The Changelog - House Renovation

1 Year Later

nospam@example.com (John Goerzen) — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 04:29:00 -0500

It was one year ago today that Terah and I signed the paperwork to buy grandpa's farmstead. It's been a busy year. We've had a fire that burned down three buildings, the birth of Jacob last October, moving while snow was falling, and of course living in a basement apartment for three months.

Yes, probably just as crazy as everyone said we were.

But we're both really glad that we did it. We both really enjoy being where we are.

Last week, we noticed there were sunflowers growing where grandpa's barn once stood. We like sunflowers. Terah first learned about Kansas sunflowers as we were driving on the day we moved to Kansas.

Anyway, here's what the house looks like now:

And here's what it looked like one year ago:

I'm dreaming of a white... Easter?

nospam@example.com (John Goerzen) — Wed, 11 Apr 2007 06:25:00 -0500

Last Monday, the high was 78. By Thursday, the high was 35 and we got 7 inches of snow. And some of it was still on the ground by Sunday, Easter. All this after several weeks of unusually warm temperatures.

Terah and I spent all day Saturday cleaning, unpacking, and generally finishing moving in as much as possible. That's because we invited my dad's family over to our place for Easter dinner; our first real event we've hosted since moving in at the farm.

I remember going to grandpa's place many times for Easter dinner. It was a nice tradition. Last year, the family wasn't sure what to do; grandpa's house was vacant, but not really in a condition suitable for having a meal either. So we had an easter picnic. Terah and I were making plans about buying the place then already, and we hoped that we'd be able to invite everyone over to celebrate Easter in a newly-renovated house by this year. I'm glad we could!

My great aunts and uncles came over a little later in the afternoon. One of them remembered sitting on the swing on the front porch when my grandma told them she had cancer. They remembered how much my grandma had wanted a larger kitchen, and how she'd be excited about what we had in the house now. It's was nice to hear those memories and stories.

This Saturday, I plan to get out the camera and finally post the "done!" pictures of the house. It's been quite the busy year, but we're very happy with how it turned out.

House Update

nospam@example.com (John Goerzen) — Sun, 18 Mar 2007 21:08:31 -0500

It's been awhile since I've posted pictures of our house. Here are a few of the completed outside. We are still waiting on a couple of inside details to finish up, and a bit more unpacking before posting interior photos.

Click here for the full set.

Here's today's sample:

Terah is posting some of our photos of Jacob on her blog today as well.

Everything Update

nospam@example.com (John Goerzen) — Fri, 19 Jan 2007 06:21:00 -0600

It's been very busy lately. So here's an update on lots of things.

We move in to the farmhouse this weekend, starting this evening. It's not completely done, but close enough! That's exciting. But I spent 12 hours out there on Tuesday cleaning out the attic (took the day off work to do that). So I'm exhausted, and the moving hasn't even started yet.

The wood floors are all done and looking nice.

Jacob is starting teething. We have discovered that he likes both the taste and effect of infant tylenol. Though he's been better in the past few days.

More pictures of Jacob and the house will be posted once we have a chance to get them assembled.

My MacBook Pro at work finally can suspend to RAM! 2.6.19.2 with the latest mactel patches makes it work with uswsusp.

We'll probably be without Internet at home for a few days -- at least until I get the place wired up and the firewall set up.

One of our neighbors out by the farm died this week. He was out working with his tractor when it slipped off an icy road and landed on him. His wife had just moved from Tennessee last spring when they got married, and has enjoyed working with all their animals. I didn't know either of them very well, and had only met his wife. But she was interested in our house renovation project and stopped by every so often to check on it and chat (their animals are across the road from us). We were looking forward to getting to know them both.

Renovation: Week 24

nospam@example.com (John Goerzen) — Sat, 09 Dec 2006 19:52:55 -0600

Wow! What a week. (Click here for all of this week's photos) On Sunday afternoon, we walked into the house and saw this:

Yes, over the weekend, the cabinet makers had installed the cabinets earlier than expected! I never expected that I would get excited about kitchen cabinets, but I sure was. They look great.

My grandma's china cabinet is back up in the dining room. They've removed the tile from the dining room, exposing the wood floor underneath. The floor restoration people have spent some time doing some patching already.

Doors and doorjams are starting to go in. Trim is arriving. And the wood in the wall alongside one of the staircases has been seamlessly extended.

It's exciting. (photos here)

And check this out:

That hunk of ice is the exhaust from our furnace. No joke! The furnace is so efficient that, when its running, it's a moist and slightly warm breeze blowing out of that exhaust pipe. In winter, it condenses and drips down below, forming an ice hunk.

Renovation: Weeks 19-22

nospam@example.com (John Goerzen) — Tue, 28 Nov 2006 05:02:00 -0600

It's been a few weeks since my last house update.

