Note to self

In the future, remind V that late afternoon on New Year's Eve is not the most auspicious time to begin non-emergency plumbing repairs... because we KNOW that it never goes as smoothly as you hope.

A HAPPY 2012 TO YOU ALL!

May it be peaceful, joyous and fulfilling for everyone.

And may you never have leaking bathtub faucets.

An unhappy Valentine's Day

At least for V.  We are having plumbing issues.  Around the time of the blizzard the toilet in the basement started not flushing well.  It got progressively worse until we banned it's use.  V has tried the snake, plungers, all to no avail. Today, he even pulled the toilet up to check the flange and try the snake further down the drain. No luck.  Then, he thought it may be a vent problem.  So, checking the vent pipe (PVC) resulted in a break that he is now trying to repair.  And the toilet still doesn't flush.  So, tomorrow he will pull the toilet again and try a drill snake to see what happens.  At least the sink and shower still work.
But all this made for a very unhappy V today and no grand celebration (not that we would have had one anyway).
But, in more fun news, we purchased our flooring for the kitchen yesterday as well as the new dishwasher. The tiles we brought home with us but the dishwasher won't be in for another week.  We were also able to add the new subfloor and tile backer onto the delivery truck that will bring the cabinets and counters.  So it will all come in one giant delivery.  We're starting to count down the weeks.  I started boxing up some of the stuff from the upper cabinets.  You know, stuff we don't use that often.  I mean, really, what are the odds that I'll be needing a springform pan in the next few weeks.
Gotta go.  J16 is taking her final written exam for her driver's ed class (they gave it as a take home!!??) and I'm needed to help her interpret some of the questions.  Some of them are really bad questions.

I think I have a problem...

Does any one know of a good 12 step program?

Hi, my name is Judy and I'm a gardener...

I confess that my life has become unmanageable.

I have seedlings everywhere!

And it's still a few weeks before I feel safe to plant them outside. Some of the tomatoes are HUGE! They seem to have grown an inch today.

I spent time this evening repotting some of the medicinal herbs and flowers- both for my tea garden and for J15's Goth Garden. Normally, I think I've got a lot of plants with just the usuals- tomatoes, peppers, eggplant and tomatillos. But with herbs and flowers I've got waaaaay more plants than usual. I've run out of flats to put them into and room under the grow lights. I even made the move to put one flat of tomatoes on the porch this evening. I'll have to keep an eye on the weather and bring them in if it gets too cool but with the weather we've been having recently, it's hard to believe that it's only mid-April. We were over 80 this afternoon! But I keep reminding myself that it's still early and we could get a frost. I don't know what that would do to the fruit production, though. The big apple tree is ready to burst into bloom and my currants are blooming like mad. I noticed tiny leaf buds on a couple of my newly planted apples. How exciting.

We meet tomorrow afternoon with the engineer about the new septic system. She has the plans drawn up. Then we can get approval from the county and contact the guys who will install it for us. I hope that can get rolling soon. I've got things I want to plant out there but I can't do it until they're done ripping up the landscape. I really want to get started on my herb and medicinal tea/wildflower garden. These people are putting a crimp in my style.

J15 was at school until about 9 this evening. She is on the panel of judges for their annual film festival (student made films) and tonight was the judging. Oosh. I just hope she doesn't have too much homework on top of that.

I also spent some time this evening working on my raised bed. V has been laughing at me but he hasn't volunteered to help- the swine! But I should be able to finish it soon. My strawberries should arrive sometime next week and it's got to be ready. It may not be pretty but it will work. My biggest problem is that someone, for some unknown reason- put in a layer of landscaping fabric that is now buried under about 8 inches of soil and it's in my way as I try to dig the trench for the blocks. Grrrr..

Ok, now I'm just babbling...... Time for bed.

Good news/bad news

Well, not really that bad. The engineer came out this afternoon to do the inspection for the new septic. It turns out that we will not be able to put in a traditional system (even though that is what is in place now). Our options will, of course, be more expensive. We can put in a mound system or put in a sand filter with an engineered wetland. We're leaning toward the wetland solution- especially since it fits so well into the 'look' of our property. We would use cattails, bullrushes or even iris for the final processing stage. We've even got what the engineer described as 'the perfect spot' for it and the wetland could also be used to filter/control some of the run-off from the highway. The nice part of this is that it would preserve the top of the meadow for the orchard/food forest but I would need to relocate my herb/tea garden. This is one of the reasons I insisted that we get the septic done before things started to arrive this spring and need planted. I would hate to plant my apple trees only to find that I need to move them. Now we need to make our final decision and let her (the engineer) know and she will do the design for us. She even recommended two firms to do the installation for us.

