A Reason To Post Again

A little motivation and some warm weather got me workin on the house again finally. The kitchen is half sanded and looks like it will be a while before I sand the rest.

In the meantime last weekend I decided to rent a jackhammer and bust up the section of driveway that will become yard again. A large section of yard was made into parking when the place was apartments. But now it's much more than I will ever need and prefer to have some more yard back. I did decide to leave one lane around the side of the garage to park the truck when that retires from everday use to just a weekend hauler. A little intimidating at first, I managed to bust everything up in alittle over 3 hours. Then was the fun job of removing the concrete into a pile, which I've yet to work out the details of where it will go next. I was lucky to get a little help with this chore.





After raking the stones up a bit, I started construction on the raised beds for the new and improved veggie garden. I'm building four beds out of cedar - three will be 12ft x 4ft and one 10ft x 4ft. After plenty of research, raised beds are the way to go. After the initial setup, this style yields better results and is easier to maintain. I filled them with a bottom layer of leaves and compost, then the rest with topsoil. I'll add a few more goodies and mulch the top after planting.



I also started plants from seed indoors for the first time. This is far cheaper and can get an earlier jump on things than store bought plants. Plus you can get a better variety than the limited selection at the garden center. Just a plaine shelf with flourescent lights and using peat pots. We'll see how this works out.



So I had 7 yards deilivered of topsoil. About half went into the beds and half will go on the yard after I get a delivery from my dad. He had to replace his main sewer line so I got about a yard from that. He is also getting sidewalks redone, so I'll be getting a few more yards that I'll use to fill where the concrete came out before I add the topsoil.



Once I get the spring yard work done it'll be back in the kitchen.

Winter Standstill

Not much to report lately. Caught a nasty bug. I have enough energy to go to work and keep the fire going and that's about it. Before things came to a complete hault I was slowly adding coat of mud to the kitchen. I have just about two complete coats done. Also trying to get the rest of the paint stripping done.









I also went through all my door hardware and put together enough solid brass sets for the 1st floor doors. Then I polished everything up on the buffer and installed everything. That's about it lately......

It Works! But then......

The powder room project has been one big roller coaster ride. You've already heard about the painting fiasco which finally came to a happy ending. Next was getting the high tank toilet in service.

Two more orders and I finally had everything I needed to put the tank in operation. I ordered new flush and fill assemblies from DEA Bath. They weren't cheap, but the quality was impressive - all copper and brass construction. So I enlarged the hole for the flush and installed everything in the tank. I left the back off so I could do a leak test and see most of the joints in the copper tank.



Well 24 hrs with no leaks I was comfortable to hang it on the wall. I finish up the assembly, hang on the wall.... and guess what?? Yep a slow drip. Take it down, clear RTV the solder joints on the inside of the tank, reinstall - and still a leak. Back down, dissassemble everything, and notice the leak appeared to come from the flush assembly donut through the tank. So I RTV the outside solder joints just in case, then reassemble using some putty along with the donut gaskets. Passed the first leak test without back and final assembly test. Back on the wall this time all was good.



Then it took three tries to get the spud on bowl end leak free. Finished the fill line install and it was ready for business. I must say these units have one heck of a flush! I guess the 7 feet of head pressure helps. So all was right with the powder room and finally could concentrate all my energy to the kitchen........ until

The cold came - I mean the REALLY COLD came. Since the plumbing was redone in the bath/kitchen, I've only had one trouble spot with freezing - right where a cold line 90's up and was against a cinderblock skirting the back section of house. I had a fix in mind for this, but didn't get to it yet. Last year I removed the exposed cinderblock and rebuilt the original style beadboard skirt where the deck didn't cover it. Needless to say it's not airtight, but last winter I had no problems, so figured the pipe insualtion was enough.

