Kitchen Evolution

Third and Fourth Week of July Update

This has been a very productive week for Scott.

He’s been able to accomplish some of the major demolition that needed to be done. He took out the false wall, leaving the load bearing column, and he took out a small ‘closet’ on the east side of the house.

This gives us a kitchen/dining/ living great room, a small bedroom and a bathroom. We are putting the washer and dryer in a closet next to the bathroom.

Scott has finished pulling up the tile – evil, glue sodden, sticky, ugly blue marbled vinyl tile. He still has a few areas where self leveling concrete needs to be poured. The kitchen was framed out our friend, Johnny, and now we have to work on the upstairs room, plumbing, and the walls. We plan to put new drywall up on everything so the house will look almost brand new.

The bathroom is still a disaster area, and we decided, because the original owners did not take time to put in the sewer drain pipe properly, to raise the bathroom floor about 6 inches. We will have to move that terrible door in the bathroom to the other side of the house. Scott and Johnny will put in a framed out sub floor, and we can put in the appropriate plumbing. Did I mention that the only thing in the house that goes to the septic tank at the moment is the toilet. We will have the kitchen sink, the dish washer and toilets run to the septic tank, but our laundry water and bath water will go to a simple grey water system and I’ll use it to water a south side garden. Yes, we will use eco friendly laundry soaps to protect the integrity of the soil and in keeping with my preference for organic gardening.

There is only a month before my daughter comes home, and her room is not framed out yet!

Things should begin to roll now. We have all the appliances purchased, including a nice gas range!

Most of the appliances have been delivered and we take delivery of our kitchen cabinets this week. Once the bathrooms and kitchen are in place, we will be able to live here properly. If not…..well, I hope our landlord will let us go month by month at the house we are living in now. We will see!

What is this? Take Two!

What could this be? Has something weird been tramping in the lawn? Give me your best guess!

Canopy

One of the most beautiful features about our little paradise is the lovely canopy of trees. Enjoy these pictures. If you click on any of these pictures, you will be able to see more detail.









I put these next two in so you can get a perspective of how tall the trees are. We own a Toyota Corolla.




Here is a picture of the woods next door. We would love to make that lot a part of our little homestead.

Facing Reality On The House

We told you the house was a dump. Yes, it is kind of cute on the outside, but the cute ends at the door.



The inside is filthy and we really don't know why. The previous owner was seriously into Spider Amnesty as well. How do you like those webs?



We tore out the kitchen yesterday and moved the washer and dryer. Our main goals for the beginning stages of restoring this house are as follows:



1. Remove every blooming yukky vinyl tile and the residual glue. Then level the floor with self leveling concrete. There is Scott fiercely tearing up tile!



2. Remove every nail in the roof and replace with screws to hold the roof safely in place. Add a ridge cap to the top of the roof. Paint the roof a lovely blue color. The house will be white with blue roof and blue accents. Scott will have to get the thriving Poison Ivy off the chimney first!




3. Replumb the house. The only thing in the house that goes to the septic tank right now is the toilet. Everything else drains out of pipes onto the lawn! We will have to re-do the entire downstairs bathroom as nothing works properly. We will add a bathroom upstairs as we finish out the upstairs. Yes, the throne is built on a pedestal.

I'm going to work on cleaning the walls and ceiling to prepare for painting the house. Everything is dusty, dirty or greasy. TSP here I come! I've already found that I can scrub the fireplace with cider vinegar to get the crud off and it is effective.

I've written a remodeling horror story for you, but honestly, once we get the floor leveled, new plumbing and kitchen in, and everything scrubbed and repainted it will be very nice! Kind of like how we are when we first give our lives to God. We are so messed up, but God 'remodels' our lives making us into His image. Thus our seemingly overwhelming project becomes a parable!

Homesteading Resource Site

This is a very useful site for wannabe homesteaders. I'm going to make the laundry soap this gal recommends.

The Family Homestead

What is this?

We have been working on the house and land of our little homestead when I discovered this! What is it? Post your thoughts.

Curious? I can't wait to hear your opinions!

Micro Hydro Power Ideas

Here is a picture of the creek side of the house. We plant to extend the porch out about 10 feet.

Scott has been doing some research on microhydropower projects. Here is some of what he discovered:

http://www.builditsolar.com/Projects/Hydro/UnderShot/WaterWheel.htm






Since we are on a 'creek' (it almost has as much water flow as the Rio Grande river going through Las Cruces, if you know what I mean) we want to take advantage of the creek as a source of free electricity. Apparently, the parts used to construct a vortex generator are very low and we don't need a waterfall to provide "head" to push the water wheel.



All this is in the preliminary planning stages, but hopefully we will be able to make our alternative energy dreams a reality within the year. I'll post more as we discover more.

By the way, the land here is fair and great for growing almost anything except tropicals.

Dreams Not Yet Reality

Scott and I have dreams for our little paradise. We hope to have an organic garden and a mini orchard on the property. Scott has always wanted to raise chickens.




The house itself needs a lot of work and we will completely redo both the interior and exterior. Our plan is to make the home energy efficient and to try to get 'off the grid' as much as we can. How will we do this?

The easiest start is with the fireplace. We will place a woodburning stove insert into the fireplace to make optimum use of all the wood we burn. The stove will be able to burn coal as well, which is a common product in this area. We may put a catalytic converter in the chimney to scrub out pollutants. We plan to purchase Energy Star rated appliances and will probably install a propane tank so we can have a gas range instead of electric. Double paned windows will reduce heat loss. Fiberglass batts in the attic will make our little home snug. Scott is thinking about installing motion detectors on light circuits so lights will not stay on unnecessarily.




The big projects will be our alternative energy sources. Scott plans to install a passive solar water heater, also known as a batch heater. This is essentially glass tubes in a row in a black box tilted toward the sun at a 45 degree angle. This won't work all the time, but the other big project will. As the property is on a stream, we plan to build our own micro hydroelectric plant, which is a slow speed 12V DC system running from a paddle wheel into a used tape drive motor. Scott says this will provide 1 - 2 amps or about 150 Watts of power all day and all night, making it more reliable than solar or wind power. The power will be stored in deep cycle marine batteries that you can buy at a warehouse like Sam's Club. There will be a controller on the batteries to keep them from overcharging. All power we use from the batteries will go through a square wave inverter that will convert it to 120 V Alternating Current for household appliances. We intend to use a windmill as well, probably for hydraulic pumping - essentially to pump water from the creek to the garden or to be filtered for our own use in an emergency.

The final dream to share today is that we will make an outdoor enclosure for Roughy to use during the summer. He needs to be a wild lizard for a few months at least!

Buying a little bit of paradise!

We made an offer on a half acre property with a dump of a house! We are supposed to close on the 15th of June. Now Scott will have a project house to work on and I will have a place to garden!




This place is in West Virginia and is a waterfront property on a creek. We are looking forward to putting the work into this house to make it livable and comfortable.