1907 Oregon Farm House Renovation

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The Outside
(newest pictures on top )

This used to be the master bedroom addition on the manufactured home we lived in before we finished the house. I guess technically its not part of our old house, but in a way it is. It is located about 10ft behind the house and will be part of our yard area. We took the front porch off the manufactured home and attached it to the addition and then added on to that with part of the old deck that was on the back of the manufactured home. We are adding a full bath on the interior and a place for a microwave and a small (dorm size) fridge. overall its 15ft wide by 22ft long.



The front of the house now has a huge rhododendron to help ground it, eventually there will be more of those, a pathway around them and stairs from the deck to the path.



The landscaping has begun. Kass laid out the flower beds and Rick, Alex and Jayden helped build the rock walls. Still have some work to do to complete it but we have Flowers! Kass even installed a sprinkler system.



THE PAINTED HOUSE (ok it needs one more coat and some touch up, but for now its painted!)



Rick worked all weekend on laying the plywood subfloor for the upper deck. We also laid down heavy tar paper (felt paper) to help keep the lower deck dry, eventually we will put some "proper" decking down but for now this will do. To make the mortgage guy happy (and the county) we had to put approved railing in front of the two doors leading to the upper deck until we can get the railing built around the deck itself.


Rick,Kass, her brother Kevin, her dad Fred, her son Rick, and her daughter Alex spent all day Sunday finishing the paint on the exterior of the house.

While Kass was priming her son Rick and his friend Brian put the first coat of paint on the upper level. No more haunted house!

	On March 13 (Friday the 13th!) 2009 Kass finished the last of the priming on the house. Below you can see Fred operating the tractor rig he devised so Kass could get three stories up to paint!


Which do you like? We can't agree on how to paint the trim around the front door. UPDATE: After several opinions and votes we have opted for the all cream trim as in the picture on the left!

Kass and her dad, Fred spent the morning repairing the soffit on the left side of the chimney. They also finished covering the chimney chase and installed the missing eave trim boards.
	After lunch, Kass scraped and prepped the wall for primer. She managed to get the entire side ready for primer but didn't quite get the whole side primed, not too much more to go. Kass' son Rick and his girlfriend Erin came out and painted on the front of the house, the blue now has one coat and the windows are now red.


Over the weekend of February 20th & 21st we finished priming the second story of the deck area of the house, and Kass' daughter & her boyfriend Ben Liechty began painting the front of the house. Above Ben uses his height to his advantage. Right Alex demonstrates her keen supervisory skills.


	The house is starting to look a little less haunted. Rick, Kass and her dad scraped and primed the lower level front of the house today, Only 2 1/2 sides to go.


On February 15th, we finished putting in the floor joists we had on hand. Above left Rick is cheking level on the joists to be sure we have a slope away from the house. Above right looking up at the Spare Room door through the joists.

We did not have any 12 foot joists or we might have finished the section on the corner, and we were just seven ten foot joists away from being able to finish the rest of the deck.

Still, it felt good to get what we had put in place and we can feel the deck beginning to come together after all this waiting.
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Above left: the area outside the Master Bedroom is good to go. Above Right: good to go, but I'm not walking out there just yet!

Rick cuts off the excess beam while Fred lends his...assets.		Rick nails in the brackets holding the beams to the posts.
	Fred trims off the area where the bracket will mount to the beam.	Rick holds the beam steady while Fred maneuvers it into place with a self made boom on his tractor.

At the end of the day the framework is complete and ready for the joists!

Kass worked the last couple of days framing the deck railing for the lower deck. With the help of her dad, she finished it today. Now we need to either get siding or plywood for the outside to "close" it in to make it "code". There will be a 5 ft stairway on the side of the deck and a six foot one on the front of the deck. As soon as we get enough "man power" we will set the beams for the upper deck.

	Upper left the repaired eaves boards, left Big Rick saws off the end of the deck beam with a hand saw, above Fred sets a string to find our deck level.

On the weekend of February 1st, 2009, we went back to work on the deck, putting in the four posts across the front of the deck and the ledger board across the front of the house. Over the last weekend we had completed the siding and repaired all the eaves boards along the wall by Jayden's room and the Bathroom & Master Bedroom.


On Sunday October 26th Rick & Kass, with the help of her dad, her son Rick, his friend Brian Shanniak and Big Rick's friend Ezzat Hawash, we completed the frame for the lower deck!

Jayden lounges on our -almost- completed deck, October 26, 2008.


Kass and Fred worked Wednesday Oct 14, 2008 on getting the holes ready for the footings for the deck. Rick, Kass's son came over after work and helped finish them. Rick, Fred and Jayden shovel dirt and gravel around one of the footings before compacting it. Jayden shows us his scary halloween face as he stands in one of the footing holes!

	Kass tried her hand with the compactor, it works well on the gravel but gets stuck on the dirt (aka mud) so Fred has to help her pull it around.
Even Jayden got to try it out, he was quite the little helper today! We had the building inspector out and we passed with flying colors so now we can build the deck!


June 15,2008 Rick finishing installing the door from the Master bedroom to the future deck. He also replaced the missing siding on the wall around the door.

