Dining Room: Day 13 - I damaged the walls and I'm not sure how to repair other messes.

So I started removing the tape today.

I managed to completely damage the wall above the doorway to the living room (above) and once the tape was off, it became totally obvious that the previous owner's didn't clean up after their own painting (below).

I'm going to spent the next few days detail scraping with razor blades to try and clean up the previous paint that is on the baseboards and along the window trim trying to make it look solid and clean and straight.

Taping the molding up top also didn't produce as clean a line as I need for this room to look ok (above).

I'm going to have to figure out a way to fix this without removing that shitty molding and then renailing it.

I still need to 3rd or 4th coat that shitty molding too.

Dining Room: Day 12 - In which the Mayan Treasure is applied.

So I got 2 coats of the "mayan treasure" on this evening.

The photos don't really look like it does in real life.

Well... and it hasn't fully dried yet either.

Once the first coat was up I sat back and realized I really really really like it. It will work well with the stained glass, sorta-ok with the trim color, very well with the wood floors, and very good with the deco furniture set.

Now we gotta find the right lighting, the right window treatment for the west side, and the right floor rug.

Tomorrow I'll tacking spot painting the ceiling and that crown molding. Man that paint I used did not work well.

Dining Room: Day 12 - The morning after.

Man I did a shitty job.

Or should I say the stress of attempting to perform a "quality paint job" on that shitty textured ceiling resulted in a shitty job.

I'm going to have to run to Lowes and snag another gallon of the ceiling paint to try and touch this crap up

I really really really wanted it to come out ok so I could immediately start on the 1st coat for the walls when I get home.

Alas, that will not happen.

Dining Room: Day 11 - Sanding, cleaning, and priming!

I'm sorry if this applies to you but...

There is a special place reserved in Hell for those who put texture on their ceilings.

Awful.

Awful.

Awful.

I wish I had the time right now to rip the entire f'n ceiling down and install a new smooth one.

I HATE TEXTURED CEILINGS!!!!

Even with the color-changing ceiling paint I can't what's getting paint and what is not. This color-changing shit is just not practical for anything other than a smooth surface.

I've used an entire gallon of paint and yet I cannot say for certain if I managed to paint everything!!!

I did 2 entire circuits around attempting to put 2 coats on and I don't know if I succeeded!

I HATE TEXTURED CEILINGS!!!!

Never ever ever have I encountered a surface so f'n messy to deal with!!!

I am going to do everything possible to avoid trying to paint the living room ceiling!!!

Lighting... gotsta find some!

Now something that we still haven't found is a new main chandelier for the dining room.

The Domicile was built around 1925 and while a lot of original style has been killed off here, the house's soul still has a lot of Mission and Craftsman style to it, unlike the House of Love's heavy Arts and Craft design.

We need to find a lighting fixture that will make the room feel like it did 60 years ago but not accent the flaws of the horrible textured ceiling or mediocre trim.

Now truthfully, any Arts & Craft, Mission, Craftsman, or even Art Deco style would work for the room.

I'm all for finding something cheaper but quite frankly, your standard Lowes/Home Depot selection is godsawful and every time I go into other people's houses I keep finding the same light fixtures over and over.

Rejuvenation Lighting, while pricey, does have some nice stuff.

We need to find one soon though.

Dining Room: Day 11 - Sanding, cleaning, and priming!

So I spent this afternoon wet sanding the 3rd coat of plaster and doing a general clean-up and scrubbing of the walls.

Everyone's old friend the blue painter's masking tape visited and all of the trim and baseboards got covered. (What sucks is there's previous paint on them because someone didn't clean it up during the last time it was painted!!!)

I noticed that the ceiling under the light fixture didn't look painted properly so I removed the base to prime there and I made an amazing discover.

The ceilings were apparently wallpapered at one time, and then some kind of moisture or water damage had a significant impact on them.

You can see the stain all over the place under the fixture.

Based on evidence in the basement, Giga suspected that they had done some kind of carpet washing in the past and the water had soaked through the carpet, then the pad, and into the hard wood.

Well... that may just be what has destroyed the ceilings and why they put that awful textured paint up there.

The priming went fairly quickly.

I decided that instead of going with a tinted primer and risk having waste I could not use elsewhere that I'd do a good foundation coat of a quality stain-blocker overlay primer. This is usually thicker than some of the cheaper shit I've used in the past and also will hopefully be thick enough to hold the slightest bit of roller texture and make the freshly plastered areas less noticeable than the other parts of the walls.

Even with the primer up the room has now started to come together in my mind as a cohesive whole.

I don't think anyone will be able to really tell there was ever a chair rail up or that the corner where the hutch was is really that much different from the other corners.

After dinner, and back and shoulders willing, I'm going to try and get the ceiling painted and that pointless dull crown molding. It isn't even that really... just a piece of trim around the room. That'll just be the ceiling flat white.

If I had the time, and was 10 years younger, I'd consider ripping it down and replastering perfectly up to the ceiling. The thing is that I just can't do the standing on the ladder for a long time thing. And that would be a shitload of ladder time.

Dining Room: Day 10 - Wet sanding and 3rd coat of plaster.

So today was the first really messy day of work.

I spent the afternoon wet sanding everything I've plastered these past two days.

It really is a thousand times better than electric sanding or standard dry hand sanding.

Last January, when remodeling the small bedroom, I was generating dust left and right and I could barely see.

Now?

The wet sanding drops most of the dust only 14" or so from the wall. Totally acceptable.

Sure. Some does get in the air but on the whole not that much.

After a break and talking to The Cousin for a bit, I started back to cleaning and accidentally knocked over my bucket of filthy water.

There's nothing quite as shocking as watching gallons and gallons of dirty water spread over your hardwood floors. It was like a slow motion nightmare.

It cleaned up though.

Deep down I knew I had to do it.

This was confirmed by both The Cousin and even Giga when he got home.

Yup. I woudn't be happy without another coat of plaster.

So I've done a third coat (above) on areas I feel I want to have in as good a shape as possible.

Tomorrow will be the final sanding, washing of the whole room, and then hopefully a full priming of the ceiling and walls.

Dining Room: Day 9 - Final plaster and the beginning of the messy stuff.

I decided to do a 2nd coat today over the areas that I did yesterday, trying to ensure I can create a surface that will sand smooth.

Well... or as smooth as I can make it.

I put up drop cloths to try and contain the dust since I had to do a brief sanding.

The dust (and dachshund) containment shield, along with using the shop vac while sanding will hopefully keep free floating dust down to a minimum.

I really forgot how much I don't like doing this.

I mean, if I did it all the time I'd have some technique and do it well but man, I'm hoping I can make up for the errors in today's work during the sanding phase tomorrow.

Dining Room: Day 8 - The plastering begins!

And so today I started on the first skim coat of plaster/joint compound to try and smooth out the walls where the hutch resided and also where the chair rail was around the entire circumference of the room.

It has been 11 months since I did any work like this. I completely forgot how messy even the simplest mudding can be! Ack!

I'm rebuilding the two north corners where the plaster behind the chair railing has totally broken and degraded.

I was going to totally rebuild the entire corners from ceiling to floor but I decided against it for now for the sake of momentum and getting the room done by the middle of the week.

I'm taking a stab at trying to repair the holes in the ceiling where the previous owners had plant hangers.

For the life of me, I cannot understand why they did not remove the damn plant hangers before they textured the ceiling.

I mean, I wish they hadn't destroyed the ceilings by texturing them but at least remove the hardware when you are doing work like this!

I'm using spackle and trying to pull it a bit to make peaks to hopefully totally hide the holes. We'll see how the first attempt worked tomorrow.

The thing that I really can't believe the previous owners survived without is an adequate basement utility sink.

I've had to commandeer the crappy 1st floor bathroom sink as my tool wash-up area.

How can you live without a utility sink?!?!?! Arghhhh!!!

Tomorrow: First wet/damp sanding and possibly a 2nd skim coat of plaster. I'd really like to have all prep work done by Saturday evening and have everything primed Sunday morning. I could get the walls started Sunday evening then.

Dining Room: Day 7 - In which final cleaning preparation is done.

So Giga did a great job last night and I wanted to keep the momentum going as best I could without Hallowe'en getting in the way tonight.

I got the rest of the wallpaper border along the north and east walls down and then started scrubbing the remaining ancient wallpaper glue off.

All in all, I've done a pretty decent job. Between the scraper, the Krud Kutter, the soap and water, and the douching Giga did last night I'd say another bit of spot cleaning will do it.

The only area that really needs delicate attention is directly under the stained glass window to the north.

This is where the ancient electric outlet is.

There's obviously been some plaster patching around this area already.

While I really wanted to hold off on moving this down to the bottom of the wall I'm tempted to just do it since I've got so much plastering and sanding to do anyway.

I mean, why make a future dusty mess, in the dining room no less, when I can get it all done now.

I'll think about it some more tonight and look at the wiring later.

Dining Room: Day 6 - Corner clean-up.

My neck and back are still hurty so I slacked off.

Giga however spent a couple of hours cleaning up the remnants of 60+ year old wallpaper glue in the old hutch area.

With the wallpaper and glue off, you can see the age of the plaster and the cracks due to settling and such. There are quite a few more than I expected so obviously the paint on the walls hides quite a lot.

For the most part, the Domicile's plaster walls are a thousand times better than the House of Love III's walls.

The HOL3 walls constantly got new cracks every season.

From the general look of things, the Domicile is a lot sturdier. I'd imagine a lot of it has to do with the poured concrete foundations versus the more flexible (and damp) HOL3 foundation.

Tonight's Hallowe'en so I don't know if I'll do much at all. Perhaps get the last strip of wallpaper under the chair rail down.

Dining Room: Day 5 - Wallpaper and stuff.

My cameras acting up.

I think it may be going the way of all 2-year old technology.

Anyway, no photos to get you all moist.

I managed to get almost all of the wallpaper down with a smattering of wallpaper glue here or there in the hutch area.

I'm not too worried about it.

I'll get the rest down today, and then if Giga can do a good scrubbing/washing to prep the surfaces, I can start the spackling and smoothing of the walls.

I'll be building up a bit of plaster/joint compound and feathering it out onto the greater part of the wall to try and reduce the severity of the depression left by the hutch. It won't be too bad.

Hopefully it'll also make it look like there never was a chair rail there.

