Flip House 1...Part 2

Look Out Florida...here we come:):)

In order for Mike and I to go to Florida to work on the houses we have to shut down our house for the winter in TN. On September 29 we prepped our TN house and loaded up the mini motorhome(van). We left for FL in the wee morning hours on September 30. Woo hoo. We are so excited to get back to some sunshine. It was a rough year in TN this year. Mike promised that when we first got to Florida we would take a break and relax for a week or so before we start work on the house. Promises, promises. We arrived at the house at 6pm on September 30. The last time we saw the house was when we made an offer on it last April so it was very exciting to actually see, touch, and feel what we bought. the only difference is that the furniture was taken out by the previous owner's son. First things first. I have to clean up our new living quarters. We plan on living in the master bedroom and using the master bath as our bath and our kitchen. It will be a little awkward but at least we are on site to get this house done. I wash down the walls and scrub the floors while Mike unloads the van. Niki, our pug, is confused but I'm sure she will get into the swing of things real soon. She's been with us a long time now and she knows we are a little bit crazy, lol. She is also ecstatic because we are setting up here bed in the bedroom with us. She had "never" slept in our room before. We get the air mattresses set up and Mike turns to me and says "we need to call in a dumpster" I knew it. So much for a vacation. We are going to start work right away and we are actually both happy about it. We just can't resist work especially when the sun is shining. Mike and are nice weather workers. 10-1 Our first full day in Florida. Woo hoo. First we have to go shopping. Mike drops me off at Walmart to pick up kitchen supplies and food while he goes to Home Depot for tools. We didn't know how much stuff we could fit in the van on the way down so needless to say we need a lot of stuff. Let the spending begin. Mike bought the biggest Dewalt battery operated tool set. He said all of the men were drooling because he got the best toys of the day, lol. Woo hoo. We are back at the house and ready to work. This is our favorite thing to do. The first and most fun part of remodeling is the demo and we got a brand new sledgehammer just for this job. We start working in the second bathroom. We are going to completely gut this bathroom and update the whole thing. Here are some original pictures. and Mike takes off the shower doors and brings them into the garage. Next he takes the track off the wall for the sliding shower doors. Next we work on getting the old tile off the wall. This turns out to be a fairly easy job considering a lot of the tile starts to fall off as we hammer. Me taking out tile. Mike working on the back wall of the shower. After we get the tile off the wall Mike takes the sledgehammer to try and break up the tile on the ceiling. Now we have to be careful. We don't want the whole ceiling to collapse on top of us. So that part isn't as easy as the walls. This is going to take a little more effort and a lot more mess. I stay in the bathroom to clean up the mess that we made. As you will all find out I spend an awful lot of time cleaning up after Mike. Mike works his way around the house tearing anything apart that he comes across. Here he is taking down one of the ceiling fans. Then he starts to take out the original intercom system. Check it out it was an 8 track player. It was probably "state of the art" at the time, lol. Next he starts to work on taking a half wall and a banister out. Here is the original wall and banister. It's a good thing I had that picture from April. Mike is tearing things apart faster than I can get in the same room as him. Mike taking the rails out. Then he takes the base off. And finally he gets to use the sledgehammer to bust out the wall. That was our first full day in Florida. I think we did pretty good so far. We already have quite a pile in the garage. I may really have to call the dumpster in soon. 10-2 Our second day of work. I start off the day by going into the bathroom to take down the wallpaper. Thankfully it is coming right off the wall. That's a first. Shh, now I probably jinxed myself for the next bathroom. I also clean up the debris that is in the bathtub. While I am working in the bathroom I hear Mike out back banging away. I run out with the camera and see that he has already taken most of an old wood cabinet apart. Here he is cleaning up the last of the cabinet pieces. We both go back into the bathroom. Mike starts to take down the mirror. I hate this part. You can only hope it comes off the wall in one piece and doesn't smash all over the place. Yay, it's coming off in one piece. We carry the mirror out to the garage together. Next is the vanity. Mike using the sledgehammer on the vanity. We got the sink off and now Mike is tearing apart the rest of the vanity. And the vanity is gone. Not too shabby for our first 2 days of work. There is much more to come. Next week's story will be our Kitchen demo. I hope you all enjoyed this chapter and I will write again next Sunday night. Lisa

