THROW DOWN THE GAUNTLET

 

 A challenge has been issued.

    Currently there is a PILE of window and door trim in the garage which was removed from the house last spring.  It requires a lot of attention before returning it to the house.

The pile on the far left is the door and window trim

When Donnie said we had our work cut out for us, part of what he meant was prepping this pile of trim.  According to him it might require hiring a skilled laborer 8 hours a day for a week to complete the task. We are not willing to spend those dollars, so I am determined to be that skilled laborer!

    After about 6 hours of, quite frankly, cheap entertainment, the pile had been whittled down from this...

 to this.

Nails cut, hardware removed, and sorted into colors (blue, gold, yellow, white, cream, and green), at least half of the wood is ready for the painters to scrape, sand, and prime before it goes back up.

bath, master, and kitchen trim

cream trim

I'm patting myself on the back but perhaps I should wait until the job is complete.

*Thank you Taylor for giving me some of your valuable time yesterday.  You were a big help and great company to boot!

  

R-E-S-P-E-C-T

You've gotta respect a tool that can throw sparks like this...

(click here)

AND the women who can effectively use it!

My dear friend Taylor joined me for some fun this afternoon

CLEAN UP, CLEAN UP

Everybody do your share!

This weekend is something like the previous weekend when we spent ALL weekend cleaning up prior to the drywaller's arrival because they were supposed to take care of their own clean-up.  Apparently, what represents clean to us is nowhere close to what clean means to this crew.

 Every evening for 3 nights, this is how the house was left...

And every evening after they left, this is what my husband did.....

Wallace walks around and picks up screws and nails throughout the house 

Though by Saturday morning all the cords and large scraps of rock had been removed, there was still an overwhelming amount of mess (4 industrial size vacuum bags full so far, and that is not even 1/2 the house).

5 CENTS A DANCE

How fun is this sign!?!?!?

We  found it in our favorite vintage shop in Toano, Va. and had to make it ours.   We can't 

wait to hang it in the new kitchen on Hawthorne Avenue.  It is perfect for Friday night dance parties! 

HERE'S WHAT DONNIE SAID...

    This evening as we looked over the progress here on Hawthorne Avenue, Donnie turned to me and said,

 "Carlie, we've got our work cut out for us now!"

I'm not certain, but I believe my only response was to stare at him open-mouthed and silently think, "What is it that we have been doing up until now?"

MY THEME SONG

This  has been my theme song for the past 2 days.

COMMUNICATION BREAKDOWN

    I am at the point again where I am frustrated.  Frustrated at dealing with the bosses or managers in the contracting  business.  Let me speak directly with the guy who is "wielding the hammer" and things go much more smoothly.  It seems time and again that most project managers or bosses do 2 things well...make bids on projects and sign contracts.  The thing that many "bosses" seem to be terrible at is telling their crews what they are expected to do according to the contract.  Consequently, on NUMEROUS occasions, there is total communication breakdown which leads to work being done incorrectly and work having to be torn down and done over.

(Here... insert a mental picture of Wallace and me pulling our hair out.)

We have now had 2 such hair-pulling days in a row.   Is it that Wallace and I are such control freaks or that we are such perfectionists when it comes to this house?  Is it that we have so much emotionally invested in the project?  Whatever it is, what is going on now is not matching up with our expectations or vision of what SHOULD be happening.

(Deep breath.  "One...two...three...four...five...six...seven...eight...nine...ten."  Sigh.)

    

DRY WALL GOES UP

    Today the sheet rock installation begins.  Donnie, Wallace and I spent all last weekend adding the last bit of blocking, clearing the house of ALL our property not nailed down, removing a few architectural pieces of trim that had been nailed down but would be difficult to replace, and sweeping and vacuuming.  A LOT of sweeping and vacuuming.  We want any mess created from this day forward to be the responsibility of the contractors to clean up and this way there is no mistaking...."Who made the mess?"  In addition, we understand that sheet rock installers work with reckless abandon.
    Sheetrock will be glued and screwed (as promised by the contractor).  I am eager to see the progress later today.
   
* Note:  I have printed out the text of this blog February 26, 2011 through today.  I will put it in a tin along with some photos of my family and the project thus far.  It will be closed up in one of the walls in our house on Hawthorne Avenue.  Perhaps one day, in a hundred years or so, someone will find this 'time capsule' of our renovation adventure.  It has been a fun one and I am confident it will continue to be!

Continue to check back here  (http://fairytoon.blogspot.com/) readers.  This leg of the journey comes to a conclusion but the trip continues.  Oh what a trip!
 

WALK-THROUGH

  This morning I did a walk-through with the contractor who is overseeing the new construction and HVAC and electric in the house.  Our list was 3 typed pages long...quite a hairy beast consisting of moving electric boxes inches forward or back, construction of walls, reimbursements of wood, pouring concrete for a HVAC pad which was done improperly, gluing and screwing sheet rock, adding a motion spotlight, and more!  Most fortunately, but as it should have been, it was all agreed to by the contractor.

    Before I left, after 2 1/2 hours of  consultation, the house on Hawthorne Avenue was abuzz with workers readying the space for the sheet rock hanging to commence TOMORROW !

    It is very exciting to think we will soon have separate rooms once again.  By this time next week we should be ready to have the painters do some work not only outside (the weather here is promising 60 degrees) but also inside priming.

