This cOld House 11

We will see what this week brings. As of last Thursday, we've had a big muddy hole in the ground and not a body around. The concrete cutter showed up for a few hours on Friday, lopped off the two slabs which the backhoe couldn't remove and disappeared. Chance of rain today is 90% so I can assume that no one involved with concrete company will show up. Likewise on Rob and Co. since there's not much for his crew to do.

Dan has had a nice long weekend off and we've gotten a little more organized - even taking care of some stuff he's been wanting to get put away since we moved in. We've moved the bed out of the art room, (where my Mom slept when she visited,) and have re-arranged the furniture to avoid the leak in the ceiling. The roof guy will take a look Wednesday. Our bathroom is a little better organized, the laundry room is mostly cleaned up and put back together after being decimated by the plumbers and electricians. Dan even cleaned up a bit in the garage.

Last night as Mim played in the kitchen, she claimed to have seen an animal scurry across the floor and go under the fridge. She was sure it was a raccoon, although just hours earlier I had found mouse droppings on my bottle of 409 in the back hall closet. We investigated but did not see anything and assume it's a mouse. We still haven't gotten a cat yet but are feeling more of a sense of urgency to do so.

We also have what I am sure are Indian Meal Moths - and I haven't had the heart to clean out the food cupboards yet. It's a near impossible job the way the drawers in the kitchen are built, and we'll probably have to use traps. Dan thinks I'm nuts but I do have a little experience with these pantry pests.

The weather forecast indicates we may have a break in the rain Wednesday/Thursday. If so, we can expect some forms to be built and if it doesn't get to cold we should be poured early next week. Keep your fingers crossed.

This cOld House 10

The big dig went very well yesterday and we now have a double garage sized hole in the front yard. The neighbors are going crazy!

The guys had virtually no trouble digging although they did come up against a previously unknown massive tree stump which took a little doing to get out. Also, the wing walls on the old garage corner and the corner by the front door are proving quite stubborn to remove. Concrete that has cured for 85 years is pretty hard stuff and when the backhoe started slipping off the hill when the operator tried to pull it down, they backed off and got out the saws. Two saws later, we still have wing walls and with the rain moving in, the digging crew gave up and left.

Speaking of rain, I was working at the computer and Mim was in the art room next door and I kept hearing a tinking sound, then Mim walked in asking if I wanted to play with her in the living room and I realized with horror that she wasn't in the art room and the sound I was hearing was not being made by her. Fearfully I investigated and confirmed my deepest darkest terror. Tink, tink, tink went the rain into the sopping spot in the carpet, like a stake into my heart.

The light at the end of the tunnel has officially been extinguished.

This cOld House 9

Oh I have a little backhoe
It's sitting in my yard
They backed it off the big ol' truck
It wasn't very hard

It's black and gray and yellow
It's not so very big
And come tomorrow morning
The guys will start to dig

They have to move the logs off
And salvage stone and bricks
But all the guys will be here;
Rob and Bob and both the Ricks.

I'm glad they're finally starting
To dig and pour the walls
Because it's getting colder
Than the old brass monkey's balls!

So hopefully quite soon
I'll have a place to park
That's cozy and well lit
Instead of cold and wet and dark

This cOld House 8.1

Yep, you guessed it.

Drenching hot rainstorm in basement, discovered on the way out for date night. Had the babysitter field the house call of the profusely apologetic plumber. Did I mention they poked a hole through my new laundry basin earlier? Drank heavily while on date.

Plumber appropriately contrite, due in no small part to witnessing the firing of the electrician this morning.

Thinking of moving the pool indoors, to the basement that likes to be wet. Failing that, perhaps planting a rice paddy.