I won't be redoing the electric for the old heavy duty or really old non-polarized outlet at this time though. Too much room for error and I'd rather just do it when I can figure out how to get all the wiring upgraded.

Got some more biomass removed the yard too and surprisingly the shoulder/neck isn't too bad this morning.

I'll be happy when I can be normal again.

Well... as normal as I ever can be.

Dining Room: Day 4 - Sample swatches up (and a tree chopped down)!

So I've decided to work through the pain and try to get as much done as I can.

Sure I'm a mess. Have been for 37 years now. But I may as stop being depressed about it and just deal with it.

Anyway, stocked up on supplies today and got the first gallon of that Mayan Treasure color.

It is kind of goldy-squashy but I'm actually pretty happy with it. It'll go well with the dining room stained glass, the color of the floor, as well as the kinds of brushed/bronzed metals I want to put on the walls.

Jay stopped by on his way back out of town and has given the color his seal of approval. Not quite the "Baby Diapers on the Ganges" color of his bedroom but not all of us can be so lucky.

I also chopped down that one tree randomly in front of the evergreens and the other one kind of randomly growing up in the evergreens. I'm no fan of things just there for no reason and I don't get these. I don't know why they were planted or what the intent was. Anyway, it all has to come out along there anyway so I can trench and run the gutter drains from the rear of the house to the front so out it comes!

Certain dachshunds, known to readers of this here fine blog, thought they'd just walk down the block unattended today.

Um. No.

I gots spiders on my lattice too! Two of 'em to be precise.

I tried to surprise you with vodka...

So we picked that "Mayan Treasure" color but Giga's image seemed more yellow so I tried to adjust it a bit but I know this isn't quite it either.

Let's just say the color is so amazingly awesome that no tool created by the mind of humans could remotely reproduce it on a monitor.

Yeah. That's it.

Oh. And I think we'll hang the John Wayne Gacy clown picture in the dining room.

Never let it be said I'm not all about class.

A color is chosen.

Well it took about 20 minutes of back and forth but a color for the dining room has been chosen.

And it is quite different from the direction we were originally heading.

We'll be going with an Olympic paint color called "Mayan Treasure".

It is kind of a brownish-gold with hints of orange-yellow in it.

If that makes any sense.

But it really doesn't.

You'll just have to see what it turns out like.

Well it finally has happened!

Not that you care, but I just made the first mortgage payment on the new house today.

Scary.

So very very scary.

The new neighborhood was obviously the right thing to do and the culmination of a lot of events over the past 5 years but oy koledy! That's one bad crazy check to write.

Now i just need to win that damn Megamillions shit.

Just a couple of millions after taxes.

Let me pay off the house, redo the kitchen and bathroom and finish the basement, buy the Nalamatka and NalaOjciec a new Glass City pad, and I'll be done.

That's all I'm asking for here.

I won't even buy any toys. Well... except if I came across a Lucky Draw Black Fire God Magnus.

Domicle: Unexpected funds

So an unexpected check arrived yesterday for a little under $1000.

It was the reimbursment for the remaining escrow for the House of Love III.

(Obviously, I'd pretty much decided to call the new place "The Domicile". I though I'd just use "dom", the Polish word for house, but that requires too much knowledge to connect it to a house.)

Anyway, with this surprise money I basically have decided that I'll get a new decent queen size bed in the next few days.

The neck and back problems I have are compounded by an awful 30+ year old hand me down mattress and box springs (sorry Jay).

Last night we headed to The Original Mattress Factory and based on their pricing for sets (mattress and box springs) I'm likely to shop there.

Many friends have got their beds there and while I've shopped all around the past few weeks, I feel fine with a bed from there with the cash I gots ta spend!

So I'm moving on up to a queen size bed for now.

Once the bedroom is redone and the electric is rerun (or just moved) I'll consider going to King in there and replacing the old full (which will replace the twin in the guest room when the queen arrives).

I'm looking forward to a decent mattress.

SpectroScott's guest room mattress, along with the NalaMatka and NalaOjciec's guest room bed, are two of the most insane beds I've ever slept in!

And I deserve a decent bed at my age.

Domicile: Possible colors for the dining room.

So momentum hasn't built up yet on the dining room, especially with my recent neck/nerve problems.

But rest assured that we have spent countless hours looking at kitchen options that we won't be able to afford for at least 2 years!

Man... have I told you how much I hate my kitchen?

Really! It sucks the balls!

Anyway...

So if you've been reading (and probably not been able to comment since for some reason some people, including myself, can't) you know we got the hutch out as well as the chair rail.

Before:

The wallpaper still needs to come down and the walls need to be spackled, some plaster repaired, and so forth.

Hopefully, with Giga's assistance, that can happen this week. If he can get the wallpaper down and I get a few days of neck rest I'll hopefully be good to go on the rest maybe Thursday or Friday.

Possibly After:

So we've been going through colors and such and I found this one called Carnelian which is sort of an orange-red that totally caught my eye and is still my fave.

Marcie was over the other night and she too picked the carnelian. I don't think we had the swatches when the Geek Family were over picking up the hutch so we didn't get their input.

Anyway, Giga ran a pic through some site and got a sample of the carnelian in it with a new chandelier.

I'm all into this.

Sure the color will vary in reality but man, I think with a nice chandelier, and plenty of candles and wall sconces we can get a really nice warm dining room.

Hell... I think I want a dining room sexy enough that you want to just knock off all of the items on the table and go to town!

Actually, I think I'd settle for just a really nice dining room that feels like it is ours and not theirs.

Dining Room: Day 3 - Say goodbye to the hutch!

Mister and Missus JackOfAllGeeks are now the proud owners of the hutch that was removed from the dining room.

We ended up having to take it in the pick-up since it was bigger than their new Jeep.

Dining Room: Day 2 - Just call him Hutchy McHutchison

The hutch removed (above). You can see how they just fit it over what existed.

Except the baseboards which they totally cut out.

The 60-year old wallpaper is amazingly intricate.

But look at that wallpaper under the chair rail!!!

This room has seen an amazing amount of styles in the past 6 decades.

However, the Supervising Stank Meow approves of the refacing.

He made sure Giga didn't hurt himself or get too dirty.

However, if he did, his clothing could be washed in the awesome new high-efficiency washer!!!

Dining Room: Day 2 - Dehutchified?!?!

Woah! Talk about unexpected.

I came down early this morning to head off to the gym and there before me stood a fully removed hutch!

Giga managed to get the whole thing out last night with minimal destruction!

Alas, I can't post the pictures of the amazing wall paper that was behind it until later this afternoon.

So... obviously that thing was not original to the house but it has been up for many decades and was probably not installed by the previous owners.

The 60-year old wallpaper is amazing! I'm fairly certain it is original to the room since there's only plaster beneath it.

What's even more amazing is that the room looks just a bit bigger now when viewed from the kitchen.

Unfortunately, the person who installed it cut out the baseboards to do so.

Giga discovered that some of the trim is not original and while an attempt to match it was fairly successful, upon closer inspection you can see that it isn't all what it is cracked up to be. Not that it can compare even remotely to the House of Love III's trim and baseboards.

Dining Room: Day 2 - Will it come out in one piece?

So following Giga's lead I removed a few more screws from the corner hutch thingie and after really looking at it I'm kinda thinking this isn't coming out in one piece.

There are some obvious nail action going on inside but it is hard to tell if it is just nailing it all together or actually going into the wall or studs behind it.

I think I'll wait until G gets home to discuss this further.

I've got some other work I need to do anyway.

Dining Room: Day 1

Work has finally started on getting the dining room redone.

Giga and I moved out the bulk of the furniture and he started working on the removal of the hutch/curio/hideous monstrosity taking up the corner of my dining room.

Hopefully it will come out without damage.

What's sad is that whoever installed it cut the baseboards out to do it.

That's not going to be an easy fix and I don't plan on doing it during this phase of the house work.

The chair railing is going to be removed and for this initial "remodel" the room will be a currently undecided single color.

Perhaps the chair rail will return in the future. Not sure yet.

I'm not a big fan of them.

There's a 20amp/220volt outlet under the window that needs to be removed and rewired for 15amp/120 service.

We definitely need an additional outlet in this room so I figure, depending on how hard it is, I'll try and tackle this myself. I haven't followed the wires yet though.

Hopefully, we can find a new chandelier in a few weeks.

We never did find a better one for the old house but I think that without the much-missed ceiling cross beams we can try other styles we may have not gone with before.

So basically, the next few days will include:

1. Removal of the hutch.
2. Removal of the chair rail around the room.
3. Repair of the holes in the ceiling and general plaster wall repairs.
4. Priming the room + the closet.
5. Painting the room ceiling + the closet ceiling.
6. Painting the room + the closet (likely the same color but who knows).
7. Installing new outlets and a new modern style dimmer.
8. Rewiring the heavy duty outlet to a conventional one.
9. If possible, installing a new chandelier/light fixture.
10. Finally set up the dining room!

This time, I'm going to do any associated closets when I do a room.

I didn't do this during the past couple of years at the old house and when I moved out it really angered me that I didn't take the time to do them.

So... refreshing the closets will happen everywhere here.

The discovery of a new law of nature.

I discovered a new law of nature today.

There has been much talk in the scientific community about this for decades but there hasn't been much progress made in the past few years.

In case you need to know, it takes exactly 13 days for the combined hair of 2 cats to accumulate and become noticeable in this house.

You can take that to the bank!

Domicile: The true insanity begins again...

So I talked to Giga today and he agreed to live in squalor for a few more weeks.

I've decided I want to focus on getting started on the repairs and repainting of the dining room and living room immediately instead of later.

I'd be a liar if I said the move to the new house hasn't depressed the shit out of me.

The new house has done nothing but make me more depressed as the weeks have gone on and I have to start working on it to make it mine.

I think that's part of the problem.

Sure it has my shit in it but it is still someone else's house even though my name is on the deed!

So tonight we are going to start moving the contents of the dining room out of there and tomorrow after work I will begin the process of redoing that room.

The goal is to have it done in 2 weeks or so and them immediately get on the living room so that those 2 rooms will be completely done prior to Thanksgiving and what I hope will be a 2nd Annual Pierogi Making Day sometime in early December.

With any luck we'll find a new chandelier too and some affordable but new decor for the living room that goes with the new house.

On top of all this, I have to get back into the routine of 5am Gym, then work, then 3-4 hours on the house, then sleep cycle again.

