A rennovation exploration

blah blah blah, did some work, blah blah

2007-08-15T18:50:00.001-07:00

we're past the point of apologizing for the long delay in posts. it's not that we don't care about the readers as much as it is that we don't care to admit it's been a month since we really did anything to the house except more firmly entrench the butt prints in the couch.

so we've done some entrenching, add to that a few windows, a door and some cabinets and one can see that we really have made profress. We got the deal of the century at the Habitat Outlet for our bathroom cabinets.

An almost 80% discount got us some really cool cabinets with a few owies. Mark's master craftsmanship has repaired the top of the linen hutch and we're a bit stuck on how to fix the medicine cabinets.

We've also replaced the front window to the house and now we can see! there is a world out there. we thought so.

This past weekend we replaced the front door and had a generally less than fun time with that project. The old door was made out of depleted uranium, dust and pointy things. All together that makes for one heavy, hurty, dirty door. The new door looks bueno and will eventually get painted when we decide what color to make the house.

next up, add trim to everything we just replaced. After that, replace the window that mark broke in the office.

movin right along

2007-07-02T12:04:00.000-07:00

This weekend we decided that our nice open living room just wasn't what we wanted. We miss teh obstacle course after so many months of cabinets, tile, lumber and no one knows what else in the living room. To make ourselves feel more at home we opened a new can of worms (an old dusty can). Now the living room is properly cluttered again.

This weekend we hauled all of the crap out of the office and threw it around the living room. We've got the drywall patching done and much of the office painted. There's still some pretty pink trim that needs to make the transition to white and a few dents and dings in the ceiling, but we're on the way. This week should bring more painting and before long we'll be putting up crown moulding. Once the walls are painted we'll get the desk top in and some shelves.

Other recent projects include the addition of electricity to one side of the living/dining area and the starts of the wiring for the rest of the space. That shouldn't be a tough project but it does involve one or more trips into the depths of the crawl space. We'll wait for the triple digit temps to go down a bit before going back in there.

The countertops are in!

2007-06-11T17:45:00.000-07:00

pain and suffering

2007-06-04T07:44:00.000-07:00

We have more progress to report!

The tile is almost all the way done. We just have a little patch by the back door/bathroom and a small bit of grout to do. We'll have to figure out the bathroom situation before moving forward with the last patch of tile.

This weekend we got most of the grout in and it looks fantastic. It dried about 5 shades lighter than we thought it would, but that actually looks great. We were thinking the grout would be a tanish color and it dried more of a light kahki. Fortunately the grout went in easily and should seal up nicely so we can get the dishwasher in place tonight or tomorrow.

Last night we replaced the column that hides the wiring for the bar lights and the under cabinet lights and did the last of the needed leveling for the counters.

Counters come on the 6th and that will be a happy day. We need to doa little drywall work before then and get some trim on the windows. Once the counters are in all we'll have to do is put the doors on the cabinets, hook up the sink and hang the microwave. Stay tuned for more.

Tile - Part 1

2007-05-29T16:23:00.000-07:00

The cabinets are in!

2007-05-21T19:55:00.000-07:00

Three days of hard work and the kitchen is starting to take shape.

Before

Day 1

Day 2

Lessons learned

2007-05-17T07:17:00.000-07:00

Fun lessons for your next rennovation project:

when you buy a replacement trap or any plastic compression joint take the little tapered plastic gaskets that comes with the pipes and loop them into a necklace. it's a great present for mom - she'll love you like she did when you were little and cute and her new necklace stops as much water as putting the gasket into the compression nut. After basking in mom's adoration, go to Ace and buy a real rubber gasket for each nut, put that in there and have a no-leak job every time.

The drill bits made for drilling masonry by the people (tapcon) who make things specifically for screwing into masonry aren't even remotely as durable as the ones made by Bosch. They're also more expensive. Additionally as a reminder, if the drill bit went into the hole silver and comes out blueish black it is now hot enough to cause you to say bad things and lose your ballance on the ladder - don't touch it.

you want a hammer drill for tempered bricks. we already knew this, but really, you want a hammer drill. Don't waste time and money thinking something else will work, it won't.

adding hot water to your powdered joint compound because the cold water is turned off is a good way to have a rather solid glob of joing compound that you can't work with. Use cold water if you need the joint compound to be workable for more than 3 minutes.

If you spill the PVC glue in the basement you should leave the house for at least a weak or have a handy supply of long reeds so you can breathe air from outside the house. Before such a spill you should write down your name and address so you know who you are once you regrow the brain cells lost in the experiment.

there's a hole in the pipe dear liza

2007-05-07T18:59:00.000-07:00

Won't the fun ever stop?

This past weekend we put in two new windows in the kitchen. One went in smoothly and re-affirmed Mark's faith in his window abilities, the other stayed more true to the theme of the house.

After much shaving, sanding and grinding the second window went in while it rained. Fortunately the rain was a nice slow drizzle and the flowers and lawn loved it. Even better, none came inside. Unfortunately we don't own a power planer and mark shaved the window opening with a knive and rasp...good times.

The first cabinet and section of counter top was also removed this weekend. We're past the point of no return!

The project of note, however, was the lead pipe for the bathroom (downstairs) sink. The previous owners have outdone themselves on this project. Uncle fester or whoever he was used a combo of hot glue, construction adhesive and spray foam to create a royal mess of a pipe that should have just been replaced. one little leak under the sink turned into a long section of lead pipe removal and some fun with the giant copper T that leads to the main sewer pipe.

The various adhesives mentioned above were used to plug several leaks, all of which opened up as we tried to remove what we thought was one leaky little section. Hopefully the moron who did the patches can find this listing....dear moron, come get your perferated lead pipe we're holding it for you and Mark would like to talk to you about hot glue as a plumbing tool.

