House project 2017-2020

My biggest project.

My tiny house form 1956. Fully windy and cold in wintertime. I knew part were rotten, and had done its time.
The house got so cold in the winter I just had to do something about it, money or no money. As a single mum it was hard spended money. 

I bougt it in 1991 and the first ting I had to do was drain the ground, and make the basement watertight.
Meanwhile wating for the big money to come in, I did a lot of work inside the house. Everything was old, non function and out of date. All electricity has been changed, kitchen stripped out, new windows and so on.

Upstart 2017

This is how it looked summer 2017 right before the carpenting on the outside started. 

Luckily I have a brother that can do all the things I can`t do. I am the maker of dreams, he can realise my dreams. Often I come up with an idea, and he says no it is not doable. But if you change this and that, you can do it. Then I go back to my thinking box and do some adjustments of my idea. Present it for my brother again, and we agree how to do things. So this is how the restauration of the house is done.
The supply of wood and other things have landed

Starting to strip off the old panel and isolation all the way into the inner wall. There were once bigger windows at the attic. 

 Found a window that still had the glass intact. My brother had chrushed it before I reached to take a photo. No wonder the house was cold

I know I have been in touch with every bit of the old panel and insulation, because I drove shuttle traffic into the dunghill. And I also know they used a lot of big nails back in the old days :)

Then there is the work with putting up new insulation, wood panel and so on

A summer with hard work, and also barbeque when the weather allowed it.

My broher buildt, and I threw away the old dirt. And I also painted when done at work and after he was finished carpenting. So I followed him around the house .. hihi-hi...

 My brother in action. I have watch him working, he is very strict and a really petimeter measuring angles heights and so on,  whilst I`m not, ha-ha....

Starting to look like a house again.

The best of all is next to come. I spend a lot of time on the porch, and I wanted a bigger one. A place where people can come together talk and have fun. 

One half with roof, and the other half without roof.

Had a little helper that climbed up, but it was some scary to go down again :) 

Putting on the roof  on the porch.

Done for 2017.

2018 was a resting year.

And then we started again in 2019. 

This time it was heightening the house 1 meter for to get fully use of the attic, and also make a new roof. I ordered the material late in may and thought I would get it late in june earlu july. Nope... it did not go that way. I got it in the midth of agust :(

And when we vere going to start on this project i was ordered to go to scool for 6 weeks!!! No, no NOO....this was not in my plans.  So I had to get a stand in to my brother, he can not work alone. Lucily, whilst driving off to the school I made to get hold of a guy that could help my brother.

Meantime the stones was stripped off  the roof.

This summer the weather was not so good... that is a statement, when roofworking is to be  done, it is going to rain. Maybe I was lucky after all whilst on school? Hard work and afaid of heights!! Thats me. During the six weeks away I was home for 1 week. and the two had done a lot. Really good guys working.

This is me after 3 weeks away. And the roof is starting to get higher.

Because of the weather, the new roof was buildt at the top of the old roof. And during winter 2019/20 I am going to take away the old roof. So I can start renovate and begin to use the attick. I am longing for to get my very own hobbyroom, a really big one. Painting, knitting have a glass of wine and so on...

This is some of the roofing.Theese boards are rotten, but this was not the worst. Some places I could crumble the boards with my fingers, no hold at all. Actually the roof could have fallen down and collapsed. And then there was the guys working on the roof, who could have fallen through. Lucily none of this happend. 

After another 3 weeks I came home to this:

Here they are tidying up for the winter.

New roof and new entrance, yay!!! I love it.

The new entrance, still not finished and are in need of paint and paneling. But curtains are up for Christmas. When this was put up, I do not have to showel so much snow avay. It is open, but most of the snow comes on the other side of the house. The most used instrument here is the broom stick.

Yay... this was the 2019 story. Quite an improvement and change in 2 years. I just love it. 

