Cardington: On to the rest of the house

I began framing in the walls for the new laundry room and hallway closet. Using the salvagable portion of the old hardwood flooring in the laundry room area, I was able to repair the damaged wood flooring in the new hallway to the rear bedroom. The hall closet will be just 7 ft high, leaving a shelf/ledge above it , which will give a more open sense to the hallway.





Bathroom: the tile backerboard for the bathroom floor was laid.



My friend, Jim helped me greatly in framing out the new openings into the new family room from the living room and from the enlarged kitchen.





He also helped me widen the kitchen pass-thru to the rear nook area.



The sunken master bathroom floor structure was framed-in.



And finally, the attic is currently being wired and a closet and stairway half-wall is being framed. Ceiling structure will soon be framed out to level the ceiling height in the attic space.

Cardington Cold weather moved me indoors

After a nice stretch of relatively warm weather, I was forced to work indoors by colder temperatures recently. This week I framed out a decorateive fireplace in the new Family room. This fireplace will be behind the fake chimney which was built on the facade of the house. In planning to install ceiling lighting, I found it necessary to remove the old ceiling, which I had hoped to keep. It was unstable and not level so it had to come down, along with all the blown-in insulation, an enormous wasp nest, lots of broken glass and more.



I also laid the cement board subflooring in the kitchen and Morning rooms, which is now ready for floor tile.



And finally, after the old furnace was finally removed, I framed out the supporting perimeter joists for the master bathroom, which is now ready for me to install floor joists.

Cardington January 2007

While its still been relatively warm this winter, I have been taking advantage of the weather to complete more exterior work. I converted the far doors of the outbuilding to an attached carport garage opening and built an interior wall to secure the outbuilding.




The rear deck and privacy fence along the alley were also recently completed.

Cardington December Work

In December, I have installed new entry doors (front and rear) to the house. My friend and I also replaced the entry door and large windows in the outbuilding. Electric has been restored in this shed/outbuilding now and I am trimming out the door and windows.



The wood deck flooring is complete, leaving the railings to be built soon.



The pit remaining from the demo of the old detached garage is partly filled and I will build a privacy fence around that part of the new rear yard.



I framed the new floor level over the former garage/photostudio to a higher level to match the floor level of the main house.



When the weather got warmer, I did alot of work on the front yard. I demolished and partly relocated (as much as could be salvaged and lifted!) the concrete sidewalk to the former studio entry door to use the concrete for building landscape steps to the front house entry. Since this was grueling work, the concrete walk sections did not break apart cleanly and lifting concrete walks is heavy....the remaining path to the front door was built with stone pavers in a mortar bed.



Both front and rear entry doors have been replaced now.

Cardington Plans

The plan for this house is to make it into a 4 bedroom/2 bathroom home with plenty of living space, including a new family/great room (from the former garage/studio) and a finished attic space.

Renovating the outbuilding into a desirable workshop/storage/shed building is the only practical alternative to converting it into a detached garage, since it is, unfortunately, only 12-1/2 feet deep. If possible, I will try to carve out a one-car carport out of the furthest portion of this building. A new wood deck in the rear , along with the new 12-ft picture window will take advantage of private wooded view of the rear of the property.

The kitchen will be made larger (almost twice its former size taking advantage of the hallway to the rear addition room). The main hall bathroom will be slightly larger, as the far end bedroom will be made into a laundry room. And the circulation plan will be opened greatly with a circular path, from the living room, into the great room, and back into the kitchen and living room again.

The former reception office of the photo studion will be the Master Bedroom with the rooms off this area being modified into a master bathroom and office space. The former garage/photo studio floor has been raised to the level of the main house, so that the only other level will now be the master bath and office.

This is the floor plan of the house as it was when we gained possession of it.

And here are some photos which were given to us of the original house construction:









Below, is the projected floor plan of the new renovation. It is roughly the final version with a couple small exceptions. The second furnace near the master bathroom will not be necessary with the new basement furnace. The rear deck is half this size because the bathroom exterior doorway was not possible. And the walk-in master closet may not be included.