In other news, V heard from our friend Mike. He will be in town the beginning of next week which will be fun. We haven't seen him for over a year and it will be great to see him. I'm going to see if I can get a day off early next week so we can spend time, up late, doing grown-up talking, without having to worry about getting up at 530 am to go to work.

And that reminds me, I need to send an email to my coworkers before I forget.

Checking in

What a frustrating day. V spent several hours up in the attic this morning stapling down wires and cleaning out old mouse contaminated insulation. Unfortunately, this kicked up so much dust and crud from the tiny bit of old cellulose insulation that was up there that, even though he was wearing a mask, after a few hours of working he was starting to feel ill. So, we only got about a third of the insulation done before he called it quits. We worked out a pretty good system. V and J15 were up in the attic installing and I was outside supplying the insulation. Our penchant for not throwing things away paid off- V strung up an ancient hammock onto the end of a rope that we used as a cargo sling to haul the insulation up through the gable vent. It worked really well. Actually, I would have much rather been up in the attic than standing outside loading insulation rolls into the sling. It was much warmer up in the attic and they were out of the wind. I could load insulation much faster than they could install it so I ended up spending time standing around outside waiting. That wouldn't have been so bad if it hadn't been 23 with snow flurries.

Anyway, we knocked off work around 3 this afternoon so I took the time to bake some cookies. So far, Thursday and Friday evenings I baked 2 batches of biscotti (pistachio and a chocolate, cherry, almond one) and this afternoon we made gingerbread cookies.

Don't think the boys got off work since we didn't let them up in the attic (we're worried they would forget about only stepping on the joists!). I had a list of things for them to do. They were responsible for cleaning the cats' litter box, emptying the compost bucket, vacuuming and sorting a huge basket of socks.

I did manage to get all my holiday shopping done and even some wrapped yesterday. Tomorrow, I'm taking I12 to church early since he is playing for both services. J15 and I will attend the early service, V and K9 will come for the later service and bring I12 home with them. After church, J15 and I are going shopping. Not my favorite time of year to go shopping but I desperately need some pants for work. One of my favorite department stores is having a sale and I ended up with a coupon for 30% off my entire purchase so it seemed like a good time to go. J15 is complaining that she needs new bras so she's coming along. I'm hoping that if we can get there in the morning that we can miss most of the crowds in the afternoon. I would still like to find a little something more for V's stocking but if I don't, it's OK.

I did bake a squash this afternoon since another one was developing a bad spot. I ended up making 'pumpkin pudding' - like pie without the crust. I've been doing much better at eating from stores recently. We'll see if I can keep it up. Tomorrow afternoon is vanilla cookie time.

Even though we really need to get the insulation done (especially since there is now only a sheet of plastic stapled up over the gable vent) V wants to take a day off to let his lungs and head clear of whatever made him feel bad this afternoon. Looking at the weather it looks like there may be a nicer day this week. I'll be at work but we figured that I12 and K9 can load insulation into the sling for V and J15 to install.

I hope you are all having a peaceful weekend. If you're on the east coast of the U.S.- stay warm!! I need to call my sister in Maryland and see if she is going to be able to make it this week.

Of windows and old news

It was another wild day here at the money pit. I didn't get to the bottom of the pantry, other things got in the way. I was outside swinging a mattock to dig trenches for my raised bed blocks (through about 60/40- clay/rock mix!) for a while. Let me tell you- it's a full body workout! After a bit, J15 came to get me, she has decided to try to overcome her fear of driving and had asked me to take her out to learn to drive. She didn't do too badly. I drove her down to a local business park and let her drive around in deserted parking lots for about a half an hour. We both survived with all our hair intact! After her driving lesson, we ran a few errands and headed home. V had been a busy boy while we had been gone.

A new window!

He installed a replacement window on the North side of the basement, between the house and garage. There had been a window there but it had been boarded up and covered over. We decided we wanted all the natural light we can get so we've been uncovering many windows that were boarded up in the basement. The North window went so smoothly that he decided to tackle one on the South side of the house as well. This one is at along the basement stairs and was a bit more complicated:

Before, all boarded up and nowhere to go.

Out with the old.

He's not messing around with this one!

But, best of all, we had a surprise. Stuffed into one of the cinder blocks of the wall below the window were a few crumpled sheets of newspaper. Now we know about when the 'addition' was built onto the house: late July 1961. A few highlights:

What a great headline!

