Shiver me timbers

Well the insulation is in! Below are a few images
I want to share this website with you all http://www.talklikeapirate.com/translator.html

You can type in any phrase and it will convert it to pirate talk! Har!!!

The first pic is through the porthole into the attic and the next is of the new insulation. What was installed before was non existent.







I came home tonight and kicked the furnace up a notch, and in about two minutes all the vents in the house started to vibrate something crazy! I ran down to the basement and the furnace was doing the vibration dance. I kicked off the main switch and opened up the front and felt the exhaust motor, very hot! I checked on the Internet and some of the boards said to turn off the electricity for 5 + minutes and try again. I left the house for an hour and came back, flipped the switch and it was making a worse noise than before. I let my fingers do the walking and called a repair guy, they wanted $140 just to come look tonight or $75 in the morning. I choose to bundle up tonight and gut it out until the morning. Either way it is going to cost me. Time off from work or pay tonight. Guess I'll burn a vacation day.


Isn't the joys of home ownership great? Love it! Love it! Love it!

So if I haven't started a chimney fire with burning some wood to try and cut the chill in the house Sugar and I will make it through the night. I am so glad that the weather broke today and it hasn't been as cold as the past few days, otherwise I would be a miserable mate and down right grumpy.

The lull before the insulation

Tomorrow the contractor is suppose to come over and get some insulation in the attic. I don't really care when he does it just so he does do it. I have been waiting for over a month to get this ball rolling, slowly but at least it is moving forward. Not sure why he wants to do the insulation first and then the wiring, I think it all has to do with not having the money upfront to buy the materials but that is ok, I know the family and and I do not think there is anything nefarious afoot. I just want it done. I really can't get some of my other projects done until the wiring is done. My laundry room has been at a stand still for over a week. Until the dryer and washer are wired I cannot put up the wall panels and get this room done!
Really I want to see if the heating bill goes down in the next month or so before it starts to warm up and I turn the furnace off for good this year.

What the ???........

When it gets late at night I have a tendency to wander around the house and find things wrong ( so I know what I am going to be doing as a ghost after I die, wander, the house). Sometimes I just can't sleep and my mind is racing ahead about what needs to be done. Am I the only one that does this? I mean I turn on the SciFi channel and watch reruns of Star Trek or what ever. HGTV gets a bit old and redundant. Dirty Harry movies are good but when you start to mouth the dialog you know you have seen the movies just one to many times. But then again, I know the dialog of some of the Star Trek episodes.
So back to my wanderings. I was strolling through the kitchen and looked up on the wall to where a hard wired clock used to be. I took off the plate and saw a small screw above the box. The screw kind of fell out. Big whole, small screw. What do you do to make the screw fit? Well you take white yarn and wrap it around the screw until you have made the screw thick enough to fit the hole of course!! The second pic is of the screw. Too funny.
Honey! this screw is to small! you have any of that yarn laying around that I can use to thicken this thing up?! Ah! perfect!



As I am perusing the handy work of the PO, I looked over at the cabinets. Now I know what your are thinking, Man those are really cool looking cabinets! I wonder where I could get some tack paper that will stick to the wood better than any epoxy. Oh and the pattern! ohh Oooo! how can I get a country look like that?
I know, I know, I am the envy of the neighborhood and get many comments on the kitchen decor'. But what I wanted to point out is the perfect warping of the doors. To me it adds to the ambiance.




And the large cracks that have formed along the ceiling? That was a surprise discovery, I followed it into the small halway and could see where a PO had patched the plaster in the past. On the bright side? they are not new and just part of the house.

Should a recite a few lines of the Breakfast club?
Clair? thats a fat girls name!
no its not! its a family name!
Well you may not be fat now, but after you push out a few kids, you will be fat.

How about Ferris Bullers Day Off?
Abe Froman? the sausage king of Chicago?

Maybe some Blues Brothers............................

Basement Floor

All I did today was paint the floor in the laundry room, battleship grey. That's it. Makes me feel like I am in the Navy again.

Cold snow and Hot water

Here is a shot of the weather we have the last day. Cold, snow, and blowing.