Anyway, the pipe doesn't leak any more. the sink still does, but that's only because it's not connected to the pipe yet. we have to buy some hot glue for that.

fraternal order of masons

2007-05-04T11:00:00.000-07:00

We've recieved our tile lesson and done our first masonry project! Now we're anxiously waiting for someone to reveal the secret hiding place of the Knights Templar. Stay tuned for the next post "Mark drank from the grail and melted all his skin."

The shower is looking good and all of the tile is done. Once we figure out which sealer to use we'll put on the last touches. We did a final leak test and everything passed. Once the grout is sealed we'll find a way to hang a cool curtian and we're in business and smelling like roses.

The third time has proven to be the charm for the pedistal sink. Either that or a real rubber gasket. We finally broke down and replaced the piece-o-crap gasket that came from home depot and got something that actually fills the gaps between the pipes. Miraculously this 99 cent upgrade stopped the leak in the drain.

Drain drops keep fallin' on my head

2007-04-23T16:38:00.000-07:00

The bathroom is nearing completion. The floor went in with very few problems. There is one little bubble that won't let go of its hold under the vinyl, but otherwise all is well. The toilet went in with no tears and few profanaties and seems to work. We haven't had the inagural use just yet.

The shower education seems to be complete and once we have a full day we'll get the tile in and be done with that. We bought a little tile snapper thing that actually works pretty well. We're hopeful that it'll work on the bigger floor tiles too.

The pedistal sink is another story. We tried to do the plumbing carefully so everything would just slip right in. no one told us that the stupid drain that came with the faucet would be a totally useless size and generally a piece of crap. Now we've got the weakest link in the connection in the hardest to reach spot and after two tries the damn thing still drips slowly. We'll be taking it out and re-doing the drain pipe where it connects to the drain for the last time here soon. Either we'll have a drain that doesn't leak, or a shiny bucket under the sink.

border patrol

2007-04-23T10:28:00.000-07:00

In a move that's sure to upset the masses, we've taken down the border with our neighbors to the north. We were initially fearfull of a mass imigration and have since taken steps to secure our status as a sovergn lot:

This weekend Mark finally won his battle with the hedge and did it all without a winch, bobcat, chainsaw, dynamite, truck or anything else fun and efficient. After uprooting the last of the giant hedges we pulled out the chicken wire fence and opened the borders. We also removed a lone fence pole that technically probably belonged to the neighbors, but we doubt they knew or cared. If you're the neighbors and reading this, we didn't remove it, it fell and we didn't want the safety hazard so we're storing it in the dumpster out back. please recover your post and we'll put it back in.

The old hedge left us a lot of leaf litter, bird poo and other good fertalizer and despite the amount of stuff we removed we were left with a significant mound of dirt. We tilled (with a shovel) all of it in and smoothed out the yard and it looks great. After preping the dirt we replaced the fence with a do-it-yourself stake in thing from the depot. It looks surprisingly good, but Mark has serious doubts about its ability to stay standing for any amount of time. The fence spikes go somewhere between 6 and 8 inches into the ground. seems like 2 feet would be a better distance.

After resecuring the property we planted three fun little bushes that are supposed to be evergreen, except for the leaves are yellow (not sure how that math works). The important part is that they're not coniferous - or carniverous (but that would be fun). We accented the bushes with some ground cover plants and hope to get more soon.

We really wanted to xeriscape that area but surprisingly home depot's new "Eco Friendly" plant selection didn't include a single thing native to the state or anything that requires less than super regular watering. We're not sure why this is surprising since all of the other Eco friendly options in the store are petroleum based fertilizers and plastic fences....perhaps "Eco" is a BP spinoff that we don't know about.

Anyway, the little side yard looks lovely and hopefully makes the house a little nicer throughout. It was a fun project outside of the hedge removal.

Next week Mark's real Xeriscape garden gets here. Stay tuned for photos of lots of flowers and greenery. We're out to prove that low water doesn't mean thorny plants and rocks.

twilight zone

2007-04-20T07:39:00.000-07:00

Things are starting to come together nicely in the upstairs bathroom. Over the last few days we've painted and put in the new lights. Last night we put the first of two pieces of vinyl flooring down. It went in fairly smoothly and the few bubbles that tried to make an appearance were banished. Thankfully the glue didn't smell as toxic as it could. not that it smelled like roses, but it wasn't totally deadly. Unfortunately it wants a few days before heavy traffic is allowed back on and that may have implications for installing the toilet and sink (but probably not)

The only remaining things in the bathroom are; toilet, sink, tile in the shower, and trim on the walls.

Downstairs still looks like a disaster but we're hopeful that this weekend will bring an update to that report.

The hedge massacre

2007-04-09T20:57:00.000-07:00

The ugly hege that has been here for at least 50 years (no joke - we asked the neighbors!) is finally gone. Mostly. After filling about 6 dumpsers full and leaving the rest in a brush pile in the backyard, this is all that remains. The roots should be a blast! But, it looks much, much better already!!!

What happened to March?

2007-04-02T08:06:00.000-07:00

Aparently the blogger gnomes have failed to do their jobs late at night and create updates for our loyal readers (both of you).

so it's April and we're about 25 days away from having the dump for a year. That also puts us about 25 days away from the goal of being done. someone send help.

Here recently we've installed the upstairs shower pan and enclosure. and insulated everything. This past weekend was full of work but strangely it doesn't really look like anything got done.

