Time is running out on summer faster than I am running out of summer project.  Guh!

This was supposed to be done by 4th of July…

Now we are close but still no where near done.

This will be a busy weekend.. I am getting the drywall and insulation delivered on Saturday.  By Monday the goal is to have more more insulation or drywalling to do.. Next weekend I want to be painting and worrying about trim, ohh and tin ceiling.. 8^)

This is not impossible its just a lot to be doing.

Ivan!

what can I say, the outside wall of the kitchen is covered. I am not saying that there are not a bunch of other fiddly bit of drywall to be put up in there I am just saying that, the biggest part is now done. 8^) Granted we are hardly done drywalling in fact that looks to be what we will be spending most of our time doing for the next several weekends. 8^(

I still have to get focused on the vestibule the back stairs and the Florida room.. But they only need some floor work, electrics and walls. Easy stuff compared to the kitchen.. In an oops I should have lined up everything before installing the sink. Following the Ikea instructions to the letter was not helpful The result is that the white bar in front is too low, and the sink will have to be pulled up, to move the bar. 8^( Yes, pain in my ass is the right way of putting it.. 8^P Worse yet, we need to get this done before the tile gets finished, so tonight or tomorrow night are the only acceptable choices. But anything that gets me closer to a finished kitchen is OK with me at this point. I have been thinking about redoing the ceiling next spring just before the place hits the market.

I was thinking this in brushed nickel would rock, with the filler panel going around the outside to some egg and dart wood

I used the screw up stuff in the study, and with the 3/4 inch drywall up there putting that up will be really easy. Also with that the room would be stunning.

ok, this would rock as well

Either way,

AS for the attic, I am very seriously thinking I should hire out the subflooring, insulation shoring up drywall doors and windows.

I could have those done in two weeks or less that way. All of the hellish hauling of stuff up the stairs would be messing up someone else’s back and most importantly the project could be finished by the end of October.

where would I be going wrong here?

Ivan

ohh, yea

The dishwasher is up and running again.. 8^)

The drywalling is nearing completion.. 8^)

That leaves very little to do

1.  put in the dorrs and handles on the cabinets

2. finish backsplash

3. plaster lots of seams

4. hang center lights

5. Trim!

6. New doors to florida room and basement stairwell

7. Paint!

Then there are the hallways and the florida room itself..

8^P

Electrics, insulation, drywall, floors, Trim, paint

Heck that seems like nothing at this point.. 8^P

Once the tile backsplash is done I will have the front door and the remains of last summers trim stripped.  The front door needs to look better, the nasty old paint job is ruining it up good… 8^P

In the meantime been looking at refinance options.

Thankfully all this work is turning into sweat equity.  I will be cashing out enough to pay off all old crappy bills, and get the dirt next door.  For a lower payment than I am currently making..

Sweet!

Also, by next year after the sale is done I will be looking at having a nice big credit rating again..   8^)

Finally this all works out with enough resource left over to get the replacement windows in the second floor and get the third floor done before the winter solstice party.  I live for that party.. Then I only need to survive one more crappy Wisconsin winter before trading that in for crappy Chicago winters..

8^)

Ivan!

ok,

the dishwasher is back on-line.  It been too long.. 8^)  I never want to go this long without a kitchen again.. 8^P  Having a machine wash dishes again last night was very very nice.  8^)  This weekend looks like it will be a wash.. Not much can get done as we will be busy living real life.  Next weekend I want to waste a day at RenFair, as I need my yearly supply of soap, and I just plain old need to get out of the house for a day.  8^)

Looks like I will be taking a few real days off in September..  Heck, by then the replacement windows should be in as well as the vestebule, back stairwell and back room finished.. 8^)

Hopefully mid September the final project, the attic can start.. 8^(

Thats gonna be hell on wheels… I am going to have to call in as much help as I can get my greedy little hands on.

Of course I am now loving the housing collapse as prices are falling on parts.  8^)

Looks like the attic will be getting a laminate floor, as lumber liquidators has it for .78$a square freeking foot.. 8^)

The new living room upstairs is gonna be sweet… 8^)

Ivan!

ok,

we are moving along nicely.  Tonight I expect to  energize the track lights and take them on a test run.  8^)

anyways here are a few pics from the last year

This was the rooming house getting killed by heavy equipment.  8^)  That was a happy day

Yes, the new kitchen floor went in nice…

Still I dont miss the place

The new kitchen sink has something the old one did not.. SIZE!!!!  Its HUGE!!

Yes!  Running Water!!  The new sink is so sexy!

Since I am at it here are some older ones

Some detail of the ceiling from the master bedroom

Wow, the new kitchen is not even done yet and already kicks this places ass.

Folks who know me will understand how much I need a window like this

whee!

