Re-Building.com
January, 2006
| January 3 |
Jim came in today to put in shutoffs in the bath. He couldn't install the lavatory, because the faucet is on order and won't be here until next week. But he was able to get one installation done, which we all appreciate! Well...here a picture is definitely worth a thousand words.
| January 4 |
The end is nearing. Well as soon as the cabinets and the back door arrive!
In the mean time, I put together a punch list of the remaining items to complete for this job. All this has to get done before I get my final payment. Mostly a lot of little things. Most of the hard work is done.
As you have most likely observed, I stopped keeping a schedule once the cabinet order screwed everything up.
After the cabinets do arrive, allowing 1 week for countertop fabriating and installation, and 1 day of plumbing, Marie can use her kitchen within 9 or 10 days. The bathroom will have already been done. Another week after that for our inspections.
A little night music.
| January 14 |
It's been ten days since. Many things have been going on with me outside of this job. I've been overambitious for a while and have taken on too many things - too many responsibilities. A very bad habit of mine. I can multi-task to a high degree, but think I've passed my limit. I've been working with constant nagging back pain, and mentally, i'm not concentrating at my best. I'm gonna blow off a few other less important projects for a while, and just kind of go into a zone of irresponsibility towards them. I want to mainly focus on working on Marie's house until this job is done.
Along that line, a lot of things did get done. Among them, the back door finally arrived and I got it installed. It looks great and really changes the look of the space. It is in exactly the right place, has the right proportions and I was feeling really pleased about my design skills! To bad I can't make any real money from those skills. By the way, it's a Marvin door, and it is excellent!! (The new windows are also Marvin, and they are very fine too.)
Thursday was so nice - the temperature outside was in the 50's! - So I started in on the outside deck. I had Tristan with me on Thurs. and had him pour a footing for one of the posts. There was already one footing in place from the old porch, which was almost exactly where we needed it, so we saved a little digging.
The bathroom tile is also complete, and I finished grouting today. Just have to caulk the corners and Marie can use the shower. I filled the tub and tested the whirlpool. Ran it for about one-half hour, and everything is fine and no leaks or anything. It was really cool and I wanted to get in the tub to check it out. I'm so jealous, I want one?
By the way, the bathroom color scheme is now officially GREEN. All the wood trim and cabinets will be a somewhat darker shade than the the walls. The door will be a dark, red-brown stain-and-varnish, like the rest of the house.
The kitchen cabinets are still not delivered, and it's driving me crazy!! Anyhow, in the meantime, Marie decided to contract me to do some work in the living and dining rooms, and the two front bedrooms. So it looks like I'll be here for at least a few more weeks.
All the woodwork in the house had been painted and we are going to strip it.
In the dining room, the header trim over the windows and doors used to be continuous and go all the way around the room. I am going to restore that, and also do the same in the living room (which was not originally that way). We will strip all he doors, and remove all six windows, remove the paint inside and out, replace any broken glass, and repair any missing glaze. Then we'll re-hang them with new copper sash chain.
We will also install some wall sconces in the living room and remove the ceiling light fixture, which is just not appropriate for a living room in an arts and crafts bungalow. Since there is no front hall or vestibule, I made a suggestion to Marie about putting in a small, partial wall to give the front door, which now opens directly into the living room, a little visual separation from the rest of the room. this is a little trick that's often done in similar homes. Here are a few perspectives showing what I mean.
About the ugliest thing in the house, and something that has annoyed Marie greatly for the past ten years, is that all the floors - in the whole house!..except the bath, had vinyl tiles glued down!! Yes, "ugly" is a good word for it. Compact and to the point.
Another "what were they thinking!?" moment, because underneath are perfectly good red oak floors in fine shape. I already removed some of the vinyl squares, and the old finish underneath is shellac.
It looks like we may be able to strip the floor instead of sanding. (It is easy to tell that the floors had been sanded once before, many years ago.) Of course, I gave Marie my strong opinion that whether we sand or strip, the new finish should be shellac.
Finally we are going to remove the paint from the fireplace brick. I already did a test sample area and devised a technique. So even thought brick surface is ridged and not smooth, it should not be horribly difficult to strip.
| January 21 |
Today (Saturday) I decided not to work.
Stopped by Marie's just to take a few photos there, to show what little work got done since last week. I've just been noodling around working on little things. Can't do much until the cabinets arrive. Marie called the home center on Friday and they said the cabinets were en route from the factory and should arrive at any time. Hopefully Monday or Tuesday, they'll be delivered to us and I can start installing them.
I finished painting the bathroom, and caulked around the tub.
I have to do some paint touch-up in a few areas where I cut-in around the trim. My hands are just not as steady as they used to be, and my eyesight is not nearly as good. It's that forty-something thing, where suddenly the eyeballs just don't adjust anymore for close-up work. So for the past couple of years, I've been going through dozens of pairs of reading glasses. I can't tell you how many pairs I've sat on, stepped on, scratched the lenses on and lost, etc..
I finished trimming out the back bedroom off the porch. The windows need to be sanded and everything then gets two coats of a colored varnish to match the woodwork in the rest of the house. Still have to do some plaster repair and paint this room.
