Expanding an Old Farmhouse and Getting Ready for Winter Part One

Old houses are often pretty small. I know they survived this situation in the olden days. They tolerated having large families in these teeny houses. But in our modern day we I simply ain't used to it. 

Here at Sanctae Familiae Villa we are trying very hard to stay within the footprint of the home. We wanted to stay true to the home, true to our homestead lifestyle while still knowing we have to live in this modern age with our family. How could we achieve a little more comfort and still be true to our lifestyle. We did this using an existing mud room that was adjacent the living/dining area. 

We also wanted to add a more homestead friendly heat source which we decided would be a wood stove. Oil is not homestead or pocket friendly.We had 2 very old chimneys. One was for the furnace the other had clearly been abandon long ago. So we decided we would expand our family space and get ready for winter. 

With all these things in mind we jumped into the remodeling of our little humble home.

Here are only some pics of the process:

The ugly mud room at first demolition stage.

View from the existing living/dining area

A room with a new view!

 Note: You can not just knock out load baring walls. You must leave supporting wall joists or build some type of temporary structure until you put the proper beam(s) in place. 

For this job you need patience, skill, education on structure stuff, strong offspring and some great strong friends that are willing to help. Besides having such a understanding, patient wife - Rob has all of these requirements for this job!

Rob and Kolbe watch our friend
Dennis (do all the work) prep the beam.

Bonnie waits for the new beams.

Rob shows off his tools.

Dennis shows off his wounds.

Beam one going into place.

The guys await and put in the third and final beam.

The rooms become one. 

The room looks great. Thanks so much Dennis and Brian!


Look for more in the next posts:
-  adding a field stone area for the wood stove
-  choosing a wood stove and it going in
- adding a mantel and finishing the walls