More Homesteading

The final part of this voluminous data-dump is the remodel of the front house. The place had a wonky foundation. It had been sitting on cedar posts for 90 years or so, and those had long ago rotted below ground level. The utility room was also an impractical little eyesore that felt like a cramped sauna. Not exactly the place I want to do laundry. And, in my opinion, the place kind of needed another bathroom and a covered porch. So that's what I built.

Here's the demo:

I salvaged as much of the old wood siding and framing as I could. Had to bag and dump all the asbestos that was on the back. After that, the foundation crew came in and leveled the place and poured piers for the addition. That's not very exciting to look at.

Here it is all framed and sheathed. You can see a little bit of the salvaged siding at the bottom there. Sanding and painting all that stuff wasn't my favorite thing to do.

But I did it.

And wired it. And ran vents. I did not plumb it, roof it, frame it, sheathe it, or insulate it. I left that to the pros. I did drywall, float, paint, tile, and cuss it.

The porch got lights and a fan. It's a nice spot: a square, shaded space with an open view of the garden.

The inside is actually a little tight for good photos, but here's what I snapped before the tenants moved in:

The mud room (utility sink, medicine cabinet). the occasional white tiles in the floor make a map of part of the night sky in the northern hemisphere. Yes, I'm a dork.

And the bathroom. The tub is refinished. Epoxy on the inside and I sealed the outside with a shellac that I dyed to look kind of like oxidized copper.

This is taken from where the washer/dryer is. Again, a little narrow, but the ceilings in there are 12 feet tall. It doesn't feel cramped.

A few other things happened outside, as well:

Laundry-to-landscape plumbing.

Divided the shipping container by getting the welders to move one of the doors to the back and part of the back wall to the front. Then I framed a wall inside. Viola.

And it was a good year in the perennial garden, as well. Tons of monarchs and tons of fruit so far, except the nectarines and peaches. Those are recovering from last year.

But yeah. I built some stuff and the city said it was OK.