Layers of history, kitchen wall after demo

lathe, plaster, ship lap, green (lead) paint and wallpaper layers

We have had our Gambrel Cottage for over 4 weeks, and in 2 weeks we close on our current home.  Leaving our nice, new home behind; in the hands of the next family to enjoy it.

When we decided to buy our fixer upper, I had imagined not selling our current home for 6 months or a year.  Maybe AirBNB-ing our new "old" house once we had it fixed up.  But out of the blue we had 3 offers for our current house and a bidding war ensued.  So now, we venture forward, into the Gambrel Cottage where we won't have a kitchen until mid-August :)

We had thought we were prepared, hired workers, tried to get things going, but it is apparent that we will be moving into a partially (mostly not) ready home.

The foundation continues to perplex, after consulting with a structural engineer and an aquatic engineer our foundation man is moving forward.  And we believe we will be able to keep the beehive portion of our cistern.  It will really be rain barrels X 10 :) so that is pretty exciting.

But until the foundation is finished, and the floors in the house brought level we can't paint, finish dry wall, tile, install cabinets, etc.

Both Trey and I are covered in scratches and bruises, abrasions and contusions from trash hauling, demolishing, re-building, packing, moving and tackling the wild yard;
but at the end of every day we hug each other and we laugh together, so life is good even though it is crazy.

It is the happy kind of crazy.

And even though the Gambrel Cottage is so far from where we planned it to be, I am already starting to think about it as home.

As I write this post, the floors are being refinished (so we can move our stuff in next week (YIKES)), the north and south foundation walls are being excavated, the upstairs bathrooms are being worked on and our pantry is being built.

The kitchen cabinet design is finalized (finally) and cabinets are being ordered next week.

So much is going to happen in the next week and I can't wait to share the progress.

Sneak peaks at the work in progress ~

Kitchen door to mud room (on the right)
new opening to our soon-to-be pantry (on the left)

Foyer and front stair case
(psssst . . . . Dad is re-doing the front banister, newel post and spindles)

Hearth room
Soon to be "reading room"

Back staircase in process of being re-finished

On the list for next week:  wall push on foundation, re-do basement floor and level floors, continue painting the outside of the house, paint the outside of the clawfoot tub, continue packing and move over fragile items and art, continue work on bathrooms, finish electric work, refinish floors on the first floor (and more or less or something we didn't expect).

Be well and enjoy your July, the summer is at its apex!

There may be nothing more crazy than deciding to sell your brand new, ubber-modern, luxurious home to buy . . . . a falling down house, built in 1915 complete with a crumbling foundation, ruined roof, out-dated bathrooms, small kitchen and cramped closet space.

But no one has ever accused me of being sane.

<sigh>

And with that, it begins.

Welcome to the Gambrel Cottage in beautiful Old West Lawrence.

Sometimes our life reminds me

of a forest in which there is a graceful clearning

and in that opening a house,

an orchard and garden, 

comfortable shades, and flowers

red and yellow in the sun, a pattern

made in the light for the light to return to.

The forest is mostly dark, its ways

to be made anew day after day, the dark

richer than the light and more blessed,

provided we stay brave

enough to keep going in.

(Wendell Berry, excerpted from "The Country of Marriage")

As I write this, I am still at our Wild Plum house.  We won't make the big move until July.  I am sitting out on our covered deck looking at the apple tree I planted last year and it is full of gold finches.  I will leave behind me a young garden, newly planted by my own hands and inherit a garden planted by others.  It was left to go wild, just as the house was and is overcome with honeysuckle and lemon balm, vinca and blackberry brambles.  Today Trey and I will go over to our "new", old house and continue to try and tame it ~ both the house and the garden.  It is June, but we have already had many days in a row in the 90's ~ it has been sweaty, tiring work.  And you know how when you watch those fixer-upper shows, they always have those "gasp" moments?  In real life, it is even more dramatic!  

During the course of the foundation work, a cistern was discovered that takes up one whole wall of the basement and snakes it way throughout the basement.  So imagine 2 inches of 100 year old concrete floor with 4 to 5 feet of open space beneath it, complete with 2 feet of water (and many mosquitoes). Literally there is a <very slow> river running through our house.  How strange and intriguing and terrible.  The structural engineer said probably only 3 or 4 houses in all of Lawrence were built with a cistern running under the basement floor. 

Typically cisterns sat underneath porches, or just outside of the home and they were used to collect rain water in a time before city water.  This water was used for gardens, doing wash and canning.  The best information I could find on cisterns, of the age as ours was on the "old house web".

Part of our Beehive shaped Cistern

Unfortunately, to maintain the integrity of the home's foundation, we will have to pump out the cistern. Then jackhammer to entire floor of the basement, basically turning it into gravel fill for the cistern running under the entire length of the basement.  Finally the foundation guys will bring in cement and re-create the floor of the basement and possibly the entire southern wall.  So I guess, the cistern will become a ghost.  I had hoped to salvage part of to use for watering the garden, but the integrity of the house comes before my dream of rain water reclamation.

Today, Trey and I will be working outside.  Replacing the posts that support the upstairs balcony and rebuilding the outside deck.  With a bit of cloud cover to soften the sun, spray bottles full of cool water, EnduraCool Multi-Cool head covers, and Route 44 frozen limeades, we should have a pretty good day.

Come back for an update on our Gambrel Cottage.  We will be doing a complete home re-model from the basement to the attic so there will be many adventures to report.

Until next time, enjoy life and make a good home!