I've posted some new photos of the project.

The new insulation has been sprayed. It's a foam type of insulation that dries solid. It not only acts as an insulator, but also as a sealant, filling in little cracks that could let air in and out of the house. In some places it is up to 12 inches thick -- mostly in the attic.

After that, work on the drywall began. By this point, it's pretty much done and interior painting should be starting this week. After the painting, the next thing will be the floor restoration.

Concrete work got started last week. The porches are being re-built now, and in the photo below, you can see the forms starting to be in place for them.

So the appearance of the interior has changed dramatically over the past few weeks, mainly because there are now walls there.

Here's the usual sample photo:

Renovation: Week 18

nospam@example.com (John Goerzen) — Tue, 31 Oct 2006 17:08:08 -0600

Well, it's been awhile since I've posted a renovation update. Things have been going on, but not much that is all that impressive with photos.

We've had electrical work going on. The new water and propane lines have been trenched in. New ductwork is in progress. New electrical and phone service will be trenched in this week or next.

In the past week, the new siding has started going up, and the sheetrock is supposed to start going up on Monday.

So there is some quite visible change going on now! Click here for the pictures.

Goodbye, Dutch Avenue

nospam@example.com (John Goerzen) — Mon, 16 Oct 2006 22:33:00 -0500

This morning, we closed on the sale of the house we've been in since 2002.

We're excited about Grandpa's farmhouse that we're having renovated, and it will be great when we get to move in there in December or January.

But it's sad to leave the place that has been home for these last few years. Terah and I got a chance to spend a few last minutes over there today.

All sorts of memories came back. We remembered our long walks up and down the driveway, hand in hand, laughing and talking. We remembered sitting out on the west edge of our property watching the sun set behind the trees. We remembered playing with our cats, having friends and family over, the excitement when we moved in, all the hard work we put into renovating the old part of the house, and so many more things.

We also been looking back and laughing at things that were really pretty annoying at the time: having no water because of ants, having to move out for a few days on Valentine's Day because of a skunk, being without power for most of a week because of ice (and having to cut my way in and out through the driveway).

We'll have memories, photos, and some small souvenirs from our old house. But we'll miss it, too, just like we missed our house in Indianapolis and its pond with attack geese. (That's another story.)

When we moved to Kansas, my grandma, who grew up a few miles away, heard our address and said, "Dutch Avenue! That's right at home for me." It was right at home for us, too.

Renovation: Weeks 10-12

nospam@example.com (John Goerzen) — Sat, 16 Sep 2006 21:50:06 -0500

Well, it's been awhile since I've posted photos of our renovation project. We've been very busy, and I'll write about that sometime soon, too.

But anyway, I've now posted photos of weeks 10 - 12 of the renovation.

Some of the highlights include: new windows, a new roof, two new staircases, three old oil heaters removed from the attic (some still with oil in them), and a little joking around from the workers.

Click above to see all of the photos.

Here are two samples from this set. First, how the house looks from the oustide now:

And this one:

Someone found that old commode from the attic. They put it on the dirt pile, and put a bucket under it for good measure.

Nobody actually used it.

That we know of.

Renovation: Weeks 8-9

nospam@example.com (John Goerzen) — Sun, 27 Aug 2006 19:07:17 -0500

We've been very busy lately, so I'm a bit behind on renovation updates.

I've posted the photos for weeks 8 and 9. The new kitchen is starting to take shape!

We're also going to get a nice heating/air system. My great uncle, who is doing that work for us, came up with a 3-zone system. We'll have one furnace & AC, but three temperature sensors. There will be motorized dampers in the ducts that are controlled by that system, so we can direct hot or cold air only where it needs to be. We'll break even on it now because we can make do with a smaller AC and furnace, and will save money over the long run due to lower utility bills.

We also learned that the wood floors in pretty much the entire house can be saved, so that'll be nice, too.

Here's a sample:

Click here for the rest.

Renovation Update: Weeks 6-7

nospam@example.com (John Goerzen) — Mon, 14 Aug 2006 17:32:36 -0500

The big news out at the farm this week is the foundation on the house. In 6 days of work, the foundation people have already demolished the old foundation, leveled up the house, dug out the area for the new foundation (which is digging down and out to expand the foundation to cover the whole house), and poured the walls. So the house is now sitting on new walls.

Here are some photos of the foundation work in progress.

Family Patterns and The Great Grandparents' House

nospam@example.com (John Goerzen) — Thu, 03 Aug 2006 21:12:00 -0500

First, a random amusing pattern: If you follow my family tree up, once you get back to the 1800s, you'll see several generations in a row in which people alternated names between B. H. Friesen and H. B. Friesen. The pattern finally broke when D. B. Friesen was born in 1891. This was back in the day when people were often called by their initials. (The initials stood for Heinrich Bernhard, by the way.)

