This Old House

Love Handles.

2011-11-07T12:36:00.000-08:00

before handles

Now we only have had the kitchen cabinets for about 9 months, so it was about time to add the handles. We had ordered the handles with the cabinets originally, but they showed up with a small number of knobs we didn't want. After wrangling the rest of the handles and sending back the knobs, we are ready to start. Using a jig provided by the cabinet makers, Elsa and Deder got to drilling!

Cupboard doors were easy, but the drawers had to be back-drilled for the short screws.

Sometimes I forget how small she is.

Of couse, these large handles looked pretty silly on the tiny top row. What were we going to do? After a week of debate and test handles, we agreed on--knobs. OK at least we are done with that now.

Floored!

2011-09-06T13:57:00.000-07:00

As we are in a rush to get things done, we've made the calculated investment to hire a flooring co. to finish the job. With the materials on hand they made short work of the job at hand and we are blessed stained and sealed floors in every room. Of course it took 2 weeks for the smell to go away but we are slowly moving our living space down and it is fabulous.

The herringbone looks nice!

I especially like how my haphazard salvage job turned out!

Whats that you slate? Part 1.addend.

2011-07-11T22:20:00.000-07:00

For you viewing pleasure, more pics of the kitch floor now. Same as the bath, but it took longer to manually thread the heating element and hot-glue it every 3 cm.

Heya Hon! is that tile giving a thumbs up too?

You'll notice Andrea doing all the work here. Deder's usual brute force attack was not survivable for many of the tiles. Thus the camera work.

Whats that you slate? Part 1.

2011-07-11T21:32:00.000-07:00

A long time ago, we decided on tile. Then I changed my mind. I was younger then, more romantic, I wanted to fulfill the Craftsman ethic with truly natural materials. Of course, there is a reason people make porcelain tile I now realize.

When we purchased the slate, the pallet of stone tiles had been dropped and it was our (Andrea's) job to sort out the unbroken tile. Once we had those, we realized that this stuff was wayyy more variable than the samples had suggested. There were mica streaks, rust veins, flecks, chips and blots of every color we hadn't thought of. But, it was a natural stone, "nature's messy" I thought. We would just have to make some music with this noise. But I'm no good with music, so Andrea got to sorting again.

First, the heating wire had to be laid

(heated floors will make the winter that much more bearable).

Then the careful, and I mean careful! laying of thin-set and tiles.

Nice work, hon!

And with a little babysitting and a few long nights of washing thin-set off the tools, you get a bathroom floor hewn from a damn mountianside!

Hello, operator

2011-04-16T15:11:00.000-07:00

When you've stripped a house down to it's studs, you might as well make the most of it. So before any new drywall went up, we complely strung the house with new wiring AND phone, internet, and cable. Now that the walls have been up for (wa!? a year almost?!, . . crap) well it was time to get those items working.

Since we used the same CAT5e for everything and forgot to label it in the first place, it had to be re-identified. A AA battery and digital multimeter will do the trick, but it means a lot of walking back and forth. Once properly labeled, therecivers in the rooms got punched down.

And snapped in.

Then all we had to do was clip on some ethernet heads and plug-em in. The incoming phone lines can now be removed from the outside of the house, the line interface and line can be moved to a more suitable location, a proper antenna or even cable is now routed to every bed and living room, and with the addition of an ethernet switch, internet in every room (except bathrooms and kitchens--that's what wireless is for).

a salvaged moment

2011-04-16T14:24:00.000-07:00

Its easy to gloss over the smaller accomplishments when the whole project is so big, but I want this blog to be the best record possible.

As part of the rot repair 2 years ago, our dining room floor got ripped out rather rudely.

This is what it looked like when we moved in:

Conveniently, enough other parts of the floor were removed to piece back together this one lucky section. After painstakingly picking through the ripped up floorboards we had enough to refloor the dining room. Some are different thicknesses, all have different finishes, and the lengths are very random. Though this section might be a little odd compared to the 20ft lengths in the adjacent walkway, we feel it is the best way to keep the original materials in the house. Hopefully it will blend right in after a little sanding.

installing:

Done for now:

Slow cooking.

2011-03-19T14:57:00.000-07:00

I had hoped to have this post done a while ago, but things take longer than expected--as you proud home-owners know. All of our effort are now focused on those projects that get us our downstairs as soon as possible -- yardwork be damned!

First in line is the kitchen, which required cabinets, counter tops, and sink all so that we could install a hood and pass our mechanical inspection (which was very overdue). Here's some photos from the process:

Let it rain!

2010-11-06T21:29:00.000-07:00

We are so stoked to have gutters finally! Most of the downspouts are go right into the drainage lines we dug three years ago. Seems to be working for now, at least they keep the sides of the house free from splatter. I've only got one pic; our camera crapped out last week.

Life is full of surprizes

2010-11-06T21:05:00.000-07:00

Just when you least expect it, something unexpected comes up. Our laundry drain had begun slowing down a year ago, we snaked it out and that seemed to alleviate it, but this year it became a serious problem. It's especially rough when you're trying to wash cloth diapers and the wash water floods the laundry room. This was unacceptable. So after spending the good money on the diagnosis ("yep, it's really clogged.") The smart choice was to dig a whole new line and connect with a known, functioning sewer line. The plumbing co. offered to do it for $500, or $250 if we dug it-- cuz digging in the Oregon clay in the fall sucks. We picked a sunny afternoon to do it and go it all done in short order--even busting out some concrete. Turns out the giant redwood 20 yards away had found a reliable source of water--and nutrients I guess-- through a crack in the cast iron pipe under a concrete pad. It's quite a load off to know our dirty laundry water is going where it supposed to now.

