January 2008 Trip

Well well folks, we spent three weeks in Sunny NC working on the house - amazing how much you can get done - but how much more needs to be done. We really could work on it every day for a year (with unlimited funds of course) and just maybe, maybe we could finish it. The kids, Brian and Alicia came down with us for a week and we spent New Years at the house....funny first time in how long that we did not see the ball drop and that we have not spent a new year with our friend, Craig. We worked our butts off that week but we also tried to do some fun stuff to show the kids the state, we went to the aquarium in Atlantic Beach, we went to M & M's for dinner, and attempted to go to Fort Macon Beach, but took a different route and got totally lost, which we were all bummed about, but did go through a few towns called "Betty", "Stacy" (pop 202), and "Sea Level". Went to mom's for dinner too and they made us a kick-ass Lasagna & a killer Antipasto Salad.

The first week was really spent on demolition (as usual) and electrical work. The boys got the old kitchens out of there, removed the old kerosene furnace, gutted the downstairs bath and put new joists in, so my friend the mushroom is now gone. They built a new header between the back foyer and the new dining room....which is level bu the house is not...lol... John & Brian re-wired the fireplace bedroom too. John was pleasantly surprised that the electric was not as bad as we thought, and there was a combination of the spool and knob wiring, romex, and believe it or not aluminum wiring. John spent hours and hours over the three weeks, removing a ton of the knob and tube, running new romex, and removing old dangerous wiring and cleaning up the electrical panel.
While we were there the first few days, the guy who put the windows in the front parlor had to come back to re-do one, as it was a total abortion. He had one of his workers do it, and he just screwed it up completely. In addition the idiot used the only room that we have set up as a kitchen and living room to cut the wood for the frames on two of the windows. As a result the first night Alicia and I spent two hours cleaning up about 2 inches of sawdust from the floors, furniture and appliances. I was Pissed! Of a whole house that has so many rooms gutted and under construction, he HAD to use the one that we live in. MORON!
So while the crew was there re-doing the window, ten-year old Austin from down the street comes knocking on the door. Alicia & I were in Lowes in New Bern, so the kid was knocking & knocking and knocking, but John figured he would just go away. (Austin is very persistant) Finally John opens the door and Austin says "Is Mr. Tom here?" (Picture hugely heavy southern accent coming from a very small ten year old with a lazy eye - no shit) So John lets him into the house and tells him Tom is in the Front Parlor. Austin announces"Mr. Tom, your weed is at the house!" Tom is like "What? Get the hell out of here boy!" totally embarrassed, as he dosen't know us from Jack and for all he knew John could be a cop. (like I would ever marry a cop...lol) John is assuring him it's okay, and jokingly says that he should have Austin bring the weed to the house. So Tom yells out the window: "BOY! bring my damn weed here!" and Austin's face just lights up and is like, really? Tom laughs and tells him to get the hell out of there. Funny, funny shit. Turns out the hairdresser place down the street is a big pot distribution area - you get get your hair done & get baked all at the same time.
We met our neighbors down the street, Graham & Laura, who are originally from the North, but have lived in the South for 30 years. They have an 1874 Victorian they are restoring with the hopes of turning it into a bed and breakfast one day. Graham is hilarious and a total garbage picker....all the stuff we were pulling out of the house, he was carting down the street to his house...Laura was ready to kill him! He helped John to move the hot water heater from the kitchen to the hall closet - a huge job that took all day, but John put the lines backward and now our toilet flushed hot water!!! Ahhh lovely steam on your butt. So we had them to dinner that night - salmon steaks and veggies on the grill..yum! We went to their house another night for dinner and had some Bambi turned into stroganoff and it was delicious - their house is amazing - there is a fireplace in every room, and so much character... But Laura was like - You have done more in 5 months than we have done in three years! She was ready to Choke Graham...lol. Great to meet people like us though and I can't wait to see them when I go down again.
Alicia and I cleared the cemetery of the Privet that is growing all over the property. It is the most invasive crap i have ever seen and i HATE it! But we were able to find all the stones - 22 stones in all, and we marked the boundaries of the cemetery with bright orange tape so when the loggers come they will not disturb the site - I could get in trouble as it is a registered historical site. It turns out that all the Tingles of the Tingle house are buried at the house next door, apparently that was once Tingle Property too.....they had a huge farm at the time, and I guess eventually sold off pieces so that there is just the six acres left. It was lots of work and we were really sore the next day, but huge accomplishment. Went back there the day before we left and there are hundreds of daffodils coming up - like a sea of daffodils in the cemetery - can't wait to see them in bloom.
She and I also wallpapered the one wall in the Fireplace bedroom - the boys helped us with the sheetrock and off we went. I have not wallpapered in about 15 years, so it was a bit stressful at first but once we got the hang of it, we did a really good job.
The kids had to leave the monday after we arrived, for Brian's court date, which turned out neither of them needed to be there, but we were so glad for the help and the company.
John & went to a tool sale in New Bern and picked up some stuff at really good prices, including a chainsaw to start re-claiming the property. We trimmed down five of the ten crepe myrtles on the Courtland Ave side...now when I say trimmed, we brought them down to six feet tall, but we took off twenty to thirty feet of tree above it. Also some tall privet trees and a two others that were dead...we still have a lot to go, but it is a start. We left all the debris in a huge pile in the yard, of which we will let dry out and hopefully Graham will take some, we can burn some and the rest will go to the dump.
John spent the majority of two weeks working on the back addition to the house. It started somewhere in 1910 when they added the kitchen on, you can still see the spot in the chimney where they had the original wood-burning cook stove attached to it...but they added two more additions on behind that - and what a jumble and shoddy construction! Everything he opened was a Pandora's box. The main support beam in the room was rotted from a leaky sink, the weight of the hot water heater and the weight of the furnace caused other beams to sag.....so he had to rebuild this from the ground up. We did find lots of old bottles, and letters and stuff, which was really cool and will go into the collection of stuff found in the house. I tell you we were making trips to Pamlico Home Builders every five minutes, but he replaced all the beams, and about 30 floor joists, and of course there is still more to do! He got the electrical working down the too so we wont be in the pitch black down there, and this enabled him to work into the night, as every minute was precious!
I got sick while we were there - a left over from whatever I had at Christmas, so I lost two days of work being miserable and in bed...boo hoo. But i did get the upstairs hallway spackled and primed, no more horrible blue molding, and also spackled and primed the bow bedroom - the room we are using as the kitchen and living room - as it was a hideous pink! Started working on the wall that we have to close up in that room to, to close up the door between the master bedroom and the bow bedroom, and to flip the closet from the bow bedroom to the master...another project on the list!
The sad part is we did so much work that will be hidden under flooring and sheetrock! It's like our money just disappears inside the walls, but we can't make it beautiful without fixing it first!
Next trip - February - I get to de-nail the walls & ceilings, do some insulation and a bit of sheetrocking, and finish taking down the sheetrock in the back foyer!