In the end, that is the healthiest thing for me regardless of how monotonous it can get.

I manage to get massive momentum going on the house work and also stay healthy.

I haven't gotten on the scale since early September but I'm fairly certain I've put on about 20lbs since then.

That has to stop.

And hopefully with that, so goes the depression and my negative feelings for towards the house.

And if anybody wants to gift me $18,000 to get the kitchen redone by my 38th birthday please let me know.

I so want to be rid of The Worst Kitchen in Clintonville™!

House: A busy but satisfying Saturday.

My back was killing me and my neck and shoulders are a total mess these days but I managed to get quite a bit done outside yesterday.

Yup! I'm still unpacked but stuff's gotta happen with autumn now officially here!

Guttermania

It blows my mind that the previous owners, having a yard situated between 3 large massive trees, with three smaller magnolias, didn't put gutter screens/tops on any of the north side gutters.

There is so much leaf debris that comes down that I can't imagine not doing this years ago. The 2 walnut trees alone are some of the messiest things I've ever seen. And loud too! They drop down onto the roofs and you think someone shot a gun.

They fall down green and quickly rot into decaying black mess. What sucks is they stain the concrete too. We have to park the cars back a bit down the drive to avoid getting walnut dents.

It sucks.

Anyway, I got up on the ladder and got my hands dirty and cleaned out the gutters.

The one on the garage was awful. It was completely filled and clogged. I got it all cleaned and put on the gutter screens as best I could (the whole gutter needs to be replaced) but it should last until I have more time to redo it. The other side of the garage needs a whole gutter and drain system installed. That has to happen soon but I've got trees to cut back before that happens.

The lowest rear house gutter was pretty bad too. Got that cleaned and screened.

The higher gutter wasn't too bad so I took out what leave were there but I'll watch it and see how it does before spending the money on screens.

The Yard

Autumn has officially arrived and the temperatures have dropped to the 40s. We are due for the first real freeze soon.

The hosta garden (pic above) started to yellow and I decided to cut down as much of the foliage as possible.

It cleaned up well and I probably picked up 80 or so walnuts. I need to cut down that tree in the center (above) sometime today. It is more of a weed/tree that should never have been allowed to grow. It serves zero purpose.

I'm going to leave that compost pile until springtime but it will have to come out when I repair and repaint the garage in 2008.

I'd like to heave a compost area but I don't know if I want it against the garage like that. At least the debris is not directly against the wall.

I took out most of the herb garden. I'm going to save the bay leaves and try them for use this winter.

The rear magnolias are of the variety that doesn't drop the leaves early. At the House of Love III, I'd have likely done a real solid raking already. Not here.

These will probably drop by the 2nd week of November.

Other

I've got to replace the half-broken exterior light with a motion-sensor one. Maybe today. Once I found out the neighbors use the rear bedroom as their bedroom I think only have the lights come on as needed has got to make it darker for them at night.

Plus, it'll save electricity.

Giga got the shelf removed from above the stove the other day.

I won't even go into how bad the electical outlet was installed in that wall. They broke the lath and just shoved it through the plaster. They didn't even attach it to a stud!!!

House: I have broadband again!!!

The internets are alive and well again at the new house along with a new N-level wireless router.

Here's hoping the old Powerbook G3 works with this new stuff.

My Inspiron's built-in card seems fine with it.

House: The new 'hood!

I've said all along that the new House of Love IV is a major major major upgrade neighborhood-wise from the House of Love III.

And after a few days and nights there so far the contrast between Clintonville Proper and what I used to refer to as Clintonville Lite is immediately noticeable!

The Walking of The Hoont

When we left Victorian Village in May 2003 taking The Hoont walkies pretty much stopped.

The House of Love III was surrounded by a neighborhood where people regularly threw bottles and shattered glass everywhere and while larger dogs may not have a problem with it, small short-haired black and tan hounds couldn't handle it.

I think we went for walks about twice in the entire 4 and a half years we lived there.

The new hood?

It is like dog walkies heaven!!!

It is very much a dog neighborhood and I'd hazard to guess 85% or more of my new neighbors have dogs from small terriers up to great dane sizes.

And they take these dogs for walks regularly!

In the morning. In the evening. Whenever! There are dogs and people about Clintonville! It is pretty amazing!

What's even more shockings is how conversational the people are!

Clintonville Neighbors

My new neighborhood is a sharp contrast to the old.

In Clintonville Lite OSU campus area, if you are older than 30 your are pretty much invisible. For the most part, we didn't really exist to any of our younger renting neighbors. We only existed to those who also owned homes around us.

I didn't really think of it like this until last Friday when I met a 30-something married couple taking their baby for a stroll past they House of Love III. They were amazed that it sold so quickly and for so much money.

This couple was, like me, hoping the neighborhood was turn and moved in a few years ago in the hopes that things would continue to improve.

Like me, they were also sad that things had gone downhill quicker than they expected.

Anyway, they mentioned that they regularly talked to the renting college 20-somethings but once their child arrived they completely became invisible to them! It was like they transformed into totally different people merely by the fact they now had a child!

The guy even said that he was walking his dog with the baby in one of those chest-slings and some college kids basically called him a queer fag or something as he walked by them?

Huh?!?!

Only college retards could possibly mix and match slurs to call a father walking with his baby daughter a queer fag!

Oh... I so love the retarded 20-something set!

But I digress.

Over the past few days...

(1) I've had one neighbor down the street stop by bringing lemon-poppyseed muffins as well as a Nivea gift bag (possibly for my non-existent wife). Inside the bag was a welcome card from their family.

(2) The neighbor from directly across the street walked over to say hello and welcome us to the block. He is obviously good friends with the previous owners.

(3) The married couple across the street (in one of the Tudor-style architectural historical houses) came over to welcome us. They were coming back from their run and saw us in the garage with the appliances.

(4) We've been invited next door this Saturday to a cookout/OSU football tailgate party.

Now we've only barely moved in and 4 different times people have made an effort to say hello and be neighborly.

This is like... not right. We are truly in a parallel universe from where we were less than a week ago!

And I can't say I dislike it.

Silence

While there may be a lot of dogs around, and cars do occasionally come flying down the street (speed bumps would be a nice deterrent) the neighborhood is extremely quiet.

Almost unnervingly quiet.

I still sleep with some white noise on but on the whole, I think I can wean myself off of it.

What's scary is I think I have psychological scars from living in the campus area.

I'm actually thinking I am hearing things when they possibly cannot be there!

I now expect that when I'm on Percocet or Vicodan but there's no way I can possibly be hearing distant rock music and bass at 2am! No possible way at all!!!

Even the marching band practice from nearby Bishop Watterson High School doesn't bother me.

New House: Updates elsewhere.

No time.

You can read the recent stuff over at Giga's site.

new w/d, and stove stuff

parallel universes

New House: Day 5

Now the fun begins of discovering all the real stuff that is wrong with the house.

I spent yesterday trying to put some order to chaos in the basement and get it ready to bring the new washer and dryer down.

Well... the plumbing is totally shot there.

The hoses, which are now bonded to the plumbing by rust, will not be coming off anytime soon. I'm going to have to have a plumber remove the four faucets and install new clean working ones (2 for the washer and 2 for a future utility sink that I cannot live without).

Let's see... oh... I installed a new shower head/hosed thinging combo as well.

The tub doesn't drain well. I've tried some chemical clog remover but that really didn't make much of a difference.

I'm wondering if it will be worth it just spending the money to have the whole house snaked to the sewer.

I mean, I have zero history on this house at all and from the general upkeep, I don't think the people who lived here for 20 years really did much of anything. So many things are so shoddily done.

The final countdown. T-Minus 4 hours...

In less then 4 hours the House of Love III will no longer be mine.

In less than 6 hours the House of Love IV will be mine and I'll take possession.

Funny how things work like that. And... all in less than a month!

This'll probably be the last post on any blog for day or so. The broadband will get shut off and transfered later today but there's entirely too much to do in the next 48 hours to both with trying to get the wireless router and all operational.

Plus, I'll be losing the use of my desktop PC, until I get the new N-Router and make this PC wireless for the new house. All the real work gets done on the desktop while all the low quality aimless blogging occurs on my laptop while I'm laying in bed or some shit.

Anyway, the house is a disaster.

Total chaos in pretty much every room with no room totally empty.

I don't know if I have to thank Set, Boreas, Rudra, or even that asshole Thor but the damn rain has finally stopped. It seems to have rained sometime last night too!

The truck barely looks packed even. As soon as I'm done with this post it'll be back to work until closing time.

It is finally hitting me that I am leaving the house that I've sank so much of my effort into.

It isn't a bad feeling since I know that the new neighborhood will hopefully eliminate all of my problems (vandalism, noise, trash, OSU game day, noise, retarded 20-somethings, roving bands of aimless vermin teens, trash, noise, etc.) but there is something very melancholy about it all.

No matter how much things change, this will have been my first house. And I'll never forget it.

I'll never forget the year of work on the basement, the dinners, the Labor Day cookouts, and pierogi day here. And hopefully 3 out of 4 of those will continue at the HOL4.

But you know what I think I'll miss most of all?

Something that greets me everytime I go and let the Hoont outside.

Yup! The tree limb that looks like a huge flaccid dong hanging high above my yard!

I think it is a cosmic marker that a total dick lives below!

Or maybe I'm just reading into that.

2 days to go...

So very much to do. So very very much.

We got possession of the new garage so we can take some stuff over and get it all in securely in there. Depending on Giga's washer/dryer quest we may be picking up a new set tonight and then can drop them off right at the new house.

I've started staging the tools in the basement. I've decided that since they are already in tubs and bins, I'd rather just bring them directly up into the car or truck and not rebin them. I'm setting them up on a table so we can move the shelves over first and then, once the small bins move, they can go right back on the shelves.

I got some glassware/kitchen stuff bagged and boxed too.

The final numbers are due in tomorrow morning so I'll find out how miserable life will be financially for a few years.

And life turns... turns along the golden path...

As Galaxy 500's Today plays... Nala packs...

When I started binning up all the robot crackage I kind of just threw everything into the closets and then Giga made those cheap sheets curtains to hide it all.

Thankfully the toys are all packed. That'd be drama I wouldn't want to add to everything else.

Giga's done an immense job packing up the kitchen and all the glass shit. We have boxes upon boxes of it stacked in the dining room.

Thankfully most of the basement, with the exception of the tools, is packed up more or less.

