Restoration of our Olde Towne house completed
By Guest Columnists Gerald Kerner and Sherry Landrum
It was June 16 when our old oak tree fell onto our kitchen, causing extensive damage to the roof structure and to the kitchen and sunroom. This home restoration was completed on December 4, just shy of six months after the tree fell. We had no idea the amount of chaos and anxiety we would experience during the restoration process; while we did not personally do any of the actual construction work, the daily uncertainty of people coming and going proved to be very overwhelming for both of us.
We are very grateful to our contractor, who managed the entire project flawlessly, scheduling the many different people who worked on the house in the correct order and with very little time between tasks. I thought in July, after our new roof was completed and it no longer rained into the house, that the remaining tasks would progress smoothly without our input; I was wrong.
The demolition of the old kitchen took awhile, because we needed to go back to open studs before we could start new construction. New building codes required that some additional studs be added to make sixteen-inch centers instead of the twenty-four inch centers in some places. Insulation was also required in the three exterior walls and ceiling of the kitchen and sunroom.
The existing wiring had seen better days, and we found some abandoned unterminated wires that hopefully were not live. The electrician recommended all new wiring in the ceiling and walls of the kitchen to be safe, and we heartily agreed. He added receptacles where we needed them, installed wiring for our relocated dishwasher and new disposal, and set up wiring for under-counter lights with a switch.
The rain had soaked and started to grow mold on a plywood sub-floor that was nailed to the actual sub-floor, so that wet plywood was removed. Water had also damaged the actual sub-floor, so three sections needed to be removed and replaced with plywood. After the insulation was installed, we used plywood to finish the interior walls, and thick beaded pine for the ceiling in the kitchen and sunroom.
New cabinets were built to accommodate the refrigerator, stove, sink/disposal and new dishwasher location, and were extended to end in my coffee bar. Miss Sherry picked new cabinet doors and drawer fronts, new countertops, new tile for the backsplash and new flooring. She chose the stain for the wood trim, cabinets and ceilings and selected the three sizes of cabinet/drawer pulls. She is very pleased with all of her choices, and I think the kitchen is stunningly beautiful, like you would see in a magazine.
During the kitchen restoration, we stored a lot of stuff in a pod, since we had to vacate the kitchen, sunroom and most of one bedroom to make room for our kitchenette. We emptied the pod, and it was retrieved; most boxes are unpacked with the contents put away again, but some boxes remain in the house. We are going through these boxes more slowly, deciding what to keep and what to donate.
We are no longer over-whelmed by the kitchen restoration, but we are still exhausted by the events of the past six months. We are feeling less anxious and more relaxed every day, but this process was a lot for us to adjust to. Miss Sherry and I found each other later in life than usual, and we are very happy to be together now and that we had the comfort of each other’s company during these trying times.
We are grateful for all of the help that we received from all of the people who worked to restore Our Olde House to a condition better than before. It is true that, when God closes a door, He opens a window; we would have preferred to use the door, but God knew that we needed a nudge, or shove, through the window in order to live our lives to the fullest. God does bless us all, sometimes in an unusual way.
