Drywall Delivery

How do you get 80 sheets of 4'x12' drywall into an old house with small doorways? Easy. Use a crane and shove 'em in through the window!

The Itchies

If you happen to run into either Trent or me in the next few days, warning: we have the itchies and are scratching our arms and legs continuously. Thankfully, it's not contagious. This past weekend we insulated the house. Honestly, it was not the most enjoyable project. However, it is done and that means drywall starts tomorrow (yippee!).

In somewhat related news, we passed all of our inspections this past weekend as well (which is great timing since they all had to be done prior to the insulation and drywall).

If it ain't broke don't fix it

Everything in the project house is new. New and rather costly. Originally, we had planned to put on 2 new garage doors (they were even included in our budget). As we got closer to making that purchase and installation, we both realized that maybe there wasn't a reason to pay the money and use our efforts for this particular item. Trent looked the doors over, deemed them "working", and I went out to purchase a gallon of paint. About 3 hours later we had "new" doors. New, less expensive, and less work-for-me doors.

How long does it take....

How long does it take two fairly intelligent, college educated women to install a door handle on a screen door? 3 hours. (That's 2 hours and 30 minutes longer than it would take anyone else.)

A couple of weeks ago some friends of ours (Ben and Vanessa Sanders) offered to come up and help for an evening on the house. We jumped at their offer so fast that it should have tipped them off. Ben and Trent started the back deck (see photo) while Vanessa and I were given the "girlie" job. Trent had installed the new front screen door the night before, but ran out of time to install the handle. It should have been a quick and easy job - especially given the fact that Vanessa is the most handy girl I know.

We set out all the parts, read through the instructions (well, Vanessa did....I'm more of a "wing it" kind of gal) and grabbed Trent's drill. After 10 minutes of me figuring out how to change the drill bits, we were off and running. The first few holes I drilled seemed to be pretty tough (the door IS metal). Vanessa suggested that I keep the drill running as I try to pull it out of the freshly created hole. She made the suggestion just as I broke the drill bit...and got it stuck in the hole. We then (while laughing hysterically) ran around trying to find a nail to push through the hole to get the drill bit out. Yes, you guessed it....the nail got stuck. That's basically how the entire task went down: mistake, laughter, attempted fix-it, more laughter, 2nd attempted fix-it, laughter until tears, done.

In the end the door handle is complete and looks like a pro did it. And I only owe my husband a few parts for his power tools.

Let there be light, heat, and water

The good news: we officially have lights (throughout the entire house), water, and a furnace. The bad news: we still have no toilets installed. Forget toilets (plural) - I'll just take a toilet. I'm sick of running to McDonald's every hour from all the water and Gatorade I've consumed.
On a more technical and less grumpy note, the plumbing (PEX system) went in like a breeze. I have mentioned before how wonderful this stuff is and let me say it again: easier and cheaper to install. Greatest invention ever.
The heating and cooling is all installed but apparently you don't actually test it out until after the drywall is complete (I'm learning things along the way).
The wiring for the lights is complete and the wiring for the outlets is almost done. Little tidbit we've learned with wiring: whatever amount of wire you think you need for a project, just go ahead and add 30% to it.
Up next: drywall!

It's not easy being green (or cheap)

In an effort to make this project house have the best re-sale value possible, we have had no choice but to try and make various aspects enviro-friendly. Honestly, it's not the first thing I think of - but it's what all the "kids are doing these days". One of the big things we decided to invest in was a tankless hot water heater. They came on the market a few years ago and received less-than-perfect reviews. However, they have come a long way since then and (thankfully) so has the price. While they are still slightly more expensive than the standard hot water heater - it's reasonable. An added bonus is that they are now about the size of a shoe box (we have a 250 sq ft basement....space matters). The unit mounts to the wall (which is kinda' cool) and requires more electrical juice than anything in the house (not clear on how this makes it a green item, but I don't make the rules). According to Trent (Mr. Researcher) this name brand of tankless heaters receive the best reviews and are the cheapest.

