Front Bedroom AKA Storage Room: Something's Happening

April is prep and planting month. Mostly, I've been busy outside, spot seeding pasture and doing final garden bed prep, but when we had a forecast for three days of rain, I reckoned it was a good time to work on one of my winter project goals, i.e. trying to make the front bedroom functional again. The motive for this is to begin setting up my Glimakra floor loom. 

There have been a lot of steps to reclaim that room as living space. The first (and a biggy) was unpacking, sorting and purging things we simply don't need. Next is figuring out what to do with items we want to keep: mostly seasonal things like space heaters, box fans, beekeeping equipment, soap making supplies, archery items, surplus tincture bottles, etc. With no basement or garage, and limited attic space, I'm thinking our old garden shed may be the storage answer. Except cleaning it out is another big project. 

When I finally managed to clear out the floor space, Dan and I took a look at the room once again. Initially, Dan had lots of plans for this room; he was going to replace floor, ceiling and walls. But after years of focusing on other things, his enthusiasm has become much more realistic. This is actually a relief for me, because I've already waited fifteen years and am not interested in waiting many more! The question now is, what absolutely has to be done?

The windows were replaced in 2016 (front windows) and 2020 (side windows). The exterior siding was finished then, but we left the interior walls for later.

front window

side windows

For comparison, you can see photos of the original room here.

Then there's the floor, which is in pretty bad shape.

If I'm remembering correctly, this is actually the sub-floor, which was probably intended to be covered. I would love to put a hardwood floor on top of it. Even wall-to-wall carpet would help. But for now, we don't have the funds to do anything with it. So I need a temporary solution.

Another problem, is this . . .

The house originally had two back-to-back fireplaces, one in the living room and one in this bedroom. Unfortunately, the mortar in the original chimney was soft enough to poke your finger through, so everything was torn out. You can see the interesting innards of a dual chimney here. 

It would also be nice to do something with this closet.

It's about 6-feet long and very shallow, just 17.5" deep, which is barely wide enough for clothes hangers. The shelves are on one side only. The door opening is 23 in. by 6 ft, so it's awkward to utilize the space. Making it deeper would mean building it out into the room; an idea we've discussed. I think an easier solution would be to tear out the door and wall to the left and hang a pair of by-pass doors. I keep off-season clothing in there, but mostly it's for storage.

Even in opting for the simplest solutions, the ability to actually do anything isn't imminent. In discussing what needs to be done, Dan said he'd be able to work around the loom, which gave me the go-ahead. The room will be finished eventually, but for now, I want to abandon the storage facility decor and make the room functional. I want to use my large loom again. 

For now, I decided to cover the floor with an area rug and there it is. This is actually my old dining room rug, which I replaced with a new, cleaner one. The loom is in the middle of the room, with space to walk around it and get to the windows. There's enough room to scoot it over if needed.

I still need to attach the texsolv cords, which is called "tying up." This connects all the moving parts (countermarch, shafts, lamms, and treadles).

It's a project in itself because everything must be even and level. 

Both Dan and I are pleased to see the loom assembled again. It certainly looks better than piles of boxes! I'd like to weave rugs, draperies, and yardage on this loom and use the table loom for smaller projects such as hand towels, table runners, scarves, etc. (My next planned project for the table loom is a small t-shirt yarn bathroom rug.)

After the windows are finished off, I can paint, which always freshens up a room. In the meantime, though, we can at least enjoy this room once again.

Front Bedroom AKA Storage Room: Something's Happening 

© April 2024 by Leigh at http://www.5acresandadream.com

Sewing Room: Electrical Outlets & Baseboards

You may recall from my last post, that electrical wiring in this room was an add-on, i.e. added after the room was built. Dan contemplated two options for the wiring: either drill holes through the studs and run the wiring behind the walls, or run it along the top of the baseboard and cover it with trim. Then he looked into how log home builders install wiring. In a log home, electrical wiring is run though holes which are drilled lengthwise in the logs. Dan adapted that idea using ready-made tongue-and-groove boards.

