Today we had a small army of men working on the house! I think I like my house being touched by 4 or 5 strange guys! When you have time, maybe you (yes, you Dan!) can touch it too…?

Here’s what the house looks like currently. 1/2 of it is gorgeous! The other half, with flaking paint and rotting fascia, not so much. I don’t know when we will paint, but I’d like it to happen sooner rather than later. Then again, I’d like the upstairs to be done too sometime during this decade.

The shakes are pretty much all up, just waiting on new all wood Marvin windows for the 3×5 ft (enlarged to legal size) windows for the kids’ bedrooms-tobe:

Here’s Miguel installing shingles outside our breakfast room window (notice we still haven’t painted or primed since we tore down the wall paper back in…ummm… March?)

our contractor, William, up on the roof

and the gas company guys installing our gas line (maybe we won’t freeze our asses off this winter??!?!)

Other than that, the retaining wall is almost done and the front yard is pretty much leveled. It still looks like a messy construction zone around here, but things are finally getting done! I am sure (well, hopeful) that Dan will update with more entertaining details soon.

all sorts of stuff. huge stuff. construction rubble, demolition debris scattered amongst the ground, tens of tons of things to carry and stack.

lets start inside, where things are nice and calm… and pleasantly lit, after a series of splendid finds in the Rejuvenation clearance area (read: we justified purchasing a shitload of new lights, because of the “clearance” status).

the living room went from a seriously classy oak veneer and wicker ceiling fan, to this craftsman style piece:

the brothel chandelier was next. not that there’s anything wrong with a piece of lighting that looks like it came out of a turn of the century lady of accompaniment parlor… because really, we all know nothing says class like that (not even a oak and wicker fan)… but the feeling that any moment the madame of the house would appear, was getting a bit odd.

couldn’t leave outside untouched… the spider web encrusted (and it turns out, wasp nest infested) 1950s glass light was replaced with this bit of sweetness… complete with mica shade, giving it some awesome light at night…

there’s also new kitchen lighting, which appears to not be on my camera. i could get up, walk the 15 feet over to the one out of 3 lights that’s installed, take a picture, come back and upload it (probably in about as much time as it’d take to write this explanation as to why i’m not)… but i’m not.

ahh… now for the real mess progress!

start with digging. lots and lots of digging. luckily it wasn’t me doing the digging… though i’d not mind taking credit for it, the digging was done by a couple friends. i was almost ready to be content with just the trench… toss the garden hose in, fill it up… get some anwry guppies and call it a moat. a quick draw bridge, and we’d be set…

but then this arrived:

roughly 30k pounds of dry stack block, concrete and gravel.
the wee one looked at me and said “do you want to play blocks with me? i help you!” we spend some time playing with legos… it was pretty cool that she put it together in her mind that these huge things are like huge legos. huge legos that weigh 65 pounds each.

with great luck, i had lots of help.

it’s not quite done… but already worlds of difference. now there is visible PROOF that something is being done! that huge f’ing mound of dirt looks less like a prehistoric ant hill, and more like a temporary mound (despite having been there for the better part of a year).elsewhere on the house, we’ve hired a contractor. it was admittedly a bit tough for me to accept the fact that i can’t do everything by myself, i don’t have enough free time, and i need to hire someone to pick up where i’m failing. may not sound like a failure, but it kinda feels like it… at least a pretty good hit to my pride. but… on the plus side… a bunch of stuff is getting done, which should make everyone happier.

• the cedar shingles are being pulled off the house, to be replaced with #1 shake.
• the rear chimney is being pulled down and rebuilt, as there was worry any time a bird landed on it, the chimney would come tumbling down.
• the side chimney is getting strapped to the house, so it doesn’t come tumbling down
• the house is getting wrapped so it has an actual vapor barrier
• all new marvin dual glaze, low e, argon filled all wood windows are going in the upper floor. 3×5′ double hung for the bedrooms, 2×3′ double hung for the bathroom, 2 casement and 1 picture on the front dormer.
• finally, those new shakes are going on… all nice and treated

we also decided to ditch the biodiesel furnace in favor of a natural gas furnace. permit in hand, gas company scheduled to come install a meter, 80 some feet of black pipe and tons of fittings ready to go in… now just to figure out what furnace we’re gonna get. it’ll be NICE having actual heat this winter!

i changed my schedule at work a bit, so i could have more time at home… 7am to around 4pm. might try to do 6am to 3pm in a bit… but the 7am is already kicking my ass… not to mention it’s after midnight right now and i’ve gotta be at work in well under 7 hours… shower, sleep, get up and ready for work… work… by the time i get home, i’m f’ing beat. time to stop playing around blogging, and do that sleep thing…

2. at least it’s not raining.

not a lot of progress has actually taken place to the house. summer is here; we’re busy doing fun stuff on weekends. work kills most of the weekdays. doesn’t leave much time to work on the place… but think i’m setting aside the next month of weekends to work on the upstairs, hopefully enough to complete framing it all in. i’m really thinking of bringing in a sheetrock contractor because they can knock that stuff out fast.
the driveway may just end up getting poured this summer, assuming i actually remember to call the guy and schedule a time with him.
the front wall is on the horizon, as well…

new driveway gate… now it needs the pergola over it, with some kinda vine. (oh, and a driveway poured/stamped under it).

