Taking down the Chimney

I was not sure about this at all.  But Rich assured me that it wouldn't be so very hard.

And so we began on the 2nd of November.  Of course we started this and the Bank Appraiser showed up as we were working.

I can say that this probably wasn't the best and most beautiful way to present our little house.  But we needed the chimney down and the weather was nice.

Here is a reminder of how things looked on October 3rd when I began to remove the old garden I'd let go to weeds this year.

And so began the chimney adventure.

First Rich started at the top.  Talk about making me nervous!

I was rather surprised at how quickly it went.

And I was surprised by what how it looked underneath the blocks.
Rich noticed that indeed the previous owner had a chimney fire at some point. 

The blocks were brittle and really no longer useful anyway and this was a project we'd anticipated doing eventually.

Morris of course, supervised.

It definitely looked like a real mess to clean up.

But now there was a long hole in the siding of the house that we had to cover before the weather turned bad.

Rich also had to do some patch work on the roof where the chimney had been.

By late afternoon we finished.

He got the skid steer and we cleaned up the majority of concrete and chimney liner pieces.

And now the house is sealed off and we await the next step.

The appraiser had said that a downstairs bedroom and a basement would significantly increase the value of the house.
Otherwise he was rather mum as he poked around and took photos.

He did say that he thought we had the perfect location.

And I can agree with him on that.

Moving along slowly...

When the house is remodeled and resided I will be making a new garden around the house.
I felt that moving these hostas and the annoying day-lilies would get them out of the way once work started.

Little did I know that it would take at least 4 to 5 wheelbarrows worth of plants.
I moved them to another spot where they would survive until I decided if they would fit with our remodel.

I am sure thinking of some nice perennials and mixed with four o'clocks, cosmos, and other wonderful annuals...they would look great along here.

We have some of the iron wagon wheels which I'd like to set up for climbing plants such as morning glories.  Not sure where those will go at this time.

I used to load my yard with flowers.
This photo is from my film days...1998!

I can say that at one time I was a domestic flower person.  Until I met the wild ones in the woods.

However, as I try to go to sleep at night, I try to imagine how I can landscape around the new addition and around the new porch to make this wonderful little place stand out more.

Here is a photo I took of the house last week.

It is an infrared shot, more in the line of artistic photography than of just documentation.

You can see the house needs a lot of tender loving care.  With Kurt's help, we'll return this house to beauty.

It will no longer be a home in severe need of TLC, but a beauty.

The paperwork has been done, it awaits at the bank and now we await the appraisal.

I cannot wait for work to begin.

Currently I am doing some graphic art to design curtains and even the shower curtain.

Today we signed the contract...

Kurt from Crooked Creek Construction LLC came by today with the contract for our addition.

We discussed a few things like flooring for the new part of the kitchen and how to transition it to the older part of the house.

Our next trip will be to the bank with all of our paperwork and get the ball moving on a loan for the remodel.  

I am really looking forward to getting a 'real' kitchen and some more room in the Little House.  It is somewhat of a big step for us.

But the roof is starting to look pretty nasty.  The shingles don't look like they will last another winter.  Truly, this Little House needs work.  Having nice windows that don't leak will be another great bonus.

Our heating for this house isn't much per year because it is so small, but improving the insulation all around with new windows will make our heating costs even less.

So onward!

Little House Update

Remodeling was supposed to start as soon as the road bans came off.
But unfortunately we had to postpone the starting date because of a health issue.

So for the moment, we are hanging in limbo until we find out a bit more about that.

In the mean time I am still going to take shots of this little place in preparation of a remodel anyway.

The roof, siding, and windows need to be replaced no matter what.

We also discussed the porch as must have.  It looks like I'm going to delve into some DIY remodeling for the inside.

I said before that I was tired of my dreary kitchen.  If we can't do the addition right away, I still want to make it look brighter and cheery!

I also would love to do the same to our 'West' Wing, more commonly known as the tiny living room.

The old brick wall and brick floor is a 'must remove'!  I want to pull the paneling and replace it with something light.
Oh, the dog stays, I'm not changing him.

A Little Bit about the Little House

I looked up the Appraisal from 1998 and found the following information about our Little House...in our Big Woods.

The Little House was built in 1982.
The house currently measures 20X26 downstairs with a half story upstairs.
According to the appraisal the downstairs has 520 square feet and the upstairs has 312 square feet.

Part of the remodel will consist of changing the bathroom.  

It really does need a face lift and has for a long time.  

A huge part of the remodel will be the addition on the north side.  This will add space for a 'real' functioning kitchen.  I will add that I have made this one do since 1996.

Your eyes do not deceive you, that is the whole kitchen.

Here it is from the back entry.

And a view from the 'dining' area.

You might be saying that this is a small space and you are quite right.  We love our Little House.
But I really am tired of brown.  The brown Zbrick, the dark brown cupboards, the pretty ugly wall paper and the brown brown brown ugly ugly flooring.

I'll refer back to these photos later as things change.  But you just have to agree we do live in a beautiful spot.

We are secluded and enjoy our privacy.

I've been sorting and tossing stuff I have in the kitchen and it is amazing the amount of 'stuff' that a person has and doesn't use.  So this process of the remodel is also consisting of me going through all parts of the house and doing a serious sorting job.

I bought some large plastic tubs with lids to move things into during the process. Since I've never gone through an actual remodel before, I'm not sure exactly what to expect.

However I will say that Kurt & Jesse [Crooked Creek Construction, LLC] have been very good at helping me visualize what will happen as we go along.

I need to take some photos from the north side of the house so you can see what it looks like currently.  

I'll be doing that for my next update.

This Little House

Instead of trying to separate my Mulewings~ Blog from all the daily ramblings, I thought I'd dedicate this blog for at least the summer to the remodel of our Little House.

Some would call it a cottage, some would almost classify it as a Tiny House, but we just call it home.

It was built over 30 some years ago by a bachelor who intended to be the only person living in it.
He actually put a bathroom and septic in when he decided to sell it to my husband.

The outside dimensions of the house are 20 ft X 26 ft.


The remodeling will start as soon as the ground has settled and the road bans for our area have been lifted.

Here is the house from our south side view.  I picked it because it isn't full of mud like our north side view.  The color of the house in case you are wondering is Barn Red. I painted it 15 years ago with barn paint.

The windows are in poor shape, the roof needs a lot of care, and we will be adding a porch to this side and 10 ft to the north side.

Kurt Swenson of Crooked Creek Construction, LLC. will be doing the work. 

I'll add other photos of portions of the house that will be remodeled soon.

Here is the house today after we cut down one of the pines that would have been in the way of the new porch.

Here is a shot of the house in the summer a few years ago when we let the mares into the yard to graze.

So the Little House is going to get a face lift and addition, plus some much needed TLC.