Builders Share

Looking Back

I appreciate the recent comments regarding the blog and the project.  Encouragement is always welcome.  There's no shortage of doubt and second thoughts in a project like this so it's always good to get some third party perspective, especially if it's positive.

Which leads me to the topic of this entry. Cybele and I recently had some friends over for an "unfinished house warming."  Of course, way back when, I originally had visions of transforming this tired old house into a showcase and then inviting folks over to ooh and aw at my handiwork.  Well, after inhabiting the place for two and half years and not throwing a party, I finally gave up on that fantasy.  The party was great fun (after all, it was more about the people having a good time then about the choice of tile in the bathroom) and folks were more than impressed with the amount of work I had done.

One fun thing we did was print out "before" photos and hang them up around the house to show the transformation that had taken place.  Looking at some of those photos for the first time in a while helped to give me some perspective too.  Some of them actually brought back the same anxiety we felt at the time of taking them.  But over all, they really helped to remind me of what I've accomplished so far.

So here are some before and after photos of the project as it stands now (CLICK ON THE PHOTOS TO ENLARGE THEM):

The top one is looking from the kitchen towards the living room after having ripped out the walls and floor.  I was able to dig out the crawl space underneath a little more and the old kitchen chimney was taken down. The second photo is the same view today.

The second set is looking back towards the kitchen from the living room. The doorway seen in the old photo opened to the downstairs bathroom and was closed up in favor of not having a bathroom open into the living room.

The third set shows the downstairs room that now serves as my painting/music studio.

The fourth set shows two different states of the upstairs landing. One shot is looking north, the other is looking south.

The final set shows the upstairs bedroom.  The photo on the left is one of the first photos I took of the project.  I started demolishing the master bedroom first, tearing down the plaster and filling contractor bags with the refuse.

My original vision of a renovated house has changed over the course of the project, but most important is the renovation of my personal expectations.  The project has been an education in many ways with no small amount of growth.

More to come...

handyman

p.s. The "after" shots are a reminder that our house is the place we live in, sometimes cluttered, sometimes neat.  Whether the photos portray it or not, our interiors are comfortable, cozy, and most importantly, our own.

New Old Stock

After an especially long Indian Summer here in the Northeast, the temperature is finally starting to drop some.  I've been lucky with the weather and despite some unforeseen delays, was able to get through at least one of the myriad exterior tasks that need doing on my old house.

The new old sill is in place, the new old sheathing has been installed, the Vycor and felt paper  has been applied, and now the new old asbestos shingles have been hung.

One of the unfortunate improvements that was made to the house sometime back in the 50s or 60s was covering the sides with cement asbestos shingles.  This type of siding was once as popular as vinyl siding is today.  Unfortunately for the people who worked in the factories that produced this stuff, it was discovered too late that high exposure to asbestos particles is a serious health hazard.  Today, asbestos as a manufacturing material has all but disappeared, but there was a time when it was used in all kinds of products.  Asbestos, which is a naturally occurring mineral, has the properties of being heat resistant, fibrous, and very strong. 

The shingles that cover my house are made using a non-friable asbestos-cement mixture, molded into 24"x12" tiles with a textured pattern on one side.  The tiles came in various colors straight from the factory and were face-nailed using galvanized nails right over the existing clapboards.

In a utilitarian sense, these cement-asbestos shingles are a good siding.  They're fireproof, strong, and have an insulating quality. Aesthetically, however, they leave something to be desired.  I've seen some houses with asbestos siding that look quite nice, but most look like they're waiting to be improved.  Perhaps it's simply the knowledge that these shingles caused health problems that make them ugly.  I would like to get rid of them one of these days, but that's a big project that's going to have to wait.

Replacing the shingles I had removed to expose the sill was the last task of this repair job. Years of being near the ground and getting splashed with rain had left the bottom row of shingles heavily stained with mold and/or algae. A while back I was happy to discover two bundles of new old stock asbestos shingles up in the loft of the barn which meant I didn't have to spend a lot of time trying to clean up the stained ones.  The only problem with using the new ones is that they stand out against the rest of the shingles that are weathered and faded.  That problem will be solved when I get around to painting the exterior.