My husband....MacGyver

We have been planning on having the yard completely torn up, leveled, re-seeded, and looking beautiful. We knew we would have to hire a portion of it out. We had a dollar figure in mind (which seemed reasonable to us). The work was started this past week. The actual dollar figure started to grow. About 25% of the way into this project we decided we would take care of the rest of it ourselves (even though we had no idea how). I spent the weekend pushing dirt around, cutting old roots, and picking up debris. Yesterday, Trent and I stood looking at the yard (aka: dirt hole) trying to come up with any ideas to get the yard smooth enough to plant grass seed. Leave it to my husband. He pulled out one of our 4-wheelers and attached some chains to the back of it. Then he took what was the back porch, flipped it over, and fastened it to the chains. Viola! Initially, the idea looked ingenious. However, once Trent started cruising around the yard (in circles) with an old porch attached to the back of our 4-wheeler.....well, I wasn't certain whether I wanted to claim my husband or not. Either way, the job is done and grass seed is being planted today.

On track

We are on track for the house progress (at this point). The exterior work is done! The lawn is being completely scraped and re-planted today, so we should have nice, pretty grass within the next few weeks.
As for the interior, I will post more photos this weekend (as we plan on spending most of our holiday weekend working at the house). The framing is all done, the plumbing is started and should be finished by this weekend , and the heating and cooling should be done by next weekend. Woohoo! We are moving along.

Not a mason....but I tried.

This past week we have just about wrapped up the exterior of the project house (whew - it's about time). I spent my time working on repairing/replacing several large holes in the brick foundation. While I don't have the skills of a mason (those guys do some seriously impressive work), I'm a whole lot cheaper. Since, I also painted the foundation (more photos to come on that), the brick work needed to be functional...form didn't matter too much.
I will spend some time this week working on landscaping and getting the outside whipped into shape. Trent is officially starting on the interior work. Of course we'll get the central air hooked up just in time for the weather to change.

Just about done...with the siding

Thanks to my hardworking husband and a couple of friends (Adam Callender and Daryl McMullen...BIG thanks!) the entire siding project is just about finished! In fact, as of tomorrow evening it should be entirely completed. We could not be more pleased about the way it turned out. Sure, it would have been nice if it would have moved a little faster, not been 95 degrees most days, not have had to buy a rather expensive roofing nail gun to get the nails through the existing siding, and if we (okay, it was me) would not have ruined a few pieces of siding by cutting them too short. But honestly, it was all worth it for the end product.
If you are wondering what the ugly, old, crazy tall antenna is still doing next to the house in the last photo....well, I thought we were taking it down. We were taking it down. Then my (engineer) husband says, "I may want to tinker around with a windmill and that would be a perfect spot for one." Great.

Up next: heating and cooling. Or landscaping. Or electrical and plumbing. I'll let you know what we decide.

Safe 'n Secure

The house on Oak Street is now fully locked up. We have both a front and back door (they look identical) with a standard lock and deadbolt on each. We decided to go with the Camber Plank style doors and these will be the same doors that we'll use on the interior. Personally, I'm just thrilled that we have exited the padlock phase. It didn't seem like a great way to secure a property....especially since I could squeeze through a few 2x4's and still get into the house without a key.

To any robbers who might be reading this blog: there is nothing in the house. Nothing, zero, zilch. We take all the fancy tools with us when we're done (which is time consuming but probably worth it to make sure you don't steal them). The only reason we have locked things up is because it's our property and we don't want people in there who haven't been invited.

Visible Progress

It is with sheer excitement that I write this blog post! Today, if you happened to drive past our project house on Oak Street you would actually notice some improvement. Up to this point the house has basically continued to look worse. However, after a long, hot holiday weekend of Trent and I installing vinyl siding, things are looking better. As with most things, it took a little time to get the hang of it (which is the reason we started with the garage and not the house). Once we got a system down, we were flying. We are planning on doing the house next weekend (the longer chunk of time seems to serve us well on this task). For anyone looking to upgrade your own home - shop, shop, shop. I found that vinyl prices were all over the place. The small, private building supply store was about half the cost of Lowe's or Home Depot (plus, we ended up receiving a much higher grade vinyl).
**Oh....and the color we selected is called, "Montana Suede."

