Farmhouse makeover

Detroitgator

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I like the DIY channel and would absolutely watch This Old Cooter! Sounds like 1/4 Bob Villa, 1/4 Tim Taylor, 1/4 Duck Dynasty and 1/4 moonshine. Episode 1: “Hold my Bud Light Platinum ” Ratings would be through the ROOF!
FIFY! ;)
 

LagoonGator68

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No slave house but there was a smoke house years ago that went away. No plans to build a new one.
Racial strife seems non-existent in this small town. You see black and white people eating together in the small restaurants around town and greeting each in a warm manner in the hardware store and it's genuine. The mason I originally tried to hire, Jessie, is a black man whose son was an all-state DE at Lincoln County High who later played at UGA and then with the Vikings. Jessie is known for his skill as a mason and the hash he makes. Hash in SC and Ga is a popular side dish and every barbecue joint has their own secret recipe. When I tried to hire him I told him I heard about his hash and he invited me to his home where he gave me about a quart out of the freezer in his barbecue shack to bring back to Florida. To say it's good is an understatement. When he turned me down for work, he recommended Tommy who is white. There is something to be said for small country towns.


Doesn't seem to be much interstate access to Lincolnton....
 

crosscreekcooter

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I was under the impression this house was built in 1917. I have since learned that approximately 3,000 acres was purchased and the original house built around 1850. It measured 16 x40 and was comprised of 3 rooms with 2 fireplaces. It underwent at least 3 additions, the second being an additional 16 x 40 mirror image attached to the back and two bedrooms added in the half story created by the attic space of the roof. Some years later the house got a bathroom and kitchen which was added to one end. It incorporated a double faced fireplace, one serving what became the master bedroom and the other side serviced the new kitchen. As the house became derelict, this kitchen area eventually collapsed and became a den for a family of red fox.

Now that the new foundation is in place and the girders are stablized, the focus this past month has been to install the floor joists for both the interior and exterior porches. All of the rough sawn pine used to construct the home was cut from timber on the land and sawn in the owners sawmill which was operated commercially for the area. None of this pine timber was treated obviously, and both the formosan termites and dry rot have had their way in some areas, so those supporting girders had to be repaired or replaced as we went along. Even though the floors and wall boards have been removed, there is still much that has to be disassembled or probed in order to determine its structural capacity before moving forward. Two weeks ago I asked my friend Mooch to come up and give me a hand which has been a tremendous help. He is a great builder and very talented.

Even though I have jacked and leveled the perimeter timber girders up off the old rock piers and onto new reinforced masonry piers, I decided to bolt a joist band inside the girders to provide a concise, level floor system. I invited the new inspector to the site to see what I'm doing and what I have planned and got no negative comments. The house sits on the main road into town (3 miles outside) and people passing by now blow their horns which is kind of cool. The owners great aunt (98 years old) stopped the other day to ask what we were doing; she wanted to tell me she grew up in this house. It's either amazing or scary that she is out driving her car at that age.

Front Porch
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This will be the new Mudroom/Laundry/Powder room
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Master Bedroom and Bath (was where the old kitchen was located)

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This fireplace foundation was set on a pile of loosely mortared rock which was beginning to unravel. The cracking between the mortar joint is slowly opening and you could see it telegraphing between the rock. I decided to pour a reinforced concrete buttress to stabilize it.
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The fireplace next to this one was the doubleface and before I arrived on the scene, the owner and architect decided one side needed to go to allow a shower to fit in the master bath. Now I have to figure out how to fix this.


This past week we started the reframing process, adding the rough openings for windows and doors and replacing bad posts and studs. In a sense, some of this work is like oral surgery, having to replace parts of the jawbone before you can implant the new teeth.
Slowly making progress. Looking ahead, the second floor joists are insufficient for the span and have sagged. We want to save the pine flooring on it and its going to be cost prohibitive to remove it. Those are ungraded 2x6 pine joists spanning 16 feet placed 24-28" on center. The rough looking wood that you see is just subflooring. There is tongue and groove pine flooring on top thats in good shape.
I think I have an answer.

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CGgater

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Looks like a lot of fun! Hard work, I’m sure... but fun nonetheless. I’m a bit jealous, but glad to see you’re making progress. I also like to see I’m not the only guy who’s willing to put in the extra effort to do a job the right way instead of the easy way.

