It Begins

 Over 25 years ago I bought eleven acres and a mobile home. A few years later I found a house... to be moved. Long before Texas Flip and Move became popular on television, my home was cut in half and the second floor rood was removed to be moved thirty-two miles. The mover slapped the two pieces together, put half as many cinder block piers under her as she needed and told me to have fun. I have been having fun ever since.

This house has good bones. It was converted from a barn into a house and office by a physician from Chicago a hundred years ago. I found some of the rubber tubing he must have used in one of the walls. It measured 25 by 28 feet and was two stories. Some time later a ten foot wide addition went up on three sides. One side was enclosed and I turned it into my kitchen and dining room. Whoever did this failed basic carpentry. While the floor was suitable for a porch, the rafters were two by fours and the ceiling joists were the same BUT instead of removing the original house wall, they nailed a two by two to the wall and cut a notch in the joists to fit them over it. I removed the joists and the original house wall. Then I placed two by four cripples between the uprights to support my new two by six joists.

I bought more cinder blocks and secured them on pads eight feet apart under the house. Then I removed the living room ceiling. What a mess! The wall in the center of the house was not a load bearing wall!. I built a load bearing wall beside the original. Then I placed two by six joists beside the ones in the ceiling. At some point the house had had a fire. Someone nailed a board to the burned out board without having the new board supported by anything on either end. I gave that joist two new fully supported sister joists. Finally I designed a beam which would cover the length of the cut in the living room. It was plywood sandwiched between three two by tens and bolted together. This heavy beam was 14.5 feet long. It is bolted and supported by four by fours, covered with one by twelves and will not be moving any time soon.

The living room floor was a mix of wood plus it was damaged when the house was cut in half. I removed about half of the floor, borrowed matching flooring from the porch and replaced the living room floor. Then I gave it a Danish oil rub down. 

My handyman installed the kitchen and dining room ceiling plus did the electrical and plumbing. John Porter wanted a chandelier in the house. I refused to spend what a quality one would cost so I made it. He was impressed. 

One room had the old real wood paneling so I decided to imitate it in the living room and dining room. My handyman routed a V along the length of one by twelves and we installed them as uprights on the walls. I should have used a combination of widths here. When the wood shrinks, you can see between the boards. 

All of this was a labor of love that I did not enjoy for about twenty years. Others lived in the house while John and I drove our big truck.

Please join my as I share my projects. Sometimes I had help.