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On the weekend of April 27th, we managed to get most of the ditches completely filled in and leveled out. First by Kass & her dad with our tractor, and even more nicely by neighbor Erin McCart with his tractor that has a power down feature ours lacks.

Above you can see some of the propane vent pipes that are being run out of the Basement. Left we've laid out some driveway fabric to put down some gravel to get to the back door. Below more of the smoothed-out dirt that was back-filled, and the retaining wall built from rocks Rick dragged over for Kass to lay out.

On the weekend of April 12, 2008, we finally got to fill in some

of the ditches around the house! Luckily for Kass she didn't

have to do it all with that little shovel! :) Left she's digging out a

small section for a drainage pipe. Most of the area here was

filled in with large scoops from our tractor!

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On Leap Day, Fred ran conduit for the electrical. Once we get the line in, we plan to be able to hook everything up at once!
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February 24, 2008 could probably be best described as a day that we meant well. The plan was to dig a ditch from the old house to the manufactured home and run the conduit for the incoming electrical lines. Unfortunately we ended up severing the water line and septic line! After a little more digging we managed to reconnect the water line, and we added a junction on the septic to hook up the first floor drains to the septic line!

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We did get to test the power on some circuits, and on our way back from Home Depot for parts, we discovered that the first light in the house to be left on was in Jayden's room! <grin>

The first gutter on the house (since it was built with wooden gutters) went on the lower section of the back of the house. After much pondering the gutter installer decided that he needed different equipment to do the rest of the house because of the slick metal roof, steep pitch and wide eaves...so they will have to wait for a future date in the spring time..

On the weekend of December 8th & 9th, Rick, Kass & Fred repaired all the facia boards in preparation for the gutters to be installed. They also managed to repair and rebuild the turn around section on the left of the chimney chase and put the roofing back on it as well as putting up the eaves boards on the section too. .

We also managed to put up some christmas decorations while we were up on the roof. :)


Fred and Kass waited for the inspector to give the "OK" and then they started closing in the chimney chase.	They managed to get two sides done before the wind and rain started to hit them, then they decided it was time to quit for the day


	On the weekend of November 4th, Rick, Kass and Kass' dad Fred worked on the Chimney & the Chimney Chase. Left Rick cuts one of the braces (See guys, I really do work on the house!) above Kass & Fred with the completed top frame of the 'chimney'.


After a bit of wrangling the frame is put in place and two precut sheets of plywood are screwed on to it.


	Above Kassandra waits for her dad to come up and give her a hand wrapping the chase in tar paper. Left Fred is up while Jayden holds down the tractor.


	Left and above, Fred & Kass staple down the tar paper to the chase. Right, Kass heads down leaving the wrapped wrascal waiting for inspection.


Above you can see the installed chimney pipes for both the fireplace insert and for the woodstove to go in the Basement. Below, supervisor Kass peeks out over the peak of the Roof to cut a hole for one of the pipes.

On the weekend of October 27, 2007, Rick & neighbor Erin McCart cut & primed new trim boards for the recently restored Kitchen window.


LEFT: Little Rick spent a day up on the roof painting the dormer RIGHT: Alex, Erin ( Rick's girlfriend) and Rick's friend Brian started painting the west side of the house, they almost finished this one section, the girls were not quite tall enough to reach the middle however.

On the weekend of March 3rd & 4th, 2007 we were able to piece together siding for the Bathroom wall and installed the window.
Kass secured the boards from the outside as Rick cut them to length and handed them through the wall to her. We managed to get them done all the way from the bottom of the window in Jayden's room up to the top of the wall. It's much more colorful for now, but will look better once it's primed and painted.

With leaps and bounds it's coming together!

Kass redid the siding on the entire wall around the Living Room door, and then Rick helped with the extremely long pieces of siding at the bottom of the Parlor wall, and then at the top of the Parlor wall and along the bottom of the Bathroom and Jayden's Room

It is SO NICE to be in the house and not see.through the walls any more! We need a taller ladder to complete the siding around the new bathroom window which Kass put a second coat of paint on today.

Parlor Wall, Jayden's room & Bathroom wall

02-10-07

Okay, so we haven't taken down our x-mas wreath yet, how many of you still have one up on your door in February? :) With a longer ladder we can finish the siding around the Bathroom, and once we put in the doorway in the Master Bedroom, we will put the final piece of siding at the bottom of that wall. We have the window that will go in the room in the Spare Room, and glass for the missing pane in the Parlor near the center of the picture.

January 21st we completed the siding around the windows and installed the replacement windows around the fireplace.

('disorgnized' by location)
Fireplace

	On January 14th, 2007 Rick & Kass framed in the chase for the soon to be chimney! Kass also managed to get some siding around the left window.


Rick and Kass worked one afternoon on framing in the walls for the new fireplace	A few days later and a few degrees cooler, Kass put the roof framing on.

Kass and Fred braved the 30 degree snow and ice and put the plywood on the framing for the fireplace.

Front


Getting ready for the big move! Kass & her son Rick cover the glass windows with plywood to protect them during the move.	Kass placing a board over the Parlor window. While the larger tree branches on the route were cut, many will flex out of the way.


