This cOld House 30

It's slow-going, but we are making progress.
The patio really looks like a patio. The parapet walls are essentially done. When we had them laid out, they looked too tall, so instead of scalloping them, we elected to make them about 6 inches shorter than code and we'll finish them off with a 2 1/2 inch diameter pipe railing. We can continue this railing down the new steps and along the front walk, (replacing the decrepit one currently there,) and it will all tie in nicely.

We have made some decisions on the work that needs to be done on the back of the house. Bob Sr. says he can save the frame around the dining room windows, (pending no ugly discoveries during removal of the adjacent posts,) but the news on the windows above wasn't as good. The bank of five windows in the Girls' room has to come out as the sill beneath is rotted through. He'll get to that in the next couple of days and the windows will go to Dayton Art Glass for restoration. Again, the good news here is that we will definitely find the yellow jacket nest in the process, and block the ingress to the house for all sorts of creepy crawlies when the window frame gets tightened up.

When Bob took out the living room doors last week, he found (no surprise here,) termite damage under the threshold and had to replace the joist, subfloor and floor. Thankfully, he was able to make the new threshold just wide enough to cover the parts he had to cut out so we don't have any floor patching to do. Picture is of another shredded board. Those termites were very well fed. Bob has also taken out the dining room doors, and Dayton Art Glass picked them up today to start restoration and size adjustment to fit the new oak frames Bob made.

We have the roof estimate. Sort of. I need to go through it with a fine-toothed comb, but I should be able to do that in the next day or so. Our new strategy is to 'fix' the stuff that needs to be fixed sooner or later, even if it's not leaking right now. This means pulling off and replacing all broken, damaged or poorly installed slates, (with salvaged material that matches,) replacing all the worn out copper, (essentially all valleys, window pans and dormers,) and replacing the johngeneered metal ridges with clay tile as they originally were. Did I mention that Sean, (the slate installer,) found squirrel nests up under the incorrectly installed ridge? (That would explain the squirrel poop in the attic.) It will cost a small fortune, but aside from routine yearly maintenance, (inspection and replacement of worn/broken slates,) we shouldn't have to do anything else for 30 years or so. We needn't replace the whole roof, nor use new slate. The pitch is sufficient enough that we should get another lifetime out of the current roof as long as it is PROPERLY maintained.

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 -