I spent most of the day in the basement again, I tore out the last of the galvanized pipe and cut them all down to 3 ft lengths. In the last image, it is hard to tell, but down the center of each pipe is solid rust. Also there are, and the only way I can explain it, is there are blisters on the inside that run the full length of each pipe. I am just glad it is all gone from the main parts of the fresh water. There is another 8 ft that goes out to the garage and ends at a spigot. That can wait till another day when it gets warmer. I took a shower after I was finished and it seemed like I was able to get warm water faster. Maybe it was just wishful thinking.

Another plumbing exercise

Here is tonight's latest plumbing exercise. In the first pic I cut the main line coming from the city into the house. I added a shutoff valve coming off the copper line and then made a 90 degree turn, added a whole house filter then ran the line down the wall to and back up again. This was done for a future plumb of a water softener. So far no leaks.

I wanted to share some pics from work. I got a new workstation today and this thing is HUGE! almost like a piece of furniture that is how big it is. The box is so big it needs a special pedestal to keep it upright. I guess Dell figured it is so heavy that they didn't want it falling over and crush your feet or lower extremity. I really am embarrassed by how large it is. I run allot of programs and virtual machines for testing etc. So I was just trying to get something that was beefy and run everything that I need. For all you geeks out there here is the run down on the specs:

2 GHZ quad four processor, 4 GB ram, 256 meg Nvida video card, DVI dual monitors 26" and a 22", and a bunch of other crap that I don't remember right now.

The last picture is of my playroom. This is our data center with all the stuff that keeps our business and customers business's going even in a "down economy". I am pretty proud of my playroom and am a fascist when it come to anyone wanting to go into or make changes. Kind of funny I even have the owners of the company trained well enough that they don't move a chair without asking me.

OK, that's enough of my boasting for the night.

Tomorrow, I will finish the hot water plumbing and update later.

I did forget that I bought a Kenmore washing machine today at lunch. I think I got away with spending only $350 for the cheapest model they have. Bummer that I can't get it until next week. So I have a $1600 dryer (see my earlier post about the dryer) and a $350 washer. Talk about a mismatch!

Water World

Really I am looking forward to getting the rest of the old pipes replaced this weekend. I only have a few more to replace and then I can forget about drinking and bathing in rusty dirty water. Actually while I am at it I will get a whole house filter installed and plumb for a softener. After seeing what was in the cold water pipes, and thinking that if I was going to be running a washing machine I should find some motivation and get the hot side replaced.
Still waiting for the electrical contractor to show up. The last conversation was he is still hung up on another job and waiting to finish that first. I can respect that, I wouldn't want him to ditch me until my job was finished. But until the electrical is done I can't finish the laundry room and I still have to haul my dirites over to my moms. I know she is getting tired of me hogging her washer and dryer.

Cold water

Finished the cold water plumbing to the water heater. I also re-plumbed the cold water line to the kitchen sink, and hooked up the water line to the washing machine connect. I only did the cold water side today. I really just didn't feel like redoing the hot and the rest of the house. I also found that the valve to turn off the city water leaks and left a pretty good sized puddle on the floor last night. Guess I will have to call the city and how much that is going to cost me to get that valve fixed.
Most of the piping was galvanized and copper mix. I just could not believe the black crap that poured out of the pipes as I cut them down. I wouldn't call it rust, more like sludge. The copper pipe had a whitish yellow bunch of shite come out of them when I cut them down. It is no wonder the water tastes so bad here. I also wonder what the clothes looked like after a time of washing when the PO had the place. I had thought that maybe I should put a whole house filter on the main line but in hindsight, that would not have done any good. The crap was coming from (and still is) inside the house and old pipes.
But at least the water coming into the house is in new lines. After yesterday and today, I feel a bit more confident with the whole water thing. I still hate it, but as soon as I get the galvanized pipe out of the house and in the trash maybe the water will taste better.
There is a water softener on the horizon though.

