Grace in Small Things: 3 of 365

Things I am appreciating today:

1. My mom, who used to make fabulous birthday cakes for me and my brother, and who taught/inspired me to make fabulous birthday cakes for my two boys.

2. Number One, who took both boys to school/town yesterday so I had time and peace and quiet enough to make a fabulous Curious George cake.

3. Sawed Off, The Three-Year-Old, who asked me late last night if his friends could come over and eat frosting with him. With spoons.

4. H-Bomb, the Big Brother who, after spending the day running around in capes and masks with his little brother, hung up his cape and neatly set aside his mask at bedtime when I told him that good superheros take care of their costumes.

5. Good friends and family who gather to celebrate a little boy's birthday with joy and excitement.

For this cowgirl's feelings about and inspiration for this, go here.
Here are all of this cowgirl's Grace in Small Things posts to date.
For more information, go here: Grace in Small Things: A Challenge for All of Us.

Two Down, One To Go!

*For all the "Before" pictures in one place, go here.


After the first wall came down, it was time for the second wall to come down. In this remodel/addition, we are taking down a total of three walls. The second wall was a previous exterior wall in the kitchen and dining room, with a sliding glass door and a minuscule kitchen window. We also decided to lop off a corner, taking a bit of space from the old pantry out in the garage, to form a 45 degree angled wall for better flow from the living space into the new dining room.


First, all the kitchen cabinets had to be removed. We had the contractor salvage the flooring that had been attached to the underside of the bar, that will come in handy for patching some of the holes in the flooring where the wall, cabinets and woodstove slate will be taken out.

Underneath the beautiful wood was not-so-beautiful paneling. Man, am I glad that was covered up! We also asked the contractor to salvage the cabinets. We will use the bar section in our new pantry, countertop and all for an extra workspace. I'm thinking the pantry would be the perfect place for Number One's meat slicer, the bread machine (if I ever use it again), those kind of appliances. As for the rest, you just never know when somebody will need a kitchen cabinet for one of the mountain cabins or what-have-you, and we have lots of storage space for things like that, so why not?


Because I wanted the contractor to salvage those cabinets, and I got the feeling he was just a couple seconds away from grabbing a sledgehammer to demolish them when I walked in, I feel like whatever I said made him a bit hesitant about tearing off the paneling. At any rate, I decided to help him.

I was fairly certain the cabinet under the sink, which extended out to the bar area, had just been covered with this crappy paneling. I tried to get under the sink and kick it out with my foot (the fun method), but it didn't budge. I tried to hit it from under the sink with a crowbar, but that also didn't work. It was just too far back there. I came around to the front of the bar and started prying off the paneling from the upper left corner, and what do you know, it WAS open under there! Paneling was the only thing covering that section, so we tore it off. It was fun!


It didn't take long before the three cabinets that had comprised the bar were completely gone.


Then we left for a long weekend, and when we came the entire kitchen (except for the range and the refrigerator) was out! So was all the drywall, the sliding glass door, the tiny kitchen window, just leaving the exposed log walls.

And before we knew it, the exposed log walls were gone too!

It is all happening so fast, it's incredible. Look at all that space!

I can't wait to show you my brand new kitchen. I'm already making lists (I'm a list maker) of all the parties we will have and guests we will entertain...

P.S. I created a new label, "log house interior," below, on which you can click and see all the progress that has been and will be made in Phase II of the remodel.

One Down...Addition Progress

One of the first things the Contractor did was take out a whole wall! It's just crazy when you know this is the plan, you know it's going to happen, and then it really happens! We are converting the boys' old play room into part of our new master bedroom.

Above is the before picture; it was a very tiny room. I can't believe we once tried to "multi-purpose this room by using it as a guest room/office/nursery and/or playroom...At one point, it was H-Bomb's bedroom, then it became the official play room/office, so H-Bomb and Sawed Off refer to it as "H-Bomb's old room."


This is a picture taken from inside the addition, the logs used to be the outside wall of the house. Down past the second small window is where H-Bomb's old room is. The contractor built a temporary "wall" of 2x4's on each side of the log wall to support the entire structure when the wall came out.


Here's a better view of the outer temporary wall, as well as the size of H-Bomb's old room. That hole used to be his window, and the cutout on the left is in line with the wall inside the room.


