Catch up

I am going to be playing catch up to show the progress we have made so far. I will start at the beginning.
When we bought this place there were two issues that we had to take care of immediately.
1. Leaking roof
2. Mold (yuk)

The main reason the roof was leaking was due to two enormous, unfinished sky lights. Beautiful in theory, but not so pretty when water was pouring through the roof through the second floor and destroying the downstairs ceiling. Eek and ugh. I don't have any pictures now, but you'll see pictures of the upstairs soon.
You know what happen when a wet drywall cooks in a Tennessee summer? A garden variety of molds blossom and then take over. Mold is gross and unsightly. It is also toxic and a health hazard, so it had to go. ASAP!

Water damaged dry wall removed. Now to fix that big hole...

We needed to fix the water problem first since it was causing the mold problem. We boarded up the sky lights, sealed them with tar and roofing paper to fix the big leaks. We will open them back up and install sky lights when we begin to remodel the upstairs. We tackled other little leaks that we knew about, and continue to look for more every time it rains.
The leaking roof caused the most damage in the front hall. We had to tear out the molded drywall and then treated the damp wood underneath with a spray comprised of vinegar, boric acid, hydrogen peroxide, and water. These relatively non toxic, house hold products are the perfect recipe to annihilate mold.

Concealed basement driveway

We also had a mold problem in the basement. Due to a lack of ventilation, cracks in the foundation and a concealed driveway that runs down into the basement, the basement got wet. A hot, wet basement is mold's play ground. It was like a black carpet began growing on the floor joist and structural support beams. Gross!

Moldy floor joist

 It took us over a week to clean up the mold problem. We sealed off the basement with plastic and had to vacuum the mold up using special filters so the spores wouldn't become air born. After that we had to scrub down the affected areas with our dandy mold killing cocktail. Then after that we sprayed everything down with an anti fungicidal spray so the mold can never come back. never. NEVER! We wore hazmat suits, air masks, and goggles to protect ourselves from being exposed to the nasty. Worst job ever!

Uncomfortable, hot suits. 

We dried out the basement with a dehumidifier and fans and laid plastic down on the dirt floor so moisture couldn't come up through the ground.

 I am happy to report that two months later, the mold is still gone! And an air quality tests showed that there is no mold in the air. We will have to keep an eye out for mold in the future, but we killed it. Killed it dead! 

Clean, sealed basement! Hurray!

A little back ground

Here's the background on our building. It was built in 1940 to be a country store downstairs and an apartment upstairs. It ran as a store for about fifteen years then was closed never again to be reopened. We met the man, Mr. Church, who bought it first from the original guys who built it. He and his family lived in the up stairs and didn't do anything with the downstairs. According to Mr. Church, he owned the building until about three or four years ago when he sold it some guy. I don't know who he was, but he is the one who started the renovations down stairs. Up till then it was just an empty store. We have been told that he was an artist and he had six kids. Anyway, some way or another this family got foreclosed on. Sorry artist family man! This guy did some cool stuff and a lot of nasty work. When we first saw the place, walls had been built, the kitchen was in, bathroom mostly finished. The upstairs had been gutted for the most part. It wasn't too hard for us to see the potential.
We had a structural engineer check out the foundation, septic man check out the septic, and a couple of other specialist come out and check out big deal stuff. Every thing checked out so we bought it. I won't say exactly how much, but it was a steal. Especially since our place is on an acre of land. Sweet!

The back side of our lot. Big garden potential!

After the paper got signed, we started working. And we still haven't stopped. The next couple of posts will show what we have done so far.

The Start

Here we are in Spring Hill, Tennessee, making our home. We bought this old store in July and have been turning it into our home. So far it has been real work.
We moved to Nashville area in February from Kona, Hawaii. Kris, my main squeeze, is a singer/song writer. We decided we needed to move our family to the scene for him to be heard. The idea we had when we moved out here was buy a home that would be cheeper to live in then renting the conventional home or apartment. Then Kris would be freed up to work less and write more songs. When we found this place we were really excited.
Yes, it is old and run down and intimidating, but the potential is enormous. Oh, the dreams we have dreamed for our land and this structure! The main objective at first was to make the downstairs livable.  We moved in at the end of August. It wasn't totally finished, but almost. Since then we have winterized and are currently focusing on moving in and making this home. Eventually we will finish the whole building and have an awesome home, recording studio and work space. We would like to plant an orchard and have some killer gardens on our land too.
I'm writing this blog for any one who cares to see what we're making or remaking.  The house, gardens, furniture, or whatever I fancy. If you feel inspired to visit and work, do so. If you feel inspired to offer suggestions, by all means, do so. If you feel inspired to send me lavish gifts and affection, I won't stop you! And please, encouragement is greatly appreciated!
I will do my best to update this blog regularly for you, dear reader, and for me as a journal of our progress. We have a lot of fun projects to do! I'm only learning how to make a blog, so this might be a bit lame at first, but it will get better.