Steppin' up

We are officially done climbing a ladder into the second floor! We have stairs. Beautiful, sturdy, not quite up to new code stairs. While the photo shows me working on the stairs, relax: Trent was supervising the entire project. He pre-built the sides ahead of time, we leveled them out in their new home, and added each step. I was responsible for the steps and even got to use a few power tools. The photo is of me using some hand-saw-cutter-thing-a-ma-jig (I said I used the power tools....I didn't learn to identify them).

New, new, new

I'm so excited that we have finally entered the "new" phase of this project. With the exception of just a couple items (that can't be done just yet), everything from this point on is new. This week we have successfully installed all of our new windows (minus 2 that need to be installed later for logistical reasons). They are beautiful! I'm particularly thankful that we were able to get them in without breaking any of them. Watching Trent climb the super-duper tall ladder with a 61" window was slightly unnerving. However, he was blessed with a much greater sense of balance than most (me) and he looked like a pro.

On a financial note, we price shopped the windows like crazy. We ended up purchasing them from a place in Elkhart and they were a solid 60% cheaper than any other price (for custom windows)! Richards Building Supply (on CR 6...just east of the airport) is the place to go.

Raisin' the Roof (actually, just the ceiling)

This past week we have worked hard to raise the ceiling on the second floor. Prior to this week, the ceiling throughout all of the second floor was about 7'4"...not very tall. Trent researched all about ways to raise the ceiling without "compromising the integrity" of the roof (his words, not mine). So, he managed to find a way to keep everything supported and still gain us an extra 2 feet! The upstairs bedroom will have a pseudo-cathedral ceiling at 9'6" and the bathroom will be just a little over 8'. I've included photos of the upstairs to show the difference.
Just a little tid-bit we learned this week: don't work on the highest point of a house (2nd story ceiling) when it's 90+ degrees outside.

Weed Killer vs. Spider Spray

Trent requested two tasks of me this past week: spray the poison ivy with weed killer and spray the foundation of the house for spiders. He mentioned both of the tasks in the same conversation. However, he only brought weed killer along (said that he would pick up the anti-spider spray sometime during the week). No problem. I used the weed killer and sprayed everything and anything that looked like poison ivy (which is everything that doesn't look like grass since I still can't identify poison ivy). I paid zero attention to the name on the bottle...zero. I did pay attention to the fact that it was hard to squeeze, took forever to come out, didn't seem to spray consistently, and all around just didn't work right. A day later Trent mentioned that I should probably spray the poison ivy again...just to make sure we really kill it. Fast forward to this past weekend. I arrive at the house prior to Trent. I'm trying to think of something productive to do before he arrives.....Ahh: spray the poison ivy again. I head into the garage, find the spray, and start spraying every single livin' weed on the property. I pay zero attention to the name on the bottle...zero. I do pay attention to the fact that the spray-nozzle-thingy seems to miraculously be healed. It sprays great! Trent shows up (as I'm finishing), looks at the bottle I'm holding and says, "thanks for spraying the house for spiders! Did you read the directions on where and how to spray before you started?" Ummmm......no, I apparently didn't read much at all.

Approved!

We have many approvals that will need to happen before the completion of this project. The first one occurred today, June 11th. The electrical inspector came out and said our brand new electrical box and meter are good to go. Trent installed a new 200 amp box (a bit overkill for a 700 sq ft home) and he did everything on his own. My job title was "flashlight holder" (since we have been lacking power...i.e. lights). We now have 4 whole outlets to use....yippee! Trent thinks all the outlets are for things like power tools and industrial lighting for us to work under. Little does he know that I'm planning on plugging in a curling iron - just because I can.

Because it's fun

We removed the walls to the back mud room quite some time ago. However, we never got around to removing the roof. Secretly, we were both hoping that a good storm would come through and take it off for us. No luck. As Trent was preparing to do the final tear down on it, I decided it was time for a little documentation. The first 30 seconds are boring...the last 30 seconds are little more entertaining (especially if you love watching things fall apart).