Chapter 104...How To Build An Awning & More Asphalt Curbing

Off Grid...Chapter 104 Mike has a new saying for our "Off Grid Home" It is now our ongoing living laboratory where we will and have tried, lol, many different things in search of the perfect outcome. This is where we all get to learn and if one thing doesn't work out then we will try something else. We are now hoping to improve upon our home...so that means there will be some re-do's I hate re do's...but if it will make our living better than we will do it. Our Awning Story....I hope you enjoy As you know we have no A/C inside the house, and since we placed our house to get the best view, we get the direct sunlight in the late afternoon. We have been able to stay cool by closing the blinds in the late afternoon but then we loose the enjoyment we get from looking outside. Mike and I decided to build a covered awning which will block the sun and also give us some cover for sitting outside while it rains I can't wait to get some comfy lounge chairs and kick back this year It took us a few trips to town to get enough lumber to start the job. Now we are ready to work. Mike starts off by taking down the old trim. Then we have to install the ledger board along the entire front of the house to hold the frame and the panels. Mike puts on a double sided caulking strip for added leak protection for the ledger board. Next he pre drills holes in the board so we don't split the wood when we put the bolts in. Using a hammer to start the anchor bolt. And then the ratchet to screw the bolt in. Once the ledger board is attached to the house we have to install the front posts. We are installing four 4x4 front posts to hole up the cross beams and the panels. Mike and I used metal post anchors to install the posts. We had to drill each anchor into the concrete patio and the screw the post into the anchor. They are installed. Next we have to put a header board across the 4 posts so we have something to screw the beams to. We used lag bolts to do this. It doesn't look like much yet but we are getting there Now it's time for the rafters. We are going to install one rafter every 3 feet and then we will add alternating rafters 3 feet long in the opposite direction to support the top panels. Mike screwing in the last of the long rafters. Working on the cross sections. The base frame is up now it's time to paint. Mike and I painted 2 coats ...while the princess gets to enjoy our hard work We called around for pricing on translucent panels for the roof. David at the farm supply had the best deal. Mike and I took the trailer to the farm supply and picked up our panels. Each panel is 3 feet by 12 feet. That will be our cover. Mike starting to install the panels. Finally, we are up to the last section..and it's a tight fit. Good thing we did this last year. Right now I don't think either one of us cold fit in there We are done with the awning. We may look into some roll down shades for the front. Awning from the front. From the side. From above. Our next project is to protect the hill by our ditch that the cows keep messing with. This time Mike and I are installing poles with electric wire to protect the bank. Putting in the poles. Then we added more grass seed, and stapled another layer of curlex down. Hopefully we can get the bank to hold this time Here are some clouds rolling in. Mike and I took a ride across the way and I tried to take a picture of our little homestead. It was a cloudy day but this is what we look like. And finally...the very last job that was done last year. We had one more section of paving done. I wasn't there the whole time but I did get some pictures for you. The asphalt truck. Brushing on the adhesive for the curbing. And making the curbs. We now have the paving down 2/3's for the driveway. We may finish the last of it this summer. It is so much nicer to drive on the pavement and it doesn't wash out and tear up our car like the gravel does. One more picture before I finish. I found a strange bug in my garden. I posted this last year and someone did tell me what it was but for the life of me I can't remember I will have to look it up for you. Anyway here is the strange but cool looking bug. I got it. It is a tomato hornworm with wasp eggs.  "Tomato hornworm larvae are also parasitized by a number of insects. One of the most common is a small braconid wasp, Cotesia congregatus. Larvae that hatch from wasp eggs laid on the hornworm feed on the inside of the hornworm until the wasp is ready to pupate. The cocoons appear as white projections protruding from the hornworms body (see photo, left). If such projections are observed, the hornworms should be left in the garden to conserve the beneficial parasitoids. The wasps will kill the hornworms when they emerge from the cocoons and will seek out other hornworms to parasitize." I hope you all enjoyed it. Next week I will tell you about Mike and I installing our wood stove Lisa