This cOld House 8

Today I had the pleasure of meeting Dewayne, Electrical Inspector for the Neighboring City to Pleasantville, (who does the Pleasantville construction inspections.) Unfortunately, he had nothing good to say about the power in my kitchen. He had deja vu when he pulled up to the house to inspect the new panel we put in last week, and when I got to talking to him about some apparently open issues that the City of Oakwood cited us on our property transfer inspection, he started to recall the disastrous inspection he carried out here when the kitchen was redone. (And that he was never recalled to final the stuff, presumably because it was never corrected.) I am currently awaiting a copy of his laundry list.

Tim and Troy and Matt are wreaking havoc in the basement, pulling out galvanized pipe to beat the band. Tim said there was a LOT of pipe, like three times what we actually needed. This is good news since we opted to NOT install the recirculating pump on the hot water heater. So while it currently takes about 2 minutes for hot water to make it up to our bathroom, it should be cut in less than half when we replace the pipes with a more direct route.

The bid came in for the new gas service/pipes and it's a go. We'll do that as soon as we have a front wall on the new garage so we can attach the new meter.

The concrete guy happened to show up at the same time Mark came by to grind out the stumps from the trees we took down Tuesday and they had a meeting of the minds, so we are all set to start digging TOMORROW or Monday. I'm so excited! By the way, watching the 'lumberjacks' take down the trees was a thing of beauty. It was like a ballet the way the guys all knew their moves and jumped in and out to get it done smoothly and safely. And today the stump grinder kicked butt! I want to grind stumps when I grow up. Mark has one of only 2 in Ohio and 340 in the entire country, a stump grinder that just freakin' ATE the tree. It was like a 20 inch circular saw on the front that swept back and forth decimating anything in its way. The teeth on the blade were about 3 inches long! Very cool to watch.

I got the bid on restoring the windows and was NOT happy. I called Rob to get the Pella or Andersen or Marvin guy to come over and discuss replacement options. I also got an e-mail from the garage door guy and am awaiting a bid for that.

By the way, I fixed our garage door that was broken. It was a four dollar and eighty one cent personal victory after thousands and thousands of dollars of defeat this week.

This weekend I believe we get to test drive our squirrel abatement system. I hope Kitty is mean when it comes to wildlife because she has quite a lot of established residents to show who is boss. There is a rotund woodchuck that lives under the pool house, dozens of gray squirrels, (some as big as small cats,) a raccoon, and a hedgehog looking thing that wanders in the dark. Go Kitty Go!

This cOld House 7

It's been a slow couple of weeks with Dale working in the attic on the new HVAC and nothing much else going on. I met with the plumber and electrician to go over what all our wants/needs are. I had a sitter a couple of afternoons so I could head on down to the tile showroom and pick out something small (and cheap) for the girls' bathroom.

The bid came in for the garage project and it was WAY higher than expected. I keep underestimating most jobs, I suppose because I haven't worked in the industry for a decade or so. I met with the GC and Architect to do some expense control, as well as with our real estate agent to get some guidance on what price he feels this house in this neighborhood can support. He has sold it twice, and knows the area well. I want to pick his brain on what feedback he got from other folks who viewed the house when it was on the market. I'm hoping that the boring stuff we are fixing, HVAC, plumbing, electrical, etc. is the kind of stuff that scared other buyers away, and that we can expect some recompense from these outlays. (Slim chance, but hope springs eternal.)

We did get some nice bids for the girls' bath and the rest of the plumbing. It's a go ahead. And with the temperatures dropping in to the 'teens in the past week, I'm VERY eager to start work on the garage, budget be damned.

I had to fire the electrician today. I was satisfied with neither the work nor the service and he pissed me off one too many times. Back to the drawing board there, with no really good alternative available.

We will be starting on the basement pipes tomorrow. The HVAC is all done except for the A/C which we won't be needing any time soon.

Today the tree guys are here razing my front yard. It will start the neighbors talking for sure! I'm trying to get some good picture in between doing laundry, blogging and keeping the kids fed. I tell 'ya, there's real beauty in watching pros do what they do best.

