A little batty and a little cranky
So another weekend has come and gone and again, nothing has been done on the house.
We couldn't put up the light fixture because the ladder we have is a bit (read: very) on the scary side and putting it on nice slick laminate is just not going to happen. So that now waits until we get a better ladder.
We started to tear down the shingles in the livingroom and then stopped because we started getting a good collection quite quickly and unless we felt like taking every single nail out of each piece, we couldn't exactly put it in the debris pile because it wouldn't be safe for the dogs. So, the wheelbarrow full is sitting in the shed until I order the next dumpster tomorrow. If they aren't too backed up, we should have one by Friday. We are going to get the next size up because if what we found behind the shingles is any indication of what is behind the paneling, that is coming down too. It's multiple layers of paint over a fabric wallpaper and it's all sealed into the wall and up to the ceiling (nice round smooth joint to the ceiling) by some good looking plaster. The only thing we'd have to do is patch nail holes and paint from what I can see.
We also plucked out a ceiling tile to see what was underneath that. It appears to be painted tongue and groove wood. So yes, the ceiling is coming down too this weekend.
I'm terribly excited about the demo. I've wanted to see what was under all this since I first walked in the place!
I did get one thing done this weekend. A fully measured and to-scale diagram of the house both upstairs and down. I love Illustrator. We'll be able to use it's multiple layer goodness to plan the electrical, networking, telephone, and video/audio cabling. Plus, I also did the proposed changes in the diagram as well. Then I played a little and now you can all see it morph from one to the other! Enjoy!
Oh, and I read 3 books this weekend. Yeah, you can tell it was productive.
Blah
We've been really lazy on the house.
There's nothing much we can do right now, with the exception of continuing to destroy our yard.
We have a ton of plants that we still want to dig up (because it's apparently the only way to kill 'em) and we have to move all of the paths around and rake tons of gravel.
Other than that, we have a light fixture we bought awhile ago that I'm going to install in the living room.
I have three outlets outside that need to be replaced with outlets designed to be outside - GFCIs with waterproof enclosures. We already bought these too.
Everything else requires money.
We have to buy a new lock for the door to the (currently enclosed) back porch, so that after we pull down the plywood and insulation, replace the beams that were torn out and remove the flower bed cemented onto the steps, we can lock it when we leave. Right now there's a dead bolt and a handle lock. This will probably be the door we use most often and is on the back of the house, so I'd like to replace it with a nicer handle and a keyless entry lock. $150-$???
We have to replace a load bearing wall, add an adjoining wall that was ripped out, and gut and drywall the dining room and living room. For this we need to buy the support beams, 2X4s, screws/nails/etc, drywall, tape, mud, electrical fixtures and wiring, insulation (primarily for soundproofing) and molding/trim. We also need to rent a drywall holder thingy and/or get drywall stilts, and probably get a new ladder or two. Since the entrance from the dining to living room is a wider entrance and public space, we need to find nicer molding to go around it as well. $1500-$2500
We also need to strip, repair and rehang every single window. $???
We have to strip the paint from the stairs and refinish them. $???
We have to buy a few spools of wiring and rewire the entire house, starting with the flying splices under the house. $1500-$2000, unless we hire it out. Then I bet we're looking at $3k+ to even get started.
Once all of the wiring is done, we can insulate.
That's going to be an interesting chore, because we can't figure out what kind of insulation we want or whether we're going to hire it out. I would love to go with the spray foam insulation and I've found a few places online that you can buy it so you can DIY. However I've seen a lot of places that say it's terribly difficult and should only be done by a qualified professional, etc etc. I'm betting playing around with the electricity is probably the same, but I'm already fiddling with that. When was the last time anyone cooked themselves spraying insulation?
Anyone have any experience with this stuff?
I haven't felt like posting much, because I can't say I've been able to actually do any of this. I hate the idea of doing more stuff to the yard, because until we can start planting next year we're just ripping up green and leaving brown.
Blah.
Yes, I know, it's been a while
We decided that once the floor was done, we were going to take a week off. It was a nice week filled with nothing taxing. This weekend marked the end of that. I dug up a bunch of plants in the garden that were marked for death and I still have a ton more to go. Mike planted and replanted a bunch of things into the bed we are going to use for the winter.
I finally got all the wood that was all over the driveway neatly stacked against the shed and took the stupid freestanding clothesline down. I wasn't able to get the pole out because it's in concrete and I was done digging for the day so I just spray painted the pole orange so we wouldn't run into it. Now the driveway is like 50 gajillion times bigger and when we park it's pretty much a straight shot to the side porch instead of walking all the way around the house.
Final thing we did was completely impromptu. The hose was stuck on the water spigot and was leaking water everywhere so Mike decided he was going to take it off and do some rigging with plumbers putty. Unfortunately, it was on so tight that instead of the hose coming off, the spigot snapped in half and water was pouring everywhere. He quickly ran and turned off the water at the main, then it was off to Home Depot for repairs because the other half of the spigot would not come off the pipe that went under the house, instead the entire pipe came out. Fantastic. Good thing was that when he came back it was a simple 1-2-3 job with him under the house and me outside putting everything together. Now, we have a brand new spigot. Attached the hose and still water leaking everywhere. Apparently the issue was with the hose all along...fun. So we went and got a new hose and life is grand.
Ah, the joys of living in an old house.
If you want to see pictures of the floor and me working on it and the hole in the floor and such, go check it out at the picture gallery.
