The Gutted House

Well folks this is what the inside of the house looks like; it’s completely gutted, both first and second floor. At the moment we are having our contractor repair the sills in couple of places that were rotted. There really wasn’t that much damage considering the age of the house.

Once the sill work is completed, the next step is to have the exterior completed. The exterior currently consists of vinyl over top of the original clapboard; however there is nothing between the studs and the clapboard which means that even with a good insulation job we would have a fair amount of exterior infiltration. So Beth and I decided that we would bite the bullet and have the exterior squared away with new sheathing, vapor wrap, new windows, and finally new vinyl siding.

One thing we are going to do though is have a new waste line installed from the septic to the house. The previous owners installed a new septic system but left the terra cotta pipe in place. Having this completed and the house buttoned up we can then work on the inside under better conditions. Also our plumbers will be able to get in during the winter to help us with the water and plumbing system. I’ll talk about this separately because there is a lot to relay since we have to find, collect, and clean our own water. I want to also post this separately because I am really working hard to collect this information. I haven’t really found a single site that provides this information in detail, so hopefully the information will be helpful for someone else starting a similar project.