I finished building the lower portion of the deck and stairs outside the back door. This small deck will be covered. The tall posts will support a little roof with some kind of architectural detail, which I haven't worked out yet. (The handrails in the photo are temporary.)
The deck structure itself, the decking surface, the stringers and treads are all pressure treated lumber. That will extend the life of the the structure by preventing it from decay where it comes in heavy contact with water and dampness. The upper portions, including the hand rails, will all be of cedar. Cedar makes a nicer finished wood surface, and cedar 4-by-4 posts (selected with a tight grain) are much less likely to twist and warp like treated ones do. The cedar boards will also check less. Ultimately it will all be stained the same color, or both kinds of wood will weather to a nice natural gray.
Yesterday, I made and installed the jamb extensions for the new windows. The extensions will give Marie nice wide sills on which she can put plants, or whatever. I can't put on casings, or trim out the rest of the room, until the cabinets are installed.
Marie started using the new back door today. And she got to shovel snow for the first time since she moved back in the house this past week.
For the rest of today I'm at the fiddle, working on Mozart and Greig. Always wanted to learn the the Greig Sonata in C minor. I bought the music a few months ago, but haven't had time to look at it yet. I know the sonata well from recordings though. I have Fritz Kreisler's recording (with Rachmaninoff at the piano) in my head at the moment. I have to try to shake that and discover my own interpretation. It will be a pleasurable day.
| January 26 |
Here's what I got done so far this week:
I installed the hardware on the door to the basement. I also morticed and installed a new striker plate into the jamb and installed the stops.
The two-way door and jamb between the kitchen was installed several weeks ago, but the spring hardware at the bottom was damaged. One of the 3/8 diameter inch rollers in the mechanism and its attaching rivet was missing. Of course there is no way to get new parts, and I don't have have to time search or wait around for a salvage mechanism to show up, so I fabricated the roller piece myself. I bought a piece of 3/8 inch steel rod, drilled a hole in the center about 1/2 inch into the rod, and then cut off a piece to the length I needed which was about 3/8 high. Instead of riveting it, I installed it with a steel screw and nut. I filed and peened the end of the screw after the nut was tightened on so the it will be less likely to come loose and fall off over time. The door works great and now stays in position properly when open in either direction.
Also this week, I varnished the woodwork in the room off the porch - 2 coats.
Finally, yesterday I applied the paint remover to the outside portion of the brick fireplace in the living room. I'm using a product called "Peel Away" which is just the right thing for this kind of application. It is a poultice type system which uses sodium hydroxide in the poultice medium as the active chemical. Here is a link to to some work I did with this product in the past.
Today, I scraped off the remover, and using much elbow grease - and lots of water - I got the majority of the paint off. Very tiring work! It would be so great to use a high pressure power washer, but of course that is not possible indoors!!
After removing as much material as I could get with brushes and water, I rinsed the whole thing several times. Then, once things were relatively dry, I went at the thing with the picks and scrapers. That is the absolutely, most tedious part of the job - especially on this textured brick. It'll never be perfect, but once two coats of boiled linseed are applied the brick, that will bring out and enhance the slight glaze on the brick and it will look fine.
By the way, I removed the mantel, because it needs some repair, and anyhow it will be a lot easier to strip this way. The cabinets are scheduled to be delivered tomorrow. We're holding our breaths.
| January 28 |
Marie's cabinets finally arrived yesterday. They delivered them right into the garage on their pallets.
All the right cabinets were delivered and only some very slight damage on two cabinets, one which will be hidden against a wall, and the other I did a repair on. I hung all the uppers yesterday.
Marie came home in the evening yesterday while I was finishing up. She saw the cabinets for the first time after I had all the uppers installed in the kitchen. I was still working on the porch. She loved the color and the look of the cabinets. I hope she also is happy with the design after she lives and works in it for a while. I could see many emotions - relief, excitement, surprise, joy. I think it's really the only reason I still do this work.
Today, Tristan was around to help me carry in all the heavy base cabinets and the large "pantry" cabinet for the porch. I installed those today and we'll be ready for countertop measurements by Tuesday.
It was so exciting today after I dry-fit all the lower cabinets and put on some mock-up countertops made from large sheets of the cabinet packing cardboard. It's hard to get good photos because my digital camera does not have a wide angle lens, so I took several photos and a little digital video, panning around the kitchen - just to give an idea. (sorry about the quality.) Marie was out doing errands when Tris and I finished up and left today.
(You'll need Windows Media Player, which most Windows users already have. For Mac users, here is a link to the download.)
I think Marie will be even more pleased when she gets back today. This is the first time that she'll be able to see the whole design concept come together, and to decide whether all the expense, stress and bother will have been worth it. I hope so, when she's paying those monthly, home equity loan checks for the next couple of years! But then, now that I look at the job, she's not just getting a new kitchen and bath.
In the next couple of months, she will basically have a whole new house, including all new plumbing throughout, a major electrical upgrade, a fully insulated attic, windows repaired and re-hung, a more functional laundry and all the living space remodeled or restored. It's gonna be very cool when it's all done! Really a lot of value for her money, that will add much more to the value of the house than her cost for work done.
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