J15 worked hard to reconstruct a recipe from the "Women's pages"

She was excited by all this and found the recipe for a Raspberry Linzer Torte. YUM!! We'll have to try it sometime.

More news.

Check out the latest fashions!

New furniture anyone?

And I like these prices at the grocery store!

But, back to the job at hand. We did get the window done. It didn't go in as smoothly as hoped but it is in.

It looks out on where the deck used to be.

It will eventually be underneath our new deck that we are planning so we opted to put in a glass block window to soften the view but still let in some light and air.

All done!!!

Siding!

Hooray! We finished putting up the siding this afternoon. So now, except for staining the siding and adding a few trim pieces, the South wall repair is finished!

V holds while I drive in a few nails.

It was a lovely warm day to be working outside.

J15 had fun with the camera.

Now to put the deck back on....

but not this weekend.

We had a lovely time out last night. Camelot was wonderful. The community theatre group did a fabulous job. I had forgotten what a dark ending the King Arthur tale has- but they had fun with it nonetheless. We did go out to dinner before the show. We went to one of the nicer restaurants downtown, V had local grassfed beef, I had definitely non-local shrimp with lobster mousse- but they were served with local veggies.

All in all, a good weekend but it feels like I didn't get anything accomplished. Except for siding, that is.

Nearly done

It was another busy day here. I feel so sorry for V. He ended up doing most of the work today. I'm a good helper but I'm really not knowledgeable about framing or installing windows. We didn't quite finish. It was getting late and exhaustion was setting in so we didn't get the new siding on the house. But...

We have a wall and a window!

With Tyvek over the outside!

V hopes to do some work on the basement bathroom window sometime soon- actually putting a window back in where it has been boarded over. But this won't be tomorrow. The poor guy is exhausted and sore. But I'm so proud of him. I'm forever amazed at what he can accomplish when he puts his mind to it.

But the day wasn't all about walls and windows.

Just when I thought it was safe to stop canning....

I wandered through the garden this afternoon. My Polish Linguisa tomatoes, while they took a hit from the blight, never actually died and many of the tomatoes are still good. And my peppers are going strong. I see salsa in my near future- which is OK since we eat a lot of salsa in our house.

Look what the parking lot fairies brought me!

And this morning- I dropped Ian off at church (everyone else was working on the house but he had a class he needed to be at) and I ran some errands. As I got out of the car at one stop, I noticed these laying on the pavement in an empty parking space: A pair of pot holders, tags still attached. And of course, being the perennial scrounge that I am, I picked them up. They were damp with the dew so had evidently been there for a while. So, now I have something new for the kitchen.

Still here

And so is the big hole in our wall. We weren't able to finish last night- it got too dark and without a light at the top of the stairs V couldn't see well enough to make the cuts he needed to to frame the window. So we tacked up the sheathing to cover the opening over night and will finish today. But here's a few of the photos and adventures from the day.

The hole begins!

Do you see that splintery stuff? The original builders used old paneling as part of the wall construction. Now, don't get me wrong- I'm all for recycling and making do- but in house construction?!

I work on taking down siding panels while V plans his next step.

Pulling down bad wood

Oh, and do you notice that wire hanging down in that last photo? We discovered it in the wall. It's an old cloth covered wire, not capped or anything, stuffed into the insulation. We assumed that it was disconnected since the light fixture by the back door was there but not connected to anything. Guess what? After working around it for a few hours and having it get in the way- V decided to cut it off- It turns out that it was LIVE!!! Thank God he was using insulated wire cutters!!!! And thank goodness there has never been a fire with it not capped or anything in the wall (especially a wall that has had lots of water damage!) or that any of us got injured since we were all working around that area, even the children. What stupid people leave an uncapped live wire in a wall????????

But, thankfully it all worked out well. V tracked down where it was connected into the system and managed to disconnect it. But that used up valuable construction time and put us behind schedule. We could have waited to track it down but it blew out the same circuit that the refrigerator was on so we didn't want to wait too long.

Looking out from by my pantry

Nearly ready to start the rebuild.

We discovered the original siding on the old house- I like it much better than the stuff that's there now. And someone painted it pink!

Reinstalling the mudsill!

Justine takes a break.

Of course, I'll probably get no end of grief showing this one on a Sunday....

Well, it's off to get going again. More updates later- if I can stay awake.

