Be it ever so humble...

Friday brings problems...

2011-05-20T23:42:00.004-04:00

As Marcus-the-Mighty and Amos were finishing up the Sheetrock Friday, guess who shows up? The Building Inspector for the city. No, not the one I've been working with for the last four years, or the Really Old Guy that everyone was waiting on to retire (he did). But a NEW Building Inspector.

I was at work. But New Inspector says everything looks okay, except my Building Permit has expired (last year) and that my bedroom windows don't meet code.

Excuse me?

Yes.

My bedroom windows don't meet fire code. In case of an emergency, every bedroom has to have two exits, the doorway and an operable window. I could hear him adjusting his pocket protector as he quoted me from whatever manual he uses.

So. It doesn't matter that Really Old Guy and Other Inspector signed off on EVERYTHING before I put insulation up. The plumbing, electrical, air conditioning, load bearing walls that were moved, foundation, the flooring system...

My bedroom windows don't meet code. So I have to take them out. And replace the newly refinished, freshly painted, re-glazed, original, but inoperable, complete with new storm windows, bedroom windows, with THREE new ones. That work. And open. That a person escaping a fire or really bad gas can escape out of, or a burglar can step into.

Sigh.

A headboard would've looked so nice tucked right under there.
Notice the completely finished Sheetrock above, below, around the window.

This one, too. Will be gone.

The prettiest thing about my house, to me, is the light, and the windows.

This is a battle I will not win. I made sure, though 101 years old, that this house was NOT in the historic district, so I wouldn't have to fight with THOSE guys.

Instead, I have to fight with New Inspector. Or surrender.

I already renewed my Building Permit. Which is ridiculous. Do you know how many permits I've had these past 4 years?

Two steps forward, one step back.

Ceilings! 5/19

2011-05-20T23:27:00.003-04:00

I took these pictures right when Marcus-the-Mighty and Amos were finishing up for the day. The stippling is still wet, so you can see some damp spots.

I originally wanted a flat ceiling, with no texture, but it would make every dip and sway in the ceiling show. They are all minor dips, I know where they are, but the average person wouldn't. It's just an old house.

Marcus-the-Mighty suggested a knock-down ceiling texture, that is a good mix between stippling and a flat finish, but you have to paint a knock-down ceiling. And I've painted ceilings before, it's not a fun thing, much less to do a whole house.

So we compromised and he did a light stippling, which I am VERY happy with. It's just enough texture to make it interesting, to hide the imperfections, and give it a finished look.

It's very sparse and light, airy.
It actually raises the ceiling about its 10' height.

The Foyer

I decided to Sheetrock over the original wooden porch ceiling that was closed in, to give this a fully renovated and modern look. My aim was to not be able to tell that this Foyer was actually once part of the porch. Great strides were taken outside, and on the inside I wanted it to 'match'.

Look at the hole for the ceiling air conditioning vent. This was cut AFTER the Sheetrock went up.
Not a single hole cut by Marcus-the-Mighty required taping or mudding.

He's that good.

More Tape and Mud 5/17

2011-05-20T22:45:00.003-04:00

Laundry Room

Main Bathroom

Great Room

Foyer

There's actually a day here missing, but I closed that night at work and the pictures didn't turn out well. I still wanted to document the progress.

Let the Mudding (and Taping) Begin!

2011-05-20T22:37:00.003-04:00

Taping and Mudding (and Sanding) began on Monday, 5/16
This is the Kitchen

Master Bedroom

Master Bathroom

Great Room

Small Bedroom

5/13 Sheetrock Day 3

2011-05-20T22:28:00.004-04:00

Front Room from Foyer

Dining Area in Great Room

Opposite wall in Great Room
From left, Kitchen, Bathroom, Laundry, Small Bedroom doorways

Looking back towards Foyer.
I LOVE this door!

I have limited Internet access, and am posting two weeks later, so these are mainly pictures of the Sheetrock in progress.

5/13 Sheetrock Day 3

2011-05-20T22:14:00.004-04:00

Master Bedroom

Master Bath

Kitchen/Back Door

5/12 Sheetrock Day 2

2011-05-20T21:23:00.005-04:00

Day 2 of Sheetrock and walking in the front door I was greeted in the Foyer with this:

A fully Sheetrocked Foyer!

And. Uhm. This is my roommate, Jon. He wanted to be on my blog.
Obviously, he is not a Sheetrock-hanging professional.
But he can help you adopt a dog.

The small bedroom and closet.

The laundry room.

In the main bathroom, Marcus-the-Mighty built out the wall around the left hand side of the tub unit because the wall here wasn't perfectly square. The tub sits in what used to be a hall in the other apartment, and there were doorways on either side. I'm extremely happy with the way his problem solving turned out.

All that on Day 2.

5/11 Sheetrock Day 1

2011-05-20T19:17:00.006-04:00

Marcus-the-Mighty and his trusty sidekick, Amos, were already hanging drywall when Daddy and I got there to work on Day 1 of Sheetrock. They really are super heroes to me. You'll see why...

While we made sure the kitchen plumbing was vented correctly (something the plumber didn't show up to clarify, after three days of phone calls), attached some nail boards to the top of the newly rebuilt walls across the back of the house (nothing to nail that edge of the Sheetrock to), and replaced a header that somehow was removed from above an interior doorway, they did this:

Looking into the Great Room from the Foyer

and more impressively, this:

Looking from the Dining Area back towards the previous picture.

Yeah, I know! A BIG difference!

How two men could hang almost all the ceilings in the entire house and start on the walls in less than an 8 hour workday... You see why they are super heroes? This is why you hire a professional for things like this, guys.

Stay tuned for Day 2.

Sheetrock Delivery 5/10

2011-05-20T18:49:00.004-04:00

Ever wonder what 110 pieces of Sheetrock look like?

If you spread it out in different rooms, it doesn't look like that much.

Each piece is 12' long and 4' wide.

It really is quite a lot.

Hey, You! Over Here...

2011-05-20T18:20:00.005-04:00

May 2011

Sit down for a bit. Let's talk and catch up.

If anyone is keeping track, my house is now 101 and I'm 30. It's been about a year since I last posted. When I left off, the rough-ins for electricity (a new panel box), the brand new air conditioning system (ducts and all), and the plumbing had been completely done, ready and waiting. Let me emphasize the waiting.

The last project I did down at my house was installing the vapor barrier and insulation. I also introduced the Side Project, the saving of an old butler's pantry cabinet. With work being absolutely crazy last summer and the inconvenience of a house fire at my parents' last August (everyone is okay!), progress on my house stopped. I went by and trimmed the yard and kept it trash free. I stored things there, and visited it on lunch breaks. I rode by twice a day. But nothing happened.

Until about two weeks ago, when the Marcus-the-Mighty Sheetrock Guy showed up. Yes!, I said SHEETROCK! I've waited four years for sheetrock. Doesn't that sound like a huge step? Like, a 'Wow, you're close to moving in!', step? *snicker*. Yeah. Sure.

But it is progress and there are many more pictures and updates to follow. It's too exciting!

Stop by next time and we'll go inside!

Dining Room Cabinet Days 5 & 6

2010-06-22T01:17:00.002-04:00

Another 11.5 hours of work got me from here:

(front of one set of lower cabinet doors)

to here:

And the back side:

And the other set, front:

and back:

I also began working on the opposite side of the base cabinet, the one with damage.

There's a chunk missing of the lower right hand side. When I used the wire brush on it, it began chipping away due to past water rot or termite damage. I found no active bugs, though. Or dead ones.

Sheetrock Guy is actually a master carpenter. He came over this afternoon to give me some prices on materials for the job and suggest a flooring material. I showed him the my project and he said he could rip down a piece of heart pine, which my Dad has, and create a piece of moulding to cover or camouflage the damage, rather than replacing the whole piece or trying to piece it in.

Once I'd seen the extent of the damage I was let down a bit, but now I have renewed encouragement to continue on because of his solution. It may not cover it completely, but I'm okay with that. It just goes to show the piece has history.

I was actively working on this side when I realized it was after midnight. I decided it was time to clean up, shower, and blog. Especially since I have to work tomorrow.

Dining Room Cabinet: Day 4

2010-06-18T00:24:00.003-04:00

After work today, another 5.5 hours got me here:

I started scraping the front while I was giving the stripper time to work.

And, yes, it is on its end.

It works much better than holding tools sideways.

Let gravity work with you. That's what I learned today.

I also began working on the opposite end, too.

The bottom pieces here (and a back piece) may need to be replaced due to water rot.

Luckily, we happen to have some old heart pine boards to use.

More work was done on the hutch, the right side.

I'm undecided about the interior. It was suggested that I strip the shelves but paint the bead board backing. The bead board is going to be almost impossible to strip. We'll see.

The wood is turning out beautifully.

And it has so much character.

What seemed impossible a few days ago has now become an addiction. I could work on this all day long. I may have found a new hobby. I've begun eying other pieces in the shed...

Dining Room Cabinet: Day 3

2010-06-16T00:44:00.003-04:00

When the sun went down yesterday, I had to quit work because there was no light. Today I got a work light from my house, but had to quit when it started raining.

But another four hours work got me here:

And here:

The biggest improvement, though, is here:

And here:

It still needs some more work, but what an inspiration to keep going!

Dining Room Cabinet: 2 Days Later

2010-06-14T23:44:00.003-04:00

I started work on the cabinet Sunday afternoon. I worked on it today after work some more, too. All in all, about 7 and 1/2 hours so far.

Here's the base.

And the two pieces, separated.

I started taking the doors and hardware off.

Here's one side, done completely with a belt sander and steel brush.

And the top of the base, done with the sander, brush, and a 'green' paint stripper I picked up today.

I was skeptical about the 'green' product, but it really does work.

You can see the board in the back that I have barely worked on.

This is from only two applications of the stripper.

The right side seems darker. I don't know if it's from a past water issue or what.

It doesn't bother me. It adds character.

On this side, I wanted to try out the paint stripper by itself.

Followed by a paint scraper. Looks pretty good for only one coat of stripper.

I'm surprised at how much I enjoy this project. It's like unwrapping a present. It doesn't seem like hard work, even though it is. My back and legs and arms are sore from scraping. And the days have been really, really, hot- 96 degrees and above. But still I find myself out there working happily in the shed.

Introducing: A Side Project

2010-06-13T22:51:00.006-04:00

There's a man I know who hardly ever throws anything away. I wouldn't say he's a hoarder, but I do know that he keeps what he sees value in. His wife, however, does not like his collection. In fact, he only has one shed left his back yard to keep his collections in. Three others were torn down.

This man is my father. Throughout any house project, he salvages what otherwise would have been thrown away. While watching television yesterday, I remembered an amazing piece that has been sitting out in the shed for a while.

About 21 years, to be exact.

The shed is not exactly organized, but he and I know if you poke around in there long enough, you can find what you were looking for. Or at least, something similar you can use.

After moving two lawnmowers and some other yard equipment, I began coaxing the piece out.

There it is. The one in the back corner.

I still have to move some more stuff to see what kind of shape it's in.

I have no idea where the drawers are. But I see bead board panels on in the back.

We still need to dig it out some more.

Here's a proper look at the bottom piece. It doesn't seem to be in too bad of shape.

Once the smaller cabinet is moved... You can see it.

This piece was originally built into the butler's pantry in my parents' house.

It's about 120 years old, as old as the house. They had to take it out to make room for a pantry and breakfast room.

The piece actually had to be sawed in half to get it out of the house. So the top part is a hutch now, sitting on the base.

It still has most of the original hardware, but some of it needs to be replaced...

Some of the glass is broken or missing...

And drawers will need to be built...

But it has tremendous potential. I see it as a dining room china cabinet.

Sometimes it's great to hold onto things.

Insulation: Last Day

2010-06-12T15:35:00.004-04:00

My brother-in-law came over early this morning, around 7:30. We attempted to beat the heat today working down at the house. It didn't work. Two Lowe's runs and 10 more rolls of insulation later, we were done. I think that makes 29 rolls total used, in addition to what was donated by New Guy Contractor.

Inside little bedroom, looking towards the closet and utility room. We insulated this little cube in the middle of the house for noise reduction, mainly, in an effort to tame laundry room and bathroom noise.

In the little bedroom's closet, the wall behind where the washing machine and dryer will be. We didn't insulate behind the bathtub so that the plumbing would be accessible.

Back in the Great Room, the entrance to the utility room.

The square at the bottom right is the air return.

Inside the utility room.

Inside the master bedroom, looking towards the main bathroom. Hopefully this wall will reduce the noise of the someone showering or the toilet flushing in the main bathroom.

Inside the master bath, looking into the closet. I took out the sliding doors for the closet to work.

The master bath, looking towards the corner where the hot water heater will be tucked away.

The vanity/toilet wall in master bathroom, and above the bathtub.

The pictures seem a little blurry because of all the dust. After work was done for the day, we cleaned up behind ourselves, swept, and shop-vac'd.

We were done around 3pm, very tired and sweaty but glad to have gotten all the insulation accomplished. My best friend came over and helped us in our last leg of insulation, made a food run, and manned the shop-vac while I swept.

Much thanks to my brother-in-law and best friend for all their help today! Especially once it was clean, it really is looking like a home.

Oh, and my brother-in-law went on a wasp-killing spree and used almost a whole bottle of spray. They weren't paying rent, dived bombed us a few times, and weren't very welcoming. They were evicted.

Sheetrock work will start either this week or next...