Part of the fun involved our new vaulted kitchen ceiling. We did the plumbing upstairs and checked for leaks at least 459 times and found nothing. Unfortunately we had to do a little persuasion as we installed the shower and likely cracked somethign that was going to crack anyway. The result was a very slow drip that materialized only after we closed everything up. Mark discovered a fun little puddle of water in the kitchen several days later. This lead to an immediate vaulted ceiling project and we now have rustic exposed beams over the fridge and ceiling that's about 5.25 inches higher...at least until we put the drywall back up. we're thankful that the leak was tiny and happened before the new cabinets went in.

speaking of new cabinets, we've lost our living room. Ikea pulled through in a big way and delivered our new cabinets way ahead of schedule. Good deal, except we don't have anywhere to put them. At the same time we took delivery of 800lbs of tile and grout for the kitchen. Once those two projects get in we'll really have something to show for ourselves. Unfortunately they can't happen until the upstairs bathroom gets done.

stay tuned for more and for photos of the fun, same bat time same bat channel.

reader survey

2007-02-28T13:16:00.000-08:00

We've come full circle on kitchen cabinets. The first thought was for something white and clean and a little bit country cottage minus the country and hummels. We abandoned that thought for a while in favor of birch or maple or something else in the hardwood category. Recent opinion polls show that white is the new maple and now we're stuck on what style to get. The nice thing about white is that it costs a few grand less (prospective buyers, it's worth thousands, if not millions more, pay lots for this kitchen).

The two leading options at the moment are a shaker style (pictured on top) or a more nantucket style (below). Since we're probably getting Ikea that translates to Kvykstüt-bÖrk style or bÖrkl-üurügrd style.

which do you like? need a bigger view? (link fixed as of March 1)

Notes from the trenches

2007-02-24T13:05:00.000-08:00

Having taken forever to get back to the blog and make an update (that statement isn't really news anymore, is it?) we should like to have a good deal more progress to report than we actually do. We've spent the last month painting, working on things other than the house and trying to come to terms with Mark's obsessive desire to have a kitchen that doesn't totally suck to cook in.

The upstairs looks much like it did in the pictures below with the exception of a few scattered clothes and a nifty new platform bed. Mark added the drawers to the closet but hasn't figured out how to do the drawer faces in an interesting manner yet. We also finally found a style of drapes that we like at target. Unfortunately they only had one, so we have half drape, half mat board window coverings - classy.

The single biggest change to date has been the fireplace mantle. We once thought it was beyond salvation but it's been saved. Jen spent a day painting it and the ugly mantle that made us want to throw up is actually pretty acceptable. We need to figure out a good idea to replace the fake brick with something nicer, but that's a fairly low priority.

Stay tuned for more progress and cross your fingers for us. If the taxman is nice we'll have a kitchen soon and you're all invited for hommade pizza!

puttin on the ritz

2007-02-05T15:04:00.000-08:00

Another weekend gone, more progress logged. This weekend brought the addition of two lovely sets of window trim, a little paint and a bit more trim on the walls.

The downstairs windows are starting to look good now that we don't see raw brick and everything is mostly lined up. The raw brick idea would be nice, but we have to keep reminding ourselves that exposed brick isn't worth the work. Maybe once we hit the lottery, but not now. The trim went up easily with the new Craftsman chop saw (note to selves, get the Rigid one next time) and an air nailer from Mark's folks. Some of the bricks resisted the idea of being nailed and made neat little nail mushrooms, but in the end brute force prevailed. Stay tuned for the "help, the window fell out of the broken bricks" blog entry in the future.

We put up a trail piece of crown moulding upstairs and it makes a huge difference in helping the goofball ceiling look straight.

Earlier this week Mark spent a less than lovely day in the crawl space cleaning out mystery crap and starting the insulation of the ducts. Someday soon he'll misbehave and be banished back to teh crawl space to finish the project. The only plus is that the weather has been cold enough that there were no aparent creepy crawlies in the crawl space.

carpet!!!!! woo woo

2007-01-23T11:15:00.000-08:00

At long last the epic is drawing to the end of a chapter. We have carpet and it is wonderful!

This past weekend we spent a few hours wondering what was going on upstairs as the installers used hammers, bats, possibly guns and maybe a bomb or two to shake the whole house and pound the carpet down.

We decided to splurge a little on the carpet and got a wonderful cut burber and a nice pad. the carpet feels really lush and looks great with the upstairs paint choices. We were lucky and got the whole thing in with no seams. So far the choice to go with Carpet Exchange seems to have been a good one. We initially planned on doing a lot more shopping but found something we both liked at the first store and saw no need to keep looking.

The carpet is currently shedding some of it's nasty smell and making Mark high, but we hope to be sleeping in a real bedroom very soon. The carpet is also shedding some of the extra threads and we're still working on collecting those. After trying to vaccum most of them up Mark got to perform an autopsy on the vaccum and discovered that it held an accurate archeological history of Jennifer's time in Colorado. After removing two cats, a sandbox and part of a recycling bin Mark was able to breathe some life back into the vaccum and it's getting counseling before taking another crack at the new carpet.

We hope to find a new bed to fit the space and get it up there right about the same time the carpet stops killing brain cells.

This weekend also brought some more progress on the trim. A few more pieces to go and we're done! Three cheers for finishing the bedroom!

we have storage!

2007-01-14T10:56:00.000-08:00

The closet is 97.75% done! We had fun burning up Dremel tool cutting wheels as we shaped the closet rods and shelves. If you take on a project like this, but the heavy duty cutting wheels and make sure to buy a big supply. Unfortunately we learned that there's a 1:1 ratio for cutting wheels to pieces of shelf.

The closet looks great. We'll get the built in units trimmed out and fitted with drawers soon and we'll be all done with that project.

We'll move clothes into the closet as soon as we kick Tom Cruise out and get the carpet installed.

I feel pretty!

2007-01-05T08:24:00.000-08:00

Progress!

Last week we finished the last of the sanding upstairs. A marathon effort over new years allowed us to have paint on the walls on the 1st and color shortly there after! aside from the usual fun fumes the painting went quite smoothly. Unfortunately there a re a few drywall blemishes that show through, but we've taken the stance that anyone who points them out will be thrown off the roof and as such there is really no problem with the drywall blemishes that anyone will notice.

