Kind of a big project for an old guy.

[robinson46176]

I've been putting this project off for a couple of years now trying to get some other things out of the way. We have a 17 acre mini-farm in another county with a rental house and an about 43' x 30' concrete block shop building/garage. The acreage is all woods, rocks and river. A long covered bridge crosses it at one end. It is necessary that I now do a major rehab on that house and building. We did a basic rehab on the house almost 30 years ago. I don't recall now but I think it took us about 3 months. Lots of wiring, total re-plumbing, lots of floor/wall/ceiling work. We have done several basic rehabs between renters. Now it is time for a serious rehab.
I don't expect to get too much done in January, I keep a very small amount of heat in it but don't want to near fully heat it if we get a lot of zero weather. I'll mostly start by setting up a bit of a shop in one corner of the current 20' x 20' living room. A Shopsmith, compound miter saw, work bench etc. If temps don't get silly I may get a good start on demolition. I can do a lot of that in fairly cold weather as long as I am out of the wind.
For some reason renters don't do a good job of communicating. I often ask them how things are and they just say everything is fine. Then they move and I find that there has been quite a bit of damage and stuff is no longer working.
I guess a dozen years ago the buildings survived unscathed a huge tornado that took down a lot of houses and barns etc. the local school building that was converted to a house, the covered bridge (dropped the whole thing upside down in the river in parts) now rebuilt and killed one woman about 800' south east of our house. Then maybe 6 or 7 years ago a severe hail storm destroyed one side of the roof. We replaced that side, re-insulated the attic, repaired a lot of drywall damage and carpet etc. This time in addition to normal wear and tear and even excess damages they failed to tell me that surface water was entering the 1/2 basement and in addition they had blocked all ventilation of the basement. I had not been in that basement for almost 5 years. It seems that in addition to replacing the other half of the roof and a lot of other repairs and updates I also need to completely replace at least half of the first floor joist and at least the same amount of sub-floor and floor. Maybe a good bit more but a minimum of around 700 sq. ft. Everything gets new drywall. That will also give me a chance to re-insulate the walls and to carefully check all of the wiring. I updated the breaker box a couple of years ago when the old oddball breaker box started some arcing where some of the breakers plugged in. All of the outside walls will get a vapor barrier which none of them have now (this building was put up about 1835).
While I have it apart I'm going to flip the floor plan. The house sits right on the primary street of the village but the back over looks the river and woods. I'm going to put the kitchen in the front and move the living room to the back so folks can sit there and see the woods and river which is a nice view. The back door will be replaced with a patio door. I won't have to build or move any walls to do it. Neither will I be changing the footprint of the house.
This is likely to consume most of 2018...


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[BuckeyeDennis]

Sounds like fun, farmer ... should keep you young. Be sure to post pics!

[robinson46176]

With all of the sub-zero weather we have been having I've mostly just been working on planing on this project.
I was thinking about which Shopsmith I should move to the project house and decided to take the "Frankensmith". It's an old Mark VII with a Mark V poly-vee (1 1/8 hp) headstock. It's kind of a no-brainer really. I had already pulled it from the woodshop and stored it because I was running out of room for it. It has a new 2 bearing quill. It uses a foot less length space than a Mark V and the old Mark VII's are super easy to move. You just wheel it to (or from) the truck on its wheels then release both pivot latches and lift the top section off to load. If working alone you can release the latch closest to the truck/trailer and tip the upper section uprightish and sit it on the tailgate then release the other end and slide the section in. Reverse to unload. Fortunately at the project house the front entry has no steps and everything can just roll in.
I used to take an old Craftsman table saw to such projects which worked "OK" but with SS SPT's I will have far more capability. Before I did a lot of hand plane work. This time I will just take a SS jointer. A SS jigsaw could prove useful. Other items like the bandsaw, belt sander etc. I won't take there and just leave them but I can always take them there for long enough to do certain projects and bring them back home with me. Lots of things will fall in that category.
I have a roll of white paper and intend to use it to cover the windows on the inside so people can't see inside and see what I have in there. Not everyone in the village is trust-worthy... Most are but it only takes one bad egg and there are a couple in town...


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[Hobbyman2]

That is a big project, our home was built in 1907 , a couple years ago we started on the kitchen, probably the 5th or 6th time it has been done ,went back with 2x6 wall studs packed full of insulation ,gfci plugs through out the kitchen , double pane windows ,had to remove the siding ,, put house wrap on the walls before reinstalling it,brushed on roof tar around the seal plates and the bottom layer of the 105 siding ,, it has been a great investment with this zero deg weather,,, this summer we hope to start the next step ,,,,,the rest of the house, its 2 story with some termite damage to the old seal plates and floor joist ends ,,,and a old foundation in need of repair , so I feel your excitement and your pain , one good thing is you have a SS !
I could have done this project with out my ss but it sure came in handy , remodeled old homes for a living years ago as a young man,,, enjoyed the challenges .now I feel my age. seek help when needed we are not getting any younger.

we went with yellow wood instead of local milled lumber , it is treated and supposed to hold up well .

Seen the guy building those tree houses using it and decided to give it try , wasnt that expensive for what it is.

Sounds like you are building a peace full place to hang a hat .