House Archives Part 3

It’s January 2008 and time to go back to work…  First the beam enclosures in the kitchen, then the horizontal trim at the base of the second floor railings, trim around the beams and the finish trim around the outside of the stairs… tedious! It is wonderfully amazing how much of a difference that proverbial “quarter round” makes: Since we’ve worked on this house project for so long we stand in awe over the whole thing. Unreal, but wonderful this mansion that He provided for His children! I am reminded of my friend Muazzez’ words just after the flood:

 “Ur and Ellen’s new house will be more great than old house, I’m sure of that. May be God wanted to make u and Ellen more great house owner so make old house lost, see? We cannot know God’s happens…it is a balance of God! That flood will make u and Ellen a new beautiful house! So we say thank God only.”… 

   

   

   

            Progress in the master bedroom is proceeding at a rapid pace: it looks like we’ll be vacating the unfinished upstairs bedroom sometime in February. While Ellen is working at the finishing of the dry wall, I’m in the shop making and re-making the trim for the closet. : Re-making” because most of the trim is what was salvaged from the old house and the guesthouse. Once it is installed and painted one will be hard pressed to recognize the individual parts that once graced the other dwellings…

   

   

Two by sixes that once were part of the old house are now up on the ceiling in the master bedroom to receive the walnut beam enclosures.  The wood for the beam enclosures came partly from the old bedroom beams and partly from the walnut tree we accidentally cut down when we were helping a friend clear some land a few years ago… All of the salvageable materials of the guesthouse will be used to finish the new house.  Painted

   

poplar trim was remade into shelf supports and peg racks for the master bedroom walk-in closet, living room floor particleboard will be used on the floor in the new master bedroom, NOTHING is going to waste!

Here it is, the second week in February and the once cozy little guesthouse is looking like IT went through a flood…. Walls have been stripped in the living room, floor covering has been removed and it won’t be long or the whole structure will be so un-repairable that it will be removed from the tax rolls. That’s the idea! Who needs a run down guesthouse for company when one has a “mansion” with two extra bedrooms?  What a life! :-) 

            In the middle of February 2008 winter returned with a vengeance: there was lots of snow and rain up North, temperatures plummeted below zero and the river came up to 25+ feet. The Wabash surrounded the old house again, “Donker Bay” froze up and Ellen

   

   

   

ever the hunting Indian put a net in the yard/river… From “atop” the new house the old house, in all its demolished state looks pitiful and rekindles memories of the flood of 2005, seemingly a life time ago… Now that “Donker Bay “is iced over, we could charge admission to our private skating rink…. Nah.  Since the weather is not exactly conducive to outdoor activities, we’ll just keep working on the master bedroom. The walnut beams that I made a few weeks ago are now installed, the shelves and hanging rod brackets are installed in the walk in “his ‘n hers” closet and things are moving FAST! They better, as the carpet installers are coming on the 27th of February and things had better be ready for

them!  Even though they went through the flood the curved walnut closet doors that I made twenty some years ago did not suffer any damage. The re-installation of the curved

   

   

 top and the door jambs took some doing, but since all the pieces had been marked as they were removed from the old house, the job did not take too long and when all was done one could hardly tell that this was the second installation of all the pieces. Things even were improved upon as the old doors did not have proper doorstops, don’t ask why, I don’t know either…. They do now and in spite of some discoloration at the very bottom and a drying crack in one of the panels, the doors are none the worse for wear and look GREAT, again! Salvaged poplar floor trim was cut down to size, shaped and sanded and then installed in the closet. The rest of the room will receive the fancy walnut floor trim. A lot of that old trim survived the flood and even though I’ll have to make a few more feet, the whole bedroom, when finished will be ALL walnut, including the furniture. The ceiling of the bedroom was rough spackled and painted, the walls are next in line to be

  

finished, then the trim around the windows and we’ll be ready for that carpet. Then we get to MOVE IN!!  The last week of February called for some long, labor-intensive days:

