Windows and Doors have been delivered!

Installation will begin once the foundation is finished. A small victory for the East wall of the church!

Staying Motivated

I didn't head up to the church this weekend. One of my crew had a death in the family and since we are all human beings, we let the schedule be a little flexible. I hope that the forms come in and the concrete foundation walls are poured this coming week. It makes me uncomfortable that the old girl has been on stilts for almost three weeks. I'll feel better when she's set back down.
I did get some good news. I heard from the delivery service that the windows and doors are ready to be delivered and to arrange a time that works for everyone. THAT will be a big change that I can enjoy all the time. I can't wait to see more light come into the east side of the house. David says he'll install them as soon as the foundation is done. So I'm on the brink of seeing a lot of things happening but just not right now.
One of the things that keep me motivated is thinking about what artwork I can hang. Here's some stuff that I'd like to get framed and put in the music area. There's a sweet Matt & Kim poster with their personal inscriptions from our trip to Coachella this year. Next to that is a Seth illustration with an inscription from Aimee Mann and the far right is a Hatch Showprint poster with an inscription from Mary Gauthier.

And here's some photographs that I really love.

It seems so far away, the time that I'll be able to hang pictures, but it helps me stay motivated to keep on when I'm losing hope.

One of the things that I love about upstate is going to yard sales and buying interesting ephemera for design inspiration. The book above was in a garage sale and I paid $2 for it.

I think these are called "tracts". I  love their simple graphics and alarming messages.

Next week: hopefully a basement comes into being...

Foundation Replacement Week 4

 I hope that this is about as ugly as it gets. The entire landscape is ripped up and there is a 6 foot deep x 3 foot wide trench dug around three sides of the church. If I tottered off my entry ramp, it would seem as if I'd fallen into my grave. It's a creepy analogy and yet it seems appropriate. My friend Deb had joked with me a couple of weeks before: "I used to think that since you are the smart one when it concerns money, that you would be able to support all of us in our old age. Now, that you bought this church, I'm not so sure." Sometimes, I'm not so sure either but I soldier on with the extensive work that needs to be done.

But David is one smart guy, so once I surveyed the "destruction" and opened the door to the interior, this is what I saw:

David had made a fire in the nutty wood stove and it was really great to see. I immediately warmed up to the wood stove both literally and figuratively.  I said "Hey, the fire looks really great and the woodstove works well!" David replied, "You know, it makes the homeowner feel welcome."
The other nice thing about the woodstove is that it doesn't get hot to the touch, it stays nice and comfortably warm as demonstrated by my hand resting on it after burning away for a few hours.

In the two biggest changes that occured this month, the footings were poured for the basement. Hopefully, this week the forms will come in, be placed around the rebar and the concrete walls will be poured. Once that is done, my mason Tom will install the curtain drains, backfill the trenches and pour a retaining wall on the south side of the church to further keep the water from seeping into the new foundation.
The other change is that the entire ceiling from east to west has been stripped of it's sheetrock.

I'm glad I wasn't around to see sheets of that stuff drop from a 22 foot ceiling height. It's messy work.
The ceiling will be prepped this week so that it will be ready to receive the white stained tongue and groove pine that will be put up. I decided on the "vintage white" stain because it will not visually "lower" the ceiling and the stain still lets you see the grain of the wood and the knots in the pine, just more subtly.
The photo below is of what David calls "breathers". They are made of some kind of styrofoam. I layed them on the floor but David said he could show me how they get put up.

They get stapled to the wood and the insulation then gets placed on top of them. They are supposed to help with air flow and the "breathability" of the house.

This week, I will need to place the order for the tongue and groove which will come via truck from Michigan or Minnesota or somewhere out there. Also, I will check on the window and door order as I can't wait to escape the "prison" of the east loft fenestration.

I am heading west for a couple of photo shoots in Los Angeles. We already have some complications regarding the church's current hookup, or lack thereof, of my water line to the town main line. More on that to be revealed as I learn about my options but in the meanwhile, fingers crossed that all the phone calls, at least while I'm working West Coast, are easy ones.
And finally, here's Sparky. I just like to take pictures of him.

All Jacked Up Part 2

I left NYC for the church on Saturday morning of Labor Day Weekend. When I drove up the driveway this is what I saw.

The church had it's crumbling foundation ripped out and was completely resting on the cribbing that was made in the now non-existent, soon to be the brand new, dry and clean basement. I had a balance beam to navigate to get inside.

So I walked down to the "basement" to have a look before testing the strength of the ramp. Here's what's happening underneath. It's really impressive how it all works.

The rock that was in the crawlspace and nudging one of the foundation walls was broken apart to alleviate the pressure which now won't threaten the new wall that gets built.

When I got inside (thanks to yoga, my balance is good!), I saw that David had been busy dismantling the ceiling in the East loft. I was really happy to see the peak of the Church. It looked so much better to me.

Of course, when you rip things down, in this case the sheetrock, you have to make decisions about what you are going to put back up. We had to rip the sheetrock down because it was moist, smelled like it was moist, and parts of the Church had clearly suffered from various infestations while it was unoccupied for two years and thankfully I did not have to witness what had been living in parts of the insulation. So now the questions are: 1. How do we handle the horizontal beams? Wood? Metal rods to mimic the large tie rods? 2. What material do we use for the ceiling? I am leaning towards wood. William wants the wood to be painted white and I am leaning towards it having a clear varnish. My feeling is that if you spend that kind of money to clad the entire ceiling end to end with tongue and groove, you kind of want to show it off. I'm sure a lively discussion will ensue.

I started to go a little crazy thinking about all of these decisions and decided to do something sort of mindless and relaxing. So I cleaned, sanded and primed a few of the large storm windows that were brought up from the basement when I still had one. 

And finally, after many modifications and bids, I  have ordered the windows and doors for the west elevation. That's the side with the view of the Hudson River. They should arrive from Andersen in 4 to  6 weeks and hopefully they will be installed before November 1. So, in one of my most favorite improvements, we go from this:

To this:

The church has no plumbing as of this moment. I had a working toilet but it had to be disconnected when the foundation work began so I can't camp out there anymore until it gets hooked back up. Check out the view of the house I stayed at on Sunday night. This is why there was a Hudson River Valley school of painters.

All Jacked Up Part 1

A lot has happened these past two weeks at the church. When I drove up at the end of August, this is what I saw.

The entire site was excavated in preparation for the foundation replacement.

Here's William Vincent, my architect 

taking measurements of the facade

The cribbing was in place in the basement.

With this kind of structural repair going on there's not much for me to do up there except think about the space and where I want outlets, switches, lighting, what kind of materials for the ceiling, for the floors, for the kitchen, for the bathroom. It's exhausting and sometimes I get overwhelmed by the choices and feel a kind of dread with the certainty that my budget is blown before I've even started. 

So what do you do when that happens? Well, I was lucky enough to go to the Dutchess County fair where fried food, caramel apples and photo opportunities allowed me to take my mind off of things and just have some fun.

And then, of course, it helps to mull things over with Sparky. He is an excellent listener.