Now then...

Frequent readers of this blog know that Terah and I purchased the place my grandparents owned (where my dad grew up).

The part I haven't mentioned is that my parents did the same thing -- my great grandparents owned the farm that my parents bought after they got married. My dad's mother grew up there.

My parents had an old farmhouse on their property, too. They opted to build a new house -- the old house made a nice home for rats, but not such a great home for people by that time. But that doesn't mean that the old house got torn down.

Nope, they had it moved to a museum, where a group of volunteers restored it.

Terah and I went to visit the 1911 Friesen House at the Mennonite Heritage Museum in Goessel a couple of weeks ago to get some decorating ideas for the house we're renovating. I'm going to get some more photos this weekend -- it's THRESHING DAYS again at the museum! Cliff, there's still time to drive down to Kansas! (Here's a partial schedule)

Terah liked the idea of buying the farm. But I don't think she'll go for restarting the other family tradition.... (well, I wouldn't, either, but it is funny...)

So I will end this post with a small collection of photos from Threshing Days 2004 (click the link).

Here's the usual sample:

Fire updates

nospam@example.com (John Goerzen) — Tue, 01 Aug 2006 20:32:42 -0500

Whew. Lots has been going on the past couple of days.

First, many thanks to all that sent us e-mails, comments, and notes. We appreciate it! It's nice to have people the care.

Next, in addition to the first set of fire photos I posted, I have now added more photos: a second set of fire photos. Note that there are two pages to that as well.

I've also added some photos to the Grandpa's Farm set -- this shows what things looked like back in April, before the fire. The buildings that burned are the barn, calf barn, and chicken house.

On to the updates...

Monday I went out to the farm first thing in the morning. Some areas were still smoldering -- basically wherever there was hay. It was a bit concerning. I went up to the 2nd floor in the house and took some photos of the yard.

I headed on in to work. Later in the evening, I went back out to check on things. Two fire fighters were back out there with a fire truck dousing the remaining smoldering areas. Apparently the fire fighters had been checking on the place intermittently all day and had been out there with water earlier as well.

The Goessel Fire Dept. is an all-volunteer department. These people aren't getting paid for this, and they do an EXCELLENT job. Someone was out at 1AM Monday, again at 10AM Monday, then twice more with the truck. They did all this on their own -- I hadn't asked them to. It is amazing how much these people care about the community and taking care of fires.

I also never knew how long bales of hay burn.

Here's one of the new photos:

Fire

nospam@example.com (John Goerzen) — Sun, 30 Jul 2006 22:05:00 -0500

I never thought I'd be writing a post like this today.

As Terah mentioned already, there was a fire out at our farm today. We lost both barns and the chicken house. Several acres of mostly grass burned in all.

It's hard to see those buildings gone. There was so much history and so many memories in them. And that loss isn't just ours; so many people have fond memories from out there.

Before I go on, I've posted a few very preliminary photos. I haven't even downloaded all of them from the camera yet. Here's how our yard looks:

We're sad about this, but there's a lot to be thankful for. There are so many ways that this could have been worse. If the firefighters had been a few minutes later to the scene, we probably would have lost the only remaining buildings -- house, wash house, and elevator -- as well. The fire was starting to burn a hedge row from two sides. It got within a few feet of the house.

Somebody driving through the country noticed the fire and called it in. That in itself is fortunate, because people don't just drive through this part of the country all that often.

We're very fortunate to have such a wonderful and loving family. The people from the Goessel Volunteer Fire Department spent 7 hours of their evening out there, part of it in 100-degree heat. (The Walton Fire Dept. also responded -- I don't know how long they were there). Even our insurance agent (one of the barns was insured) came out -- and he didn't have to.

We hope that we'll get enough insurance money to let us rebuild something in the same style as the original barn.

And, most importantly, nobody got hurt.

But somehow, despite all these things, it still feels like we lost a little bit of Grandpa today.

Renovation: Weeks 3 - 5

nospam@example.com (John Goerzen) — Sat, 29 Jul 2006 11:57:24 -0500

Well, it's been a few weeks since my last update, but I was still out there once a week taking pictures. The changes have been less dramatic -- but then it's hard to get as dramatic as tearing off the kitchen and pulling off a chunk of a house.

So check out the week 3-5 photos. Note there are two pages of photos.

The lath and plaster is all down. So it looks really empty inside.

The foundation work starts Thursday and continues for about 2 weeks. Then the reconstruction will begin.

Here's this week's highlight:

It's an old wagon that was in the chicken house. Because of the pickup that was in there, I had never been able to get a good picture of it before.