Wednesday, August 03, 2005

Mudding in the Drought

Well our walls are in place and one coat of mud is up. As I type this at 10:40 PM CDT it is 82 degrees outside and 87 in the house. Being a weather geek, yesterday I installed and reset my indoor/outdoor thermometer so I could see new highs and lows for Foxcroft rather than keep the old records from Van Buren St. I needn't have worried. My record outdoor high in the last five years was 105, the outdoor was set on the west side of the house but was never in direct sunlight very long. My indoor record was 88.

Today's "official" high in Iowa City was 99. I came home tonight, hit the "max" button, and got a staggering 115 for outdoors and 91 for inside. I REALLY wish the geothermal guys would get the unit running. But I also think it's telling as to the construction of this home, that even with all the windows open it was 25 degrees cooler inside than the outside in the sun temperature.

So the walls are up and the place is starting to look to other people the way it had in my mind's eye:

Sitting room in the new gable that we just built:

 Hallway:

Master bedroom:
Laurel's room:

Rowan's room:

Laundry:

Bathroom:

Our next major challenge is finding floor and doors, I have been scouring midwest salvage web sites and need to do some travelling in the next month, which coincides with starting back to work at school, not good timing!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Of course, one way to reduce your travel and time spent on finding doors and flooring would be to buy new "old" stuff. Buy real oak doors and flooring. Does it have to be stuff that's as old as the house? If it is good quality stuff, even new, you do the house justice. I've been to those places that have salvaged doors and windows and flooring. The amount of time and money I ended up spending on using some salvaged doors was unbelievable when I look back on it...correcting problems with the jams - when they had them--having jams made, getting the proper hardware and then the time spent stripping, restaining and varnishing...I figured that old door cost me about 50% MORE than a brand new one of equal, if not better, materials and construction. Plus, I'm not so happy about all the mis-matched doors I now have in my house.

Anonymous said...

"Where the hell are those singing cats?" We want to see pictures of your kitties up in the new rooms!!! Love, Nellie, Lucy and Lily.

Mike said...

I have looked at the new stuff that's available locally too, and will go that route if I can't find suitable period stuff that's at a good price. I appreciate the advice, because I have mulled over the very issues you raise!

As to the cats, we really don't let them upstairs yet as we're trying to keep the mess down as much as possible.

hovercraft said...

Hey bro, glad to see all the progress--we're hanging on your every word out here in the hinterlands. Second on the kitty request--I'm not sure I've even seen the new felines in ANY room, let alone the upstairs...