Btw, I’m not surprised that a guy named Cooter has a go-to friend called Mooch.
 

crosscreekcooter

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In the past 3 weeks we framed the new window and door locations in the existing exterior walls and began replacing deteriorated studs. We also framed the mudroom addition which includes the laundry and a half bath.
We had reached a critical point where construction was going to come to a standstill without the services of a plumber. All of the first floor joists were in with exception of a path through the master bedroom where the soil pipe would exit the house and connect with a planned septic system. Normally most crawlspace construction has adequate clearance to allow mechanical trades to install their work after a home is framed, however in our case when the home was originally built the girders were set only 12" above the existing grade so it was important that they get involved before the plywood subfloor was installed so they would have room to work. I was finally able to connect with a plumber from a neighboring town (25 miles away) and he jumped right in and completed everything necessary in a day and a half to allow us to continue.

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Mudroom addition
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Master bedroom and bath - we left these joists out to allow the plumber to tail out of the house-he needed a small excavator to tail out below the footing

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I have tried to keep as much of the original structure intact where possible however a lot is lost simply bringing the structure into code conformance. The problem this presents is that the material sizes are nominal and the graded material that you buy today has been planed to dimensional standards. In our case the plates are actually 2" x 4" and the replacement studs measure 1 1/2" x 3 1/2'. As a result, we have to rip 1/2" thick pieces to apply to make the dimensions consistant. On top of this, the exterior walls are not standing plumb so both sides will receive a long rip that may varies from 1/4" on one end to 2 1/2" in the 10' stud length. These have to be applied to both sides of the wall and is very time consuming.

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Next week I will frame the roof on the mudroom. Today we began framing the exterior walls on the master bedroom and will begin the demolition on the roof in that area to accomodate a new gable roof over the master wing.
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Last week I made the decision to remove the old bead board ceilings on the front porch to get a better look at the condition of the roof framing behind this material in one area and I'm glad I did. The "beam" that carries the roof on both porches that wrap around the house are actually not beams at all but are 12" "ladders" framed with 2x4s and covered with 1x12. Even though these have been in place for over 100 years, as soon as i cover them up they will surely fail. We will begin rebuilding these in the next couple of weeks. You can barely see the short studs in the beam peeking out above the 1x12. This will be a real pain in the ass.

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LagoonGator68

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Thanks, cooter. Can you just install a beam inside the existing beam left in place?
 
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crosscreekcooter

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Thanks, cooter. Can you just install a beam inside the existing beam left in place?

Good thinking! That's actually what I'm planning to try. I going to remove the interior 1x12 that faces the existing beam and sister two 2x10s in it's place, then recover the inside as well as the beam bottom with new material. The beam will grow in width by 3 inches but this can be disguised with a slightly wider chapiter at the head of the column. We are going to replace the existing warped ceiling joists with new members that will provide bracing for the porch roof at midspan also.
 
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crosscreekcooter

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When we removed the porch ceilings, it also revealed the original soffit which still remains in place. The new roof rafters that were installed in the later addition (sometime around 1917 ?) use this soffit as bearing.

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crosscreekcooter

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We have now framed a portion of the Master bedroom and bath walls. The walls allow us to better stabilize the upper roof, getting some of the load off the temporary posts that are supporting this end of the structure. There is a large gable that will be built looking towards the rear of the property, and the porch beams and roof in this area will have to be removed to allow it's construction. Once the porch beam is removed, it will allow room for a new beam to be inserted above the 10 foot plate line to carry the upper roof loads.
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We have also framed a portion of the roof above the mudroom/laundry addition. This roof cannot be completed as there is a 2nd floor shed dormer that will rise out of the upper roof, and the mudroom roof will tie into the new exterior upper wall.

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Before moving any further with either the master bedroom or the mudroom, our focus now needs to be with the installation and repair of the 2nd floor joists and installation of new floor beams that will be in the new load path. The front porch beam and ceiling joist replacement will be our next priority. When we move to the front porch beam repair, this will require that new temporary shoring be installed in order to remove the old temporary support posts providing room to work. Until the discovery of the inadequate porch beams about 10 days ago, this work was never anticipated. I am beginning to feel pressure from the lack of adequate manpower, I could really use another 3 or 4 hands experienced at demolition and reconstruction.
 
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crosscreekcooter

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In the past month we have completed installing a new 2nd floor joist system. Rather than tearing out the existing 2x6 ceiling joists that were used for floor joists I sistered in 2x10's 12" on center, of which each one had to be jacked into position to eliminate the sagging in the floors. It didn't remove 100% of the problem but remedied almost all of it and delivered a system that far exceeds the loading requirements in the code. No sign yet of NV.
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Finally got enough of the south gable framed to complete the framing on the mudroom roof and get it dried in and have about 70% of the second floor bedrooms and bath framed.

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It was raining this morning when I left and didn't take pictures of the second floor framing.
 

divits

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images


Midwest Norm
I used to love how norm would build a shim, to build a jig, to build a bracket, to build the vice to hold the actual piece of furniture he was building for the show.
:lol:
 

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