Simon's house

A week ago, Saturday’s project was reroofing Simon’s house. Simon had ordered the roofing iron, and it was delivered on the Monday before that day. Simon was hoping to get half the house finished in one day, and he had a lot of people who offered to help him. When Esther and I arrived over there with a pot of soup for lunch, this is what we saw–both sides of the roof ripped off!

Several of the younger helpers were scooping birds’ nests out of the roof cavity. It was apparently quite full!

Elijah and a friend were measuring the metal.

Poor Simon was supposed to be in charge!

They laid netting down over the purlins (after they replaced them all, as well as adding new timber to the sides of the rafters to extend and level the roof), and then put building paper over that before putting the new roof on.

They were still working after dark. The job was finished about 7:30. While we were eating lunch, it had started to rain, and looked like it might keep on all day. I was praying, as I drove home, that the rain would stop and they would be able to finish the job without the house getting soaked. As you can see from some of these pictures, the sun came out again! We were thankful. We’re pretty happy that the roof got finished before the new ceilings got damaged from rain. This weekend, the boys got the chimney installed, so now there is heat in the house.

Ever since New Year’s Day, the boys have been working hard on renovating Simon’s house. His tenants hope to move in in a week, so the pressure is on! The main living area is finished, and we’re working hard to finish the laundry and toilet. The bathroom is finished except for wall linings, which are not coming in–they were ordered over a month ago. I painted the main living area two weeks ago, and spent the last couple of days painting the laundry and toilet. I hope to finish that within the next two days.

Here are a couple of pictures of the living area soon after Simon bought it. First is the kitchen, second is the living room.

This was the first color Simon chose for the trim. It was supposed to be brown! We asked him to buy a darker shade. This worked for the first coat, and then we painted over it with the darker paint. Simon saw it and fell in love with it, and decided on the spot what the outside of the house will be painted: cream with red trim.

The finished walls: first, kitchen; second, living room.

After we got the painting done, Elijah laid the carpet and vinyl, and then the lights were installed and connected.

Soon I’ll post a few pictures of the other rooms we’re finishing. I don’t have any here right now. It’s a lot of work, but the end result is rewarding. There is still a long way to go to finish the house. Simon ordered the roofing iron yesterday, so that will be the next step, and when he does that he’ll insulate the attic space. The cladding needs redone all around, and the bedrooms need to be gutted and redone. He’ll end up with a new house, one piece at a time!

The older boys have spent all their spare time over the last two months working on fixing up Simon’s house. A young family plans to move over here in about a month, and they want to rent the house, but it was unlivable without a lot of work. The work began on Monday right after New Year’s. Our boys and Gayle and the man who is planning to live in the house spent that day gutting the kitchen and living area. They accomplished a lot of demolition in one day. A week later, Simon and Elijah went over the hill to pick up a kitchen Simon bought on Trade Me. The next day, they set it up in the house to see how it would fit. They wanted my input on how to organize it, so I went over and while I was there I took some pictures.  These first two pictures were taken after nearly an hour of discussion and poor Simon was saying he had a headache from all the thinking. I got out of there so he didn’t have to listen to me any more. They got busy on other jobs for the day.

The ceilings were very uneven so several of them spent several days putting small boards in between the the rafters to straighten out so the gypboard will be able to go on properly. Before they had even gotten the cupboards they had poured a new concrete floor in the kitchen. The original floor was very uneven and varied 2 inches in height from one side to the other. It was also extremely rough.

The next step was to bring up the living room floor to match the kitchen floor. While they were doing this they added insulation under the plywood between the  original floor and the new plywood.

After that they tore out the side wall of the house and framed in a new window and door.

The first Monday of February, I had the chance to stop in and see the progress. It was good to see the new wall frame done.

Wiring was being added to the kitchen and although you can’t see it, they had put in a sliding door to the laundry room, over to the right.

The old window in the living room had been taken out and they were replacing framing in that wall.

Simon took these two pictures  yesterday after they finished working. As you can see they’ve been very busy framing and adding the doors, and have added cladding to the house and two sides.

The flowers at that house were very pretty in early January. This is the flower bed along the garage walking up to the door of the house.

Here are close-ups of a couple of the especially pretty flowers.

Simon bought a house almost a year ago. I’ve been intending to post pictures of it ever since… finally, here they are! Sorry for the delay, Mom—I know you’ve been curious about what his place looks like. Most of these are pictures James took in the summer. This is the view from the road, up to his garage. His house is on the right; on the other side of the house to the left is the garage where Simon works.

The chimney on the side of the house is gone now. The boys spent a couple of days in June bashing it out. They needed to get rid of it in order to replace a beam under the house there.

To enter the house, you use the back door. This is the mudroom, with the laundry straight ahead. To the right is the kitchen door, and then the door into the toilet and bathroom.

As you can see, the bathroom is pretty rough. The entire house needs to be redone.

This is the kitchen and living area. The stove is very good at heating the house, and the appliances work. The sink tap, however, does not.

There are three smallish bedrooms.

The enclosed porch faces the road, and is accessed through a bedroom.Inside the garage. That is Simon’s Austin on the left. He stored his tractor there  until it was needed here this winter for feeding cows. The white thing on the right, closest to the camera, is a Land Cruiser in pieces, I believe. (Another project!)

Another Land Cruiser Simon dreams of restoring. It’s stored in what used to be the chicken house.

Simon has a lot of fruit; these are his blueberries.

The view from the hillside above the house. That’s Simon and Mr. Sweetie mowing lawn, and Little Miss was checking out the raspberry bushes.I went over in June to take a few pictures one rainy Sunday afternoon. This is the house from the road. Simon stores his extra vehicles there!

The backyard, looking up at his orchard.

Enough furniture has been donated to outfit the house a couple of times! I’m not sure what Simon will do with it all when he comes to gutting the house.

Simon was pleased to be able to bring two of his geese over from Canterbury. They mow the lawn for him.

This is the biggest project Simon has undertaken yet. He’s working on replacing the piles under the house right now, as a first step in renovation. He needed to level the house before starting on anything else. I think they have two out of eight “bearers” repiled so far.