Last night the garage door jammed. We managed to get it closed, but there will be no more ingress/egress through that route until we are able to either fix it inexpensively ourselves, or replace it altogether with the new wall and double walk thru door.

This cOld House 6.1

As is often the case, I spoke too soon...

As I was blissfully blogging a few short moments ago, Dan was enjoying a glass of scotch, watching TV and listening to the soft pitter-patter of rain, er, hang on, that sounds like a small stream, is that the TV?? (mute the TV) uh, that sounds awfully close, is there water running somewhere?? er, are the windows leaking?? HOLY SH*T!

There was in fact a steady flow coming in under the wall in the corner of the living room, draining to the crawl space underneath. It was POURING into the house, creating a lovely water feature, splishing and splashing this way and that.

I donned a raincoat and proceeded with flashlight and umbrella out to the suspect area to find that the downspout was CLOGGED and the entire front southwest quarter of the roof of the house was draining into our crawl space.

NOTE: Yes, the gutters were cleaned TODAY!!! I'll be following up tomorrow to check if they also say they did the downspouts.

Dan and I returned with a pair of pliers and unclogged it, reattaching the snake that pulls the water four feet away from the foundation. That slowed the interior stream to a fast drip.

We saw signs of this problem when Rick fixed the floor a couple of weeks ago. There is a sill plate, (piece of lumber) between the poured foundation wall of the crawl space and the brick and stucco wall of the living room. The sill plate had completely rotted away. At the time we all just thought, well, the wall isn't moving so I guess there's not much we can/should do about that.

I'll be needing a bid from Rob to excavate the entire exterior of the living room and waterproof it. Particularly the gap left where that lumber has rotted away.

Dan and I, drenched from our impromptu repair, stood dripping in the living room, laughing hysterically. I believe we are going mad.

This cOld House 6

The last couple of days have been very very busy around here. Dale started on the attic HVAC unit, cutting through ceilings for duct work and hauling the hardware upstairs to the attic. Hey did you know there's not a scrap of insulation between the attic and the the living space below??? There's a quick fix for some efficiency. I'm waiting on Rob's insulation guy (Rob - my general contractor,) to get me some numbers. Dale was missing today, working on fashioning ducts in the shop which worked out terrifically as the power (and water) was off in the house for most of the day.

Rick,(the carpenter who fixed the living room floor,) Larry and Bob Sr. have been tag-teaming on the beam in the garage. Rick and Larry built three support walls to hold up the cantilevered room over top and then mid-way through the second day Rick and then Bob worked to remove the beam that was all ate up. There were three 2 x 8 planks and a 2 x 4 involved, with one 2 x 8 remaining pretty solid. They replaced the remaining two and the 2 x 4 with three more 2 x 8 planks and hung the joists on hangers. The sub-floor was pretty ate up as well, but we can't really get to it as it is under the wall from above. Bob was confident that it wouldn't be an issue.

Tim the plumber was able to get all the water pipes out of the way, shutting down the downstairs bath until the project is done. He had to move some valves and add a couple to get it isolated and shut off, and then cut and capped the pipes. The electric remained in the way.

Right when Rick was getting down to the nitty-gritty pulling out the beam the electricians showed up. These were replacement electricians as the original guy was too busy to get to the panel to meet Bob's schedule. So Tom and crew swarmed in at noon and cut the power, ripping out the old 200 AMP panel, moving the meter and installing a new 200 AMP panel over by where the new A/C condensers will sit outside the old garage. Then they added a new 100 AMP sub-panel where the old panel was, and hooked up the rest of the house back to it. All of this took care of the main line which had to be moved out of the way of the beam replacement project, as well as various and sundry fire hazards discovered when we ripped down the drywall ceiling in the old garage. Tom is coming by tomorrow to see what all else needs to be done. (Making the plugs kid-safe, fixing the code issues in the kitchen, running new clean power to the A/V and computers, adding a phone jack so we can answer the phone in the living room.) Dan also said something about running some CAT6 (ethernet) around as well.