As usual in our process we've found a few heros and a few zeros when it comes to tools and supplies. The first surprizing zero is Ace's PVA drywall primer the stuff is like skim milk and doesn't really seal much of anything. Two coats still leave a mostly transparent sheen on the wall. Instead we prefer Kilz (the kilz 2 with the blue label), it coats completely in one application and seals shut a lot of little dimples and imperfections in joint compound.

The real winner of the day is the lightweight spackle from Red Devil. This stuff rocks in a huge way. First it smells like amonia so it keeps the mice and bugs away. More importantly it's super easy to work with and does a fabulous job of filling little holes and leveling out all of the things you thought you sanded but aparently didn't sand when you were doing the joint compound. the stuff is cheap, easy, smooth and easy - all things we like. Did we mention easy?

The loser of the day is (again) the damn wagner power painter sprayer thing that has been a piece of crap from the day it came home. If you're thinking about a power sprayer, don't get one. A roller is three times faster, wastes 62 times less paint, is 5000 times quieter (who would have thunk that the sprayer sounded like a jackhammer) and at least 10 times easier to clean. The only use for the power sprayer is impressionist painting, or perhaps if you have a burning desire for frustration and walls with random coverage and lots of big ugly globs of paint.

up next, carpet! hooray!

Imelda Marcos Come Home!

2006-12-18T10:27:00.000-08:00

Hooray for progress. This weekend we did more sanding and more sloping of joint compound and are hopefully very close to done with that mess. Mark's dad came down and we were able to do most of the built in desk inder the stairs and the office side of the stair wall. We also got the shoe shelf to end all shoe shelves into the upstairs closet. That task marks the official closing of the living space upstairs. Someday soon we'll get a door in and we'll be able to isolate the nice clean hole that will be the bathroom from out endless drywall dust.

As soon as we can decide on what flavor of toilet to install upstairs we'll get cracking on the plumbing and we'll move ahead with the bathroom.

Time flies when you're procrastinating

2006-12-11T08:51:00.000-08:00

almost a month ago we published the ode to mud...the ode continues so we're proposing a change, "ode" is no longer apropraite, it's now an epic. hundreds of years from now this epic will be required reading in classes that wish they were assigned tie Illiad instead.

You might be asking yourself, "why an epic" well it's a little bit ADD and a little bit desire to do something that doesn't make us want to cry. This weekend we did get another coat of joint compount up (mostly) and you'll be happy to know it's the last one. We also sealed the other new window on the first floor, replaced some weather stripping and now have something of an insulated box to live in. The rain gutters are now free of ice so we took the oportunity to do a last bit of touchup work on them and spent some time fighting with the enormous hedge that's trying to eat our house. We'll be pulling more of the hedge out as we go. The first plan was to reduce the thing, but that isn't going to happen in an attractive way, so we'll yank it. We have to do this, because removing the hedge leads to finishing the bedroom....once we've done everything we possibly can to avoid the bedroom we'll finally get to it.

ode to mud

2006-11-15T10:20:00.000-08:00

the end is near...only a few more sheets of drywall and the never ending master bedroom rennovation should come to an end. we've begun the process of taping and mudding and generally making a mess. Mark did a great job getting joint compound all over the floor, too bad it didn't need any. Our wonderful crooked house is going to need some special care with the joint compound to create the illusion of straight lines and good seams. Hopefully we don't have to haul so much up there that the floor falls into the living room. the time for anything falling into the living room is long past.

stay tuned for pictures and an update likely titled "there's dust everywhere, someone save us."

life in the gutter

2006-11-02T12:49:00.000-08:00

This past week brought about unplanned project number 217 in the form of new rain gutters and sorta planned but not really project number 33 as a new water heater.

The snow from last week was mostly slush and it took down the already precariously perched gutters on the south side of the house. The previous owner was nice enough to ruin the gutters on the front of the house when she moved out. The two sections together just didn't do anything for runoff. Also, note the stylish butter knife that was supporting one end of the gutters.

After some quick calls to the gutter repair places it became obvious that we'd be losing a weekend doing the project. Estimates came in from $1100-$1375...about 1050 more than we had hoped. We were initially excited because vinyl gutters looked cheap at the depot. Oh how easily we're lead in. The gutters are cheap, $3.50 for a 10 foot section. What that doesn't say, however, is that you'll need 5 hangers at $2 each, two connectors at $5 each and a bunch of other crap at $too much each. Suddenly we're looking at hundreds of dollars, and we haven't even climbed up the scary ladder yet!

Fortunately the gutters went in without too much hassle. If you're doing your own we highly recommend doing them from the roof (unless it's steep and scary like ours) or scaffolding. it's a royal pain to try and install gutters when you stand under them on a ladder and lean backwards to reach over the top. The installation isn't quite sloped how we'd like but it'll work. it's hard to keep the gutters from adjusting as the screw goes in when the fascia board underneath is rotten. Stay tuned for a future blog titled "unplanned project 924 - Fascia falls off."

The water heater has been Mark's favorite project so far. Aside from the sears guy being late (he didn't have the phone number, after calling the right phone number to confirm the appointment....??) he just went to work and put in the heater, even cleaned up his own mess. we need to have more installations that can be supervised from the couch.

where's waldo?

2006-10-25T08:32:00.000-07:00

we know you're out there...somewhere. it's time to step up and make yourself known.

Although we amuse ourselves tremendously, we want to know who else we're amusing. Drop a comment would ya?

While you're thinking about what to write we'll give you this fun link to a great idea book for storage. Please note, the book might look like an instructional book, but don't be fooled, it's a good idea book with no real instruction. Perhaps we'll have pictures of our fancy pants drawers like the ones on the cover of the book soon.

blinded by the light

2006-10-24T07:17:00.000-07:00

revved up like a deuce, another runner in the night...

the house is now awash in light, and a cool breeze. Both of our new fans have been installed, one twice. Before you ask what we screwed up, it's important to note that we screwed nothing up. We didn't even have an injury on this project....so there!

