one step forward...

...two steps back. We have had a few weeks of making some progress, and then realizing twice as many things that need to be added to the list.

We did take a teeny break to celebrate Micah's first Thanksgiving.

Then right back to it! One of the biggest steps forward was finally getting the permit. Thomas continues to be pleasantly surprised by how little trouble he has with both the Historical Society and the permitting office. He has found that people are really on his side and willing to help explain parts of the process he has never encountered before. We have had two inspections already. Which resulted in one step back of having to bring in a structural engineer for additional advice on the integrity of parts of the house. Which then resulted in digging and pouring more footings.

Thomas and Brite spent another whole day trying to clean out the attic. Thomas found a giant snakeskin. I did not go up there.

He finally finished the major demo work so the studs were exposed in every room. That progress brought the tedious task of pulling nails off of studs and the discovery that the window frames sit at the wrong place and the studs aren't even. Which means several extra steps to add new boards to the existing studs so that they are straight across for the sheet rock to lay flat.

Removing the ugly brick-patterned linoleum in the kitchen revealed pretty good-looking wood floors. That unfortunately have very mismatched patches in them.

When Thomas took down the tile ceiling in the front bedroom, there were hundreds of nails in the sheet rock. He tried to decide if he should take down the sheet rock and totally redo it, try to spackle the holes and repaint it, or remove the nails and then put a new layer of sheet rock over it. 

Our friend Mariano has been helping us and did the difficult job of removing every nail!

Mariano also finished stripping the front porch that we will replace.

Thomas and Walker spent a couple of days removing the wall between the kitchen and living room to create an opening. Then they put in a wall that will hold the bar counter.

This little fellow has been a handful. Although a sweet handful :) Another looong round of ear infections meant several trips to the doctor, several antibiotics, and eventually tubes in the ears. It also meant he needed a lot of attention so I couldn't participate much in the project. So far.

Another unfortunate discovery as we removed the final layers was a completely rotten corner in the back bedroom closet. This is looking from the kitchen toward the back bedroom and laundry room. The floor and several supporting beams were rotted by water damage. The wood just crumbles when touched. We have had to give a lot more attention than expected to reinforcing the floor and studs.

During another work day, Thomas' dad and brother in law helped with adding studs, fire blocking the floor, and framing the wall we are adding to create a hallway off of the living room. None of these jobs are easy since the house is so out of level and the walls aren't square. Each board has to be carefully measured.

Thomas built the frame for what will be the front wall and door jam once the sunroom is torn off. In this tiny space there is a 1/2 inch of fall, which made measurements very difficult. He only had to make a few adjustments to his original plan ;)

And I'll close by saying...Merry Christmas from the Whites and the Hobbs house adventure. Thanks for sharing it with us!

inspector thom

We are still in major demo mode. It has been so interesting to learn about the construction and history of a house by taking it apart. We are now down to the first panelling layer and it is amazing to stand in the house and wonder what the lives of the people were like at that time!

Every time I go to the house, Thomas has a new hypothesis. He keeps piecing things together based on what he knows from our house, Hobbs house and local sources. It is really fun to imagine how many phases the house has been through and all the additions as it was modernized.

I actually think it would make a fascinating tv show. Thomas could be the host and travel around dissecting houses to learn their stories.

This would be Thomas' press photo for his show. That is, if he doesn't get picked to be the next Chanel No. 5 model first.

I'm not exactly sure what my role can be in the show. Although it would certainly involve lugging a large baby around.

This weekend Thomas worked by himself to clear out the bathroom and the front bedroom. It's a good thing we decided to just get rid of everything. He found a mouse nest underneath the bathtub and black mold growing on the sheet rock near the chimney.

There is so much debris! We just got our third dumpster delivered.

This is the front bedroom without the built in closet and sheet rock. Thomas thinks this is the original interior panelling.

And the bathroom without all of the fixtures.

Thomas also made good progress on the back bedroom. This was the built in shelving over the bed. It was difficult to get out due to the ridiculous number of nails holding it together.

