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Post by JohnG on May 23, 2007 10:16:53 GMT -5
Today I moved back downstairs. I was sick of pulling nails and needed a change. I went back to work jackhammering up the stable area. I hammered out the windows that had been bricked up. They now look into the chicken coop but that will be removed in a month or less.
The last (far) two windows on the left will be unified (wall between them removed) and there will a picture window there. Yes the wall will be supported - I don't feel like having any new drama in my life - like the house collapsing. The closest open window on the left will become a door to the patio.
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In case you don't remember what it used to look like when I bought the house:
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The animal feed area - this was built with debris, rock, brick, and concrete. It is real fun breaking this up. I did just five feet or so and couldn't feel my arms anymore. And the business end of the jackhammer was hot enough to burn you. The steel rails have to be cut out with a radial saw - they are sunk too deep in concrete. They can be gotten out of the wall ok but not the floor.
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A view from the other end of the house - looking to the front. Upstairs (what is left of it) is where I have been working the past few days with the plank.
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JohnG
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greig
Junior Member
Posts: 84
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Post by greig on May 23, 2007 10:37:43 GMT -5
HI JOhn,
i know nothing about renovating a house but i think you should call in Ty Pennington and the extreme makeover team, they will have it sorted in 7 days and you will get a holiday out of it too.
G
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Post by JohnG on May 23, 2007 10:42:07 GMT -5
But then I wouldn't have done it myself now would I?
I will need help for laying the concrete slab floors (which take three to four weeks to cure), but other than that, the roof, and the gas installation I will do everything without help.
Call me stubborn.
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greig
Junior Member
Posts: 84
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Post by greig on May 23, 2007 10:46:12 GMT -5
was just saying it tongue in cheek, it is great to have something else to focus on and i admire you for taking on the project.
am looking forward to seeing the improvements on a daily basis, not only with yuor house but with my life now that i am staying away from P.
G
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Post by JohnG on May 23, 2007 15:36:29 GMT -5
I know.
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Post by suedehead on May 23, 2007 16:36:53 GMT -5
John, I'm just curious about what might give someone the audiacity to take on a project like this. How did you make the decision? What inspired you? And, perhaps most importantly, how did you gain your expertise?
With admiration and some envy,
rbc2
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Post by JohnG on May 23, 2007 17:19:38 GMT -5
John, I'm just curious about what might give someone the audiacity to take on a project like this. How did you make the decision? What inspired you? And, perhaps most importantly, how did you gain your expertise? With admiration and some envy, rbc2 Expertise? Just kidding. I know what that is. I don't really have any but I have an incomplete set of Time-Life do-it-yourself books (I am actually not kidding about that). More seriously, I have done small projects with my Dad since I was a kid. Then I dropped out of college for seven years and worked as a Ford service technician (factory trained). That gave a certain way of approaching this type of work that crosses over nicely. For every minute I spend working I spend five planning and thinking of what can go wrong. I don't rush. I find people who know and ask questions. I use the internet to do research (there is a forum for everything and I belong to them all). I have worked my way up in scale and the last job I did was redoing the two baths and the kitchen at my ex's apartment. In this job I am doing some things that I have never done before - erecting concrete slab floors and putting up a roof. Here in Spain for the floor they use a system of pre-stressed concrete beams spaced about two feet apart, between which are placed a kind of honey-combed giant brick called a "bovedilla." Over this structure is placed a steel reinforcing grid. Then two inches of concrete is poured and leveled. The beams are recessed into the walls. The structure is supported from below by "puntales" or telescoping steel poles until the concrete has cured (three to four weeks). Then you have a slab that is relatively light but has the strength and rigidity of a 10 inch thick concrete floor. I have stopped by countless job sites and talked to guys putting these up. I have watched. I have talked to construction supply houses, architects (friends in Madrid), bricklayers, the owner of a construction company, etc... I will have expert advice and help on the day we actually pour the concrete - which will come in a truck and be pumped upstairs. I will provide photos of all of this of course. What inspired me? This Old House. No kidding. I always wanted to do my own house - myself (or at least as much as I can do myself). Stay tuned! JohnG
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Post by tootrue2 on May 24, 2007 1:30:42 GMT -5
Wow and I thought I was tired out when I planted three new rhodedendreon sp??? over the weekend!! Do you know any of the history of the house? Like who originally built it? I love old houses and have fixed up two myself but with help and nothing like you are doing certainly. I like to think of the people who originally built a house and imagine that they must have put their heart into it and stood back and looked at it when it was all finished and felt proud of it, then lived in it, maybe raised their family there, had love and tragedy and all kinds of things going on. Now here you are restoring it to its original glory that that family knew! This is an amazing project JohnG. It's nice to have a fun reason to follow noporn.com.....I find that I am now tuning in to see the pictures of your house. Who knows, if you're lucky, maybe the SOs will begin giving advice to you and we can point out little things that you could be doing differently or things that need to be cleaned, etc. Just as we like to do with PA!! I'd like to request virtual photo tour capability to this thread so we can get a 360 degree viewing please. Just kidding! thanks for sharing your pictures.
