1. First, as cute and as fun as they are, cats are no help at all when you're working in the attic. In short, cats make terrible assistants. 2. Don't leave tools…

A few before and after pics of recent attic work. We removed the old gable roof structure that was part of the original, smaller house decades ago, and reused the…

It gets hot in the attic in the summer, even with the solar-powered attic fan whirring. By noon, it's difficult to work up there — it's too hot. Your energy…

We decided to bite the bullet again. We took down the temporary ceiling that we had installed a year ago and removed and stored the insulation, forcing a commitment to renovating…

We re-supported sagging floor joists over the last few days, first opening up the floor where an old cellar door used to be, then sistering on new 2x6s, and building…

The thing about living on 40+ acres, renovating a farmhouse, growing a big garden, and having a few chickens is this: there is always something to do. There are the…

Demolition continues. Ripping apart the bathroom. As we drag the old stuff outside and pile it on a tarp, the house seems to breathe a little easier.

The renovation on the old farm house continues in the form of ripping walls apart, making a mess, scooping up the bent nails and shattered plaster into boxes, and storing the…

Yesterday Paula and I put old metal barn roofing on the exposed rafters in the "dining room" of the farmhouse. This is, you will see, the same kind of roofing…

We installed a solar attic fan yesterday, to reduce the heat build-up in the exposed attic space (it was a wilting 106 degrees up there). Today we'll monitor how well…

The old oak rafters in the "demolition room," or the dining room, have been revealed after weeks of work. Today I've been contemplating the question: "Now what?" The house warmed…

You have to follow your instincts, your heart, when renovating an old house. I spent the last few days tearing down almost half of a ceiling in our main "demolition"…

We welcomed the New Year with cheese and crackers and turkey sausage and humus and apples and grapes and hard cider and juice, and we moved ahead with renovations. We…

Crawled up into the attic today to remove some old wiring that had been tacked up and hanging in the "demolition" room for months. I am not an electrician, and…

We're reducing the size of the possible greenhouse. Now it's about 8 feet wide or deep by 20 feet long and might incorporate the stump from the cedar tree we…

Slowly moving ahead...

We keep moving ahead on the renovations/changes to the house. But slowly. The other day, we insulated the south-facing wall of the primary demolition room. And on this cold October…

Yesterday Paula and I pulled out about two dozen old windows that we had saved years ago when we helped my parents tear down an old house on their property…