Then came temps under 10 degrees and the pipes froze.... all of them! So saturday I spend building a sealed/insulated inner wall around the skirt, and was going to heat trace the pipes until I heard some bad things about that. Ended up just adding another layer if insulation. I got as far as freeing up all but the tub lines and thought I was in the clear. Then I hear the noise and it wasn't the tub starting to flow like I thought.



Go under and see the hole in the pipe. No biggie, I'll cut and solder a coupling at the break. Well no coupling in stock, go to HD and back, couple the pipe and take a look around. Hmmmm, how di water spray over here??? Oh hell, another break thawing out. Then another.... five in all. Its about 8pm at this point, and it ain;t getting fixed today. So I cut out the bad stuff and figure I'll leave the powder room out of commision till I feel like going down in the crawl space again. That was till this morning when Rach tried to do laundry. The cold line tees off this run - back in the hole! So brain storm, I go to HD and pick up a pair of valves with the compression fittings to pop on the lines to the tub. 10 minute job, valve them out, and laundry, toilet and bath sink are back in service. At this point the tub can wait till spring.
The last fix was to open up the crawl space to the basement again as recommended by a friend. Since the space is pretty tight from the outside, it should acclimate to the basement temp and keep the pipes even happier. I built a filler piece when I first moved in to seal this off, and didn't want to completely open this up in case of any critters getting in the crawl space, so I ended up cutting in a vent, which will let the air through and the keep any critters out.

Ah, what an adventure this powder room has been.

The Obama Express

Guess who made an appearance past the Hall House??!

Making Pre-Hung Doors Continued....

So here's a little more on how I built pre-hung doors assemblies using salvaged doors. There may be better ways, this was just the method I came up with. I lay the door on horses opening direction down. After ripping some 1x pine to the jamb thickness I lay them on each side of the door. I use paint sticks as a gap shim between the jamb sides and door, then pipe clamp together to keep stable. Now I can measure for the header piece. I cut the top piece to length and then I router the thickness of the side jamb pieces into each end of the top (half the thickness of the top piece) This leaves a slot on each end for the side pieces to fit into making a nice tight joint. I reassemble the pieces around the door this time using paint sticks for the top gap as well. Now I can mark my cuts for the bottom of the door, which I also had to allow for the thickness that the kitchen floor will be built up. Once these are cut it's time for final assembly. I nail and glue the top joints and shim between the door and jamb assembly again - using pipe clamps as before to hold things together.




I do some quick checks for squareness and then it's time to brace the assembly so it can be moved around for installation. Using the top measurement, I cut three identical length stick (I used scrap from ripping down the jambs). Marking at measured points down each side I then fasten each support to the jamb having the ends flush with the edge of the jamb. This should guarantee that the width stays true from top to bottom of your built jamb. I also add corner bracing at the top. At this point you should have a pretty sturdy assembly and can now mark and mortise your hinges as I showed earlier.



Finally install as you would any pre-hung door. After the unit is installed, just remove the bracing. You may have to do some minor adjusting during the install depending on the condition of the door (it was surely shaved to fit another opening that wasn't square!), but so far I've had pretty good luck with this method and can do one start to finish in a few hours now.

New Appreciation For Pre-Hung Doors

I'm in door mode right now in the kitchen and powder room. The powder room jamb I built and installed a while back, but never fully installed the door in the jamb. This created some problems during the install and not having the door in which left me with a little planing to do.



I picked up a neat tool - a Porter Cable hinge mortising kit for routering doors/jambs. It's fully adjustable to accept any size hinge and any thickness door and door height. So here is a shot setting it up on the jamb. There are little pins you hammer down to hold the jig in place. Then using a router with a guide, you router out the hinge mortise for each. Then remove the jig and square the corners, since I'm using orignal style hinges.



Next you take the jig and place on the door. There are adjustable ends with markings so you can account for the top and bottom clearances when placing the jig on the door. Then repeat the router sequence. The true test was mounting each half of the hinge to the door and jamb - and then pinning the door in place. Wouldn't you know it went right together! Is was a little pricy a tool even second hand - but when I have 15 or so doors to do from scratch, using salvage doors to boot, it was worth every penny.