First, a hole was cut out for the electrical outlet box.

View from the bottom. The wiring fit perfectly in the board's groove!

Front wall before

After

Besides being the perfect width for a baseboard, the tongue-and-groove planks are much cheaper than the same size plain board. I'll just have to get a primer that will cover the knots.

2nd wall before

After: two sections of baseboard installed, new electrical outlets, and wiring safely hidden.

I now have electricity in my soon-to-be (at least I hope it's soon) sewing room! Then, due to the return of beautiful weather, we were back outdoors again. Hopefully, we'll finish the trimwork the next time it rains. After that, I can start painting.

Next, Sewing Room: Lots of Progress

Sewing Room: Electrical Outlets & Baseboards 

© May 2023 by Leigh at http://www.5acresandadream.com

Rainy Day Project: Sewing Room Walls

Last time, I showed you my cleared out space in the sunroom and told you what I want to do with it. Even though we're in the middle of spring planting and the greenhouse build, there's been time to make a start on the sewing room because everything outside is so wet and soggy from April's parting gift of extensive rain. The goal here is not major renovation, but simply cosmetic. The first step was covering the exposed insulation, starting with the old door. 

This door used to exit onto the front porch. 

We discussed tearing out the closet, but my preference was to leave it because it's useful for storage. It was added after the room was built, we think because the family had three children, two girls and a boy. The house was built with two bedrooms, so adding a closet in this room gave them three bedrooms. 

In some ways, the entire room seems like an afterthought. All the walls in the house are either plaster or tongue-and-groove, but the walls in the this room (dubbed "the sunroom" by the realtors) are plywood. Also, it wasn't built with the electrical wiring in the walls; rather, electricity was added later using exterior outlets and a conduit along the baseboard to cover the wire.

Electrical wiring must have been added after construction.
You can see all the photos of the original room - here.

The foundation and roof give no clues, as they seem to have been built the same time as the rest of the house. Our best guess is that this room was originally part of a wraparound porch. If an additional room was needed, it seems logical to convert part of the porch. The floor was probably replaced when central heating was installed. The house's original heat source was coal stoves in each room, so the ductwork would have been part of an upgrade. There are only inches of clearance under the floor in this room, making it impossible to crawl around under there. So it seems logical that they tore up the old porch floor, put in the ductwork, then installed the floor we have now. 

Anyway, our options for covering the old porch door ranged from tearing off the door trim and trying to match a new wall to the old one, to an inset within the door trim. Dan asked my preference, but since this wall is going to be covered with storage units and shelves anyway, I voted to do whatever was easiest. Maybe one day we'll do a proper renovation on this room and can make a different choice then. For now, here's what he did:

Dan filled in a few gaps with foamboard, then
added a vapor barrier and a board for nailing to.

We priced wall options and chose the least expensive - more plywood. 

Ready for trim and paint.

Then the front wall. It was a little more challenging because the last of the original plywood wall had to be removed. We couldn't match its thickness, and the other option would have been a bunch of shims to try to build it up.

That one strip of remaining wall on the left had to be torn out too.

It was probably just as well, because the old blown-in insulation in that covered corner had settled a lot over the years. Dan managed to not disturb it.

Energy leak at the top where the insulation had settled.

We didn't want to buy an entire new roll of insulation just to cut off a small narrow strip, so Dan filled the gap with a scrap piece of 2-inch form board. 

The foam board was leftover from our pantry upgrade.

Then the new plywood wall.

Ready for trim and paint.

