Our Lone Rock Pad

2010-05-11T21:14:00.003-05:00

Well, Joan just pointed out it's been almost a year since we posted anything. So sorry. Since we are on a "pay as you go" mortgage plan we must take our time.

We have not done allot to the outside, the inside either for that matter. I did get most of the electric roughed in. All the CATV, phone and network wiring is in. We have the plans finished for the porch and plan to rebuild it this fall. New windows and doors are also on schedule for the fall. A planned new shed will get most of our garden tools and stuff out of the house. If we're really lucky we'll get the house insulated and the heat on before everything freezes up and be able to work inside this winter on the plumbing.

Anyway, we went into this knowing it would be a couple of years but when it is finished it will be ours and will fit us well.

2009-05-21T08:17:00.004-05:00

Well, we're on the road again. We left home a couple of weeks ago to begin work in our territory. We are almost finished with Nebraska and will be spending Labor Day weekend visiting friends in the Black Hills. By June we'll be working Minnesota and hope to be back home by the 4th of July. Joan has a 35th reunion on July 10th and we will begin working Iowa right after.

We've been planning what we will be doing to the house when we return in August. It is looking like we'll rebuild the porch first. We have to tear off the old one before we can replace it with a nice wrap-around porch.

This is a rendering of our new porch created with 3D Home Design Suite. Preety neat, huh. Anyway, we're working hard now to earn the money so we can return home and work hard to spend it.

2009-02-28T10:49:00.004-06:00

While it is still cold here we get a few days a week where it has been warm enough to get some work done in the house. Over the last couple of weeks I've been able to conplete about half of the rough in wiring on the 1st floor. The plan is the have all the rough wiring in before we start working our territory in May. That will allow me to jump right into the new windows when we finish.

Mesa has turned into a great helper when I'm working in the house. He is obsessed about going over with me. When I grab my shoes he runs to the door and starts crying to go. Joan says he's just like a dog, I told her he's the best dog a man could have, he does not bark and he poops in a box. Nice huh.

2009-02-16T20:31:00.002-06:00

The weather is begining to warm up a bit. We took a ten day trip to California for an annual seminar for our job. When we left it had just snowed, when we returned it was pretty much melted. After four months of snow on the ground it has started to melt enough to see the grass again. We've even had a few days where it was warm enough to get some work done on the house.

I've got about 90% of the re-framing done inside, maybe two or three days left on that. I started roughing in the electrical this week. Soon we'll had lights and electrical without extension cords laying all over the place. Our goal is to have all the framing and wiring done by the time we start working our territory this summer. If I'm really lucky I'll get the waste drain and vent plumbing in also.

Mesa has gotten so obsessed with going to the old house with me that I can't put my coat on without him begging at the door. It's gotten so bad I've started to take him with me whenever I go out, whether I'm going to the house or not. He likes to ride in the truck. I've never seen a cat that was so excited to go for a ride. Today, I took him to the lumber yard to pick some stuff up. While I was checking out the girl at the register asked if that was a cat in my truck. She cracked up when I told her "yes it was, but he thinks he's a dog".

2009-01-19T18:53:00.007-06:00

It's official, Lone Rock is COLD in the winter! We've had snow on the ground since November and it's getting deeper.

It's been too cold to work at the house, the last time I was over to the house it was 25 degree's in the basement. Mesa still thinks he wants to go to the house whenever I get my coat and keys. I've gotten so that when I go out I'll just take him along for the ride. We went to Algona together last week.

We are going to get a little break from the weather this next week. We'll be heading out to California for our annual Trailer Life Consultants Seminar. While we're not thrilled to be flying, or thrilled to be going to la la land we are anxious to see our friends at TL This seminar is the only time of the year where all of us can get together.

2008-12-11T09:03:00.011-06:00

For the first time in five years we have decided to sit out the winter. Since we moved into the RV we have always allowed winter to chase us south. We spent the first two winters in California, then one in Arizona and last winter in Virginia. This year we are staying here in Lone Rock to be near family and maybe work on the house a bit. We are not in the RV, we where able to rent a small house in town and have winterized the rig. The house is just across the street from Joan's mother and only two blocks from our pad. It's small, one bedroom but very tight and heats up well. We plan to stay here until April when we'll move back into the rig in preparation for going back to work May 1st.

As you can see we had a pretty decent snowfall this week. It's been cold for several weeks and we've had a couple of light snowfalls but this one looks like it may be here awhile.