Ivan

This was a long and a short weekend.  It was long because I was tired for most of it.. In fact I managed to sleep till about 2:30 on Saturday.. 8^P

It was short in that we needed more time for messing with the messed up electrics on Sunday.

Yet another fubar circuit was located and removed this weekend.  I am still not sure what it was doing there but wow..

The relatively new  breaker box had a dedicated circuit going back to the old fuse box  ( now a over sized junction box ) where this particular circuit joined up with a old knob and tube circuit.  Since we were having big problems with the last generation of wiring in the kitchen we were looking for the source of all the load that was in places where it should not be.

W e traced it back into the coal closet under the drain stack  There in the dark we found the bare wires hanging out of a dead old box _hanging_ off the wall.  So there it is 15 amps of  I’m gonna kick your ass just sitting there.  How this has not killed anyone or started a fire I do not want to know.  We cut the knob and tube and capped the end off from the breaker box, and I will only have some nightmares.  8^P

In the meantime the back-splash is coming along well and the  kitchen itself is nearly fully rewired, it was made more difficult by the crappy way that the last generation of wiring went in.  We got lucky though and found the entombed junction box in the ceiling.  8^P

I expect that by Friday we will  be closing up the walls, by then we should be down to trim, doors and paint.  8^)

Fortunately the  maids pantry, the the two entrys will be much easier to deal with.  8^P

Ivan

Ivan

ok, very soon we will be getting ready for the final bits on the kitchen. Tomarrow will be a very very busy day.

This weekend went poorly because I worked a 23 hour shift on Friday. That sort of messes up the weekend, in a very messed up sort of way. 8^P

Ok, so tomorrow, the wall fixing starts.. 8^), the supply side of the plumbing gets done. 8^) The electrics start getting squared away…

Starting Friday night, the floor gets grouted

Saturday the windows go in, the finishing touches on walls

Sunday Doors Doors Doors!

Along with hopefully the last of the wireing, and box placing

Monday - Wednesday Primer

Thursday through the 14th, cabinets, trim and paint

15th booze up and be happy?

Ivan

despite an apparent need to sleep in we managed to kick some ass on the kitchen demo this weekend.. 8^)  The dumpster showed up on Friday morning and by the time I got home the back room was already more or less gutted.  By the end of saturday the kitchen was one big bare room.  By the end of Sunday the floor was mostly out.  Leading me to the first real decision.  THe origonal subfloor is not in that bad of shape.  Should I keep it a slap a this layer of plywood over it to level things out or, take it down to studs and put in nice new 3/4 inch.  The origonal subloor is installed at an angle.  This has the advantage of tying the whole house together at the subfloor level.  But then again, if we rip it all out it will probably be easier to level everything out.  But if we leave it in we will save a boatload of time.  Right now I am thinking that saving time will be more savings.

Of course what would a project be without some holy crap moments.  The plumbing was as expected there to provide them and then some.  First there was the relocation of the sink.  Then the house was new the kitchen sink was on the inside wall.  Why?   Because the builders did not have drap for brains and knew they would have freezing pipes if they put the sink on the outside wall.  Since then some moron came along and decided that the sink should be under the outside window.  8^P weak, so very weak.  To make this work they had to do some very very creative re running of the drain vent.  To be creative they chopped the heck out of the 2×4’s that are the support wall between the kitchen and the back pantery.  Weak!   I am suprised the upstairs bedrooms floor is not more warped than it is as there is nothing holding it up.  Fortunatly I knew all along about the importance of that wall and had planned to replace it with a beam anyways.  Then there is the outside wall and the winder freezing pipes.  To run the last bit of vent they cut a channel into the outside wall’s drywall.  Even with insulation on that side of the house on a windy -10 day in January there was no way they the plumbing was going to stay unfrozen.  8^P

Bleh!

Then there was the floors.. Or should I say floors..

Bottom layer, 1/4 sawn oak toung and grove.  Oddly enough they changed directions of the toung half way through the room.. Why?  I do not know.  Above that there was a very 70’s lineolium job held down with looks to be liquid nails.  One the the previous owners really loved that stuff.  Apparently he got tired of his half assed linolium job and slapped a layer of ugly ass early 80’s brown stick on viynal over the top of it.  The interm owner reconized that that was ugly so got some more ulgy 90’s stick on viynal and 1/8 inch plywood.  The plywood coverd all the old stuff and the new stick on bits got slapped on top of that.

Needless to say yaning out the floor was kind of a pain in the ass.  Also, the aprt where it was very warm and humid was less than helpful.  Still by this weekend we will be worried about the new wiring, and the subfloor.  8^)  We should be well on our way to tileing and plumbing next week.  I still need to visit the window store and see if there is anything good for a new kitchen window there in the overstock / returns bin.  By the end of next week I should be ramping up to get the new cabinetry squared away.  In theory the kitchen phase only has about three weeeks left, probably a week or two to finish off the fancy enclosed porch and the two hallways.  Then we can start worrying about the attic, one of the backyard trees, all of the misc repair cracks and paint projects the bedroom windows, and selling the place.

