B&As

Here are a few before and after photos.  Or rather before and during. 
This is standing at the entrance to the dining room looking to the kitchen.

 

On the right is just one of two chimneys that will be removed.


This is looking into the living room.

 
This wall is a weight bearing wall, but Walt Kowalski has a plan so we can take it out and make a grand entrance into the house.

We still have a long way to go.  Last night was tough.  It was hot.  We were very sweaty. My knees and Walt Kowalski's forearms were sweating.  Very...unusual places to sweat. That is in addition to all the regular places to sweat.

Here's a view from in the living room towards the front entrance and why I thought removing the wall would open up bottom floor.  

The large hole in the floor was the former location of a register. 

We have come a long way.  Some days it seems like we will are running in place.  Pound, smash, sweep, shovel, haul, dumpster. Pound, smash, sweep, shovel, haul, dumpster.  Pound, smash, sweep, shovel, haul, dumpster. Lather, rinse, repeat as needed. 

Looking back at the photos from just over a month ago, we have made progress.

And trust me, after working in the dirt, we do need to repeat after the lather and rinse. 

Backup update

We are no longer backed up.

The roter man came last Tuesday to unclog the clog and said that in his professional opinion he thought we had a problem at 40 feet our.  Part of the cleaning included a free camera inspection of the pipe, but the home owner had to be there, but we had 7 days within to do it. Oh darn, make me take a half day off of work. It was free and if we do have a bigger problem, now is the time to find out.

A different rotor man, who talked too much and got distracted easily, came on Thursday at noon. I re-explained the situation to him between his distractedness. 

No, we don't need the pipe unclogged, just the camera please.
Yes, the dogs are cute.
Yes, someone else was here to unclog the pipe, just the camera down the pipe please.
Yes, the water lines are new. 
No, I don't remember the other technician's name. 
Yes, just the camera down the pipes to see what is going on. 
No, we didn't hire a handyman to run the water lines Walt Kowalski did it. Yes, yes, Walt Kowalski did a good job of the new pipes.  
Just the camera down the pipe, please.
No, Walt Kowalski isn't looking for a job. Yes, he is very good at soldering he is a professional. 
Just the camera down the pipe, please.
Yes, it's a grinding wheel.
Yes, it came with the house.
Yes, I know it's an old house. 
Just the camera down the pipes please.
Yes, the dogs are cute.

Finally, finally, he got the camera down the pipe and started looking around.  His expert opinion was that there wasn't a break in the pipe at 40feet, there was a break in the pipe at 17feet.  Uh oh.  MUCH closer to the house than we expected and possibly our problem, not the city's problem.

Outside we go to locate the sensor at the end of the camera. 

Yes, the dogs are cute.
Just the location of the sensor, please. 
Yes, the swing is old. 
Just the location of the sensor, please. (The suspense is killing me and the thought of the bill isn't helping)
Yes, it's a quiet neighborhood. 

Finally, the location of the sensor. Right.On.The.Curb.  Sigh?  Maybe? 

He wasn't familiar enough with the city to know where our responsibility stopped and the city's responsibility started.  He had to talk to his manager. Really? What are we doing, selling a used car here?

But his manager gave us good news.  It was so close to the line where our responsibility ends and the city's begins that he wasn't going to give us prices for repairs until we talked to city.  *small sigh*

Ok. I can do that. 

Friday morning I called the city municipal authority.  She said that Pete was in a hole and he would call us back.  He did.  10 minutes later. 

I must not have been that big of a hole or they get good reception in holes in this area.

Pete said he and his men were in the area and would stop over that afternoon and run their own camera to find this "so-called" broken pipe and the home owner didn't have to be there.  That afternoon he could be there. THAT AFTERNOON!  I can hold my breath for a little longer.

Pete kept his word.  He was there that afternoon.  Inspected the pipe and gave us his report on his finds.

There was no broken pipe.  *SIGH*

What the rotor man saw was a broken piece of something stuck on the reducing coupling.  The coupling that reduces from the city's 6 inch pipe to the house's 4 inch pipe.  

