And Now for Something Completely Different....

This past weekend was a holiday weekend, so we did just that: took a holiday from working on the house. I realized that it has been 6 weeks since we really started tearing this place apart, and we're almost to the point of being able to put the pieces back together!

Though we did not do any work, we did have a team of contractors on site to get some of the heavier lifting done. Our front walkway was concrete, but the tree roots in the front yard had really done a number on them, raising and cracking a number of the pieces. These aren't the best pictures, but you can at least see the walkway and how close that one tree is to it. 

The walkway that ran between the garage and the house was pretty bad as well. We think that the previous owners had used a great deal of salt during the winter to keep the walkways clean, because the garage wall adjacent to the sidewalk is actually eroding. We're gonna have to add that to the "to fix" list that keeps growing...

The contractors came in with an excavator and a jackhammer and chopped the concrete to bits. We now have mud pits around the front of our house, but we've got plans to take out the trees and re-do the walkways.

The excavator was pretty busy this week. In addition to working on the walkways, it did some needed work on the foundation of the barn. 

We have a barn, by the way :)

It is in much better condition than it may seem. Dad hired a team of Amish men to fix the barn during the crazy warm winter we had. It has a new roof and new supports and floor where it was needed. A chicken coop on the other side of it was torn down, and the collapsing wall was repaired. There was one part of the barn that they were not able to fix, due to a huge tree that grew right into the foundation. Our contractors took out the tree stump that had pushed the foundation wall into the barn. 

The Amish team is coming back this week to repair the wall using the old stone that was there.

These guys are completely amazing for the work that they do!! After they have finished, the barn will be suitable for animals. Dad has had a few people ask him about renting space in it for their horses, so it looks like there is a good chance we may have horses in the barn soon! Right now we are using the upstairs of the barn to hold furniture that has been given to us, as well as furniture from a few college students while they are away for the summer. I'd much rather put animals in there, maybe someday we'll have some of our own :)

The other big news this week was the addition of our downstairs bathroom. Oh the drama surrounding this tiny little room! The contractors finished putting up the walls and roof over the new bathroom, but promptly had to take them down again because they did the floor incorrectly.

They put the floor at the same level as the living room floor, so that once the sub floor and the tile went down, you would have to step UP to get into the bathroom. Dad wasn't very happy, so he made them re-do everything. It's all set now, though we were disappointed with how small they made it. Not sure where the miscommunication was on this one, but we're going to have to do some serious finangling to get a shower, sink and toilet in this room!

The other "fun" thing about our new bathroom is that it is right smack in the center of the living room wall. We were under the impression that we would put the door to it in the corner of the room, but instead it looks like we'll have a door in the middle of the wall, which completely throws off the way we were going to set up the living room. Dan and I have to sit down and draw it out to see if we can make it work as a living room. There is a good chance we'll have to turn it into the dining room. Grrr and bother. We'll see where this goes.

Lots of fun coming this weekend! My brother Jake is coming from NY to help on the house. He is pretty fantastic at this type of thing, so having him around for a few days will be a huge help!