Before we moved over here Mesa, our male cat had trained me to take him into the house each day when I would go in to work. In fact, all three cats enjoyed exploring the house. Since we moved over here Mesa now knows it is time to go when I put my shoes on and grab the keys to the truck. He goes to the back door and begs me to take him over to the house. He loves to ride around in the truck and enjoys going to the house, at least until yesterday. Since the temperature had gotten down below zero I wanted to check the water supply to the house. Mesa begged to go so I grabbed him and away we went. After we had been in the house for a couple of minutes he came up to me and wanted to be held. He was shivering, it's the first time I've ever felt a cat shiver. We'll see if next time he is still anxious to go out.

I'm glad I listened to Joan and did not try to winter in the RV. It is rated as a four season rig however winter should be listed as a "mild winter". We would have been able to do it if we had access to a LARGE propane bottle and more money than we where willing to spend. The RV is doing just fine sitting on the pad behind the house while we enjoy our little rental two blocks away.

2008-10-26T08:23:00.009-05:00

We've put together some composite before and after pictures to share. The first one shows the front room just inside the front door. This area in the past has been used as a study and a master bedroom. We decided it would be a great location for our new formal staircase and new basement stairs. After the stairs were in we noticed it would be perfect as a foyer so we will be re-locating the front door to this room. We will be able to shut it off with the original double pocket doors we found in the basement.

The second picture shows the north side of the basement as it was when we bought the house and as it is now that we have built the new basement stairs. The small area at the far end will be a storage room at the bottom of the stairs where we will have an extra referigerator and storage for bulk items.

The area on this side of the stairs will be a seperate room for the furnace, plumbing and hot water heater. It will also have a reversable blower that will circulate the air between the ceiling of the second floor and the basement. We'll be able to draw the heat that rises to the second floor in the winter down into the basement and then in the summer, push the cool air from the basement up to the second floor.

This next picture is of the floor structure under the old second floor bathroom. The joists were so chopped up for the plumbing that we were surprised the floor did not collapse.

Since this area has been changed to our guest room upstairs we reinforced the floor by sistering 2x8's onto the stacked 2x4 and 2x6 floor joists they used to build the house. These floors had sagged over the years so I jacked them up in the center before attaching the new 2x8. The floors upstairs are now relativley level for 110 years old and solid to walk on.

We'll put up some more before and after shots soon.

2008-10-01T07:57:00.003-05:00

Cat approved, the house has been officially certified by our cats Thelma, Louise and Mesa. This past week we have been taking the cats into the house and letting them explore. It's amazing to watch, they act like kittens again. Thelma and Louise have not been out of the motor home since May of 2004 (except for their escape at a Freightliner Service Center three years ago) so the house has been a real treat. It was obvious they remembered being in our home in SD. Mesa was a stray we picked up in Arizona two years ago so the house is a whole new experience for him. When we had our split level home in SD, Thelma and Louise would chase each other up and down the stairs. Here in this house it didn't take long for them to figure out they could do that here. Mesa didn't seem to understand the concept of stairs, it took him awhile before he realized there was another level to the house. Since everything is wide open now they have had a blast climbing the studs and getting into all the nooks and crannies any cat would love. Yesterday Mesa climbed up to the rafters of the living room (10 feet high) and had a difficult time getting down.

2008-09-22T18:27:00.012-05:00

Two milestones have been reached. After four weeks of work, four wagon loads of debris and hours of the most dirty, nasty, dusty demolition, we have finished gutting the second floor. What was four bedrooms and a full bath is now two rooms. Since this house is built like a barn the interior walls are not load bearing, they serve to stiffen the ceiling but do not carry any roof load. We removed all but one wall. When we are finished we will have a guest room and full bath and a large open area that will become Joan's quilting room with a small seating area by the stairs. In the picture you can see the current stair railing. These stairs are narrow and steep and are being replaced with a new open staircase. It will come up into the room just in front of where I'm standing. They will be reversed from the current stairs, they will start on the outside wall, go up 4 steps to a landing, then left and up 11 more steps to the top. They will be open and 42 inches wide. We are also relocating our basement stairs from the back porch to under this new staircase so we can add a 14 foot addition to the rear of the house.