The fan in the living room proved to be too much light...ok, so the lights on the fan, the fan itself doesn't generate light. see, when you get all picky about semantics it takes me a month to get over it and update the blog. so anyway, the light was too bright in the living room for casual living (our patented Martha Stewart repellant). it's great for reading or working, but too much for reclining on the couch. The previously installed remote unit only gave an on/off option. We decided to pull that out, run a little three wire (which went thankfully smooth) and add a dimmer switch. It really works nicely and installation was a breeze (heh!).

Ultimately it looks like we didn't need the remotes anyway. for some reason it looked like the remove would detach from the wall and provide a little hand held unit that could be used from the couch or wherever. That seemed like a great idea, get in bed, then turn off the light (no clapper thank you). unfortunately the remote doesn't detach and the one that actually does looks a little bit like a fisher price spaceship. Really the only reason to do the remote is if you can't get new wire to the fan, or in our case if you don't read well and have thrown away the packaging and aren't going to eat $40 to keep the remote and do a dimmer as well.

so anyway, we have all of the lights and fans in downstairs and they look really nice. the ceiling is painted and that looks nice too...if you lie flat on your back and look only at the ceiling, sheilding the walls from your view.

Another project off the list.

By the way, yesterday marked 6 months in the house. Unfortunately the answer to the question on everyone's mind is no. no, we're not living upstairs yet...

by the way, if you're wondering where that first part came from I've got some good classic rock for you as homework.

drive in carwash

2006-10-23T12:20:00.000-07:00

The recent snow proved to be too much for our garrage roof, but not in the catastrophic failure way we had hoped. the pool of water on top found a lot of little holes to get through so we had a nice spritz going in the garage.

A little tar goop from Ace Hardware (got it all over our helpful hands) and a new roll of shingles fixed the problem right up (we hope). We haven't actually put any water on the roof, but we can only assume that two cans of goop sealed everything. The ideal situation would involve a new roof, but we're currently hoping for new walls at the same time we get a new roof. All told the project cost under $50 and that's the right range for our high dollar garage.

As a special side note, the roof goop was only $8.99 at Ace instead of $14.99 at our least favorite Depot. As an added bonus, there is no stupidity to endure when getting the roof goop at Ace. As usual the Habitat for Humanity Outlet helped save the day with a full roll of felt paper for $5. If anyone needs some felt we still have 3/4 of the thing left. I'll sell it to you for $15.

Perhaps next time it snows the whole garrage will fall over and we can get a new one. Nature, if you're reading this, please have a North wind handy so teh garage falls onto the carport and not the neighbors new fence. We want a new garage, not angry neighbors or a fence building project.

hooray for drywall

2006-09-26T10:39:00.000-07:00

we've got almost 20 sheets of drywall adorning the ceiling and some walls upstairs. despite the blood, sweat and tears it's still dry too!

Once again Matt was a huge help and we're excited to not be looking at insulation. In fact it may be fair to say we don't ever want to look at insulation...unless maybe that insulation is brought to us on a platter as we sit on the beach. If this happens we'll gladly look at it and then send it on its way and ask for another drink instead.

Next up, we start progress on our built in shelves and drawers. hopefully we can get the materials we need without having to rent a truck.

is there anybody out there?

2006-09-18T11:37:00.000-07:00

Is there anyone reading this, or are you boycotting because we're lousy at doing updates? Leave a comment or three, we'd love to hear from you.

Progress...ahh progress. There are now more holes in the walls than ever. It's a great way to give the spiders unique condo living experiences without having to have them in each other's way. One such spider was unfortunately evicted so that we could get the new porch light up. The good news is that we now have a motion sensing porch light and it seems to know the difference between the bushed and the drunk people on the sidewalk. I'm sure the spider will be moving back in soon and it may be excited to see it's new larger habitat.

The insulation is done! If you ever have the chance to get the most R-value you can in the least space, please spend the money to have it sprayed in. We probably spent 1/3 to 1/2 of what it would have cost to have spray in insulation, but it took MONTHS! so not cool. This project goes on the "never again" list...on top of "stairs from scratch" Hopefully we'll have all of it covered up in just a few days.

stay tuned for more. Same Bat-time, same Bat-channel.

holy drywall batman!

2006-09-06T07:18:00.000-07:00

This isn't exactly burning news, but we do have some drywall up! hooray! Check out the progress with the closet and all of the insulation that's up finally.

The great folks at Extra Build thwarted our plans to finish the insulation. We paid home depot $20 for a nice sunday ride in their van only to find that the used building supply store was closed for the holiday...who woulda thunk? We've already established our position on thinking, so not us.

For all of you who are wondering why we've cut the poly-iso insulation and "wasted a bunch of money," don't worry. Extra build sells the stuff for $75 a pallet. Home depot sells it for $20 a sheet. If you're going to run out and buy yourself a bunch, please bring us one more pallet of the 1 and 5/8" stuff. gracias.

a little window to my soul

2006-09-05T18:42:00.000-07:00

Introducing the worl'ds first bird-safe window!

We're still working through the details on how to keep the rain out of the house with this new breed of window, but we guarantee you'll never be startled by a bird hitting the window.

This labor day was spent laboring mightily and we have a new window to show for it. The project of taking the old window out, moving the opening up and getting the new window in went very smoothly. We both wish that we had known how easy it was to move the window because we probably would have gone with something larger. Oh well. The good news about not resizing the window any more than we did is that we had a limited amount of siding to fix.