Here's a thought.....

Billye's room  -  Charming Pink

NEW BUILT-IN GUTTERS

   When the roof work was done the gutters were replaced.  I love the copper as seen from the 3rd floor.

Looking past the beautiful copper you can see the built-in gutters in the TPO roof below.

BEFORE & AFTER

   I am a fan of the before and after shot, especially when there is such a dramatic change.   There will be many such comparisons with this house.   Here is just one to get started...

BASEMENT WINDOWS...BEFORE

BASEMENT WINDOWS...AFTER

 

The windows are new replacement windows and the brick bays we have had built using the old brick from the collapsing chimneys.  We think the brick mason did a great job matching the style of the original foundation.  Not only has this renovation resulted in a more pleasing aesthetic, but also it has made the house more secure and protected from rains.

* Note : The drip cap and trim above the windows is also new.  Large sections of the original trim had rotted due to long time water damage (see the repair here).  We had the original trim duplicated and Wallace, Donnie and I installed it.

BIG STEPS

  Our stairs have been needing attention.  Who knows how long they have been sagging.  We finally tackled this job one day in early December when it was too wet to continue our work outside.  The repair required jacking the stairs up and jacking the stairs required removal of the banister.  No big deal, right?

Using a broken stair picket as a pump lever.....

And a couple 6x6 pieces of lumber and some nerve.....

The left side of the stairs is lifted back to its original position

We secured 3 stacked and screwed together 2x4's as a corner support then went to work on the right side in a similar fashion.  More jacking, and leveling, and securing with bolts and....
          

VOILA !   A level stairway

                                                                                 
                                                                             

ONE STEP CLOSER

The news of the day is that we passed the insulation inspection.  Woo Hoo!

The final layer of blown insulation on the exterior walls.....shredded newspaper!

Fiberglass batting insulation in gaps around the fireplace

Foam insulation between ceiling rafters 

Exposed fir beams were wrapped in plastic food wrap to protect them from insulation overspray

As it turned out, I was at the house when the inspector showed up and that was probably a good thing.  He hesitated on the 3rd floor where we had insulated and dry-walled in the knee wall closets because he could not SEE the insulation.  He took my word for it that we had done it and said that any other time he would have to fail us, but since I was the home-owner he was taking my word that it had been done correctly. 

Passing this inspection allows for dry wall to be hung next week (I say with fingers crossed) and puts us one step closer to the finished product.

INSULATION INSTALLATION

     Despite the depressing news the other day about the priming yet to be done, last Friday was a great day on Hawthorne Avenue.  Not only did the electrician complete the wiring for the speaker system, but the house PASSED the rough-in inspection and the first layer of insulation was put in.

One layer of closed-cell  insulation is sprayed between the studs on every exterior wall

The closed cell foam is a light lavender

The insulation installation continued both Monday and Tuesday.  Wallace spent  several days since last Friday pulling the remaining nails and removing screws from the wall studs and ceiling joists to ready the house for drywall installation.  Wallace has finished his aspect of the prep work and today the insulation job should be complete. 

I'll let you know where we stand once I check the house later today!

AaRRRRGH !

    I have just learned tonight that I have more PRIMING to do.  AaRRRRRGH !  I thought I'd completed that dreadful task.  Apparently a load of trim wood was delivered today.  The temperature here in Virginia is not getting over 45 degrees this weekend (too cold to paint) but somehow it must get done before Monday.

STRIPPING......AGAIN

    ....or should I say, "still."

Front door on the day we bought the house...orange just isn't my color

Paint beneath the door knocker, a battleship grey

The door in progress...layers of glaze, black, grey, and orange 

A little music from the ipod and a lot of elbow grease later

Can anyone ID the wood grain?

" I'M AMPHIBIOUS "

Quote from Charles Shackleford (basketball player for NC State in the 80's) :

 “Left hand, right hand, it doesn't matter. I'm amphibious."

   Though I am pronouncedly right handed, I have been working on becoming "amphibious" myself lately.  There are times when being a lefty would come in handy.  Driving screws in a close space and glazing certain angles in my windows are recent occasions of when I have needed to be ambidextrous.  
My father is a south-paw and I continue to work on it because I know I can get better.  Surely some of his "leftiness" is in my DNA somewhere.

DUCT WORK WORK

     Adding HVAC to a 1907 house is tricky, especially when we do not want to alter the ceiling height.  When we were entertaining bids to install a HVAC system, several contractors wanted to lower the ceiling height throughout the second floor of the house.  NOT ACCEPTABLE.  These contractors did not land the job.

    The installation solution is not the easiest but it is quite simple and it is what we want.  The duct work for the 1st floor is all in the basement and crawl space.  The 3rd floor duct work is hidden behind the knee walls.  The 2nd floor duct will run the length and width of the upstairs hallway, hugging tight the wall.  This is where I come in.....working with Donnie building the box in of the duct work.

Building the box surrounding the duct work involves cutting multiple 14" 2x4s. 

The duct runs the width of Billye's room

    The HVAC was finally ready for its rough-in inspection and, once notified by the contractor, an inspector came yesterday  (Friday).  This morning, Saturday, I arrived at Hawthorne Ave. to see a notice on the front door indicating the inspection failed.  The reason.....no one was there to let the inspector in to inspect!

    Frustrating.