Some pics of the ditch for the new line and after fill in:

All the trimmings,

2010-10-10T21:33:00.000-07:00

In September, we spent a sunny Sunday afternoon trying to get the out side of the house that last 5% done before winter. OK, several sunny afternoons.

After having the cedar 2x2s ripped to make the false sill, we added side trim and a top shelf and plenty of flashing. They match the old windows in the top floor perfectly. Elsa even helped out with the caulking.
We even got around to siding the gaps and added the bottom band around the west side of the house. Last, but not least, we finished off the front door with oversized trim edge, new siding, and craftsman-style lights. A handcrafted lit bronze doorbell button was added too---thanks mom and dad.

Capeting the Stairs.

2010-10-10T17:52:00.000-07:00

That fellow from the last post is Purk and he is actually a real help. While the folks were here we got a ton done including dressing up our stairs for this new civilized life. Andrea picked up a carpet at the new nearby Habitat for Humanity 'ReStore'. Deder did a little 2-in-1 stain on the trim. A few brads and a few beers and voila! Here' a little photostorm of the finished project:

porch

2010-10-10T17:13:00.000-07:00

In Preparation for Elsa's Fist B-day, we threw together a welcoming porch for the guests and had our first real function in the new living room.

Sadly, this is the best photo i can find of the porch...

Drywall Part II

2010-10-10T16:44:00.000-07:00

After some serious debate, we decided on texture for the walls and ceiling independently (eg. Andrea decided the ceiling, Deder decided on the walls). Luckily, we love what we came out with. the ceiling is a light trowel knockdown and the walls were a light "California" orange peel knockdown. The ceiling give the sense of shapes but is smooth; the walls are textured but without too much depth. sometime you just get lucky i guess.
Andrea gets the credit for the gutsy call of Glossy ceiling paint, it really shines.
Check out our sweet lights too.

Deder spent a day with a rented paint sprayer and got 2 more coats of primer on everything, and we mean EVERYTHING. He only lost a few braincells in the process.

Drywall part 1

2010-06-07T21:20:00.000-07:00

Ladies and gentleman, we have drywall. Only took a day(or 2) to hang; all the mudding and sanding done in a week. I'm just gonna post some pics cuz things are CRAZY here.

we're jammin'

2010-05-08T10:51:00.000-07:00

One of the most important projects before drywall was adding in the jam extensions. We had to special order these and they took more than a month to arrive. Of course, they're a little wider than we need but, we'll just deal with that later. These lovely little planks join to the jambs of our new windows to make a continous surface to the trim. Otherwise there is a 1 1/4" gap between the window jamb and the wall.
Deder's Mom and Dad stopped by for spring break so we could get it done. It turned out to be pretty easy; we got all 14 windows jambed in one weekend.

get ready!

2010-05-07T20:31:00.000-07:00

A few odds and ends: As part of the final prep for drywallers (!!!) we had lots of odds and ends to clean up, getting most of the crap cleaned out was a large part of it but a few smaller things still had to be done.
First of all, the power for upstairs was still only temp-ed in, so we pulled new wire through the walls to the breaker and joined it in the attic of the addition where the breaker lives.

The main septic sewer used to run right through a closet downstairs which was -- to say the least--kinda gross. We had already moved the closet door frame so that the stack could be framed in and insulated, we just had to lay up some studs for the drywall to hang on. This should make for a less unpleasant dressing experience.

Other small jobs: finally wiring the stair light to work from downstairs too and adding the transformer for the door bell (that'll be nice, one day).

Vent-o-rama

2010-04-19T22:04:00.000-07:00

One of the last of the not-final inspections was looming - rough mechanical. We had spent the previous several weeks checking off the things the mechanical inspector would check. Namely vents since we don't have any HVAC, heat-pumps, elevators, or conveyor belts. The dryer vent was a breeze, and the bath vent went like the wind.

All we had to do was the kitchen hood vent.

And Andrea made an appointment for the one Saturday a month that inspectors work. Of course, no one else called in an inspection on Saturday so we were first on the list! 8:00 am!
After another night with the closers at the local hardware store, we were up early, again with the sawzall (nicked a live wire this time -fun!), cutting, taping, and crimping connections. We even got the dressy cap on before the inspector showed up. He sure was in love with the house. He had all kinds of suggestions (most of which we were already planning). It's nice to get some encouragement from someone who sees a whole lot of crappy half-finished houses.

Some pics of the kitchen hood vent:

Geting Creative?

2010-04-19T21:51:00.000-07:00

Siding has turned our to be a monster job, not to mention the fact that the clear 6.5"cedar is EXPENSIVE. So we are trying to keep what we have and make the new look like what we have.
The old entry to the upstairs is now framed off but it looks nothing like the rest of the back addition which appears to have been a porch originally, then framed in. The reason I say it was a porch originally is that it has a half-wall bench type structure with a broad flat top which was then framed up on top of again. the result is two walls, one on top of the other, offset at differing depths. Making this look natural is going to be hard.

