March 3, 2020

We’ve spent the last 2 weeks taking down the sheetrock walls and some of the ceiling.  We were dismayed to find that most of the walls and the ceiling were slats and mortar.  That was so hard to take down, and it was a very dirty job.  The ceiling is extremely messy as the blown insulation, that has to be as old as the house, comes down with the boards. We are getting good use out of our coveralls and masks!

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The kitchen wall, which is an exterior wall, was in the worst condition with old termite damage and rot. The studs, top sill and bottom sill are completely rotted! We aren’t sure how the roof is still supported. The floor which was under the sink is rotted.  This took us aback.  We expected to see some damage, but this was much more than we anticipated.  At this point, Katie looked at John and said, “I’m not daunted.”  John replied, “Good, neither am I.  Bring it on.”

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We also found some questionable wiring and we doubt any of it is to current code. We are glad to have all the walls open and are planning on redoing all the wiring in the house. We are going to get structural engineer to come in and help us make decisions about going forward since we want to completely remove several walls.

We also cleaned out more of the stone house, including removing all the electrical components and wires.  We’ve gutted that building to the studs, too.  There are quite a few bottom sills that are rotted and need to be replaced – and there were plants growing through the walls.  John filled in the holes with expanding foam for now.  We’ll have to fix them later. 

We cleaned up some of the yard. There are perennials coming up all around the farm. It’s like Christmas waiting to see what will pop up. We know some are day lilies, but aren’t sure what else.

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Lest you think that all we do is work on the farm – Katie spent the last weekend on “retreat” with her artist friends working on Pysanky – Ukrainian Eggs. She’s been making these for more than 20 years and hosts a Pysanky event every Fall in Ozark. We all have to have our creative outlets!