What siding there was looks like a high school shop class had a go at using a jig saw for the first time. Unfortunately we couldn't locate cedar shakes to look like ours. Mark made an attempt at custom crafting several different kinds and gets a C for the effort. They don't exactly match, but it's more as a result of improper planning. We didn't really weave them in with the old ones so there is a pretty well defined break. It's also very hard to match the character of the old rotten shingles.

While we do wish the shingles match, we're happy to be done with the bird safe window and back to something that exerts our dominance over nature. It took a lot of will power not to reface the house (a project that would still be nice). We're a little better about focusing on things that improve the livable space. Once that's done we'll take the other challenges.

Here's a shot of the final window with it's primer. not too bad for a rookie, eh?

Let there be light!....please?

2006-08-30T07:56:00.000-07:00

Proving once again that we lack divine touch we've failed to create light. Hopefully home depot has some that we can get without having to talk to anyone. Since I know the major stock holders for Lowes are dedicated readers of this blog, could you pretty please build a store close to us? I know just the location, right now there's a home depot on the lot, but I'm sure they'll move for someone with a sense of customer service.

Mark keeps writing this, but really, even though it's been almost a month since the last post, we're working on the house. Last weekend Jen made phenomenal steps toward getting the upstairs insulated and Mark made a mess of the bathroom.

Where once we had ugly 1980's vanity lights, now we have a gaping hole and tangle of conduit. Mark decided to undertake a simple project (no, he can't be taught) to get a little gratification on getting something done. It should have been easy, it should have been clean, we should have known better.

After discovering two layers of drywall and hacking through them we found 3 junction boxes with the standard twists of wire behind the wall. In one way it is kind of fun because you can see where the bathroom lights and medicine cabinets were over the years. In another way it's kind of scary because there were a total of 4 boxes, with only one accessible and all had power and the usual shoddy wiring. It's also fortunate that Mark never got electrocuted putting up the bathroom mirror because the wiring for the existing ugly lights was forced between the drywall and studs about 1/4" from where he screwed in the mirror. Aparently the previous bathroom renovators didn't own a drill and couldn't rent a clue.

Unfortunatley the hole in the wall remains and there is no light. We did get fun pewter fixtures and once Mark can get the wiring in we will have light (we hope).

One lesson we have learned from this project is that it is completely worth the high price you pay in reciprocating saw blades and dust to avoid cutting the old galvanized conduit with a pipe cutter. Unfortunately it looks like we may be coming close to exhausting the Roybi saw's lease on life. Every cut now produces a wonderful burning smell. The good news is that the conduit leaves a great hole for pulling romex.

The Tomato Hedge

2006-08-08T20:12:00.000-07:00

While progress may seem to have slowed on the house, the garden is picking up the slack! So far we have enjoyed both green and orange bell peppers, lettuce, tomatoes, peas, and a carrot so far. The tomatoes are doing especially well - to the point of taking over an unsuspecting row of peppers. Despite our best efforts of containing the hearty plants, we are stuck with a tomato hedge.

I've got a door in my pocket

2006-08-04T15:18:00.000-07:00

well actually we've got a door in the garrage, but sometime we'll have a door in our newly installed pocket. After a little monkey work we've installed a28" pocket door frame to the upstairs bathroom. Everyone should cross their fingers to make sure that the door will fit. There isn't room for a floor plate under the frame and we're hoping that there isn't need either.

This weekend should mark another milestone in the upstairs construction project as we get the lights wired, closet finished and some insulation up.

and on the 316th day there was light

2006-08-02T09:59:00.000-07:00

We've passed another major project with success. This weekend Mark's dad came down and the two of them spent a very hot day installing a fancy new skylight. As per usual the day provided a few learning experiences, but it was generally a smooth process. We burned through four saw blades and almost one saw. Even the good Milwaulkee bi-metal sawzall blades were no match for the layers of tar, nails and metal flashing on the roof. On the good side, we'll happily trade four saw blades to avoid having to go onto our steep and scary roof.

The skylight looks great and the roof doesn't leak or sag so we're putting a mark in the success column for this one. Stay tuned for more adventures!

News Weather and sports

2006-07-25T07:51:00.000-07:00

Somehow July has almost escaped and by the looks of the blog we haven't done anything to the house. By the looks of the house we haven't done anything to the house!

Fortunately for our sanity, we actually have done things to the house. For starters the basement is wired, so are the upstairs outlets and the furnace is almost wired. We've got the starts of a desk under the stairs (doing a built in desk/shelf unit) and as soon as we can find the right laminate that will be done.

More importantly the Chimney's are whole again! Fidel and his nephew spend three days figuring out how to build a scaffold that would fit between our tightly spaced houses and two days fixing all of our chimneys. Prospective home buyers take note, we expect top dollar in equity for the fixed brick work.

In other news the dormer is almost completely painted. The new paint doesn't really match the old paint so we'll see how long it is before we post an update titled "Mark gets sick of paint that doesn't match and paints the whole house."

Upcoming projects:

Wire 2nd floor lights

Install skylight

install pocket door frame for 2nd floor bathroom

finish framing closet once door frame is in

Nature strikes back!

2006-07-03T19:03:00.000-07:00

Nature has grown tired of our un-American attempts to be reasonable in home ownership. Apparently we've been supporting terrorists by buying compost bins, growing an organic garden and recycling and no one likes terrorists...especially GW. Our house seems to be one of the many on NSA watchlists and we've been smote (smoten? smited? smit?) for our bad behavior. Just before 4:15 on this rainy Colorado day, GW gave the order to his friend in the sky and lightning bolts were cast forth. One of them struck our chimney and blew up the top. As if that was not enough, the lightning sought the source of our evil and destroyed the TV and our cable modem.

If the fire from above didn't send a clear enough message, the walls began to bleed, and did so for some time. By "bleed" of course, we mean leak...water. We ended up with a happy little pool in the basement. The water went straight for Mark's textbooks. The NSA even knows what is in your boxes. If you're not going to participate in the dumbing of America, you're not doing your duty and your books get taken away.