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Post by JohnG on May 24, 2007 2:31:22 GMT -5
Thanks Tootrue.
This is what I know about the house so far: It was built by "Gallegos" - Galicians (who have a reputation for building solid houses). I am not sure if this is fact or more wishful thinking on the part of the previous owners. Anyone who has a house they think is really well built seems to think it was built by Gallegos.
What I do know for sure is that it was a four family residence - there were four apartments and for this reason there are four entrances - on the bottom floor one on either end of the house and on the top floor, two on the back side accessed by way of two exterior staircases. It is still possible to see where interior walls bisected each floor into two apartments.
The house was built to house managers and their families from the local coal mine (now closed). The man who sold me the house was in that mine for over twenty years.
The house was built in 1954.
It once had four stoves such as the one pictured in this thread. Only one remains now.
I met a woman up the road who seems to know a lot about the history of the house (she is in her late eighties) and I plan to ask her for information and write it down. She said to me that "Señores" or gentlemen lived in that house. What she means is that the families who lived in it way back when were of another socio-economic class than most of the people living around here. Technically they were probably not señores - a word that, in the context she was using it, means they were land owners and of a certain cultural level. The house was built and owned by the mine at that time and so they were more likely just better paid employees of the company.
As I find out more I will include it here. I am also asking around to see if anyone has old pictures of the house. I may even try to locate some of the old residents - they would be a great source of information.
JohnG
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Post by blueclouds on May 24, 2007 2:56:55 GMT -5
Hey JohnG,
Addicts are first and foremost consumers -- voracious ones at that. That's why this project is the antithesis of addiction -- production. Addicts spend all their time trying to swallow the world. You are now giving back to that world. I will be starting a similar journey soon with my daughter. I hope she'll be a kind of gift to the world to make up for all I've taken from it, legitimately and not. Your project is a gift to all the neighbors there, a gift to everyone who drives by that road, to Asturias, and to all the people who visit the house or live in it -- with or after you.
How's the roof? What's it made of?
Blueclouds
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Post by JohnG on May 24, 2007 4:05:33 GMT -5
Thanks BC.
That sentence is very disturbing - and true.
The roof is make of slate - over wood. The structure is very very primitive up there:
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I will put up a new structure so I will have a usable attic space for storage (except for over my room which will be open to the roof), but I will reuse the old slate tile. Removing it without breaking it is going to be a real challenge - from a technical standpoint and to my patience as well:
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Thanks for your kind words. Building something that will have value and be around long after I am gone does reflect a change in me.
Your friend,
JohnG
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Post by randrew on May 24, 2007 8:12:58 GMT -5
JohnG
Your house is seriously cool!
Looks like a lot of work though.
Cheers
randrew
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Post by JohnG on May 24, 2007 15:32:10 GMT -5
I am beat.
I cut up the steel rails from the feed area and broke up a lot more of the trough with a sledge hammer. The neighbor said it would be faster and brought me a sledge. He was right but it was also much harder work. Tomorrow I should finish that. I also got some of the debris outside to where it can be picked up later by another neighbor who will help me dispose of it.
I cleaned up a bit at the end of the day (9 pm) so that I could at least say that it looks better than it did yesterday.
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JohnG
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Post by heartsick on May 24, 2007 15:39:19 GMT -5
It looks like you put in a hard day today John! Good work!
Heart
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merton
Junior Member
St. Maximillian Kolbe - Patron Saint of Addicts
Posts: 55
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Post by merton on May 24, 2007 20:41:30 GMT -5
Ummm...... maybe I missed something, but where are you sleeping while your doing this, in the animal pens? It makes my back hurt just looking at those pictures.
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