Living room remodel

First off, Merry Christmas to everyone! Oceana and I took the day off to relax a little and take Teak out for a canoe excursion. He’s gotten so much bigger! He’s now big enough that when he shifts his weight, the whole canoe leans. He’s really good in the canoe – he just sits there all well behaved. I think he likes being on the water.

Selling the van

Previously I was working on the Suburban so that it was ready to be my daily driver and so that I could sell my work van. Well I finished working on the ‘burban and then cleared out the cabinets and tool storage that I had built into the van. After that, Oceana helped me swap the rear doors between the two vans. You see, in the campervan, the rear doors were solid metal – no glass. But in the work van, the rear doors had windows. We wanted windows in the campervan, so we decided to swap the rear doors between the two vans. This wasn’t actually that hard, just a few bolts and some wiring connectors. I got them swapped and adjusted to close properly. The campervan feels so much bigger inside with windows!

It sold fast!

Oceana took the van to a detailing/carwash place on main street in Avon Park. They did a really nice job inside and out. The even cleaned all of the nooks and crannies in the cargo area in the back of the van.

Back at the house, we got some pictures of the van and then listed it for sale on Facebook Marketplace. I received a message within 5 minutes which led to a phone call with a potential buyer which led to a short negotiation which led to us agreeing on a sale price. They sent over a small deposit via paypal and then the company flew a representative out from Dallas, Texas to pick up the van, which happened the next day. That gentleman looked over the van and then issued a wire transfer for the payment. Once the wire went through, I signed the title over and we both went on our way. That happened real fast! And the crazy thing is that it sold for $16k more than I bought it for a year and a half ago!

The ‘burban and the molder

I’ve already put the ‘burban to work hauling lumber. I just hauled about 9,000 lbs (including trailer and lumber) which I couldn’t do with the van. The ‘burban, with it’s massive 8.1 liter engine, barely noticed the trailer back there. Also, the new molding machine works awesome. I’ve already ran 15,000 lineal feet of molding through it. It’s amazing.

Working on the house again!

And now, without further adieu, we’re back to working on the house. The next project on deck is the living room remodel. Oceana cleared out what little furniture we had in the living room. With the room cleared out, she then put down thin plywood and ramboard for floor protection. We’re fixing to make a mess in here like we did for the dining room so we want it well protected.

Starting the demo

Once the floor protection was done and the plastic dust barriers were hung, it was time to start the demo. I started off up in the attic scooping up the old insulation and putting it into trash bags. That old insulation is super itchy. It’s nasty stuff. Scooping it up before tearing out the ceiling means less insulation is strewn all over the living room. After I filled the first bag, I kicked a hole in the ceiling and started dropping the bags down to Oceana. After I removed all I could reach, I climbed out of the attic and started tearing out the drywall.

The first house addition

As the drywall was coming down, we found signs of the first addition. It looks like the rear part of the living room was the original cabin and the front part of the living room was an open porch off the front of the cabin. The porch was then enclosed later on. There’s still the old tongue and groove ceiling in the porch area. We’re going to leave that up (except for one small area that was real bad) but it will be covered over with a new layer of tongue and groove boards. We got the old framing cleared off and ready for new plywood. This coming week we’ll be installing new plywood on the back part of the ceiling and then installing tongue and groove boards on the whole ceiling. It’s going to look awesome!

The Teak update

Teak got his first haircut this week. Goldendoodles don’t shed. They’ve actually got hair which will continue to grow (and can get crazy long). So regular haircuts are going to be part of Teak’s future life. Oceana found a retiring dog groomer and bought all of her grooming supplies off of her. Armed with the tools of the trade, she gave it a go. Teak was a good sport through it and did really well. The haircut turned out nice for her first time. Teak is up to 38lbs. He’s getting real tall.

That’s all for this week. As always, thanks for following along. And have a happy and safe new year!