So there’s good news, great news and bad news. The good news is we still have a little snow around! The great news is, we’re no longer snowed in!! The bad news is our driveway is still pretty treacherous, though we can see a bit of gravel in even the roughest of areas now. PROGRESS! On the topic of the Cabin, it was a semi uneventful weekend. We went mountain biking on Friday, and some of us – me – had wayy too much fun (which is code for wayy too many drinks) and barely suffered through Saturday just by existing. So, having wasted 2/3 of my weekend on fun and the resulting penance said fun inflicted, I proceeded to push hard to get a little accomplished on the Cabin even though I still wasn’t feeling 100%. Hooray for getting older.
As we are getting very close to some big weekends followed by big decisions followed by more big weekends, our goal for this weekend was to get the wood we are saving out of the addition and the rafters in the Cabin and stacked in the barn. I also had some lofty hopes of removing the remaining unbroken windows in the deteriorating sun room(?) green house(?) that is attached to the addition, and maybe even get the old built-in cabinet removed so the In-Laws can have a little piece of the Cabin in their future home. Alas, all we actually accomplished was getting the wood out.
We had quite a few doors (6? 7? more?) that had been removed, a TON of shiplap, lots of 1″x12″ boards, and plenty of other random wood pieces that were nice enough to salvage. As we worked on getting the Cabin all emptied out, we just moved everything into the addition so it would stay dry and we could keep reaping the benefits of instant gratification and not slow down to move everything to the barn as it quickly stacked up. Therefore, we had a LOT to move this weekend. It didn’t take terribly long, but it was incredibly exhausting – especially for myself (due to self-pity and slow recovery). However, a couple of truck loads later it was already feeling doable and I had a big ole smile plastered on my face up until the end! I can’t get enough of the quick progress!! We tossed the bags of construction garbage in another section of the addition as they will be going with the addition. However, the rest of the wood all had to get down to the barn.
Another (big full) truck load later and we were almost there. Though for some silly reason we left the most tedious job until the end. I’ve always been one to do the most challenging job – or piece or parts – first so that at the end when you’re losing steam it seems to flow easily and it’s harder to lose motivation. Luckily, there were 3 of us working together and we were all gung-ho to get it done. The final job was getting all of the flooring from the upstairs down from the rafters in the Cabin and threading them out the window (as some of them were like 18+ feet long – no exaggeration!). It took a bit of finessing, but it was entertaining enough work. The nice thing was the flooring pieces were a lot thinner than the rest of the wood – and as a result a lot lighter. In addition, we had to work together to get them off the rafters and out the window so we had this nice train going and only had to move 1-2 pieces at a time due to their length. It took another very full – and precarious – truck load to get all the flooring moved down to the barn.
It was worth the effort to get everything moved out before our big addition removal weekend. I imagine we would’ve been fine if we had waited and done it all in one weekend, though I’m sure motivation would have been difficult to keep and my sorely out of shape-ness quite possibly would have tainted my generally fairly positive attitude. Plus, at the end of all that hard work, we got to see the Cabin truly empty, which was a reward in itself. I didn’t care too much seeing the addition empty again, because frankly, it’s already dead and gone in my mind’s eye.
Once we get the addition removed it’s going to be time to make some big decisions. We’re toying with the idea of asking for a consultation on the areas of the Cabin that are going to need some rehabilitation. As the demolition section is beginning to wrap up, our next big task is getting the Cabin back to her former glory and protected from the elements. Since we aren’t exactly experts, we figure it might be a good idea to ask someone who is. This is our forever home, so naturally, we’d like it to last forever.
The Homestead Journey 