Never have I been so excited to see furniture in disarray, thick dust everywhere and junk all over the floor.
Matt’s dad is here for a couple of weeks, helping us tear off our living room walls so that we can insulate them!!! Do you KNOW what this means??? This means that we will not freeze in our own home this winter. This means that we will not fight for space around the fireplace, since that typically is the only warm spot in the house. This means that I won’t feel like telling company to “Come on in…I’d encourage you to keep your coat on and would you also like a blanket?”
As Matt and his dad have torn off the lathe and plaster we were not surprised to see that there was NOTHING on the other side but the siding of our 100 year old house. NO WONDER we’ve been so cold. Woohoo, it’s going to be so nice this winter!!!
Here they are this morning in the very beginning stages.
During the next two weeks or so, we’ll be living in a mess. Matt will be working on the living room in every spare moment he’s home from work and Matt’s dad will certainly be earning his keep. I’ll do my best to feed him well.
Shucks, I guess there is no pressure right now to keep my house clean, huh? I do believe I’ll take the next couple of weeks off from housecleaning. Sort of. There are still the bathrooms and dishes.
This picture is a little dark, but take a look at that progress.
Never before have ugly walls looked so beautiful to me!
I am so thankful that Matt’s dad was kind enough to make a trip here (from California I might add) to help us with this big project. The truth of the matter is…if he hadn’t come…we would not have been able to get this done. What a blessing!
I’ll try to post more pictures of our progress along the way if you’re interested.
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Can you send your father-in-law to Oklahoma when he’s done there??? :)
Once done in Oklahoma, he can come to Missouri. I’m sure all of us can feed your father-in-law well. I have a Honey-Do-List I can change to Laura’s Father-In-Law’s List. :D
What a wonderful father in law you have! How nice to be able to get that done. Please do show more pictures. I’m interested in how this is done. And what a beautiful window you have in the living room. I love older windows!
My first apartment was built in the forties and it was also freezing in the winter….when we bought our first home I thought, “Ahhhh….THIS is what 68 degrees feels like.” It was so warm and toasty! But you certainly can’t trade the charm and the architectural detail of those older homes….we had crown molding and a picture rail–it was so wonderful!
How wonderful, insulation will be worth all that mess :)
Oh, that lathe and plaster!! We’ve torn out every wall of it in our 100 year old house – what a a pain. But, how beautiful and refreshing when it is done. Glad I’m not doing it again but it brought back memories seeing the rubble on the floor.
We do have a great father-in-law, don’t we! I thank him for the sandbox and workbench he built with Randy and just generally keeping the kids happy while I work on some other visits.
I’m glad he has the time and ability to come out and do this. I know it means a lot to him too. Enjoy the time together!
Oh, that will be so wonderful when it’s done! I love your attitude to just be happy about less house-cleaning for a few weeks rather than complaining about the mess the job is creating!
Do you have a button I could link up with or just the blog title.
No more frozen hands this winter for you Laura! Wonderful.
Lotsa love, Jill
That is a blessing! Our living room actually used to be a garage so the insulation in this room is not very good at all either. We have two little heaters going in that room all winter long just to help warm it up and keep it warm. So, I know what you guys have been going through! :)
Have a wonderful day! :)
You have the most beautiful windows!
My entry may be about saving money BUT I am so thankful for all the wonderful women I have ‘found’ out in the blog world who help me with this…. because it’s helping us work towards our bigger goal of being completely out of debt and me being able to stay at home and homeschool our children. The Lord has been so good to us in providing in ways that I never even imagined could happen – never underestimate God!!!!
hurray!!! what a blessing for you all! I’m truly so excited to see you receive this as you have obviously sown so much into the lives of others. many more blessings and may all of our living rooms – really – truly be without walls for the rest of our lives. keep the progress photos coming!
More! More!
I’m so happy that you’ll be warm this winter. I am quite jealous of the beautiful character of your home (I live in a 22 year home with none).
This is wonderful! I’m sure this winter will be much nicer!
This morning I’m grateful that when my tire blew out this morning while my husband in out of town, a very nice truck driver stopped, within a minute of it happening, to help me out. He put on the spare tire and also let me know that a part around/near the brakes is going out. So not only am I grateful that someone stopped to help me immediately, but also that a future problem can now be averted since I know this part needs replacing. Thank you God!!!
Love your Tuesday posts and decided to join in the fun today! Isn’t home improvement fun!! A lot of work but worth it in the end. We are adding a bathroom and pantry in our basement right now (and a new baby in 3 weeks)! The mess is hard for me to handle though!
So truly happy for you and your family!!! It will be such a blessing to have a warm and cozy house!
That will be so nice for winter! I’m linking up today for Gratituesday.
Gratituesday! I am thankful for: having a loving DH that loves me in spite of my shortcomings and that he has a job in spite of the ever rising unemployment. I am thankful for children that love and trust me to know what is best for them, even when they don’t understand and that some days they make me feel like a kid again and even the days that make me feel a lot older than I actually am. Finally, a Heavenly Father that blesses me, watches over me, shows mercy to me, forgives me and gives me the wonderful choice to follow Him, faithfully.
We also have a 100+ yr FarmHouse and assume there is no insulation :) We are saving our pennies thanks to you and the other wonderful bloggers for new siding and insulation…we have old alum siding that really needs to come off SOON… so we will be doing our project from the outside in…but I am certainly enjoying your pics…keep them coming…this is actually what we did to our bath…the plaster is such a mess but well worth it. Our bathroom is the warmest room in the house! ;)
What colour will you paint the walls when it is all done?
Love the windows in your home. So beautiful! Another thing to be thankful for is that they were not filled, with sawdust, horsehair, or newspapers. I know many old homes have those creative insulators and they make it even more of a chore to clean up! I would love to see what it looks like all finished!
I live in an 80 year old house, that had zero insulation in it, in New Hampshire!! Just a year ago we had insulation blown in, from the outside. The cost of it was recouped in a year and there was no mess! I could not handle taking down all the plaster and lathe. Just another alternative I thought you might want to mention since other people seem like they have the same problem. Plus our Gas company gave us back 20% of the cost. It was finished in a matter of hours.