What matters to me now is knowing that the sill is repaired and protected from rain and moisture.

handyman

Gettin it Together

When I last left off discussion of the sill repair project, I was carving away at the house with a chainsaw (see Heavy Duty Wood).  Well the carving went on to include shaping the replacement beam and after carefully measuring and sketching out the cuts I needed to make, I was able to shape it to fit snugly in place where I had taken out the old rotten one.  After all the sweat and worry that went with removing the rotted sill and fashioning a replacement, the sight of the new-old beam in place was decidedly satisfying.

The next task was sealing up all the cracks with spray foam insulation, and then replacing the sheathing that had been removed to access the rotted sill.

Sealing the cracks with foam was pretty straight-forward.  I've done this enough now to know how to keep it neat.  The poly-urethane foam sticks to everything it comes into contact with and if you're not careful you'll be discovering it in all kinds of unintended places.

Replacing the sheathing took a little more thought than you might expect.  The original sheathing is made up of rough sawn 1-inch boards.  The original clapboards are about a half inch at their thickest and are nailed directly to the 1-inch boards.  So the gap I had to fill between the studs and the surface I would be remounting the cement shingles to was between 1-1/2 to 1-3/4 inches.  The nature of the original sheathing and the uneven hand-hewn foundation sill didn't provide for exact measures.  After considering a couple different options for replacing the sheathing and building up the surface, I decided on using one layer of 1/2" plywood and then a layer of 1" rough sawn boards I had salvaged from demolition work almost three years ago.  This saved me a little money and helped make some space in the shed.  (The pink strip that you see in the picture is a sill plate foam strip that I used in an unconventional way to help prevent air infiltration through the gaps created by the uneven sill beam.)

Once the sheathing was back in place, I was ready to install some water-proofing.  I used Vycor self-adhesive vinyl flashing to protect the bottom edge of the new sheathing. The weather report said rain was on the way, so I made sure to get all the vinyl flashing in place before I quit for the day.  However, the next morning when I went out to get the newspaper, I noticed that the strong wind of the night before had pulled the Vycor from the house.  Unfortunately it hadn't adhered well to the rough sawn sheathing boards.  I was able to salvage half of it and got it re-applied--this time with staples.  Stapling is not the preferred way of mounting this product but it was the only way I was going to get it to stay in place under the circumstances.  Luckily the rain hadn't arrived yet so I was still working with dry wood.

You can also see the new door sill in place in this last picture.  Getting that installed was a project in itself with having to build up the substrate and work around the ancient existing door frame and casing. But now there's a solid door step where before only the lightest feet could tread without fear of collapse.

handyman

Insulation Review

Thanks to Alex for the comment on insulation.  As thing start to cool down here and the furnace starts firing up every morning it's worth reviewing insulation issues.

The upstairs insulation has worked out well. The house is very cozy, though I still need to tighten up the windows.

The 1x3 strapping over the 1" rigid board worked out well too. The only thing I wish I had done was plan a little better for things that might be attached to the walls later (like the wainscoting in the bathroom). If I had been more consistent with my placement of the strapping, I would know exactly where I had something solid to nail to. Maybe I should have gone 16" on center with the strapping instead of 24"?

I'm finding that using the stud finder for locating the strapping isn't easy. The tool gets confused by the studs that are deeper in the wall.

As far as the strapping being sufficient for holding the drywall (with a coat of plaster I might add)--nothing's fallen yet! I think it's a necessary step with insul. board as thick as 1". Without it I think you'd be asking too much from the sheetrock screws. With the downstairs walls I used 1/2" rigid board and no strapping. That's been fine too but the walls have a lower R-value as a result of both the thinner insul. board and the air space provided by the strapping.

Anyway, please go ahead and post comments, and I'll reply as I'm able.  Thanks again, and good luck with your project.

james graham (aka handyman)

Here's to Jack and Dolly

After over a year of being stranded out on the landing at the top of the stairs, the old cast iron bath tub has found its way into the bathroom.

Once Cybele finished putting the final coat on the feet, the tub was ready to be moved.  The trouble was finding the will to do it.  Moving a 300-odd pound tub was not something that was going to be the highlight of the weekend.

