Showing posts with label restoration. Show all posts
Showing posts with label restoration. Show all posts

Wednesday, July 30, 2025

Fortifications


WHEW! I've spent over a week playing concrete mason every morning, as so much of the old stuff around the house has broken away, some quite severely. A couple of buckets of Quikrete down and probably enough sweat to fill them both (it's not exactly chilly outside). It does feel like I've spent an awful lot of time heading back and forth to Lowe's lately...
 
I have a little more touching up to do, but I think the most extensive work is finished. And yes, I'm keeping myself very well hydrated, thank you so much.
 
Everything else out there is certainly keeping hydrated. Every day for almost a month now, we've had big rains, frequently with accompanying thunder and lightning storms, and all that water is washing away tons of the topsoil around our place. As a result, a couple of trees have fallen in the surrounding woods, one of which came down partially in the driveway. Thankfully, it didn't do any damage to the house, although there's still quite a few nearby that could...
 
To top it off, we need to have some gutter work done as well, as the existing ones haven't been able to keep up with these blasted deluges.
 
As they say, it's always something....

Sunday, May 28, 2023

The Restoration/Updating Continues

View of the living room as Mom had it for many years
The restoration/updating of the old homestead hits another milestone — the removal of wallpaper, repainting of rooms, pulling of carpet, and refinishing of the original hardwood floors is finally complete. Not to mention all new plumbing (the old galvanized pipes were had reached the last of their death throes) and a new roof. We still have a ton of stuff to do before the final move, especially prepping the Greensboro house to go on the market, but from this end, there's something akin to light at the end of the tunnel.
 
I was all set to keep the work going at a strong pace, so I came up on Thursday to get a head start on the weekend. Then... boom... I get hit with a miserable stomach bug that is just now beginning to abate. No food other than a half bowl of soup and a piece of bread over the past three days. I'm feeling better, and I've been able to eat a little today, but I'm so weak, just going from one end of the house to the other about does me in. If I can keep getting a little nourishment into me, maybe tomorrow.

The walls painted (courtesy Standalone Kustoms), the carpet removed. The original hardwoods were deeply stained, but the refinishing (courtesy Macarena Hardwood Floors out of Madison, NC) worked wonders.

Before and after the floor refinishing, viewed from the opposite end of the living room.