Sometimes I manage to get pretty donw on just how long this place is takign to finish. It been 4 years. 8^P But since I live in it every day and can see that the place is still a large collection of inperfections and things that are just plain broke I dont so much noitce just how much better things are now than they were on move in day. The holiday party has been my chance to be reminded yet again that I am making real progress. People were amazed not that the 1/2 bath from hell was done but that it was nearly done and no longer looked anywhere near as nasty as it did on move in day. Back then I shut the door to that room and simply declared it off limits. I have forgotten that the floors that people were complementing used to be the same floors that I plain old refused to walk barefoot on. Or that in the full bath that makes everyone all jelous I used to not have water perssure which was really the house defending itself against the fact that the tub had the worlds slowest drain. I had forgotten that the light fixtures in the downstairs that everyone are amazed by used to be crappy junk from a 1970’s Kmart. Even in the new rooms I spend more time worrying about getting the basebaords up and finding a new furnace vent cover than I do noticing that the new solid floor does not squeek, the walls have no cracks or missing plaster, the insulation is working and the paint job is stunning. These are easy things to forget, but then 30 or 40 people show up who really notice the changes and suddenly I am reminded why I have been suffering with this place from big project to big project. Its because I saw the potential, and even if I dont notice so much now its actually creeping up to meet that potential.
Ivan
It was a long weekend
Yule party weekend is always long. I would really like to be able to have two full days to get ready for these but instead I get friday night and Saturday. Suprisingly it went very well. 30 or so people showed up, a bottle of Absinthe got used up, along with a number of bottles of wine, and a lot of beer. I even managed to cook some pretty damm good party food before the partyy started.. Of course I was finishing my shower and getting dressed as people started showing up.. For some folks the Yule party is about the only time of the year to actually see the work in progress. It was pretty cool this time around as the progress is pretty noticable.. Wait till next year though, I will finally have the third floor uber living room.. 8^) Last year, the second floor bedrooms still looked like they were going to fall apart, and the ir was no downstairs 1/2 bath from hell. 8^)
I got up on Saturday morning and had a sudden urge to get my lighter out of the wall.. Yea, its been there since July along with the beer bottle. So, some folk had just gotten over to help with the pre-party clean up and saw me pulling out the baseboard and powering up the sawzall.. Yea, all things on this house concidered probably not a great idea.. But for once a project started finished and cleaned up in a whopping 10 minutes. I have my lighter back and have retrieved the beer bottle. Its a bottle of gettelman 1000$ Dollar Prize Natural Process.. I know this because the paper lable is intact.
8^) So, so far the house has ponyed up a indian head penny and a old beer bottle. 8^) I am still looking for the sack of gold. 8^P
The windows in the old bedrooom had not been plasticed up yet. We were running out of time on Saturday to go get any so opted to use some of the radiant barrier insulation from this summers project on the windows. Ok, the stuff is not see through. But wow.. The room stays warm now.. Overall I have to say that this summers work on stopping drafts and insulating those two rooms has had a fairly dramatic effect on how well the house performs thermally. Also, I will be useing this radiant stuff everywhere I can… It is plain old too good not to use. I cannot wait to get the attic roof foamed and a layer of this added to that.. The results should be really really noticable. Looks like the attic project will be starting March 1 which really only gives me 9 weeks or so till the big dumpster gutting of the attic. That just seems awfully soon from now.. But the attic will be a more easy going project as there wont be huge messes in the living parts of the house and nothing we are currently useing space wise will go away.. So, I will be taking my sweet time on the attic.. Ok, the spending per square foot will also be higher than it was this summer and there are more square feet to spend on.. 8^P I suppose I should exptect it to be pricey.. I have pricey taste and its a big room that needs well, everything.. 8^( At least I wont feel any urge to burn myself out on this one. The main goal for next summer should be to actually enjoy meself and spend some quality time doing nothing.
Ivan
Yea,
I am still not always getting along with my bloggin warze.. I need to look into installing something a bit nicer. Thing is this one is nice and simple.. But it times out my sessions before I finish writing and posting.. That will result in lost posts.. Most annoying..
Been a big week in Milwaukee, we did managed to have a factory explode last week. Like most folks I was getting ready for work when it happened.. The shockwave was moveing faster than the sound. The house shook some and I thought someone was banging on the bathroom door then, I thought I heard snow thunder. So I thougth it was going to storm again and that the house was getting ready to collapse. 8^P Not a good way to start the day. Only after leaving the house did I notice all of the sirens and the big black column of smoke rising out of the vally. Fortunatly, there were not as many deaths, or injurys as there could have been.
In better news, I used the downstairs half bath from hell for something other than tool storage. 8^)
Yes, finally that one is seriously closing in on finished. Finnished!!!
