May was a month of checking off big boxes. The three big projects were patching holes in the main room floor, removing the asbestos siding, and tearing off the back porch.
Thomas spent several evenings removing planks from the bedrooms to patch holes in the living room. He and his little helper glued in piece by piece to make a solid floor that is ready to be refinished once we are done painting.
Micah has started looking for his daddy over at Hobbs. He will go to the front door and point to the house or take off across the street whenever he can.
Removing the asbestos tiles from the house took a lot of research to do correctly. Thomas found one landfill that accepted this type of material, and had to take the pieces off, wet them, put them in a plastic bag, double bag them and zip tie them. It only took a morning to complete the demo, but made a 2,000 pound load to haul off.
We wish the original wood panels were in a little better shape, because it still looks pretty cool. But several places around windows were previously patched, and we didn't have the material to do the porches once torn off. So for now the house is wrapped in plastic like a big present, and we will put vinyl siding up in a future stage.
My mom and dad visited to lend a hand this weekend. Dad and Thomas removed the attic entry door and patched the back of the house. Then they carefully tore off the back porch while saving the ceiling and roof structure.
One of the reasons we had to remove the room was the failing foundation. This corner is a weight bearing column that isn't even supported by the bricks beneath.
Since mom was around, I got a chance to work on a project while she played with Micah. I (and the boys) primed each one of the 50 slats for the front porch floor.
Through all of the work we are trying to keep perspective on why we are doing this. It's a lot of work, but our goal is to have an investment that sets Micah up for school some day. We have been talking a lot about selling or renting when we are done. We would like to rent as a long-term investment, but we will have a lot of emotional attachment wrapped up in the house and it could be hard to see someone not treat it the way we would! Recently, Thomas said that he has come to the realization that as soon as we are done fixing it up, it will start breaking down anyway. No matter who lives there or what we do with it. It's sobering to think of this constant cycle of life. What better reason do we need to enjoy the work we have?