So for the next door , the dishwasher closet, I built the jamb on saw horses around the door. But this time I mortised the door and jamb, making a complete unit. Then adding some cross bracing to keep things squared up I installed the complete unit into the opening with no problems. A few shims, nail in place, remove the bracing and call it done. Only things to add was the stop trim and mortise the strike plate for the lock.



The next door (basement) I'll go into a little more detail of how I made the jamb since my camera was dead when I did that part....

Happy Holidays!

Hey - It Looks Like A Bathroom Finally

The floor has dried, the toe moulding is in, and it's time to install everything. The clawfoot tub is in and hooked up....



As well as the pedestal sink....



and here is what I found under all that white paint - tiger oak



The toilet is in with the flush pipe....



All that waits is the parts to rebuild the high tank. I ordered new fill and flush mechanisms, plus refinished the tank.

In process of stripping the door and then I can try out the Porter Cable router hinge template I picked up second hand. I just may get the powder room finished before the end of the year - maybe....

It's A Major Award.....

it just arrived and I know just where to put it!



right in the front room window!



....mind power Swede, mind power.

Painting Nightmare

It all started out pretty well.....

Once I got the initiative to work on the walls, they went pretty quick and the sanding job came out pretty good for not having done any drywall work in over a year plus. I then caulked the ceiling panels into the crown and the crown into the wall, plus the wainscoting trim. Then it was a good coat of primer on everything. The ceiling was done with Valspar ceiling white.



From there though it was downhill quick. I had already picked out colors for the kitchen, bath, and trim work. After work I stopped by Lowes to pick up the paint, but forgot the trim color. So I quick picked out what I thought was an antique white, got the paint made up and was all ready to go. It was Thursday morning when I got to do the first coat. Wednesday I had to put a new engine in the splitter because it threw a rod - but that's another story! Anywho so I put the first coat on the wainscoting and quickly realized that color was really a tan more than a white - oops. After I finished it grew on me some though and actually would go really good with the kitchen green, but the blue I wasn't so sure. So then came the blue. As soon as I started putting it on I knew it was a bust. More of a Miami beach pool blue than something that belonged in an old house. The "Fiesta" in the name should have given it away.

Friday night I wanted to stop by Lowes and get some new colors so I could start Saturday morning. Well I ended up staying a few hours late so skipped Lowes. When I got home there was still time before we had to go to the Neil Young concert (he can still ROCK!) so I stopped at the Depot around the corner and picked out some new colors. I figured I've had pretty good luck with Behr in the past so what the heck.

Then came Saturday.... I start the wainscoting and quickly notice either Behr got worse or working with Valspar all summer put Behr in a new perspective. It was thinner and much worse with runs. When I would go back to touch up a run it would pull the drying paint pretty bad. I got through that and figured I'd clean up with the second coat. It continued to get worse. Then I go to roll out the blue. Cutting in, I liked the color and seemed OK at first - but then going back to drying sections was the same pulling problem. Just didn't seem like it was biting to the wall. Finally rolling it out, the roller would pull where I cut. After two walls I got really frustrated with the paint, worse than anything I'd ever worked with...... then the runs started. I tried to touch up with the roller and again the paint would want to pull off. All right - I'll let things dry before I go on any further. Fifteen minutes later I come back and the damn paint is literally running down the walls! In a panic I go to wipe a run off the wall before it sets, but it already had skinned over and that just made things worse. A bunch of 4 letter words later I walked away to let thing dry over night with a space heater in the room and stopped by Lowes on the way to work and get my third set of colors, and some high build primer - swearing off Behr paint the whole time.