Insulation Progress

2010-06-11T22:12:00.005-04:00

I'd made arrangements today so that after work my brothers and their friend would come help me hang insulation. My brother-in-law also volunteered for the task, so a little after 5pm, and a short trip to Lowe's for more staples, we were on our way.

The little bedroom's exterior wall. Done.

The little bedroom's closet exterior wall. Done.

The main bathroom's exterior wall. Done.

The master bedroom's exterior wall. Done.

The back exterior wall of the kitchen. Done.

The side exterior wall in the kitchen. Done.

The Great Room's long exterior wall. Done.

My father showed up after work, too, to help finish the kitchen. He gave us a much needed second wind.

The front exterior wall of the great room. Done.

All I have left, exterior wall wise, for insulation, is the master bedroom's bathroom and closet. Three of its four walls are exterior.

I also want to surround the utility room and the main bathroom in insulation, more for noise reduction than anything else. And I might do the same between the master bedroom and its bathroom. That would only leave me three interior walls left not insulated. They might get insulated, too. Why not?

Tomorrow my brother-in-law and brothers are going to help me finish with the exterior walls. We may get started on the interior walls, as well. My best friend may come over and my good friend from work wants to see my progress, too.

All our progress makes me incredibly happy and proud. The hard work, and friends and family willing to help out, make me feel blessed and loved, too.

This house is slowly but surely becoming a home.

Vapor Barrier Finally Done

2010-06-09T21:36:00.003-04:00

I got off work a little early today and headed down to the house to spend a few hours trying to get something, anything, done. And I did. Three hours later I had completely finished putting up the vapor barrier on all the exterior walls.

The little bedroom and its closet.

Same closet seen again through the utility room.

The main bathroom, above the bathtub. This is right next to the little bedroom's closet. The entire closet and where the bathtub sit used to be the closed-in side-porch of the house, but served as apartment 1's hallway when I bought the house.

Master bedroom, above the windows. This looks easy to do, and it's not hard, but on top of a ladder fighting with a utility knife, a hammer stapler, and a sheet of uncooperative vapor barrier is quite intense.

The closet off the master bedroom's bathroom. This closet just about did me in. The ladder wouldn't fit into the space all the way so I was all kinds of cantilevered in there. But I won!

Above the master bedroom's tub. This space was easier, I guess because there was a corner and that piece of a wall?

And the top of the rest of the bathroom, along where the toilet and vanity will be.

Between the last work day and today, we used 5000 staples. Of course some of them escaped or didn't take or went flying across the room. But that's another story. I will tell you this, though, after about 5000 staples, you can really get a good idea of how to use a hammer stapler.

Back out front, as I was leaving, a friend greeted me:

The daylilies seem to be doing much better now that they don't have to compete against the weeds anymore.

They're still a little puny, but they are trying to bloom! And with a little love, and a nice transplant, I think they'll do well in my yard.

But let's get the inside finished first.

I got the estimate from the Sheetrock Guys. It's a go! They'll start as soon as I get the rest of the insulation up, which I plan to get done this weekend.

Insulation Day 1

2010-06-06T23:01:00.006-04:00

That's right, folks! We're at the insulation stage. Who knew that it would take three years to get here, but there's a season and time for everything, right?

I was joined back down at the house today by Mama and my two teenage brothers. It was hot and extremely humid and we were very thankful to have this wonderful invention plugged in to the master bedroom:

It's a secondhand refrigerator from one of my Father's rental properties. He needed to move it and I needed a frige, and so the other night he and I brought it to town. It is fairly filthy, and the refrigerator part isn't particularly cold, but the freezer part is excellent for storing bottles of water in. And so refreshing! Hopefully I'll be able to clean it up and maybe tinker with it to get the refrigerator part working better. But hey, it's free and I'm not one to turn down appliances.

But back to the work...

The boys mainly measured and cut insulation while I put up the house wrap and Mama put up the insulation. The boys sped things up remarkably and we couldn't have gotten it all done without them. And lucky for me, Mama's put up insulation before so she knew what she was doing.

Isn't that one of the most beautiful things you've ever seen? You're looking at the foyer wall, the room that used to be part of the porch. I took a picture of the front door wall, too, which is done, but so much light comes in, it's impossible to get a picture that's not dark.

I started off in the kitchen, and worked my way through the great room, finishing off the housewrap in about a one foot strip around the top of the rooms. My ceilings are 10'1'' and the wrap comes in rolls of 9'. This picture is the exterior wall of the little bedroom.

This shot is looking towards the front of the house. This wall is almost done, too. Mama and the boys hung the long strips first, then did the angled ones, and are saving all the smaller spots, like above and below the windows, for the scrap left over at the end instead of cutting into new rolls.

This is a table and chair set I inherited from my sister (thanks!), which came in handy today, too. The wall behind it is done. With two people on ladders, one of the boys spent a lot of time refilling my and Mama's stapler. When we ran out, we'd yell that we were "out of bullets" and they would come refresh our hammer staplers.

This is the same wall, but now from the kitchen view. I finally got the area around the kitchen window done; it's where I left off last time when my stapler got jammed.

And here we have the back wall of the kitchen, looking out onto the back porch, but don't look at Mama (taking a much deserved break), she didn't want her picture taken. From here it almost looks like I have a green lawn, but really, it's just trimmed weeds. The lawn will come later, though. For now, just squint your eyes a bit.

We got a late start, but we got a LOT done, half the house is insulated! It's amazing how much more of a house insulation going up makes it look. Maybe because I'm one step closer to having walls, or maybe it's the way the brown craft paper reads as a solid surface... I'm not sure, but it's a very great feeling to know that from where I started, I took it all down, had it put all back, and now am being able to close it all up again.

Oh yeah, I passed all my inspections, too. Electrical, Plumbing, HVAC. It's all ready to go and waiting on me to finish the rest of the wrap and insulation.

And maybe, just maybe, we'll hear back from the Sheetrock Guys who came in to look at the house last week!

Thanks again to Mama and the boys today. I couldn't have done so much without you.

Yard Day 2010 After Pics

2010-06-06T22:16:00.005-04:00

A larger crew went down to the house today and we worked inside, but more on that later. After we called it quits for the day, I remembered to run outside and get those after pics from Yard Day 2010, last Wednesday.

Looking from the back yard towards the front. I just liked the way this one turned out, with the gate. It seems to beckon you to walk this way.

I didn't get a picture of the back yard before, but if you look towards the back, you can see my neighbor's yard. My yard matched his overgrown-ness. You can see a clear line now in the back and visually can determine where my yard ends.

This is from standing on my lot line, looking towards the back of the house. We have big plans for this yard, privacy fences, patios, a tilled and centipede grass planted lawn... Pay no attention to Mama. She didn't want to be in the pictures but wouldn't move.

One of two random concrete piles. It's not that bad, but will take a sledgehammer to break up.

These were left over from the work on pouring the back porch.

We found so much glass! But I have little to no idea where it all came from. I salvaged the windows in the house. We're very carefully collecting all the glass we find. Bare feet and glass in a back yard don't mix well.

This is the other concrete pile. It's not that thick. This one is right off the back porch, where they had the mixer.

Back around to the front:

The area to the left of the front steps where all the wood scraps were.

The front yard from the porch. You see the new home for the scraps.

The side yard looking towards the back. I still have a little left to clean up from behind the air conditioner. There's a toppled pile of bricks back there that need to be re-stacked for a future incarnation as a back patio. For now it's an excellent place to twist your ankle.

A more intimate view of the wood pile. I'm still trying to figure out a way to get rid of this without renting a dumpster, like I have before. The city won't pick it up. Notice the Wal-Mart buggy: remember it from the earlier post? ALL that trash came out of my back yard, including at least 6 or 7 dirty baby diapers. The neighbors on that side just threw their trash in my backyard as they had been doing for years...

Across the street view. The yard looks one hundred percent better. Still progress to be made, but at least it has been tamed.

There are already plans in the making to repair the brick steps. And ground cover has been picked out for planting on the sloping bed out in front of the house. And I think I'll move my mailbox to the front porch, where it was when I bought the house. I still haven't gotten any mail here, but I haven't changed my address, either.

Much improved. Stay tuned to see what happened inside today!

Yard Day 2010

2010-06-06T21:08:00.004-04:00

After five months of almost no work going on down at the house, things are back on track. New Guy contractor that I was using did great work, but his prices kept going up. And his last bids were ridiculous. In addition to that, I had to take some time aside myself to work out funding for the house project. A lot of my readers kept asking me why I wasn't updating and were encouraging me to get back to work, and believe me I wanted to. Thanks for cheering my progress on!

Wednesday, June 2, I had a day off and Mama and I decided that it was time to tackle the yard again. It hadn't gotten horrible, but it definitely needed some attention. Here are the before pictures:

Weedy with debris!

Scraps from the work done last winter.

Overgrown... but is that... a buggy? From Wal-Mart?

Yes. Down South we call grocery carts "buggies". And I suspect my neighbors had something to do with this one being abandoned in front of my house. If you look closer, you'll see a toilet seat too. But I wouldn't look closer if I were you.

The side. sigh. The neighbor on this side is great. She looks out for me. And she always keeps her lawn cut. But she does nothing with this and it's almost completely all on her side of the retaining wall. But I can tame it, and she doesn't care what I do here, so that's a bonus. And at least it's not bamboo!

The yard got so bad even the weeds died... out of spite.

But I did find three or four daylilies, they are the ones to the right of the jungle mess, with the yellow and green leaves. They even want to bloom but the yard was choking them. This was a great surprise and I felt like someone might be smiling down on me and encouraging me.

And so those are the "befores". My camera battery rebelled from non use and decided it was too tired for after pictures, so those will have to come next, in another post.

The good news is that about 5? 6? hours later the yard no longer looked like this. Two very sweaty and tired people later, it was trimmed, mowed, weed-wacked, and tamed. Thank you Mama for all of your help!

Vapor Barrier and Insulation Days 2, 3, & 4

2010-01-19T22:10:00.005-05:00

I had a three day weekend off this past Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. The weather warmed up and I was able to get a good bit accomplished with the vapor barrier.

But first, remember my dormer windows?

This is what they look like inside:

I had to climb up for some reason and had never seen them, so I snapped a picture, to share and remember. Once the ceiling goes up, I may never see this side of them again.

On to the work:

Friday, I got the front wall and the Living Area done.

Saturday I got the Dining Area completed.

And Sunday I worked in the kitchen, trying to finish it up until my stapler jammed.

I banged it around for about 15 minutes, which usually releases it, but was unsuccessful. So I called it quits. Later my Dad worked on it until it popped open again.

Friday New Guy Contractor came over to check out some studs for me- they had old surface termite damage and I wanted to make sure they were okay before I covered them with the vapor barrier- and he brought me this:

Free random insulation that was taking up room in his workshop!

---

I spent a lot- A LOT- of time this weekend taking nails out of studs, probably almost as much time as I spent putting up the vapor barrier. But it had to be done for my purposes, and for the dry wall to come. And I was working by myself this weekend which was both kind of cool and also very lonely.

I only lack a small section in the kitchen, one wall in the small bedroom, and one wall in the small bedroom's closet. And the top foot around the top of the exterior walls all around the house, since my vapor barrier was 9 feet tall and my ceilings are 10 feet.

I don't have much left. Then time for the insulation!

Vapor Barrier and Insulation Day 1

2010-01-05T19:17:00.003-05:00

Sunday, January 3, 2010

We took a little break from the house work since the week before Christmas. I was out of state about a week, Then it was Christmas, then it was New Year's. All in addition to having a heavier work load at my job.

And also I was waiting on bids from New Guy. I got those in but they were too high, so we've been paring down what's left to be done to the house before move in into What Has to Be Done and What I Can Do. I'm all about saving some money where I can, and this is usually in regards to labor instead of materials.

And let's face it, I'm on a budget. I have more time than money and my goal here is to finish the house to move-in condition for HALF of what it would cost to have New Guy and crew finish it out. It will take me a little longer, but it's saving me lots of money.

So Sunday after New Year's my dad and I set off on a mission to Lowe's. And Wal-Mart (twice)... and the house project he's been working on currently to borrow a few tools. We had ready:

A trusty 9' ladder I affectionately call the 'death trap',

2 9'x 150' rolls of Lowe's branded vapor barrier,

10 rolls of R13 rated insulation,

a staple gun, staples, duct tape, gloves, 2 utility knives, a newly purchased radio/boom box, (since the other one I had on the job site walked off last year, sometime),

a tape measure, a hammer, and a portable heater.

Then we set off to work. We decided to start on the new back wall in the kitchen with the vapor barrier. In new construction, it goes on the outside of the house, between the plywood sheeting and the siding. Since I have no sheeting, I decided to put it up on the inside, facing out.

My dad, ready, and the beginning corner in question behind him. It was cold, really cold, really, really cold, in the house. I think the temperature was around 28 degrees, but I don't know what the wind chill was.

It took us a while to get our groove going, and the stapler we had was giving us fits, until it finally gave up and would staple no more, hence the second trip to Wal-Mart. It seems like an easy task, to wrap the barrier around the studs, and it was, but it's time consuming to get it right.

By the time we took a break to eat we had the back wall in the kitchen done,

and into the bathroom, up to the bathtub, where New Guy and Crew had already put it up before installing the bathtub.

I was told I didn't need to do this step by New Guy, if I wasn't going to blow in insulation. But I figured for a very minimal cost I could vapor wrap all the outside walls of my house, and provide another barrier, so why not? We could definitely tell, even only getting this far, how much it blocked the wind from coming in the house.