We spent all day (8/14/05), clearing brush from in front of the house. Now you can actually see it as you go down the road. You should see the faces of people as they drive by who didn't realize there was a house there before!	The fireplace side of the house looks quite odd right now. We tore down the fireplace leaving a hole in the wall from floor to attic. You can also see the repairs to the wall: we replaced rotten boards and actually added headers!


Here is a shot of the front wall after day one of Dean Hansell of Hansell Construction having worked on it. He & his helper already had the wall up and in place with some supports to hold it till they finished the job the next day.	The front wall repaired! It looks so much better. From the inside you cant even tell it was ever separated! He left it as shown so we can attach our upper deck once it's in place on our property. This was one of Kass' fears of the house; she had a nightmare it fell off even!


Here we've removed the remains of the front porch. Some boards from the porch ceiling were saved to replace missing soffit boards.	Kass' son Rick & his friend Brian Shanniack cut up the growth in front of the house to cut off a beam we will use to hold up floor joists inside.


Not much of the front of the house is visible through the trees & shrubs which have overgrown the property on this side. Here you can just see the Attic dormer.	The porch roof collapsed. There used to be a walkway area through the door seen here from teh Spare Room. We are hoping to locate pictures of the original roof from friends here.

Close up of the fallen front porch. You can see that the wall was pulled away from the sill but otherwise looks in good shape

Right Side

On the weekend of 9-10-2006 Kass & her dad Fred Kirchhofer patched up the nail holes in the shingle roof we uncovered over the bay window, and replaced the few damaged shingles along the bottom edge and the top row that was removed some time ago. Once we paint the shingles it will complete the roofing for the entire house! We plan on painting it the same burgandy as we used on the Back Wall for the accent trim pieces.


Above you see Kass overlooking her latest flower bed. This one is formed with rocks similar to the ones that served as the original foundation for the house. We promise to get better pictures soon as this was just as the project was starting, and as our hands became dirtier, the less we wanted to touch our digital camera. :) Below is a shot of Kass and our son Jayden getting rocks with the tractor, and Jayden offering to bring more dirt over with his 'tractor'. He's such a good helper!


Here's Kass' son Rick. He took on the task of removing the old fruit shed behind the house.	Off to a quick start he removed the roof over the breezeway between the shed & house.

Armed with a chainsaw and a sledgehammer, he managed to remove about half the shed.	At the end of day one, mom approved his progress, and looked forward to completion.


Day 2 Rick decided he was through playing around and went to town!	With a mighty heave-ho, or a push on the throttle, he knocked over the last of the shed.

The shed didn't stand a chance.	The end was quick and painless.

It was all over except for the clean up.	Which he helped with too!


Here's a shot of the outside. The boarded over Kitchen window, stairwell & Alex' Room windows	Here's the same wall with a shot of the lower stairwell bay window. Rick likes the look of the roof over this window.

Left Side

The new sill plate under the Bathroom & Jayden's Room went in nice & smooth. With the interior repairs coming along, this wall is almost ready to have the missing siding replaced!
Unfortunately the rot in the framing affected the window above, and we may have to take it out to replace the top board of the window frame. The weights were still there though.	We framed in for a new window on 3/20/05 along with most of the wall on the 2nd floor. New rafters above too.


We removed the window framing and reopened the doorway from the Living Room on 9-26-04, reframed it on 10-11-04 and put in a temp door on 3/20/05.	Here's Kass approving the ceiling joists going into the Parlor. You can just see her dad's head poking through the hole in the wall. This was where someone creatively (?) had the Bathroom plumbing exit the house.


Here's the lower part of the chimney. The boards on each side covered missing windows in the Living Room.	View of the chimey. You can almost see the roof damage on the left of the picture for the Master Bedroom.


Timbers rotting out under the Living Room. This is the worst damage in the house that we are aware of. Luckily, they will be replaced by the new foundation and we need not worry over replacing them.	Same corner after repairs have been made. We've framed in where the door once was and replaced the joists & sill plates. This section is now level again! Feels good having this fixed up so far! A sign of things to come!

Back Wall

	June 11th (Happy Birthday Alex!) we began putting on the roof to the lower half of the back of the house. As it would have been very hard to paint & repair the area there once we put the metal roof on, we decided to finish the soffitt boards and Alex put PAINT on the wall! We had briefly discussed a color scheme and Kass went down and picked them out this morning, and now, voila! Close ups below.
	We finished the tarpaper and started the roof as shown above, the color scheme is a dusty blue, with cream trims and a burgundy/plum accent. I'll post the color #'s once I get them in the house.


A view of the back of the house. The boarded over window on the left is part of a bathroom they added on what we think was the original pantry. It's obvious they made it smaller and the boards there may be re-usable for damage on other walls if we restore the window.	Here is the stepping stone just behind the house that has the names "Betty", "Lulu", and "Jack" inscribed in it. Lulu and Jack were children of Nora's, but we don't know who Betty was. We plan on preserving the stone and keeping it with the house when we move it.

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Warped by Ratt Sass Productions - Last Updated 09/01/09