Friday, April 18 -- Buried Treasure

An antique bottle and some bones were found: various farm animals, and one duck skull.

Friday, April 11 -- Dirt!

The slow part of the demolition has begun, with excavation being done by-hand beneath the bar room floor. This soil hadn't seen the light of day since the Eighteenth Century.

Friday, April 4 -- Room with a View

Here's a sense of what the finished room's size will be. 

Hardwood floors were removed and stored for patching.

Talk about a lot of stone and wood removal this week. Couldn't help recommending, 

"Hot shower, stretch, Advil, stretch, beer, stretch.....TGIF"

Looking back into the room. 

The girls are almost as excited as Raphael to see each day's progress.

The entrance into the TV room will be widened some. 

The radiator on the other side may not allow us to go as wide as planned.

There was also brick used in front of the door jambs. 

So just to recap, this one room had logs, stone and brick in its walls.

Floor joists were supported with tiers of hand-placed stone. 

Crazy, no wonder they needed to be replaced. 

Note the smorgasbord of pipes and wires below. 

 Ta-da!

Wednesday, April 2 -- Sunday, January 21, 1951

 A newspaper was preserved in the upstairs walls. 

We plan to put together our own time capsule once our walls are built.

A view from the first floor of the removed 2nd story wall and floor. 

The plywood is a temporary wall to keep out the elements.

 What was the first floor's barroom's exterior wall.

Tuesday, April 1 -- Breakthrough!

Great progress, but no April Fool's pun for you, today! 

The 2nd floor brown bathroom's exterior wall of stone was removed. 

Massive window header stones were discovered. Kevin believes they are about 250 lbs. each. 

Note grill on the first floor for scale and the piece of lumber they're on is 16 inches wide.

You should have seen one of the workers lowering them down the chute.

Inside: more log cabin wall. Outside: an electrical mess

The door on the right leads into the mater bedroom. This photo is taken from where the new closet will be. Just in time for my last fall wardrobe transition. 

Monday, March 31 -- "The Ceiling Can't Hold us"

The 3rd floor needs to be supported before removing the 2nd and 1st floor exterior walls. To do this a serious beam needs to be installed. The outside views are taken form the balcony outside the master bedroom.

After cutting into the roof there was room made for the 3rd floor support beam. 

(How bout that 10 year old satellite dish and the accompanying wires?!?)

I braved the ladder for a bird's eye view.

Interior view pre-beam. The beam will go where the light is coming through. Notice the original log cabin log on the left side of the floor. 

And the beam goes in....

Detail of the beam looking from below.