Pre shower

Well it happened again, I thought that I would do some due diligence and disconnect the last of the old water connection from where the washing machine used to be. You know where I am going with this? Yep all I had to do was screw in a galvanized plug into the end of the old pipe and whala! I'm am so done. NOT! as I am tightening things up, another piece of pipe broke, drenching me again with rusty water.
This time I didn't stand and admire the water fall coming out of the end of the 3/4" pipe but bolted to the end of the basement and turned off the main from the city. After I ventured back to the break, I had a pause and realized that I was on total auto pilot running for the main shutoff. I guess those catlike reflexes that I gained from my previous military training I had years ago finally paid for itself. Now this should make you all feel better that your tax dollars did go for some good training.
Here is what I found after drying myself off (actually I dripped dried) the older CPVC is so brittle that I can break a piece in half with my hands (again another example of my fine fitness thanks to the military). Crazy. Needless to say I spent a good chunk of my washing machine money replumbing again.
After all that, I was able to to take my real shower.

Oh my gawd!

This one has to fall under one of the most bizarre and wildest purchases I have ever had. I walked into Sears and asked to see the cheapest washer and dryer set they sell. I knew from looking online that they had a Kenmore for around $350 or so each for a washer and dryer. So the polite sales girl shows me the dryer, and I happen to look over at the next aisle and see this Kenmore Elite steam dryer sitting there (an H5 I might add, whatever that means). As she is talking up the cheaper dryer I felt drawn over to the Elite series dryer, nay beckoned by the dryer. Now here is a dryer that lists for $1599.00 yes that is fifteen hundred dollars!

I about fell over when I saw it. Then I looked closer at the tag. I wear glasses and my prescription is fairly current so I really don't have to many issues seeing but I just couldn't believe what I saw on the tag. $319!!!! Exactly! I about fell over!

Now the nice sales girl realized that I wasn't standing next to her anymore and she wandered over to where I was bracing myself against the partition, I asked her if the tag was listing the correct price, $319? for a $1599 (list) dryer.

Yes sir, she said. Oh wow! when I was working Sunday, they had a tag that listed the dryer for $600, they must have just changed the tag. Sir I didn't show you this dryer because you said you didn't want to spend more than $350 and I thought it was still $600.

Hey that's ok, I said. But seriously, is that price correct?, Yes she said, no really what is the catch? is that price correct? It was a floor model she chimed in and I guess they have new models coming out so they want to get rid of it.

I think I asked her 4 times if the tag was correct. Needless to say I thought about it for another 30 seconds and whipped out the debit card to pay for the dryer. As I was doing that, I was looking over my shoulder to see if security was coming to take me away for stealing.

I am still in shock, no scratches (if it did who cares?) no dings, nothing but the full 1 year warranty and all the parts and pieces that one needs to hook it up. Is that wild or what?! I was so jazzed I had to call my brother, then my sister to let them know what just happened.

When I called my brother I asked him about the $7500 credit that I heard about last week. He did some research and found out that I qualified for the credit and filled an addendum to my return. I should be receiving a check (yes a check from the government) in a month or so. Interest free, and $500 a year for a payback of 15 years. As long as my normal income tax return is over $500 a year, I won't have to pay any extra money out of pocket. The IRS will just take the money from my normal yearly return refund.

I'm getting a new bathroom! I'm getting a new bathroom! and a kitchen!! Today was a wild day! Crazy!

Seriously, I think I can get both rooms done for around that price and do all the work myself.

Someone pinch me!

New look

I chose a new color scheme for the site today. I needed something that was a bit more cheery,

I framed the second wall of the laundry room tonight. But I have kind of hit a "wall" sort of speak. I have to wait for the electrician to start on the rest of the house before I can put the panels up. Well that and the whole plumbing thing needs to be done also.
The electrician can't start until next Monday and will be in the house for 4 days. Then a day for the insulation blow in.

I am bloody knackard

Just plain tired. Been a busy weekend with working on the room downstairs.
I did get the door casing back on going into the kitchen. I think I made a pretty good choice with the wall color and wood work. Of course that is my opinion and I have to live with it, right?