Well GW, you win this one, we got the message. We know that TV's are for watching Fox News and rightly deserved to have ours taken away for watching the Discovery Channel instead. We know that the internet is not a place to get informed, it's a place to consume - particularly things that run on gas...we're sorry.

The Dormer is done!

2006-06-29T10:45:00.000-07:00

Our dormer is done and looking fabulous. The carpenters were great and were able to get us some extra space inside. We went from the plan of a 5 foot exterior to a 5 foot interior. That gives us more space on either side of the window and lots of room for the bathroom inside. The chimney decided to play along and is not in view of the window. You can see the chimney , but only if you look out the side of the window. We've also got a great interior height so that it won't be dangerous to walk into the space. The roofer was nice enough to replace two shingles that blew off the other side of the house when he did the dormer.

We'll get things painted over the next several days.

If you're looking for someone to do an addition or remodel to your home, or if you're in the market for a new highly efficient home we definitely recommend calling Chuck at Saxton Construction.

The dormer

2006-06-25T20:43:00.000-07:00

Towards the end of the stair reconstruction project the contractors arrived to build out our dormer. We opted for a shed dormer, instead of a gabled dormer, to maximize interior space gained and to reduce the cost of the project. The new dormer will add approximately 5 feet of additional space at the back of the house and will provide adequate head room for the 2nd bathroom and some cross ventilation for the upstairs. The roofer didn't have enough shingles to finish the job, so both he and the contractor who will install the siding will finish the project later this week (we hope!). With the new dormer window we now we have a great view of downtown and of our neighbors back yards.

Building new stairs

2006-06-23T07:20:00.000-07:00

We almost have new stairs!

After almost 20 hours of work, we have the old stairs out and new stringers in. As you should well know by now, this project isn't just limited to the stairs. We've also repaired a heating duct that was doing a great job of circulating air inside a wall and torn down yet another wall. It turns out that the stringer was the strongest part of that wall and the rest was made almost entirely of scrap. No one knows why we were surprised by this, but we were.

This project turned out to be way more involved and expensive than we could have ever guessed (probably because we didn't look into it and just guessed). Lumber is crazy expensive for this stuff and stair treads are out of sight on price. Some options could have cost us $200 per step...we have 14 steps. ouch! Fortunately we had the invaluable help of Sean to keep everything working. Thanks Sean! And a big thanks to Matt, too, for helping us fit the treads.

As with all of the projects we learned a few fun lessons.

it's ok for the neighbors a few houses down to blast their music, but our saw is loud enough to get a call to the police

if you need your stairs redone, it's probably worth hiring someone. This project rated about a 2 of 10 on the fun scale.

if you don't hire someone, measure 413 times and cut ~~once~~ 3 times

choose your tread style before you start

there are no good tread options online, and even fewer in Home Depot

paint catalogs have lots of neat stair ideas

new subfloor is in!

2006-06-10T19:16:00.000-07:00

After a gross underestimation of what the job would take, and a huge helping hand from Mark's dad, the new subfloor is in! All squeeks have been banished as has most of the wave motion. Unfortunately so has the closet. Look for the second coming of the closet in the next week.

Total project cost - about $330
Total trips to home depot - three
Injuries - minor scrapes
project underestimated by - 4 hours

Lessons learned

even though Lowe's is a much better store, it's nowhere near the house. The good news is that Home Depot honors the 10% off coupons that Lowes sent.

Note the progress on the insulation, depressing lack of dormer and potential for skylight fun!

Pictures, Pictures, Pictures!

2006-06-09T07:59:00.000-07:00

You would think that if anyone could get some pictures of their house to go with the house blog it would be the photographer who lives in the house. That just goes to show that you shouldn't think. If public school taught you anything you'd already know this.

For those of you who haven't seen anything here's a recent shot, along with a quick shot or two (courtesy of Jen) from the first of many attempts at buying our house.

Here's a shot from the outside. It already looks better and worse. The vegitation has been encouraged back into some semi-normal form and the evil thorn tree has been pruned to be slightly less evil. Unfortunately some idiot (who may or may not be the aforementioned photographer) got spray foam all over the window casement. The new paint looks good, the foam reminds you we're still in the ghetto.

A shot of the upstairs full of crap and finished out...we don't even have walls up there now :( of course, we don't have cat and mystery stains on the carpet either.

We have completely gutted the basement since moving in and it is now awaiting a new furnace, new wiring, and of course new flooring and walls.

The $110 Nail

2006-06-05T09:58:00.000-07:00

This weekend provided multiple learning opportunities...none particularly fun.

Instead of moving further on our insulation project Mark spent 4.5 hours in the hospital ER. Nothing major (but feel free to send get well gifts) except annoyance. While trying to pry loose a board he managed to get stuck on a dirty, rusty nail hanging down from the roof. The nail went a ways into his middle finger, making a fun wound to show off.

The major bummer of this experiment was that Kaiser insurance isn't very helpful on a weekend. According to their website, the place to get after hours care is the local hospital. Unfortunately the services that are "after hours care" and therefore cost $50 are limited to throat cultures for strep. Everything else is an "emergency" even if you haven't been bleeding for the last several hours. The tetanus shot was apparently an emergency procedure.

The offending nail

In this incident, womankind proved once again that they have all the brains. Mark wanted to wait until Monday to go to the regular doctor and get a shot, Jen said no. The nurse and doctor both sided with Jen and said it was a good idea to come in immediately for the shot.