I'll wait to do the painting until after Dan's done with his part. Baseboards and electrical wiring are in this next post, Sewing Room: Electrical Outlets and Baseboards

Rainy Day Project: Sewing Room Walls © May 2023

by Leigh at http://www.5acresandadream.com

House Project: Finishing the Exterior

We had a lot of rain in March, and it was often too wet for digging swales or spring planting. So Dan chose another project from the to-do list - finishing the exterior of the house. It wasn't a huge project because this is all we have left -

The last exterior wall to do, with the original c.1920 windows and shiplap wood siding.

So, while waiting for the ground to dry out, that's what Dan has been doing. 

We started upgrading the siding back in 2011, when we replaced the kitchen windows. We've gradually worked our way around the house, replacing the original single-glazed windows with energy efficient ones and tweaking the wall insulation if possible. Then new siding and trim go up, and we paint. 

Considering how many years this task has taken, we wondered if we could still get our original barnboard siding. And if we could, what would it cost! The sheets we bought in 2011 were $20 each. When Dan went to Lowes to see what was available, the original pattern was no more. But he was able to find a pretty close match, except the cost now is $45 per sheet and the sheets are thinner. We're glad we saved the wall with the least square footage until last.

Dan also wanted to replace the gable vents, but didn't like the price or quality of the ones for sale. So he made his own.

Lastly, the trim got a fresh coat of paint.

The exterior of the house is finally done! It feels like a milestone. There are still two more rooms to finish on the interior, but that probably won't be for awhile. The next house project we want to tackle, is putting up the two extra solar panels we didn't use for the fridge and freezer. But even that must wait when the ground is workable. "Food first," so planting must be the priority.

House Project: Finishing the Exterior © April 2022

by Leigh at http://www.5acresandadream.com

Pantry Project Progress

Lots of rainy days over the past several weeks has meant lots of indoor project days. After Dan replaced that first pantry window, it was time to take down the rest of the old paneling. That meant clearing out the pantry first. Fortunately, it's empty jar season, where we've used up much of last year's harvest preservation and before I start canning again. That made the job easier and faster. It was also a good time to dust the jars and check seals.

The insulation under the paneling was as you see it above, with the vapor barrier torn. Dan thinks it was probably used.

There was an empty gap around the window (expected), but we also found uninsulated gaps in other places, such as between the wall and cripple studs above the window. A number of the batts were cut short.

This is a shot of the uninsulated room corner. What you see between the stud and the corner is the exterior house siding. All of that plus the single-glazed windows explain why the room never felt well insluated.

We left the old insulation batts in place. One-inch foam board went up right over the studs. Next, the second window was replaced.

From the inside.

Dan uses canned foam around the window to fill the gaps and then covers it with window flashing tape.

The next step was deciding how to cover the foam board. Neither of us wanted to spend a lot on this project, so we explored all our options and ended up with the least expensive wall panels we could find.

It's thin, which is okay for us because it's going on top of the foam board which is a stiff surface. It's light in color, which I like, especially for a room which will be kept as dark as possible.

Progress? Slow. Our weather bounces back and forth between rain and sun, so we work outside when we can, and inside when we can't.

Next time, I'll give you an update on our solar-powered freezer and refrigerator.

Pantry Project Progress © June 2020

by Leigh at http://www.5acresandadream.com

The Pantry: Starting on Phase 2

Last summer, I blogged about my pantry problems and plans. The goal at the time was a "solar pantry," by which I meant putting the auxiliary fridge and freezer located in the pantry on solar power. After much analysis and planning, we moved the fridge and freezer onto the back porch and set them up on solar there (phase 1).

Phase 2 of this project focuses on the energy efficiency of the pantry itself. As part of my analysis last summer, I kept track of the pantry air temperature, and discovered it can get into the lower 90sF (upper 20sC) in the heat of summer. Not ideal for food storage.

The plan for phase 2 is to replace the old single-glazed windows with energy efficient windows, increase insulation in the walls, and experiment with passive cooling methods. It's going to be another pay-as-we-go project, so it won't happen overnight. But we've made a start.

Dan started with this wall.

My 4-foot chest freezer used to live along this wall.

