Kory's Trip to Lisbon for the first time

Kory was able to make a trip out to his parent's new house in Lisbon, Illinois in hopes of helping them fix it up quicker. Kory's parents bought a run down "Ark", as mom calls it, and dad has the vision of fixing and renovating the entire house. That is quite a project! Especially when dad intends to do it all by himself. :S  So, Kory was eager to get out there and help him as soon as possible. He was able to spend a week camping out with him.  Some of these pictures are already outdated but they give you a good idea of what the house is and what potential it has to be in the future.

Dad after spending all day underneath the house

View from edge of the kitchen into the house opening.  The new front entrance will be about where that blue tarp is.

View from kitchen looking back into entrance of laundry room and master suite

Family Room (the door and window are now closed off)

2nd bathroom before we tore it out

beautiful new french doors leading to the back porch

The big hole is the entrance to the crawl space.  The little hole is where my foot decided to fall through

One of two guest bedrooms, being used temporarily as a family/tv room to wind down at night

Second guest bedroom temporarily being used as a kitchen

temporary kitchen. 

temporary pantry

standing in laundry room looking into the master bedroom

Looking into the current master bathroom

In the kitchen looking into the den.  This wall will be closed off eventually.

The yellow load-bearing beam that sagged several inches.  If you look at the decorative board attached to the bottom of the load-bearing beam, you can see about how much the beam bows because that finishing piece is about level.

temporary walls we built so we could replace the load-bearing beam

lights before installation

the old load-bearing beam is gone

future firewood

absolutely beautiful new load-bearing beam along with a couple ceiling joists we replaced in the family room

another view of the masterpiece

yet another view of the masterpiece

several ceiling joists we replaced in the kitchen

ripped out the ferociously heavy cast iron bathtub in the bathroom

view from the den looking into the kitchen

the den looking towards the family room and guest bedrooms

view from the back porch.  Farms as far as the eye can see.  Isn't it pretty?

Firewood.  The pile was about twice as high, but we did a lot of burning.

view from the front porch looking into Lisbon

Here's the home!  It'll look a little bit different, because it will get some new siding before it's finished.

My dad's gigantic second garage.  I am jealous.

Looking into Lisbon, population 250

Looking the other way (they are the last house)

where we burnt all the wood (and grass).  One of my dad's favorite new things about living in a small town is you can do what you want and burn what you want where you want. 

backside of the house (not a lot of backyard space, most of the space is in the front and on the side)

another view of the temporary sitting area

on the left looks into the kitchen.  on the right goes back into the den

we had to support the roof with this system recommended by a structural engineer who happens to live in my parents' ward.  How convenient!

old electric fuse box- has already been replaced

temporary kitchen sink/bathroom while the others are renovated