Freebie!

We are so excited! We actually received something free on our house project. The sidewalk in front of the house needed to be completely torn up and re-done. This was included in our budget from the beginning. Unfortunately, the tear up part was going to be cheap, but crazy hard work while the new concrete was going to be fairly expensive. Well...the city of Niles came through and is re-doing most of the sidewalks along Oak street. We arrived at the house to find out we were one of the lucky ones. Now don't go and spoil this by saying we pay taxes and we've already paid for this project...today, this is free!

An easier way

I'll admit it: we are always looking for an easier/ faster/ cheaper way to do whatever task is at hand. We found it with our bathroom issue. I mentioned (a few posts back) there was a small dirt tunnel that went underneath the bathroom. In order to reach the plumbing, someone (Trent) was going to have to crawl through this 3 x 2 hole in the basement into the dungeon. No lights, dirt floor, and a host of other creepy things in our imagination. Thankfully, an easier way came to us both at the same time. We'll just tear up the floor so that the hole is completely exposed ...thus making it no longer creepy. Now we have a big hole in what was the bathroom and we (Trent) can totally do the plumbing without having to crawl around in the dungeon.

The other project

Prior to starting on our house project Trent purchased an old, beat up Scout. It's from the 60's (nope, don't remember the exact year) and it looked awful (imagine something looking worse than the house). Well, tonight Trent took a break from the house work and completed the Scout. It looks gorgeous! It will be getting new, cool tires (those 1960'ish ones aren't going to cut it), but other than tires...it's done. Trent drove me around the neighborhood and then I drove him around in it. Personally, I was shocked that I remembered how to drive a stick...it's been a few years. I'm so impressed that Trent totally stripped this vehicle down and re-built it bolt by bolt. (I helped for about 15 minutes when he needed me to push the brake pedal down.) It's just cool!

You know you're a grown-up when....

You know you're a grown-up when you see Mr. UPS and get excited realizing he has the new plumbing stuff for the house. The fun part has officially started! Today the new plumbing system arrived. It's call PEX plumbing and for those of you who know nothing about plumbing (me, until recently)...this is the greatest invention ever. We actually have the same system in our home that we live in (see photo). When we finished off our lower level (with a bathroom) the plumbing portion took no time at all. All of the tubes are flexible plastic (so much easier than pvc). In addition to the flexibility, each tube coming into the mainframe (no, that's not the proper word) is then labeled what it is. Plus, it's common sense: red tube = hot water, blue tube = cold water. Even I feel like I understand plumbing. The best part: it's cheaper. Easier and faster to install, super simple to understand, and significantly better priced. It's a good day. If you happen to be in the need for new plumbing, Trent ordered the goods from PEX Supply.

Tour

The truth: I've now tried to record a tour of the house (I use the word "house" loosely at this point) 3 times. All 3 times I end up sounding like a Realtor. Reality finally hit (I am a Realtor) and I've accepted that I also sound like one. In my vain, numerous attempts to not sound like myself I've ended up sounding more ridiculous. Enjoy.

Stupid bird!

We have the interior demo work 100% complete. We have a floor plan selected. We have windows selected and ready to order. I have almost decided on an exterior color. We have the house clean (well, as clean as it's going to be in this stage). We are totally ready to pull off the back mud room from the house. We've been ready for a week. However, one little bird refuses to leave the nest (I realize he was born in 2010, but he's a gen x'er at heart). We watch the mom come and literally try to pull him out. He looks outside and heads back to the nest. We have been more than generous. He has to fly by tomorrow or my goodwill towards him is gone.

Layers

Here is what I know:

Layers work wonders for a person if we are discussing clothing (ladies, you know I'm right). Layers in a house are bad. Really, really bad. Until this weekend my worst experience with bad layering was peeling back one layer of old wallpaper to find an even older layer behind it. However, as we removed the old aluminum siding we found not one, but two layers of additional siding behind it. Add to it that the middle layer is asbestos (which is basically a four-letter word in my real estate world) and we have a long weekend. The aluminum siding is mostly off (thanks to Trent). We have two options with the asbestos: leave it and put siding up over it or remove it according to the EPA standards. Both are legal and safe. We have about 10-12 days to decide which way we are going. Thankfully, we have lots of other mini house projects in between to keep us busy (like removing the vines surrounding the base of the house....also known as poison ivy).

