Speed Bump

My Bad. I'll be back once building permit is in place.
Patience and faith, people, patience and faith!

Coordination and Teamwork

I am the General Contractor on the church renovation. On Friday, after we closed, I went to the Village of Coxsackie offices and applied for a building permit. Yesterday I received a call from the building inspector, Chris Larsen, who expressed his concern that the church was an architectural gem that had been languishing for a couple of years and his hope that I would be restoring it. I assured him that my first order of business would be to make the structure healthy and energy efficient. He asked me to send him a list of my subcontractors (so he could make sure everyone is legit and insured) and would get back in touch with word about the building permit.
David, my carpenter, and I already did a little work tearing down walls and demolishing the crappy landlord special kitchen cabinets. That was a fun couple of days that mostly went like this:
David: "What are you doing?"
Gail: "Taking this door off the hinges."
David: "Stop." (and then he instructs me that I am removing the door from the wrong side and when the last screw comes out the door would fall on my head)
David gave me an assignment to tear down the wall behind the refrigerator while he took the day off. He called me just as I was finishing up:
David: "Is the church still standing?"
And so it goes...
Here's what's happening this week:

The chimney on the east wall comes down. It's not attached to a working fireplace and it needs to be removed so I can open up the back of the house with two sets of sliding doors (nice ones with wood frames) on the ground floor and one set of french doors can be put in the second floor bedroom loft. We are stacking the bricks and figuring out how we might repurpose them.

The site has to be cleaned up of all this junk and dead leaves to prepare the tree guys to do their job.

On Thursday, LB tree service is coming to remove these seven maple trees on the south side of the house that are compromising the structure. It will be weird to see the house a little naked and lose some of the dappled sunlight but ultimately, the house will be drier and cleaner without them. It's a tricky job as the trees are right up on the structure and my neighbor's beautiful house (they closed on their property a month ago) is very close as well. But LB assures me that they will do the job and leave me with cords of firewood for the woodstove.

I leave for Los Angeles tomorrow morning and return on Friday night. I pray I don't receive any troubling phone calls while I'm away! I'll come up on Saturday morning to review the work and take new pictures. It's haaaaapppppennnnning!

It's Official!

I closed this weekend on the church in Coxsackie so real work can start now.

But as of this minute there is neither electricity or running water at the site. Now that I have official ownership with title and bill of sale, I can open accounts with Central Hudson for electricity and natural gas, but my carpenter, David, and I got some work done nonetheless. David showed me how to tear a sheetrock wall down. It was great fun.

He also took down the crappy kitchen cabinets.

I feel that the church is being saved. After being all on its own for over a year, it developed a moisture problem that is always accompanied by a moisture odor. Just having people and sunlight and fresh air coming through the house this weekend has done it a world of good. 

We have a plan of action for this week. This week, the rear deck chimney comes down (more on that in the next post) and the hazards on the south side of the church get removed. AND I am hoping to get the water up an running. 

Curb Appeal

The front porch of the church is rotting away. I want to preserve the exterior to be the victorian style church that it was when built in 1875. The interior will be light bright and modern. There are dowels in the porch railing that have some craftsmanship that my carpenter says is of significance so we will restore them. There is other significant woodwork on the church facade. See the photos below.

        

The garden has some beautiful plantings. I'm not a big fan of roses but I have to say that these are beautiful. The Hostas are really lush and mature.

One of the less "wow factor" renovations is busting up the concrete stairs to the basement and building new wood stairs and bilko doors to protect the basement and HVAC from moisture. I am trying to make this house as healthy and energy efficient as possible.

Finally, and I think about this often, when you enter the church, the first thing you walk into is closet. I thought "Really, a closet? That's the best you can do?!" So, that's getting ripped out. More on the interior floor plan as it unfolds.

What Can I Say About The Wood Stove?

I have a love/hate relationship with the wood stove that definitely leans more to the hate side of things. But it's staying for now and I feel pretty certain that I can learn to love it. It looks like the underwater masks of the divers in the cool fish tanks that I grew up with as a kid and I sort of smile every time I see it because it's a little goofy and colorful. It's not in my nature so I think that the wood stove is here to teach me a lesson. So I am going to let it.
But I'm not letting the wall behind it teach me a lesson.
I'm personally demolishing that one.
Hoping to close on Friday, June 4th in Coxsackie, New York.
Crossing my fingers and saying my prayers.

Arbor Issues

There are trees along the south side of the church that need to be removed for the health of the structure. The roots are encroaching on the foundation and they are contributing to moisture in the basement (more on that later). The job requires a "climber" for the tree removal. The seven trees that need to go are maple and the tree guys will cut them so I can use them in the wood stove. It should yield anywhere between five and six cords of wood and since I don't have storage for that much wood, my upstate friends with any wood needs can come by and take what they want. Sustainability and good will abound!