I'm just going to flip my cheap ass crate wall that I use in the attic and move those as-is too.

The more I pack, the more I realize I'm going to miss this house.

I'm pretty sure The Hoont knows somethings afoot other than his bad-ass self. There's so much shit everywhere packed up in this or that corner.

The attic is really muggy and hot today.

So I've decided to test out WordPress over at Adventures in The Fourth House of Love, a possible place where I'll post all the pictures of me renovating and redoing yet another house.

Less than 6 dull days to go...

So it hit me at work today (yes I worked on a Sunday) that a week from now I'll be in at the new house.

The NalaMatka and the NalaOjciec will be down for an overnight visit next week too which is a first.

I'll be sending out an email of desperation shortly to see who can lend a hand for a few hours Friday night and Saturday morning to help move.

The goal is to have a 24' rental truck here by Thursday afternoon. Giga and I will then start to load up the major furniture and probably miscellaneous boxes. That way, since I'm to take immediate possession upon closing at 2, we can drive and start trying to get some large stuff over.

Then (and this is where the lucky volunteers come in) we'll bring the truck back to the House of Love III and continue loading it up with as much large stuff as possible. There will be the beds, the freezer in the basement, and miscellaneous other stuff.

Hell... with any luck, we might be able to get all of the large stuff completely over and return the truck early on Saturday, leaving us with the smaller stuff to move by pick-up, Deluxury (new word) New Beetle, and the vehicles of whoever volunteers.

Hopefully my back and shoulder will hold out.

I'm already in pain and the stress of the past 20 days hasn't helped much.

I can't recall a month this insane in my life.

House of Love IV inspection today!

So the inspection is over with.

This one was so much better than the last house and after spending 3.5 hours there I know it is the right choice.

The house and landscaping is a blank slate to work with and I just love that.

So we're going to ask to have the following fixed:

1. Have the termites and carpenter ants taken care of in the garage and shed.
2. Fix the gas leak above the hot water tank.
3. Fix the hot water tank venting into the chimney. Something is no working right there.
4, Fix the leaking laundry faucets. (Haven't fully confirmed this one yet!)

I think that's about it.

Yes. There's a shit load of other stuff but I'd have to say those are the major things.

There rest will come in time after we move in and plan our own remedy attack and the remodels of the 1st floor bathroom, 2nd floor bathroom, and the kitchen. Not to mention the creation of a full finished room in the basement.

Anyway, here's a quick down and dirty gallery of the pics from today.

Stuff!

Well yesterday the damper was installed in the fireplace, completing the remedies the buyers of the House of Love III agreed to.

The chimney guys also moved the cap from the main fireplace (replaced by the flue damper) to the small no longer used chimney at the back of the house for free. The other chimney was for venting cooking heat a century ago.

The appraiser was also by and he's the only thing that could currently throw a wrench into the sale of the house, and hence into the purchase of the new house, and basically make a month's worth of stress and expenditure for nothing.

At 3pm today the inspection is happening at the House of Love IV. I'll have photos later tonight and then you can all rip it to shreds.

In contract on the House of Love IV!!!

So it was a rough day again but I'm in contract on the House of Love IV!!!

And yes, it is definitely a House of Love as opposed to the other one.

There was definitely a reason why I couldn't give it that name, or any other, and when it comes down to it everything about the house was just wrong and would have cost so much money to have fixed yet never have been worth it.

Now I did have to up my offer even more. But I'm just not in a position right now to lose out on this one.

Sure something may come up in the inspection but quite frankly, this one feels good.

It feels solid.

It makes me happy inside.

And even though it will take a few years and some decent scratch to redo the bathrooms and the kitchen, I know that every day when I walk out onto my deck, and down onto my brick patio under the 3 magnolias, and out to my car parked in my garage, and down my street of nicely maintained homes, every dollar spent now will have been worth it.

And believe me, I'm not kidding myself that this is worth it. I'm going to totally feel it in the pocket book for a good 2-3 years at least.

But there really isn't anything that can give one piece of mind like this anymore.

It was so long in coming.

Here's hoping that all goes well with the final aspects of the sale of the House of Love III tomorrow and the purchase and acquisition of the House of Love IV over the next 2 weeks!

House of Love IV?

So the original house has issues. Major issues.

Of course, if you've ever owned a house or went out looking you know that initial appearances can be quite off.

Suffice to say that the inspection is the best money you can spend to help you make your decision about a property.

The house would need major money put into it to bring it to even remotely the price that they were asking, and then it probably still would not be satisfactory.

Now this morning I put an offer in on another place (pic above) that totally meets our needs and has a solid garage and from all appearances a solid new roof.

It is sans 1 bedroom but the other 3 are also larger.

I've had to make the same offer on this one that I did on the other since that's pretty much my maximum.

I'm so hoping they accept.

Tomorrow's the appraisal at the House of Love and we have to find a place that meets our needs.

I definitely think the new one will. And then some!

I am so running out of time!

Some pics and more updates.

This entry is all about some pics.

I made the Flickr gallery private since really it isn't my stuff.

Continue with this post but I warn you it'll be graphics heavy.

Continue reading "Some pics and more updates." »

The House of Love Wedding.

So.

It was a nice evening actually.

There was me, Giga, the buyer, her Hungarian fiance, a minister/something guy, and our two realtors.

I was the photographer, but I didn't use my camera so I don't have any people photos to show you.

Plus, it wouldn't really have been appropriate.

There was champagne, and I even pulled out my grandmother's wedding crystal for the bride and groom to use.

I learned a bit about the buyers.

She's a teacher that recently got a permanent position at the University. They met in Hungary. This is her first house. They looked at houses all summer and found nothing they liked until they opened the front door of the House of Love and immediately fell in love with it.

They love the stairwell. They loving the dining room. They love the living room. They love the kitchen. They love the way the bedrooms come together at the center of the stairs. They love the Attic of Love. They especially love the Hoont.

I didn't bother to ask if they liked the *cough* lovely *cough* bathroom.

The irony of it all is that it somewhat mirrors my own experience in finding the house after looking at 49 places in 2003 and then only going on the last run with my realtor to tell her I was totally over looking at houses. They had been looking for months and this was pretty much the last one before they were going to throw in the towel.

But all in all, it was nice, and it was special for them in a city where they don't really know anyone at all and are buying their first house together.

Continue reading "The House of Love Wedding." »

Things and stuff

So the remedy stuff was faxed to the buyers yesterday evening.

As of this morning I haven't heard back or not and today's the day they want to get married in the house.

The inspection of the new house is tentatively set for 1pm tomorrow. Expect all kinds of photos and thoughts on the place.

I'm still in that strange head space about it.

I so wish I could move my house to this neighborhood.

I know a lot of you don't care of the House of Love III but I stand in my living room and look at the huge open space, the huge dining room, the long kitchen, and my wide stairwell and I realize I'll probably never find a place like this again.

The new house is ok but it doesn't have the full charm and appeal that the House of Love has to me.

I don't think many places could.

I didn't call it the House of Love for nothing now did I?

This just in...

I just got a call from my realtor with what may be the most bizarre request I could have ever imagined coming.

No where in my mind could I have ever thought this would come up from the buyers.

Ever.

Continue reading "I didn't call it the House of Love for nothing now did I?" »

House of Love III fix'n and stuff.

House of Love III

Things are moving fast on the House of Love III sale.

Giga chose wisely with the plumber and the repair of the basement pipe that had a small leak was both quoted and repaired in less than 2 hours! That's one item to completely check off the list!

I had an electrician quote all the work, including the items that would result in the cutting and/or downright destruction of the kitchen counter. I thought the price was ok (it was less than I expected) but my realtor though it was high.

The buyer's electrician was also supposed to give a quote at 1pm. I'd rather just float them cash to have the work done by their guy but definitely no more than what I was quoted.

The chimney guy will be out tomorrow. This will likely be the costliest thing from my end.

Sietch Clintonville

So I called to rework the loan and apparently, according the the loan dude, I am officially "in contract" on the new sietch. Though that may just be a clerical thing.

Anyway, I've decided to put more of my savings into the downpayment to rid us of that PMI bullshit right out the door. I'm sure PMI did such a good job with all.

The seller did not counter offer so it is now onto the House Inspection and Giga's handling that. We need to get that done ASAP because it is conceivable that we could close very quickly and take occupancy!

There's a new sietch on the horizon...

For the second time tonight I was startled out of bed by the phone ringing.

Obviously, in the realms of real estate transactions nothing is set in stone until the loans are closed, the names are signed, and the deeds and titles are fully passed over, but the final call was that the owner finally returned to town and had agreed to my offer.

My realtor suspects there will be a counter-offer of some kind, and tomorrow the appropriate paperwork will have to be signed and the earnest money paid. Of course, it always involves the money in some shape, way, or form.

Ok.

I'm going to go try and sleep now.

Maybe... just maybe... I can finally get a good night's sleep.

And maybe my zits can clear up.

My favorite part?

You know what my favorite part of this house drama bullshit is?

The stress that has caused my A-list model looks to break out in zits!

Zits!

Like I'm 13 again!

Grrrr!

(I hope this isn't a revisit of those f'n shingles from February!)

Happy Birthday Sanjaya!

So my realtor has a chimney guy coming out. It'll probably be around $500 to do the chimney.

Giga's got the plumber coming out.

I've got an electrician coming out, but the buyer's realtor says they want more electric work done after they move in. With a few of the issues, it makes sense they should just have their own guy do it afterwards and maybe I'll just throw a few bucks at it.

Sorta-maybe-kinda good news on my new house front.

My realtor talked to the other and I've upped my offer substantially to $4K less than asking. I'm going to throw part of my savings into the house too to bring the mortgage down to where it will be more manageable. I didn't want to, but this house will not only be my home but will truly be an investment in terms of the neighborhood it is in. I have to look at dropping into the savings as a positive thing here.

Most unfun.

Well today was a real bummer.

We even looked at a place in Worthington.

There was only 1 house that had potential but it was 1 bedroom too small and Giga hated the kitchen. The price was very nice though, but honestly, it was worth the full price if you ask me.

So.

I can't exactly say things are looking good for a new house right now.

There is absolutely nothing left in Clintonville to look at.

Eight more to go...

So in an hour I'm off to see 8 more houses.

I know we've seen one on Tulane at an open house a few weeks back. An ok house with a phenomenal 2 story garage but not in the neighborhood I want to live in.