A new roof is up and on. I got a new porch. And I am not afraid for to wait for the roof to fall down in my head. And visitors can now come and visit without waiting for to get attacked by ice falling from the roof at the entrance.

In 2020 there are still some work left: Som painting, putting up gutters, finish the entransce, put up a new chimeny and have a party for the kind people that har been woorking on the house during theese years.

Sadly 2 people are not with us any more, among them is my father who passed away in 2009, and another one. Thinking of them, and thanks for the work that they have done.

When all that is done, then I`m going to enjoy my new hobbyroom and also use the porch a lot without having to think of doing any work at the house for some time.

Happy New Year folks!!!I love ya`ll.

I`ll be back i 2020 for more updates.

Restauration of an old table

When I grew up in the 60ies I remember an old table we had. For about three years ago I found some parts of  the table in the basement of our old summer house. They laid in the dirt, soaked with water and mud. 
When I came home, I asked my mother if she knew where the rest of the table was?  Lucily she had taken care of some of the parts. She wantes to restore it, but a couple of the feets were missing. So she  gave one foot to a furniture carpenter for to make som new feet. She waited for years but nothing came back, the carpenter had lost the foot.
I then decided to get the table restored. I had the top, the pillar and one foot for to start the restauration.

This is te tabletop, lucily it had not lied in the mud. But there was som scratches on the top, and also some painting. I had to strip all the old paint and then grind it for to get rid of the schratches.

This is the pillar, broken and soaked to pieces. Lying wet and dirty for years. I  see I have forgotten to take picture before I started grinding it an putting it together.

As you can see the splitting is huge, and I was not sure if I had to make a new pillar.

But I had to try. 

And after a couple of mishappenings I finally made it. I do not have a workshop with a lot of tools to help me with.

I searched on facebook for to get someone to make the feet. And I found one that was willing to make me four new feet for the table. He was fast and made the feet, and did an excellent job.

This is the only foot I had left and sent it over to him. Yeah, you can see a real lions foot.

An look what came back to me. I just loved the work he had done. Kudos to the  man, I recomand his work. Well done.
I knew when this was done I was able to get the table back to its origin again.

But there was still a piece missing. And I did not remember how it really looked like. I had no pictures, and I didn`t have any idea of how big it was about to be either. I thought of making it, but I turned my head up and down, and always came ot with the same thought: The table is going to tip over with my construction. I thougt about making a square, and never thought  of chipping the corners for the feet.

I asked my mum again, and she told me to take a look at the attic.

And I found it: the attatchment for the lion feet. And now I could see how the feet was to be attatched, and no tilting.

Again strip off the old paint, and grind it.

So then I began to put the table together, and luckily my brother came to visit me. 

He told me that my father once had restaured the table. He had sawn off about 15-20 cm off the pillar. He had also taken away the pearls that was going around the table. He had also made a stain of tea and coffee.

Aha... therefor the table was so light coloured, I remembered it had a much darker stain in my younger days.

Hmm.... good or bad news I thought?

Well, I started to look for someone that made rows of wooden pearls, but I could not find anyone in Norway. Tapping my fingers and wondering what to do now?

At last, I decided to buy some wooden pearls and cut them in to pieces. 

And then glue on the pearls around the edge.

Next making my own stain. The man that made the lions feet told  me where to buy and make it on my own.

Exciting, Out on the big web again and order stain.

This is me in the process: 

First round of stain. I wanted it dark so close to original colour as I could remember. 

At last finished: Stained and varnished.

Now with chairs that does not fit the style of this beautiful table. 

Hmmm... you can see it? The table is still too low...the pillar is still missing its full lenght. Do not worry. It`s coming around. I found the perfect top with perfect lenght for the pillar, but it is still missing the stain and varnish.
But of course I had to wait again a couple of weeks.

So now tadaa.... A long way on the road and finally finished.

 

Fully useable again, and back to its origin both in colour and design. Have to do something about the chairs ...tji hi... 

This was my 2018-19 project.