Larry did us a favor!

The house is making more progress. We are just about done with all things demo and ready to start the re-build (the fun part:). I've included more photos of our skeleton structure.






Remember the refrigerator that we left in the backyard (knowing we were going to have to pay money to get rid of it)? Well, when we arrived at the house yesterday there was a handwritten note from a man named Larry. He left his number and asked us to call him about the refrigerator. I ran off to call (while Trent is hollering, "make sure to tell him we have no idea if it works"). Turns out Larry scraps metal for some extra income and asked if he could have the fridge. "Larry, you are doing us a favor!" were my exact words. We'll be keeping Larry's number for any other metal we are bound to find that he can use.

And the walls came tumbling down

We started this evening's work with walls. We ended it without any interior walls (the exterior walls are just the studs and the siding on the outside). Both Trent and I are pretty excited at the progress. We are equally excited to be almost finished with the demo work. Exhausting. Forgive the dust "chunks" that show up in the photo below and make it foggy...I've come to see everything through foggy goggles. And no, we don't have electricity so you can definitely tell which photo is during early evening and which is taken at night.

4 Days to Learn to Fly

The area under the tarp is a mud room. It has a dirt floor and is pulling away from the house (hence, the tarp). When we started the demo last Monday, we planned on pulling the mud room off immediately. However, Trent heard little chirps and we quickly realized we had a nest of baby birds under the tarp. We both agreed that the mud room could be the final thing we did in the demo to give the babies a chance to live. Every day the birds chirp at us and their chirps get significantly louder and stronger. We did a little research and learned that most birds leave the nest in 12 days (which falls perfectly into our 2 week demo plan). As of today, the birds are still there. They have until Saturday to learn to fly.

On a completely different note, the demo is starting to show progress on the interior!

One hit at a time

There are many methods on how to remove plaster. However, they all have a common point: the plaster comes down one hit at a time. This is the style I found to work best for me (Trent does it differently since he has a little more muscle:)

The first step is to hit the wall as hard as possible.



The second step is to pull the wood strips off (paying careful attention to avoid the 100 year old rusty nails that are flying past).



If any contractors are reading this, now is not the time to tell me there is an easier way.

Dust, Dust, Dust

Attached is the first video footage from Oak Street. It's riveting (note sarcasm). In short, after spending the week removing plumbing, duct work, electrical, tile, flooring, and everything else nailed down, we spent the weekend removing plaster. Neither one of us had any idea how filthy it would be. Apparently, the former owner of this home was a smoker. We have been covered in nasty black dust all weekend and now the little Flip camera is also covered in dust (thanks for letting me borrow it, Dad).

Removing plaster from the walls is back-breaking work. However, when we got to the ceiling in the kitchen Trent had an idea. He went up to the attic and just started beating the plaster and insulation down. I went for the video camera.

We still have more walls to remove in the house, but the demo is on schedule to be completed by this next weekend (which is good, because I just can't handle being this dirty).

A little creepy

The basement in this house is a little creepy (just a smidge). It has 2 small rooms that are brick and every time we go down there we find something different (like the small dirt tunnel underneath the bathroom). Trent keeps trying to tell me that he’s too big to crawl into the tunnel to re-do the plumbing (i.e. I’m going to have to crawl in there). Sure.

Here are a few photos of our basement. I spent the evening shop vac’ing the ba’gillions of spiders and spider nests. There was so much dirt that I had to use a shovel. It’s not quite clean, but it’s not getting ready to be the site of a horror flick anymore.

Before and After

Above is the photo of the kitchen when we purchased the house. Below is the current condition of the kitchen. While it’s still not looking great (some may say it even looks worse), it smells a little better.



The super great news is that the refrigerator can’t go in the dumpster (something about chemicals in the ground….) so it’s located just outside the house in the backyard. As if we didn’t look redneck enough.