There were two possible routes for getting it from the hallway to its permanent home between the toilet and sink.  One was through the doorway.  The problem with this route was that the tub is just under 32" wide and the doorway is just over 28".  Tip the tub on its side, however, and it would fit since it's only about 25" high.  The other route was through the window space between the bathroom and the stair landing. (Remember, I installed a frosted/stained glass window in the bathroom wall in order to provide light to the interior space.)  The problem with this route is that we would have to lift the tub up to the height of the window sill which is about 30" from the floor.

Earlier in the day I posted a request on the town's listserv for a furniture dolly, the kind that's flat and has four wheels and is usually seen in the hands of beefy movers.  I figured if we were going to try tipping it on its side to get it through the door, a moving dolly would be key.  Thankfully the listserv responded positively and within a few hours I had a sturdy dolly in hand and was ready to get started.

We decided to try getting the tub through the doorway.  Lifting the tub over the window sill in the small space right at the top of the stairs just seemed like a disaster waiting to happen.  The tub had probably lived on the second floor of the house for over a hundred years.  Who knew how desperately it wanted out? The image of it careening down the stairs after slipping from our grasp was a once in a lifetime event I didn't want to enjoy in this lifetime.

Our decision made, the first step was to remove the sink vanity so that we had room to maneuver the tub once we got it into the space. It would have been helpful if the toilet was out of the way too, but removing and reinstalling that was a task I was hoping to avoid.

The next step was putting down cardboard on the floor to protect the tile and help roll the tub over the 1" door sill.

With the sink removed, the cardboard in place, and the dolly positioned, I was ready to call in the muscle, ur, my wife.

Tipping the tub onto the dolly was easy enough and getting it over the door sill and halfway through the door went alright too.  But then the toilet was blocking our progress just as the drain pipe was catching on the door frame.  I was ready to push it back out into the hallway and reconsider, but Cybele (the sexy mover) reasoned if we could only tip it a little more, the pipe would sneak through the door.

It worked! We were through the door and into the bathroom. Now all we had to do was to tip it back up into its rightful place against the wall.

The problem now was getting the feet to stay on the far side of the tub while tipping it just right so that the drainpipe landed in the hole in the floor.  This took a couple of tries and once it was in place, there was still the job of getting the feet installed on the near side of the tub which was now in a place that prevented us getting a lift-hold on it.

That's when I went for the 2-ton auto jack.

With Cybele lifting a bit, I was able to slip the jack under the tub just far enough.  With hydraulics working for me I was able to hold the tub up, install the feet, and even position it just right.  James, Cybele, Jack, and Dolly had all done their job.  Well, James still had to reinstall the sink vanity.  But the tub is in place, and an unwelcome task that had been hanging over me for a long time is done.

handyman

Grandpa's Ladder

We moved upstairs back in June (see Movin' on Up) despite the fact that there are a lot of little finishing tasks that need to get done in that part of the house.  It was a good idea to make use of the space before completing everything, though.  We're a lot more comfortable having the additional space, and even if I have to look at windows without trim as a constant reminder of what needs to get done, I'm happy that we're using the whole house that we're paying for.

I was happy to take care of one of those unfinished tasks this weekend.  While still nursing my injured back, I couldn't in good faith continue work on repairing the front sill, but I could still handle a few power tools--at least enough to install a ladder to Ramon's loft.

The loft above my son's bedroom was former attic space. At some point during the rebuild it struck me that this would make a fun little space for him, especially since his bedroom is pretty small (only 9x12). The problem of course was coming up with some means for getting up there.  I wanted to leave the access space as open as possible to give the room a larger feel, so this ruled out using one of those handy pull-down staircases.  A little spiral staircase would be cool but I felt that would take up too much floor space.  The easiest thing would be to mount a ladder.

Finding a ladder to mount was the problem.  I nice iron ladder, custom made would have been nice but was not in the budget.  I knew I'd have an easier time mounting a wooden ladder, but these days wooden ladders are hard to come by.  I remembered that my dad had an old wooden extension ladder but he had recently moved from the old homestead in order to downsize and escape the burden of home maintenance. (I might do that too someday.)  I called up my brother Pete, and sure enough, he saved that old ladder from the trash heap and was willing to donate it to the cause.