Behind schedule but Okay

Well, we didn't get to wall demolition today. Removing the deck took longer than we planned and we didn't get it completely removed until lunchtime today. Then we still had to bring down the gutter on that side of the house and clean up. By that time it was later than we wanted to start putting holes in the side of the house. This is a job that we would like to finish in a single day if possible so we will start bright and early tomorrow morning. V and J15 will skip Tae Kwon Do and Kum Do tomorrow morning so we can work. Things were in worse shape than we had hoped so we made another trip to the lumber yard late this afternoon to pick up a few more items.

But here is the day in pictures:

The decking and steps are gone!

V works on the last post.

The bolts attaching them were SO rusted that it took a lot of time and effort to remove them intact. Part of the moisture problem for both the deck and the house is the fact that the deck had a solid concrete block foundation and both the dryer vent and the downstairs bathroom fan were both venting warm, humid air underneath the deck for who knows how many years!

The results of too much moisture! EEEW!!! It was like paper in some places.

V used the garden tractor and tow chain to pull the frame off the foundation.

Here it comes...

And there it goes!

The peony on the corner fared better than I expected it to and looks pretty good.

The mighty tractor. V really loves that thing- it has come in quite useful for many tasks other than just mowing!

This is what we found behind the deck frame.

Yup, that's insulation you can see.

Do you think that maybe mice could get in through that? Once we got the deck removed you could see light from inside at the top of the stairs. Definitely NOT good. We got it temporarily sealed for the night to keep critters out.

What's left of the wood under the back door.

We're going to have to replace lots of that wood. The cable sticking out is a secondary phone line that ran to the shop- we're removing it.

We're both weary to the bone and sore but we knocked off early today so we can rest up for the onslaught tomorrow.

We are definitely living in interesting times.

Thanks for the suggestions for the apple. I think it may be a good, old fashioned Jonathan- I'll have to ask my Mom. She's really good at apple types. They have 7 or 8 varieties in their orchard.

And then it got interesting....

Well, the morning went well, we got almost our supplies for tomorrow. And then we took up a few planks on the deck for access to the side of the house and weren't pleased with what we found.

More rot and...

The deck is bolted into the rotted mudsill. And we discovered that many of the supports for the deck are bad, soooo....

We're deconstructing the deck.

Ok, this is something we had planned to do at some point, just not today. Our ultimate plan is to put a wrap-around deck all around the addition, with the basement door coming out underneath it. The children worked hard when they got home from school. It's a good thing it was Thursday early release day and they were all home by about 3 pm.

Pulling up planks. At least we can deconstruct fairly easily.

Eeew, rot.

Any ideas on what kind of apple?

But on a better note, I picked a few apples off the tree today. This one was HUGE! That's a quarter beside it. And Oh, it was tasty! And for an organic apple, it was beautiful! But we have no idea what kind it is. So, if anyone has any ideas, please let me know. Otherwise, we will just enjoy our no-name apples.

The Wall-It begins...

Today we began work on 'the wall'. This is the exterior wall on the South side of the house, where the addition is joined onto the rest of the house, right over the South deck, at the top of the basement stairs. We've known that it had water damage for a while and have been waiting to make repairs. We took down the drywall a while ago, when we were doing basement demolition so it has been bare studs on the interior for a while.

Before

The door to the left goes onto the deck. The door frame straight ahead is the original back door to the house, to the right (out of frame) is the pantry, built over where the original basement stairs were before the addition. The old door frame prevents the South door from opening all the way. So, while we're doing demolition, we're going to fix that....

What's left of the door sill- mostly rotted.

Water damaged siding by the deck

Our temporary patch this spring to keep birds out.

The hole we patched was rotted due to poor guttering where the house and addition meet. There was evidently a leak there for a while that someone then put a 'bandaid' on but didn't really fix it. There were all sorts of critters entering the house through that hole and we're guessing through the rotted wood in the mudsill that we won't get to until tomorrow.

Water damage and rot on the sheathing

V takes out the old door frame

Behind the blue sheet behind him is the pantry. We covered it with a sheet to keep to try to keep down the dust. I'm not sure how successful we were. After the doorway was down, we pulled out the ceiling at the top of the stairs to see where some wiring went. There is a light fixture at the top of the stairs but it isn't connected to anything. Go figure.

Ruined insulation and birds nests from above the ceiling. Yuck!

Oops. You're not supposed to be able to see daylight from the inside!

But, the door opens all the way now!

After lunch, we will make the trip to get the lumber and supplies we will need to tackle the rebuild and then tomorrow we will start from the outside and work our way in. EEEK!