Here are some updated pics of the laundry room. I plumbed the waste water and put the box up for the hot/cold water. I am still on the fence on what to use for the water piping. I looked at CPVC, but I really like the flexability of PEX, it is a bit more expensive but I am looking at having to redo the whole house eventually and not having to mess with glue and all the damn elbow joints ect. sounds like a good deal to me. We'll see what the budget has to say about the whole thing.
I am adding a deep sink, and have left room for a water softener.

A butt load

Here is the rule, it takes ten butt loads to equal one shit load. So I only have a butt load of pictures today.
Here was my thought, take the room under the kitchen and make it a laundry room. So's off I go this morning cleaning things up and found the bottom plate to this wall was GONE! Like it wasn't even there. The first two images are of the bottom of the wall. I didn't really want to blow this wall out but did it anyway. Cool pile of crap huh?

I couldn't save anything as the wood literally splintered as I tried to take it off the "wall" Where did I put all the debris? Well in the garage of course!

I bought a 5 gal. bucket of Dry Lock and painted the cement for the "just in case" scenario of water coming in this end of the house.

Here is a question for all: At what point does a dust mask reach the end of its life?

You tell me. On the left, dirtay, on the right, new.

I have to take a moment and thank Beth and her husband Rob for meeting me at Menards with their truck and helping me bring home some 2x4's and other "stuff" You guys are truly AWESOME! and great people!

These are the pics of the room getting framed out.



I went to look for a replacement window but could not find any at the stores. The window(s) are such an odd size (30x23, WxH) that I will have to order what I need to replace all the basement windows. I did find one that would fit, but I really didn't want to be outside in the mud, mucking around trying to get the window to fit in the waning sunlight.

And the last pic? Well, Sugar of course! Lounging on the bed. How can you get mad at total cuteness laying on your bed?

What??

The credit I talked about in my last post, congress voted to bump the payout amount to $15,000!
Talk to your tax guy about it. I have my brother checking into it for me (he is my tax guy).

Closed!

Well my droogies The 454 House is mine! I had an epiphany that I will be 73 years old before it is paid off. So for the first item on my 30 year plan is to pay off the money pit.
Now on a serious note. Did you know that there is a credit out there from the government that is if you have not owned a house in the last 3 years, and purchased a home between April 08' and July 09' you are eligible for this credit of $7500 that can be paid back over 15 years ($500 a year) with (and get this) no interest!! Oh, and you have to make less than Ninety some thousand a year.
Is that cool or what?! Don't ask me anymore details than what I wrote here. Talk to a tax person and ask them. My brother does my taxes and he taking a looksee for me.

With the closing, I am getting the electrical done through out the whole house and the insulation blown in the attic. The bank wouldn't go for replacing the basement windows.

My first project for this weekend? Crack a cold one and watch the snow melt.

Closing

Well tomorrow is the big day and a long time coming. I close on the house! it only took 4 months and two banks but it is almost done. So far, today, as I sit here, and no other phone calls, I am getting what I wanted. New electrical, new basement windows (I think I wrote about this earlier in the week) and insulation in the attic. Now I just need to get the contractor in here and get going on the work.

Sorry don't have a smart quip to start off with

It is snowing, again! Just a bit was coming down when I took the garbage out. By Friday it is suppose to be 46 and raining. So having got the weather report out of the way..........I went over all the places again with cement tonight that were the big leakers in the past in the anticipation of the oncoming deluge of water that will come with rain this weekend.
Does anyone out there know what were used for gutters and downspouts on an original Craftsman?? Oh I know copper would be great but way out of my budget.

I stripped the inside door jambs tonight that lead into the small hallway. Yeah! more sanding!

Super Bowl?

