Adventures in Renovation

Okay, I just spent hours finally writing descriptions for all the photos I uploaded a long time ago on Flickr. There are some pretty big gaps on my blog. If it weren’t for these photos, I would have forgotten what I’d done. Now I’m pretty glad I’ve been taking 8 million photos.

So if you want to catch up on everything that’s been going on, take a look at my Flickr site. Particularly, take a look at the “Fixing the Back Wall” album. There’s almost 100 photos of all the excruciating details. Or better yet, view it as a slideshow. It’s more romantic that way.

Posted by at 2:07 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Last night I pulled down the rest of the drop ceiling in the Living room. Tonight, hopefully I can build the chase around the waste pipe that runs through the kitchen. Friday is my office holiday party. And then Saturday Camillo is coming to help finish the kitchen and help me haul everything to the dump (though he doesn't know about that part yet).

So everything is kind of falling into place and I think I'll be able to meet my deadline. And hopefully, this will be like the last trip to the dump! I've got to get all this scrap wood and ceiling tiles out so there some room to hang drywall. And at this point, I can pretty much get rid of a lot of my scrap wood that I've got laying around because I'm finished all of the framing. Soon I'll be done building anything. And I won't want to pick up a hammer for at least a years.

I guess there's still a coupe things I haven't figured out yet. Like whose going to hook up the gas for my stove and dryer. And if I'm going to try to make a new hole for the tub drain while the ceiling in the kitchen is still open. That's a boring bit I don't think I talked about before. The tub drain that's in now isn't deigned for a clawfoot tub and I jury rigged it to work. The right drain wouldn't fit because I cut the drain hole only just big enough for the 1.5" pipe. I didn't realize you're supposed to recesses the threaded drain waste connector so only the threads were level with the finished floor. So now I have to figure out how to cut a slightly bigger hole through layers of plywood, thinset mortar, Hadri board, and tile without screwing up my beautiful tile job.

I guess because I recently cut those holes in my siding I have a whole new optimism for being able to do this. I think I've figured it out, but it'll involve replacing the whole tub trap because I'll drill form the bottom. I'm just worried it'll turn into a huge project that'll leave me without a shower for several days.

Oh yeah and here's another random thing: I came up with this crazy idea for lighting in the laundry room. I tried finding recessed lights, but they either wouldn't fit or were way too expensive. I didn't want to pay $150 to light the laundry room. It's just the friggin' laundry room!

At the bathroom where I work is a very neat little recessed fluorescent fixture. That gave me the idea to do something similar in the laundry room. I'll have to draw it out for you, but basically it's like a light in a box at the peak of the ceiling that washes down the ceiling in light. It's so crazy, it just might work.

Posted by at 9:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Let's back up and look at last weekend. Last weekend I pretty much only got one thing done all weekend. But it was a big thing. I installed the vent for the range hood.

This is a problem I've been worrying on for a while. How do I penetrate the back wall and finish it off with a cap?

I didn't want to just try to drill a round hole and sit the cap on the angled siding. I'd have to try and fill all the gaps with backer rod and caulk. And eventually that stuff would crack and then water might follow the pipes right into the wall.

At first I thought I could just flip a piece of siding upside down and it would level out the bevel and give me a nice flat surface. It was the first solution Bryan thought of too. But when I tried it, I realized I forgot that since the siding is overlapping it makes the angle more severe.

I realized the best way to do this was to cut a square out of the siding and place a block out of wood I used for the trim into it. Then cut a round hole in that mounting block. But that's easier said than done. How was I going to cut a hole and not crack a clapboard or leave scratches and gouges in my beautiful siding. There was no margin for error.

So for this I got a little crazy.

I built a model of my siding to practice on. I nailed a few narrow pieces of siding to a 2x6 and proceeded to try cutting it every way I could think of. The reciprocating saw was way too rough and uncontrollable. The jigsaw was pretty good but still could jump and fly off course chopping nicks where you don't want them. The chisel was pretty good but couldn't be used for everything because there was too much hammering involved and it would split the clapboards. The hand saw was nice and precise but limited to cutting vertical cuts in whole boards. I also realized I needed to use duct tape and aluminum flashing to keep stray cut and marks from screwing up my siding.