Rob and Co. (That's the two Rick's, Bob Sr. and Larry, so far,) will have no more to do once the beam is done until I get a firm bid on the new garage and the bathroom remodel. As it is we're about 2 good man-weeks into T & M (time and material) stuff and that makes me nervous. The living room floor had a price tag on it but they found more damage than anticipated, and I have only my own estimation on what the beam will cost us.

Tim the plumber had some good news for us in that we now have a pretty good plan on how to clean up the miles of pipes in the house. The girls bathroom is now a must do, for several reasons, but once it is done, we will have over half the house re-plumbed, (correctly and legally,) including all the supply in the basement. It will be great to get rid of all the old galvanized piping down there as it's corroding as I sit here, waiting to spring a leak. (Not to mention the 17 rusting valves in the laundry room alone.) He managed to replace the main shut off valves, install a pressure regulator and baffle, several angle stops and bring the kitchen gas valve up to code. Unfortunately when he reduced the water pressure from 115 PSI to the recommended 85 PSI, we lost all pressure to the upstairs fixtures. (The cold lines are almost completely corroded shut, which is why doing the girls' bath has moved up the priority list.)

I met with a landscape architect to work up a proposal for the front of the house when we tear it up to put in the garage. He seems to be right on track with what I outlined and I'm sure if he watches his spending, he'll do a bang-up plan for us. I meet with a different landscape architect tomorrow to do it all over again.

My other landscape guy dropped by today, (the one who did the clean-up on the yard) and I grabbed him to talk about the stretch of mud along the back of the house. He's working up numbers for me for putting flagstones down. Dan wants to get a second opinion on the catalpa tree, so I'll be calling around tomorrow to get someone out. It is not an immediate need - we can probably wait a year or two before we have to yank it down.

Today the gutters were cleaned for the last time this season. All the trees are now bare so we no longer have to fear a gutter back-up, (provided we don't have a problem with an ice dam.)

All in all we've had a pretty good week with no real surprises. (Although when Tim grabbed an old recirculating line to indicate it needed to be removed, it broke free of its moorings and fell on his head. He had to temporarily tack it back up.) As it turns out, once the termite-beam was removed, the joists were found to be solid, so we didn't have to replace any of them. I haven't had the heart to tell Rick we still have a soft spot in the living room floor behind a duct that he probably didn't see. (He is nursing broken ribs from a car accident last week and I can't imagine shimmying around my crawlspace would be very good for the ailment.) And Other Rick, (the one who worked on all the doors earlier in the week,) appears to have glued my back door shut, which will have to be freed. That back door really needs to be replaced, but we are holding off on frivolous stuff like that. It works just fine for now, (if you put your shoulder into it.)

I'm actually starting to see some light at the end of the tunnel. Of course, this tunnel is a detour I was forced into on my way to building a garage. Still, it's good we are taking care of these things in such a manner that they shouldn't bother us for another 30 years or so. I'm really quite thrilled that the plumbing has presented itself to be a short term project that won't be nearly as difficult as I had feared. And Dan, who is the voice of reason (budget,) also agrees.

This cOld House 5

We are really starting to move along now that my general contractor has freed up on his last job. He cut loose his uncle (a finish carpenter) to work on our place, and as we speak he is making the doors open and close with a fluidity not seen in decades in this place.

Dale the HVAC guy replaced two furnaces last week, and is heading up to the attic tomorrow to start work on installing our bad boy up there. We took out a 60% efficient 113K BTU unit and a 92% efficient 115K BTU unit and replaced them with two 96% efficient units, a 60K and a 40K. It has evened out the hot and cold rooms, and although we haven't installed the new upstairs unit, the house is essentially comfortable. Our gas bill should go down substantially. I am eager to get the attic unit up and running as once that is done, we can start storing stuff up there with no fear of having to haul stuff out of the way again.