This was probably the cause of the clog originally. 

Pete flushed the pipe again and gave it a clean bill of health.  He also said if we have another problem like this to call him first. 

If the entire city was run the Pete ran his department, the city wouldn't be in trouble.  Yeah Pete!

So for the cost of one rotor man we got the clog unclogged, a free camera inspection, another free camera inspection, a pipe flushing, and a big sigh of relief knowing we weren't going to have to dig up the front yard, basement floor, and sidewalk.

Sid I say *sigh*?

Roll with it baby

Every evening we have a pair of cardinals that visit our bird feeder in the back of the house. 
 
Male and female.  He and she. Husband and wife. 
 
They raised a family and brought their daughter to the feeder as well.  They were fun to watch.  Beautiful feathers.  
 
Every morning and afternoon we have a different male cardinal fighting with another male cardinal in the front of the house.  Or at least he thinks he's fighting with another male cardinal.
 

 
He's going to get that cardinal.  One of these days that bird in the mirror is going to let his guard down.
 
You can see the mess he is making on Old Blue.  We have been putting grocery bags over the mirrors of Big Red so this doesn't happen on the new truck.  Let's hope this cardinal doesn't think Big Red is actually a Big Red bird.  I don't think I have a grocery bag big enough to cover the entire truck.
 
We played the weather game last night.  We win the weather game about 50 percent of the time. Saturday was beautiful.  We were outside from 8am until 11pm.  Sunday was cloudy in the morning, but turned into a nice day.  Nice for moving, nice for nice for an evening by the fire.
 
Yesterday afternoon it got humid.  One of those days where everything sticks.  Your clothes stick to your body.  A strand of hair sticks to your face and you can't get rid of it.  Perfect conditions for pop-up thundershowers.  Not a perfect day for moving.
 
Walt Kowalski and I were helping the mama of House #1 pack up and move from her current location. House #1 isn't ready yet, but that's ok.  She's rolling with it.  We are rolling with it.  Everybody is rolling with it.  It's going to work out well in the end.  For all of us.
 
On the way home from work, we noticed the clouds starting to form on the horizon.  It didn't look too bad, so we decided to do the move. Luckily, we weren't moving very far.  We got the first load of furniture packed in the truck when it started to sprinkle.  Walt Kowalski and I got the furniture unloaded, but it started to rain a little more.  No problem. We have all evening.  We'll just give it few minutes.  It looks light on the horizon, so this probably won't last very long.  We helped pack boxes waiting for the a break in the rain action.  And it did break for a few minutes.  We went with the opportunity and loaded the back of the truck with the boxes we had packed.  About half way through the loading process the rain came again. 
 
If you wanted to see comedy, you should have seen the three of us running up and down the stairs trying to beat the rain.  We packed as many boxes as possible and away we went. 

How do you drive quickly so the rain doesn't soak your boxes, but not so quickly that you break everything in the boxes?  Very carefully.  

We made it.  JUST made it.  The boxes got a few, ok many, drops on them.  Nothing was soaked through.  With the temperature going up to 90degrees today, we have no fear the boxes will dry in their current location.

On our way back for another load, the horizon was very dark again and then lightning came.  Rain we can work with.  Lightning we won't risk it.  Wow.  What a show of lightning.  Then the rains came. We were done with moving for the night.

It worked out well in the end.  We helped finish boxing the TV and sorting out a few things in the basement.  We even formulated a plan for today.  The mama of House #1 doesn't have to work until this evening.  She borrowed Old Blue to do more moving today and tomorrow. 

Tonight Walt Kowalski and I are going back to House #1 to fill the dumpster.  I have about half of the ceiling in the kitchen removed.  We still have walls in the kitchen, a wall up the stairs, and the ceiling in the hall.  My goal is to get the kitchen done tonight. 

We are in for a hot night of work tonight.  90degrees today.  I have my long sleeves, long pants, hat, gloves, and dust mask ready.  (Gee, why don't I just throw on a parka, too!)
 
