September 2, 2015 - Summer is slipping away...and so is our old kitchen.

So now we're into September and the race is on between chilly fall weather...and a weather-tight house. Part of the renovation is a whole new heating system. We're actually installing two new furnaces that will work in tandem - one runs for a week and then the other. During the coldest days of the winter they will both run together. A computer dictates which one runs when and when the temperature is cold enough to require both to be running. This is a more economical way to heat the house since two small boilers use less energy (running alternately) than one large one running all the time. We also discovered that the wall next to the deck was basically being supported by two 2x4s - and nothing else (due to a lot of rot on that wall). That's not a lot of support for a whole wall that's also supporting the room above it. We supported the ceiling with jack posts and cut the two 2x4s. I have a video showing how flimsy the wall was. A very large steel beam arrived today that will create all the support we'll ever need for the upstairs and the roof. Check out some of the most recent photos below:

Although not actually part of the renovation, the front of the house got a face lift as well. All the white trim was painted, we decided to ditch the shutters and go for a more traditional New England look and I finally talked Mike into letting me cut down the two giant Cedars that used to flank the front stoop. I think John Dickie - from The Briar Patch Nursery - summed it up best when he said that those trees had simply outgrown their location. The Cedar shingles that were under the shutters are a different colour than their more weathered counterparts but that will quickly change. In a year or so they will be a perfect match.

The demolition of the old bathroom started with the removal of the - never used except to wash the dogs - bath tub. Besides finding the remnants of a mouse habitat (along with the remnants of one mouse) we also uncovered the old base of the original tub that predated the one we removed. We know that the old original tub was poured porcelain (like the base of the shower) but was destroyed when it was removed decades ago. We had also been told that there had been a foot bath near the shower but we couldn't find any trace of that.

The wall's coming down. Only the mortar backing for the old tiles and the original medicine cabinet remain. It took days to chip away all the old tiles (two layers) and then the mortar and wire mesh that they were cemented onto.

This is the first load of old heating pipes and insulation that was removed from the basement. We're running all new heating lines with more efficient materials.

The vanity is gone and we've exposed the old white tiles that were in the original bathroom. On the right you can see the mortar and mesh that held them in place for almost a century. If you look closely you can also see that the tiles on the floor are identical to the tiles that were in the kitchen. Both rooms - this bathroom and the old original kitchen - had about 5 inches of cement under the tile floors.

Here you can see where the sill (which had rotted out) was replaced with these timbers and insulation strapped together. The floor joists of the deck will eventually be bolted directly to this beam. This is also where the new French door will be installed that will lead out to the deck.

This is the beam that was delivered today. It will go across the ceiling and create the basis of the support system for the other half of the kitchen, the upstairs and the roof. Given the size of the house, a beam of this size was required. Installing this may also help to level out some of the floors upstairs. They will never be perfectly level again but we knew we would never have straight floors in a 100-year-old house and were fine with that. It adds to the character of the house.