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.

$330, $163, $30

$330: The cost for the 30 yard dumpster we rented for 2 weeks. We were hopeful that we could work fast enough to get the demo done in 2 weeks. Unfortunately, we didn’t ever think that we would fill the dumpster by day 3 of our project. Needless to say, we get to pay more to have them come and empty it out (so we can re-fill it with more junk).

$163: The cost for the permit we had to get prior to starting work on the house. We purchased this from the building inspector (who works for the city). We get the privilege of purchasing 2 more of these permits through the course of our entire project.

$30: The cost for the tetanus shots we both maybe, sorta’, definitely should have received before we started (but we didn’t).

We’ve worked hard every day after our regular jobs on the house. The photo below shows the bathroom that I have spent the past 3 days hitting, scraping, and tearing the ceramic tile away from. Let me tell ya’….they call it manual labor for a reason.

Shut your mouth

Today was the start of the Oak Street house! The dumpster is in place and the demo has begun. What did I learn today?

The phrase “shut your mouth” could be helpful in many situations (gossiping, secrets, finances, politics, etc). However, it may be most helpful when removing 50 year old carpet and vinyl flooring.

While Trent and I removed the carpet, vinyl, and (totally disgusting beyond words) padding I constantly was coughing and sneezing. Trent’s orders were simple: “shut your mouth.” If only I could have remembered to follow his instructions.

Regardless, all the flooring is out!