No matter what else I see, Blenheim keeps calling me. The neighborhood is just the dream neighborhood, and nothing south of North Broadway can compare to it.

It has been pouring rain today and I hope that keeps people away from the open house at Blenheim.

I'm ready to up my offer a bit.

I want it that bad.

This just in...

So.

While I haven't officially seen the list of things for remedy, my realtor did mention them to Giga, and one of them I didn't even know about.

1. Move the garbage disposal switch under the sink. (Was always something I thought of doing.)
2. Have a damper added to the chimney and certify it for woodburning. (I just always burned logs there without the damper/flue.)
3. Repair the leaky tub faucets. (Was always planned for the remodel of the bathroom.)
4. There's apparently a leak on the somewhere after the water meter that I didn't know about.
5. Change the 30amp breaker for the stove to a 40amp breaker.

Obviously, none of these hampered my enjoyment of the house nor have we ever tripped circuits.

So. Tomorrow I'll begin looking for a plumber and a chimney guy. The simple electrical stuff I should be able to do myself.

The inspection of the House of Love III is over.

We sorta-kinda walked in on the realtor and the potential buyers just now. I wasn't sure if they were still in the house and there was an SUV blocking our gate. It being OSU game day means parking is practically non-existent on the street.

Anyway... Giga and I left at 10am so the house could have the full building inspection. I left The Hoont here are well and apparently he behaved himself.

Now to see what they want me to remedy and if I'll even consider it.

We're going out to look at more houses at 4pm.

Some friends of Giga's who are currently selling a house are dealing with a "remedy the basement with $35,000 worth of work" situation. Um... Not for a $189K house near the Giant Eagle.

There's "remedy", and there's "REMEDY"!

Anyway, I forgot how much I hate the whole affair of buying a house. I think I now loathe the affair of selling a house just as much.

Well...

The owner of Blenheim is on vacation until next week and it sounds unlikely that she'll accept my offer.

And there's not much else out there worth looking at.

Certainly nothing I can think of looking at again.

The offer is out there.

And 12:50pm my offer for Blenheim was faxed to the other realtor.

I upped my offer by $5K and agreed to $1K earnest money down if they accept.

I said we didn't want anything in the house. I think the black (ugh) refrigerator is included but I could be mistaken.

So.

Now onto finding an approved mortgage.

Once more unto the breach dear friends...

More houses looked at.

More houses looked at with bad basements and in need of $80,000 of work.

But over dinner, we decided that one of them is worth it even with the work we'll have to do on it.

So maybe... just maybe... this will be the new House of Love IV in 5-6 weeks.

Four bedrooms, a 2 car garage, and a shitload of purple and lavender carpet to remove before we move in!

That is if all goes well.

I'm kind of making an initial low offer based on what I'm making off of the House of Love III sale but I'm inclined to make a slightly higher offer if need be.

This house is in the ideal neighborhood for me, and is a brisk walk to High Street, the Whetstone Park of Roses, and a library where we can have crappy VHS copies of Doctor Who episodes sent to.

There houses are maintained. There are no abandoned cars in yards and the lawns are cut.

I think it'll work out in the long run.

The best part is that every dollar put in this house will eventually come out of this house.

The HOL III is at its max.

So...

Once more unto the breach dear geeks...

I can see in the dark.

So another night of non-sleep... or should I say a very poor 2 1/2 hours of sleep.

I'm running on about 5 hours or so since Monday.

I got up around midnight and walked the house for a long time.

Finally, around 3am I just said screw it and came in to work so I could try to get some solid undisturbed time in on my audit project data analysis.

This house thing is making me a total wreck.

I don't like feeling like I'm not in control of the situation.

I swore to myself I would make sure the next house had the right amount of time invested in it.

It doesn't help that Clintonville has nothing totally right to offer and there are no other neighborhoods I really would feel comfortable living in.

More houses... few real stand outs.

After looking at more houses this evening all I can say is that absolutely none of them are perfect.

Either they are on nice lots or they are awkward properties.

One of them stuck out for me, but it has issues and of course would need work. However, it is on a huge chunk of land but far more north than I wanted to go.

I can't stand up in the basement. Yeah. That's a problem.

From a certain perspective that kills the usable space there and also brings into question a decent laundry area.

It is really only a 2 bedroom house too since some previous owner tore down a wall to make a huge master bedroom.

It is also set towards the back of a huge parcel of land which is what first blew me away.

It has a "plantation vibe" to it and I immediately thought of The Plantation of Love as a possible name.

I think the lot itself is the more impressive thing. With the right funds, I can totally see tearing down the garage to put a new one up that also has a livable second floor. It is also the area you'd add on to the house if you wanted to.

Tomorrow will pretty much wrap up the options available in the area I want to live.

Then I have to make the decision if it will indeed be possible to meet the buyer's stipulation or not and just walk away from the offer.

I hate to, but I knew their request to move in by the end of the month would not be ideal for me.

And thus it really really begins!

Well I accepted the potential buyer's offer, with the counter-offer that I have to have 7 days to find a new house and that they can take possession at 8pm the day after closing.

It appears they've signed the counter offer.

So.

Their building inspection needs to be scheduled, and then all the oh-so-fun-and-exciting remediation phase, and then the closing. All of that going on while the true bad craziness of finding the House of Love IV begins!

I looked at 5 houses today with another 5 tomorrow afternoon.

So far, out of the 10 I've looked at since last week, only the 1 today really had the potential to be a great home.

It needs work, and some "undoing" of a very 80s kitchen and a horrible built-in table, the removal of awful carpeting in every room and the return to hardwood floors, as well repainting of every room and new electric.

The garage is iffy but will last for a few more years.

The thing is, it is on the perfect street in the perfect neighborhood.

I am also fairly certain that every dollar put into the place will make it all the more valuable should I choose to sell it.

It really has massive potential.

Now it doesn't have the real charm that made me immediately fall in love with the current, and soon to not be House of Love III.

The moment I walked in the door here in 2003 I fell in love with it.

This house doesn't quite have that but I can see, after a year or two of work, and some substantial kitchen work, a home that I will love to have people over at and a place that really will make me feel happy to be a homeowner again.

That just can't happen here in the campus ghetto.

I'll see what tomorrow brings but I'm going to keep thinking about this place.

Should I still call it a CountUp?

Well.

They made an offer.

And for the most part, I couldn't refuse.

The only issue is that they want to move in by the end of the month which means I need to find a place, get a new mortgage, and close all within the same time frame!

They want the refrigerator, the Craigslist washer & dryer, and the window treaments, of which most of the high quality blinds were with the house when I bought it, the others are the cheapest Lowe's blinds, or curtains Giga made from cheap sheets.

I'm having my realtor write back that I accept with the conditions of finding the House of Love IV within a few days.

I didn't think it would be this crazy! I really didn't!

CountUp: Day 10

We tried to get the house de-partied last night and spent a good chunk of the morning today cleaning and trying to put the "photograph" look to the house with out any shit in site.

The call said that they wanted to see the house from 1 to 2 so that meant taking the Hoont out to a park and becoming scarce.

Well, we returned around 2 and they were still in the house.

They literally were in the house until 3pm, leaving just a bit after!!!

Now I know you aren't supposed to talk to the other realtor or anything like that but I was patiently waiting a few houses down and the realtor came over to ask my neighbors about the 'hood and all. Of course, I was trying to play it low key but inevitably it came out that indeed the house was mine.

She said that the couple wanted her to make an offer!

They are the first people to come through and it looks like I may be getting a call soon!!!

I'm kinda scared!

The 4th Annual Nala and Giga Labor Day Cookout

Yesterday was just too busy because of the cookout and all.

We had a ton of people come through and there was so much food we didn't even open of few of the things!

The yard and deck work so well for entertaining and the weather was just perfect! Not too hot. A bit of a breeze. Zero rain!

Hensley found a filthy dirty ball he'd hidden somewhere and conned a ton of people into throwing the ball for him for 9 or so hours all day long!

It was a great time.

But... while I was grilling I got a phone call that a realtor wanted to show the house on Monday.

So... my first potential buyer!

CountUp: Day 8 - Cookout prep time!

Today has been about getting the back yard set up for the 4th Annual Giga and Nala Cookout/Potluck tomorrow, as well as getting all the meats marinated, including the big portabella mushrooms.

I started out the day mowing the lawn.

Would you believe autumn as hit the Cowlands already?

The damn tree in the back yard is shedding leaves and will probably have dropped them all by middle of next week.

Insanity!

Of course, I raked up what I could and bagged it all.

I also got the 1 canopy set up but decided against the other one since it was so shitty. Hell, there was definitely a reason it was on clearance at K-Mart! It went right into the trash!

I also got all of my cooking prep for tomorrow done.

The steaks and chicken were all poked with this new multi-bladed tenderizer I bought and they're all marinating in olive oil, white white, garlic, pomegranate juice, and miscellaneous herbs.

I've also got 6 portabella mushroom heads marinating in a variation of this marinade that also includes onions and dill.

I kind of make up my marinades on the fly. Hopefully they'll all come together.

I made a roasted red pepper, artichoke, and cactus topping to put on the mushrooms once they are grilled.

The mizeria (Polish cucumber/sour cream/dill salad) is made.

The kapusta (Polish sween & saur kraut) is made and is cooking down on the stove as I type.

I'm pretty much done until having to grill tomorrow.

The kitchen is Giga's now for his stuff!

Oh. And the kielbasa is thawing too!

Yay!

No dachshunds allowed in the kitchen when I'm prepping!

CountUp: Day 7

Nada on the house.

However, it being the end of August in Cowtown means the alcoholic late teen/twenty-somethings with no real existence move out of their apartments and find other apartments to destroy.

The drunks next door put all of this f'n shit in my goddamn driveway entrance!!! Not even near the trash cans!!!

There was no way I could even get in to park the car!

Damn drunken retards!!!

I so love my campus ghetto. Really. I do.

CountUp: Day 6

Well, with the holiday and all I don't expect much until next week.

I'm hoping at least somebody out in the Cowlands wants to see the House of Love III and wants to make it their own personal House of Love.

Anyway, today at 4 I'll be going out with my realtor looking for what I hope is the future House of Love IV.

She had some she thought I'd like and I have a few I added to the list.

Not sure how many we'll hit today.