Our first idea was to take down the paneling and put this stuff ↓ between the studs.

The 4-foot by 8-foot foam board sheets come in several thicknesses, with this 2-inch having the highest R-value. At roughly $30 a sheet it's pricey, but Home Depot carries it so we could buy a few sheets at a time and gradually work our way around the room. Unfortunately, Dan found it extremely frustrating to work with.

The ad video makes it look super easy to install. The sheets are pre-scored at 16-inch intervals, so just cut and pop in. Except, our studs are 16 inches on center, meaning that 16 inches is the measurement from the middle of one stud to the next. Our wall space between the studs is more like 14⅝ inches. On top of that, it was difficult to cut the foam cleanly, and Dan completely lost enthusiasm for the project after finally finishing that one wall.

So the project sat for awhile, until one recent rainy day, when we headed over to our discount builders supply warehouse to look for replacement windows.

One of two original pantry windows.

We found two brand new, still in the wrapping, energy star rated windows, the exact same size as the old windows, for $80 each. Perfect!

The first step was to remove the window trim and wall paneling.

Old window.

We had the old window removed and the new one installed in less than an hour! That's a first for this old house, where replacing windows usually takes several days from start to finish. Having the same size replacement helps!

New window. The first thing we noticed
was how quiet the room had become!

We have the other window to replace, but also, we have to decide what to do about the walls. Adding the 2-inch foam board is out for several reasons, the first because it was so difficult to work with. Even if we did want it, Home Depot is now out of stock, which no projected restocking date. Another deterrent is that the current batting insulation is stapled to the outer wall, which would make it a mess to remove.

So the plan under consideration right now is to apply 1-inch foam board directly on top of the studs. We'd lose a couple of inches of floor space, but it would still work. The batting is R-11 and the 1-inch sheets are R-5, which would give us and R-16 insulation value for the outer walls. Then we'd have to replace the old paneling, because it pretty much splintered when Dan pulled it off. (Ha! Not heart-broken over that!)

While we're mulling that over, Dan is replacing the window trim on the outside.

Old window out, new window in.
We had a beautiful day to do this!

Besides the walls, we still have to figure out a ventilation system and explore passive cooling ideas. More on that one of these days.

The Pantry: Starting on Phase 2 © May 2020

by Leigh at http://www.5acresandadream.com

Last Exterior House Project

Dan finally finished the front bedroom windows last month, when we had a string of warm days suitable for painting.

The finishing touch will be to build a pergola for each set of bedroom windows. I'll use them to grow muscadines but also to help shade the windows from the setting summer sun. Then there's finishing the interior of that front bedroom, but that's another day, another story.

For the outside of the house, that leaves only one more wall to be done.

This is the last side of the house to be updated, the sun room. The shot
was taken in Feb. 2017, after we finished the front windows and porch.

Above is how it looks in winter. In summer, it's been well hidden by beauty bushes and shaded by a crepe myrtle.

Photo taken summer of 2019. Crepe myrtle tree is on the right.

What we've been thinking, is that perhaps this might be the place to attach a greenhouse.

Detail from our Master Plan.

The current idea under discussion is to use all the original house windows we saved as we replaced them. We'd roof it with transparent panels, have an interior door to the sun room, and an exterior door out the back. The question is whether it will get enough sun. To check that out, one of Dan's winter projects was to  cut down the bushes and the crepe myrtle.

Photo taken last week.

(Did you catch that?)

We haven't had a lot of full-sun days lately, but it appears to get at least 6 good hours on sunny days, parts of it get more. There is still a lot of planning to do, but it looks like it just might do.

A special thanks to Goatldi (New Life on the Farm New Beginnings) for the idea of Meowy's cape and "M." She suggested it in the comments of my "Spring Has Sprung" post, and the idea was too fun to pass up. 😆

Last Exterior House Project © April 2020 by Leigh

at http://www.5acresandadream.com