Our second milestone is the completion of the new rough stairs to the second floor and the removal of the old staircase. What a difference this is going to make. The window you see in the picture will be removed soon and the opening closed up. Joan wants to put an oval, eye height window on the landing. This is my first attempt at building stairs. I bought a book about how to build a rough staircase that will be finished off in the future to become a nice, formal staircase. It was well worth the 20 bucks. The hardest part of building these stairs was getting the top section of stringers in place. Joan and Dwight where a big help. We tied a strap to the stringer section and Dwight and I lifted it up from the second floor while Joan guided the foot of the section in place on the landing. No one lost any fingers or toes so we did all right.

I'm now in the process of replacing the wall that will separate the staircase from the master bedroom. Then I need to build a support wall in the basement directly under that wall that will become the side of the new basement stairs. After that I need to build another wall on the second floor that will become the end of the guest room and will be placed directly on top of these two walls. This wall along the staircase will be a future quilt display wall and should look pretty nice.

Anyway, I've rambled on long enough. If anyone wants to see our plans for the house I've added the floor plans to the slide show at the top of the blog.

2008-09-05T08:24:00.006-05:00

We're whoped, after one month we are begining to drag. We both knew this was going to be tough but we didn't realize how out of shape we are. We have made some good progress though:

Cleaned out the basement.

Installed guest rv hookups.

Moved the rig over from the the inlaws house.

Had the septic serviced.

Got the permenent RV pad with full hookups installed.

Moved the rig to the full hookup site.

Built a new support wall in the basement to help carry the living room and dining room floors. Built a tempoary support wall in the basement.

Built two temp walls on the first floor to carry the second floor while the primary load bearing wall for the second floor is rebuilt.

Rebuilt the load bearing wall.

Created the future kitchen opening.

Removed the lathe, plaster and 50 year old blown in insulation from three quarters of the second floor.

What a disgusting, messy, messy job. The plaster is not too bad, just beat it up, knock it off then pick it up with shovels and run it down the chute to the wagon for disposal. The lathe is not fun, it's full of splinters and nails but it's the same. Tear it off, load it up and take it to the burn pile. Now the ceilings have been BAD. In 1963 (based on the newpapers we found) they had cellulose insulation blown into the attic. I'm sure it helped but until you've had to removed this stuff you cannot appreciate how dirty a person can get. This stuff, along with 110 years of accumulated dirt gets into every pore and orfice you have. It's awful, thankfully we've only got the bathroom left to do.

We've been lucky so far, we've only found two places where water has damaged the structure of the house. Both are upstairs and will be relativley easy to fix. As I said before, the previous owner had a new roof installed as soon as he bought it and probably saved the house. When we get all of this mess out, the second floor will be closed off and renovated after we have completed the first floor.

The next major project will be installing a new rough staircase from the basement to the second floor. Our design requires the removal of the current narrow second floor stairs and the current rear basement stairs so this new staircase is a big milestone.

Anyway, off to the upstairs bath I go.

2008-08-29T07:50:00.004-05:00

Because of the condition of the house we will continue to live in our motorhome while doing the renovation. Since this will take a couple of years we needed to put in an RV pad. We're luckly to have the space behind the house where we will be able to hook up to all the utilities we will need. We had a local contractor dig a trench from the house back to the pad so we could run our sewer, water, power and a piece of conduit for phone and catv. Some time in the future the utilities we installed will be used in our future garage.

The house is on a corner and we have easy access to the pad from the side street. While we where waiting for the trench I installed a basic 50 amp RV power connection on the side of the house so we could hook up to the electric. Now that the pad and full hookups are in we have a guest electric hookup for friends who may visit.

2008-08-27T18:20:00.005-05:00

The first week was spent cleaning out the first floor and (ugh) the basement. Water had sat for a couple of weeks with the heavy spring rains and everything was moldy. We scrubbed the walls with bleach and it smells much better now. Cobwebs were everywhere and old wiring had to come out.

2008-08-27T17:20:00.012-05:00

Pretty nice huh, if it only looked like this now. This picture was taken in the 1920's. Only two of the maple trees along the sidewalk remain, centered on the front of the house they are probably 40 feet tall.

Built in 1899 by Joseph Elvidge. this was the first house built in Lone Rock, IA.

After almost 110 years, too many owners to count and standing vacant for at least ten years the poor thing was showing some wear and tear. We purchased the house from the builders grandson. He bought it for back taxes several years ago and probably saved the house by putting a new roof on it right away. He gutted the first floor over two winters but just didn't have the time to restore it the way it should be. This is how it looks today.

It has good bones and alot of potential to become a very nice home for Joan and I. We estimate at least two years, working in the fall before it will be livable.