Haven't written or done anything on the house for a couple weeks now. One I have not had the money, and two I "hit a wall" mentally. I keep seeing all the yard stuff coming out at the home stores and am itching to get outside. I even shoveled the little driveway out back yesterday just to be outside. I don't use the garage or the driveway and after the first good snow I gave up on trying to keep it clear. I drive an Honda and there is just enough room to get into the "driveway" and up to the back door. The garage? well the door is half broke, doesn't shut all the way, and full of crap from when I blew the bedroom out.
So there is my driveway story.
I bought a gallon of the complimentary color to the amber stone paint that I put on the walls in the front room today. It is Dutch boy B5-4 (I bought Bear this time) or fondly known in the painting circles as Almond Paste. Paste, doesn't that sound like something you put on a cracker? or that terrible feeling you have in your mouth the morning after drinking to much? My teeth are all pasty.

Friday at work some folks were talking about the Super Bowl as happening today, totally clueless. I have not sat and watched one game this year and when the Bears fell out I stopped paying attention. I had to go look and see who was actually playing today. Now how is that for tunning everything out? a game that 1 Billion people see and I, being an all american boy from the midwest, had no clue who is even playing?

Oh good news came my way Friday, I was approved for my loan on the house. Gotta love the VA. Here is a couple other good side notes. The apprasial came back good, $99,900. which is more than I am paying for the place. The owner is also going to pay for the electrical to be redone throughout the house at closing, and, the VA will allow up to $6000 to be added to the loan for insulating pruposes. I got a quote and asked to have all the basement windows replaced and the attic insulated. Approved!
Now if I can just stem the flow of water this spring, and get some gutters on the house, all will be rosey in La Salle. Speaking of roses, I am going to plant some of them to.

Ear ache

Ok, so here is the deal. My ear hurts and I can't hear a damn thing. Is this house related? of sorts. My sisters dad (we are a nuclear family, ok?) well he is 86, Bronze Star awarded for battle, and was involved in 3 major battles in Europe, Battle of The Bulge, The Rhur River Valley and a third, that eludes me. Something french and in a valley.

His house burnt down a few weeks back and he was left with nothing but what he was wearing that afternoon. So my sister came home from Texas to help get him squared away this weekend. So I drive north about an hour from my home and forgot my damn stocking hat, a balmy 7 degrees out all day and I was moving stuff from house to car, to house again. I have had this shivering thing going on for about 4 weeks now, where no matter how many layers of clothes I have on I still cannot get warm (maybe it is that 40 lbs weight loss I endured the last 4 mos?) I sit at work with long johns, and four long sleeve T-shirts and a coat! I work in doors in a cubicle in front of a computer all day. If I have to go into the data center the cold hurts.

So we got everything moved and settled in and my ear hurts. One for the team.

I think I found the craftsman that worked on this craftsman where drunk the day they roughed out this door. They used multiple pieces of 2x4's to finish out the frame (see above).

Now for the bummer part of the blog, but as the title says "an old house rehabbing me" I have been going through a breakup with "my girl" for the past few months, absolutely beautiful person, and I have nothing bad to say and she is still the love of my life. So having said that.......I want to thank Beth my sister, Greg my brother and Bethany from work for listening to me sob and cry the past few weeks. This has been a very difficult time and I think the future is going to be ok. I can see the sun again (I just wish it was warmer) and with the help of my counselor and the love I have been shown by my friends and family I want to thank all. And for Kim, I love you always, don't ever forget that.

Kim brought out a passion in me after we met and I haven't been able to stop since, that is writing. I never sat down and wrote anything that was legible let alone made any sense. Most would still find the way I write pretty amateurish anyway but it helps get the cobwebs out of my head and think things through as to what the next step will be.

There is a good book that I was given called Rebuilding by Bruce Fisher and Robert Alberti, even if you are not having relationship difficulties it is worth the $17 just for the education of relationship building. And as I am writing this, Caddy Shack is just ending and Kenny Loggins is singing, " I'm alright" very fitting!

Bummer part over.

Have a good night all!

I see the light

There is a metaphor there that is for Beth at work. Thanks Beth, thanks for the help and I will continue to bend your ear.

But there is another reason for seeing the light, and it is not coming from the drawer.


