The Kitchen

Living Room, Kitchen and Pantry + Barn

With the heating system out of the way, we were ready to start the kitchen. We slowly began ripping up the old floor and tearing down walls. We still had two years before our five years were up and so we were really in no hurry. We had also been working on the living room and we got that done to the point of just needing carpet. However, it would be a really bad idea to put carpet down with so many other rooms nearby that still needed drywall and sanding. 

Things with the pandemic were getting better and I was back in school teaching. Although I was very happy with where I was teaching (for the past 20 years), things began changing. Greg is six years older than me and I thought it might be a good idea to start looking near the farm for a teaching position. This would allow me to continue to teach until my retirement, while he retired on the farm. I went on Wecan one night and I was shocked to see an opening in Argyle. I immediately applied. The next shocker was,  I got the job!

Now, the kitchen was on fast track. We spent a week there and ripped everything out, put in the electric, and put up all of the drywall. Most of the work is done after 4:30 PM because Greg is back at work. He works virtually and so for the day time hours he is on the computer. This is when I do the painting of the barn or the mudding of the drywall.

Tomorrow, we go back for another week. It is time to get it mudded, sanded, primed and painted. Thank goodness, I can do most of this myself. I will, however, give Greg the yucky job of sanding. He will have the weekend to get this done. We will also enjoy a family celebration for Greg's birthday. Cabinets have been ordered. It's a good thing we saved so much money on the heating system because we are paying for it now. Wood prices have sky rocketed due to the pandemic and our kitchen cabinets are way more expensive than I ever imagined. 

It will be close getting it finished by the start of the school year due to orders taking a long time to fill (also due to the pandemic). However, we will have a kitchen  and a living room (with carpet) by early fall. 

Our lovely kitchen before new drywall.

After drywall.

                                 

                                                   I have also been painting the barn!

                                                                         Before paint

After paint- with more to do.

Left to Do

We have done an insane amount of work on this house so far, however, there is still much to do. With a kitchen and living room, however, it should be pretty comfortable to live in while we tackle the rest of the house. 

We have one more room upstairs to complete and we have a parlor, dining room, foyer and stairwell to do downstairs.  After that comes, siding and finishing it up by restoring it to its original look and putting a new wrap around porch on it. 

The end is in sight and I think we will make our five-year plan.

The Living Room

                                           

The big project in the living room was tearing down the chimney from other rooms and creating a brick wall on both sides of the chimney in the living room. That was after we uncovered the chimney hidden in plaster. I can't wait to carpet it, put up the drapes and place our furniture (which has been ordered).

3 down, 2 to go!

End of Three

Three years ago today, April 27th, Laurie and I bought the farm.  I told her (and at the time I thought she believed me) that in 5 years we would have it completed.  

 When we first went through the Lewis Road farm, it was clear that we would have to deal with the heating system.  It was a hot water system heated with oil.  The chimney was cut off at the roof when the roof was redone, so we would also have to go with a high efficiency furnace.  The pipes were coated with asbestos, which was dealt with early on, but we held off on the rest of the project because of the cost, and we wanted to complete a few things so it looked a bit more like a home.

In 2019 I got quotes for both a new hot water boiler and repair of radiators and pipes, and for a complete forced air system, including air conditioning.  The totals came in at $20,000 for the boiler, and $27,000 for the forced air.

After a few months of talking, research online, and more talking, we decided on the forced air.  With us being gone much of the winter, and knowing that if the power went out there could be an issue with burst pipes and a flooded house, the forced air seemed to make sense.  The difficulty with air conditioning with hot water heat also played into our decision.

The first part was easy.  Measure all the rooms and windows, estimate the insulation, and send it off to have a company named Ductworks figure out the size of furnace and air conditioner, figure out where all the ducts go, and give me an itemized list of what I need.  I also went to Hvacdirect.com to pick out my furnace and air.

Super!

We are ready!

Maybe not......

I admit, that while the excitement of learning something new, and the tons of money we were going to save (it would cost us about 1/3 of the quoted price), was offset by the huge amount of work that I knew was ahead.  We put it on the back burner and completed other tasks.

The Pandemic (written by Laurie)

In March, 2020, the Pandemic hit. Greg lost his job and I went virtual. Struggling to find something to do, Greg decided to tackle the heating system.  He continued to go up to the farm most weeks with Teddy (our dog), through the rest of the school year into summer and all of winter and worked on it. He connected the furnaces in January 2021.  Amazingly, according to me, just like that, it was done.  I could not and still can not believe it. He had never done anything like this before and now, we had heat. I knew there was a reason why I married this man. He can do anything. 

Now, we can truly move on and do other things - next up... the kitchen.