Thomas said that 4 nails would have kept this board in place because gravity was holding it down anyway. It really is uncalled for. Unless Hobbs knew something about Pineville that we don't know.

So at our current stage, here are a few interesting notes.

This is the front bedroom with some of the original panelling. It obviously goes behind most of the interior dividing walls. Because of this and the way the roof pitches are built, Thomas thinks that the original house could have been much smaller and just a box. 

In our house there was obviously a chimney where the bathroom now is. This could have been the center of the house at one point. We will never really know, but Thomas keeps gathering clues :)

This is also the front bedroom. The original window was probably much bigger since a different panelling has been patched in around the current window.

This is from the bathroom looking into the back bedroom. The panelling clearly goes behind these walls and was there long before the bathroom was built. Thomas thinks that plumbing was added sometime around the 1940's.

The back bedroom with more of the same panelling and patches.

This is also the back bedroom. At one time there was a window when this was the back wall.

This is another chimney that was in the corner of the back bedroom near the closet. There is a similar one in our house. Thomas believes this chimney is not the original as it has no opening into the house. It was added to vent the furnace when it was installed after the house got electricity.

This is looking from the hallway into the main room and kitchen. Where the hole is in the floor was once the fake fireplace in Hobbs house. However, Thomas wonders if there wasn't once another real chimney here for cooking and heating. Underneath the house was a stack of old bricks and the floor system was modified for it.

These two photos are looking back towards the hallway and bedrooms from the main room.

We still haven't found treasure, but the search for clues in the story of the house goes on. And maybe one day you will learn more on the "Inspector Thom and the History of a House" show.

re-beginning

Well, let me explain...

Thomas has been super busy at real work.

And we got to take a Fall beach trip to Charleston with the White side of the family! It was pretty cold and super windy, but nice to get away and be together.

Micah babe dressed very warmly for playing in the sand. Seriously. He wore this on the beach. But he loved feeling and tasting the sand!

Thomas spent the last 3 weeks trying to get downtown to the permit office, but couldn't take any time off from work to go. He didn't want to do too much work at Hobbs and get in trouble with permits later. We will be completing the project in two phases/permits. First we will work on remodeling the current structure. Then we will work on removing the front room to meet historical standards and repairing/expanding the laundry room into another bathroom and a mud room.

Last week, Thomas finally had enough time to obtain our first permit. So Saturday morning he was ready to begin demo in the kitchen and main room. He woke up at 5:00 am. When I got up at 6:00, he was standing at our front door, looking out the window at Hobbs house. He reminded me of a kid on Christmas morning waiting to open a present. He was so excited to re-begin :)

The kitchen cabinets and appliances came out relatively easily.

As it turns out, the beams that we thought were plastic in the kitchen were styrofoam. It will be nice to have real materials someday :)

The "fireplace" did not come out easily at all! Thomas took this photo sequence of Walker trying to attack the fireplace with a 20 lb. sledge hammer. He said it just bounced right back. As it turns out, each plastic brick was individually glued to an incredibly sturdy structure.

Thomas says he is getting a little tired of Hobbs' obsession with fastening things.

The boys spent a lot of the day taking down layers of sheet rock, plaster, etc. The goal was to get the walls down to the studs so that they are ready for new electrical wiring.

I am amazed at how much better it smells already!

One of the last tasks was to remove the drop ceiling in the living room. Once again, it was very securely built.

It was surprising to discover that the wall paneling and the fireplace bricks went up to the original 12 ft. ceiling. The drop ceiling must have been a much later addition and was probably to preserve heat, considering it is one of the only parts of the house that was insulated.

It was also surprising that the original ceiling looks great underneath. A few patches and new paint should do.

By the end of the weekend we almost filled a second dumpster. I love how the insulation looks like pink icing on a cake. 

And here is a peak at what it looks like now as we were showing Jan, Hugh and Micah babe.

Today was Thomas' birthday. And all he wanted was to go tear up a wall after work. So I took the babe for a walk and he went to swing a hammer. What a different time of life :)