Reconstruction

A lot's happened at the tick farm over the past month. Most visibly, the farmhouse now has a shiny new metal roof that is warrantied longer than I'm likely to be alive. Underneath that barn-red top, the old gal is undergoing some serious surgery.

This is most evident in the Florida Room -- The floor is now level and reinforced in a few places. The noticeable dip in the roof has been corrected, in part by replacing the single 2x4 in the center with eight, but also through use of proper headers and heavily-reinforced ceiling joists that are no longer inappropriately notched (and in some cases, actually cracked), now properly strapped to the main structure.

Two large 96" windows will look eastward, while the two ends will have 36" windows, letting in quite a bit of light.

This shows three of the four 60" windows wrapping the master bedroom, which will take up the entire north wing -- now with proper headers to provide strength and rigidity. Roughly a 13' section in the middle will be the master bath, closet, and HVAC+pantry space, with the southern wing consisting of a large open kitchen/common area joined by the Florida room.

Tomorrow, the habitable section will start getting torn apart so that its windows and doors can be replaced -- larger, better insulated, and hurricane-rated -- and to finish strapping the roof and floor together.

When this massive phase is all done, the exterior will be complete: windows, sheathing, moisture barriers, siding, soffits and venting, and of course, capped by the new roof. Oh, and a rebuilt porch and proper gutters all around.

Afterwards, the interior work can resume. Framing out the floor plan is all that's on the current quotes, but coming down the pipe is electrical, HVAC, plumbing, the LPG tank and lines... and then ceilings, walls, floors, outfitting a kitchen and bathrooms... the list goes on and on and on.

Yes, I'm essentially building a new house using the skeleton of an old one. And it's going to be awesome.