This picture is taken from the inside of the existing room, looking out through the cutout that was on the left in the previous picture.


You can see the interior temporary wall here, as well as the window (again). Those two points of light are windows in the addition that will be in the main part of the master window. To the right of those are two more windows as well.



There is the contractor, getting ready to tear down the wall. He's already taken down the old paneling and drywall, exposing the old logs of the structure. When he separated the log wall from the ceiling, the whole wall was sort of wobbly, which makes it hard to believe that a stack of logs was supporting the whole house!


Walk away for a while, and most of the wall is gone! You can see a few logs remaining to be removed. It is crazy that the logs are just stacked together, with some big nail things holding them together. Did I mention how wobbly they were?


Later, after more sawing, they hoisted up the support beam. The beam not only supports the new trusses in the addition, it also has brackets on the other side to support the old trusses in the existing structure.


This is a very heavy piece of lumber, so I certainly did not want to get very close to it. Just in case.

And then, the beam was in place. The temporary walls were taken down, and the possibilities of this new room are becoming evident. So exciting!

Gypsy Wagon, Part II

After RanchHand's trailer frame was built, he and Dave began building the wood floor for the wagon. The base of the floor and some insulation sits inside the metal trailer supports, and is flush with the metal frame. The wood floor then covers the metal frame and insulation.

(Number One, "helping.")

Once the floor was in, RanchHand and Dave began working on the frames for the walls. The wood walls had to sit inside the metal framework, a fairly close fit so the wood could be bolted to the metal. This involved some accurate measuring and re-measuring, lots of discussion and even a bit of father-son bickering. You understand.

RanchHand & Dave

They built the walls off of the wagon frame, which meant that it needed to be lifted into the metal frame on the trailer a few times to make sure everything was the right size before it was finally attached. Lifting the whole thing on and off took about four guys.


Dave primed beaded board before putting it on the outside of the camper base, which will give the camper an authentic "gypsy" look.

It turned out quite nicely. I really like bead board.

Here is the template they created for the door wall on the end.

After the camper base was completed, things started moving more quickly.

Stay tuned for more!

Gypsy Wagons

RanchHand has built several gypsy wagons, and his son Dave decided that he wanted one too. RanchHand and Dave have been working on building Dave's gypsy wagon all winter long. (It's about time for these posts since the wagon is getting close to being done, but I'll still break it up a bit so it's not too long).

RanchHand has a love of making gypsy wagons. He likes the style of them and the fancy little details, which may seem incongruous because RanchHand is a big guy. But he has been a woodworker for more than 30 years, so he's got some skills.

I haven't seen the first gypsy wagon he made. He ended up giving it to a mother and daughter who were friends of his.

The second wagon lived in our barn for a little while, then found its way to RanchHand's youngest son and his wife. I don't have any pictures of that one either, but I can tell you it was the first gypsy wagon RanchHand made with a collapsible frame. That's right, he made the thing from scratch and it folded up for travel! It's really quite amazing. It actually works!

Below is the third wagon RanchHand made. They are all so cute with the little details, and quite practical; this one folds up too!


Each camper has been different than the one before, as he tries out different ways of raising and lowering things, improves on ideas and changes or discards others.

You can see how this one folds down to make it better for traveling.

This wagon lives in front of RanchHand's little house,where it is used for a guest house. RanchHand also hauls it up to the mountain during the summer so he and Wifey can stay in it.

Last year, CG hired RanchHand to build a Cowgirl Camper for her, and he whipped up the one below in a little over a month. Stylistically, it is simpler than the other wagons he's made, and is "boxy," which is one reason he prefers the style of his other wagons. This camper doesn't collapse either, but it suits CG's purposes just fine, by giving her a nice little private space away from the cowboys and the dirt up on the mountain.



To start these wagons, RanchHand hires a guy to make a custom trailer first. This way the things will travel smoothly, be safe going down the road, and it's just smart to hire out the base of the project unless you happen to be a custom trailer maker.

Here is the frame they ended up with for Dave's wagon:


Those four vertical posts will support the wagon walls and frame, which will be entirely made out of wood.

In the next Gypsy Wagon post, you'll see the wood floor go in and part of the walls go up!