Rome wasn't built in a day

...and neither was Hummingbird Farm.

There has been some activity at the Farm since the last post, but not much.  Ghon has been busting his butt removing layers of plywood over 2x4s and various other shim wood off the living room floor. It's taken quite some time since the initial peak back in October.

After removing the layers, Ghon has probably gained at least 2 inches of height in the room, which is important since Ghon's head pretty much touches the ceiling in spots.

This week was a big week in the renovations preparations.

On Wednesday, Feb 20, we had a 30 cubic foot dumpster delivered.

Then on Friday, Feb 22, I met the delivery guy from the lumber yard. If Ghon's calculations are right, this should be everything we need to support the floor joists in the living room, sister the joists, frame the room, and even a few beams to increase the chicken pen.

Next weekend is our big Demolition Party. Ghon and I are both taking off work Friday to get ready and do some work. We have a baby sitter lined up for the kids on Saturday. We'll be doing a BBQ dinner for everyone that comes to help. Right now we are expecting about 10 people helping. We'll be ripping out drywall in the living room and dining room, removing the shower wall, trashing and pulling carpets that remain, dumping furniture left behind, cleaning out the attic and hopefully building new walls.


After the lumber was delivered, I took a few 'before' pictures:

Living room - looking at the old front door - that is now a side door - facing a creek. The wall between the door and window was where the old staircase was that was removed and caused our structural damage. You can also see the slope in the floor.

Work in progress: removing lumber from the floor and posts supporting the ceiling. The white on the walls are the original logs!

This view is from the dining room into the living room. There is a step up through the French doors and into the room. The living room is/was the original log cabin. Ghon has traced it back to the mid-1700's. The dining room section of the house was a later addition.

From the dining room, there is a full bath. The full bath upstairs only has a standup shower - so the tub will likely be replaced, but will need to remain. The vanity is going, the cabinets on the left are going, and the little closet will likely become a full length closet.

A view of the dining room from the kitchen doorway. The bathroom is behind the white door.

The opposite wall of the dining room. The white door on the right, with two steps, leads to the stairway to the upper level. The door on the left is a very small nook/closet. The HUGE mantle is actually from the living room fireplace and we believe is original. The darker color mantle with the white - is a closed fireplace. The fireplace, which we later learned cannot be made functional, is a pass through - it opens in the kitchen as well.

 And this - is the kitchen. Our plan here is to completely refinish the floor and replace the cabinet fronts.  I found a penny floor on Pinterest that I loved. We are planning to finish the kitchen floor with pennies! I can't wait!  The window over the sink looks into the laundry/mud room. The large window is not the appropriate size or shape, and Ghon wants to replace and put a  more appropriate window in; same with the window below, that looks onto the front porch.

This weekend, Ghon was hoping to secure the living room floor from inside the root cellar and begin supporting the living room ceiling/second level floor joists. We were very fortunate to have our friends Steve and Kevin give us a hand today with this task. While the men worked, the kids and I started cleaning up junk through the backyard and making LOUD noises in the dumpster. After the magic hour to have a controlled burn, Ghon started a fire and I burned a ton of wood from inside the house.

 Ghon and Kevin were working in the living room while Steve was in the root cellar, helping to level out the floors.

After the work was done, Ghon took the kids for a little ride around the property.

 Both kids loved riding the four-wheeler around the yard.

Tomorrow, Ghon and I head back to the house to clean-up and clean-out and possibly start securing the broken floor joists in the living room. Later this week, I hope to post pictures of the upstairs rooms.