much too hot to be creative with the writing, today. it’s 10pm and the temp inside is in the high 80s. we’ve been here long enough to have acclimated to a cooler climate… so once it gets close to 90 inside, it’s f’ing hot.

hopefully… with some luck, determination, lack of laziness and some fine BBQ nurishment, there will be more to post about the house in the following month or two. for now, i’m going to go get a couple cold beers and lay down on the floor. not even gonna bother drinking the beer… just pour it on myself to cool down.

managed to actually get some protection on the deck, finally! sanded the entire thing with 120 then 220 grit on a random orbit sander, used a belt sander with 120 grit on the edges to make ‘em all sooooper straight, and hit the posts with 220 grit on a finish sander (just so i could use one of each sander i’ve got ).

used compressed air to blow all the dust off, and clear in between the deck boards, then wiped the whole deck down with tack cloth. probably could have skipped that step… and probably should have. wouldn’t have made any difference, except for blowing a half hour that i could have been doing something else.

one coat of cabot spf to the deck surface and the posts, because it is the only reasonably clear (non-tinted) UV protection for the cedar that i could find.

it looks pretty good in person. tung oil would have looked worlds better… but after a couple months of sun, it’d look like crap. i really don’t like gray wood…

now, you may notice a complete lack of rails. that’s because we have yet to get the lumber, and really… how much use is the deck going to get in the winter? the rails can be done here and there… in between other projects.

close up, one of the posts… pretty cedar…

~

the cleanup stuff from the other day… we managed to get down to the concrete runner on one side of the “driveway”

ever mention how much i hate shoveling? i’m not the only one… rebecca doesn’t care for it, either. it doesn’t look like that much in the photo… but let me assure you, it really is. roots, hard packed, rocks, etc… pain in the ass.

we also thinned out our salvage pile, a lot. got rid of more than half of it, cleaned and stored a bunch more… this is the only stuff left in the yard

well… it’s getting there…

the biodiesel is great. the furnace is great. the fan control? not great. a mind of it’s own, it seems to have.

see, when the house cools down, the thermostat tells the furnace “hey, it’s getting cold, do something!” the furnace then fires up. when it’s come up to temperature, the fan control starts the blower… forcing nice warm air through the house. the house warms up, the thermostat then tells the furnace “ok, that’s good.” the furnace then shuts down. when the air in the furnace cools down, the fan control stops the blower. well, in a perfect world.

in our world, when the thermostat queues the furnace to fire up, it does. it comes up to temperature in about 15 seconds. sometimes (and that’s the key word) the fan control does nothing. the furnace keeps burning and burning… because the thermostat hasn’t noticed any change in temperature… because the blower isn’t blowing… because the fan control doesn’t work. the furnace will just keep going and going…. burning fuel at the rate of about .89 gallons an hour. makes it VERY toasty in the basement… but at $3.54/gallon, i couldn’t care less about the basement being warm when it’s chilly upstairs.

that’s what happened this morning. the first cycle of the heater worked fine, bringing the house up to a reasonable temperature. the next cycle didn’t see the blower come on… so that cycle was long. think we ate up about 3/4 of a gallon before realizing it. yay.

this… this thing…

this is the fan control. tomorrow i’ll take it out again, strip it completely apart and rebuild the whole thing.

ok, on to happier thoughts. this is the fuel pump and burner control, that i replaced all the rubber seals in, with synthetic seals.

i have a bunch of o-rings from an alcohol burning motorcycle i used to have (used to really be into drag bikes)… which are synthetic (silicone). happened to be just right for this project. biodiesel is a pretty strong solvent… and eats natural rubber up. gotta get rid of the rubber parts before going bio.

the temporary biodiesel tank. wee little 5 gallon, but it’s all the hardware store had on hand. made a quick pickup/return setup on the tank (red thing in the cap).

where this all sits, in the basement:

while it may appear to be less than safe, you may note that there is a row of cardboard boxes between the desk and the furnace. now, anyone who’s built forts as a kid knows that cardboard boxes are near indestructible to the forces of raiding armies, arrows, dirt clods, what have you… so they are obviously more than adequate protection in this instance.