Dale also ripped down the ducting in the garage that we need out of the way to replace our termite-shredded beam. When he got it down, even more damage was visible (if at all possible) and it looks like we'll be replacing some joists as well. (Yippee.) They guys will be building walls to hold up the main floor so they can replace the beam sometime this week with a nice solid laminated one.

I've met with a couple of window guys. The first guy confirmed our fears, while the second one allayed them. I have yet to see numbers out of the second guy but he says he can RESTORE the existing windows, (leaded sash, steel casement, new glazing, etc. plus custom storm windows that fit the existing notched frames that hold the summer screens,) for less than retrofitting new Pellas or Andersons. If so, it's a no brainer - it would fit our budget and our aesthetic sense.

I also met with a tree guy. The gigantic, enormous, humongous, ancient, stately catalpa tree that dwarfs the house has a bit of a root rot problem and may have to come out. He's also given me an estimate for removing the two trees that we will lose when we build the garage. We have a guy who has a portable sawmill that can handle the smaller trees, so we may have the oak stock that Dan needs to re-work the living room floor currently growing in the front yard. Wouldn't that be cool?

Met with a painter this afternoon to get an evaluation of the problems. He reassured me they were minor and normal and probably mostly due to cheap paint and poor prep/application, as Dan and I had suspected. He said most of the stuff I showed him his guys could handle and so it's just a matter of me talking Dan into letting someone else to the painting and us working on other items.

Most of the outside wood is still in pretty bad shape, thanks to years of neglect and a band-aid approach to the decay. Our carpenter says he can get Dan started on what needs to be done and then Dan can work on it at his leisure next summer. It will be time consuming and tedious and will ultimately fix the problem in a much more permanent way instead of just addressing the symptoms of decay. I sense that buying scaffolding is in our future.

My family's visit was great. There was enough space and beds and bathrooms for all. The universal observation, however, was that it isn't a quiet house. The floors creak and groan in the night with midnight trips to the potty and with no carpeting to speak of, it echoes something fierce. It did not disturb me, so perhaps I've adjusted to the volume. Or perhaps I was just too tired to wake up.

This cOld House 4.1

The Southern Flying Squirrel made a return visit this afternoon while the girls were playing in their room with a new babysitter. Dan and I managed to trap it and he let it back out in the front yard whence I am sure it will make its way back into the chimney and house again. I had wanted him to drive it up to the top of Lookout Drive and let it go there, but after reading about it in Wikipedia (the above link,) I understand it wouldn't have done much good - they home upwards of a kilometer, (half a mile for you Americans.)

Dan stuffed the hole in the chimney with paper, (yah, that'll stop it,) and I will be heading to Lowes tomorrow for chicken wire. By the way, Becky, tell your Mom we want the cat.

This cOld House 4

Dan and I were awakened by a presence this morning shortly before 5:00 am. "That's a squirrel in the gutter," he said confidently. "Or the fireplace" I replied, hoping I were wrong. We both got up to use the bathroom and then I crawled back into bed with Naomi and he got up to read the news.

(Miriam was, THANK GOD, sleeping over at Aunt Sue's.)

I was laying awake, deciding if I should get up to do something, and my decision was made for me when something climbed up my armpit. I called for Dan, scooped up Naomi and retreated to my bedroom. Dan met me at the head of the stairs and I told him to go do his husbandly duties.

Instead he followed us to the master bedroom and I had to shoo him out. Donning protective gear, (jeans and gloves,) he ventured back into the girls' bedroom and started turning on lights. He found the culprit leaving his mark on the girls' toy shelf, and when the culprit saw Dan he scrambled back whence he came, through the fireplace and up the chimney. Dan said it was a baby squirrel, no longer than 6 or 7 inches nose to tail. The good news is that the hole sucking the heat out of the house is much smaller than we anticipated.

