busted up

Phew. This week was really something. We weren't able to make a ton of progress at Hobbs, but by Saturday evening I was just thankful everyone in my household got in bed safely to start a new day.

On Thursday, Thomas and I both got a stomach bug and Micah babe started yet another cold. Who was supposed to take care of everybody? By Friday all was a little better and we started getting ready for a big work weekend and a family party at our house to celebrate several birthdays. Well, Saturday rolled around and did some serious work on us! 

I spent most of the morning changing Micah babe's diapers and outfits for reasons I don't care to describe. Walker came to help and left sick with the bug. I went out to get lunch and caught my heel on the door and got a big bruise. Thomas injured his right hand removing flooring. More family members got sick and we postponed the party until Sunday. And then I busted my face on a bedpost while trying to watch the babe and throw something away. When I finally stopped crying, we had to laugh. We went out for "Mexican on the Corner" (our fave) and to get Steri-strips for my eye. Thomas said we looked like we got in a fight because his hand was bandaged and my eye was cut and bruised.

I'm thankful that nothing worse happened. And was again reminded about the frailty of our bodies and of this life. My flesh may fail, but God is the strength of my heart. (Psalms 73:26). What a blessing to see a new morning with the ones I love.

In between the incidents, we did learn a little more about Hobbs this week. He really really cared about fastening things securely.

Thomas and Walker began by pulling up the wood floor in the front sun room. We have to turn this room back into a front porch to make it more historically accurate. It's a nice sun room and adds extra space, but there is quite a bit of water damage behind the panelling that would need to be fixed anyway. We will use the same floor system, but add a weather resistant surface. The flooring was very tiny pieces (1x4''), fastened with tons of glue. They had to pry each one up individually.

The wood panelling and all of the baseboards were also all fastened with extreme measures. There were nails about every two inches in the walls.

Thomas calls this the "Hobbs Stud Finder". When he pulled the panelling off of the walls, we found all kinds of holes in the sheetrock. Thomas said it looks like what happens when you miss a nail with a hammer and it goes straight through the sheetrock. He thinks Hobbs was looking for studs in the walls and kept hammering until he found them.

I did manage to find about 30 more minutes for brick-chipping. Looks like my contribution to the project will be a brick walkway. And lots of lunches and babe-loving.

chip chip chip

We have been slowly chipping away over at Hobbs as we wait to get permits to do the really major jobs. While working with the Historic Landmarks Commission has been a surprisingly pleasant process, it has added a few extra steps. Before we can begin applying for construction permits, we had to receive a certificate of appropriateness from the Historical committee. Thomas has attended various meetings to go over plans he drew that included everything from windows to the type of rail on the front porch. The Historic Commission wants to maintain the original appearance of the mill house as much as possible, but they still allow for many updates in terms of materials. Last Monday Thomas met with the Commission and received approval to go ahead with a plan!

Until we get our first permit, we are continuing to work on stripping the house. This week it was my turn to feel like a prisoner doing manual labor. I started chipping the mortar off of the bricks that Thomas and Walker drug out from under the house last week. I don't like to take the babe in the house with all of the asbestos, lead paint, mold, etc., so I need a job to do outside. Since we are going to make the front walkway out of the old bricks, they need to be cleaned and stacked for later. Not the most glamorous job.

Thomas spent the day clearing old plumbing out from underneath the house, reinforcing the floor system and foundation, throwing out materials from the attic, and then cutting old wire out of the attic. He is amazed at how many different styles of electrical wires the house has seen. It is pretty incredible to think about what the house was like when it was built. The first electrical system was knob and tube pieces in the attic that ran a network of exposed wires. While it is interesting to see the development of electricity, we need to get rid of all that excess wire :)

It's hard not to wonder about the lives of all the people that have lived in this mill village for the past 100 years. It's fun to explore a house in search of clues of what it may have been like at different times. When my sweet niece was over a few weeks ago, we were talking about what would have been different about the house when it was built. As I mentioned that there wouldn't have been a garage because people didn't have cars yet, she said, "Then how did they get to Target?" I explained that everything they needed was in walking distance and that believe it or not, Target didn't exist. Everyone worked at the mill and shopped at the mill store which was really small. She then asked, "Costco?" "Walmart?" What a different world it must have been.

from the ground up

Even though Thomas, Walker, and Brite worked hard all day today, it pretty much looks the exact same at Hobbs except for a giant pile of debris near the crawl space door.

Thomas wanted to get the crawl space cleared out before moving on to other structural improvements. All of the plumbing and air ducts were under the house, as well as an entire HVAC unit. We will eventually re-plumb the house, so more space to work will be important. And we will re-install air venting in the ceiling, so it is no longer necessary underneath.

To start, they cleared out the old HVAC unit, which left a big hole in the hallway inside about 3'x4'.

They drug out all of the old air ducts.

And then it was time to clear out other debris. Underneath the house the dirt is very clumpy and rocky. There were tons of old bricks and some old cement. In several parts of the house the dirt touched the support beams under the floor. (There were also bones from several dead cats, but that's all I have to say about that). In order to have space for new pipes, all of this junk needed to come out. Thomas also wants to insulate the floor and lay down a plastic vapor barrier, which requires a more even surface as well.

So these boys invented a system. They used the bucket of a wheelbarrow with a rope tied to it to load and drag the debris. I thought they looked like they were trying to dig out of prison :)

Meanwhile, above ground, my dad was visiting and helped pull nails out of air vents and lots of baseboards.

My sweet babe spent the day recovering from an ear infection, fever, and upset stomach. His Granna came to play with him and cheer him up. It was nice to have a visit from Granddaddy White as well. His career in architecture and his eye for the aesthetics of buildings always prove helpful.

Progress at this stage seems much slower. We have to keep chipping away at these tasks before it's time for the big demo of the front porch and back room in a few weeks!