It turned out to be the perfect solution.  The metal brackets that held the extension pieces together made for fine mounting hardware, and the little pulley for lifting the extension is fun way to get stuff up and down out of the loft.

Admittedly, watching 6 year old Ramon climb the old wooden rungs 8 feet into the loft has me holding my breath a little, but he seems pretty happy with it.  And I'm happy to have my big stepladder back which he's been using to get up and down until now.

handyman

Blue Bath

(Handyman's wife Cybele checks in for a posting...)

Some time ago I went through a faux finishing phase. I stripped and refinished a dresser, painted the frames of several mirrors, and redid a tabletop using paint and powdered graphite. Jocasta Innes’s Paint Magic  and Mindy Druker’s Recipes for Surfaces were my Old and New Testament. I didn’t have much money, but I had plenty of time to layer on gesso and experiment with oil paints, glazes, and toxic fumes.

Fast forward 15 or so years. Now with a bit more money—but never enough—and much less time, James called on me to help out with painting our new old house. Priming and painting walls was different than painting furniture, but I did a decent enough job, right honey?

Must be, because he also tapped me to paint our cast iron bath tub. Now, putting in the bath tub in our upstairs bathroom is key. Our son has just about had it with showers, and I like to soak in the tub every one in a while myself. But I stalled. I delayed. I dragged my feet. I don’t even have James’s excuse of having other renovation tasks to tackle. Nope, I was just being lazy.

In the late summer, we finally trooped to the hardware store and picked out a paint with the simple and unlikely (for a paint color) name, “Blue.” James handed me the wire brush, sandpaper, a dust mask, and a drop cloth and pushed me upstairs. Once I got going, I enjoyed myself. Two coats of primer—three in a particularly rusty area—two coats of paint and many hours of drying time later I was done. Mission accomplished!

But like our current administration, I was not really done. “Uh, Cybele, weren’t we planning on painting the legs and pipes white?” Oh yeah, I’ll get right on that. . . .

Heavy Duty Wood

Slow but steady work continues on repairing the sill underneath the front door threshold.  Cutting away the rotted sill was more work than I expected.  The hemlock beams are very dense and cutting through them is a bit like cutting oak.  After watching my reciprocating saw heat up a few times, I decided it was time for the big gun.

It requires a certain amount of courage (or foolhardiness?) to take a chainsaw to your house.  The tell-tale deafening noise, the smell of two-cycle fuel burning, and the sight of wood chips flying off of your house  is not for the feint of heart.  But it certainly sped up the job.  I was also happy to realize how accurate I could  be in making the cuts.  I'm not ready to start making bear sculptures for the front lawn, but a chainsaw really does make for a fun carving tool.

A word about old tools: It's in my nature to try to get the most out of everything before sending it off to the scrap heap.  I'm also inclined to see value in things that others are ready to cast off.  The other side of the same coin, you might say.  The chain saw I have is one that I picked up at an auction for $25.  It's an old McCulloch Power Mac 320.  This saw gets the job done, but not without a little TLC each time it comes out of the case.  I'm always having to tinker a bit with it half-way through whatever task I've started on, I guess kind of like an old man who needs to take a nap half-way through raking the leaves.

That's all fine if you've got the time. If I was being paid to do this work, I certainly couldn't charge for the time it took me to stop and fix my equipment each time it broke down. And at some point I have to decide whether fighting with the old things for largely aesthetic reasons is worth the trouble.  I'm not ready to invest in a new chainsaw yet.  I don't use it enough to justify the cost, but the "old broken down machine" issue is one that the frugal DIYer can't ignore.

And while I'm on the "cautionary tales for DIYers" tip, let me tell you about my aching back. 

A neighbor had recently torn down an old shed and told me that there were some old 8x8 timbers that I could have if I wanted.  Well, being in the middle of a project that requires just that kind of replacement material, I couldn't pass up on the offer, so I went over with the truck to check them out.

Most of the beams were 10-12 feet long, so there was no way I could carry them with my pickup, but the shorter ones, I thought, I'll just throw these in the back and be off.  What I ended up doing was throwing my back out and being off the project for several days.  This is when DIY stands for Dumb Idea Yeoman.

The beams will serve me well no doubt, but my own foolishness turned a good deal into a costly one.

handyman