After we ate, we came back and tackled behind the hot water heater and in the closet off the Big Bedroom,

And also across the wall in the Big Bedroom. At this point it was too dark to really do much more and we were cold and hungry again.

We ran errands before starting, but we probably weren't actually working but maybe 5 hours. And we probably got a good 3rd of the house done. We will come back and overlap the barrier by a foot or so up top to get the little bit the roll wouldn't cover, but I figured I could do that my myself.

And then goes in insulation. We bought some just to see how far it got us along in the project.

My Dad said that you know you've done it right when it looks easy, when it looks like there's nothing to it.

Hopefully I'll be able to get back down there for more progress soon.

Air, Water, Power Days 5 & 6

2009-12-15T18:34:00.007-05:00

This is a catch-up on the last two days.

I stopped by the house late last night just to check on things because we'd been getting a lot of rain lately, but everything was fine. I didn't have my camera with me so I went back today after work.

New Guy and crew had been to the house and cleaned up. The electrical and HVAC is completely done, as is most of the plumbing. The plumber still has the kitchen to do as well as hooking up the hot water heater. Everything else is roughed in and waiting on insulation and drywall before finishing up.

It was nice walking into a clean work site again after a week of chaos.

These are two of the colors I used outside. The antique white is the trim color and the sea pine is the color of the window sashes. Both colors I picked from Benjamin Moore's line, but wound up going with Duration paint from Sherwin Williams. I just thought this was a neat picture.

I think I'll be able to use these doors. They are the ones that were in the house and are all solid wood. I hope to have at least three matching doors for the Great Room (the little bedroom door, the utility room door, and the main bathroom door). I don't mind if the little bedroom's closet door doesn't match the bedroom door, or if the big bedroom's door doesn't match the doors in the great room, since it'll be in the kitchen. I'll also need a door to the big bedroom's bathroom.

Here is how the utility room is plumbed. Due to the shape of the room with the air handler installed, it made more sense to have the washer on the right and the dryer on the left. Which is a little odd, but manageable.

They took out the old cast iron vent but reused the hole in the roof. They reused the old vent pipe holes where they could. One or two will have to be patched up, but I was glad of this since I put a new roof on the house 2 years ago. No new holes, no new leaks.

In the main bathroom they got the foundation for the hardware set up on the bathtub fixtures.

I spent a little more here but it will have a big impact and hopefully I will only buy these once. You can see the base plate that will be behind the handle. The faucet nor handle will go in until later.

And about a foot above the bathtub is where my shower head will be. I'm a tall guy and New Guy is a tall guy, so he sympathized with me on taking showers where you constantly have to duck down and bend to wash your hair or face. It may seem minor, but I won't ever have to duck down in either of my showers.

They patched up the holes in the sub floor where they had to run plumbing for the big bedroom's bathroom. I'm glad I decided to go ahead and install this bathroom. Although it's twice as many fixtures to buy, it adds a lot of convenience and livability to the home, not to mention value. And it was much cheaper to do it now than down the road.

They got the tub in here. And the fixtures are plumbed out here, too. I used the same faucets as the other bathroom. I think continuity is important in small spaces. Plus it makes a bigger impact when you break from the continuity, when you choose to do so.

This is the area beside the bathtub. The hot water heater box is actually sitting in the closet. It will be installed in the space between the closet and the bathtub, then will be drywalled over. There will be access to the hot water heater through the inside of the closet.

And New Guy got the framing up for the pocket doors in the big bedroom's closet. It's not a terribly deep closet, but it is about 9 feet wide. The pocket doors here take up no swinging floor space, they just slide into the walls and will give me a 5 foot wide access to the contents of the closet, then can be shut to hide the mess we all know closets to be.

This is the top portion of the wall above the new pocket doors to the closet.

Now I'm waiting to move ahead with the insulation and drywall. I had an initial estimate in, but sent it back for a lower figure. And I have the new figure in, but I'm keeping my options open at the moment. It's the last big project in the house.

After that it'll just be floors, the front porch, and finishing touches.

I'll be out of town until next Monday. It'll be interesting to see what I come home to.

Air, Water, Power Day 4

2009-12-11T22:29:00.004-05:00

Tonight after work the house looked very clean compared to the rest of the week. The electrician is done with his rough in, as is the HVAC guy. The plumbing is underway.

This is the main bathroom. You can tell where the sink will be and toilet. The tub is already in place. They checked out the existing lines to the city and found they were in good shape, which is excellent news.

Over head you see lots of shiny duct work and yellow wires leading to blue boxes. I also found out in addition to the doorbell, I've also been wired for smoke detectors, which are part of Code requirements now. I liked that.

In the big bedroom's bathroom, the tub didn't go in yet, but this wall did which will be between it and the hot water heater. The closet will be on the far right, against the wall where the window was.

And more plumbing in here, as well. Again, you can tell where the sink and toilet will be. It's really shaping up. The utility room is also plumbed for a washer. No plumbing in the kitchen yet. I guess he'll work on that next week.

And here is the fan that used to be in what is now the Dining Area. I keep trying to give it away or sell it but no one wants it. I wonder why...

I keep joking that it will be the only thing I keep that was in the house when I bought it. It looks about as worn out as the old panel box.

Soon all the rough ins will be completed, leaving everything to be finished after the entire inside of the house is vapor wrapped, insulated, and dry walled. Also left to do are running the wires for cable and telephone.

Things keep happening faster and faster. I even got a potential move in date, but I'm not sharing it just yet, we'll wait and see how things go.

It's kind of crazy that after waiting 2 and 1/2 years to get to this point that it only took a week to get the new plumbing, HVAC, and new wiring.

It's been a long week.

Air, Water, Power Day 3

2009-12-11T21:49:00.005-05:00

Last night when I got off of work the first thing I noticed was very cool, indeed.

And back around front I found this curious little work table set up.

The HVAC guy had put in the vent in the Foyer ceiling.

Just a shot with flash, really, to detect progress and debris. A few days ago this corner was full of duct work, and now it's mainly empty.

The troublesome vent placement was moved. You see the blue box on the 2x4 board to your right. It's the Dining Room light box. It will now be installed AFTER the drywall, to insure proper placement over the table. This will be what you see when you walk in, so it really needs to be in the right spot. We'll bring a table in and everything.

And this bathtub is in place in the main bathroom. It actually makes the room look bigger, though you can't tell that from this picture. They put up a vapor barrier and insulated behind the tub before putting it in.

This is a view from the big bedroom, looking towards the front of the house. They had to slide the tub unit in this way, along the old hallway, then put the framing back up behind it. The old side door is behind this bathtub.

And here is the big bedroom's bathroom in progress. The area vapor wrapped is going to be behind the tub. We're vapor wrapping the inside because in new construction, you wrap the exterior of the house before siding goes up. But when this house was built 99 years ago, there was no vapor barrier, the siding just went up on the studs.

And they had to cut out the new sub floor in the bathroom in order to plumb it, which is fine.

The electrician finished up his rough in today. The HVAC guys should be finished with their work tomorrow, and the plumbing will be majorly underway.

Air, Water, Power Day 2

2009-12-09T22:58:00.004-05:00

Finally, a daylight shot of my house.

I keep taking this picture of my house because it motivates me.

The electrician moved this light over so that it is centered over my front door.

I bought this today. It will be in the Big Bedroom's bathroom/closet, instead of under the porch. It's an electric hot water heater, is 40 gallons, a Whirlpool, and has a 9 year warranty.

I also bought two of these one piece shower/tub units. Simple, straight lines, easy to clean.

The ceiling in the Living Area of the great room now boasts 6 recessed lights and 3 air vents.

The air handler's T- section grew arms today.

And in the kitchen, behind the front door, gathered a lot more wires. The electrician is done with his rough-in and will be back after drywall is installed to finish.

The old panel box seems sad, though.

Or maybe just tired?

The only thing that needs to be fixed is where the electrician put the Dining Area light fixture. It's not centered on the double windows and it's too far in towards the walls. And now the air vent is in the way of where the light should be. But New Guy will have this fixed tomorrow.

A lot happened today: I left out about 15 pictures. The wiring on the front and back porches is done, I have been wired for a doorbell, which I am oddly, extremely excited about, and the plumbing has been started. I also have narrowed down some fixtures and finishes that I want in the house. There are a lot of decisions to be made, all at once, and while it can be a little much, it's also a lot of fun.

Air, Water, Power Day 1

2009-12-08T23:16:00.006-05:00

Today began the coordination of three sub-contractors, simultaneously. Some work had to be done by New Guy to prep for the Plumber, but the Electrician had to move the panel box first. And the HVAC guy was there, too.

But first, a better head-on view of the mostly clean house.

I noticed immediately that New Guy and his Crew had FINALLY taken down the remnants of the fake header partition where someone in the house's history had closed in half the porch to screen it in. I'd been wanting to take this down since I bought the house.

It just constricted the whole porch, cutting it in half. You can see its ghostly outline, now. It's SO MUCH BETTER gone.

Then I started seeing signs of the Electrician. These two wires pulled through will be outlets on the porch, one on either side of the door, mainly for Christmas decorations next year- think potted lit Christmas trees and lighted garland for the future railing.

Inside the Foyer, I saw the wires dropped for the new overhead ceiling fixture. I'm keeping this wooden ceiling, which used to be the porch ceiling, and am painting it. I have plans for it.

I could hardly see anything inside the house, as usual, since I have no lighting. But we're working on that. All the HVAC guy's supplies greeted me in the Great Room. It was a welcome sight.

A box overhead the Living Area for a fan. There will be can lights in here, too.

Off the Little Bedroom, New Guy had put up the wall in the old side porch turned hallway. Now it's divided into the Little Bedroom's closet, and the other side has become part of the main bathroom.

Back in the Great Room, we see the Air Handler installed above the box built by New Guy. The area below will be the return. This is all actually in the Utility Room. The air return will face out into the Great Room, in the center of the house.

A better, head-on view of the handler. It has a t-junction above it for the duct work to run off of. The air vents will be in the ceiling.

It does take up a good bit of space in the Utility Room, but that's what this room is for anyway. There's still plenty of room for the washer and dryer. And the hot water heater will actually be under the front porch. I didn't even entertain the idea of putting it overhead in the attic.

So the picture above shows the unit as it sits in the house. And below it is this:

A box of empty void. This is where the return vent will be, facing into the Dining Room (pointing out the right, not towards you).

I took this picture so I could read the EnergyGuide on the Handler. The arrow on the sliding scale is ALL the way over to 'most efficient', which pleased me very much so. The unit outside is 15 SEER rated.

This is in the Utility Room, as well. New Guy built this wall, separating the main bathroom from the Utility Room. All this used to be one bathroom for Apartment A with lots of dead space. I've gotten a closet, a utility room, and generous bathroom out of the space.

Said bathroom, the main bathroom. This room is only about 5 feet wide, but about 11 or 12 feet long. You can see where we removed the old side door of the house and closed in the old hallway/side porch. The tub unit will rest against this wall.

The electrician put up 6 can light receptacles in the kitchen. 3 are in a row here from the doorway off the Dining Room running to the back door. Same scenario on the other side, but they will be above the kitchen cabinets, there. There's also a fan box in the middle of the room. I wanted the option of putting a ceiling fan in the kitchen, though I will probably just go with a standard kitchen light fixture.

And the new electrical panel box, behind the back door in the kitchen!

In the Big Bedroom, this wall is finally solid. Two doorways have been framed up and filled in, one that used to be the old side porch and hall, and the other where a closet used to be. You might not be able to tell what I'm talking about, but I sure noticed the difference.

And New Guy also braced the header for the back porch which came in to what will be part of the Big Bedroom's bathroom. Before it was just attached to the wall and I wanted there to be a post under it. Again, something you prob wouldn't notice, but I did.

And another parting shot:

This was taken from my car. I know it's dark but I just sat there for a long time tonight, looking at the house. I think everyone is finally able to see what I saw when I bought it. So many of my friends looked at me crazy when I bought this house. And they constantly asked me why I hadn't moved in yet for the past 2 and 1/2 years. But I can definitely say now it's been worth the wait.

It's finally coming together and looking like a house, my house. I'm very proud of it. And I can also say it's actually turning out better than I hoped, which is awesome.

I picked out bathtub units, vanities, a hot water heater, and started looking at toilets, faucets, counter tops, appliances, and light fixtures today. It was a fun thing, but also a little overwhelming with so many choices and decisions to make. It was also a little bit different this time since I wasn't window shopping anymore, I was actually for real picking out what I want to go in the house, and envisioning the rooms completed.

More tomorrow!

Clean Up and Bid Day

2009-12-07T23:23:00.006-05:00

My trip has been postponed a week, so I was here to take pictures of the house tonight after work. My head-on shots turned out too dark, but the house looks most impressive with the debris gone from the front.

You can see a lot of the potential I saw in the house with the yard clean. You can tell that something is happening, that someone cares.

And you can see the front porch in its new form. Its been months since you could actually walk on it and it wasn't used as a place to store things.

It's quite a nice front porch. It's about 8 or 9 feet deep and 24 feet wide.

Still plenty big enough for a nice seating area. A good place to sit and watch the world go by.

Or to wait for someone to come by and visit. And the Foyer addition doesn't really take much away, as far as looks or space.

I asked New Guy to add another layer of trim to the door. He just beefed it up so that the moulding stood out more instead of being flush with the siding.

