We have purchased a vacation home in Bucklin where Marcia is from and I like going out there to just 'veg out'! Warren and I have completely gutted it and now it is time for Marcia to do her thing with it as Warren and I start the reconstruction part.
We will put some pics on here when we have time.
This was a repo house. It had termite damage in the past but no active termites were found during the inspection nor by us in our tearing out. It has more damage than we expected but nothing that we can't fix. When it is done, it will be a tip-top house as far as the construction goes.
Our HVAC, plumber and electrician will put in two steel beams replacing the three 2x10s supporting the floors new as one of them has some damage and Marcia wants the area open whereas now there are a couple of supplort columns.
We tore out all of the lathe and plaster except the closets and the wall heading to the basement. We have built back a wall the previous HVAC installer cut out for a return air and left only the lathe and plaster holding up 5 feet of bearing wall!
Marcia wanted a pocket door that we removed from the wall between the kitchen and dining room used somewhere so I suggested we build a kitchen pantry where the back bathroom door was (it had two doors) and put it there. She liked that idea so I built a false wall to house the door in the bathroom.
It will have new HVAC, plumbing and electrical plus sheetrock and insullation throughout. It will have new Anderson windows. There will be a seven foot opening from the living room to the dining room where I removed the bearing wall and installed two 12" microlam beams. That continues on into the kitchen through a bar area where a wall was and there is now two 10" microlam beams forming a soffit to attach cabinets to over the bar with hanging lights. In the dining room was a built-in hutch. Marcia is looking for 41" maximum width hutch she can buy to put in there. If she doesn't find one, I will have to build one!!
From the living room to the hall to the bath and bedrooms is an opening that will be increased to about 36" in width. It will be whatever width I have room for!
The bedrooms remain about the same except with more outlets and the closet doors increased to 48" and 56" in the master. There were two 28" doors on them that had built in mirrors and Marcia wanted to use them so I will build a frame for our bedroom to accomodate them. Warren's room will have a standard bi-fold door.
The bath had a nice tub from 1926 and Marcia wanted to keep it so she will clean the calcium deposits off and it will be in great shape. I will install an antique single handle valve to top it off. We will eventually replace the comode with something more period. The original was remove in the past and a simple modern one put in. There was a 42" wide cubby that we will put a Swanstone shower in. That will match the Swanstone sink basins Marcia already bought.
We also already have the sink cabinets plus an 18" wide tall cabinet for linens, towels, etc.
We have picked out the kitchen cabinets and had Lowes design them in. We just need to go back and tweak them once we get the size of the kitchen determined with sheetrock attached to the walls. I think we have it but want to be sure before ordering them!
At the front of the house is a foyer leading into the living room. It had nice french door which we saved and will reinstall. The framing was eaten up with termites so we will replace that half of the wall and put in two 10" headers instead of the one that is there now because it is a bearing wall.
It has a fireplace that has been converted to gas. It is pretty plain and we will leave it that way for now.
There is a back patio that was enclosed years ago and after we get the rest of the house done, we will do some updating on it. It has knotty pine which we will probably leave but they didn't remove windows from the bedroom, kitchen or bath when it was installed so we will have to enclose those because Warren and I removed them.
There were a lot of things that weren't done right by past remodelers and we will correct that. The roof is fairly new however. It has a one car garage that we will put new doors on eventually.
The basement is partial but there is no evidence of any leakage so we will eventually make that a partial living area. The HVAC will be in a small existing room and the water heater, softener and other stuff in another room. That will leave a room about the size of the living room to do something with. In the water heater room is an old double utility sink with two sets of faucets. We are saving that.
The yard will need some work but that is Marcia's area. Unfortunately, western Kansas is pretty dry and not being there will require a drought tolerant landscape. We'll see what Marcia comes up with!!!!!