Things learned this time around:

The best way to get to be first in line at the ER is to be really fat and have chest pain. some 416 people got to go before Mark with this complaint
Saturday evening is not a good time to go to the ER
Despite the desire to wait, you are supposed to get to the doctor within 48 hours (and sooner is better) any time you get a dirty puncture wound or cut yourself deeply while doing something like cutting chicken.
Tetanus shots are now given out every 5 years, not 10 like Mark thought.
Tetanus shots make your arm hurt really badly when you try to work over your head doing the rest of the insulation and are generally a big baby.
It's not nice to chuckle at the guy who is in the ER with his terrified girlfriend after her cat mauled his ear, but it is officially ok to laugh after she's gone.
You get to have more fun and less injury when you just use the wrecking bar to remove (smash) the boards instead of trying to neatly pull them off.

Insulation Delima Solved - we hope

2006-06-02T11:25:00.000-07:00

Yesterday it was about 615 degrees upstairs. Fortunately we seem to have found a partial solution to the issue. We took a trip to Extra Building Supply and managed to secure two pallets of polyiso insulation for $250 plus tax, plus home depot van rental. All told it was about $300. We should now have enough to get the ceiling to R24. A massive upgrade from the previously installed and thuroughly ruined r11 batting. The beauty of the purchase is that we would have paid $23.89 per sheet for this stuff at one of the big box stores. Score one for the little guy.

During the deconstruction of the upstairs walls we also located a new vent by removing some seriously moldy insulation. Jose Handyman must have thought it would be a good idea to pack the vent full of insulation and then drywall over that. Fortunately there was something of a cover on the roof. Unfortunately the insulation prevents any of the hot air from escaping and we have a master bedroom warm enough to cure pottery.

more to come, (including pics!) soon...

Furnace on the way

2006-05-31T10:07:00.000-07:00

After much debate and a few painful estimates we have decided to have Elkhorn HVAC replace our cracked and crappy furnace. The decision was a tough one. Sears had a good offer and what looks like a pretty good product for $1000 less. Ultimately we chose Elkhorn by some of the same criteria that Consumer Reports recommends.

To begin, the Elkhorn guy was just great. He answered all of the questions, even the dumb ones. He also caught a lot of stuff that the Sears guy didn't notice or care about (both code and safety violations or potential problems). Elkhorn will do a heat-load to determine exactly the right size furnace. Everything we've researched says the installation and sizing of the furnace is way more important than the brand. All of the other installers were going to size the furnace based on "experience" or the size of our rooms. Size of the rooms tells some things, but without taking into account the windows and insulation and other factors it's only part of the picture.

The $1000 cost differential is also slightly misleading. With Sears we would have gone with an 80% furnace. With Elkhorn we're looking at a 90%. If we did a 90% with Sears, the Elkhorn one would only be $500 more expensive. We decided to go with the 90% furnace because of the number of holes and their size (80% gives more and bigger holes) that would have to be drilled and because Mark is a tree hugging hippie werido.

Pro's and cons of each installer:
Elkhorn

Pro: Very friendly and knowledgable
Pro: Candid and detailed about how we could save money doing some things ourselves
Pro: Answered all of the questions
Con: Little expensive and no deal on duct cleaning (was hoping to get that thrown in)
Con: No weekend installation w/o extra charges

Sears

Pro: Very flexible on time for estimate and installation
Pro: Fairly nice and reasonably knowledgable about codes
Pro: Nice warranty options
Pro: Offered duct cleaning as part of the package ($200)
Con: Didn't look at as many details as Elkhorn
Con: Really rude when we decided not to go with them

Rugged

Pro: Great price
Con: Estimate took over TWO hours!
Pro: Gave printed estimate right on the spot
Con: Would only give estimate for one setup. Others gave multiple options

The Maginot Line is Complete!

2006-05-27T14:01:00.000-07:00

viva la revolution!

After weeks of trench warfare, blisters and a jillion trips to Home Depot we now have electricity in the garage. Sure, when all of this started we had electricity in the garrage, but now it's confined to the garage and less likely to also be in the lawn, garden and any unfortunate shovel nearby.

One of the "handy" projects the previous owners left was a delicate wiring system. The garrage had power via indoor wiring burried about 4-6 inches under the sod. The wiring ran up the side of the house, allong the roof and down a post into the ground where it traveled to the garage. Somewhere along the line the 14/2 transitioned into 12/2 wire and then back into 14/2 but with no ground. The wire not in the ground was fairly brittle and starting to fall apart since it was indoor wire not rated for sunlight exposure. As per usual in this endevor, most connections were made with electrical tape. I counted a total of two wire nuts on six different junctions.

This fun project involved digging a 54' long trench 18-20 inches down and going under two sidewalks. Suggestions for next time:

do a utility locate and rent a trencher, the $100 that'll cost (trencher plus truck to tow it) is worth not digging.
they make these cool auger bits for drills that poke nice 3" holes. I seem to recall thinking "I wish someone made an auger bit for my drill" - buy one of those.
PVC conduit is the way to go. it's so much easier to work with than the other options.

The first big project

2006-04-30T21:42:00.000-07:00

The first big project we decided to tackle was to take out the wall in the living room that divided the living room and a bedroom. A large, open living area was much more desirable to us than an extra small bedroom. What a piece of construction mastery! The interior walls (forming the bedroom) had been insulated and were very creatively constructed, which made for great fun in the deconstruction. Better yet, the furnace thermostat had been wired directly onto the drywall! Just a few of the many surprises that lay ahead...

Welcome to the show

2006-04-30T09:53:00.000-07:00

After months of waiting and battleing idiots we closed on our new 99 year-old house on April 20, 2006! Hooray!

Follow along as we turn a dump into a disaster. We'll share resources, progress and opinions.

To begin with, if you're looking for a Buyer's Agent, we highly recommend Russ Murray. Russ was excellent and an invaluable resource for an otherwise very frustrating transaction. He was incredibly knowledgable and pleasant to work with.

If you're looking for a lot of needless frustration and endless Delays, try Remax, or getting your finances tied up with Option One Mortgage.