You might not be able to tell at first glance but the new section is one piece even with the bottom. The left of the window is actually out nearly an inch but the old wavy-glass window offers a transition which deceives the eye just enough. We even got a little lucky matching the middle trim with some scraps we had around. Not bad for a pair of weekend warriors.

I though we were done with the framing!

2010-04-19T21:25:00.000-07:00

Yeah, so your work is never done when your house is quickly approaching 90 and it's been neglected for half of that.

First, the building inspector wanted to see that the header joist in the dining room--which has stood for nearly a century strong--got a little reinforcement. A few joist hangers did the job.

Then, while removing decrepit siding from the kitchen exterior, we found what must certainly (hopefully) be the last of the rot infesting the foundation sill plate. Having carefully watched the previous work done on other areas on the house, we gave it a go ourselves. The sawzall was loaded for bear with the 16" blades the previous contractors had left for dead we went to it. In a Saturday afternoon the job was done. Grinding away with a ravaging saw and yanking out the wood upon which the house stands is a far cry from the experince of our first project on this house: scared to death of the rancor the sawzall made as we delicately ripped though the old shower. We have grown quite a bit in the last couple of years. The fear is gone. I could take out this whole wall right now--really . . I could.

Window Trim Pt. I

2010-01-31T21:14:00.000-08:00

The new windows installed, but untrimmed, were looking a bit naked with the tar paper flapping in the breeze and aged subsiding exposed for all to see. Trimming the new windows was manifestly different than just coping the old trim. The old windows we built by a craftsman, the sill integrated in to the frame, outlined with finely beveled interlocking trim.

We aren't really that good; we don't even have a router for crying out loud! But we managed to come up with a plan which will accomplish a similar enough look that these window won't look totally weird compared to the originals a story above.

Step one was to cut out space in the siding for the new wider, bolder, fatter trim boards. Next, 5" trim was added to sides and tops and finally 3" to the bottom.

Lessons learned this time around:
1) Just bring the saw outside and save yourself 10,000 trips inside every time you realize you miscut.
2) brad and finish nailers are god's way of saying he loves you.
3) when in doubt, caulk it!

Part II will include the finishing touches like surrounding fine trim and a faux sill.

Avast the Mast!

2010-01-13T21:27:00.000-08:00

The mast is up! aaand we have a new meter!

Finally passed inspection, third time is a charm!
Of course actually putting it up wasn't the hard part, removing the serpentine entwinings of the old electric conduit, 2 meters, 4 boxes, some breakers, some fuses. . . it was a mess!

Deder took a day off to pull of the old junk and reattach it to the new power; Jens came over to help in the rain, it's nice to have friends like that.

One unforseen disadvantage: now that the bill is not split between floors, we reach new heights of the tiered electricity fee. At least it's one less bill. Now what are we going to do with all this old conduit??

Warm and Cozy

2009-09-27T09:47:00.000-07:00

Since we moved in to the house, it has been, well, drafty to say the least. The house was never insulated and now that there are holes in the walls and no drywall downstairs, it can get pretty chilly. As part of the remodel we hope to make this old drafty house a little bit cozier and have started the full insulation of the house. Luckily, the state and local codes are already aggressive in the level of insulation required so all we have to do is follow the law.

Required insulation: R-15 for exterior walls and R-38 in the attic.
Since our crawlspace is so small (>18") we aren't required to insulate the floor(R-19) but Deder is attempting it anyway. We are also adding r-13 to the interior walls and ceiling to try to increase the local coziness and sound dampening.

This was supposed to be the easy job but it's really more tedious than you might think. Our house is framed all crazy so the stud bays are not the same size as the insulation batts. This means you have to take the time to trim an inch or two off of all eight feet of a batt (cheap serrated kitchen knives work the best!) and then trim out the spaces for the diagonal fire-blocking and all the new electrical and pluming in the house. Finally it gets stapled and taped in place. Andrea and I try to keep a 'fiber-glassy' set of clothes downstairs, but who the hell wants to put those clothes on? Inevitably the back of your throat starts to tickle and you rub your face with your glove and your face starts to itch, it can just be pretty awful. A cold shower and PBR seem to take care of the symptoms quickly enough though.

With the carpentry, electric, and plumbing finished and something finally beginning to cover the studs, we can't help but feel like this whole project is really starting to come together. Of course we still have a ton to do: exterior trim, electrical service, install/refinish floors, mechanicals(fans and hoods), drywall, electrical fixtures, plumbing fixtures, bathroom, kitchen, and interior trim. That should do it, right? Maybe we'll take a break before tackling the upstairs.

The New Addition

2009-09-15T11:41:00.000-07:00

Some of you may have noticed that there has been something else building in the background. We are happy to announce (belatedly) the arrival of our daughter Elsa. Born on June 19th, at 8lbs even, she's beautiful, healthy, and happy. This, of course, has slowed us down a bit, but we don't mind at all.

Let this be a lesson. . .

2009-09-15T07:25:00.000-07:00

At our electrical inspection, the inspector was fairly complementary of our work, of course most of it was done by an electrical engineer (Jens) but we weren't going to tell him that. He picked up our permit sign-off sheet, clicked his pen, and stopped, "are you going to run phone lines too?" In retrospect, this is an obvious setup but innocently we reply, "yeah, data and cable too."
ERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR! Wrong answer!
Apparently, the electrical inspector DOES care about low-voltage lines in your walls. So we got to work on it.
Deder was diligently drilling holes and dragging cable one morning, all this after the new plumbing is in (now in the ceiling rafters and not in the floors) when the predictable happened. Drill bit meets new hot waterline!
There are several lessons that can be learned here:
1. if you can see the other side of the rafter, it pays to take a look first.
2. PEX is not impenetrable but is reparable.
3. ALWAYS have a quick shut-off valve for the whole house.
4. it never hurts to have LOTS of towels.
5. on the bright side my water pressure is GREAT!