While in his heightened state of awareness, Dan approached the dresser in front of the fireplace and encountered the gargantuan rubber cockroach Mim received from the visiting entomologist at her school. Needless to say, he came unglued. The keenness of his fight or flight response kept his heebie-jeebies active for quite some time.

I joined him shortly after he moved the dresser and fetched a mirror and flashlight to assess the situation. (And a couple of Clorox wipes, to clean up the aforesaid mark left behind on the girls' toy shelf.)

On the list for Lowes: chicken wire.

An update on the roof. As some of you know, we had a couple of roof inspections when we were deciding to buy the place and (foolishly?) bought it anyway. The roof is original, slate, and 85 years old. It has been patched in a less-than-elegant manner throughout its life. We were quoted for a complete tear down and new slate put on, $500,000 to $800,000. Yes, that's the right amount of zeros, and no, there's no decimal missing. I was TOTALLY bummed out about this for weeks, and shortly after moving in I called a larger, regional company whose specialty is slate for a second opinion. The second estimate came in on Friday at a fraction of the cost of the first. The only explanation I can think of is the first guy just didn't want to do the work and was unable to speak the truth.

That kind of game-playing is so far off my radar screen that I am at a loss as to how to deal with it.

I spoke with a leaded glass guy on Friday and he's coming on Monday to assess the window situation. We have several leaky windows that need to be rebuilt. I'm hoping I can learn how to do it myself. Rather than lead, the muntins are zinc, which is inherently more difficult to work than lead. Additionally, the steel casement frames have deteriorated, and I'm not sure what can be done about those. We are just starting to explore our options at this point. It will be difficult to find a hybrid solution that meets our competing aesthetic and economical goals.

The coal bin tear down went very well, as did the repair in the living room crawl space. We've got the book cases in place and loaded up. The built-in case will need some major work down the line but it's not a priority. We'll be putting only light objets d'art on it for a while.

Dale the HVAC guy shows up Monday to start working on changing out the furnace in the garage. Nothing else (except for Turkey,) is scheduled for this week.

This cOld House 3.5

Many of you have shared sympathy and even concern about our trials and tribulations in our home. Please understand that I am writing about our plight merely as a means of expression. This house has been a very emotional choice for us and I have to have somewhere to put those emotions. Rest assured that we knew we would have a number of issues and that we currently remain sanguine about the situation, even with our latest discoveries.

Really, what can one do when a major structural element is discovered to have been reduced to sawdust? (Call the general contractor and hope for the best.)

I am sad to report that as much as I wanted to believe, (and believe in,) the former owner, he did turn out to be a bit of a spiv, (loosely translated, that is) as he certainly sold us a bill of goods of dubious quality and origin. Having said that, once I abandoned respect for the guy and started to take everything he said with a grain of salt, I am finding it much easier to approach the house as more of a wounded child than a money pit. We are still in contact with the guy and he has proved helpful in that he knows where all his duct tape is. I don't want to ruin that relationship until we too know where it all is. And pending other discoveries, we will decide whether legal action is warranted.

I have begun taking some pictures, and once I settle on a site I'll transfer all of these e-mails to a blog. Unfortunately I didn't get a before picture of the sinkin' living room. You'll have to take my word when I say that walking towards the corner it felt as though I were sliding off the face of the earth.

- Robyn -

This cOld House 3

The temperature has dropped the past week and as such, my missives will be written under a new Subject: 'This cOld House'. Mim was complaining about it a couple days ago - how she doesn't like our new house because I make her wear slippers all the time because the floors are cold. Both the kids still run around in bare feet and it makes me cold just looking at them.

Dan and I spent an illuminating weekend working in the garage, which has been kind of a catch all for us since moving in. Aside from all of the tools et cetera that came out of the basement in the other house, we have other junk that is still awaiting a final resting place. We at least were able to tackle getting the last of the basement/garage boxes unpacked, which means I now have all our tools out so I can start to actually work on some fix-it projects.