At least the list is shrinking fast that it is growing.  8^)

Ivan!

ok,

Summer construction season is starting.. This is going to yet again be a big summer. But very likely the last.. Yea, once we have done the needed work, the place goes up for sale and its off to a new life in Chicago. There is part of me that going to miss the house.. Actually a big part of me.. Working on the place has been a big part of my life for the last 5 years. I have learned lots of stuff. Especially about old houses.. But the time has come to move forward.. So, some folks who are house hunting and freinds of the folks across the street took a look around on Saturday.  They really like the place were not freeked out when I said I will be looking to sell for 200k and really liked the work that has been done.. 8^) smooth.. 8^) The only sticking point was the lack of off stree parking.. Speaking of that the burned out remains of the rooming house next door are freeking me out.. Its still there, the utilities are now fully disconnected, which is a good thing.. But, its seen a lot of rain since the fire. That is starting to show on the place. The back west corner of the foundaion is cracking. In front one of the brick pillars that holds up the front porch and the front of the house is more than just cracking it has cracked through and is sheering off as the house appears to be slowley lean/sliding forward to the west.. This means that if there is sudden catostrophic failure of the foundation that it is pointing at my place. ( again I am pretty glad I am overinsured ) Even more disturbing is that apparently the insurance company now owns the place and are apparently thinking that they can rebuild….

Except for a few small problems..Like the fact that he foundation is now comming to pieces, the place is developing a lean. Some very key parts of the internals are gone, as the owner sold the salvage rights for all of the woodwork.. The place now no longer has things like baseboards, door trim, heck it no longer has doors. The dining room builtin has been salvaged, as well as the main staircase. Next up the knob and tube wiring is 1 fubar, and 2 would be required to be replaced to get the place up to any sort of code… The plumbing is still 100% lead.. The siding is trashed, the roof is pretty much missing. Pieces of the house are falling off onto the service walk daily. The more I write this the more I am convinced that there is no way in hell the insurance comapny would be dumb enough to try to rebuild the remains. Too expensive even to do a half assed job.. They could pretty much never make money on it, as they would actually have a hard time getting 1 to 1 on the investment versus value of the place…

So, in the end there just aint no way they are going to rebuild.. 8^P

Good, as I really need to be getting my hands on that plot of dirt so I can have off street parking… Yea, this is pretty synical of me.. Genreally I am all about saving these places.. But some have such a legacy of crappyness that when they finally burn its more like the place comitting suicide. Thats true in this case… Of the 6 Kern houses build on the block there will still be 4 left. Thankfully they are in better shape, and sacrificing this one will see to it that thay stay that way. If the insurance company actually does do a half assed rebuild and dump on the market it would never be bought by a sane owner occupant, but more likely by a absentee landlord looking to turn the block into the ghetto.

Thats why it really cannot happen..

In the meantime. We started the next big one.. The kitchen, ok, by big its nothing compared to last summers bedroom project. Its not getting gutted to studs, heck most of the drywall is staying put.. But the back maids pantry and the stairwell to the outside is going to be gutted, one of the pain in the ass curtain walls is going and the floor is going down to studs. 8^P

The floor tile has been sourced, HOBO, just over a buck a foot.. 8^) We also found tile for the backsplash.. Also about a buck a foot.. 8^) I will be putting pex in the floor just in case we have the energy, time, and money to put in the boiler before the place is sold.

Bleh more later…

Ivan!

ok..

Just so everyone knows between 8:00pm and 10:45pm last night I was flying on line pwning up some noobs.. I shot down 3 p38s and a p47.. I also spent 20 solid minutes chasing an a20 just to get killed by its sniper tail gunner.. 

That said…

Around 11:00pm last night my dreams were made into demented scary as hell reality when the dumb ass crack heads next door managed to light the rooming house on fire.  Its a totall loss.. In fact the nasty Brown Auschwitz house with the ghetto-tastic chain link fence looks to have been taken with the place.  It was a two for one deal light up by one of the double digit IQ AODA issue fucktards that lived in the rooming house and fuled by cheep plastic siding…

Amazingly ehough when the flames spread to my side the place refused to catch.  Granted the fire department was pouring about 1 missippi river on the place per minute, but the lack of easy burning viynal had to be helping my cause.  8^)

SO, now that I am back at midway and planning on moving down here, now of all times I get my wish of having the damm rooming house out of my hair.  

Fortunatly no one was hurt.. The newspaper claimes 256k in damadges.. I am not sure where they got the number from, as the buildings were not worth half that and the folks living there were not collecting Fostoria and Tiffany glass in there hovels.

In the end I am plain old glad we all got out in one piece and glad as hell for the FIre department, Prevailing winds and a rain storm.

Ivan