"Paradise Road"......first house on the right

[Snake Farm]

So among the other things that have been happening is this sink for the laundry room.....



You can go out and buy a new one of these cast iron sinks for a couple grand but we chose instead to troll Craigslist for and old one. So, after a few months and a road trip (3-1/2 hours each way) we ended up with this 1925 model that has had an amateur restoration done on it......which by the way I think is perfect for the look they are after.......plus it was $200 instead of $2,000



Although I would have rather waited till Christmas, a week or so ago we got to try out the snowbirds.......



.....but at least we got a few early Christmas presents too!



...light fixtures from Restoration Hardware, wait till you see the pendants that go over the kitchen island!

Got busy framing up the front porch.....





Definitely the biggest visual change we've had for a while.....





Looking pretty "Farm Housey" now don't ya think!

Well, with the porch roof in place we decided it was time to retire the custom crafted double pane polyethylene front door that has served us so well........



and replace it with.......hang on, out of room again.

 

[Snake Farm]

.....this custom made eight foot tall "Gothic" style door that was delivered a while back....





....and yes the pic above is taken like one of those fishing pictures that make the fish look big but this is a pretty big door form any angle......



....especially if you are 4"-11" like the "Inspector's" Mom



So there you have it, a door......



And a porch........



Took delivery of the soffit today, ordering siding on Monday, finishing up the grouting early next week and will start hanging interior doors.

To be continued....

 

[Snake Farm]

BTW This latest update starts with pictures on the previous page.

 

[GJunktionMike]

Looking good

 

[Neverdone]

wow. just wow.

You are welcome to work on my house anytime.

 

[bob w]

The porch makes the house. When we started our house it looked incomplete. I quickly drew up a porch and it made a vast improvement.

Outstanding work you are doing, SN. Super nice front door.

 

[Dirtyrat]

You are a busy busy man! Looking great on the door, and porch!

 

[Snake Farm]

Dang man, this is embarrassing.....I'm as far behind on this thread as I am the project itself. I thought I'd be finished with this house by now but due to a combination of factors which include but are not limited to; weather, underestimating the scope of the project and the fact that at 55 I can't seem to do the same things I could at 25.....I've still got a ways to go. But things are progressing and if I don't fall asleep here listening to Bob Marley live from 1980, I'll throw a bunch of pics and short captions at ya and get everyone back up to speed.

Okay, last visit I was finishing up the grouting on the floor and was about to hang the interior doors........







Really pleased with the vintage look of these doors....



Outside we started working on the soffit and facia as weather permitted....



Vinyl Pro-Bead to look like old wooden beaded soffit and ceilings.......









Hang on for more.....

 

[Snake Farm]

Inside we draped some plastic in the basement to make a paint room for finishing the Conestoga RTA kitchen cabinets.........





Harbor Freight had a sale on HVLP paint guns....like 12 bucks........



...so I stocked up on them and started painting cabinets when it was too bad to work outside. Says right in the instructions they are not suitable for latex paints but I paid no attention to that and they laid down a perfect coat of primer and performed flawlessly with the Benjamin Moore oil base.

Back outside we took delivery of the James Hardie cement siding and trim and got busy on it every time the sun shined.....





This pic shows every piece of scaffold I own, LOL



But it was enough and I was more than happy to get the high end finished!





Had a slight holdup as these guys were living in one of my scaffold piles....



Soon as they were up and out we continued on the other end.......



More pics coming....

 

[Snake Farm]

More siding....



Trying hard to make it look a hundred years old.....in fact we fooled our first looker the other day. A contract tree trimmer for the power company stopped by looking for me and I was gone so he came back the next day, he said "when I was here yesterday I thought you were fixing up the old family farmhouse". I said thanks that's exactly the reaction we're after.



So with cabinets painted we start assembling them, This is a pretty good sized kitchen with 50+ cabinets so they piled up quickly...








That's my Son In-law, the homeowner putting in some "sweat equity"...



The Inspector still stops by frequently........



Even brought popcicles one day



Hang on for some more.....

 

[Snake Farm]

Being on the short side my daughter wanted a little help here and there so she can bear down on the bread dough etc. so I came up with these.....











With the base cabinets set around the perimeter of the room we moved to the middle and started on this.......



At eleven feet by four feet we have nicknamed this thing "Hawaii" .....you know......"The Big Island"



And speaking of big, remember when a range hood cost $29.95 and was held up with four screws? Well not anymore.....to take care of the double ranges the decimal point moves two spaces to the right and is now held up by four rods and turn buckles....





Hang on, got a few more.......

 

[Snake Farm]

This is a full fledged commercial unit with makeup air (the big panel below the hood) so it won't mess with the dryer exhaust and bath fans....







So for the last week I've been getting the base down for the countertops....



Setting the sinks......



Putting on forms.....



The sinks presented a bit of a challenge because I want the top to overhang the edge of the the sink bowls, so I needed some way to hold the form in place. This is what I came up with......

Some cardboard packing angle....



Two inch foam.....



Kerf the form so it can be collapsed later.....



And mount the form to the foam.......



The black and pink plugs are where the faucet and the air switch for the disposal go.

Out of pic space again......

 

[Snake Farm]

So this past Saturday.......



I poured my first concrete countertop!



Actually turned out well but in retrospect a smooth finish white one was probably not the best choice to learn on LOL

My research tells me these are unavoidable with a stiff mix like this......



While some folks prefer to leave the edges like this, these will get filled with a paste and sanded smooth.

So with one top under my belt I jumped in and poured another one yesterday...







Also poured this small test piece to make sure the reinforcement I'm going to use in front of the sinks will not "ghost" through the finish, a problem with light colored mixes...





It did fine with no shadowing.......



And, does anyone remember this light fixture mock-up?



Hang on for a few more pics....

 

[Snake Farm]

The cardboard pendants were nice.......



But I figured I'd better get the real things up there while I can still climb around on the island......





And to put them into perspective......



And I've been told I have a big head



So with my confidence building I poured another top today and this evening I premixed the ingredients for tomorrow's pour........



It will be the L shaped one with the vegetable sink and will weigh about 560 lbs.........notice I'm leaving "The Big Island" for last in hopes I'll get good at it before then.

 

[Snake Farm]

BTW, this latest update starts with hanging doors on page 19.

 

[clamor]

[cl
[P

 

[Bamamav]

Good to see your progress, I was wondering the other day if they had moved in yet. Keep at it, you're getting there! [cl

 

[Snake Farm]

Poured the L shaped counter yesterday...



....well, poured is a strong word



...we're talking zero slump here so it's more like stacking and vibrating and beating it down LOL



Turned out pretty good. Did this one by myself, five hours nonstop mixing (three batches), placing and finishing.

Pulled forms today and sanded out the top......





Should be a vegetable sink under here.......



There we go.....



Set the faucet in the hole for a look see......



Four tops down and one to go!

 

[I-R-POPS]

Looking good. Where's your little helper at? That looks like a project he
would really enjoy. Keep on keeping on.

 

[Snake Farm]

Had company outside the kitchen window today.....



After stripping the forms and dressing up the L, we did some miniature rebar tying



Got the "Big Island" ready for tomorrow.....





All wrapped up, some temporary legs under the bar and 15 buckets of material dry mixed and ready to go!

My daughter is going to put in some "sweat equity" tomorrow.......she is helping me pour the island and I'm looking forward to it.