The Making of....Stairs!

 Back at the blog. I'm shooting for once a week, but sadly, I've neglected already. I really want Sasha and I to do the TURTLE post together, because he's the one who's done all of the research. That will just have to wait. We go up for approval to the Historic Planning Commission Board tomorrow morning, so please keep your fingers crossed for us! Hopefully we'll have approval and will keep moving on the exterior restoration. At the moment, we are focused on the interior (no approval necessary, thank you very much). I'm guessing our contractor is under our house right now, looking at our foundation or lack thereof . In all honesty, the foundation looks great for a 114 year old house, but let's be honest, that's a long time to just hang out somewhere.

The stairs! We have stairs! Sort of. The house has been a duplex or apartments since the 1950s, and at sometime in the past sixty years, stairs were removed and a big ugly wall and closet was put in. Here is Sasha after conquering that big ugly wall (it was 12 feet tall, not a quick job):

Sasha tore down the wall and then was gone for a week, while I checked on the house and hoped nothing went wrong. First there was a hole:

Then there was an even bigger hole: 

The hole became a landing and a place for stairs to go: 

And now, that hole, that was a closet and a wall, now has stairs, stairs you can stand on!

The current view from our front door: 

And so our stairs are far from complete, but they look swell to me. I can't wait to show you what they will look like when they are finished! I'll be as surprised as you are. 

Until next time, when we finally fill you in on the reason why all turtles will be welcome at this old home. 

Bäst av allt är eget bo

Well...we bought a house. And like everything we hold near and dear to our hearts, it's a project. But maybe, just maybe, it was meant to be. And so we hope you'll journey with us as we make this old house our very own.

"Best of all is your own home" 

Sasha found this little guy at a garage sale about a year ago, and we finally have a place to put it up. The piece is sort of Norwegian rosemaling of a farmer and his home, and we love it. 

 

This is the picture we're submitting to the Knoxville Historic Commission for approval to put on a two story porch to the front of the house. Sasha made this image using good old-fashioned cut and paste while I typed up the application. It took us a while to find the perfect porch (thanks, Enoch Dodge House of Delano, Kansas) but we think it will fit in nicely with our house. It might not be as fancy as the picture we submit, but I think our porch swing will fit just fine. And in true Knoxville fashion we can't have "nothin' too fancy"! 

The first thing Sasha did when he found out the place was officially ours.

The first thing I did when I found out the place was officially ours. 

Come on over, y'all are welcome, we just have to get the water turned on first.

I bet you're wondering why on earth a blog about home renovation would be named 

"This Old Home for Friendless Turtles", and our site is allturtleswelcome.blogspot.com...

Well you'll just have to stop on back by and see :-)