We'll roll with it.  As Steve Winwood sings:
 

When life is too much, roll with it, baby
Don't stop and lose your touch, oh no, baby
Hard times knocking on your door, I'll tell them you ain't there no more
Get on through it, roll with it, baby
Luck'll come and then slip away, you've gotta move, bring it back to stay

You just roll with it, baby, come on and just roll with it, baby
You and me, roll with it, baby, hang on and just roll with it, baby

 
 
 
 

Squirrel in a tree

Chain Saw Johnny (poison ivy free) came over today.  He and Walt Kowalski cut down the last tree mixed in the wires on the front hill.  WITH NO PROBLEMS!!  Woo Hoo!  *SIGH*  That is a big sigh of relief. We had a moment of concern when one branch hung up on the bottom cable wire.  Apologies to the neighborhood if your cable/telephone went fuzzy for a moment today. 

Saturdays are ADD days.  Here's why:

I was burning the branches that Walt Kowalski was cutting and realized I needed to go use the bathroom. On my way into the house I heard the washing machine beep end of cycle.  I stopped to empty the clean towels from the washer into the dryer when I remembered I wanted to wash the couch cover from the basement couch.  It smelled like litter box in the basement and I was blaming the couch cover, but as I was taking the cover off of the couch I smelled litter box even more, and I was no where near the litter box.  Then I realized it was the chair!  Ewwww ew ew.  So I dragged the chair outside. (Something else for the dumpster.)  The couch cover didn't need washed, but the blanket and pillows laying on the chair did.  Stinky, stinky, stinky.  (I can't blame one specific cat because it smelled worse than one random pee and I have noticed it for several days now.)  The blankets and pillows went in the washer and I went back outside.  Only then I remembered I was on my way upstairs to use the bathroom.  Up the back outside stairs I go.  Around the back of the house I noticed that the impatient flowers needed watered.  It hasn't rained in a few days, so I had  better water.  Grab the watering can, fill it up, and water all the flowers and pepper plants. Then I notice I set the kitchen rug outside to be scrubbed.  I pick that up and take it back down the outside steps to the hose to get a good scrubbing.

About this time Walt Kowalski said they were ready to bring down a tree in the front of the house and needed me to work the rope.  I said I had to use the bathroom.  Didn't I start in that direction about 45 minutes ago?  *sigh*

That's a typical Saturday.  Start everything.  Finish nothing.

Walt Kowalski played squirrel in a tree today.  He placed the ladder in a tree on the front hill and ratchet-strapped the ladder to the tree.  Excellent safety measures.  Then he began to saw the tree limbs away one at a time.  He was doing well until the last limb.  The last limb was the limb his ladder was leaning against.  He cut half way through the limb and stopped.  And waited. 
 
 
 
He knew gravity would take over in a moment.
 
 
 
He waited.
 
 
 
Gravity took over.  (It took a moment longer than we expected.)
 
 
 
The branch tore and fell just above where Walt Kowalski was cutting.  The branch was large and shook the entire tree and just missed Walt Kowalski on it's way down.  Walt Kowalski had one foot firmly planted in the crook of the tree and the other still on the ladder.  He ducked and held on to the tree.  Had he been a squirrel his tail would have been wrapped around the tree.  At this point, Walt Kowalski was probably wishing he had a tail to help him hold on. 
 
All turned out well.  The tree fell with a great thud.  Walt Kowalski was safe and unharmed, although he had Jell-O knees when he got off of the ladder, and I had a pile of branches to burn.
 
Chain Saw Johnny went home after spending another successful day of playing in the poison ivy.  I "cheated" and ordered out wings and pizza for dinner. Delicious.  Even better because I didn't have to cook after a long day of work.  

Now here we sit enjoying a lovely, cool, Saturday evening by the fire.  There is a block party, with a live band, down the street and around the curve towards the pond.  We get to enjoy the music from the band without having to mingle with people we don't know.  That's a win-win situation. 

Bump

I have a pimple on my nose.  For the record, you shouldn't be allowed to have pimples AND wrinkles.  Only one thing that ends in -les at a time, please. 