Windows with a Vista

2009-09-14T16:39:00.000-07:00

This summer we got a lot of help from friends installing the new windows.
These babies are pretty top of the line: double hung, double tilt, pine framed, with custom three-light tops to match the rest of the house.

15 windows took only about a month--one at a time--that's like one every other day!

The real trick was spacing the windows to resemble the old ones, I think we got it but we'll see when the trim goes on.

Plumb and done

2009-08-21T07:04:00.000-07:00

The Plumbing is done. The plumber we hired was a great guy, really knew his stuff and what was best for our situation, I would definitely recommend him if anyone needs major plumbing repair in the Willamette valley. We got all new Pex lines, a rearranged bathroom for the Antique claw-footed tub (next post), a second hose bib in the front of the house, the exterior mounted vent piping is now gone (how embarassing that was!) and an outdoor shutoff was added (which came in handy).

It only took a couple of days to get the house completely re-plumbed, the pex lines come together so easily. I though we would have to replace our original cast iron main vent stack but the plumber told us that cast iron is still the best thing you can get. Apparently they build high-end homes with cast iron cause it better at hiding the flushing sound in your walls. Because all the toilet flanges were 2" off the ground, those got replaced and now the height is really throwing me off. The new pipes allow for much more water pressure and much hotter water--I think we may really see an improvement this winter now that the waterlines are a non-conductive material.

I spent a Saturday sawzalling out the old galvanized steel pipes and went to the Dr. because of it. Some nasty little shard of wood found it's way deep into my palm and has really put a damper on my handshake. Come to think of it, I've been spending alot of time removing parts of my house from my hands and arms.

Odds and Ends

2009-07-03T08:44:00.000-07:00

Here are a few of the other projects that didn't seem to deserve their own entries but are still worth mentioning:

To make more kitchen space, we've added an extra 4 feet of 1/2 wall to make our L kitchen a U.
This was surprisingly easy now that Deder's done a bit of framing in the house already. It's also desperately needed--since the original kitchen had neither a fridge or range, we needed to make up the counter space somewhere.

The guest-room closet had a bit of an ugly issue. The septic pipe running down the corner tended to condense and mildew your closet contents besides being unsightly. So we managed to disassemble and reassemble the frame a full stud over giving enough room to frame over the septic pipe when the finish work happens. Much nicer!

Much of this remodel includes organizing the house the way modern homes are organized. The current configuration is piece-mealed together from 80 years of fixes and upgrades. As a result, the water heater is not in the house proper, but a later addition. Luckily, our local home-builders association had it's recent garage sale. Local builders donate used and extra parts to raise money for a charity, often there is some really good stuff there for folks like us. The place was a crazy house, some lady even took some tiles right out of my hand. You would have thought it was some kind of Black Friday Sale or something. Anyhow, we did end up getting our name on a nice used water heater, way newer and more efficient than our current one. Once we get the plumbing in we can place the new heater inside the house where is should be much more efficient.

Breaker Breaker

2009-06-11T17:22:00.000-07:00

So, upon the advice of our electrician, we purchased the largest breaker box available for our 200 amp service. This sucker is 40" long with space for 40 breakers! But you'd be surprised. After adding in breakers for hard-wired smoke alarms (code), washer, dryer, fridge, microwave, GFCI's for bathrooms and outdoor outlets and double breakers for each of the six electric heating units. . .bam

only six left.

That's only six for upstairs and any heating/cooling units we eventually install.

it's electric!

2009-05-26T20:47:00.000-07:00

This is probably going to be the single greatest upgrade this house is getting (at least in the view of the insurance co.) The old Knob and Tube electric is gone and Jens (Deder's Best Man) is installing all new wire, outlets, switches, breakers, etc., etc.

It has taken us (A'n'D) weeks to agree on just where the switches, lights, outlets, and heaters go. Those of you who've done this before know what I'm talking about, the rest--you will never understand: once you can put a light or a switch WHEREVER, it can NEVER be in the right spot. We are, I think, finally done with the blue boxes and Jens is finishing up with the breaker box while we prepare to raise the Mast.

Difficult Decisions

2009-03-29T10:36:00.000-07:00

After considerable research and discussion, it is with heavy hearts and crushed spirits that we announce our decision against installing a heat pump or a ductless mini-split system, and instead have agreed upon the addition of...baseboard heat...

We knew there would be a time that we would need to make decisions we were not proud of in an effort to accomplish this task. We simply never anticipated that THESE words would ever cross our lips, save in jest.

And somewhere, a single tear slides down a mamma polar bear's furry cheek for her unborn baby who will not survive to adulthood.

Paddy O'Door

2009-03-29T09:50:00.000-07:00

Just in time for the St. Patrick's Day holiday, we completed our final major framing project. Can you guess what it is? Having the new side door installed in the dining room (which will eventually lead out onto a beautiful deck in the side yard, we swear) allows us to get moving on the electric portion of this magnificent undertaking.

