Floors and Fireplaces

We've made considerable progress this week tearing my kitchen apart.  Someday we'll turn the corner and start putting things back together instead of making more of a mess!  My alfresco kitchen is still usable.

And it's a good thing because Donnie shot an 8 point buck and brought us the meat.  Tom had to saw the venison shoulder so it would fit in my crockpot - the only way I had to cook it.  It was delicious and we all ate it all week as roast, then barbecue, then chili!

My poor refrigerator is moved once more.

Now even the sink is outside!

The kitchen is almost ready for a new floor.

We found some heart of pine flooring recovered from an old cotton mill in Clinton, South Carolina, that Randy, the truck driver, had stored in his garage.

Randy and his son Richmond loaded it for us.

800 Square feet of lumber is a lot!

Steve is using a nailer to put down the tongue and groove boards.

It's going to look great!

Tom and Reese went to the woods to get another load of chimney rocks from the old stacks.

Steve, the brick mason, finished up the last chimney.

Evidently it takes a lot of supervision to build a chimney.

With the chimneys finished, the only thing left for the masons to do is face the basement fireplace with the recovered stones from the log cabin chimneys.  The hearthstone is a perfect fit.

Tom is sitting on the hearthstone where nobody has sat for over 100 years.

Two rocks are turned out for the mantle to rest on.

Steve finishes up the last grouting.

It's a one-of-a-kind fireplace!

The brick masons pose in front of their beautiful creation:

Tom, Steve, James and their helper, Reese

We hated to see them leave because they've been wonderful workers and great company.  Hopefully, they will be back soon to build stone steps for the front of the house.

Tight Places and Open Spaces

It's still in the 90's every day, but cold weather is coming and we have to get ready!  We'll soon have 5 working fireplaces in the old farmhouse.  Last week the three fireplaces went in from the basement to the top of the chimney.

The basement fireplace will be a large one faced with stone, but it started as an outline on the floor.

All of the bricks that show will be bricks from the old chimneys that Tom cleaned, one by one, and moved back from the old house site.

The fireplaces in the two bedrooms will hold gas logs and are built similar to the old ones.

The four hearths in the house were all different but we decided to make them all the same this time.

Soon the mason started up through the chase, building the chimney in very tight places!

Bricks had to be carried up the narrow stairs to the attic.

From tight places to open spaces!  A brick mason can't have claustrophobia or vertigo!

One chimney finished, one to go!

On our property we have two old stone stacks from log cabins that used to stand here.  The brick mason approved the stones and we plan to use them to face the stone fireplace in the basement.

Tom is taking the stones down, one by one, and moving them to the house.

On the other side of the house, treated lumber for the deck is delivered.

Our new carpenters, Donnie and Steve, are building the deck.

We couldn't wait until it's finished and have already moved a table on the deck to enjoy the view.

Our two bachelor ducks, Felix and Oscar, follow a set routine every day.  They come up from the pond about 6 in the evening to spend the night safe in the guinea house.  On the way, they always stop to greet their friends who live in the basement window.

Then they stop to greet their friends who live in the Miata bumper.

Since they like to look at themselves so much, I put a mirror in the guinea house.  They spend hours talking to their reflections!

We're still having a severe drought in South Carolina and the only things left in the garden are peppers.  I've made dozens of pints of pepper butter that is good on everything.  Tom loves hot peppers!