Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Still working on the attic/roof.

Good morning! I have been sooo busy with my other job as a lawyer, it seems that I have been unable to snap some new photos of the house. We are still working in the attic, attempting to finish the knee-walls so that we can start shingling the roof. I got a lot done over the weekend but we still need to finish one small area in order to finish the roof. I promise to provide some additional pics later in the week.

For all of you out there reading this blog, I have various items from the house that I am interested in selling. Some of you may be interested yourself or if you know someone who is a collector, please send them my way. The genres/categories of items that I have...and I have a LOT...include the following:

RECORDS
MAGAZINES
FISHING EQUIPMENT
MILITARY BOOKS/MANUALS
STAMPS
COINS
JAPANESE BOOKS
PURDUE MEMORABILIA (yes Casey...I have some for you as well)
FIRST EDITION BOOKS
OLD BOTTLES/JARS
OLD MATCH BOOKS/LIGHTERS/ASHTRAYS
OLD RADIOS
SKELETON KEYS
GLASSWARE

And honestly...more stuff than I can even list at this point. So...if you are interested or know someone who is interested....send them my way. Thanks!

Monday, February 20, 2012

The Roof is 75% done!!!!!!

Good morning! We got a lot done this weekend. We continued to reinforce the roof by building knee-walls in the attic. But more importantly...we stripped off all three layers of shingles, removed all of the old nails, re-sheeted and tar-papered the entire roof this weekend! My guys are finishing some of the paper this morning and as soon as we know about our shingles...we are going to put those on immediately! I cannot tell you what a relief it is to know that this house is not going to leak any more...well...at least not through the roof. I still have to test all of the water lines inside the house!

                                              BEFORE WE REMOVED THE TARPS AND SHINGLES



            THIS IS ME ACTUALLY WORKING ON MY ROOF (hard at work face)


                                 This is me faking it with a smile like I am REALLY enjoying my work!

Saturday, February 18, 2012

Today is the day!

Good morning, All! Lots of news to share. The city of Lafayette did in fact give me a permit to continue my renovations. So...thanks Lafayette! We worked most of yesterday installing knee-walls in the attic in order to resupport and in fact raise the 161 year old roof that has continued to sag under the weight of 4 layers of shingles...and old age! CHARLES AND COMPANY CONTRACTING is doing the attic and the roof. If you could see the crazy...and dangerous...work we are doing to this roof...you wouldn't believe it. Henry Poor delivered a massive amount of roofing supplies and was able to "boom" the items to the roof. Jay Andrew...I didn't see the bill but I hope I am getting a deal.

THAT'S RIGHT LADIES AND GENTLEMEN...THE FINE PEOPLE AT HENRY POOR LUMBER ARE MY ONE AND ONLY PROVIDERS OF HIGH QUALITY BUILDING MATERIALS!!!!!!!!!

Jay...what does that get me? Let me know. As for today...we will begin removing the roof, re-sheeting, papering, shingling....the whole works!!! Please just don't rain. ZEBRA landscaping removed almost all of the old trees and shrubs. Drive by the house and you will see a huge difference. They are doing a fabulous job. As for additional thanks, Michael and Jeff (Ashton Contracting) have continued to do just about every job I have asked of them...so thanks alot for your hard work. Finally...for those of you who have driven by the house and saw my front steps demolished...NO...I did not do that. Someone apparently wrecked their car into them 3 days ago. Waiting to hear from my insurance as to what happened...but I guess I am going to get new steps. Wasn't plannning on that one quite yet but what the hell!

FOR EVERYONE WHO HAS EMAILED, COMMENTED, TEXTED, CALLED, STOPPED BY, DROVE BY AND HONKED/WAIVED, AND WRITTEN TO ME....THANKS! I cannot believe how "public" this entire project is. Apparently...EVERYONE...loves this house.

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Library, Entryway and Hallway

As the previous post stated, we got the library drywalled, the brick sanded down (well...almost all of it), and a lot of the old wall paper removed.

                                                                    LIBRARY


HALLWAYS AND ENTRYWAY








Other Items located.

Additional items that are in the house that I think are unique:  A maid call box located in the kitchen. I cannot wait to get this thing hooked back up. Now I just need a maid. Anyone interested? There are lots and lots of old jars, tins, boxes and containers. The Roper Oven still works! Every burner...the oven...everything is operational. I am definitely going to clean the oven up and keep it!



Hallways, the Kitchen, a Butler's Pantry, and the Library!

I made some headway these past few days. Although it may not appear so from the fotos, I was able to clear out a lot of "stuff" from the kitchen and butler's pantry. I am always running across odd and/or unique items in the process. Like M50 military shells and an old laundry press/roller...that still works. Also, the house has an awesome "call system" for the maid which the box is located in the kitchen as well.

                                                        KITCHEN "BEFORE" FOTOS







                                            BUTLER'S PANTRY "BEFORE" FOTOS






OLD LAUNDRY PRESS FROM BUTLER'S PANTRY (it still works!)



There is ammunition and old shells all over the house. The Colonel certainly loved his weapons and ammunition. These are just a few found in the Butler's Pantry.




We removed a lot of old wall paper this weekend in the entry way and staircase hallways. We got the library dry-walled and I ran some electrical lines in the walls and baseboards. I also sanded down the brick chimney stack and it looks really good!

Andy from ZEBRA landscaping was over this weekend and has been going through a few boxes/items. He has graciously offered to cut the old trees and over-growth away from the house...so thank you to Andy and his crew.

Monday, February 6, 2012

Room with a View!

Good morning! I want to start this session off by saying thank you to J/C Columnist Dave Bangert for writing such a wonderful piece on my house and to John Terhune for his great photos. What luck that Howard and his wife, Joan, happen to be there on the day that the Journal and Courier was doing their piece. There is so much history in the house that I am really excited (and honored) to have the opportunity to renovate this grand structure back to what it used to be. The only correction that I would make is that I approached Howard 12 years ago (not 6) while he was working on the porch and I asked him if the house was for sale. He politely told me "no". But the funny thing is...is that when he and Joan came to meet me for dinner at my house for the first time, we spoke of that moment and he remembered me from that brief encounter. This guy has one hell of a memory...especially when it comes to the history of the house. So with that said...thank you to all who have commented on my blog, drive by and honk and/or wave, and stop by to say hello. Yes...there will be an open house at some point...I just am not sure when that will be yet. Hopefully sometime in the spring/summer.

Updates: Work has moved a little slower this past week due to some unavailability of a couple of friends who were injured in a car accident...two separate ones no less. So...Michael...Chuck...I hope you are feeling better. I spent a good part of the week removing debris and items that can not be saved and have already filled one dumpster and am working on the second one. By the way...the WINSKI dumpster is from the Winski people in Frankfort...no Lafayette. So thank you to JOEL STILLER AND SHERMAN WINSKI! I was able to make some additional space in the bedroom facing 9th street...you know...the one with that great balcony. I took down the old, dirty curtains and it is amazing the amount of light that room gets in the afternoon. The lead glass looks amazing. I was also able to remove the rest of the plaster from the chimney stack in the library so we are now reading to run the electrical and then start covering the walls and ceiling. We also put up the new ceiling in the second bedroom.

                                                           9th Street Balcony Room (before)








                       9th Street Balcony Room (after I removed the curtains and some of the "stuff")






                                                  Brick Chimney Stack in Library