Sadly, we did not find a pot o' gold when ripping out the wall. It sure would have come in handy too. With the best intentions to stand against our consumerist nature, we visited our local rebuilding center, Bring. Very cool place. In fact we just donated a truck load of items to them this weekend. At Bring we found our door. Only $75, how great to save money and recycle! Deder spent the time to grind off the old paint down to the wood so that we could use the same oil finish that we put on the front door. The following weekend, we had our contractor friend, Jesse, over and he informed us that the door's unjammed condition simply would not do. So we contacted the local jammers and took the door on over. $130 later, our inexpensive patio door (now $235 for those of you who are counting + what we ended up paying our contract friend to help) was ready to install.

So we had Jesse back over and voila! Check it out.

You never get a second chance. . .

2009-03-15T15:05:00.000-07:00

. . . to make a first impression. Or so they say. That's the idea behind the ridiculously nice front door we installed last week. It's a solid wood fir door made from locally harvested timber, cut up, sent to china, assembled, and sent back to oregon unfinished. The least they could do is finish it too. Anyhow, its wayyy better than the old one which was all glass, had no deadbolt, and was only held in place by the trim moulding around each section.

After oil-stain-sealing, installation, installation again, and the very hip/luxe door handle and lock set, this thing set us back way more than I think a door should. But, it looks great and people love it. That's just what a front door should do.

The right tool for the job.

2009-03-14T23:06:00.000-07:00

It was becoming alarmingly clear the the old VW was just not the right work vehicle for some of the trips to the lumberyard, garbage dump, tool rental, etc., etc. So my brother in law offered up his fathers 85 F150 as long as we needed it (he needed the space, and it needed all new brakes, calipers, and rotors). This is just what we needed, too; on it's first weekend run I :dropped off scrapwood for a friend's woodstove, took the old stairs to the dump, dropped off expired paint, bought a door at the home recyclers, and picked up a friends offered recliner---all in one trip! The dog even came too! With 4 cars we are going to have vote one off the island. . .maybe two . . but I think we'll keep the truck for a while.

No longer a house divided.

2009-03-14T22:25:00.000-07:00

"A house divided against itself cannot stand" Lincoln said. And while this house stood just fine divided, it wasn't much of a home. More like two "floors" sandwiched atop each other. Well, that has now been remedied.
Deder took another three day weekend with the contractor, Jessie, and his Dad, to 'flip the stairs'. Andrea and Baron went to Portland because dogs and pregnant ladies shouldn't HAVE to climb a ladder to go to bed.
It was not as big a deal as I thought it would be, it wasa lot of work, but with credit to Jessie and his dad, it all went pretty smoothly. Having one whole house is fantastic, especialy not having to go outside to do your laundry. Enjoy the Pics.

Opening Doors

2009-02-03T10:14:00.000-08:00

Now that the house is on a stable footing (new sill plate, leveled floor), it was time to get going on some of our interior framing we had in our plans before the city revoked our permit. We started by opening the doorway from the living room to the kitchen. The old <36" doorway was a little tight for this main thoroughfare; the new 40" opening now allows two people to pass without violating certain rules of decorum.

The other major modification includes opening a load bearing wall into a 50+ inch opening. We've already picked out a french door set at the local hardware store, so we are building to suit. This, of course, needed a temporary support wall built before demo and some huge headers. This opening will make the old downstairs front bedroom available as a study/library/emergency guest room with the doors closed and and extension of the living room with the doors open. The idea came from looking at other craftsman-style houses where living rooms are diving up into cozy nooks, allowing for some separation while still being in the main living area.
Bonus: sunsets will now beam all the way across the study, entry, and living room! Bonus-Bonus: with both new doorways you can now see from the dining room to the study!

Our Level Best

2009-01-29T17:12:00.000-08:00

Soon after the roof fiasco, Deder and Jesse (the contractor) spend a Saturday crawling under the house trying to get the floor level. The house sloped inward, towards the center, by a little over an inch. The pilings had apparently sunk as the soil under the house was inundated with water every year. Of course, the pilings under the center of the house sunk the most since they carried the most weight unsupported by the foundation. Thank goodness they don't make them like this anymore.

So, after several hours of crawling, an extra multi-ton jack or two, a few bizarre discoveries (full size dog skull), and many, many shims, the house was finally sort of-kinda-level (its only a quarter inch!). Satisfied by a long days work, we retired upstairs to find that none of the doors or cabinets close!! Well, progress is progress I guess.

The Roof.

2009-01-04T21:27:00.000-08:00

The roofing company finally got started in October. The whole crew showed up for demo and by the time we got home from work that Monday, we had almost no roof.

The carpenters got to work and we quickly realized that they were just a touch out of their league.
We were surprised, to say the least, when--two days into the project--the roofers started asking for payment. This was the beginning of several surprises and a few disappointments the roofing company ended up springing on us. These included but were not limited to : a wage twice what we agreed on, at least one horrific, storming night of water damage, several days of negotiations, and a roof that cost 4 times more and took 4 times longer than we had been quoted.
It ended up taking more than three weeks to get our new roof.

Deder took a few days off through the whole ordeal to keep an eye on the work being done and ended up making all 17 knee braces (braces that hold the 2' eaves up) and spent a few days putting some of them up after the roof was done. They are almost all up except those that will require a cherry picker or scaffoding (Deder has learned this lesson having sacrificed his circular saw to Newton's god).

