good motivation.

Infiltrate. Destroy. Rebuild.

A couple of months ago we scammed invited a couple of great friends to Bevier for a weekend of Manor renovations. There was a pretty high chance of snow that weekend so we were a little reluctant to make the 2 hour trip. Luckily, our friends are extremely crazy generous because they didn't hesitate to tell us to keep the plan the same and load up! The good news is that it didn't snow "much". The bad news is that it was Antarctica cold. So, we layered up, grabbed some hot chocolate (and maybe a little bit of Fireball) and got to work! Jeremy & TJ's job was soffit #4. It's the smallest of all the soffits but it has two corners pretty close together so that was a bit of a challenge.

This was right above the "porthole" window above the staircase that I talked about in an earlier post. I haven't forgot about it...that mystery will be solved this year, I hope.

This side of the house seems to be in much better shape than the south side which was a relief. It was also nice to not worry about re-building the "over window thingy" from scratch. Just a little bit of scraping, caulk and paint and it will be as good as new.

This was the guys first trip up in the lift. It was so cold that it took the lift forever to get them up there. The lift apparently moves like I do in the cold, ha! I can relate little lift...I can relate.

The rest of the crew, which consisted of my dad, sister, my friend Sarah & myself, were in charge of demolition of "The Bad Room". Let me tell you a little bit about "The Bad Room" and how it received such a moniker. On the back side of the house on both the north & south side, there were two rooms that were later built on...I would say probably in the 1970's. It is my guess that when Marie LaSalle had the boarding home there she needed more room to run her operation. One of the rooms had a hospital bed in it and the other had laundry hook ups. After Marie passed away and the house became severely neglected, these two rooms did not fare well and became completely rotten. This was almost a deal breaker for me (not really) when we originally took a tour of the house. I was walking through the formal dining room and opened this door expecting to see just another room but instead, I saw this horrific sight.

Geeeeez! Is this a room or a portal to Chernobyl!?!

Until that weekend I've kept that room securely locked up and would only open it if I absolutely HAD to. Out of sight, out of mind, I guess. Anytime someone would go through the house with me, I would get asked, "What's in there?". I would promptly say, "Nothing...that's the bad room".

You can imagine my excitement to finally be rid of this room but it did not go down as easily as the room on the south side. It was bigger and although it looked like you could push it over, it was secured to the house well. When looking at a room like this you kind of ask yourself "Where in the heck do I start?!". There is no good answer to this question...you just get your pry bar, hammer & sledgehammer (my favorite!) and start tearing it apart.

This is Sarah. She's 6' tall & VERY good at demo!

There is something extremely empowering & therapeutic about taking out structures with a sledgehammer...it was definitely my favorite activity of the weekend!

My sister got in on the fun & took out most of the roof in about an hour which completely shocked me! She's an elementary teacher so I think she was getting some frustrations out of her own.

She also fell through the floor but luckily landed on duct work that carried heat to the room. LOL! Sorry Kerri...but it was really funny!

Since demo is more fun than soffits, the guys took a little break from the roof and helped out.

Here's a window and a doorway we uncovered. Mega bonus!

When it was time to shove the hospital bed out the window (which btw, was no easy task...it weighed a ton!) my dad looked at me and said "How many old people do you think rang that dinner bell?".

"Ummmmm...dad...that's not a dinner bell". I'm still not sure if he believed me or not.

The guys ended up finishing the soffit which I did not get a picture of because my phone died and since we were on the verge of hypothermia we were ready to get home. We also got most of the room demo'd but my dad, Jeremy & I finished the job when we were home for Christmas. It was a pretty scary but exciting thing to see that room crash down. Jeremy basically cut all of the support beams across the roof. Each time he would make a cut it would crack and move down a little more. I have coined the name "The Danger Squad" when it comes to my dad & Jeremy with my dad being the eternal president of this club. Safety is a factor...it's just not always the first factor when it comes to him. I'm pretty sure I heard my dad tell Jeremy that if the roof fell to just ride it out and not jump off the ladder. "Did I really just hear that?".

So here it is! No more bad room!

Before...

After...

It's pretty neat to see the back of the house without those rooms & know that this is how the house originally looked. I'm sure there were porches or something here but not rooms. As far as what we're going to do with this area...I'm definitely seeing a wrap around deck! Pardon me while I live in Photoshop land for a moment. *angelic choir*

The plan now is to clean up the mess that we've created from all the demo and to tackle the never ending brush problem while it's dorment.

And then this Spring....the first thing on the list is THE LAST SOFFIT!

I will be popping a big bottle of champagne when that project is officially done! :)

3 down...2 to go!!!