I have been secretly buying the CFL bulbs as I see a good price on them at the store. Why secretly? I don't want to be ostracized by the evil, dirty burning coal industry. But Home Depot has been having a regular running deal on the Dairy Queen looking bulbs for a few weeks now. four bulbs for $4 dollars. So I have replaced all but a few of the in the house entirely with the DQ bulbs. Now I am waiting to cash in on all the savings in electricity that I the "industry" says I will save. I am sure the check is in the mail somewhere. The only bummer is it takes a few moments for the lights to warm up and put out their full lumen's.


Took out the other door frame today. I was vacuuming up the debris and I found a old rusty fish hook that came from the top of the frame, it was stuck on the end of the vacuum tip and it hooked my finger a bit when I went to take it off. No blood. But what the hell would a fish hook be on the top of a door frame for? I mean someone had to put it there between the top of the door casement and the rough door frame.

Oh my sander took a crap and I bought a cheapo Tool Shop brand from Menards, and wow! that thing really does the job for $21! I also decided to buy better sand paper than the cheap stuff I usally purchase

Bummer

Not house related, but home related. Sugar had a seizure Saturday night, actually Sunday morning. So the weekend was kind of a bummer. Poor girl. She is such a good dog and to see her go through something like that really sucks, totally broke my heart. I laid with her on the floor a while and then about 2:30 in the morning I took her into the bedroom and let her sleep with me on the bed the rest of the night. Very strange, we had a pretty laid back day so there wasn't anything stress full that I exposed her to. She was just laying there, I was talking to her and bam! she had a look of total panic and a "dad please help me!" then she got the shakes and went rigid. So I am wondering if she hasn't had more during the past nights, because she really hasn't been eating to much. I don't leave her alone and take her to "grand ma's" while I am at work or go someplace where I just can't take her. Other than that she is always with someone and watched except at night when she sleeps in front of the fireplace. I guess a trip to the the vet is due, maybe we can get her on some medication.

Just an update for those rabid followers of mine. It looks like I got the leaks stopped in the basement foundation. The cold weather helped with stemming the flow. So if there is a good reason for below zero weather, stopping the leaks is good reason. Now I am bracing for the gas bill.

Comments, for whatever reason. I do have comments turned on for this blog but they just don't seem to be working. I am thinking it is the template I am using. Not being very patient when it comes to software applications and being more of a hardware guy, I have to take trying to fix the comments in doses. At the top right of the page is my profile information and if you begin to feel warm, tingly, and the overwhelming urge to email me you can. Be nice though, I am sensitive. (hehehe)

Plan, plan, plan

Plan3D, I have been using this program for about a month now and so far have been happy with it. One thing about the program is use subscribe to the program vice buying the software outright. Really for $36 a year, Ifind it fits my budget. You can layout anything that has to do with a house, kitchens, baths, any room. And I think you cn not only layout an entire house, and the yard to. Don't hold me to the yard thing, I haven't dove into the program to deep.


A few years back I worked in a cabinet shop for a few months (until I got laid off on Christmas Eve, but that is a whole nether story) I used to do layouts for the kitchens themselves and the layout for the cabinet boxes to be cut on a 3 axis router. I HATE CAD programs. But I have found Plan3D pretty straight forward and easy to use. http://www.plan3d.com/ for the life of me I cannot remember what the program was called that we did the actual kitchen layouts with. But Multicam was my nemeses for the router cutting.

Here is a view of my kitchen and one layout I am toying with.

Playing in cement

I took a drive down to my nearest Lowes, an hour away. I had to get out of the house and wanted to see what they had in the store, I wish I had about $10,000 and a truck. Of course if I spent that much money, I would hope that they deliver for free. They had about 3 times the selcetion of my local Menards and Home Depot combined. The appliance section was really neat.
I slathered more hydraulic cement on the walls in the basement this morning since the ground is good and frozen and the water was not flowing. Bam! slapped that stuff right on there and got that flowing water stopped good! But being as though I have taken the role of the little dutch boy, I am sure there will be other palces that the water will push through.
Really for a 100 yr old house there isn't much leakage.
After purusing Lowes today, I got some good ideas for the laundry room. Now it will go on the "list". Christopher over at http://shakerheights.blogspot.com/ talks about his 5, 10, 20 and 40 year plan for his house. I think the laundry room will go on my 40 yr plan unless I win the lotto. But wait, you have to buy a ticket in order to win. So doing the quick math, in 40 yrs, I will be 83 with with a cool laundry room.