Sunday morning it took over 3 hours using an orbital sander to clean up two half walls in a 5x8 bathroom. It was a real mess. It was never going to come back to the condition I had it with the first primer coat after freshly sanded walls. The corners I used a little caulk to clean the runs up and along the wainscoting joint. The wainscoting would have to wait, one mess at a time. After the high build prime was on things looked a little better. I got the blue on and finally felt a little better.

The wainscoting had some issues with runs in the joints which I'll never get out, just too time consuming. I sanded the flats some and put the new trim color on. Finally things looked good and the scheme was what we had in mind for the room. I installed the vintage porcelain sconce and new gfi and switches. Then another test fit of the high tank and marked where the medicine cabinet I'm restoring will go. Also mounted a vintage TP holder I picked up.

So today with the painting pretty much finished I did a final sanding of the floors and applied some "golden oak" stain which really brought out the oak floors. A couple coats of poly on the floor and I can finally start moving fixtures back in for good. Things are finally heading in the right direction again......

Still Avoiding Sanding

I've been finding every possible job to tackle in the powder room taht doesn't involve sanding the walls - pretty sad for such a small room! But I'm about to the point where I just need to get it over with. The trimwork is all but complete now except for casing which is yet to be made. The caps for the wainscotting is finished, just a simple piece with a bead routered. The sill for the window is in place....same bead detail.



I went ahead and installed the metal crown for the tin ceiling too. To give myself a nailer and added support for these flimsy pieces, I ripped some square stock and installed on the wall and ceiling where the crown sits. This worked out really well.
On the corners, the first piece goes flat and then you have to trace out the profile cut for the other side to meet it. It made up a respectable corner.





Not much else getting done these days on the house while catching up on working my wood pile for the winter - about 2 cords left to split.

Interior Season Begins

Finally - back to normal work schedule again and I can put the old work belt back on at home. With one minor snow fall already and the wood stove already roaring on a daily basis, my scaffolding season is over and it's time to get back to some inside projects. The plan this winter is to get the powder room and kitchen done so we can finally start living like "normal" people again - you know the one's with kitchen's on the first floor and stuff. The workout from carrying groceries up to the second floor maybe healthy, but it's getting REALLY OLD!

It's probably been a year and a half since I touched this room. Just to recap, the plumbing and wiring are done, beadboard is installed, and tin ceiling is up minus the crown pieces. Drywall is hung with two coats of mud already done. I did build a jamb earlier this year that's waiting for a door to be installed.

I managed to do some prep work during the rare free time I've had recently. The powder room, which I originally planned to do the floor in tile, will now be an oak floor. I have 500 sq. ft. of oak that I removed from the first floor, so I figured heck, that would make a nice floor in the powder the room.... and it's free. So I ran some through the planer lightly just to clean it up. I also started stripping a door for this room which takes a good bit of time.

After laying down some rosin paper, I started laying the floor from the back wall. Once past the pipes it was pretty easy work.



Once I'm done the messy work I'll give it a sanding to blend the boards a bit. Then I may go with a golden oak stain and poly.

Next is trimming out the wainscotting. I'm using a 1x6 base plus capping. The vertical pieces are 1x3 and 1x2's with an overlap - giving 2 inches reveal at the corners. Top piece is a smaller casing molding which eventually will get a cap piece which I'm still contemplating on design. Probably will be a simple piece with the bead edge that's common in the woodwork of the house.







Once this trimwork is done, I need to finish the drywall mudding. I couldn't get myself to sand just yet, so I picked something a little more fun first - even if it's a bit out of order for what I should be doing....

Didn't Quite Make It

It's that time of year again where I put in 60+ hours a week at work and I fill the piggy bank back up for the up and coming projects.....

And outside work season is pretty much done. It's dark when I get home and getting borderline too cold too paint. Things will return to normal after Thanksgiving and it will then be back to inside work. That will be a nice change of pace since the siding project is starting to get OLD!