I ended up going with a combination of the hand saw, the jigsaw, and chiseling.

About the time I had gone to home depot to get some better jigsaw blades, I thought it would be funny if I documented every single step it took to get just one thing done on my house. Kind of like a how to book. I guess someone else would have to photograph me doing it all, but it would be a long drawn out process. Something like this:

• Step 1: Measure and cut a piece of wood to fit.
• Step 2: Trim down the piece of wood you cut because it's too big.
• Step 3: Cut a new piece of wood because the piece you trimmed down is now too small
• Step 4: stand back for a moment and make sure you're not going to screw something up by attaching the wood there.
• Step 5: Go to Home Depot and buy something you forgot.
• Step 6: Go to Lowes because Home Depot is out of what you need.

It would go on forever like that. Renovation just isn't as simple as they make it seem on TV.

Now that I know what I know now, I watch those shows and I can see where they totally aren't showing you what happens when the cameras aren't on. Like when they come back from commercial and the door that didn't fit before is now miraculously in place without any explanation... movie magic!

The other say I saw a decorator on TV helping this couple assemble chairs and set up their room when they still hadn't put up the baseboards! You know someone had to move everything out of the way again the install the baseboards after they turned the cameras off. Arg. It's infuriating.

Anyway, all that practice really paid off. I managed to cut a beautiful hole and not damage the siding at all. It looks pretty good. Not too intrusive, I think. I'm going to paint this big ugly thing brown to match the siding too so it's less noticable.

Actually, I was in Home Depot yesterday and saw a nice thin 3 1/2 x 10" wall cap. Very low profile. Aluminum exterior. And I realized I just as easily could have installed one like that... in fact, it might have been easier! oh well. I guess if I was really crazy, or it really bugged me, I could go back and try to swap them out. No no! Quit while you're ahead!

I also installed the back doorbell. That went pretty smoothly until the very last step. As I was screwing the doorbell in the heads on the screws both broke off. Even tho I pre-drilled the holes, these tiny crappy screws both broke just as I finished drilling them in. I couldn't move it somewhere else, so I had to dig holes in the trim and twist the screw shanks out with pliers. Then I filled em in with caulk and put much bigger exterior trim screws in their place.

Oh well. It's in now. It's cute too. Like a little night light.

Posted by at 11:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This weekend I didn't really get much done it seems. In fact, I kinda got done what I thought I might have accomplished last weekend. But whatever. I can feel real progress being made and I'm feeling a lot better about being able to get everything done and drywall up before Vicki gets back. Plus there's less unknowns out there. Those problems I haven't quite figured out how to solve... those weird obstacles I haven't figured out what I'm going to deal with... those cause the most anxiety. Sometimes you have to do research. Sometimes you just have to start working on it and work through it. But when all the unknowns are out of the way and it's a clear path of work in front of me, that's much more exciting.

That's my current goal by the way... drywall before Vicki gets back. Before she left I was all like "The kitchen will definitely be done by the time you get back!" But now she's coming back 2 months earlier. Not to mention I've got a lot going on at work and haven't had much time to devote to the house. So now drywall is the most I can realistically hope for. But that will be good enough. When the drywall goes up it changes everything!

So this weekend I ran the dryer vent, installed the hose bib, and furred out the inside of the back wall of the laundry room.

Installing the dryer vent was pretty much the same as installing the range hood vent. I cut out a square of the siding with a jigsaw and a chisel and then laid in a block trim board to mount it to. Then cut a round hole for the duct. But of course it wasn't that easy and it turned out the jigsaw couldn't make the tight turn to cut the 4-inch hole and the down spout totally got in the way. Then I broke the block in the process so I had to cut a whole new piece. After that I decided I had to bite the bullet and go buy a 4-inch hole saw.

A 4-inch hole saw is $28 at Home Depot. $28 for a hole saw I'm only going to use ONCE just didn't make any sense. So instead I just bought some more blade for my reciprocating saw and hoped I could be little gentler this time.