Tomorrow will be about finishing the planning for this Sunday's cookout. Weather.com says it'll be high 80s and partly cloudy for Sunday which is fine by me.

Tomorrow will also be shopping day for everything and making sure we have all the incidental crap for outside.

Since Saturday is the first f'n Game Day (which I hate and dread) I'll basically be stuck home since it is often impossible to travel around my neighborhood because of goddamn football.

Yes. Game Day is one of the major reasons I want out of this campus ghetto if you haven't figured that out after the past few years!

I'll be making some of my usual Polish stuff for the cookout. I'm going to make small amounts of kapusta too since I've been graving it. I'm going to experiment with some steak preparations, some chicken stuff, and other putz'n around.

I honestly don't know what to expect.

Several people who normally attend can't and several others that normally come didn't RSVP so I have no idea what this year will be like.

I don't even know if a few others I invited even got the emails since I don't know what current email accounts they use.

And no doubt, I forgot some people to because August has been hectic as hell.

Oh well.

23 minutes of work left and then I'm off until Tuesday morning.

CountUp: Day 5

So the second batch of realtors went through this morning.

Other than a "living room is too dark" comment which is just bs in my opinion, and a comment that we have too many scent plug-ins (to de-meow/de-hoontify) the place, everything is well.

In fact, the last comment I got was...

One Realtor said "I wasn't going to come thru-I thought you were smoking crack-$169,900 on B***e -it's worth every penny! I'm calling my buyer now!"

Oh. And Kelmeister looked up the House of Love on the auditor's website and found the pic the city took from early 2004.

The japanese maple is still on the side, and the horrid crumbling flower bed wall still exists out front. Both would be removed later that year.

Looks a shitload better now doesn't it?

House: Gotta sell to finally get a new mirror.

After my car being vandalized so many times, and the previous mirror getting ripped off on the street, I promised myself I would not spent the $300+ to fix it until I moved.

Now with the house finally on the market I can almost feel a new mirror in my future.

That is... I hope a new mirror is in my future.

House: Hoont Nose Prints From Hell!

I can scrub the glass storm doors but it doesn't matter.

The Hoont's nose prints find their way back within the hour.

It is much like his pooping capabilities: total magic!

CountUp: Day 4

So other realtors from my realtor's company came through the house this morning.

I think there were probably 25 or so when all is said and done.

Tomorrow there will be additional ones as well but I'm not sure where they are from.

Apparently there wasn't a single negative comment from any of them today about the house.

In fact, as I was bringing The Hoont back, several of them told me how fantastic the place is.

That makes me feel pretty good.

If you want to see the house flier or MLS entry, email me and I'll send you it so you can see what it is all about!

CountUp: Day 3

I'm not sure what's wrong with me but this morning I slumped into a huge depression and it has been really hard getting over it today.

It has to be the house shit.

Then again, it could be my general poor health (again), the knowledge that I really can't afford a better neighborhood other than this ghetto, or maybe even the upcoming cookout next Sunday.

Bah!

I've got grass to cut and leaves to rake.

Tomorrow morning the realtors are walking through. I'm going to work from home until they come and then take Sir Poops-A-Lot out for a walk while they do their thing.

There really isn't more to do other than maintaining the cleanliness.

Well that.

And controlling the fucking cat hair!!!

CountUp: Day 2

Ok. 99.95% of all things are done.

Spent all day working on the house finishing up this or that, especially the kitchen and the general organization of everything. I also scrubbed down the front porch. (Living near an alley really gets it dirty so quickly!)

I got the wrong size blinds for the kitchen so I need to do that tomorrow and reorg the packed boxes in the attic a bit.

The tour of realtors will be through on Tuesday morning. I'm going to try and work from home for a few hours that day to manage the Hoont.

This is the cleanest the house has probably ever been.

So very very tired.

I suppose it should be a CountUp now right?

So the house officially listed today. Still waiting to hear back on the MLS number and all. Still trying to get some more pictures taken now that we've had 2 more days to work on things.

I worked from 7am to 1pm today on the exterior, trimming trees, weeding, scrubbing down the deck furniture we never pulled out this year, and all around cleaning things up.

I fixed the mulch in places so it is nice and clean. Tomorrow (or hopefully later tonight) I'll do a bit of touch up painting on the front porch. We need to get a few more plants too, especially good looking hangers for the front porch.

So. Let's call this officially CountUp: Day 1!

Let's hope it is a very very very short count up until someone makes an offer.

The photo you've been waiting over 2 years for.

After 2 years, a lot of work, a few false starts, and major frustration here and there, the House of Love III is finally on the market.

For some reason I'm scared shitless.

House: More bathroom work.

More bathroom work.

I went to Lowe's and got a tub-to-floor caulk strip that sorta works to clean up that seam.

What's crazy is they don't have the same strips I bought last time. That, or I bought them elsewhere and can't remember.

I need to take all the stuff I did buy back and find a wider strip to finish off the tub.

However, I beat the shit out of my wrists scrubbing the vinyl splash. I went though a hell of a lot of Bon Ami but I got most of the calcium build up off.

House: Attempting to clean up the bathroom.

The bathroom can only be cleaned up so much.

Two years ago I did all that painting to try and just brighten it up but it didn't do much.

The tub really needs to be replaced and the backsplash is awful.

Well I spent the past few hours removing the old caulk, scrubbing up everything as much as I could, and installing some of that caulk-vinyl strip stuff.

It at least looks cleaner.

I have no idea how long it will last.

It is a poor patch... I know.

House: Many solid hours in today until my back just gave out.

So I started where I left off yesterday, trimming the side hedge and cleaning out all of the retards' beer bottles, cigarette butts, and would you believe what had to be used condoms?

Yeah. I love living in this ghetto so much.

I decided that the best I could do to the hedge was to try to make it more visually appealing and cleaned it up. I brought took up the sod to make a clean edge, put down a weed barrier, and mulched it all.

It looks better at least... that is if the retards can keep their goddamn fucking trash out of my hedge!!!

I also weeded the curb and flower beds as well as de-algaed some of the porch.

The back yard was tackled as well. I climbed up on the sheds and trimmed the juniper and the oak back, as well as continued to weed the various areas.

One problem area is the deck flower bed that contains the day lilies. The plants block so much sun light that grass doesn't grow so when I cut them all down I've got this 9-12" dirt space from the flower beds to the begging of my craptastic sod.

Well, I put down grass patch all along the south side of the deck so hopefully that'll start coming up in a few days or so.

All in all, a long day of crawling and stretching and bending and more or less probably making my back incredibly hurty.

I'm trying to stay off the painkillers right now so hopefully I'll just end up really sore, which I am already at the moment.

I've got the sprinklers going to try and de-brown and re-green the lawn.

The past month's heat has pretty much dried a lot of it out and it isn't looking too good.

Hopefully we can keep on the watering of both the front and the back so that when that sign is finally up the yard'll look as good as it can.

House: Trimmy McTrimsalot

So I got the hedge trimmed this morning.

Bill, the neighbor down the street, came out and and I borrowed his extension cutter and got the magnolia trimmed back too. All the dead limbs and the branches near the house are now all cut back or removed completely. Bill even helped me tie up everything.

So that's done.

What's bad is while I was bagging up the leaves and stuff I started cramping up and became ill.

Totally out of nowhere the big D descended upon me.

What's totally strange is that I'm on day 11 of a fast. I've only had juices and water and it makes no sense that I would have a problem. I never have before.

Anyway, I'm laying back down trying to get my intestines to not hurt.

What sucks even more? I've still got days on the fast and since Giga is making baked beans, I've got to live with the house smelling like bacon! My sense of smell is mega acute at the moment and all food scents are driving me bonkers.

House: Holy shit! I got some painting done.

I decided to quickly paint the work I did yesterday in the front room.

So that's finished.

I think I can get the ceilings all done tomorrow.

I hope there's nothing in the back bedrooms to do. I so don't want any more painting.

House: Soon. Quite soon.

The temperatures dropped a bit and we lost some of the mugginess today so I spent 3.5 quality hours working outside.

More weeding done, plus, and I know I'll regret this by tonight, I crawled around for 2 hours digging shit out of the bricks.

I managed to completely clean up the marble brick area towards the back. I had Giga set up the metal chimney fireplace thing he bought last year and with a few seats out there it doesn't look too bad.

The day lilies have all bloomed and died out so the slowly wilting dying leaves are all that was left. I cut them all out since they'll just continue to wither and die.

Tomorrow we've got to head out to the Max Power estate so I figure we can go a bit early, hit Meijers and Wal-Mart and snag some more mulch.

Sunday I need to trim the bush/hedge plants that keep some of the crap from the retards next door from coming into my lawn. I want to just mulch under there too.

Some more painting either tonight or tomorrow morning.

If Giga can get the first floor cleaned up, I can do another pass at the basement and attic and call the realtor to come by for a visit early this week.

I mean... I'm done trying to do anything else.

It has to be this weather.

Those of you outside the Cowlands may not know we've had many extreme 92+ degree days the past few weeks. The dew point and humidity have been horrid and no matter the time of day or night it is nasty out.

The House of Love AC has run non-stop and the small attic window AC is the only thing that has made it remotely bearable to work up there.

Anyway, 2 years ago I did a lot of crack repairs on the 1st floor and something about this weather has made the house shift and contract and the cracks have reappeared, some of them worse than ever.

It is, quite frankly, the last thing I needed to add on to the already never-ready-to-go-on-the-market house.

Outside awfulness.

So for the past 2 days, I've managed to get in about 5 hours of nasty stinky balls sweaty work done on the yard.

I got the yard mowed and the much neglected weeding was started yesterday and I finished it today.

Doused in toxic chemicals, I spread weed killer all over the back driveway, outside the gate, along the street, and the garden-that-never-was-a-garden. I hope that everything dies and stays dead for at least 6 weeks.

I've got some plaster patching I'm going to do tonight so I can touch up some paint tomorrow.

In which cheap new appliances are purchased.

So the other day the dryer died in the morning. Now it was like 19 years old and has been repaired before.

This time the heating element died.

Well, thanks to Craigslist I had a new dryer by the end of the day for only $50.

Well, the washer we've been using for the past 10 years is an economy washer.

I've wanted one of those $800 hydrogen fusion generating models that gene splice but never got around to the investment.

Well, Giga found us a new one on Craigslist the other day for only $30.

So for only $80 we got new appliances.

And the thing is, I'm enamoured of my new washer.