And they also added a little bit of quarter-round up at the ceiling to finish the transition.

I also had him add a 'drip edge' up top to match the rest of the windows. It's just a little detail that, once painted out, will really make the door seem like its always been there.

See it above the double windows on the porch? It's actually a drip edge for rain water, which won't get under the porch, but all the windows have it. And now the exterior doors do, too.

Here's the top of the original post we incorporated into the new wall of the door and foyer. Still a few mouldings to be replaced or refitted.

And look how they finished off the brick base of the column. They still have to piece in the green part somehow.

And they took down the funky board running vertically behind the post, in between it and the new siding of the closed in foyer. They trimmed it, making it follow the angle of the post.

From the back it still sticks out a bit, but it looks more finished than before.

And here are the remaining refugees from the demolition that were camping out on the front porch. I may be looking to sell some of this. I'm thinking about saving one of the mantels for decoration.

New Guy's crew cleaned up today while New Guy met several sub-contractors at the house, taking bids on the rewiring the electrical system, completely redoing the plumbing, and installing the new HVAC system.

And actually, along with another side project, all those sub-contractors will start tomorrow, simultaneously! They might even be done by Friday, depending on how everything goes.

So much to look forward to! And so much happening at once!

Storm Windows

2009-12-05T22:01:00.003-05:00

New Guy and Crew got the storm windows up Friday afternoon.

Even the little windows up top got the storm treatment.

They add so much to the house besides their insulation value.

The solid sheet of glass is quite stunning.

It highlights the window paint and design even more.

It's quite eye-catching.

The reflection is quite nice, too.

It seems to put the windows on display, under glass.

It makes them even more special.

I'm so glad I decided to keep the original windows.

---

I spent about 2 hours at the house Friday afternoon with New Guy, walking around and talking about what happens next. They'll put another coat of antique white on the trim and clean up yards, front, back and side. And will start on the next set of projects.

We have estimates in from the plumber and electrician and will be getting numbers from a few air conditioner guys, too.

I will be out of state part of next week, so the posts won't be as frequent as they have been. But big things are in store.

Window Paint

2009-12-03T22:59:00.005-05:00

The men have accomplished the build of the Foyer, and all that's left for this round of work are the windows, which entail scraping, replacing, fixing, and painting, then come the storm windows. As you can see from the work today, the storm windows aren't far off...

Look how the Antique White trim pops! And how your eyes are drawn to the SASHES. And, oh, what's that? Up there? Have those windows always been there?

Yes, but don't they sing a little, now? I'm undecided as to whether or not the vent in-between these windows should be painted the trim color or the body color (which isn't on the house, yet).

Down the side of the house I saw pretty painted windows.

Single window in Great Room.

Double window in Dining Area.

Newly placed Kitchen Window!

And as I walked around the house in the cold dark, I noticed New Guy and Crew had pulled the forms from the back porch.

I found it curious and pleasing that you can see some of the old brick along the side.

Just interesting, really. Back to the windows...

Yes, I know. They all look the same. But look how much you notice the design. These are the Big Bedroom's windows.

And the Little Bedroom's window.

And the double windows on the front porch.

I liked these colors, then saw them go up and was unsure. But then I kept going back and looking at them on the actual house. And I drove by and all I saw were the windows. And having a fondness for blue anyway, this Sea Pine color just grew on me and grew on me.

I can't wait to see what the Siding color does for the house.

While walking around outside taking pictures I heard a loud noise from inside the house and it scared me at first. I admit that I jumped. But I knew instantly what it was:

New Guy and Crew left this air compressor on. But I didn't know how to turn it off, and it wasn't mine (or hurting anything), so I left it on. It'll keep people away from the house, for sure.

I wonder if the storms will start going up tomorrow?

Paint Quest 2nd+1/2 Attempt

2009-12-01T22:49:00.005-05:00

It was late and rainy when I got off of work. And dark. But I braved these things for pictures because there is actually a little bit of color on the house and I don't know what to think about it.

See the double windows on the front porch? The white trim? It looks weird. Not because it's bad, but because I have never seen the house with light trim. Ever. It's always been that dark green.

Up close, you have to ignore the overwhelming slightly yellowish siding color. The white is actually pretty, it's a nice white, but it's not stark. It's called Antique White, aptly so. This is one of the double windows up close.

And the pair, one unfinished. It's different to see paint up that I didn't do myself. I just told New Guy what colors I was thinking, and today they're starting to go up. Or maybe these are samples, I'm not sure.

I kept playing with my flash, trying to get a better idea of the color from the dark, rainy night.

Inside was cold and dark, but not wet. They worked on the windows a lot today, obviously, so no huge changes. But this is the kitchen window, and I did notice that they fixed the siding here--- remember where the two square openings were on either side of the window?

And they framed in the doorway that was the front door in the Foyer. But there were two ladders below it and this is a bad picture, but you see the new wood. Did I mention it was dark in the house?

I was just too distracted by the paint colors to stay inside long. So back out to the front porch, I went. I like these colors. They are a lot better than the first ones I picked out.

I just don't know. I really need to see it in daylight, and probably with two coats of paint. And with the body color. It's a softer look so far than what was in my head, but that could be good difference. I want it to look sophisticated and classic, but also young with a nod towards the whole craftsman thing.

And I can tell you this, though, I am extremely, terribly, wonderfully glad that I kept these windows. Because they make the house.

Porch to Foyer Project Day 4

2009-11-30T22:24:00.005-05:00

I felt bad, still, today. So I stayed home from work. I decided to get out of the house and drive over to one of the big box stores and see if they had any lighting on sale this afternoon, and on my way stop by my house and take pictures, but I just wasn't up to it. I drove by and then came home.

After I ate something and waited a few hours, I did make it out, but only to the house. And probably only because I was too curious to see what New Guy and his crew were working on today.

At first I wasn't sure what they'd been doing...

And then I realized they were piecing in the siding around the new front door. They'd begun using the new siding last week, but didn't get very much up. And I see they took that little bit down and used the original siding they'd taken off what is now the interior of the Foyer.

And that little detail will make a big difference, reusing the original siding here, since this is the face of the house. It will help it blend in even more and not seem like such an addition.

Here you can see where they measured how the original siding was put up and wrote down the measurements on the door frame. They matched up the boards to the other side of the front porch. If you can zoom in, you'll see each board is actually faced a little differently, not all completely uniform.

This part... concerns me a bit. Not the difference in the original siding and the new, because my house its on a narrow lot and once painted out, will be fine, but rather... this board. That runs along the porch post.

It does stick out. And is obvious. But I'm not going to rush to any conclusions here. Maybe it's a temporary thing, used to get this awkward angle of the narrowing post and the straight, new wall figured out. New Guy won't leave this like this, I'm sure. His other work is too meticulous and perfect, even when its 'imperfect', like matching the siding around the door.

The little bedroom's window. They started replacing the broken or damaged glass and also the glazing (I believe, is the right terminology), which appears white.

The big bedroom's windows.

The single window in the Living Area of the Great Room.

The double windows in the Dining Area of the Great Room.

They also resurfaced the concrete on the back porch.

Which looks much, much better and more uniform.

Inside the Foyer, they began rebuilding the interior walls, which used to be the exterior walls. And they obviously have just started, but this didn't seem quite up to par with New Guy's work, either.

The end product has always been very satisfactory, so I'll wait and see where this is going.

They also put down the second layer of sub-floor in the Foyer. It looks a little off to me, but this was built on a porch. And it may be perfectly level, I don't know. Look at the base of the new wall, how the left side is higher than the floor, but the right is almost level with the new sub-floor.

I'll ask New Guy about these things tomorrow. I didn't catch him down there today, partly because I didn't know if I was still contagious or not. And it is an old house. Once finished out, it may all be fine. I have confidence in his work so far.

Paint Quest 2nd Attempt

2009-11-29T13:48:00.002-05:00

I guess I need to nail down an exterior color scheme since the windows need to be painted before the storms go up.

Here she is as of Wednesday:

My default "will be" colors right now are a gray siding, white trim, and deep cranberry or purple for the sashes.

I found a scheme from Benjamin Moore that I don't mind either, but it's green based. And there are a lot of green houses on my street:

I wouldn't paint my brick columns, but you get the idea. The colors are all Benjamin Moore:

Sea Pine
AC-17

Antique White
OC-83

Horizon Gray
2141-50

Autumn Brown
2099-40

I'd use the Antique White as the trim, and the Horizon Gray as the siding color. The sashes would probably be Sea Pine, though they may be Autumn brown. More likely, though, I could do the porch floor Autumn Brown. My door will stay the stained mahogany that it currently is. The columns would be antique white, like the trim.

Let me state again that these images and paint colors are all copied from Benjamin Moore's website, www.benjaminmoore.com , as to not get into any legal issues.

What do you think about those colors? Should it matter that so many houses on my street are already green? and this shade of green and my idea of gray are so close that they'd read the same anyway.

Porch to Foyer Project Day 3

2009-11-26T06:37:00.010-05:00

These pictures were actually taken on Wednesday afternoon. I got off of work early and headed over to my house to document the progress in daylight, this time. Thanksgiving and a stomach virus have delayed my posting.

The front of the house and porch in daylight. True, the porch

is smaller, but still, I have quite a decent sized porch. And the Foyer addition fits the house, as does the height of the door. And I also now have a back porch, too, which is more private and will probably be used more than this one.

My huge, over-sized door. It makes

me happy.

I still can't believe that all of this can continue to come out of my house, with everything else that has been demo'ed the past 2 years. But at least this will be firewood for the workers instead of going into a landfill or dump.

A view down the side of the house, the side that faces the neighbor's backyard. Notice the siding on the new Foyer.

And here is where we closed in the bottom part of the window in the small bedroom.

And where we removed the side door that had been 'fixed' into place all these years.

The siding under the big bedroom's windows.

And where the original window was removed from the closet and put into the kitchen. I've been told that there is a better way of doing siding, but it involves removing almost all of the siding in the area and staggering the joints so that the area replaced is less noticeable. Quite frankly, this looks fine to me, will look even better once painted out, and is probably a lot cheaper than going the other route. I am on a budget after all. And in the end, I will have the same weatherproof, air-tight, result.

Looking back down the side of the house towards the front.

This picture almost makes me as happy as my front door. To remember what was here- a rotting bathroom and small porch full of hot water heaters and junk- to being a nice, big, open, airy porch.

They still are going to resurface the concrete before they're done, and finish the last bit of siding at the bottom and pull the wooden forms from around the concrete. I want to have this closed in to be a screened in porch.

And here's the new kitchen window, borrowed from the closet. Looks like it belongs here.

This is where the kitchen window was.

Here are the double windows in the big bedroom. They may look a little funky, but once the drywall is up and they are trimmed out, they will be perfect. I'm about 6'3'' and the bottom of the windows come up to my shoulder. Perfect privacy and security.

Where the side door was in the house, all patched in now. A bathtub unit will be here along this wall.

The closed in window in the little bedroom. This room will gain the most from having the extra wall space below it, to put a dresser or a bed, or a desk. Still plenty of natural light and the prettiest part of the windows.

They removed the exterior siding from what was the porch, and so now just the studs are up between the great room and the Foyer.

Here's looking into the Foyer from the great room. We opted not to put a window in this wall, partly because there's nothing to look at, and partly because the glass in the door is so big that it lets in plenty of light. And it allows more room for a entry table or mirror or hall tree or coat rack or whatever. Plenty of options.

Here is the double wall area I was talking about in the Foyer, the same wall we were just looking at. This is below what was the porch's header. It will be double filled with insulation. And the walls will all be flush inside the foyer, with no weirdness.

Looking out the front door. It seems dark because it's so bright, which most of my pictures seem to be. My little house is full of light and the camera has a hard time compensating for that, so they all come out dark, mostly.

I'm still weak today from the stomach virus, but am looking forward to tomorrow and work starting on the house again. The guys were off Thursday and Friday and the weekend for Thanksgiving.

Most of this next week's work will be finishing up the details of the foyer, like the siding on the outside and the sub-floor on the inside. And hopefully the other main focus will be the windows, fixing them all into place, repairing them, replacing the glass, and painting them in order to put up the storm windows.

Porch to Foyer Project Day 2

2009-11-26T04:52:00.005-05:00

This picture was taken about 2 years ago.

And this one was taken about two days ago.

There's not a lot of difference between the two pictures, which pleases me. I have brought the front door forward about 9 feet. And replaced it.

I also created a Foyer where there was none, inside. And it all still fits the house perfectly, adding more character and beauty, if anything, rather than taking away from the house or making it seem like it was a glaring addition or change.

I LOVE this door.

And see how the new wall is set back just enough to include the column while creating a slight recess which draws more attention to the front door? And it all seems just right.

And the column and post are still there.

Even the side of the house, where open air and porch railing used to be, looks okay.

This kind of work takes true talent. Aesthetics is a gift that you can't teach. And New Guy not only knows how to construct homes correctly, but also how to make them look right, too.

And everything about this just looks right to me.

---

They also moved the window from the closet to the kitchen.

Ignore what seems to be two small open air squares on either side of the window. It's just missing siding.

It may look low to the ground, but it's not. Plenty of room below for kitchen cabinets and a counter top. And this is actually a big window, too. Not as big as the rest of them in my house, but still, not tiny.

This is where the window was.

And in what may seem to be a controversial thing, I have decided to remove the lower sashes from the bedroom windows. You could literally open the window here and step into the house. Plus the house next to me is a tri-plex on a corner lot, which faces the other street. So I look into their backyard. And it's nothing pretty.

