Plans For 2025

2024 was a weird year for the rehab; by some measures a lot was accomplished, and by other measures...not so much. 

Some of 2024's lack of progress was due to time spent with a new puppy (who is now the size of a small pony) I got in December 2023, none of which I regret.    

Farley and Freckles, January 2024 Forest Park Excursion

As it turns out, Farley is a total velcro dog, and on more than one occasion - especially early in the year - I wound up spending a lot of weekend hours on the couch with him snuggled up next to me. Farley is my 4th dog, all of which I've adopted when they were between 8 and 12 weeks old; I know from experience that the more time ya spend with them as puppies, the easier the road becomes as they get older.  

Farley and I, February 2024

Now Farley is a big boy, 100+ pounds, and the return on all the the couch time investment is a dog that listens to me pretty well, can handle being off-leash, takes care of his big sister, plays fetch, and guards the house and yard without hesitation. He's a keeper. 

Freckles and Farley, November 2024 Hike

But really, what got me in 2024 was the windows. I've talked enough about them.

​As a means of increasing the likelihood of more noticeable results in 2025, 2025 is going to be the year of finishing projects I've already started, starting with the windows. Then the parapet. Then it's on to projects I've wanted to get to, or finish, for a long time.​

That starts with the porch. The porch has been (mostly) done for 2 or 3 years, but I never put up a light, I never finished painting it, and the skirting around the lower portion...I kind of hate it.   

​The light wouldn't normally be a big deal; the wiring is already up in the ceiling, but it's run for a previous lighting plan that in hindsight, was an awful layout. I don't think I have enough slack in the ceiling wiring to accommodate the location where I now want to put the light, so I'll have to get creative with a solution.

Painting the porch will be pretty straightforward, but there's a porch wall that I never addressed: the wall that has the porch's original doorway. 

Somebody got rid of the door and filled in the doorway with 2x4 framing, plywood sheathing, and a drafty ol; window. The window needs to go away, along with the plywood, and I'd like to redo the doorway as sort of a faux door. That ought to be a simple carpentry job, but sometimes with old houses...nothing is as simple as it might appear to be.

I don't know yet how I want to tackle the lattice, but the bottom edges just kinda hang there and don't provide a real clean look. Throwing some greenery in front of it all would solve the problem, but I'm a whole lot better at building things than I am at keeping plants alive. I have a feeling I'll wind up pouring some little concrete knee walls around all three sides to keep storm runoff out, and provide the lattice with a solid surface I can frame it to.

After that, paint. Someday I'll get around to putting some furniture out there so I can actually use the space.

Then it's on to the fireplaces. The house used to have 3, or maybe 4, now it's got 2 with chimneys that are still mostly intact and, if I really wanted to get after it, usable. ​

​For now, I'll settle for repointing the chimneys and putting in some flu dampers that actually work.

They're not real decorative chimneys, I may change that just a little bit. Regardless, the flu damper on the right has been open as long as I've lived here and as a result, the firebox below it collects rain, leaves, and acorns. 

The concrete caps are cracked, and the brick could stand to be repointed as well. I suspect both will be full rebuilds.

You could argue that there are more pressing needs on the repointing front, but sometimes I have to get out of the rut of doing things that aren't always a whole lot of fun and tackle something I really have some interest in doing. With two of these fireplace in the front/main section of the house, it'd be kinda cool to be able to burn something (big candles, not wood...for now) in them. 

If I get through all of those plans with any time to spare, I'll start dealing with the front facade. She doesn't need a TON of attention, but in spots...she does. The foundation limestone is some low-hanging fruit that I wouldn't mind repointing, which could probably be knocked out in a weekend or two. 

Somebody repointed it previously with something that doesn't even look or feel like mortar, and did a pretty sloppy job. I don't know that I can clean all of it off the face of the stone, but I'm pretty sure I can make it look like it's supposed to. 

Of course...about a year ago I'm pretty sure I posted something here that had about the same set of plans, and that didn't shake out - at all - as hoped. So who knows...I may very well still be building windows a year from now.