Jan 2008
Tree Removal Complete
Jan/30/08 12:06 AM
My good buddy Carlos at Two Guys Tree Service, came out and removed 3 trees from the front yard yesterday. It was sad to see them go, but they’d lived a full life and were in the stages of dying (The trees that is).
One of which was overhanging and leaning toward our neighbor’s house. And just in case we’d forgotten about that, our neighbors elected to remind us of the fact on a pretty regular basis. Now that the tree is gone, it has prompted me to “remind” them that the trim paint on their house is looking a little shabby.
Anyway, he has to come back at a later date for the tree in the back yard, since the tree was blocked by the Roll-Off dumpster. Since the trees are gone and the trench filled back in, the outside is really shaping up.
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Found Free Fencing
Jan/28/08 12:04 AM
The guy I work for owns a warehouse that had previously been used as a candle factory outlet, and the previous owners, in a futile attempt to de-warehouse-ify the building, had decorated all the walls with picket fencing. Since the warehouse was being repurposed, the decorations, sadly, had to come down. So I asked, if I took them down, then could I have them?
Today, with a little help from a co-worker, I ripped down the fencing and loaded up the trailer. Now we have acquired enough fencing to put a picket fence around our entire back lot, replacing the tired and dilapidated chain-link fencing that currently resides there.
A little re-nailing and a fresh coat of paint and these puppies will be as good as new.
Milk Glass Jar
Jan/25/08 12:03 AM
While digging the trench to the curb to replace the waterline we unearthed this milk glass mentholatum jar. It is stamped with The Yucca Company logo from Wichita, Kansas. I found a similar jar on Ebay going for about $6, so that was a bit disappointing, but then I googled the company and came up with this cool old photo of the company that manufactured the product. They manufactured the mentholatum from 1889 to 1909 when the company was dissolved. Which in turn, predates the building of our house
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Back To Work
Jan/20/08 12:01 AM
After a 2 week hiatus, we’ve decided to get back to work and yesterday we managed to avoid work for the first part of the day, but we had a productive day nonetheless. In fact, we demo’d the last wall! Now we need to shovel the mountains of plaster out of the house and into our FOURTH roll off dumpster.
We didn’t really budget for a 4th one but it’s one of those things, right? I tell Kristin that when it comes to the budget it’s a bit like war. You are going to win some battles and you are going to lose some battles. Sometimes a particular job will come in under budget and sometimes they come in over budget. But in the end, it’s winning the war that counts.
Removing Old Wallpaper
Jan/18/08 11:56 PM
This week’s find is a section of wallpaper that I found behind some old drywall in the kitchen. It was pasted over a layer of paint on the plaster, so I don’t think it is “original” to the house, but I think it’s pretty sweet anyway.
What method did I find that worked best to remove it? A steamer? A Scraper? Nope. I used my trusty 8 pound sledge hammer, this thing works wonders on any type of wall treatment.
Craftsman Signature
Jan/12/08 11:52 PM
This week’s find is not an item, so much as it is someone’s attempt to communicate to someone else in the future Or more simply, a message that someone wrote on the wall. Dated December of 1926, it is the signature of the painters that painted and wallpapered ad the indication of such. even more interesting is that apparently in 1973 this message was uncovered by someone else. Someone who also signed the wall that they were installing drywall over.
Unfortunately, this wall has to come down. It pains me to destroy someone’s immortal words that have been scribed to last for an indefinite amount of time within the walls of this beautiful craftsman home. Someone who, more likely that no, it no longer alive.
So I have sufficiently documented it and I am posting it on the internet, so that their name and words will reach far more people than myself. I think I might even wall up the photos along with the plans.
Iron Tools
Jan/11/08 08:07 AM
In tune with my weekly tradition, here are the latest objects I’ve found. While refilling the trench in the front yard (by hand) I found several objects near the bottom of the trench. The first and most obvious is a horseshoe, which makes me wonder if it were possibly a Civil War era artifact.