So by removing the lower sashes and having fixed uppers, I keep the light in the space, I keep the beautiful part of my windows, I add privacy and security, and in small rooms, I add more wall space for furniture placement. Wait until it's trimmed out inside before deciding if you like it or not.

Something has really been running through my mind lately when it comes to my house decisions, it's the Frank Lloyd Wright school of thought that form follows function. I want a livable house that makes sense to me and my life.

And I've been quite happy to find that it makes it beautiful to me, too.

Haha. Not that this is beautiful, but this is where the side door was in the house. They removed it on this work day and closed in the area with siding. A bath rub unit will sit on this wall.

---

And back up to the front of the house, the star of this story is the Foyer.

This is its ceiling. The original porch ceiling. I'm only missing one board (it came down with moulding when they removed it).

I could drywall over it, but I think I'm just going to clean it up and paint it a fun color.

I think this Foyer project has been the most fun and interesting because it's the only thing, besides removing the jungle from the back yard and roof, that you can actually see that I've done. And it is a true physical exterior alteration.

Porch to Foyer Project Day 1

2009-11-23T21:55:00.006-05:00

Today is the first day of turning part of my front porch into a foyer. I was really surprised at how much New Guy and his crew got done, although I shouldn't be after working with them for a month now.

The first thing I noticed was how 'clean' the porch was when I walked up. Hmm. Maybe "clear' is a better term. They had built a temporary work bench out here for a while. With it being gone, I remembered how big, and mostly unused, this space was.

And now it will be my foyer. They took up the old porch floor here and laid down new subfloor. I'm not sure if this is one layer or two. It will match the height of the floors inside, since this will be inside soon, too. And they had to do away with the slant that porches are built with to help drain water.

This is the right wall. No window goes here because there's not much of a view. You can see the dark strips, this is were moulding was outside. Since this part will now be inside, the moulding goes away.

Look at the attention to detail. Some contractors (I know because I talked to a few) would just short wall the room so they wouldn't have to deal with this column. But New Guy is not only saving the column as a structural support, but also so it will be pleasing to the eye.

Above is the front of the column, this is the side where the wall will be built. He has removed part of the brick, and you can see the line he's drawn on the column. When he gets done, this will accent the foyer and porch. Instead of an obstacle, it will add character to the house. And will make it look like the porch was built this way.

The top wooden soffit (?) of the porch has been taken into account as well. Like I said before, the moulding was removed from the part of the soffit that will be inside the foyer...

And below, here you see the new wall built, and the bottom 2x4 where another false wall will be built out, enclosing this space. This is so the thickness of this wall will match the soffit above, both on the outside of the house and on the inside.

Ground-level view of the foyer wall being built.

Looking up you see how the new wall on the porch will blend in with the original walls on the house.

And walking to the back of the house, I found that the original window that was in the closet has been removed.

And the rough opening in the kitchen has been enlarged for its new home. You can see there were originally double windows here at one point, too, but they have since long ago been removed. I'm opening this back up and moving the closet window here. It will match and flow with the rest of the windows in the house.

And last but not least:

My new door is in the house. The day I bought it, me and my Dad couldn't being it home because it was too heavy to move. New Guy and his crew went and got it. It's lying on its side here, in the hall. This hall is about 13 feet long. But this door makes it look short.

I can't wait to get this door up and see what it looks like!

I wonder if the foyer will be closed in this Thursday by Thanksgiving? If they keep working at this rate, it just might be.

Paint Quest 1st Attempt

2009-11-20T18:04:00.002-05:00

I decided to work on picking paint colors today. I had an idea of what I wanted, but didn't know exactly what I wanted. Further complicating my choices (or limiting them), my house is in a pretty colorful neighborhood.

These are the houses across the street from my house. There's a white house, a light grey one, a recently painted dark green one, a mint green one, and directly across from me is a baby blue house.

Next door to me is a mid-range dark yellow house. It seems more paper-bag brown than yellow in this picture, but it's because of the limited daylight. On the other side of me is a brick house.

So if I don't want my house to be the same color as my neighbors, I have a lot of options eliminated. I did remember that Sherwin Williams had a program on their website where you could upload a picture and then superimpose colors on it. So I played with this program for a long time this afternoon. It's a great tool but it was a little frustrating: think of etch-n-sketch, but on the computer and controlled by a mouse.

I also researched some historical colors and found ideas to help me figure out what I wanted.

I finally had a scheme I kept going back to. I loved the way Sherwin Williams' program depicted the colors on my house, and I thought it would work well with my existing brick and would highlight my house's features and give it a little personality. So off I went to buy some samples...

And here is my first attempt at picking out colors. These patches have two coats on them, applied rather quickly back to back. But I knew from this much that I absolutely hated it. I somehow wound up picking almost exactly the same color for the new trim as what is existing on the siding now! And the brown that perfectly complimented my brick without being too dark on my computer monitor was horribly dark on the house. I did like the red I picked for the window sash, but it might not be quite what I was looking for.

Here is a close up view of the colors. The far left is the siding/main body color, the middle is the trim color, and the far right is the window sash color. So you can see where I was going, but this is not it. At all. I think it is too literal of what I was aiming for, a darker body, a lighter trim, and a nice accent to pop the window sashes. In some professional color schemes, I noticed they also used an off white for select woodwork, such as porch railing and columns, and a black to ground it, in iron work or the porch floor.

I have a ways to go. I don't feel like I wasted the day, but I am a little frustrated that my first attempt was no where near what I was aiming for. I do know that there are about 6 houses in 2 blocks on my street in some shade of green, so that's out. And I am glad that I actually bought and applied the samples to see, because I would never know otherwise. The whole process makes me a little more shy about making these choices, but also more confident, it's hard to explain.

I'm basically thinking now to stay with neutrals, some sort of tan for the body, or maybe a dark grey. But it's a small house, so I don't want it too dark. But I want it to look young and fresh. I don't want the grey to make it feel cold. I just don't know. Maybe I'll enlist the help of a designer.

Any ideas or suggestions for inspiration?

The Time Between Phases...

2009-11-19T19:01:00.004-05:00

I met with New Guy at the house today. We spent an hour walking around, talking about things like plumbing fixture placement in bathrooms, where the new panel box should go, ceiling textures, foyer dressing, moulding, windows, and the front porch.

Now, I'm not quite ready for the finishing touches, but we got the conversation started. And I have been given the task of picking exterior colors, since the windows will be started on shortly, and I need to pick those out pronto (the exterior will be painted before the storm windows go up). Within two weeks. I know what I want, I just don't have a name for it.

Monday they'll start on the process of closing in part of the porch for the foyer, and this is the project I'm most excited about so far! I can't wait to see my new front door up!

And we talked about railings... My house had little to none when I bought it. Just some sad 2x4s nailed up hurriedly. I've been driving around looking for similar houses or ones from the same period and haven't really seen anything that caught my eye. I knew I wanted something linear (using an outline to create a shape), but not spindles, and didn't really want to settle for the square spindles. New Guy suggested I ride by this house--- he'd done work here, too--- and he said he thought they'd be perfect.

Here's a picture of my house (from 06/22/2008) and the one below is the railing we're thinking about adding. So you get an idea. We're adding just the railing.

Kind of hard to see, but I took these after work.

The design is like this

|X|X|X|X|

I think it will look really good, if not perfect. I wanted something different, and this design is simple and timeless. I think once the foyer is done, it will be gorgeous. And will all make sense.

I'm off now to research my paint ideas and colors.

New Phase Day 6

2009-11-18T23:43:00.002-05:00

I went right to the back today. I knew they'd been pouring concrete.

And I was right. No way to get a concrete truck back here. They had to haul all the bags to the back of the house and mix it by hand.

And this is what I have today! It's still curing, of course. I fought the urge to make a mark in it. Something I have found out about myself in this renovation is how much I prefer linear lines and shapes. And this picture just makes me so happy.

I just can't seem to comprehend every day's difference. Even though I've been here since Day 1 and have this blog to go back and see how far I've come... it's still amazing to me.

They also got some exterior trim up around the door. It looks really good, if I do say so myself.

It was bright enough for me to get this shot inside today. I planned the back door's placement in the kitchen so that when you walked in from the foyer you'd have a clear shot out into the back yard. The back door is lined up perfectly with the kitchen doorway. This little bit of planning a while back is something I will enjoy every day that I live here.

Tomorrow wraps up New Phase. I'm meeting New Guy at the house around 2pm to walk through and talk details such as finishes and light fixture placement and everything that will take this from being where it is now to where I can live in it.

Still to come in the intermediate phase:

replacing and repairing existing windows,

the foyer addition on the front porch,

and the removal of the extinct side door on the house.

New Phase Day 5

2009-11-17T22:50:00.003-05:00

I closed again tonight, so no daylight pictures of the house. But here's what I found when I went by on my break:

I knew they'd be working in the back today. You see that New Guy and his crew dug out for 'footers' and side walls around the back porch area, then got those in place. They also back filled quite a lot with dirt to try to raise the bed of the porch. And I think some of the broken/damaged/fire brick went in, from the fireplace demo as well, to act as filler.

We decided the cheaper alternative to building a wood deck framing for the porch floor would be to close in the foundation walls around the area, back fill, and pour concrete for a slab. That way it can serve as a covered patio for now, or could be screened in, or even later a porch built over this, if that's what I wanted. It could also be upgraded down the road with tile or pavers. But for now it will be functional with a slab concrete floor.

But what's that? Did you notice?

A back door! Not only did they finish the siding around the porch, but they put up the back door! That's not the door handle I want, but it's temporary and it locks! And closes and opens and you can see through it...

And here and inside shot of the back door. They had to build the frame around the door and yet again I am impressed with their attention to detail and professionalism. New Guy is really excited about my project, almost as much as I am, and I feel like he and his crew are showing the same amount of care in doing their jobs as if it were their own homes they were working on.

Tomorrow New Guy is going to meet me to give me some more estimates for what happens next. It's all exciting. I feel like the past 2 and 1/2 years have been worth the wait.

New Phase Day 4

2009-11-16T23:49:00.006-05:00

When I got to the house today, I immediately noticed the scrap lumber from what appeared to be siding, so I walked right around to the side of the house where I found:

This section pieced in where they had to replace the sill, and a few random boards here and there replaced.

And also this cast iron vent pipe that went to no where (seriously, it wasn't connected to anything and hadn't been in a long, long time when I bought the house) partially torn down, in order to get to the work done on the small window that was here by the double windows in the dining area.

This might be a better shot. I think this is a concrete board, but it has a texture imprinted on it to match wood siding. Once painted, I'm told it will blend in pretty seamlessly. It will just be a little smoother than the boards around it.

But my favorite surprise was when I walked completely around to the back and saw this:

The back porch area! The wall that had to be rebuilt has been open for... 8 months, maybe? And today it was dressed with siding. The rest of the old porch floor has been removed, the beams replaced, and new posts in place.

I was surprised at how big this little porch area is. It had been a bathroom and where two huge hot water heaters were when I bought it, but now, almost back in place, it's just going to be a really nice porch.

New guy got around this far with the new siding, which is the back wall of the bigger bedroom's closet.

Here's the view to off the back porch area. I have one neighbor and then a city park that takes up a good block, beyond that an old historical cemetery. Both beautiful places. I'll just have to keep my neighbor's bushes trimmed so I can see.

Inside the kitchen looking out of the partially covered back wall.

And the inside of the bigger bedroom's closet, the other back porch wall. I thought how these boards were pieced in around and behind the existing roof was interesting.

And here in the dining room, you can clearly see where the random small window was.

Also, we're making efforts to close up the house, and so New Guy has made a makeshift window to replace the one that was taken down.

I am still very excited. And so much is happening. I just kept walking around the rooms today, imaging living there, trying to think about the layout of the kitchen, and in general, being in a state of disbelief that what I saw 2 and 1/2 years ago in my mind, I can actually walk through.

Amazing.

New Phase Day 3

2009-11-13T23:48:00.003-05:00

Tonight I bring you pictures and progress, namely of the sub-floor variety. I must apologize in advance--- since I closed tonight at work, it was dark when I went by the house, and although I have electricity, I do not have a single light fixture in the house. So, dark, random shots ensue. I am too excited not to post them, house dork or not.

Remember the plywood from yesterday? Where did it go? I was TOO excited to go in the house once I noticed the plywood wasn't there on the porch like it was yesterday.

Even the scrap bits in the yard got me excited! The idea of a floor? A real, level, sturdy floor? In MY house?

This was right when I opened the door. I used the flash to see what I was stepping into or onto. I was very happy to find sub-floors here. This is the small bedroom.

And this is the great room. The black you see is the vapor barrier. A few sheets still need to be put down. New guy laid 3/4 inch plywood in a brick pattern in one direction, and then put down the vapor barrier, and laid 3/4 inch plywood in a brick pattern perpendicular to the first layer of sub-floor. I have 1 and 1/2 inch sub-floors.

They are very, very, very sturdy, solid and level and smooth and perfect. This is the great room looking back toward the front of the house.

And in the corner of the great room looking towards the back. These angles are horrible, but remember I was using the flash just as much to see what they'd done as I was for the actual picture taking. And I was aiming blind in the darkness.

It was almost more exciting that way. This is the kitchen, with scraps here and there, looking towards the back of the house.

Kitchen again, looking towards the front. I know it's not much but these are beautiful pictures to me. The rooms actually look like rooms! And it seems like a HOUSE!

