Liloia.com

Vermont Fall

It's fall in Vermont when the trees turn RSS orange.

Computer Wall

Trevor walked into the kitchen to find me, sharpie in hand, drawing out plans for the appliance and pass-through layout on the wall.

"We can draw on the walls?!" he asked.

"Sure, why not." I answered.

The "I Can Draw on the Walls" dance ensued, followed by several Strongbad cartoons in which Strongbad was kicking Homestarrunner (*sigh*) and this little masterwork in the corner.

That boy needs to get offline.

Lean-to

We didn't really notice the lean-to until the third or fourth time we were at the house. I think we had even put an offer on the property at that point.

It sits up against the two-story barn and is right now filled with old tires and metal sheeting. Now that the high grass and hay has been cleared away, we found a stack of gutters and an old cast-iron tub against the back side of the structure. The tub was apparently used as a cow trough. I wonder how it will feel about a new life as a planter.

The back of the lean-to will be a compost pile. It's expensive to get rid of your trash out here, so burning and composting save tangible amounts of money.

Open Floor Plan

The first floor looks much more open now that the wall between the living room and kitchen is gone. We're going to keep it as unrestricted as possible by adding a pass-through instead of putting back the division, but this means installing headers in this load-bearing wall.

Someone had previously opened a five-foot section of the wall for a doorway; however, two 2x4s wasn't quite enough to hold up the top of the opening. It now sags visibly in the kitchen, and upstairs the bathroom slides to one corner. We'll be closing up that section and making sure the house is shored up properly in that area.

The neat thing about balloon framing is that you can throw things between the studs upstairs and they end up downstairs. Saves trips on the steps.

Beating a Rainbow to Death

Life of Pi by Yann Martel:

"I took the hatchet in both my hands and vigorously beat the fish on the head with the hammerhead (I still didn't have the stomach to use the sharp edge). The dorado did a most extraordinary thing as it died; it began to flash all kinds of colours in rapid succession. Blue, green, red, gold, and violet flickered and shimmered neon-like on its surface as it struggled. I felt I was beating a rainbow to death."

Mold

Sometimes we say to ourselves, "Are we wasting time and money taking down walls that have drywall over plaster? Shouldn't we just paint the drywall and move on?"

But then we find something like this:

A big patch of mold under the chimney opening that would have been festering under the drywall. Blech. It's gone now.

Surprise! A door.

Well look at that. You pull open a perfectly solid kitchen wall to find... a door. The new doorway doesn't really change our plans, but if it had just been about three feet to the left, it would have been in the perfect spot to become the new bathroom enry. Maybe it'll become half of the new patio doors.

It doesn't even go to Narnia or anywhere good. Just the backyard.

Setting a Trap

What do boys do when there's no television or video games? They dig large holes and cover them with sticks and grass to trap unsuspecting adults.

I think I like television better.

Notched Joists

This can't be good.

I read somewhere that you can cut up to a three inch hole in the center of a ten-inch joist, as long as you're at least two inches away from the sides of the board and 18 inches away from the ends of the joist.

This white pipe would have easily fit through a three-inch hole in the center of the board. But I guess cutting a huge pyramid out of the wood, changing the floor joist from 10 inches wide to 2 inches wide, works too. It especially works if you want your eight-year-old to fall through his bedroom floor into the kitchen intermittently.

I'm trying to figure out how to fix this. Suggestions appreciated.

Cherries

Under the painted drywall is was a layer of cherry wallpaper. I like it. Reminds me of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. I want to lick it. But that would probably be bad.

Well-Seasoned Wood

Say it with me:

"I will not put wood that has been seasoning outside for five years into the lath-burning pile."

After five hours, I had burned through ten cubic yards of lath, but the one piece of old outside wood I had tossed in was still intact and smoldering intently. It'll be great for a wood stove or fire pit, but not the trash fire.

Fireboy

We assigned Trevor to tend a small fire for the remaining lath. He stood by that fire for three hours and vigilantly stamped out stray embers while adding wood. He said it was the coolest job ever.

Barn Roof

We've traded this roof (in great condition, just not attached to a barn) for driveway gravel and lawn mowing. The neighbor taking the roof did a very thorough job on the lawn -- he even moved all of the junk that was in his way... and there's a lot of junk in our yard.

The new driveway gravel is dark bluish-gray and looks great next to the gray house.

Shoveling Coal

A neighbor dropped off a load of gravel this week in exchange for the collapsed barn roof. We asked Trevor and his visiting friend to spread out the pile onto the driveway. They asked if it was coal, and I said, "Would it be cooler if it was coal?" They nodded emphatically. "Then it's coal," I said.

Kitchen Cabinets

I had no idea before this project that kitchen cabinets are the price of a mid-sized sedan. And I'm not talking about mahogany beauties topped with granite countertops. I was quoted $12,000 (that's twelve THOUSAND dollars) for white laminate economy cabinets with a Corian countertop. Twelve thousand dollars for particleboard and plastic. Not a catalytic converter or transmission in sight. That is criminally wrong.

So I walked over to the off-the-shelf cabinets and redesigned the kitchen using the manufacturer's templates. I even added extras like open china cabinets, glass doors and a large pantry. The new total? $1,700. Yes folks, you pay $10,000 for the convenience of preassembly. Frankly, I'm not that picky.