It is said that the creek that runs through our neighborhood was originally named Tin Cup Creek, on account of confederate soldiers hung tin cups along the creek for drinking as it ran through the once confederate encampment. One block northwest from our house is the building that had served as both Confederate and Union headquarters for a time during the battle of Prairie Grove. Two blocks southeast from our house is the confederate cemetery for the fallen soldiers.
Having all this in mind I became extremely excited when I unearthed the tip of a long, sabre-like, metal object. I immediately thought “Wow, a Civil War sword!” Much to my disappointment and after the hour or so of digging, I discovered that it was, in fact, a scythe. Ah well, it looks pretty wicked even if it is someone’s crummy, old, turn-of-the-century lawnmower.
Plumbing Rough-In Complete
Jan/08/08 11:52 PM
The plumbing is roughed in, after about a week of indentured servitude for my Brother-In-Law. Honestly we had a great time with them here visiting and we made leaps and strides in our progress, and we are forever indebted.
We decided to go with PEX tubing instead of copper, mainly because of the cost of copper. You always hear these horror stories about how someone backed up to a house and tied a chain to the plumbing and drove off, ripping all the copper out of a house along with the studs and dry-wall. Not that we feared that, but damn the stuff’s expensive. In fact my roofer made a joke today, “My boys were wonderin’ if there was any other copper you wanted removed besides all the plumbing.” If I hadn’t used PEX I probably would have freaked out.
As for the old galvanized that ran to the street, we rented an excavator, and Adam dug a HUGE trench from our house to the curb. Our neighbor has expressed concern that since the trench was dug that a tree overhanging their house is about to fall. I think they said they were going to measure it with an inclinometer... But the real issue is that the inspector said that we had to have 3 shut off valves between the curb and the house... 3! Anyway it’s done now and we are about to be finished with the demo, and we’ve been getting lots of quotes for flooring and insulation.
As fast as we’ve been moving we might ACTUALLY meet our move in date. I’ve heard it from our architect, our carpenter, and our neighbor that we have made extremely swift progress so far... Knock on wood!
Interior Build-Out Complete
Jan/05/08 11:51 PM
Well, the interior build-out for the house is now complete, in both the upstairs and downstairs, and after a bit more demo it will be near to new stick frame construction. Kristin and I are very happy with how it has turned out thus far.
Many thanks to Kendall Stephenson and his crew at K-S Construction for their patience, and tolerance in our renovation, even though their suggestion of how the house should be remodeled was a can of gasoline and a match. Also thanks to John on the K-S crew, who I made tear out and rebuild not one, but four different walls after he’d just finished building them. His patience must have been running thin. But as he puts it, “Hey, it all pays the same.”
The Good, The Bad, And The Fluffy
Jan/04/08 11:46 PM
When ripping out the floors and walls, we find all manner of things. I classify these as cool items, strange items, and flat-out disgusting items. Well, for my find of the week I think it falls under all three, it is a mummified cat. We lovingly refer to her as “Fluffy.” She has been hanging around and disgusting anybody who dares to come and work or give a quote.
While ripping up the floorboards of a room, that had previously been a screened in porch, I got a bit of a shock. While at first I’d thought that it might be a stinky, nasty, ball of mush that I would have to shovel out, it was in fact as dried out and stiff as cardboard. I’m beginning to wonder if it might be as old as the house itself. Maybe it had mistakenly wandered in during the construction and got trapped inside.
One of the construction crew threw Fluffy into the dumpster. I was looking for the cat, when John fessed up to throwing the cat away. He claimed that he “didn’t like cats.” Anyway I fished Fluffy out of the dumpster and saved her from the local landfill. Everyone has suggested dipping her in polyurethane and hanging her above the fireplace, but Kristin won’t even look at the thing let alone consider this option. Oh well Fluffy, guess you’ll just have to hangout in the shed.