I can now do more than 2-3 towels! I can do more than 2 pairs of pants! I can even do a blanket!

As it fills with water, I just find myself staring in awe of it and wondering why the fuck we waited so long.

The House: Attic almost done.

So the attic is about 2 hours from being finished. Then I need to clean the attic stairwell, move the shelves back upstairs to the landing, and set up Six's tank again.

The betta has gone from bad to worse. Her genetic problems really bad and she cannot see at all now. Her scales have grown completely over her eyes.

I've pulled her out of her tank and she's in a little bowl.

I don't expect her to make it through the week really.

Her scales and skin are really irritated and I've been trying to medicate her.

I don't have any clove oil or I'd give serious consideration to euthanizing her.

Who am I kidding, I couldn't do it if I tried.

I try to keep her comfortable, change her water and medication frequently, and make food easy to get if she wants it.

It is so sad though.

So very very sad.

The House: More attic and less disaster

So I got almost 4 hours in on the attic today. It is looking better than it did on July 6.

I've given up on trying to throw shit out since all that's doing is slowing me down.

I've just decided to just pack everything up in boxes and that'll be the way it has to be, future buys be damned!

Theoretically, since the attic has no main heating or cooling it can't be considered a livable room in the house.

I've always made due with electric heaters and a window AC unit but the fact it can't count towards livable space may actually be a rationale why "there's boxes stored up here".

And of course, in those boxes, hundreds upon hundreds upon hundreds of transforming robots!

Ok. Gotsta go shower. It was just hot enough up here today and I was moving enough shit to end up smelling like sweaty balls. And nobody... except maybe your own personal ball washer... wants to smell like sweaty balls!

The House: Kitchen dining area work

So this weekend was about working in the attic and finishing up some work in he kitchen.

Giga decided to buy new outlets and a new baseboard heater for the kitchen dining area.

I got the outlets installed but the thermostat wiring (above) was way beyond my ability to understand so he spent several hours doing that.

What is really problematic with this house is that wiring for switches can be a problem. So many lights/outlets are wired to be controlled by switches.

I think the back wall light switch took 7 attempts before the right wiring order was achieved.

Nothing every works right in this house when it comes to wiring.

Tonight I hope to get more done on the attic.

I'm throwing so much shit out.

The House: Yay for Craigslist!

All I have to say is craigslist can be a wonderful thing.

I noticed the dryer had died yesterday morning (it was 16 years old) and by 6pm we had a new used $50 basic dryer that'll get us through the next few months.

Of course, someday I'd like to have the $1200 washer/dryer/gene splicer/fusion reactor units that are available but that'll have to wait for the acquisition of the House of Love IV, the repairs of of the side mirror of the Deluxe Luxury New Beetle, and me actually occupying a new place.

But seriously, I don't need much more than a basic washer and dryer where I can fit 3-5 pairs of jeans or big towels in.

In other news, I got the hidey-fake-counter part painted and installed next to the dishwasher.

I took a break to eat and something bizarre happened. I needed a bit of fat (having had practically zero this week) and decided I'd spread some peanut butter on a banana for dessert.

Within 10 minutes or so I was having an obviously allergic reaction to the peanut butter!

I have never ever had any problems with peanuts before!!! I love peanut butter!!!

Not only did my face swell up a bit, but my head got congested and I felt like total shit!

I ended up spending the rest of the evening in bed feeling like shit while Giga ran and got the dryer.

Balls!

Balls I tell you!

This weekend will be devoted to finishing up cleaning the 1st floor and working on the attic. I've turned on the AC up there to cool things down so I could try and get a bit of work done tonight.

The House: It goes on and on...

So Giga got the inset created to hide the mechanics of the dishwasher and I got it primed at lunch.

I'll get two coats of paint installed on it tonight and once Giga gets that installed and new curtains in the kitchen dining area I can totally finish scrubbing the floor, clean the blinds, and basically call the kitchen "done" for sale.

I still need to spend some time on the attic. It is still a disaster.

And the damn heating element in the dryer died.

Do Not Need!

The Kitchen

So I spent yesterday afternoon and this afternoon moving everything from the floor and off the walls and scrubbing the kitchen down.

In an attempt to thin the space out I'm pitching the one buffet that was in the dining area. It opens the space up a bit and I think is all around cleaner.

I'll continue scrubbing tomorrow and try to get some stuff moved to the basement.

Then I gotta get back on the attic.

Marathon packing and cleaning!

Ok. It is 4pm Friday.

To make up for the loss of 6 days of work on the house I'm going to start a marathon session in a few minutes that'll take me to Sunday.

The Attic must be packed up and cleaned!

The bathroom must be scrubbed and possibly... quite possibly... recaulked!

I'm losing 4 days next week to business in Chicago.

I GOTS TO GET THIS HOUSE OF LOVE ON THE MARKET!!!

Botcon recovery.

So I've started on stinky dirty Botcon laundry and am going to go upstairs to continue tackling the Attic of Disaster.

I had hoped to have everything done by the weekend since I'll be in Chicago on business most of next week but that's unlikely.

I just want everything ready to get the house for sale.

Why must it take so long?!?!?

Countdown - Day 5 - Painting touchup on the stairwell and more.

So with only 4 days to go on my personal countdown I'm not thinking it'll all happen quite as planned.

I came home early today and spent several hours finishing up the basement, cleaning, reorging, and such. I got all the remaining duct insulation installed as well as the R-13 stuff. There's some wood I need to bring up too since there's no point keeping it.

I got the side door reinstalled as well as the exterior touch-up painting done on the side.

I scrubbed up the stairwell and got all of the walls touched up as well (above pic).

Just an FYI... when I painted the stairwell in Feb. 2006 I decided to save some money since this wasn't a heavily trafficked area and all. I bought this cheap "commercial" quality Olympus paint that is about $10 cheaper per gallon then the premium stuff I typically use.

Well I don't know if it is because I used this cheap paint or if I went with a flat in it but when I was trying to wash up some of the dirt and stuff off the wall from where the trash can usually stands I ended up washing off a layer of paint and could see the primer below! No more cheap paint for me again for something like this.

Tomorrow I'm going to start on the Attic when I get home and try to get at least 6 bins of toys packed. I've also got some minor touch up still to do in the basement room and I hope to get that done over lunch. I'm also trying to get rid of as much "product" as possible so I'm going to mix up the rest of my Sunny Dry waterproofer and get that applied to the walls in the room under the porch.

There's also some floor enamel touch up I need to do and other then cleaning and maybe shop-vac'n the cobwebs the basement is done.

Now the rest of the house... that's another story. I haven't even started on the bathroom caulking yet!

Countdown - Day 6 - All kinds of craziness.

Today was a hard day and not as much got done as I had hoped.

The heat was just unbearable and there was a point around 2:30 where it literally wiped me out and I had to come in and briefly lay down for a bit.

Started off the day in the basement doing a final full coat of polyurethane on the floor in the room under the porch. I had only gotten the one thinned out coat on and quickly and to reuse the room which ended up scraping up due to how thin it was. I also had to do some drylock touch up and deal with some other stuff there. That room will hopefully be wrapped up in 2-3 days and I'll be working a bit on it each day.

Giga got the new halogen alley light and light sensor up. This'll allow the damn thing to go on automatically every evening without one of us having to go out to the back yard to flip the switch. I may even start parking back there again. Hell, we needed it for when we park the cars while we are at the Gay Robot Convention in a few weeks.

I got another post out of the garden area and also a ton of concrete chips and stones. I used up a bunch of old topsoil to try and blend it into the recently tilled garden.

I've got more grass patch planted between the houses.

Oh. Mulched the east side of the house too. We need about 8-10 more bags of mulch but that'll be a last item thing. I want to mulch around the bushes that block a good chunk of sound from the street we dead end in.

I got a bunch of R-13 insulation cut to size and some of it installed. Unfortunately, my timing is off and I need the shit back under the porch before I can get this all finished and the last duct insulation wrapped on.

Got some painting done on the side door and threshold. I'll be installing that all back tomorrow.

Will I be able to finish all of this in 5 days?

Hmmm....

I can try. That's all I can say.

Now all I want to do is shower, grill some chicken, and call it a night.

Would you believe I have forklift training all day tomorrow?

I think I'll be one of the most highly paid forklift operators around.

I'll be thinking "Get away from her you bitch!" all morning.

Oh. Predictions are for super mega high 90s tomorrow. That's going to suck worse than today.

My final thing for you? I'll leave you with this picture of the recently reinstalled swinging bunny with the butterfly on its nose that Kelmeister got us last year.

Countdown - Day 7 - A whole lotta work done today.

I made up for yesterday by working my ass off today.

So many things started, in progress, or completed. While one thing dried I started or finished something else.

I got the side exterior door down, primed and painted (above). I'm not going to do the glass inset though. I should but it'll take forever to tape off the panes and I so don't want to scrape paint off.

I spent about an hour getting more of the duct insulation wrapped around the output ducts. I've got a little bit left to do by the Hoont's favorite vent.

I made some painting repairs to the back kitchen exterior window. The work done in 2005 didn't take well to the old wood. I scraped off the paint that was coming off and primed and painted everything again. That's done.

I used some masonry caulk to seal some some gaps around the stone foundation by the side door and will be painting the threshold tomorrow. However, I did get the base of the door painted with the same enamel I did the front porch.

I got a bunch more impatiens and petunias planted out back. I also decided to try and patch one area by the shed with the grass patch. The stuff is working well out front.

Unfortunately, the alley light fixture couldn't be replaced. Giga found a live wasp nest in it so we'll have to try again tomorrow. We must get a simpler light installed that doesn't take a special lamp.

There was some other porch painting done.

All in all, a whole lot of shit done today.

Countdown - Day 8 - No work today.

I didn't feel all that well yesterday. My back has been hurting again plus we had to meet an old high school friend of Giga's for dinner.

Day 7 will be more productive.

Countdown - Day 9 - Reorg and basement work.

Today was spent trying to reorg all my tools and paint stuff to make finishing up my tasks easier.

I spent several hours in the basement throwing shit away and putting things back in piles I can easily get to.

I also spent time getting more water pipe insulation up as well as the HVAC duct insulation up. I still have a bit more to cut and get installed.

Oh. And I did some touch up on the railings on the porch and some mortar repair.

Tomorrow will be the touch-up on the dark grey and hopefully a retilling of the garden area.