Even the small hall that will become the bathroom and a closet got partially sub-floored.

Somehow I skipped the big bedroom. This is the closet. But you get the general idea, more plywood. But it's so much more than that. So much more.

It's a house again! With floors and rooms! That you can walk on!

Some days are more exciting than others. Sub-floors can change your life.

New Phase Day 2

2009-11-12T22:55:00.007-05:00

On my lunch break I went to one of the big box home improvement stores and looked around, mainly for price comparison reasons, on doorknobs and lock sets for the exterior doors that will be installed soon. And of course I was drawn to lighting. I didn't buy anything, but it was a fun way to spend a lunch break.

After I got off of work, I was happy to see all this plywood on the front porch. And it smelled like Christmas! Or sawdust. Which basically smells the same to me. Maybe because growing up we always had a real Christmas tree? And trimming it and putting it in a tree stand smells like... sawdust?

Note the new work permit. How many will I have before it's all over? And there was more plywood on this side on the porch...

And more plywood on the inside of the house! Not down yet, of course, but this will be my sub floor, people. The putting back part is soon to start.

At first I didn't notice anything new. Until I looked up and saw that my window was gone. This one had fallen in the house, literally, but was not damaged. From the fall.

The previous owners, however, had a window air conditioning unit here. And it had leaked for a very, very long time. The water, over such a long period of time, attracted insects, that fed on the usually too-hard-to-bother-with heart pine framing under the window. But now all the rotten is gone and the new is in place.

Behind me I saw the window. At least the top part of it. It's laying sideways, the small squares go up top. The bottom window is just a solid sheet of glass. I imagine my contractor took it to the glass people, since we've decided to keep the windows, clean them up, and put them back with new glass, glazing, caulking, paint, and storm windows.

These are BIG windows. Here's a shot further out so you can see the comparison between the door and the window. The windows are about 35 inches wide, just short of three feet.

Also, I thought this header may need to be replaced, and of course, it did. But I didn't realize all the framing around these two windows would need it, as well. New Guy thought it needed it, and so it was done. Also another random stud on this wall was rebuilt. The smaller window-looking opening on the right was a window yesterday. But not original. It's going away and will be closed in.

Below the windows had to be replaced, too. These are the double windows in the dining area of the great room.

When I looked up from this picture, I found an intriguing view of the first window. So I indulged myself and took a picture and then decided to see just how big that window opening is. So I climbed up in it and stood. No one was around to take my picture in the window, but I will tell you I'm 6'3'' and the top of the window was still many inches from my head. BIG windows.

And I hopped down and took a similar angle of the double windows in the dining area. Here you can see just how comprehensively the re-framing was around these windows.

And a better idea of the dimensions of the weird, random, smaller window in the dining area. Why would you put such a small window next to a set of huge double windows?

New Guy also put down floor joists in what was the hallway for one of the apartments. This used to be a side porch on the house, but will now be part of the bathroom and part of the smaller bedroom's closet.

And lastly, for the day, New Guy took down part of the back porch ceiling and began stablizing and rebuilding it. The roof is new, the underside, not so much, but salvageable. And while the old screened-in porch is gone, a porch in some sense will go back here.

I'm really looking forward to tomorrow, to see what happens next.

New Phase Day 1

2009-11-11T19:27:00.003-05:00

New Guy and his crew started the next phase at my house today. At the end of this, the house will be closed in from the elements, lockable, with level sub-floors, ready for re-wiring, plumbing, and air conditioning. I stopped in quickly on my lunch break today to sneak a peak, and came back later with these progress pictures:

The customary, and my favorite, view as you walk in the front door (or where the front door is now). This will be the view from the foyer entryway once that is constructed. All the new, bright, light, shiny wood is new. They were mainly working on the floor joists today.

Here's where the fireplace was. They further tore it down, well below the level of the room so that I wouldn't have any future problems (the base was caving in as it was). New Guy thought best to go ahead and take care of it now, build it in with floor joists so that it won't be a problem in the future.

And here's a lot of extra brick! I didn't realize that there was still brick down there in the fireplace base. There was a lot of concrete-looking stuff. But they dug out the brick and saved them. This is one of the many reasons I like New Guy's work. You can tell the new brick because they are chalky. The ones my father and I stacked are wet and weathered a bit. This looks like a patio to me. Maybe a front walkway?

Back inside, here is an... odd place in the floor. Near the old fireplace, but where the wall jogged originally and where a doorway was. This all needed to be reinforced, and it has been. It looks pretty cool but also confusing. And linear.

This is in the dining room looking back toward the bathroom and utility room. You can see how he added spacers between the original floor joists along the sill to get these boards more solid. And they were. Very much so. Every thing he does makes this house more and more sound. I'm amazed how level and strong it all seems now, even without the sub-floor in.

This is one of the many ginormous wasp nests in the house. Or were they yellow jackets? I'm not sure, but they've been evicted. Look at my fancy wiring. I do like how you can see the original wiring here, through the ceiling beams. Which led me to check out my:

Naked panel box. The only one that survives. The other has already been taken down. I'm not sure why they took the front off this thing, but it is live and I stayed well away from it.

One last shot in looking into the master bedroom. Just wanted to note how he has gone back between the floor joists in the middle of the room and added the spacers here, too, that run along the top of the extra support beams he built for the floors.

These floors are SOLID. I was very impressed. And, all the nails are gone. I hadn't removed them, but noticed today while doing feats of balance and gymnastics across the floor joists that the nails were gone. I think they might actually be done with the floor joists. If not, I can't imagine what they lack. Which means... SUB FLOORS SOON!

Doors galore!

2009-11-07T14:37:00.004-05:00

I met with New Guy contractor Thursday. He finished the foundation work, as previously posted, and we had about an hour and a half walk through of the house, talking about the projects that need to be done next, and in what order. He'll have some estimates for me on Monday, and hopefully will start work then, too.

Yesterday I got off of work early and went to an independent hardware store here in town to (window) shop around for a few things, like kitchen and bathroom counter tops, light fixtures, interior and exterior doors, bathtub units, etc. I basically need everything except kitchen cabinets. I spent about an hour there, but right when I walked in, I saw these:

Two craftsman-style fir doors, new, but weathered a bit. These sat in a warehouse for a while, and have a bit of water stains, but it all can probably be sanded out. I immediately pictured one as my back door, and one as the door between the to-be-added foyer and great room. These doors distracted me the entire time I was in the store yesterday and last night, afterwards. I knew they were perfect for my house and I really was drawn to them. So today I went back and bought them both (one was a belated birthday gift).

This one shows more storage-wear than the other, and the middle pane up top may need to be replaced since it's vacuum seal has been compromised, but what was cloudy in the hardware store cleared up when we brought it inside the house. Maybe it just needs a more temperature-controlled environment. It might be fine, without repair, to be used as the foyer door.

And its perfect twin shall be the back door off of the kitchen. These pictures were all taken at my parents' house, where I am keeping the doors until hopefully next week, or the week after, when they will be installed. I like the fact that they match and will both be visible from the great room, and they are correct for the style of my house. So much better than what I thought I would be able to find or afford.

And that's not the best part. These are heavy, new, insulated glass doors. They were on sale and I got ten dollars off the asking price, because we asked for a better deal. You can't do that at a big box hardware store. The back story is that one manufacturing company was bought by another, and this is part of the smaller company's excess inventory.

I bought these doors at $75 a piece.

But that's not the best deal.

Up front, across from the two fir doors sat this monster, partially hidden by other inventory:

This is a custom door. I believe it was part of a show room display at one point, but has lived its life inside. It, too, is from the same company's inventory. It's a mahogany door, and has a little wear and tear, but that just makes it look old and adds character to me. The glass insert is 15 beveled panes set in a grid pattern with nickel-colored solder lines, sandwiched between two plates of glass. It has a panel across the bottom and has already been drilled for a lock set and doorknob. This is a heavy door. It was hung with four hinges, but I think I'll go with five.

It's my new front door. I bought it today. Click on its picture to make it bigger and see the attached price sticker (green star) to see what I paid for it.

I'm closing in part of the front porch (it's L-shaped), to make a foyer, and this is my statement piece. This door never sold because of its dimensions. It's 8 feet tall and 4 feet wide, which is gargantuan, but it's actually a little shy of my current front door's height, with transom. And since I'm having the new opening built, I can make it whatever size I want. I want it this-sized. It fits my ceiling and porch height, will actually be a little shorter than my windows, which are double on the front.

My house may not be fancy, but it's just been upgraded.

New Guy, Mailbox, and Foundation

2009-11-04T21:59:00.005-05:00

I am very proud of my first mailbox. It's not exactly the one I would choose, had I not been on a renovating budget, but it was gray (grey? how do you spell it? Wikipedia didn't know, either), which I found quite pleasing, and it fit my immediate budget perfectly. Only, I didn't know you actually had to put it together... the flag, the closing mechanism, the handle... Of course, I championed through it and even applied my house numbers. Here's my dorky, 'I did it all by myself', proud, first mailbox-having, look at my handiwork, picture:

And here is the mailbox in place in front of the house, about two weeks ago, before this last round of work began. I utterly failed when attempting to put up the mailbox by myself, so a special thanks to my Dad for helping me get postal. Note the state of things, the big pile of wood and general abandoned sadness.

And here the house is tonight, after I got off work and the guys had cleaned up after themselves from the foundation extravaganza. They hauled off the wood to use as firewood for the oncoming winter months, which was perfect to me. I didn't have to pay to dump it, it's being used for some purpose, and they cleaned up the yard for free.

Back up a little bit, and here's the New Guy's first day of work, digging and pouring the footers for the new piers all around the house, about thirty of them.

And here's roughly the same spot, but with the complete piers in place. I know they're not beautiful, but they are functional. And the old piers were left in place, too. Some can be knocked down, but most will remain to server as fill-in for when I get around to completely closing in under the house. This will all be stuccoed or painted, eventually, except for the front brick columns and around the porch. I love the brick too much to cover it up.

After they piers were in, they back filled around them, too. The rainwater here had washed away a lot of the dirt here over the years, which probably aided in some of the piers failing over the years.

This is the only section where the evidence of the old pier is completely gone. This is the corner of the kitchen, where the original pier failed many years ago, dropping the floor here about 9 inches. The rebuilt piers on this corner in three places, where before they had only one.

This is the back closet/extra/ maybe-one-day-second-bath/ room off of the master bedroom. I took this picture because it was the easiest one to show that New Guy and his crew also poured footers and built piers to hold additional braces that run down the length of EVERY room, perpendicular to the floor joists, adding stability to the floor system.

And that's where the Foundation Project ends. What's exciting is what comes next in the process. I've waited a long time to get the demolition done (check), and get a new roof on the house (check), and now get the foundation fixed (check). Next are sub-floors, plumbing, and wiring. And air conditioning duct work.

I really like New Guy and his crew. We are going to meet at the house tomorrow and talk about the next steps. He's going to give me estimates of repairing the original windows and getting storm windows against buying and installing new vinyl windows. Also on the list is closing up the house again (there. is. no. back. wall.), putting in a back door, getting a game plan for the back porch area, and making the house wind/water/wasp tight.

Also, I have small wall projects to tackle, one of which is the back porch wall, and the other involves the bathroom. Where I wanted to put the toilet lives a massive, immovable sill, and so I shall have to rethink bathroom plumbing and fixture placement.

Things are happening again and I can't wait!

Six months go by fast...

2009-10-24T22:32:00.003-04:00

I met with a new contractor down at my house two Fridays ago. The on again, off again guy I had been using for small projects is currently busy, and the Flu Contractor, if you remember him (he's the one who did the blitz week of work) has basically been unreachable. And when I can reach him, he's nice but I think him not showing up says a lot more than what he may actually say. Bear in mind that I owe these men no money, nor do they owe me work. Contractors can be a strange lot to deal with.

But on to the New Guy, I met him down at the house because six more months have passed and my house, she sat. Within an hour an a half, me and the New Guy had walked the property several times, and he had a clear idea of what I wanted and what should be done, and he said he'd get back with me with estimates. And he actually did, a few days late, but that's with any contractor. I specifically asked for an estimate to get the foundation work done.

Only I couldn't believe the outrageous price. After he left and I'd had a few moments to process the printed estimate number on the paper, I called him back. And said, "There's no way. I have a long way to go, and this is not the number I had in mind". I cut back the scale of foundation work to what absolutely had to be done, and should be done, which is replacing every foundation pier under the house. That's it. Nothing fancy or pretty, but what had to be done for a solid foundation. His first estimate included vents, a foundation wall closing around the entire house, access doors, and a brick veneer on the front of the house's foundation.

The second price was right on target, and about $4,300 less. He and his men start Monday.

The work has to be done. I can't wait any longer to finish this house. It doesn't need to be rushed, but it needs to be done. No more sitting and waiting on anyone, or myself. We're moving forward from this point on.

About three weeks ago I bought a mailbox and a post and the stick-on numbers and everything. And after my first failed attempt (the metal post I bought was dead on arrival), my father helped me get the new one in the ground. And so I now have my own mailbox. I haven't gotten any mail there, yet, but I'm slowly forwarding and transferring all my mail there and I go by and check it everyday. It's an incentive to get the progress happening, and it has me going by the house and stopping everyday. And it's my first mailbox! Which I am excited about in a very first-time homeowner kind of way. It's just one more step to making the project a reality.

Also things to be noted:

*Wasps love empty houses, especially ones without back walls.