It was a little nippy yesterday, so instead of opening the garage door to let some light in, we hauled out the halogen work lights. These are the lights we use when we paint, since they are so bright all flaws are apparent. Evidently they work the same way on decrepit areas. We aimed them up at the newly exposed ceiling. When we bought the house it had been freshly drywalled since the building code dictates that with living space right on top, there has to be an impermeable barrier. Dan was suspect of it and once we got into doing some stuff, (like stringing new cable which took the poor installers 10 hours,) we realized it was going to have to come down to access the utilities. We found all sorts of stuff, including insect damage in the floor beams, duct-taped electrical work, holes in HVAC ducting, and what appears to be a levitating back stoop. At least we think it's levitating, since it's a concrete slab poured between two joists with no visible means of support. I discussed most of this with my contractor on Monday.

Also on Monday, I got a bid to rip out the super-structure in the coal bin, where we had the small scenic waterfall last week. We'd do it ourselves but Dan's gone all week on a business trip and we can't get a refuse bin delivered from the city until the end of leaf season. It will be moldy and attracting wood boring insect before you know it so it's gotta go this week. So Dan will get a jump start on his wine cellar - his vision for that space.

Speaking of leaf season, 4 landscapers showed up on Friday and worked all day weeding, cutting brush and dead heading. They got about two-thirds of it done, and returned on Monday with reserves. We'll be working on a phased plan to simplify the garden so we can work it ourselves. I'm imaging a lot of weed cloth and gravel - at least behind the pool house and along the back wall where the trees and weeds grow tall. Naomi loves gravel... she can play with it for hours. We don't know what we're going to do with the wild area outside the fence - I'm thinking Agent Orange.

My new hero is Rick the carpenter, who singlehandedly lifted the living room floor 3 inches to bring it back to (almost) grade. We are still off by about 1/4 - 1/2 inch, but we didn't want to push it with the wall full of windows above. The built-in bookcase will be shimmed the last half inch or so, and that's ok with me. Rick will be coming tomorrow morning to tackle the other side of the living room floor and so when Dan returns from Orlando at the end of the week, I may actually have the last of the boxes all unpacked and everything put away. Hurray!

I met the mysterious neighbor today. He showed up to mow the yard. At the age of 91, his Mom moved into an assisted living facility last spring, leaving him with the huge responsibility of taking care of the house. He came over to apologize for the state of the yard, and gave me his name and number, and was peeking over my shoulder to see how big the kids were 'cause he's looking for another patsy to do the mowing. (Patsy because Johngineer told us that he stiffed them on the mowing last year, and the landscaper told me the same thing.)

By the way, Johngineer is the former owner of this place. He said he's a chemical, electrical, mechanical and astro-aeronautical engineer with a doctorate who teaches down the hill at UD. (And he plumbs with duct tape.)

- Robyn -

This cOld House 2

I am grateful that we have the resources to take care of the mess into which we've gotten.

I got a call from my general contractor yesterday letting me know that he should have numbers in today, and he'll give me a shout or drop something off tomorrow so we can make some decisions about what gets done and when. The landscapers showed up yesterday and blew all our leaves, (2 guys for 3 1/2 hours,) and the clean up crew should be by by Friday to do all the weeding and dead head for winter. The irrigation guys showed up this morning to blow out the system, and imagine my surprise when I went downstairs to the pit to turn off the irrigation valve and discovered a small stream coming from the coal bin.

This was not the usual pond that accumulates after a rain. I can handle that. It seeps in under the concrete wall and collects in the old coal dip, and will be taken care of when we dig down next to there to add the new garage. This new creek was coming from the coal bin, but appeared to be more of the waterfall variety, cascading through the dropped ceiling, (which Dan wants to remove,) and running off the built up floor, underneath the wall and to the floor drain in the adjacent furnace room. I removed what we had left stored in there, (a garage box and the bar stools,) and set about going into a full panic. I called two handymans and the GC and couldn't get through to anyone and settled on the plumber who did our backflow re-cert on short notice in September. Sure enough they had a guy over here in 20 minutes. We ripped down the ceiling and found a plastic pressure sleeve DUCT-TAPED around an old galvanized pipe. Except for the expletives, I was speechless.