Hello friends! If you've wondered where the Manor updates have been and why I've been MIA lately, here's the short version: Husband & I bought screen printing business. World got turned upside down. The Royals went to the World Series(WHOO!). Business went crazy and world got put in a blender & set on froth. Then it was Halloween and I don't do anything that's not Halloween related for about a week leading up to October 31st. :) That's pretty much it in a nutshell. I swear, sometimes I think I have a disorder where I say to myself, "What can I do to add some more stress to my life?. Hmmmmm...renovate a delapidated old house that's 2 hours away: check!...buy a business where you are not only the owner but the accountant, graphic designer, shipping department, purchasing department, head of quality control, delivery driver, customer service rep, etc...: check!". One of these days I'm going to sit in a lounger with a BIG margarita or glass of wine, stare at the "finished" Manor with a cool breeze blowing through my hair and have absolutely NOTHING to do and nowhere to be. It will be a glorious day!

But until that day comes...gotta keep moving forward.

So here's where we are at. Soffits: 3 DOWN, 2 TO GO!!! This is beyond exciting to me since we have been working on them for over a year and the one we just completed last weekend was the biggest one on the house. Don't ya just love how I say "we" finished. Hey, I'm a pretty good fetcher and I successfully tossed a tape measure about 25 feet in the air up to Jeremy while he was in the lift which I think entitles me to say "we" this time around. ;)

So just in case you need a reminder of how rotten this soffit was, here's a little flashback for ya.

I can't really even say it was "rotten"...it was GONE. Now are you ready for this? *cue angelic choir*

S.O.S. (Summer of Soffits)

Ahhhh summer! Hot days, warm nights, pool time, lake time, family & friend BBQ's, festivals, concerts, baseball, vacation, laughing with loved ones until your side hurts, lightning bugs, storms, bonfires, millions of stars in the sky...I am lovin' it all! Summer also always reminds me of being a kid growing up in Bevier. My friends & I would fish, swim, play basketball/baseball, explore the area woods or ride our bikes all over town & when the street lights came on, it was time for supper (yes, we call it supper) and you better high tail it home...or in my case high tail it to grandma's because she would yell for me which every kid in a 2 mile radius could hear (really embarrassing). I've had lots of people give me a friendly tease here and there for being a small town girl but I will always feel lucky that I grew up during a not so crazy time in a not so crazy place.

But enough of my nostalgic rant, let's talk about The Manor! Little by little there are things starting to come together. The soffits are still the "BIG" project that we're trying to get wrapped up & to say that this project has been tedious and slow is an understatement. Trying to rebuild something that has rotted away when it was originally built with architectural lumber has been a real pain in the neck. You can't just go to Home Depot & buy this stuff. Jeremy has either had to create the right size pieces or just make it work. If I was a true preservationist I could have all the lumber and trim milled but my bank account laughs hysterically at that idea. And then there's the brick. Behind every piece of rotton soffit wood that he's pulled off, there is brick behind it that is falling because moisture was trapped & the mortar disintegrated. So just when you think you're ready to rebuild soffits...you get to switch gears & play mason for several hours.

To put it bluntly...

BUT! There is a light at the end of the tunnel! The soffits are closing in and the raccoons are crying from afar because they see their winter lodge slowly becoming unaccessable. Sorry...you oversized cats are going to have to find a new place to live.

Tadaaaa....

Yes...I call it an "over window thingy". I have no idea what the technical term is so that is what it will be called until someone enlightens me. Speaking of the "over window thingy", Jeremy had to rebuild that too (which he was completely thrilled about!). The triangular area that the decorative pieces attach to was made from tongue and groove wood which I can't even imagine how they did that in 1897 with the tools they had...absolutely amazing.

It was gone completely on one side of the house so we had to use the dimensions from the one that (thankfully) wasn't rotten.

Check out that scalloping on the peak. *drool* There's a different pattern on every peak and it's going to be SOOO much fun to scrape the paint off of them. Is anyone picking up my sarcasm here? But when they're painted...I might just have a seizure.

As far as my task list...I have been doing random projects. I've started painting the front porch, I've got the attic about 85% cleaned (that will be a blog all of it's own) and I've pulled massive amounts of weeds out of the flower beds. Oh & guess what? Apparently, my right arm is allergic to poison ivy. I've never had it in my life but all of the sudden I'm just getting it on my right arm.

So weird...

Here's something else that's weird. I was bringing my 574th bag of trash down from the attic and noticed something kind of off at the top of the steps. There is a porthole window that is not symmetrical with the wall. It's way off to the left.

However, it's symmetrical on the outside of the house.

Obviously, the wood paneling is not original and I find it hard to believe that the builders would design that window to touch the wall....soooo....I REALLY want to know what is behind that wall! Jimmy Hoffa, maybe? ;)