The Monday before the Wednesday when the carpet would come found us both burning the proverbial “midnight oil” as this that and the other thing needed to be done before the room was ready for the carpet.  Sara came over and lent a hand cleaning all the “crud” from the armoire, the curved doors and the other walnut cabinet. Those items had been in storage for two and a half years and were in dire need of a good cleaning. Ammonia and water, elbow grease and then a finish coat of “Watco” oil, made everything look beautiful again.  None the worse for wear the armoire, doors and Ellen’s walnut cabinet sparkled once again and were ready to move into the finished bedroom just as soon as the carpet installers left. We pulled it all off and when the Hader Brothers of Sullivan, Dale and Tom, arrived Wednesday morning with the carpet the room was ready! It did not take the

  

   

brothers long or the pad was down and the carpet followed soon thereafter… The whole installation only took about three hours.  Afterwards Dale helped carry the heavy walnut armoire to its new location… Wow!! The curved closet doors and the armoire never looked THIS good! Better get going on that window and floor trim!

 

Plans of having the master bedroom   and the computer loft finished before Christmas fell by the way side… There was just too much to do, between Sara and Elias vacating the guest house  and  moving into their new house. A bit of tiredness came in to play too as we are both longing for some “rest and relaxation”. This constant working on the house for the last two years is getting to us! Enough already!! We are quite comfortable in the part of the house that IS finished and just need some time off! So there!  One of the things that we wanted to accomplish was to get ALL our belongings into the new house, so that all those boxes scattered hither-thither and yon would not have to spend another winter in unheated storage areas.  As we brought boxes to the house the spirit of Christmas began to materialize and Ellen decided to decorate the house for Christmas like only SHE can. Wonderful to see those old familiar wreaths, decorations and the crèche again… It had been awhile! Of course the railings and banisters just cried out for garlands, so it was off to the store to purchase some more “green stuff and ribbons”.  And a few MORE things…. After all this house is bigger then the old house and there is  more  to  decorate …

   

   

There was this small cedar tree in the yard that had been designated as the 2005 Christmas tree. Of course the flood pre-empted the cutting down of that tree until 2007. It had grown a bit taller, but in the new house the nine and a half foot tree looked fantabulous. Especially after Ellen installed about 1000 miniature lights in it. Wow! The circular train track  too came out of storage and  the “Dixie Belle” once again chugged around and around the base of the tree. When all was said and done decorating-wise, the house looked wonderful and we relaxed for the first time in a long time.

   

   

The windows sparkled with their stained glass decorations and the crèche, filled with the  Fontanini figures that we purchased eons ago looked even better in it’s new location

   

Christmas dinner started off with shrimp cocktails, followed by prime rib, new potatoes and asparagus.  Apple salad and a bottle of wine complimented it all.  Having retrieved it out of storage, the table was set with Ellen’s  Pass  those  potatoes please!

   

   

…and then there was cheesecake for dessert, a game of Scrabble AND an important announcement :  Sara and Elias are expecting…  “Merry Christmas everyone!”

   

   

Afterwards there was a mess to clean up and a return to working on the house.  Oak beam enclosures are next on the cabinet shop work schedule, while Ellen “attacks” the drywall in the master bedroom.

        

There are two “beams” (just  bare 2x10’s, actually) in the kitchen itself and a “transition beam” between the dining area and the kitchen. For almost a year a  permanent  marker  note has reminded me that “this”(above, left) part is to be covered with oak… It took some careful machining to make that “beam” look like a beam on the kitchen side, matched with the Western Red Cedar on the dining room side…In the meantime Ellen donned the familiar dust mask again and started the “hateful” task of sanding the drywall filler in the master bedroom. Ah, but it is going to be beautiful!

   

   

Like the cherry beam enclosures in the living room, the enclosures for the kitchen are made and finished  “on the bench”. Installation, thanks to those nifty “Third Hands” (lightweight adjustable floor jacks), was a snap and the end result looks pretty good even though the cove molding is not even in place yet…