Part Two
With the key in our hand, on a Friday night, we stepped inside our “new” cottage.
Like the first time we had opened that door, we stepped forward, then immediately stepped back, pushed back by the smell that greeted us!
A horrid combination of mold, mildew, dust, dirt, urine, dog feces and heavy air after being locked up all winter……welcomed us home! Undeterred, we were giggly-happy to finally have this house to tackle, to recreate, and mold it into the cottage of our dreams….or as close as possible to our dreams! (we DID have a budget, after all).
The very first thing we did, as I mentioned in the previous story, was to tear out the carpeting…the carpet padding was so damp it literally stuck to the concrete floors and had to be scraped off. The roof hadn’t leaked, the “damp” was from dogs saturating the carpet and the padding,…..enough said, I’m sure you get the picture.
Still, there was much to do and we continued on through the night until all of the carpeting was outside of the house, nothing remained inside The floors were in good shape, clean except for a bit of old linoleum still stuck to the kitchen floor. Again, we kept scraping.
Now, our eyes went to the ceiling…..
Our Lake Cottage Living Room/Before
This dark paneled ceiling was less than 6 inches over Jon’s head!
Jon stands at 6’3″, so the height from floor to the dark paneling was less than 7′ tall. He said it made him feel “claustrophobic”! At first, I scrambled and thought, “if it was white, beadboard, it would look higher and the room would look bigger….”
No, Jon said, it’s sagging in the middle….
At that point, we called in some friends to help with demo…they were experienced in construction, and actually had the skills we lacked. Fortunately, their enthusiasm for the project matched ours!
And, Demo begins! We cut a small hole in the ceiling just to “see” what was under the paneling…..insulation rained down from above! Their sight-hole revealed a low ceiling about 1 foot above the paneling. One foot! Still too low for even a low ceiling….unreal. Why is it so low? Keep cutting….
Two complete rooflines on this house! The original, first roof was a hip roof, it supported 7 layers of shingles, all different colors throughout the years . We were all amazed that the roof hadn’t collapsed with the first snow to hit it…so much weight on those old rafters!
I will say that we really have the best of friends, more like family than anything else.
Within three days, two friends, my brother and my husband, Jon, removed an entire roofline, ceilings, interior walls, cement structures in the laundry room, old electrical, plumbing, and miscellaneous cables were removed….and all of it cleared away, neatly dumped into 3 large dumpsters! The house was now an empty shell.
And what did they want in return? To do a little fishing, and go to the local fish-fry at the Bowling Alley……! They have hearts of gold, and we were beyond grateful. And yes, I did slip them some cash, though they said they didn’t want it…they worked so hard to help us make our dream come true. We are so blessed!
Outside…
Years before Covid hit, I was wearing a mask OUTSIDE, my task was to burn everything and anything that didn’t fit into the dumpsters! Every now and then, I’d see a really weathered piece of wood, or a super knotty knotty-pine trim piece, and I’d set it aside to keep. Roaring bonfires went all day, early and into the night, I’m sure the neighbors kept a close watch, but they never uttered a negative word….we were beyond grateful.
When the dumpsters were gone, all trash removed and the floors cleaned and sealed, it was time to call the contractor for the new roof, and all interior framing!
Inside, our Plumber was the first contractor to actually install something NEW in this old cottage! It’s amazing that within a half inch or less, I now had pipes, drains, cold and hot water lines….and it still all looked like little pipes sticking out of the cement. I I thought they stood straight and tall, as if proud to be the first to show up:)..I was so excited I could barely sleep at night….
This cottage is going to be AWESOME!
