Fresh Mud Means New Walls and New Living Spaces

This process has been nearly 18 months and to recap, it's been a much longer journey then I could have guessed.  Opening up those floors to expose decayed sewer lines, rotten floor joists and a soft foundation seems like ages ago.  Greg spent months tearing out and has now spent months creating a new infrastructure for what has saved a 1929 gem, a piece of Charleston history for many to enjoy in the years to come.  A passer by the other day commented on the significant change that is coming to our street.  Three renovations besides ours are currently occurring.  The street is buzzing throughout the week.  He said, "Yours is alot older than the rest of these being done."  This encouraged me because our Freedman's was on "list to be reviewed" which sounded ominous.  And I am glad to think we not only saved her, but we gave this 85 year old structure new life.

Our house has smelled of sheetrock mud for more than a week and fine dust has dropped continually between coats, but it's almost ready to paint.

The wall around the fireplace will be removed according to our plans and is temporary.  It divides our living space for now. Greg hung plastic to keep the sanding dust to a minimum.  We have added a small ceramic stove for heating.

Our walls are new, but these doors and windows are yet to be replaced.  The open door is a closet to Bedroom #2, the door on the right is our front door to the porch.  The door in the center is the entrance to Bedroom #2.  

Our exposed beams and cathedral ceiling.  Greg skimmed the entire area.  This will be bead board in keeping with the antique look in the kitchen.

This short blog is to allow you to see the progress as we seal the walls and get ready to move our living room into the center of the house. I'll add some followup pictures in a week once our living room is in use.

 After Christmas, we begin to tackle the "wing" on the side of the house which will fundamentally change the overall street view. You can see above how low the ceilings are and how the foundation sags.  This will be a new gable roof that will lift the ceilings in the bedrooms and bath.   Until now the neighbors are not able to enjoy the renovation changes.  The roofline change in itself will be eyeopening.  The finishes inside will have to wait on prioritizing the new roof and keeping that side dry.

Gypsum, Mud, and Lots of Dust!

It's been a few weeks since we updated our progress.  Thanksgiving cost us a week of work to prioritize enjoying our children.  It is surprising how much we are missing on the weekend as we work feverishly on this project.  Much of our push currently was to get our electrical, plumbing, and framing inspections.  We passed them all, so we could begin to close up the walls with a good layer of insulation last weekend.

It's amazing what a Tyvek moisture barrier and a layer of R13 and R30 insulation will do for the inside condition of the home.  Unless you have tried to weather elements the other way, it's hard to fathom how cold it can be and how much heat doesn't help to warm the area without material to hold it into the house.  The insulation closed in the space for the first time since we initially tore out several months back.

In one weekend, Greg, the one-man-construction team hung, mudded, and prime-coated the walls in the kitchen. We brought back some wooden doors sitting in his dad's shop to make a temporary counter top pictured below.   We know that we are at least 6 months out in purchasing our kitchen cabinets, so setting up an ability for me to cook in one spot is appealing. We like to cook at home and tire of eating out. Greg's good friend and boss,Tommy has offered to come and assist him in finishing the sheetrock. We are thankful for the many good friends we have had who have contributed some time towards making our little Freedman's livable.

This small "temp" kitchen will serve us now until our final one is installed.  Notice our "door" counter and shelf.  Greg's dad made the suggestion to bring them back for this purpose over Thanksgiving and I was excited.  We spent one evening arranging the kitchen with appliances.  I am waiting for the remaining dust to settle from the sitting room sheet rock prior to filling them with things.  I have enjoyed sharing with you this long journey of fixing up our 1929 Charleston Freedman's cottage.  When you handle all of the materials, expect for the time investment to be extensive!  It's been so much more work than I ever thought!  This is not cosmetic renovation, this is stripping it to the bones and building back new.  I'll add the sheetrock picture of the sitting area below when it is done this weekend.

.As promised earlier,  this ceiling took Greg 8+ hours to finish doing it by himself.  The walls should go much faster.  The rafters ended up being a plus as far a holding the sheets.  The cuts were intricate even for a veteran hanger!