This morning as I was about to start, I realized I could use a hole saw I already have as a starting point and that might make it a little easier. When I checked out my selection of hole saws I realized that I totally forgot I already bought a 3 3/4" hole saw for running the toilet drain pipe! duh...

Anyway, once that was cut and mounted I attached the remaining pipes to the magical dryer box. The dryer box is recessed box that the flexible duct coming off the dryer can safely fit into instead of being accidentally crushed against the wall when you slide the dryer in place. It's kind of gimmicky I guess. I could have built the same thing out of wood and drywall. This product actually came with a letter congratulating me on being so cutting edge and innovative.

This hose bib was surprisingly simple. In fact, I could have done it faster but I think I kept slowing down, looking everything over, waiting for something to go wrong. All I had to do was drill a 1" hole in the siding and slip the sill cock through. It even came with a plastic wedge to match the slope of the siding.

Of course, I practiced installing this first too. I'm so paranoid about my beautiful new siding. I'm so afraid I'm going to split a board and have to replace them. So I built another little siding model to drill holes into. It's pretty simple tho because I drilled directly where the two boards overlap so there's solid wood all the way through. It seems pretty solid.

Then last but not least I furred out the back wall in the laundry room. The problem is that this wall sits on the crappy slab of bricks and they jut out past the wall. So I'm having to add all this wood so the drywall will overlap the brick.

It went pretty well tho. I've been avoiding this job because it's one of those "unknowns." But thanks to the laser lever, I was able to size up the wall pretty easily. But It's not a magic wand or anything.. my 4 foot and 2 foot levels were just as useful and necessary. Everything was pretty much straight to begin with, like all the new lumber that replaced the rotting stuff, so I didn't have to do nearly as much shimming as I thought I'd have to do either.

This is slightly annoying: even tho I ordered a custom jamb size for the door, I didn't estimate right and I'll still need to add some 1/2" jamb extensions for the trim. Doh.

I still need to tack on some thin 1/2" plywood in a couple more spots, but other than that it's done. And best of all, the anxiety about it is gone! woo hoo!

Posted by at 10:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I just don't know where to start. There are so many things I haven't written about here that have happened. When I start to think of one thing to write it reminds me of another thing I haven't. And another. And another. And another. Until I have to sit down from the motion sickness. Because I type everything standing up. If you really knew me, you'd know that.

Well the big reason there isn't more on the blog is because I'm real busy with my new awesome job. Oh wait... I didn't tell you about my new awesome job? Well, I didn't even tell you I was looking for a job in the first place because I was so paranoid afraid that they'd find out at my old job and fire me before I could quit.

My job got really really bad over the summer. Almost everyone who was cool I worked with left or got fired (or both). When I read my last blog entries I can feel the bitterness and depression underneath my words. And I can tell it's not just because renovating your own house is a huge pain in the ass. I went on 12 interviews in 4 months just to find a new job. It was really difficult to switch gears from working on the house to looking for a job and back again over and over. They both take up a lot of space in your brain.

So at some point, I had to stop all work on the house so I could focus on the job hunt full-time. It was worth it tho! My new job is better than I could have hoped for. And I have a commute that is the envy of all my friends and co-workers (a two-minute walk across the street). So buying the fixer upper in the neighborhood I wanted instead of the nicer house much farther away is finally paying off!

But there's so much left undocumented. I've got thousand photos I posted to Flickr that I haven't even titled yet. I didn't write anything about the whole pain in the ass adventure of putting in the back door, let along the consuming task of finally putting up the cedar siding during the hottest part of the year. I mean that was like all I did in June and July. Oh wait, I never even wrote about finally tearing down the old rotting "porch" thing. My god, that was so liberating. Oh, and then after that Jason came over to help be work on it while he was getting sick. What a trooper! Then Vicki made him some matzoh ball soup the next day.

Anyway... Maybe I'll write about that later. If I can even remember it. But I'm pretty much going to try to focus on the task at hand and make it though the holidays. Wish me luck!

Posted by at 8:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)