~
on to the yard cleanup, and the broken backs…

we filled this:

the second one we’ve had since getting the house. 20 cubic yard dumpster. i feel kinda bad about sending so much stuff to the landfill (if that’s where it goes), but there’s nothing else we can do with it. nothing is even remotely salvageable, can’t give any of it away, can’t recycle any of it. a great deal of it is lumber that’s in such poor condition it’s unsuitable for even firewood, and unable to be used for compost for many reasons.

there used to be a pile of old lumber here that took up a great deal of otherwise usable yard. after removing it, we’ve discovered that the yard is still greatly unusable due to it being a mud bog… but at least there’s no debris sitting around.

there was a pile here so large, you couldn’t see the carriage house from the street. getting to it, while carrying anything of significant weight was a feat of athleticism. not puncturing your flesh on rusty nails or breaking an ankle was pure luck.

the carriage house used to have a barn style door, and concrete runners down to the street. sometime in the 40s or maybe 50s, there was a driveway poured up to the house… concrete runners still going back to the carriage house. whenever the underground oil tank had been put it, it looks like part of the runner on the right had been broken up and moved. then, sometime after, some jackass put wood chips over the entire area. it may have looked “nice” for a month or two… but then i’m sure they started turning gray and dirty. that “dirty” look was likely soil from the yard… because the wood kept the drainage from working well, letting the water stand long enough to loosen the ground soil.
now, there’s about 3″ of hard packed dirt, compacted and reasonably decomposed wood chips, stones, roots, grass and all sorts of mess over the entire area… all preventing proper drainage from the back yard, letting water stand against the house’s foundation. whoever the genius was that put the wood chips down in the first place didn’t seem to know or care about what 30 or 40 years of poor drainage would do.

removing that layer is a pain in the ass. that’s been the most back breaking part of this cleanup session. but it’s great now that it’s done, right? i don’t know. it’s not done, yet. tomorrow if i don’t feel like complete crap (think i’m coming down with something), i’ll start shoveling and scraping it away in the morning, until they come to pick up the dumpster.

~

we did a little bit of work to the house, as well…

ok, it wasn’t much… but it’s a good improvement. we (ok, mostly rebecca with her kickboxing demolition techniques) removed the ugly lattice that covered the now open area between the pillar and the wall, on each side of the house. we also took some odd plywood away that was covering the railing and it’s 4×4 ballisters.

~

last bit, for the day…

got this great old long clamp for $10, the other day. up to 5′ clamping distance, wrought iron ends, hardwood body. best estimate on it’s age is sometime around WWI. makes it rather appropriate for the age of this house…
plus it’s a fine clamp. used it a few times on a project, already.

there’s also a great old k.r. wilton drop forged c-clamp in use, in the photo… bought for $3, along with the long clamp… the style and shape make it likely to be sometime around WWII era… either the decade before, or within a couple years after. cleaned up nicely, and it’s back to being used, after sitting in a box for ages.
(remember, old tools are always the perfect gift… )

but is it on the deck? nope.
the framing is complete, the wood is treated…

lovely green, it is. luckily it’ll all be covered/hidden by the decking and facia. the green stuff is a copperex (sold under lotsa brand names), which is an oil-based copper oxide and stain that the wood soaks up real well. prevents water damage, dry rot, fungus, termites, etc… it’s quite similar to what’s used on pressure treated outdoor wood.

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THAT should be added to the title.
oh, she’s cute… and i love having her work with me… but it definitely takes a lot longer to get things done. it’s not necessarily her being in the way, which she’s actually very good at avoiding, the slowdown comes from things like me playing with her. it sure is cute when she lays in the trench i just dug, and says “HIIIIII” with a big smile…

i do think it’ll be advantageous to both her and myself to have her help me with the work: she’ll get to learn as i did… and i’ll get to teach her. my grandpa had me help with everything, starting when i could walk. mowing a lawn, felling a tree, rebuilding an engine, or repairing a TV. anything and everything in between. sure, part of it was me being free labor (once i was old enough to actually provide proper labor, rather than just make a mess)… but i use what my grandpa taught me, daily. he instilled the “i can do it myself” attitude that led to me learning to do everything myself. further than just doing it myself… doing it right, solving issues, and enjoying it. mechanical aptitude, technical thought and determination (along with stubbornness and being too cheap to have anyone else do the work) has become part of me. i’m proud to have the ability to not only do work with my own hands, but to be good at it. my grandpa imparted upon me a set of values that are priceless.
now it’s my turn. i can only hope that she’ll enjoy it even half as much as i do.

~

the trench:

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… the deck is closer to being finished. i figure right about the time that the fall/winter rains really start, the deck will be complete. the more i think about it, the dumber it seems to have started a deck project at the very tail end of summer. oh well… the mud room had to come down anyway. if not by my hand, by the forces of gravity and those wee little termites.

for the footings, i dug ~24″ deep, 18″ wide. local code calls for 18″ deep, no apparent specification on width. it was fun breaking through old concrete to pour proper footings…

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there!

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… but we’ve got some squeaky clean sofas!

while i was out of town for work, rebecca got an upholstery steam cleaner and went to town on the sofas. you wouldn’t imagine a black sofa looking “brighter”… but they do. it all smells great, too… that “sofa smell” is gone. guess sofa smell = grunge.

while i was gone the oil tank contractors dug a big hole and pumped out all the old oil.

eventually (i suppose) they’ll come back to fill the thing with gravel, and fill the hole back up. this is the first of (hopefully) very few contracted out jobs to the house…
675 gallon heating oil tank… no idea how long it’s been there, but i’d guess at least since the early 50s. now that it’s empty and decommissioned, our sole source of warmth is stealing the blankets. as i’m not particularly good at either stealing them from rebecca, or protecting what blanket i have: it’ll be chilly for a while

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