Barterin'

Amazingly, there's a neighbor nearby (we use that term loosely on the island) who asked for the 30-foot metal barn roof. We engaged in a little friendly bartering and he'll be helping us out with some lawn mowing and gravel for the driveway in exhange for our intact barn roof.

He'd like to build a garage and we'd like to have grass that's lower than three feet tall. Everyone wins!

Can one add a tractor mower to an Amazon wish list?

Camp-Fire

On our way up to the house this Friday, we were driving up Route 2 in South Hero (near Keelers Bay) and saw a fire alongside the road. We pulled off the road and ran up to the scene to see if assistance was needed. The fire, albeit small compared to the house itself was already out of control and begining to consume the house.

We asked the gentleman there is he needed help and what happened. He never actually answered if he needed help, but did tell us that it started because he was burning some brush near the home and it "got away from him". Apparently he isn't all that quick because it got far enough away that the house caught fire. This home was their family camp for many years and he was just doing some clean-up around the house.

After a few minutes, Chris asked him if he thought the fire would spread to the surrounding woods. His response? "You think?"

We left soon after mostly because we were bored, but also because the fire was begining to get out of control. And by the way, I called 911 to let them know about the fire, and the South Hero Fire Department tried to argue with me that the fire was under control. Apparently people on the scene count less than a dispatcher miles away. :)

No Smoking

If you're ever in a quandary about whether to allow smoking in your house, come out and smell our dumpster. After five days of heavy rain, you can still smell the acid tang of smoke in the pile.

On the bright side, the house smells better.

Great Find

This Friday night Chris and I made a most excellent find. While working in the attic (which the previous owners left a ton of garbage in) we found an old photo album.

Here is an interesting shot of what looks to be a hunting trip where they nabbed at least one rabbit and a duck or something else feather-y.

This one at first looks to be an interesting shot of a woman smoking a cigarette, but as you look at it more you realize that this is more likely a man dressed like a woman. So interesting.

Grain Shed

OMG, what if I need to call the grain shed?!

Phew, there's the number written on the kitchen wall for any grain-related emergencies:

Main Street: Then and Now

Main Street - Date Unknown

Main Street - 2006

Laminate Countertops

It's more green than the web photo shows, but this texture will hide dirt and scratches like nobody's business.

Window full of flies

I have only heard of one house with this many flies in the windows... and it had a portal to hell in the basement.

Which begs the question -- how do you insulate around a portal to hell?

Demo Jersey Style

This week my awesome cousin Chris has come up to:

a) Hang out
b) Fly fish (what?)
c) Help demo some more of the house.

This is totally awesome because mostly it gives me the motivation to go up there every evening to make more progress wheras I would have just stayed here and watched endless episodes of "Ace of Cakes" or watch reruns of Battlestar Gallactica while I wait for the new season.

Last night we tore down the third ceiling on the second floor....

- Drop ceiling in two rooms
- Drywall nasty ceiling in all rooms
- Crumbly Plaster one

Needless to say it was a messy job.

This Old Barn

Dave has claimed the garage and Trevor the potting shed, so this little barn is mine. Among the issues that need to be addressed:

-- Dry rot in the loft joists
-- Window openings with no windows
-- Random strings of live Romex hanging from the ceiling
-- It's full of nasty junk
-- Cobweb city
-- The door fell off (and is now positioned like a drawbridge you cross to get into the barn)
-- If there's a floor under the junk, I guarantee it's sketchy

What the barn has going for it:

-- Those are whole tree trunks holding up the walls
-- Hey, it's already wired for electric!
-- Roof & walls are in good shape
-- Lots of heavy hooks and chains for tying up livestock and children
-- I found a yoke in there in case I run into any un-yoked oxen
-- The sheer force of my will holding it together until the spring when we get to the outbuildings

People keep calling my little barn a teardown. Oh no no no. Get away from my barn. If it doesn't crumble under the weight of the first Vermont snowfall, it's mine.

Paint

Kitchen

Living Room

Master Bedroom

Trevor's Room

Vanity

It dawned on me today that instead of expanding the master bedroom by several feet and adding a reach-in closet, we could expand the bedroom by just a couple of feet and create a walk-in closet.

The wall on the right
will be moved out to create
a larger room and a closet.

The idea seems decadent, but it makes sense for what we use. In our current bedroom, we had a full-size bed pushed against the side wall, leaving a large open area in the center of the room. Guess what that open area ended up filled with 99% of the time? Trevor's toys. When I redecorated a couple of months ago, I put a king-size bed in the center of the room and we don't miss the open space at all.

The new room is a foot shorter in both directions, but the computer desk will be moved into the office, freeing up several square feet. We can also bring the wall out to make the new room the same size as our bedroom now. A walk-in would be fantastic, especially because there's a window to work with for natural light. It's a good spot for a vanity so I can brush my wet hair in the morning without driving Dave crazy.

Being Neighborly

A friendly farmer with a tractor came by on Saturday and mowed a great deal of our overgrown lawn while Dave and I worked. He was born in the house and shared a bunch of stories about the place. The upstairs rooms were called the North, South, East and West rooms. His grandmother used to candle and sort eggs in the dark basement. The front porch used to be all windows.