*Two of my windows have fallen down and jammed themselves open.

*Three of my floor joist are gone. Vanished. Stolen? No sign of them. Gone.

*I have, in my possession, my grandmother's kitchen cabinets. They will be re-purposed for the space. I wrote about them on Jean Martha's blog:

"I was lucky enough to inherit the kitchen cabinets from my grandmother’s house. They’re not fancy, and may be a little country, but they are solid wood, actually solid pieces- 8, 9, 10 foot long spans of cabinetry- built back when every kitchen was a custom kitchen by default. This saves me from buying cabinets of a lesser quality just to stay in budget with my home renovation, and I get the joy of being creative, reusing the cabinets, adding molding, sanding, painting… They are worth the extra time to me, both in cost efficiency and to be able to say that I cook in the same kitchen my grandmother did. She may not be here with me to tell me the secrets of making her homemade chicken and dumplings, but I can preserve her memory, her kitchen, and maybe even her recipes, with a little sweat and a lot of love."

This was in response to a comment contest. Go check it out http://renovationtherapyblog.com/?p=5633

More posts and pictures to come, soon. I have a working computer again and have found where my camera was hiding.

Out with the old...

2009-04-21T15:17:00.003-04:00

It's been another long two weeks of silence, but work has still been going on at the house. I've been extremely busy at work since a co-worker has been out, so I've had little time to take or post pictures.

A welcome sight of progress. Since our last dumpster fiasco with the car incident, I can no longer have a dumpster sitting outside my house. So I must collect the debris in the front and then hire the dumpster for the day. Sadly, though, what you see here is mostly flooring.

The Great Room

I only had two and a half rooms left in the house with flooring, one being the Great Room. But I knew it would have to come out because part of it was damaged, a wall was removed, there is a huge hole in the middle where the fireplace was, and also two small coal closets came down. All of these things left nasty scars and voids.

The Fireplace Remnants

I have water drainage issues, which I believe I touched on in an earlier post. These issues are what have eroded my foundation piers and caused the house to settle these past 99 years or so. It's all been jacked up now (thanks to the Flu Contractor) and is perfectly level as can be, but the piers need to be rebuilt. All of them.

The Little Bedroom (that could!)

So the rest of the floors have been demoed. I have new walls and no floors. And I need new piers and quite surely an entire foundation wall along one side of the house, where the water problem originates. And maybe some sort of weeping tile/french drain. All of this before any other progress begins. On the plus side, the absence of floors should make the plumber's job easier. On the minus side, we've uncovered even more joists that need attention, which means more money.

And all in all, it's fine. I'd rather have a strong, new foundation that an older, questionable one. Same goes with the floor joists. And with my new walls, I'll have a truly solid backbone on which to begin again, when I put back. The only downside is that most of the money I'm spending, no one will ever see. Well, except for those who stop by my blog. But I guess that's what it's about, too.

I have to fix what needs to be fixed. So yes, some of the superficial, cosmetic touches I'd been thinking about in finishing the interior (and exterior), will have to be downsized or replaced with more inexpensive choices in order to stay in budget. And maybe down the road I'll be able to upgrade.

I know that this will all be worth it one day, when I move in. There have been a lot of two steps forward and one step back going on. Yet, I try to remain optimistic, but realistic.

I still have a long way to go.

on 'building a new house'...

2009-04-07T23:19:00.004-04:00

It seems like sometimes I am building a new house.

My manager at work today said the same thing, when I answered his question about what was going on at my house this week, work-wise.

Almost a new house. The majority of the structure is original, though, and all heart pine, its rafters, joists, studs, and exterior siding. The Flu Contractor even remarked about how strong and solid my house was, and how, other than cosmetically, my siding was in great condition.

He asked me when the house was built, and I told him 1910. He said, "If I was a hundred years old, I'd look like this and need some work, too".

But it didn't really hit me until today that my house is 99 years old. Next year, it will be 100.

The tornado two years ago lifted and threw two newer homes across the street into a ravine (no one seriously injured). But my house didn't seem to even flinch. Sure, it needed a new roof, but other than that, nothing.

There's something to be said in saving something old, of investing time and money into keeping a part of history. It may not be somewhere that a famous person slept, and may have even been a poorer person's house at the time it was built, but it was built back when things were made to last.

And it has.

It just needs a little bit of work to keep existing, a one hundred year makeover, if you will.

I'll update it for my own needs, modernizing it where I see fit. After all, I'll be living there. It might not be a replica of life a hundred years ago, or a purist's dream, but it will reflect my needs in 2009 and beyond.

But, no, I'm not building a new house. I'm saving an old one.

on doorways and floor joists...

2009-04-07T12:58:00.004-04:00

Yesterday I had one of the Flu Contractors come back and put a doorway into the little bedroom. This is a load bearing wall, and although there was a door here to begin with, it was closed up when the P.O. (Previous Owner) divided the house into the 2 apartments. So I had a licensed contractor come out and open this back up for me to satisfy City Hall. I shouldn't complain too much about City Hall because I know the new law was put in place to protect me, the homeowner. It was basically put into effect after the tornado two years ago when a lot of shady contractors from out of town (and out of state) came in and ripped people off. But its still annoying.

The new doorway is on the left. Next to it was another old doorway. I don't really know why the P.O.'s went back and forth on doorways into this little room... It's nice to have a doorway here, though, instead of walking through studs. The door on the right is what is serving as my front door, and will be where the new front door goes back. It was in Apartment B.

Front door again. Note the closed in upper section. Either this doorway had a transom or was a window or something. The doorways with transoms are the same height as the windows, that's why I say that. This doorway will have a transom again because...

This is Apartment A's front door. It lives in the little bedroom we just saw. This wall will be a solid wall and the exterior trim and moulding (and transom) will be used on the front door, which we just saw. The current front door's moulding and trim will be used for the back door in the kitchen.

The floor in the master bedroom is up. The demo contractors started here because sections of it were already gone, and then the Flu Contractors had to take even more out to replace the sills in adjoining rooms.

Same room, this is taken from the room's doorway in the kitchen, the wall I had the Flu Contractors move. See where the old wall rested on the sill?

So not a lot happening this week at the house. Hopefully my demo contractors will work on the house this weekend, again, ripping up the rest of the floors and maybe even starting on rebuilding the piers for the foundation.

Oh, and it makes sense now why there was so much trash up under my house. When it rains, there have been small streams that form from the rainwater running downhill up under my house. So it makes sense that trash would ride in the rainwater, too. Unfortunately these rainwater streams have also wreaked havoc on my pier foundations and so they all need to be completely replaced. It's been going on for almost a hundred years, since the house was built.

I hope it doesn't really take the whole six months that both the Flu Contractor and the demo guys estimated for me, separately, to get the house in move-in condition.

The beginning of April

2009-04-05T00:50:00.006-04:00

The Flu Contractor and his men wrapped up the week I hired them for on Thursday. I went over before work on Friday for a walk through with him and we talked for about an hour and a half. He is a source of a lot of good information and he's really helped clear the way between City Hall and my house. There are a few things I might get them to come back over and do for me, but they're finished.

Today I had my demo contractor and his helper over there, cleaning up after the Flu Contractor and tearing down the back porch. They're also ripping up the floors in the 2 1/2 rooms left that still have some sort of flooring. All of my foundation piers have to be rebuilt and replaced, not repaired. And it's much easier to accomplish this without the floors down, and not even a third of the house still had floors. Plus plumbing will be easier.

A backyard shot. I'm standing at my property line. It looks like I need to pay attention to the weeds back here. But notice the porch walls are all down.

A little closer in...

And even closer. I remember when I couldn't even get in the backyard, it was so overgrown, much less on the back porch. RIP back porch, one day I'll have you back.

Another angle. I know its progress, but it was a little sad to me, today.

So, here are a few examples why the foundation piers need to be replaced. On this side of the house, they would up jacking it up a whole 8 inches! See the 4x4 running long ways? That's where this floor used to sit.

This is the corner that failed, causing all the problems in the kitchen.

It's also the corner right by the back porch. Its so... open.

This is what was my back porch. And the debris left over from Flu Contractor. They hauled a dump truck away, but remember my saga with the dumpster? We're making piles to later throw in another rented dumpster and or Flu Contractor's dump truck.

We had to move the doors and mantels to the front porch as the floor ripping up commenced. I hope they're still there tomorrow.

These next three pictures are of the Great Room. I'm trying to give you an idea of the space and light here. The demo contractors are coming back tomorrow, so this may be the last time you see a floor here for a while...

The entry door is to the left of these double windows.

The single window above, then down to the double window in the dining area.

That stuff you see in the corner is against the wall that stands here between the dining area and the kitchen.

Of course, here's my back door and back yard shot. I can't help it. I love this, even weedy.

Master bedroom, where they began removing the rest of the floor today. The Flu Contractors had to rip up some of it to rebuild the sill in the closet and move the wall out into the kitchen.

This is the view from my back porch, standing in the kitchen doorway and turning left. It's a city park, and beyond it, you see the mature trees of a large, old city cemetery. This park was badly damaged during the tornado two years ago, and they're actively replanting and redoing it.

The view a little zoomed in. This will be so pretty! And it's the same view, mostly, from my kitchen window, too.

I may have some more pictures from tomorrow's progress. I spent the whole day at home Spring Cleaning, and while the end result was definitely worth it, I'm ready for bed.

5 Days...

2009-04-02T19:14:00.004-04:00

It's been very rainy here for the past week, it seems. But still, work is going on at the house. I stopped by on my lunch break today because I hadn't been down there to talk with the contractors since Tuesday, my last day off. After work, I managed to take a few pictures.

Walking in, I customarily turned to my right to see the back yard more clearly. Nothing has really been done here, but the contractors gently encouraged the back door on what was the screened-in porch to give up the fight. And this gave a more cohesive view out of the back of the house.
Also see how the wall on the left bumps out about two feet? Then bumps out again? That's the original layout of this wall, I chose to use it to my advantage in moving the bedroom wall out in the kitchen, where this will not be noticeable, once its all sheet-rocked.

This picture seems a little dark, but the flash was on. A weird play of natural light verses the flash happens in the great room, as it is now. You can make out the outline (the dark wood) of the doorway into the kitchen, where through it, you can see the outline of the back door (new wood) in the kitchen. See how this will beckon you outside?

Just to the right of the doorways, you can see the side profile of the wall they moved out into the kitchen from the bedroom. This wall is fully in the kitchen--- it is behind the bump out I mentioned earlier. The other new wall you see to the right is the one with the doorways to the bathroom and utility rooms off of the dining area, the first bump out.

I had to squirrel across the exposed floor joists again in the kitchen to get this shot. It's a front on view of the moved bedroom wall, the old one behind it having been removed today.

Looking down, you can see the joists reattached to what was the bowed out wall, but I was trying to show just how much they jacked up the house and leveled it here...

I didn't have a measuring tape but found one of the contractor's cups to place on the 4x4 along the bottom. This was the P.O.'s previous attempt to acknowledge the problem of the unattached joists and bowed out wall. But this angle still isn't right.

Knowing how big the cup is, you can maybe better estimate the difference in where the floor was and where it is now. But maybe not. The cup is sitting on the level where the joists use to rest. And now they have been lifted almost an entire Styrofoam cup. Not the best tool to use, but I had to use what I had and I'm not MacGyver.

Back to the walls, then. This is the other side of the bedroom wall. These are small rooms with high ceilings, but its hard to capture them in pictures. The space in person seems bigger.

They did a lot of smaller things today, in addition to jacking up and leveling the opposite side of the house, too. For instance, they replaced the 4x4 that was in this corner with an old one, taken from another wall that was removed.

They also began rebuilding this wall in the bathroom/laundry area. Not big exciting changes to most, but a small succession of big deals to me.

I stayed there in the quiet house for a long time after I took these pictures, contemplating the new spaces, what they would look like finished, and what my life would be like living here. I spent a lot of time looking out back into the yard, watching it rain and just as much time imagining the bathroom, utility room, closet, and kitchen areas. I kind of figured out where appliances would go and along what walls the furniture would fit in other rooms. I envisioned a new back porch on the house and a fence in the backyard. I played around with where I wanted light fixtures...

It was very peaceful today, to me. I was able to touch the progress, to stand in the spaces that I had only imagined two years ago when the house was two apartments. It was all so real to me, so tangible, so within reach and nearer to completion. It was all very satisfying and I felt like everything so far, all the waiting and worrying and budgeting, has been worth it. Today, for the first time, standing in the sawdust, I saw not my house, but my home.

Day 4 brings Doorways

2009-04-01T20:40:00.008-04:00

Walking up to the front porch today after work, I immediately saw proof of the work being done.

The contractors had made a makeshift sawhorse/workbench. Look at all that progress on the floor!

When I walked in, I immediately looked up and saw that the contractors had replaced the ceiling rafter where the chimney for the fireplace was. This particular section of rafter had been pieced together all sorts of ways when the house was built, and was stable, but once the chimney came down, the pieces kind of scissored apart.

When I looked down, I noticed the glow of daylight from outside. I decided to go back in the yard to investigate this.

I passed this pile the way; obviously the sill here had failed, too. This is the same wall that was bowed out in the kitchen and had been rebuilt.

They did a good job of it, though. It looks like they came down this wall until they found good wood, and then kept going just for good measure. This was a happy find. I'm glad the contractors are as thorough as they are.

Back inside I found DOORWAYS! for the bathroom and the utility room. I think this wall is almost finished, if not already.