Now that its over, we really love our new roof. The huge gingerbread-chalet facia is gone, the eaves are actually attached to the house now (they weren't before!?), we have new sheathing, new felt, new shingles, and new drip metal and flashing. The new roof looks great and works great and it feels like, even though it was a trial, we've really made the first BIG step to making this house shine again.

Time to get this blog updated!

2008-12-22T21:00:00.000-08:00

Again, we seem to have let this blog become another thing that slips between the cracks in this crazy life. We appreciate all the feedback we've gotten from those of you who follow and are going to try to make it a little more of a habit to keep our progress and adventures recorded and transmitted. I know it's already December, but I'm going to try to sum up what happened in the last 4 months in only a few short entries.

Most of the rot repair was fixed up by same contractors, but they have since dropped off the radar again. Luckily they left a bunch of work lights and a bucket of framing nails at least. We've since started working with another private contractor that Deder really likes working with.

August and September had us focusing on the exterior of the house before the weather became prohibitive. We searched for a roofer and lined up a date for them to start and made our order for all new downstairs windows on Andrea's birthday. While the windows wouldn't be in for 4 more weeks we started getting the siding in shape or replaced and coated primer. We quickly realized that a wussy palm-sander was the wrong tool for the job. So Deder has been going at the 80 years of lead-based pink paint with a disk sander. It works great, you just end up with a lot of paint/cedar dust in your ears.

In late September we received a surprising notice from our home insurance company (actually a subsidiary of Lloyds of London) canceling our policy due to moss on the roof. Well. . .It would have been nice if they just asked. . .and they didn't have a problem with the giant blue tarp? Andrea was some how able to reach a deal (I don't know how she does it) with the insurance Co. and convinced the roofers to come a few weeks early so that we could keep our insurance. And that's when the roofing began.

Expiring Permit

2008-08-25T20:39:00.000-07:00

Someone, besides ourselves, has finally told us that our project is moving too slowly. Today we go the notice from the City of Eugene that unless we get an inspection done ASAP (before 9/13), our permit is set to expire. Luckily, we are allowed to file for one 180-day extension, which I am sad to announce, we will probably have to do.

Finally something other than demolition.

2008-08-19T19:52:00.000-07:00

I have been waiting to post about our rot repair until it is complete…however, our contractors are not on the same schedule as we are. When they started, they just went gangbusters. And to be honest, every time they are here, they accomplish what I perceive to be an amazing quantity of work. The problem…they are not here all that often. We were lucky to get some guys who wanted side jobs. It is a little bit riskier, but I was confident that they would be far more skilled than I (not too difficult) and getting side job workers meant that they have tons of experience, but are less expensive than hiring a crew to do it right away. We assumed that it would take longer since they only work weekends and/or evenings. That was fine, we had some time and we prefer to be here when they are working. The real issue is that these guys, who were all gung-ho for work a while back are not so gung-ho anymore. Not surprisingly, as it does with all of us, life got in the way. Soon after they first came out, the wife of one of the guys passed away. A month later, another one got married!

And so, as the rainy season looms in the not-so-distant future, we are considering finding some new workers to lend some muscle and expertise to our humble project.

We did get to take some great pics of some of the rot and some of the huge holes in the house. One of the most intense situations came one weekend as Deder and I were taking a break from working outside, the workers began cutting out rot along the foundation on the West side of the house. We had watched them rip off the siding and as we were eating lunch, the whole house began to shake. Franticly, we ran to take the glassware off the shelves above the refrigerator. Slight amounts of panic… I have never been in an earthquake personally, but I can imagine it was something like what I experienced that day.

Look What We Found

2008-05-12T16:48:00.000-07:00

This project has been an interesting test of our optimism. Several seemingly simple steps in our timeline have presented far greater problems than anticipated. Like the asbestos in the back bedrooms for example. Instead of lifting the ancient carpet and padding to reveal beautiful untouched original hardwood flooring, we found tiles made of asbestos. Similarly, in the kitchen and dining rooms, we were lulled into a false sense of ease as we saw newspaper sticking out of the edges of the sheet linoleum flooring making us believe that, although a little strange, there was likely newspaper under the whole floor. We assumed that this would make the process of removing the lovely yellow and orange floor covering quite simple. Au contraire!

See the lovely yellow lino?

(With all the bikes in there, you'd think the guy running the bike shop still lived downstairs!)

After removing the linoleum, we found some tar paper…old tar paper that over time and thanks to gravity had leached most of its tar into the floor underneath. There were a few patches where the paper had come up completely and we were excited about the prospects of uncovering it. We decided to run some tests to find out if any basic household items might remove it. We tried soaking a spot in windex, using Goof-off, fingernail polish remover (acetone), and regular household orange cleaner…all to no avail. So now what?

The Internet is truly an amazing tool. Even though Bob Villa’s website professionals said that the best thing to do was to call a professional, we knew there HAD to be a better way. We searched home forum after home forum. If someone out there understands how those crazy forums work, please let us know. We were able to read the questions just fine, but trying to find the responses felt impossible. However, there were links to products, mostly chemical, that we were not inclined to either pay for or use in our house. There was only one potential organic orange product that looked interesting. Finally, we found someone else’s web-site that was a lot like this one. He was restoring an old house and had a very similar problem to ours. Then we struck it rich. One lady told the story of how she removed the tar paper stuck to her deck with water. It showed photos over time of her spraying the bejesus out of her deck. This method seemed like a waste of water and not quite right for our situation. We wanted to save the wood, not ruin it. Plus, after getting all that water into the house, how were we supposed to get it out?

