Thursday, January 20, 2011

A sneak peek at the floors

This is what the floors look like with the mastic removed.  Here's a sort of before and after:

Here's the kitchen, mostly cleaned:

I should have all the floors in this state by the end of the weekend.

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Losing steam

I am, not the house. The house has steam. Or boiling water, anyway.
Here are a few updates.

Inside, everything is down to the studs. Also, the ugly awning over the atrium is gone:

We've got heat. We went from this old clunker, to this, thanks to Anderson Heating:

The new space-age boiler is a Triangle Tube 110. Besides looking cool and taking up a lot less space, it's far more energy efficient, so it's a good long term investment, whether for operating costs or future resale. Notice I said "investment" which is a tip that this thing is about the price of a decent used car.

The water heater is being relocated to the garage. I considered tankless, but the cost is high, the benefits (other than reduced space requirements) are questionable, so this was a good compromise.

We also had to fix a few radiant leaks (5 in total) in the hall, hall bath, master bedroom and master bath:


Glen of Anderson has a helium detection system which can pinpoint the tiniest leaks. Leaks 4 and 5 were found only late in the day, after we thought all the leaks had been fixed.

Finally, I found some time to start removing the mastic on the concrete floors with a wet grinder.
I realized too late that this is a two person job, so I didn't make as much progress as I had hoped. Thanks to Hunter for rescuing me with a hose adapter when the rental unit adapter broke.

Oh, I was interested in mapping out the heating grid to see where the elements are.
Since I had the floor wet and the heat was on, I was able to see the grid drying out.
Curiously, it matches the same pattern you see in the mastic area above on the right.
I had assumed those were tile marks, but it looks like the effect of the heat grid on the mastic was to fade it in those areas.

Next up: replacement of 3 beams and 2 uprights (I'm having a pro do this of course).
Plan electrical and low voltage (RG6/Cat5E) and once that's done, begin wall insulation and sheetrocking. Oh, and kitchen design. And bathroom design. And the other bathroom. Doors and windows.

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Still demoing

Apparently I worried my poor mother with my last post. No, I didn't maim my foot, I was just tired from all the work.

Last night I removed more paneling from the living room, and ripped out the remaining bathroom. Sure, it looked decent (but tacky tile) but lurking behind all the new tile and backer board was moldy, crumbling sheetrock:


Catching up on the weekend's work.
The beams were pretty bad in a couple of spots, due to water entering from the dryrot:

What happens on the inside of the wall, behind the paneling? This:


Nasty. I also found a couple of places where water was dripping into the house from above. This drip comes down the electrical wires, inside the wall in the hallway:

By the weekend I think I will have everything ripped out. Then in one fell swoop (holiday weekend) I've lined up chimney repair, heating repair/inspection, beam repair/replacement, roof repair (just patching for now).

Saturday, January 8, 2011

Why they make steel cap boots

I realized today as I dropped a paint-encrusted 4x8 piece of plywood on my toe not once, but twice, that THIS is why they make steel capped boots. Which I don't own. Yet.

I digress.

Today I did two really smart things.
1) Hired Max (laborer recommended by Hunter) who came with his cousin and helped with a lot of cleanup and some demolition too.
2) Hired thedumppro.com (877-DUMP-PRO) to come pick up all the construction debris. It took not one, but two truckloads (that's 34 cubic yards, for the curious, which doesn't include all the metal which Max wants to take to the recycling yard himself). I was leery of using this company, just based on their website, but I was very happy with the service and the pricing.

Pictures tomorrow, convalescing today...

Friday, January 7, 2011

Day 5

I am beyond tired. Keep in mind each of these days has been a full workday, and house work when I get home.

Today I cut down some of the overgrown bushes in the front, ripped out the master bathroom, demolished the metal shed in the yard, all in preparation for the trash service I have coming tomorrow. I'm hopeful that by tomorrow all the debris will be cleared, and we'll be ready to start planning the rebuilding.

No pictures today - I was too busy ripping out walls and fixtures...

Day 4

I am in serious need of a dumpster. Today I pulled out most of what remained of the kitchen, after playing "find that unmarked electrical breaker".

Found this lovely wallpaper hiding in the kitchen:


Ripped out the kitchen panels:

Then decided to go all the way:


Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Day 3



  • Minor electrical work, removed the oven and rangetop.
  • Uninstalled the Bay Alarm fire alarm control panel, bell, strobe, etc
  • On a whim decided to test the solidity of the ceramic tiles in the hallway, and ended up pulling them all up:

Beam guy is scheduled for next week, will figure out roof based on what happens there.
Left voicemail and emails for Anderson (heating), still haven't heard back.

Found this interesting looking cabinet above the washer/dryer. I think it's made from the original siding, and the pencil marks on the back make me think it dates back to 1958 when the house was built:

Catching up


Time for a catchup post.

We started with this:


The house was mostly carpet over the original floor tiles.
Over the last two days, I:
  • ripped up all the carpet and padding
  • pulled up all the carpet tack strip (which was nailed to the slab)
  • loosened all the floor tiles
So it now looks like this:

Then, I decided to rip out the kitchen:


Monday, January 3, 2011

Closing time

After a lot of back and forth with the seller (future post about dealing with REO properties coming soon), today is the day. I just got an alert that taxes had been paid, so recording of title has probably happened as well. All I need now are the keys.
Today's plan:
  • change locks
  • photos and video
  • rip up all old carpet
  • get someone in to look at the boiler and radiant heat
  • get someone to fix the chimney so we can use the fireplace for heat
  • start kitchen demo if time permits