Straight ahead, we find the back doorway framed up. It lines up nicely with the kitchen doorway from the great room, and once the back porch is finished being demoed, it will be a really nice view.

The wall between the kitchen and master bedroom was also moved today, out about a foot. This may not seem like much, but in a small room it will make a big difference. Otherwise this space would just have been wasted 'walk-by' space in the kitchen, due to all the doorways.

Same wall, opposite view. You can see the old wall more clearly here, still in place. They had to build the new wall before taking down the old. They also moved the door from the center of the wall to one corner, to allow more wall space in the room for furniture.

A top-down picture, here. My foot is on the old wall, the new one is in front of me. It's a solid foot gained, maybe a few inches more. I'm glad we could do this.

Here is a view of the wall and doorway going into the master closet. It's a little room, but it will be a big closet. I don't have much storage space in the house, and the attic will be taken up by duct work, so this will be overflow storage as well as a huge closet.

This is a random shot of a piece of dead wood I found on the floor. I wish you could have seen it in person, it literally feathers out like bad 80's hair. It was more air than anything. It's scary to think this was somewhere in my house, supporting something.

So much difference a day makes! Already I'm awaiting tomorrow's work.

Day 3

2009-03-31T22:44:00.003-04:00

Today was Day THREE with the Flu Contractor, and I could hardly keep myself from the house in anticipation of what might be going on and getting done. I stayed away, though, and out of the contractors' way, until I knew they'd be done for the day. Plus we'd scheduled a meeting with an electrician down at the house in the afternoon, so I waited semi-patiently. After the electrician left, I began taking pictures...

This is the corner of the closet of the master bedroom, where they replaced the sills. The contractors also began sister-ing the old studs to new ones.

Now we've turned around to face the opposite corner and here you see the previously finished floor substructure and sills running between the closet and master bedroom and, in the distance, the rebuilt back wall in the kitchen.

Same new wall in the kitchen, with its new sill. To the right is what is left of the back porch and a pile of debris. Straight ahead is the bowed out wall in the kitchen.

This corner looks like a mess, and it is, but it's where the wall we were just on and the bowed out wall meet, but there's something different from yesterday--- the wall has been jacked up and leveled...

And the studs here have been sister-ed, too. But the bowed out wall...

Has been reattached to the house! And the sill has been repaired! I kind of wish I had stopped in today just to see how they accomplished this feat.

You might remember this picture angle from yesterday, but today the joists are definitely attached and the wall is flush with the house and level and perfect. You may see some odd lumber here and there and supports, but that's what's left from their maneuvering today.

This is a shot from farther away of the back wall of the kitchen, the one in the process of being rebuilt, and Daddy checking out the workmanship. The right corner has been brought up, as has the left, but the middle still sags a bit, but the pier here had deteriorated and the contractors haven't built a new one back yet.

All in all, an extremely productive day. I had a very good bid from the electrician, and I'm pretty sure I'll go with him. I'd gotten another bid a while back, and this new guy came in much lower, mainly because the extent of the demo has left the house open and exposed, as it would be in a new home, so he's giving me the 'new build' price.

I also bought my first piece of furniture for the house today, but I'll save that for another post.

Day 2 with the Flu Contractor

2009-03-30T19:50:00.007-04:00

Since the weather was beautiful outside today, and no chance of rain in sight, I hardly expected to see the guys working on my house. I thought that last Friday was just because they had been rained out of their other jobs. And they would start, for real, in another week as the Flu Contractor stated. It turns out, I was happily mistaken.

After running a few errands downtown (and spotting some simple antique stained glass windows for sale in my price range--- mental note, mind you), I drove by my house to see if any any work was going on. I stopped in, met two of the guys I didn't meet Friday, and we discussed the placement of doors and the layout of the bathroom and utility room. But more on that, later. First, pictures!

Some of these came out dark. I'm not sure if my camera settings are wonky or if it was just that bright in the house, because there was a lot of daylight coming in with, what, the back wall of the house being open. This is the view from my front door. You can click it to make the picture more easily viewable.

A picture of the bathroom and its new floor substructure. A closet for the little bedroom will go in here, as well as the utility room. The space in the hallway behind will go into these rooms as well.

We're standing at the kitchen doorway, looking out into the backyard. The kitchen doorway and the backdoor of the house will be lined up sort of like this, so that when you walk into the Great Room, you can see straight out to the backyard. It's a visual trick to make the space seem larger. This has been a plan of mine all along, but not until today could you really see it. Of course, in the future, the backyard will beckon you outside, but that's a project for later.

I'm out on the gangplank over the floor joists admiring the new sill and beginnings of the new back wall in the kitchen. The Contractors will bulk up this wall once they build in the doorways, right now the studs are for weight support, only. Also, you may notice the slant in the wall. The whole back of the house will be jacked up and leveled once they reattach the bowed wall and finish the sill repair and replacement.

Same place on the gangplank, looking into the closet off the master bedroom. You can see daylight where they had to remove the siding in order to tear out the old sills and replace them.

Further back, standing in the Dining Area of the Great Room, looking at the kitchen wall that separates these areas. You see the doorway which will remain in place, open and cased. I'm contemplating having an opening in the wall to the left of the doorway as well, a little higher than counter height, and not a true bar. Just an open, cased window, with the sink below it on the opposite side... Just a thought. I don't want the space too open, and I want a break in room color that only walls can give, for the kitchen. But I want the two rooms to speak to one another and flow.

In the master bedroom now, looking at the replaced sills and new floor structure. That's going to be one big closet area. Again, the studs are just there to hold weight. We talked about door placement here, too. It will be cheated to the left, off center, with enough room left so that shelves can be on all walls, maximizing the storage space.

I'm out in the backyard, now, looking back towards the house. What is left of this whole screened-in porch will be demoed. It was an add-on, anyway. I want to put one back eventually, but won't have the money right away. But look at the view. See the double windows at the front of the house? The front door is just to the left of them, on a side wall. This is what I was talking about earlier, with having clean and clear sight lines.

This is part of the junk pile. Since I don't have a dumpster at the moment, I'm having them pile up debris. Click on this to see the extent of the rot and termite damage to the sills and other lumber that were the walls.

Here, I'm situated about where the back door will be in the kitchen. I guess this was my blog post theme of the day. Ignore the wire hanging down precariously. See the stud wall immediately in front of us? This is the wall I'm thinking about adding the open window pass through between the kitchen and Great Room, in addition to the open doorway.

I spoke with the contractors for a while about door placement, so from here they can finish the walls to where we talked about putting the doors. Also, with their expertise, we mapped out the layout of the bathroom and the utility room, and decided that these will in fact be two smaller rooms in the big bathroom area, both having doors in the dining area. The bathroom door will swing in and the utility room door will swing out. I'm thinking maybe frosted glass multi-paned french doors here, mimicking a set but opening into two different rooms. These will let in light, address privacy matters, and look a little dressier than standard doors. I saw some pine interior doors at Lowe's that I found to be reasonably priced, even if I have to frost the glass myself. The contractors are also going to leave enough space around all the doors in the house for wide trim, if it's in the budget down the road.

So that's the end of the second day. Much more will happen tomorrow. I'm very excited about the progress so far. Hopefully they'll be done by the end of this week. Next will be getting my demo contractor back in to finish work, clean up, and start framing the non-load bearing walls. Maybe even installing the new windows. Then I'll be setting up appointments with the air conditioner guy, the plumber, and the electrician.

I guess I'll have to schedule an inspection by City Hall, though, too.

But first I'll have to get the house secure again, by getting demo contractor in to replace siding and... oh. Hmm, I guess I need to buy a back door.

Work done! New lumber! Sawdust!

2009-03-30T18:46:00.007-04:00

This is what greeted me when I came up the steps to the front porch. Sawdust!

The Flu Contractor started working on my house last Friday (03/27/09). Here are the pictures I took once I got off of work and they were done for the day and weekend. They work 8am-4pm, Monday through Friday, and chose to start on a Friday because the weather rained them out of their other projects.

I was very cheerful all day and beyond ecstatic because the work of putting back had begun. So far with the house, everything I'd done was taking away. All good, like taking away the two apartments, taking away the gross kitchens and bathrooms, taking away the storm damaged roof, taking away the jungle in the back yard, taking away the bamboo... But last Friday, I began putting back.

I don't think anyone has ever been as excited as I was to see scrap lumber last Friday...

And once I was inside the door, I found this, new lumber! So, being the dork about my house that I am, I took a picture. Apparently I have no shame when it comes to my house.

This is most definitely picture-worthy, though. New sills, a couple of new foundation piers, and the beginnings of new framing for a new floor in the bathroom. New, new, new!

Here we are at the kitchen door, looking at the complete absence of a back wall to the house. Unless you count the little section of three studs and exterior siding on the back porch.

I squirreled across the kitchen floor joists to get a closer look. This mesmerized me for some reason. I think it was a twist on reality. I knew what had been there, and what should be there, but nothing was there. Just air.

I'm about twelve feet over now, in the master bedroom, looking at another lack of wall and lack of floor. I knew this was all coming out, the rotten wood in order to fix it but, I just... some things you can't imagine.

Looking down to your right from the view above, at the cuts made and the new floor in progress. Again, this is the floor of what will be the master closet.

I'm back now to the center of the house, on the other side of the new bathroom floor. I'm in the hallway/old enclosed side porch which will donate its space to the bathroom.

It was getting dark at this point, so I locked up and came home, my imagination running wild with what it would look like in a week, or a month, or three months. Of how long would it actually take to get it looking like a house again...

the saga, revisited...

2009-03-30T17:52:00.006-04:00

Another two weeks have gone by, but let's catch up again on the saga:

It turns out the contractor I interviewed and took on a walk through of the house had either the flu or walking pneumonia for a week and a half, which explains why he didn't get back in touch with me. I actually found this out when I called another potential contractor about the work... It turns out the second guy didn't get his license last summer when the big law changed in Georgia, but he recommended the first guy I talked to. I told second guy that I had already spoken with first guy, and the second guy told me that first guy had been sick.

Sorry if that was confusing.

Long story short (too late), walking pneumonia guy returned my call a day or two later and proposed a bid, or rather, a strategy. And after a week of contemplation and talking to my family, I accepted.

This was all two weeks ago, as is my updating fashion. But here's where my demo contractor left off, and a review (with images!) of the problems:

This is my kitchen floor. And the dirt below it. These are the floor joists that aren't attached to the wall. At all. Any of them. Bad angle, but this a recap, remember? The wall to your diagonal left is the bowed-out wall.

This is the view looking through the back wall of the kitchen onto the back porch area, which also at some point became the bathroom area for Apartment 1. Notice the lack of floor where the bathroom was- it was beyond rotten and terrible. To your left you see the screened-in porch floor.

Here I'm standing in what will be the master closet, looking out across what was the bathroom and onto the back porch. This was the the place where the hot water heaters lived, and there was no access out onto this porch from the house. You had to climb through the jungle to get here.

I'm standing on the dirt below where the bathroom was, with a close up of the sill here, just to show you how badly these needed to be replaced.

And here we have the sill in the bathroom for Apartment B, where the bathroom will go back.

I had to wedge myself against stacked lumber, two displaced mantels, and a set of scaffolding to get this picture, but it is of the bowed-out kitchen wall and the floating floor joists.

So, Flu Contractor is going to replace the sills around the master closet, the sills in the bathroom in the center of the house, and the sills of two walls in the kitchen. He will fix the bowed-out wall in the kitchen correctly, and entirely rebuild the back wall in the kitchen. He will also move the load-bearing wall that sits in-between the kitchen and master bath out about a foot to 18 inches, whatever the sister-ed rafters above allow without having to change the foundation below.

He estimates that this will take a week.

dumpster M.I.A.

2009-03-20T02:01:00.005-04:00

Tuesday morning on my way to work, I noticed that the construction dumpster that usually resides outside my house was gone. I hadn't called to have them dump it, as it was only a quarter-ways full, if that.

I called the dumpster company and they tell me that there was a vehicle accident in front of my house (minor, I'm positive) and that the people involved blamed the line-of-sight and view blockage of my dumpster, since it was parked in the street. The police called the dumpster company and asked them to remove it.

Now, I have had a dumpster outside my house sometimes for weeks at a time, and never have there been any problems. If you use common sense while driving, there isn't an issue. The street is a pretty slow street anyway, and is kind of on a hill, so you can see far enough ahead of you to tell what traffic is like...

Anyway, no charge for the dumpster removal. For the actual dumping, I'm not sure. And no charge to bring a dumpster back, when I need it again. Since I have no driveway, I guess I'll have to start a yard pile of stuff to be hauled away, then when the pile gets big enough, rent a dumpster for the day and fill it and dump it ASAP.

Fun note of the day: someone (bad neighbors) threw an old-school, huge projection tv in my dumpster last week. And also some old broken children's toys in my backyard, which was clean. I know the tv was theirs because it was seen, by multiple people, outside their house. I wouldn't be surprised if the dumpster/car fiasco had something to do with them as well.

...

I took a potential licensed contractor on a walk through of the house about two weeks ago. Still haven't heard from him. Left him a voice mail yesterday morning, but he hasn't returned my call yet. I guess tomorrow I'll start calling other licensed contractors and setting up times to meet.

I am pretty good at staying optimistic but these setbacks lately have really taken a toll on me. It feels like every time I get excited about the house again, something else pops up and brings me back down.

Maybe timing is everything. And, like I've said many times before, I have more time than money at this point. But it sure is frustrating.