How you know its cold outside

Why? it is -34 degrees outside and 70 degrees in the house. That is 104 degrees difference. It physically hurts to go outside. How do those intrepid folks in North Dakota do it every year?

Question for all my droogies:
How do you know your in an old house?

You furnace cycles every 5 mins to keep the place a nice balmy 65 .
You can feel half of next months paycheck go up the chimney.
You know your paycheck is gone and you haven't earned it yet.
The dog looks at you like your crazy when you tell her to go out and pee.
The basement windows are frozen over - on the inside.
When you turn on the faucet to brush your teeth, the water is so cold the fillings in your head feel like they are driving themselves through your jaw.
As you walk from one room the next, your heavily socked feet can still feel the temperature difference.
The old knob and post wiring worries you so much about the amperage draw that you won't plug in an electric blanket for your bed to warm it up.
The closet floor in your bedroom is as cold as it is outside. ( You think I am kidding? I have dirty clothes piled against the door to keep the draft out.)
Thats is for tonight. Stay warm.

Didn't do anything on the house tonight, I just logged on to bitch about the weather.

My first!!!

Well I have my first official follower!!! Thanks Christopher! I can't wait to dive into your blog and read about your trials and tribulations on this thing we call restoration, or insanity. Here is is blog site http://shakerheights.blogspot.com/

I am watching one of my favorite movies this afternoon, the Hunt For Red October. I remember reading the book when I was in the Navy. I spent 10 years hunting Soviet submarines sitting in the back of a P-3 Orion aircraft (about 3200 hours worth) playing chess with Soviet submariners and honestly we kicked their asses all over the Pacific ocean from the time they left the motherland until they went home for good and the wall came down. I miss my crews I flew with, but not the bullshit we had to do when we weren't flying. Oh well, again from the heart and to the guys that are still on station and never came home for a post flight and a debriefing it was an honor to serve with you and you are the ones who made the ultimate sacrifice doing what you did best and loved. Sorry for being sentimental and mushy.

Ok! onto the house.I reinstalled the door jamb and baseboards this afternoon. The following 3 pictures are of the process and final install. I had a hell of a time nailing the door jamb back up. The nails kept hitting "something" and bending over. I screwed the pooch on a few of the nails and messed the wood up...some. Maybe when I get a door installed they (the nails)won't be noticeable.


The last picture is of the room in the basement that I am going to make into the laundry room.



I was going to (one day) get some stackable washers and put them in a closet off the bathroom, but have since decided that I am going to take the closet out and add that extra 4' to the bathroom and open it up a bit. The gain is in the interior (with-in the confines of the existing walls) length of the room vice width. I dunno, I will probably change my mind again in a few weeks.

Staging

I staged the door jambs and baseboards just to get a feel for what the boards and wall colors are going to look like together. Sorry for the dark pictures, no matter how many lights I turn on it just still looks dark no matter how I adjust the phone camera .




















Pretty different from the painted pony that was there originally.

More is the word for Monday

More snow, only 3 inches at my place but it dumped in about 3 1/2 hours. There was a few times I played gopher at work (popped my head up from the cubical) and looked outside only to see white out conditions. Below is the final coat of the door jamb I took out between the kitchen and living room. the "white" stuff on the boards is the wet poly that I put on just before I took the picture.

After work tomorrow I will put the door jamb and trim back on the walls and start on the next one. Yeah!?

The bank had an appraiser come over today. Being a smallish city, the appraiser told me this was the third or fourth time he had been in this house over the years (and most of the houses on the street for that matter) so my walk through was all of 15 mins. He already had a floor plan and the past appraisals in his folder. The short time I talked to him he told me what the past appraisal numbers came out as, and also the story of "Rhonda" and how she trashed the place. I guess it took him months to get into the place and only after the bank foreclosed. I am going to venture a guess that the value of this house has plateaued and it will be after I am long gone that it will move up in any value, significantly.