Others suggested soaking a blanket or towel in hot water and then laying it over the floor over night; or putting a blanket down and then pouring water over it and letting it sit. One lady even said she put down a blanket, watered it, then put a cooling rack (like for cookies) over the top of that, then placed an old iron on the cooling rack. We only have one iron we didn’t want to ruin, let alone ruining blankets. We need those blankets, it’s cold in our house!

Finally we were gaining hope that we might not have to use chemicals to remove this stuff. Then we found the post of the guy who was working on his own house. He said that he rented a wallpaper steamer and it did the trick. It was worth a shot. And low and behold, it worked! Maybe not as quickly as it did for him, but still, the paper came off, as did the tar if you let it sit long enough.

So Andrea took a few days off work to help get the job accomplished. We rented two wallpaper steams and set work early Wednesday morning. By the end of the evening we were exhausted, smelled like tar, but had uncovered all of the wood without chemicals. It is really nice too. We do still have to refinish the floors, but a sanding, some stain, and some sealant and we’re in business.

This simple bit of progress and our spirits have been rejuvenated. Oh the joys of homeownership!

Jack Pot

2008-05-12T16:42:00.000-07:00

Finally, after ripping down almost all of the walls in the house, we found the money. Unfortunately, there wasn’t quite as much of it as we had hoped, but we still found the discovery thrilling. Here it is, a 1939 D Silver Mercury Dime. Pretty cool. I don’t ever remember seeing one before, or even knowing that they existed. Based on some brief searching, this not-so shiny dime could be worth anywhere from 10¢ to $5.00 (max for an un-circulated dime). The mostly likely estimate that I could find said that most are only worth the amount of silver that they contain.
It might not pay for a new heating/cooling system, but it certainly made us smile. Isn’t that worth enough?

Restricted Access

2008-05-09T16:57:00.001-07:00

We felt horribly self conscious after Timmy commented about our Americans with Disabilities Act conforming front patio and antiquated/crude home cooling system, so look…they’re gone! We actually removed the air conditioner to seal up the window for the winter months and because we were fortunate enough to have found the window that originally belonged in that space. The light the window provides is invaluable to us now. The front porch was a blast to deconstruct. It may not have made us any progress on our required improvements so that we may get refinanced using conventional methods by September 2009, but we toiled with joy and still (a couple of weeks later) smile at our handiwork. On the same day, we cleared out some of the beds, pruned the bush and planted a few bulbs. The next day we removed most of the nails from the ensuing heap of rubble and organized all of our scrap wood. We can’t wait until we get to work on the yard in earnest.

Finally permitted to work…

2008-05-09T16:54:00.000-07:00

Here it is…three months of drawing plans and talking to the City and revising plans and re-measuring and drafting yet another set of plans and to top it all off, about a thousand bucks; and voila. Isn’t it beautiful?

Happy Easter!

2008-05-08T16:16:00.000-07:00

For Easter this year, we decided to celebrate the holiday by removing asbestos! Maybe not so traditional, but we were wearing “bunny suits” as evidenced by this post’s photo. A while back we had a sample tested and discovered that the cafeteria style (and color too!) linoleum floor tiles in the two bedrooms downstairs contained asbestos. After doing some Internet research and corresponding with LRAPA (Lane (County) Regional Air Pollution Authority) and a few local contractors who specialize in asbestos abatement, we determined that with relatively low risk and substantial savings, we could remove the offending tiles ourselves.

The next step was to acquire the appropriate gear. From a construction safety supply company, we bought two respirators or half-masks and the appropriate particulate filters. The filters are the brilliant pink disks on the front of our masks that kind of made us look like giant mosquitoes. The rest of the outfits we kind of winged. We bought painting hoods and jump suits so that if any of the asbestos fibers happened to become friable (get into the air) that we stood less of a chance of taking those back into our home on our clothes or in our hair. Next we donned some disposable gloves and armed ourselves with spray bottles to keep everything moist and less likely to make dust.

The whole project didn’t take very long. We soon got the hang of removing the tiles in one piece (quicker and safer) with a few well placed taps and a quick pry and boxed up all of the tiles and wrapped them in six mil. plastic. It really only took us two sessions of about two hours each to finish the job.

Sadly the glue or mastic used to install the tiles also contains asbestos. Without adding more chemicals to the mixture, we won’t be able to restore the original fir floors in either room, so instead we will be re-flooring them. The consensus for now is new hardwood.

We hope that you all had a wonderful Easter holiday. We sure did!

Family Addition

2008-03-30T09:25:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago, we adopted the latest member of the Siedler Clan South from our local animal shelter. His name is Baron and he sure does keep up busy. Training a new dog can be challenging at any time, but luckily Deder is at home for now, which helps a great deal. Occasionally, Baron will help Deder with home repair tasks like digging and chasing off neighborhood cats looking to mark our territory as their own.

He is friendly, almost to a fault at times, and very happy to living with us instead of at the shelter. Hopefully you'll get to meet him soon!

Well Blow Me Down

2007-12-07T14:46:00.000-08:00

We escaped the storm relatively unscathed. I tell you, this has been a crazy winter to move into an old drafty house. For those of you unfamiliar with the NW Storm that just occurred, let me fill you in. Interstate 5 has been closed for days. Families on the Oregon coast have been without power for almost a week and are being told that it will not be until Sunday that they may be on again. The winds in the valley got up to about 49 miles/hr. In the valley!!! And the coast had triple digit winds.