I get the same pimples in the same places every month.  It's a girl thing.  It's a hormone thing.  I have accepted it and moved on. 

But I have a pimple on my nose hasn't gone away.  That is won't go away.  Every morning the skin is peely and I can see it when I look down my nose.  It's annoying and distracting. 

Why won't this pimple on my nose go away?!? 

Tonight I figured it out.  Duh.

It's not a pimple.  Rather, it's no longer a pimple.  It might have been originally, but it's not now. Now it's where the dust mask rubs against my nose.  Between the sweat, the dust, the girlie hormones, and wiping the sweat from my face I have worn the skin off of my nose.  

*sigh*

Along with long pants, long sleeves, work boots, hat, dust mask, safety glasses, and work gloves I now have to wear a band aid on my nose.

*sigh*

Only me.  All I can do is laugh.  We are on our fifth dumpster. Five dumpsters full.  We almost filled this one to the top in 2 days.  We are thinking only one more.  At this rate we might be personally saving the city from bankruptcy. HA!

Is that snow in August?

It looked like it was snowing in House #1 the other day.  Walt Kowalski was knocking the ceiling down upstairs and packing peanuts galore were falling from the ceiling.  They used packing peanuts and crushed up Styrofoam egg cartons for insulation.  Interesting concept. 

That's a yellow egg separator in the mix.  No, I won't be saving it to use in the kitchen.  We also found a ladle.  Didn't save that either.  Mostly I tapped Walt Kowalski in the bum with it.

 

And away go troubles down the drain...

 

The rotor man was at House #2 yesterday.  He got the clog unclogged.  Yeah!  Walt Kowalski and I tried our best, but even after letting it sit all night, there was still water in the pipe in the basement.  It drained a little so we knew it wasn't stopped, but clogged.  Our handheld auger didn't do enough. 

 

 

We had to call for help.  Walt Kowalski could have done it with a larger auger from work, but the space was very small and he had concernes the equipment wouldn't fit in the room. (As it turns out, someone else from work borrowed the auger for the weekend, so we wouldn't have been able to use it anway!)

 

Knowing when to call the professionals is the most important part of home improvement. 

 

After many flushes, and many attempts to get water to go down, we had enough and the mama of the house had to do some laundry.  Those work clothes won't wash themselves.

 

At that point there was already water in the basement, it was going down, just slowly, what would a little soap detergent hurt?

 

She called to tell us the water was still coming up in the basement.  She said "It's very bubbly down there.  But it smells better. "

 

I'll take the smell of laundry detergent over the smell of sewage any day.

 

The rotor man is coming back tomorrow to look through the pipes with a camera.  He thinks there might be a problem 40feet down the line.  The city has the main road torn up and Walt Kowalski has a sneaking suspicion they might be part of the problem.  Either way, the camera action is free.  A little piece of mind on old pipes, and leverage against the city if necessary, is good.

 

Things I learned today

1. I'm quite talented at using the plunger. 
2. Plunging is not a talent I want to put on my resume.
3. I could have never lived in a time without plumbing.

Feed me

Ever seen a mad kitty cat?  Here is what one looks like:

Where have you been?
Do you know what time it is?
Do you know my bowl is empty?

She really does look mad in this photo.

It's been one of those days.  *sigh*

Pepper and her brood are not the only ones yet to be feed.  We just got home after a good day of getting the washer and dryer hooked up and a bad day of plumbing issues and 6 trips to the hardware store.  Let's just say that right now you need boots in the basement of House #2.  Plumbing and sewage problems are not what we had planned for today, but that's how the day turned out.

We have had enough for the day.  Our original plan was to get the washer and dryer hooked up at House #2 and had back over to House #1 to do more demo.

But it's ok.  Tomorrow is another day.  Yes, we will be laboring on Labor Day, but we will be laboring for ourselves. 

Walt Kowalski is out making a fire.  I'm making ravioli and garlic bread, the cure for a bad day of plumbing in case you didn't know. The day may not have gone as planned, but the evening will bring some enjoyment.

Happy Labor Day.