Has to Get Worse Before it Gets Better!

May 2012

I decided to tackle the "storage room" myself. (I'm not sure what everyone else called this room, but we stored bins of everything and anything in here.)  This is the room we are in the process of turning into the upstairs bathroom/laundry room.
Here is a picture with just one wall of plaster removed.  That next morning, I was lifting Carlee up into the wagon and I felt a terrible pain from my neck (just behind the ear) all the way down to the front of my collar bone.  Very, very painful for about a week.  

Meanwhile, Jay decided to get his cousin, Kevin Friedel, in here to finish up the job. At this point, Kevin and Dave Fitzl (Kevin's helper) helped out tremendously.  They even tore out the chimney from top to bottom and patched the opening on the roof.  What a dirty, messy job that was!  Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures of this.  Kevin and Dave also gutted the entire hallway upstairs as well as finish gutting the southeast and northeast rooms on main level, which still had lath on the exterior walls.  All of the exterior walls required a saw to remove all the lath.  It was like cement!

Gutted out southeast room. (That stair way railing was just temporary for the kids....Jay even sanded it off so no one would get any splinters from the wood.  What a good daddy.)

This is the northeast room on the main level.  Once finished, will become the office.

Picture taken from the front entrance.  Look how open it is!  Lovin' it!

Obviously, a picture taken going up the stairs.  Can see how EVERYTHING is gutted.

Jay just cleaning up the soon-to-be bathroom space.

Future bathroom/laundry room.

This picture taken at the top of the stairs is looking towards Carlee's room (northeast room).  I don't think I mentioned this in an earlier post, but there were two closets, one for each room (northeast and southeast rooms), that were located just where you see the floor ripped up (in front of the wall straight ahead).  Those closets were removed in January 2011 to extend the hallway and open it up just a bit more.

This picture looks towards the west.  You can see where the rounded wall was on the left side of the picture, according to how the floor is ripped up.

I can't believe how long it took us to change this mailbox.  I'm sure it was nice in it's day, but it's definitely seen better days. Don't ya think?


Old Mailbox 

New Mailbox
I took these two pictures yesterday, realizing I didn't take any yet.  Although, the mailbox was finally replaced right around Memorial Day this year.  What a nice job Tom Pietrowski at Rib Falls Fabrication did with the post.  Doesn't it look great?

So, in a nutshell, this is what was accomplished last month.  


I'm starting to catch up......