Naturally, having recently purchased an 80 year old house, we were a bit nervous. The wind howled through cracks in the siding, and the windows shook. But good news...we are still standing, we did not lose power, all of our siding is still on, the ENORMOUS tree in the front yard did not topple or drop any big branches, and most of our tarp remained in place to shield us from the driving rain.

So, adversity #1: a pass. But needless to say we are looking forward to a dry weekend.

Progress

2007-11-09T15:39:00.000-08:00

Hello Fans! So, finally, something interesting to show you. There will be more photos later, but for now...our new bathroom. Since the before photos were on the camera that is no more, you only get after shots. For those of you who saw the bathroom initially, you can understand the transformation more fully.

When we started tearing into the bathroom, we realized that it had been "fixed" sometime before. This fixing consisted of putting new wood over rotted wood. By the time we got to it, the new wood was also rotted. Instead of ripping the floor all the way down, we ripped up the fix and replaced it with new wood and vinyl flooring. We also replaced the entire shower with a new shower pan and we made walls to serve as a temp for the next year or so. Then we sealed the heck out of anything and everything to try to mitigate damage until we can rip it all out and start from scratch.

Things we learned from this adventure:

1. Showers are really expensive.

2. You actually put mortar down underneath fiberglass shower pans, for "stability". Weird.

3. Best to wear gloves and work fast when ripping up nasty things. Don't think, don't look closely, just rip it out.

4. Cats like to eat the grossest things.

5. Knee pads are a worthy investment.

6. Things take WAY longer to accomplish than you think, so plan accordingly.

It isn't perfect, or very big, but it is pretty neat to use a shower you made yourself.

The Scariest House on the Block

2007-10-31T23:17:00.000-07:00

Happy Halloween!

Many Apologies

2007-10-26T10:38:00.000-07:00

As those of you who regularly check this much-hyped site have noticed, we have not posted in forever! We are terribly sorry about our lack-luster maintenance of this site. In our defense, right be fore we moved, our cameras "disappeared". Sadly for future posts, we will not be able to show you the "before" photos of our once nasty, now lovely bathroom. We also have not had a computer hooked up at the house until this week!

So, excuses aside...our apologies. We will try to be much more diligent in our efforts. We have also bought a new camera and have already taken some photos for future posts.

We appreciate your patience and on-going support.

Love, A & D.

Who needs a dog?

2007-09-08T08:53:00.000-07:00

A while back, we decided that we should wait to get a dog until we have a house. We have been waiting a long time to get a dog. But who needs a dog when we have pets like these? Can you see them all?

Beauty in Nature Part II

2007-09-08T08:52:00.000-07:00

This one is a little more obvious. We have a GIANT cedar in our front yard! Isnt' she lovely?

Beauty in Nature

2007-09-08T08:28:00.000-07:00

Last Friday, we couldn't help ourselves, but to knock something down! There was an old lean-to used to store fire wood that was so rotten it could barely stand. So, with a few well placed whacks with the hammer and a quick push, it came tumbling down. A small triumph. We then got to spend half of the day on Monday (Labor Day), deconstructing our little heap of rotted wood. And there in the rubble, I found it...beauty.

This little gem comes to us courtesy of moss. This is the underside of the lean-to roof. There were some screws that went down through the top. Those screws made holes, and through those holes grew moss. Looking at this, it is not so hard to believe that the Earth is made up of Space, is it?

We did it!

2007-09-07T23:44:00.000-07:00

After all of the trials and tribulations and almost a year of house hunting, we finally got one.

Oh the joys of home ownership! When I was thinking about what to write in this first post it occurred to me that I could probably use this very phrase for as the opener for every posting, used facetiously or otherwise. But then I realized that it would become overdone and at least for the first several posts could be annoying to those out there who have owned a home far longer than I and believe that I don’t have a true enough understanding of the “joys of home ownership” in any sense to use the phrase. Thus, I will use it sparingly.

Our new home…what can we say. She is the biggest, oldest, and nastiest house we could find. For those of you who know me (Andrea) well…my dream house. Built in 1927, this two-story craftsman boasts 1878 square feet of living (1148 down and 730 up) on a spacious 0.2 acre lot. The home is currently divided into two separate living spaces, each with 2 bedrooms, 1 bath, and a kitchen. Period details abound throughout, including original trim, fir floors, and built-ins. The period details also extend to the wiring and plumbing, both essentially original to the property; as well as the roofing, siding, and carpenter ant colony (est. 1927).

The previous owner passed away some time ago and there had been tenants renting for at least the last 7 years. We felt terrible for ousting them, but so it comes, so it goes. Both tenants were smokers and the house is caked in tar. You can see the ghostly outlines of previous furniture in some of the photos.

We have had keys in hand for barely a week at this point and have spent the last 6 nights at the house after work cleaning and prepping the upper unit so that we can move in and begin the work in earnest. We have also been trying to track down some good help. The bug guys will be out next week and we hope to have some bids on the roof as well. We’ve put in some calls to drainage and foundation folks, but they have neglected to call us back thus far, surprise, surprise.

Despite all the work, we love our home and hope that you will enjoy seeing our joys and our pains plastered up on this site.