Brick by Brick

First Dad excavated the hole and removed all the partial bricks that were there.
Then he built out the foundation under the turrent.
This job took forever with Dad figuring, marking bricks, Charles making the mortar, Charles cutting the bricks and then cutting again....
The old mortar recipe is like working with toothpaste and Dad described the job as being like working on a puzzle that someone else started and had lost most of the pieces. He worked until about 9:00 Saturday night and then got up early on Sunday morning to finish the last four rows.
The end result is wonderful though. It looks as good as new.

A job well done!

After that mess, we went on a picnic and fishing at Tri-City Lake.

Washer and Dryer Hooked Up

It is almost like building a new house with the outside already done...everything has to be done new. We added a utility room right next to the kitchen. The washer/dryer, hot water heater, furnace and water softener are all back in this little room. It is tight, but functional. It will be really nice when we get all the shelves added for storage and I have a laundry room right off he kitchen...YEAH!!!

Dining Room

This was only AWESOME because it took me all day to clear out all the boxes that were where the table is now. This room is not even started. It needs plaster work, floor work, ceiling mended,paint, trim....but we have a table and a beautiful new light and can all eat together now!!!

August 10th-Yes the life insurance policy is up to date (or The Chimmney Came Down)

Unfortunately, the chimmneys on the house have not been maintained at all. You can see where this leaning tower has had an attempt made on it's life with some concrete, but it did not hold. Charles said that he could rock this chimmney back and forth with his hand, but ws afraid that when it came down, it would damage the house. So, it came down brick by brickby brick.......
lower still.....
until it was all the way down to the ceiling in the bedroom. With no fireplaces in the home, losing them is just an asthetic thing...no harm done to the house at all.

There was some rotten wood, a joist to be scabbed on to, plywood to be replaced, new tar paper and finally new shingles. Whew. I stood on the ground holding my breath while Charles teetered up there for several hours getting the job done...

He got it done! One down two to go. Bailey's room is now ready to be completed with no more roof leaks to deal with.

Family Room

The family room still needs a lot of work, but it is functional. I fixed to walls where there was significant damage to the plaster. I found out that plastering is no fun. Then the seam between the ceiling and walls needed to be fixed. The woodwork is being scrapped and repainted. The floors will need another coat of finish after we fix the damaged floorboards, but the walls and ceiling are close and we have a place to sit and relax...

Bathroom Sink

We re-used a dresser for the downstairs sink. It has the nice wishbone style mirror holder that I will mount a mirror to the wall behind. I put a bar top finish on it that is an epoxy to that it should be OK with the water. The top two little drawers were disassembled and the fronts were glued in place. The bottom two drawers are usable, which is really nice. It makes a really nice piece of furniture! I like the look of the vessel sink too. We are keeping the harlequin pattern on the floor and plan to paint the woodwork all black and the walls plum. It should be a really nice half bath when complete!

Kitchen Cabinets

I ordered our cabinets from an online store called RTA Cabinets and they come flat with directions for assembly. The ones I found have a beautiful maple finish and a rope detail that I love. Here are a few cute pics from assembly.

Here they are in the kitchen...

Then we added countertops a few days later...

And on August 8th, we added a kitchen sink, garbage disposal and dishwasher!!!! We have a functioning kitchen!!

AAAAAAHHHHHH! (or how we vented our water heater)

OMG! When doing projects such as this one, you can come to an understanding really quickly of why people who are good at various manual skills are paid well to do them. This stupid piece of b-vent pipe going from the hot water heater, across the utility room, up through Teddy's room, through the attic and out the roof took 6 trips to Home Depot and 3 days to complete. There was also a great deal of !!%#%&#&-ing on Charles' part when yet another challenge reared it's ugly head, but it is done and we passed inspection and we have hot water and a stove and (say your prayers) a furnace.