Jammin'

There are some days I run into roadblocks at every turn.

Trains and traffic this day. This was the never ending train. I had to cross.  This was the only way through town. I had no choice to go around. I just had to wait.  This restaurant probably does better business when the traffic is backed because of the train.  This train almost caught me on my way home, too.  I saw him coming and didn't dilly dally by stopping for a pit stop.  

 
Traffic was a different subject.  I had the option to go around but said "Oh that detour isn't for me.  The traffic wont' be THAT bad." 

WRONG!

I should have made that pit stop.  I was going to stop at the fruit market but I knew my chances of getting back into this line were slim. People can be quite rude when it comes to merging in construction.

At this point I was more than half way through.  Looking back where I came from made me feel better.  Well, expect my bladder, that is. 

I didn't turn into a pillar of salt either.

Challenging

Some days are just hard. Challenging is a better word.

Today was a challenge.

It was a challenge to get out of bed. It was cool. Soft. I was sleepy.
It was a challenge to get the coffee.  Feed the kids. Make the lunches. Think about what to make for dinner. 
It was a challenge to get myself fixed up for work. Find clothes. Pack exercise clothes for lunch. Pack work clothes for after work.
It was a challenge to run to the basement for drinks.  To find yucky things on the floor.  To step in yucky things on the floor. To clean up the yucky things I tracked all over the floor.

I was sweaty and thirsty and disheveled before I left the house at 6am.

That's life.  (Life in morning at the Cat Ranch, that is.)

I've heard the quote "Set a goal for every day and never be tired." I'll work on that. 

Tomorrow morning, I'll get up and do it all over again. Hopefully with less yucky things on the floor. 

Dumpster

Our buckets were ready. We have been taking down walls and lathe all week.  

The dumpster was ordered on Friday morning and delivered later Friday morning. It's the "larger" dumpster of the two sizes available from the city.  We thought about other options, but after comparing costs, it was faster (and easier) way to go.  If you have a check in hand, they will be glad to empty the dumpster that day. 

It was warm.  I won't lie, I was sweating more than I have before.  And sweating in places I didn't know I could sweat. I think my ears and eyelids were sweating. Halfway through the second floor demo, Walt Kowalski said 'Don't we have fans?' 

I said 'We used to have fans.  One got broken and one was "borrowed."' To the fan store we go!

I promise I will try not to knock these over.  I sounds easy. Don't knock over the fan. But it seems like it is always in the way. It gets hit by plaster or falls out of the window. In case you are wondering, one of these fans won't work with only 4 blades. It will try to turn, kinda like an off balance washing machine.  Funny, but not useful. 

The dumpster filled up quick. Walt Kowalski and I took turns shoveling and carrying.  He would carry a few buckets down to the dumpster while I filled them.  Then he would rest and I would carry the buckets down while he shoveled them full. 

Then we moved on to the first floor. 

We started out removing the kitchen cabinets. We salvaged several of them to hang in the shed.  The other cabinets were plastic.  PLASTIC! Plastic drawers and doors.

If only the base cabinet had been made of plastic inside of particle board.  ick. Years of water damage.  (The previous landlords should be ashamed they rented this place in this condition.)

We want to make the kitchen our staging area.  The dining room and living room are full of parts and pieces and building materials.  We didn't want to move things multiple times.  (yes, I know it will happen anyway.)

So we started demoing the kitchen first.  And we are glad we did. 

In the process of removing the ceiling, something hit Walt Kowalski.

It was a plastic container.  Why was that in the ceiling? It wasn't in the ceiling, it was in the floor of the bathroom upstairs.  The previous owners must have had a leak in the drain of the tub and instead of fixing it properly, they opened the access panel to the tub plumbing and slid a container under the pipe to catch any drips. {Walt Kowalski shakes his head.}

You can see the dripping pipe in this photo. 

 The walls came down fast.

Where the window is used to be a door and there used to be a window on the other side.  This is the second boarded up window we found. 

The arch ways were nice, but very small.  This will eventually be a door from the laundry room into the kitchen. 

Here is a view into the front hallway.  We're thinking we might close off this door way and make. There would still be two exits from this room if needed in an emergency. 

It's still early in the planning phase.  We've already changed our minds six times.  

What walls?