For the hundreds of my rabid readers and followers of my blog, I am not certain if I told the story of "Rhonda" and how this old house turned into the corner drug store for a number of years. So the stories go, it was so bad that the rest of the street was getting afraid to come outside for fear of a drive by. I would be willing to bet there is a bit of midwestern exaggeration in all the stories told. The neighbors have also told me, this place had quite allot of foot traffic at all hours of the day and night. I would also bet there was allot of bubbling water from bongs over the cricket chirps that could be heard on a clear summer night if one listened close enough.

But Rhonda and her "family" are gone and there will be stories of me to be told in the future, without a doubt.

An irony, (speaking of appraisals) I am watching House Hunters on HGTV and they have people looking at 1.5 million dollar homes. I would place a bet that this house is going to come in at way under the numbers that are being showed on TV.

Snowed Under

Had quite a bit of snow today, I think about 6" or so.

So I was looking at the door jam between the front room and the kitchen and I got this great idea to try and strip and sand the door jamb in place. Not my first idea that didn't work out.

I ended up taking the door jamb out and hauling it into the basement for a "strip" search. 6 coats of paint plus one of varnish. When I pulled the door jamb off the kitchen side of the door I found the wood is pine vice the birch that is in the rest of the house. I also found that the original color of the kitchen and door jamb is a dark flat green, which from what I have read about A&C homes, brown and greens were used to give a sense of more "earthyness".

The first pic is of the door jamb, out of all the colors of paint on the wood I like the peach color the best. The picture is kind of crappy and doesn't really show all the paint layers. The second is where a carpenter must have gotten pissed and took an axe to the framing and hacked out a good section of the 2x4 in order to get the door frame square. You can really see the chop marks in the wood.

Not really a surprise, but I found the two layers of linoleum on the kitchen floor. I had to peal back some to get the door frame out.

Tuesday

I found this picture on a blog site that I losely follow. http://www.projectkraemerlane.net/ Is this a killer kitchen or what? Now this room is something to aspire for.

And this is a bathroom in the same house. I really like the subway tile and the wall color.

A cool idea

I was looking at www.howcast.com and ran across this tip. If you have the patience (and I don't) and are feeling like you need to to something green, this is a great way to strip paint from door hardware. A crockpot, dish soap, water and a couple hours of "cooking".
Check out the video! the link is below.
http://www.howcast.com/videos/3692-How-To-Strip-Paint

Striping will set you free!

That is what I keep telling myself, and telling myself, over and over again.

The first picture is of........my feet, size 11's thank you. Actually it is a terrible picture of a piece of base board, but basically I am trying to show what the boards look like after 2 applications of stripper and the heavy tan paint that is denying the inevitable, it will be sanded off.

The second and third images, are a question: why would you paint over such great looking wood? Look at that grain! I just hope someday, someone else will appreciate the time and energy I am putting into all this trim and doors. If they don't? they can always paint over them.

Sunday

Did allot of sanding this weekend on the door casements for the front room. I also stripped all the trim I pulled out a week or so ago. I put some shelf brackets on the wall in the basement to stack all the boards after I finished stripping all the paint. It helps keep the boards off the floor and from under foot.

When stripping these particular boards I found there was 3 layers of paint plus the original stain and varnish. Someone painted a "tan" color. This looked like a heavy enamel and I mean heavy! not only was it thick I am almost certain it was a lead based paint. The second coat was a lovely coat of Forest Green color. Horrible pukey color. The last was a flat white that flaked right off. I had to strip each board 3 times because of the tan "base" that just would not lift off the boards. When I picked up the paper and striped off paint it must have weighed over 20 lbs.

I also did some finger painting with some hydraulic cement on one wall that was leaking last week after the quick thaw and rain we had here, turned out ok. I hope it stops the leaking.

Sugar was pretty lethargic yesterday and I think she actually had a doggie virus or something. She slept hard all after noon curled up so I wrapped her up in a blanket and she barley moved and stayed like a babushka the rest of the night. Today she seems fine and was running around the park like she was on fire.