October 19

The dormer re-construction begins.

The outer corner of the kitchen. You can see the outer siding under the lath, with the exception of the corner. It has us wondering this space may have once been a porch.

The tile in the bathroom has been stripped. We are going to have the tub (the original) reglazed and put up new tile.

And lastly, a shot of "THE" outlet.

October 17

Yay! We have our permit to begin construction!

The old silver storm door is gone. Eventully we will have the original front door refinished. We also have a new full view glass storm door ready to go. We had actually ordered it before the fire and was due to have it installed the day of the fire. The guy showed up with it while we were sitting waiting for the board guy to come and board up the house. Ironic.

Our first peek at the original siding of the house. I have been itching to look for a while. I finally convinced David to rip up a section. We found thin white wood clapboard. It looks like it is pretty good shape.

The beginings of the dormer tear off.

The the plaster in the foyer and living room has been removed. The remaining lath has been painted with Killz. The wallpaper in the dining room is on its way down.


The kitchen is being gutted.

The upstairs has been completely gutted and painted with Killz. From the attic eaves you can now see the downstairs since the ceilings are gone in the kitchen, living room, and foyer.


Trash, lots and lots of trash.

Flashback Part 4: Gutted!

October 10. There it is in the dumpster, the remants of the kitchen cabinets. The kitchen is now almost all stripped.

The wallpaper in the dining room is on its way down.

The bedroom has turned into a storage room for the living room wood work.

The plaster and lath in the foyer and living room are almost gone.

Everything in the attic has been painted with Killz paint to seal in the smell.

The basement has also been painted in Killz from top to bottom.

Flashback Part 3: Let the destruction begin!

September 28th.

Flashback Part 2: A really bad day in August. . .

The front of the house.

The fire started in an electric outlet under the window in the dormer.


I am really fond of the front door of the house, it is original. The day of the fire our new storm door was delivered. We chose a full view glass door so that the front door could be seen from the front of the house. Ironic, huh. The guy showed up with the new door while we were waiting for the guy to come and board up the house. Anyway, the reason for the photo, is the chunk taken out of it. You see, we all went out the back of the house and the firemen came in the front, which was locked. In retrospect, the damage to the door being kicked in was minor, but I still cringed as I watched the fireman's boot hitting the door!


Water damage to the foyer ceiling. The water was coming out the light also.


The windows over the back dormer.


The back dormer room, by the stairs, this room suffered intense heat and smoke damage. The bookshelf in this room is where we were displaying David's vintage Tonka Truck collection. We used that room as a tv room and had a few odds and ends there. I had been thinking of moving those trucks to the basement but I hadn't gotten around to it.


The attic bathroom. It is kind of interesting what the heat does- you can see in varying degrees how both the paint and varnish melted off of the paneling. The light fixtures and vents completely melted away.


These photos are of Jacob and Anna's rooms. There isn't much to say that the photos don't already say. . .


This photo is of the basement floor. The smoke stained everything down there and left perfect outlines on the floor of where things were. This is where an area rug was.

I had more photos that I wanted to share, but evidently I am maxed out for this post. On the main floor we had water and smoke damage. I had a cool photo of the kitchen counter top and the living room ceiling, oh well, I think you get the idea of what happened there, lots of smoke and damaged plaster.

Stay tuned, I have demolition photos up next-

Flashback: Our House, November 2002

The day before Thanksgiving, 2002 David and I purchased the home that we knew would be our lifetime home. We had decided that we wanted an older home and hoped to find one that still had all of the charm that made us love old homes. We were very fortunate to find just the home and snag it just the day after it listed. They hadn't even gotten the sign up yet! The house wasn't perfect but we knew that in time we would change things and make it very uniquely ours.

With so much happening at our house now, I thought it would be neat to share some images along this journey. To start, I pulled out the photos that we snapped the day we signed the papers. Like we dreamed, we did make some changes. Unfortunately, we were bad to not take photos as we finished projects. Even worse, we are bad to start many projects and not finish them! Despite the unfinished projects, we were at "home" in this house. When we finally get back here, it will all look very different. It will be a mix of new and old, happy and sad. Many of the projects we dreamed of for the future will be completed. We will have traveled a journey that will have been very mixed in emotion.

Without further ado, I present to you a flashback to 1979, oops, no wait, 2002.

Flashback: The Foyer, Living Room, and Dining Room

The Foyer. The door straight ahead is a huge coat closet. The door on the left goes into the front bedroom. On the right is the front door, somehow we missed getting a picture of it.


The first photo is going into the living room from the foyer, you can't see it here, but there are french doors on each side of the opening. The second photo is the living room into the dining room, there are french doors there too.


The first photo here is the dining room looking into the living room. This shows the french doors that sold me on the house! The second photo shows the door that goes into the kitchen.

Flashback: The Kitchen

We started tearing up this beauty the day we moved in, which is why the wallpaper is missing by the doors. That door next to the wall is the stairwell going upstairs. We took it off. The one of the left goes to the basement.

Flashback: The Downstairs Bedrooms

Hallway looking from back bedroom toward front bedroom (which also has a door that opens into the foyer).

Hmm, we missed taking pictures of a whole side of this room. This is the front bedroom that eventually became Emma's room.


The back bedroom, which is mine and David's.

Flashback: The Attic and the Bathrooms

In the attic, from the stairs looking toward the front dormer.

From the front room looking toward the center room.

From the center room looking towards the back dormer room.

The "airplane bathroom" as the kids called it.

Eventually we painted the first room, the stairwell, and the bathroom white. Anna's room, the end room over the porch was painted a really cool shade of blue. She had a tropical theme. Jacob's room, the middle room, was next on the list for paint.


The downstairs bathroom. I would love to say that in four years we had updated a bit, but we haven't. We change the curtains and hung up some decor, but that is about it. Changing out the sink and lights was always on the to-do list.

Making some Progress

Well, some progress has been made in the last week. The attic is bare now, and the carpeting has been all removed. Now Tammy wants to keep the wood floors in the living and dining rooms. I never thought I would like it, but I am agreeing with her anyway.

The kids are doing well in there schooling, and Emma keeps getting smarter every day. Monday makes her 2 and 1/2 years old. Tammy got a new camera, we'll try to put it to use and post some pics.