Excuse me for a moment while I am super happy about this. 8^) Actually the last couple of weeks have been pretty good.. I am starting to catch up on all of the lost sleeep from the last couple of years. Being mroe awake helps me make better decisions. Like the most recent.. I will be passing on the Big Crazy Kitchen Rebuild till next winter. I need some time off. So, The attic project is unavoidable, as right now I wont call the temp livnig room a living room.. I want to be able to lounge around in my Pajamas and watch a movie in comfort. For that I need a real living room.. The only place for it is up there. But, I can take my time now and not try rushing this one. I will also have the needed time and more importantly money to finsish off the cedering outside and the gates and security fences which I feel a greater need for every day.
That reminds me of a good one. The house does not like leaving you feeling alone when you are home alone. So, yesterday my brother called me at work fairly feaked out about the sounds comming from the attic, apparently it sounded like someone was walking around up there in size 14 boots. I know the sound I have heard it before, probably will hear it again… 8^P He was pretty convinced there was someone up there. So, after calling me and taking a well armed tour of the house discovered that yup, he was alone.. Personally I like the part where the house will occasionally go out if its way to make you fell less alone in it.. Its not like the place is small, and when you are home alone it can get pretty darn quiet especially in the winter when they are not selling drugs down on the corner. 8^)
Ok, back to how happy I am about closing in on finishing the downstairs bathroom.. 8^) Since buying the place I have learned a lot about the application of schellac.. I really like the zinser amber stuff.. Done right it looks really really good.. Fits in well with the origonal finish, and with a light staining underneath wow, the wood grain pops out and becomes 3d. I have about 5 coats of the stuff on the wainscotting in the bathroom.. It loks good.. but with all of the Denatured Alchohol in the air you really need to pay attention to ventilation, or you get wasted.
Finally since I am apparently too lazy to take and upload the much needed pics I will include a nice video.
wow! I really like her stuff… Youtube has changed my life for the better. 8^)
Ivan
It snowed on friday. Or better put is snowed a lot. A whole lot. It actually took 40 minutes to drive to work. Still better than the 4 hours it probably would ahve taken to get to Chicago, and who knows how I would have gotten out. So, I was home around 4:00 since no one stayed at work on Friday there was no reason to go against the flow on that one.. 8^)
Instead I got home nice and early and was suprisingly well rested and felt good. So instead of anything productive I spent a little bit of quality time hunting drafts with the caulk gun, put up some more window plastic and then logged on strapped myself into a corsair and pwned up some n00bs. In the end it was a perfect snowey Friday. Much better than the sheer horror and badness that weekday snow events were causing me with the long commute.. I am going to guess that being an extreame commuter is probably easier in less snowey climates. I know all 4 of the people reading this are wondering where the darn paix are of the nearly finished bedroom project.. They will be along soon.. Very soon, as soon as I get motivated to actually take them then take all of that time downloading them and then uploading them.. Wow I am lazy. 8^) Despite my lazyness I am now really under the gun.. The holiday party is in 12 days. Thats 12 days, to finish the downstairs 1/2 bath from hell enough to at least let tht guys use it. Thats 12 days, to get the insulation in the attic above the new bedrooms… Thats 12 days to make the upstairs main hallway not look so stupid. I have only 12 days left to get the very last bits of venetian plaster up, along with the sconces in the front bedroom. Hopefully I can also get the medalion, paint it and put that up with a real light fixture. 8^P Ok, then there is the whole next cleanup thing. Have I ever mentioned that the kitchen is in such a sad state of cheep materials that cleaning it really only results in it looking less cruddy. Yea, I still look forward to my day in there with the 10 lbs sledge. 8^)
I found out somethign interesting. The place my mother just moved into hase a groovy modern wood fireplace inserted into what I thought was the origonal fireplace. Instead its on in a original real fireplace but a wacky old gas burner like I have. The chopped out the extra bricks and inststalled it with a new stainless chimney for a couple thousand bucks. Now, I would be stuck with a fairly ugly stainless steel chimney running up the outside of the house but.. I can get firewood for very amazingly cheep.. Something like that could heat the whole downstairs and the two front rooms of the second floor. The result would be that I could get away with only running the furnace about 3 months out of the year.. In Wisconsin.. It would pay for iteslf in about 2 years.. Or faster than a new super hight effecincy furnace will pay for itself. So, now I am thinking that end of next summer it could be on the list along with the new furnace, hot water heater and hot water source for the radiant system… 8^P
I should learn to not geat ahead of myself. 8^) I am just really geeked up about finishing the bedroom.. 8^) Granted the next hell project is the attic. Thats going to be not fun for a while.. Its also going to be hellishly spendy for a bit. The engineered subfloor will be 4k the real floor will be another 2 or 3, Thats just the floors, I also need to replace 6 windows and the front porch door.. Put in lights, and new electrics, walls, paint and trim along with all the damm furniture that it will take to make it feel usefull. Then there is the electronics package up there.
Bleh!
Ivan