Have a frustrating day?  Come on over.  I know a few walls that you can take out your frustrations on. It works for me. I made this mess. Ok, Walt Kowalski helped a little.

 
Maybe I should say knew a few walls.

The dumpster can't get here soon enough!
 

 

 

We filled all of the buckets and continued to take down walls.  We don't need more buckets because we are really just waiting on the dumpster. The buckets are only transportation.

 

Here is another example of our frustrations and "why did they do that?" moments. Originally, the house had gas lighting.  The old pipes are still in the walls. At some point, after they stopped using gas lighting and went to electric, this house was remodeled.

Instead of removing the old pipe, they build a door around the pipe. Did they think they might someday go back to gas lighting?

In this case they cut away more than half of this 2x4 holding a door frame.  *sigh*

Letter P

Today's show is brought to you by the letter P...for printer.

It should be brought to you by the letter O for old.

Unlike my previous post with the old computer that was no longer used, this printer is still is use!

Yes, that is dot matrix.
Yes, that is a ribbon.
Yes, that is a box of continuous feed paper. Perforated. 

Ok guilt, I always loved the perforated paper.  The ultra-perforated was even better and easier to separate. 

Do I even tell you about the old software that is printing to this printer? 

Tree cutting tree cutting

Moving forward with the tree cutting process has taken us back into the poison field. The flowers around the house are up and blooming so we can't work on trimming those trees until the end of the season. (Thank you Walt Kowalski for understanding.)

Instead, we'll focus on clearing the location for the garage. Walt Kowalski set up the ladder and made the first cut. Chain Saw Johnny then cut the next two large branches. (We have to keep reminding ourselves, these are just branches! Look at the size of the tree!)

Walt Kowalski was in the truck putting pressure and pulling on the guide wire.  We weren't taking any chances.

 

 

 

Boom. The ground shook when that branch fell. 

(It was a beautiful day. Look at the blue sky.)

The first branch we took off was mostly eaten inside.  I'm amazed the branch hadn't fallen sooner. 

 

 

Before we knew it, the sun was setting. How did that happen so fast? It was a lovely evening.  Our fire was HOT (so hot it was still hot on Sunday afternoon.).  The goal was to kill the poison that was climbing the tree.  Done. Just be careful not to breathe the poison smoke. 

 

 

 

The natives were communicating, too. From our point of view, we could see two other campfires glowing and smoking on the hill and in the valley. 

 

Wood splitting is on the list for this week.

Breakthrough

Walt Kowalski has been busy working away at the front house while I have been loafing. Ha ha, I joke. Actually, we were dividing and conquering again.  I went back to the Cat Ranch to do laundry, clean bathrooms, run sweeper, and make dinner.  

I would have rather taken down walls.  Walt Kowalski always says "I can push 10 buttons on my phone and dinner will be delivered." I don't mind it sometimes, but not all the time. I over salad him some weeks. 

I've been asked multiple times 'what is so bad about the current plaster?  Why do you have to take it all down?'

Several reasons.  

1. Wiring.  We want new.  It's old cloth covered wire.  To dangerous.
2. Water damage.  The chimney is leaking. the roof leaked. No way we want to do all of this work and have the chimney leak again.  And besides, we're taking the chimney out. 

There are other reasons, Those are the biggest ones right now. 

Here is a good example.  The previous owners attempted to hide cracks in the walls. They took seam tape and covered the cracks and then repainted. One small pull and the tape came off.  Paint and all. 

In the dining room downstairs, much like the front bedroom, they just put drywall over the old plaster ceiling.  Let's just hide the problems and not fix them.  

Then we found where they covered over a window (badly). They didn't put any support or insulation where the window used to be.  You could lean on the wall and the wall would move.  *sigh*


Walt Kowalski made a breakthrough from the back bedroom to the front bedroom. 

This was a closet.  A closet so small you couldn't hang a shirt on a hanger if you wanted the door to close properly.  The hangers would have been sideways.  I know space was limited, but this was too small.  Then again, I could have turned it into a closet space just for shoes.  More space in the rooms will be better. 

Piles of lath for the fire. 

The wall between bedrooms with the chimney. Getting rid of the chimney will gain bedroom and hall space, too.

The buckets of plaster are piling up.  Next week...dumpster delivery.