I managed to get shakes installed around to the first side window and the soffit installed around the corner. I still haven't installed the weather head on the service yet, but will get that done before winter. The two big front windows were also installed which came out nice and tight - so now all the front windows have been replaced. Two panes shattered while taking one window out but we won't get into that! Fortunately no cuts....

I cleaned out the powder room of fixtures and tub in prep to finish it. I only have one coat of mudding left and the should be ready to start paint and final trim. It's getting close to the point where I'll need to make some new casing to match the original in order to do powder room and kitchen. I think I'm going to set up in the kitchen where its not so cold. Plus I have the suction system now to keep dust under control. I never did this before so I figured I would practice on new pine till I get the hang of it. The I try to tackle some oak for the rest of the downstairs. These two projects should consume most of the winter till spring - then I can FINALLY finish the outside work.

WAY TO GO PHILLIES!!!!!

Electric Service Remount

As talked about before, the bracket for my electric drop appeared to have ripped out at some point and reattached - but not to a stud. Tearing off the layers of siding revealed just how poorly attached it was. I removed the siding except what was under the bracket and then started hanging the new siding. Once I was sided up to the next nearest stud towards the front of the house, I was able to make the switch to a new bracket.

old bracket

I pre-drilled and threaded in the new reinforced ceramic bracket. Next I hooked on a new tension clip to the bracket. Then laying the bracket on the guide cable (also the neutral wire for the service drop) I slid in the tapered mating piece. As tension is applied to the bracket, the pulls the taper closer making a tighter grip to the cable. It's a simple and really reliable design. Once the new mounting was complete I was able to remove the old bracket and the siding underneath it. Fair warning though, extreme caution needs to be taken when working around a service. One bad move can leave you a toasty critter and there is no breaker out on the street lines to blow if you do short something out! Usually the wire, the tool, or you will become the failing point to break the circuit if something bad happens.

I still need to put a service weather head on the cable. Right now it just has a "gooseneck" head, where they just bend the cable over to keep water from getting in the cable where the sheathing is cut to expose the individual leads. A weather head has a mounting screw and keeps the top of your cable more secure.

Running Out Of Time

My work schedule gets crazy again starting Oct 25th, so basically I have till then to get as much done on this side as I can. After that it will be pretty much dark when I get home (and probably won't feel like doing much!). The corner is stripped down and papered, plus the belt trim is stripped - so now I can start to shingle the corner and get the front finished. I started yesterday and have three rows done up to the porch roof along the side. The next level will start wrapping around the front. I have a few batches done so we'll see how far I get today, but the limiting factor on time again will be how fast I can get more batches painted....

I ran into a problem with the service cable. It appears that at some point in the past it was ripped off the house and then remounted about 6 inches away. The problem is they didn't his a stud! As I started prying hoping to work some of the siding out from behind it and be able to leave it in place - the entire bracket started moving - yikes. So I just worked around it for now leaving it everything in place. The sheathing is pretty thick, but with all the material between the bracket and the sheathing I don't think it grabbed to much wood. So my electrician buddy told me a trick to switch the triplex (wires coming from the pole) to a new bracket without having take on the full weight of it. It's a good 100 feet run to the pole, so I doubt I'd be able to hold on very long let alone try to fish onto a new bracket. I get into this more when I actually do it.

Another issue I had to finally deal with was a 1 1/2 inch conduit run that went from the service panel, up the outside wall along the service cable, then down along the belt trim and poke into the house in the from bedroom and the back bedroom/2nd floor kitchen. There were 5 circuits total which had to be disconnected from the main panel and pulled back to where they went back into the house on the second floor. Then I was able to remove all the ugly conduit. Two circuits were dedicated to outlets probably for window AC units, so I just eliminated them. Three others feed the third floor which was semi redone before I bought the house. Two of these seemed to power most of what I'm using up there, so I temporarily made a junction box in the front bedroom and powered these two a new feed I ran to power the front bedrooms. When these rooms are gutted I can run the lines up to the third floor and to the closet where the central AC will be and a sub panel.