Le Cotage Conversion- Breaking Down Walls

Originally, when you walked in the front door you saw this. This is the living room. To the left of the window was a gas stove. Through that arch and to the left was a bedroom. Through the arch straight ahead was the bathroom and to the right was a bedroom. Now, imagine being on the other side of this wall in the bedroom...

That wall is now bare naked studs. Harris is in the bedroom and Morgan in the living room. They are tearing down plaster walls which is not like modern dry wall. Tearing down dry-wall is like a vacation after tearing down plaster walls. 

 Here is the before picture of the corner with the gas stove. It will be moved downstairs.

Here is the after picture of that corner. If you've ever built a house, you may notice something missing inside those exterior walls. If you said insulation you were right! I bet this house was very, very cold in the winter. I bet the inhabitants stayed right next to that gas stove.

Before that bare naked stud of a wall could come down, Jake had to install a beam up in the attic. (No, this is not the beam, or the attic.) While he did that- and Harris said it was very hot up there- I and the tweeny-boppers got to vacuum the floor joists in the basement. Those are the up and down boards of wood that hold up the floor on the main level. You probably have some in your house, too! To be more clear, this is the ceiling of the basement.  I took this picture to show something that I don't think is done very often any more. See the gray stuff on those boards? That's concrete. Any guesses as to WHY floor joist boards would be covered in concrete? They were first used to form the concrete foundation walls, then used to hold up the floor. I know my environmentalist friends are feeling all warm and fuzzy right now. We cleaned up all the cobwebs and dust so that Jake can spray Kilz on the wood to kill the smell of a damp 1937 basement.

Here is the new beam in the attic.

FINALLY the wall could come down. We are so happy about how this has opened up the space. A little recap: The original bedroom had two windows. We closed them off (I'll explain why in a minute.)--- you can see them in the walls. We cut out part of the wall and added double french doors. The french doors open up onto the back deck. What once was a bedroom will be our kitchen. That's why I needed to get rid of the windows, so I could have cabinets on the walls. The original living room will still be the living room.

Le Cotage Conversion- Adding More Texture

 SOrry it's been so looong since I've given an update on the house. This here is not the best picture, but the house is in constant stages of variance which prevents any good kodak moment. As you can see, Jake built a fine front porch which had to be stained and then oiled. After a trial run with using lattice for the deck-skirting (I HAVE ALWAYS HATED LATTICE) we finally came up with a MUCh more attractive option---- cedar fencing.





Here are some children trying to make fire with wood. It was amazing how long they kept trying and how they would come up with different methods. No luck, tho. (Thankfully)

Here, the foundation walls are being covered with something similar to stucco. This stuff actually has more of a rubbery quality which is supposed to behave better with the expansion/contraction that happens in our climate. I like to call it adobe.

Le Cotage- New skirts and earthy hues.

Window skirt BEFORE.

Window skirt AFTER.

 Here is our beautiful custom-made carved door.

 BEFORE

AFTER

Le Cotage- Well, it's a window well.

BEFORE- Not even an opening for a window. This was the first place where Jake cut a window opening, remember?

AFTER- A lovely 4x4 egress window and a nice deep window well. Around the window well will be concrete (higher in the corner and then lower to the right towards the driveway) to help shed the water away from the house.

AFTER- Future driveway.

BEFORE- West side.

Northeast corner.

South side. Jake had the old deck already torn down when he remembered my request that he take a before picture. It was covered and ran from the garage to the left edge of the french doors and came out ten feet. There weren't any stairs. The square to the right of the french doors was a window and the only door on this side was the one close to the garage.

Now he is building the new deck. Yay! We were able to use most of the boards from the old deck which saved us a grundle of money. However, the ends needed to be cut off so the new deck is 8 feet wide instead of ten. The kids worked hard to get the old nails out of the old wood. They earned an ice cream from Rulon's Burger Barn for that. The stairs will come down directly opposite the french doors. Oh, FYI- the single french door near the garage goes into the master bdrm, the double french doors go into the kitchen.

Le Cotage Conversion- Tear Down the Walls

Okay, we're actually only tearing down one wall to make an open floor plan. This wall is not like modern dry-wall. It's a fiber-board covered with a heavy plaster which actually contains a tiny aggregate. (Tiny rocks) It is heavy stuff and much more difficult to tear out.

When the wall was covered, I was hitting directly on this thing and not getting anywhere. So I hammered around it and uncovered this thiNG. What the heck is it, you ask? That's exactly what I said. It is an illegal junction. What could this little box have possibly done that is illegal? It's hiding behind a wall. That is a no-no. So, according to my general, in terms of electrical wiring and plumbing, this house will be like new construction.

Hard, dusty work! The studs can't come out until Jake puts a new beam across the span. Can't wait!!!

Le Cotage Conversion- Man vs Machine

 This is a 20 yard dumpster. It costs $450 every time they empty it.

 We have not yet had it emptied. Can you guess why?











(Cuz it gets packed down with a backhoe.)

 In case you didn't notice, that is Anthony operating the back-hoe. It is not as easy as Jake makes it look. When Jake operates heavy machinery, it's like an extension of his body. When you want to move your arm you don't ever have to think, "Which way do I push the two levers?"

 Anthony did alright. No damage was caused to the dumpster and now we can fit more stuff into it!

 Here he is. Our 17 year old boy. He's left-handed. (So is our youngest son.) He is a third degree black-belt. He will be a senior in high-school this fall. It will be his last year of being a running-back for the Star Valley Braves.

 He has just been called as the first counselor in the Priest's Quorum, which makes him an assistant to the Bishop and also automatically places him on the Youth Committee.

He gets to drive around in that pride-mobile you can see in the background. Seabring convertable.


We'll have him around for one and a half more years. Then it's off to serve a two-year full-time mission for the Church.


It is nice having a strong young man around to help us.

Le Cotage Conversion- Go John Henry

Jake finally gets the first window opening to the point where we can use a sledge-hammer. Here is cousin Bill. I even tried it!

Here's Bub. Hey, batter, batter...

SWING!

Lest you think this is easy, that hammer is super heavy...

... and that wall is solid concrete with even more solid rock embedded in it!

Here's Porter. This is about as high as I could get it too!

Way to swing that iron!

Of course Coley has to try it.

Jake finishes it off. First window down, two more to go.

Haven't you ever wanted to kick a hole through a wall? He went clear through 2 sheets of dry-wall.

Now we're going to PUNCh the wall.

Ready, set...

Bill, telling me where Anthony is going to punch through.

He did it! There's his black-gloved hand and see the piece of dry-wall flying to the left peeling back paper with it?

This is so much fun!