In shutting off the water to repair it, I discovered that the entire kitchen is plumbed off the outside line that runs through the deduct meter. (A deduct meter is a device added to count the 'outside' water that is used in the house. We don't get charged a sewer fee on the water we use in the pool, irrigation system or outside hose bibbs.) This was done by the former frugal owner and is very un-kosher.

Every time we do anything, we find something like this: The disposal plumbed incorrectly, with no trap attached; the 240 volt outlet in the laundry room... no-not for the dryer - it's just a regular outlet; the aluminum gutter straps used to hold on a whole section of roof; the 115,000 BTU piece of crap furnace that is only 2 years old but needs to be replaced because it's grossly over-sized for the space it heats (and by association, cools or in its case, doesn't cool because the blower is too grossly over-sized to run A/C.)

It just keeps getting better and better.

Good news! The carpenter is supposed to be by on Monday to start on the sunken/sinkin' living room. We may be able to get the stacks of books and boxes out of the foyer by the time our guests arrive for Thanksgiving. Wish us luck at the zoning approval meeting tonight for the garage. I hope no disgruntled neighbors show up. Dan's attending in his uniform, just in case. Bad form, to pick on the military these days.

More later, I'm going to go wash my dishes with illegally plumbed stolen water.

- R -

This cOld House 1

We are finally starting to settle in. I have more maintenance/upgrade projects going than unpacking these days. I've met with an army of contractors et al in the past month and have settled on a very capable general contractor to get us started on the most pressing items. I am awaiting 3rd bids on electrical, plumbing and the all important (expensive!) HVAC. We have abandoned to idea of geothermal as being less than optimal in our retro-fitted application. We will be splitting the HVAC 3 ways, (instead of the current two,) to gain some efficiency. We will lose some attic storage space but I think it will be substantially more efficient to do so, plus we will eventually be gaining some basement space when the new garage is built.

My GC originally suggested holding off on the garage project until March as he was certain we couldn't get it poured before December. He's recently learned that his concrete guy is looking for some work to close out his year, and can do our job in November (provided we sail through the city approval process.) I've got the architect going full steam ahead on construction drawings, and am hoping the council review next Thursday does not produce any substantial or structural changes. The improvement we propose enhances the property (from our perspective anyway!) so we do not anticipate any grumbling from the city.

I tackled one of the copper counter tops this weekend with a homemade recipe I found online. The uneven patina, paint splashes, and dirt are coming off ok but it is not shiny. It will take elbow grease to get the shine back. I also looked up recipes to put a quick and more even patina back on the copper. We are not sure if we want to do that or just let it age naturally. More experimentation required.

We had a gutter emergency last week. Johngineer, (the seller) had warned us more than once or twice to keep the gutters clean or we were in for a world of hurt with the roof. On Sunday I noticed they were all-of-a-sudden FULL and CLOGGED with leaves. We had been monitoring the situation pretty well, but the big oak in the front yard had moulted in a couple of days. With Dan on guard duty this weekend, we just didn't have a chance of getting it done. I had to call somebody and they were able to show up last Friday to clean them. We'll no doubt have one more big cleaning this season, but we'll probably be able to do it ourselves.

I'm glad we are moving forward (somewhat) on getting some things done. I'd rather be picking colors... deciding between a two-stage and a variable speed blower furnace is not nearly as fun. But the house is really very comfortable (if one ignores the gas bill,) and we are thankful we don't have any really major 'all-tore-up' projects on the horizon.

We hope to have the living room floor fixed in the next week or so to finally finish unpacking the last boxes (books) and put away items strewn around waiting for a place to rest. I'll write another update when something happens.
- Robyn -