The south side of our house, winter 2009-2010
Construction is underway! This will be the third addition we've put on our original ~1860 farmhouse, and Ellen calls this one "the final frontier," since it is the last wall of the original house that has not had any work done on it and is therefore not insulated. It is also (we hope!) our last remodeling project. We are taking out the entire two-story south wall where the chimney and the front door are on the above photo (but only that wall, not the wall where the big window is), and taking out the chimney (which is in such bad shape that we haven't used the fireplace for close to 30 years). We'll extend out 18 feet, both upstairs and down. Downstairs will be open, and Ron will move his office into the new space. What is currently that upstairs bedroom over the living room (some of you may know this space better as "Ron's storage room") will become two closets and an upstairs bathroom. The new second floor space will become a larger "replacement" bedroom.
And we are putting in geothermal heat, not an easy process, since the house has no duct work and has only had wood stoves for heat for its entire existence, but it can be done. We will certainly not get rid of our two wood stoves, but we are looking towards coming years when we will be less willing and/or less able to expend the time and effort required by wood heat. Having geothermal heat will make it easier to travel in the winter, since we won't need to worry about pipes freezing, and Ellen won't have to deal with wood heat alone if Ron is traveling in the winter and she is home. Plus we'll also get air conditioning with the geothermal heat. Ellen is probably more interested in the heating part, Ron in the air conditioning!
Our contractor is the same one who has done the other two remodeling projects on our house, the first in 1993 and the second in 2005. We like him and work well with him, and he does good work.
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Last updated: 6 February 2011
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