Saturday will be bathroom work and packing up the attic.

Countdown - Day 10 - Steps done and landscape cleanup.

So I got the final coat of paint on the steps. They look a lot better. I need to wirebrush some drips up and it should be finished.

I need to touch up the railings tomorrow where I got a bit of grey on it and then the dark grey on the foundation. That'll wrap up the painting out front.

I also started on the clean-up of the back garden-that-never-was (picture before above) and spent several hours doing my best to till up extremely dry ground. Eventually I had to pull out the house and wet everything down since there was so much dust coming up.

Everything's leveled out which makes a big difference.

I also got as much of the stones and little bits of concrete out but there is a ton I just can't waste my time on.

All in all, I'll probably till it one more time tomorrow before I Roundup the whole thing as well as the stone driveway to try and keep the weeds at bay.

Countdown - Day 11 - The steps are started.

I got the steps wirebrushed and cleaned up when I got home.

The cleaned up well but the various repair work over the years made them look a bit crappy.

The whole steps really need to be completely replaced but that's not going to happen via my work.

So...

Voila!

I coated the steps in the same lighter grey enamel that I use on the slab.

I think it looks pretty good actually.

I'll put a second coat on tomorrow as well as touch up the darker grey.

Countdown - Day 11 - You can get a lot done in 10 minutes if you try.

You can get quite a lot done in 10 minutes if you try hard enough.

I'll do another coat this evening and hopefully that'll do it.

Countdown - Day 11 - Lunchtime painting

So I'm going to run home at lunch, change clothes, and try to get another coat of paint on the ceiling and a 2nd coat of touch "heavy cream" on the bedroom walls again (that sounds almost dirty).

It really doesn't take a long time since it is basically walking into each room with a roller and touching up the areas where I'm trying to cover relatively new cracks.

Oh. And Giga picked up the Max Power Tiller™ last night so work can commence on cleaning up the remaining small stones and rocks in the garden area so that can all be tilled up and leveled better. I think it'll look better if it has been tilled and I can get the weeds out.

I need to wire brush the front steps today too and try and get a coat of primer on it so I can begin painting the enamel on tomorrow.

If I can get the steps done and the touchup on the front siding that entire front can be checked off my lists.

With that, and the exterior touch up done, it really becomes a matter of cleaning each room and packing up stuff... especially a certain Attic of Disaster™.

Countdown - Day 12 - 3rd and not enough.

So I managed to get a 3rd coat of paint on the ceilings but you can still see the stain blocker in some areas. Grrrr.

Countdown - Day 12 - 1st and 2nd coats done.

Man oh man a helluva lot of cracks have appeared in the living room over the past 2 years since I really tried to fix the plaster.

I really can't fill them with plaster and sand right now. I just don't have time for that level of mess and the accompanying priming and painting.

So? I'm just using the Zinser 1-2-3 to fill in the cracks. It is pretty thick and should last 5-6 weeks which is all I really need.

I'll do another coat of paint again in a few hours.

Countdown - Day 12 - Ceiling painting and general cleaning.

Ok. It is only 4:30 and I have already managed to get a first coat of paint on all of the ceiling cracks on the first and second floors.

There's a few in the living room and one in the bed room that may require some Killz too. We'll have to see.

I ended up not doing the bathroom caulking this weekend. That'll have to be this coming weekend but then again, it might be something worth doing the day before I leave for Rhode Island. That way, it'll have time to properly set and cure while I'm gone.

Hopefully I can get a 2nd coat of paint on the ceilings in an hour or so. This stuff drys really fast.

I need to swap paints and do the walls now. I don't know how much I have of the "heavy cream" used in the bedroom but Giga noticed an area that could really use some touch up.

Countdown - Day 13 - In which Giga fixes the fence and other miscellaney.

So Day 14 involved work in the Attic. I got a good chunk of stuff sorted but there is just so much crap up there I can barely walk around. I let it totally go to hell these past 12 months.

I also continued duct insulation in the basement, as well as hot water pipe insulation. I basically had to put some of the tools away since I haven't sorted in weeks since I started the mad rush on the exterior.

I have this massive oak tree out back and unfortunately, it has destroyed the fence back there. The trunk grew too big and broke the fence.

It also didn't help that the fence itself is so old and weathered.

Giga tore the whole area fence area down by the oak and utilizing what he could, as well as some new stuff, repaired it enough so that it keeps the Hoont in and should have some flexibility with continued growth of the tree.

The fence directly attaches to the fence instead of to the shed around the trunk. This shouldn't hurt the tree much.

I brought the ladder out and Giga removed a useless light fixture up on the back pole. We took care of some now useless posts as well.

I need to get a new light for out there. One that is preferably an automatic on/off one.

The supervisor approves.

Giga also got the wood to fix a gap in the counter next to the dishwasher.

Of course, we should have done that 4 years ago when I bought the house.

It is amazing what one will live with that isn't finished and then rushes to fix it in trying to sell the house.

We still need to get Max Power's tiller to dig up the garden area and level it all out.

Other then some mulching on the east side, some exterior painting touch-up and the front steps, the outside is more or less done.

I've got some other stuff to do in the basement, the tub caulk repairs in the bathroom, and a shitload of minor painting touch up inside.

Every day I find something else that needs paint touch up or a crack repaired. Old houses suck that way.

Countdown - Day 13 - Starting on the Attic of Disaster™

So today I started on the Attic of Disaster™.

Today is pretty cool outside and I cranked the AC up here and I can work without breaking a sweat.

Continue reading "Countdown - Day 13 - Starting on the Attic of Disaster™" »

Countdown - Day 14 - The attic attack!

I started on binning up the attic today.

This has many hours ahead of it and I hope to get some in all weekend.

I had hoped to snag a photo of each figure but that will just take too long.

Countdown - Day 15 - More concrete repairs.

Wow. I only have 14 days left to get everything ready.

Yesterday's work really killed my back and knees but I managed to still get about 3 hours in today and got the rest of the concrete patch work done on the side and in the front.

I did a bit more weeding and tomorrow I'll try to start on the bathroom and start taping off the ceiling for painting in the various areas.

Right now I'm waiting patiently for the party to start next door.

As I was patching the front I watched 2 kegs go in the door.

Lovely.

I so love it here.

Countdown - Day 16 - 5 hours of landscape cleaning!

So I came home and I actually got 5 solid hours of work done in the backyard.

It was so cool and nice out today I figured it was time to devote attention to the car area in the back which has not been touched for 18 or so months. It was a weed infested and filthy, with dirt having fallen into the mess of bricks and stone, as well as so much oak leafage from last year.

I usually apply roundup to the stone to maintain it but I haven't done that in over 18 or so months. There was no way I could not do this cleanup and try to put the house on the market.

So I spent hours crawling on my hands and knees weeding the stone and then finally, I started sorting the stones and bricks and have moved the granite/marble stones so that they are off next to the fence and essentially hidden behind the lilacs.

I got all of the leaves raked up and did my best to get the dirt that had spilled up. I wish I had some more stone and I may just work the pea gravel that is in bags back there onto the stone. The sun has backed the plastic and it is barely holding up anyway.

See?

Looks a lot better no?

And the marble is nicely stacked away and hidden.

I kinda wish I had disposed of all of the firewood. I seriously doubt the fireplace could handle the heat of a fire from wood like that. We use the simpler fake store logs that burn more steady and a bit cooler anyway.

It would sure clean up the whole shed area to have it empty.

Countdown - Day 16 - Lunch time signage!

In trying to get an early start on some work today and to make up for yesterday's total slackerness I managed to get the new street sign numbers drilled into the wood and the whole thing installed out front.

Looks a helluva lot better than the old numbers that were nailed directly onto the siding.

Countdown - Day 17 - I won't lie... the day was wasted.

I came home today to my knees and back really hurting. No doubt the crawling around under the deck yesterday did me in.

I ended up just wasting the afternoon doing some minor sorting in the attic.

Nothing much accomplished so the day was pretty much wasted.

Countdown - Day 18 - Drains, weeding, and more drains.

So today I managed to get a ton of weeding done and then I undertook the task of installing new gutter drains on the rear of the house.

I tore down the old one that went into the broken ground drain and installed a new vertical drain pipe and several accordion curves and horizontal pipes to get the water as far away from the house as possible.

I also weeded the entire side of the desk and remulched.

I also crawled under the deck and using leftover drains and tubes, managed to construct something to get the water as far away from the house as possible there.

I moved a hosta in the one flower bed and put in 2 types of marigolds and and remulched that area too.

The new front address sign's staining is done. I'll get the numbers on tomorrow. I need to get two brass screws to attach it to the siding.

I need to start on the bathroom soon. I'm going to clean up the vanity and paint it white so it won't look so fake-wood cheap.

Countdown - Day 19 - Landscaping the front yard

So this year all I did on the landscaping was to let the hostas all come in. Oh. And I cut all the daffodil leaves and tulip remains out.

I've been so focused on the real work that I hadn't bothered to do anything.

My realtor said to not bother since the hostas were enough but if the house doesn't sell I'd rather have some annuals in this year.

Before Pics:

Continue reading "Countdown - Day 19 - Landscaping the front yard" »

Grrrr...

So Giga went up to the attic to look for something and felt water underfoot.

Grrrr...

Number Six's water filter apparently seems to have been spewing water over the back of the tank and down the wall. I did a water change the other day but I didn't change the filter media. It wasn't letting the water through fast enough and it was going over the back.

Just lovely.

This is the 2nd time I've spilled water up there.

It looks like it was about a gallon or so.

I think there may be some ceiling damage up on the landing too.

Grrr...

More repairs and painting.

I've got a fan up there trying to dry it all out now.

Countdown - Day 20 - Mister Concreter McSoreknees.

While this morning was wasted at the Victorian Village Yard Sale I did manage to come home around 1 (after a quick Lowes trip) and get some work done before it started to rain.

And there was an unexpected surprise that I now need to deal with.

So today was all about removing the rest of the "rubber" seal that has pulled away from the foundaion and the sidewalk, as well as pulling out some of the cracked concrete sidewalk to repair. The repairs that really were needed are to the area under the one gutter drain by the front porch and the gutter drain near the kitchen. That's the drain the to gutter I painted a week or so ago.

Well, the rubber seal was easy to remove and I dug out the dirt a bit and shopvac'd the thing clean.

Alas, prepping the rear cracks unveiled something I didn't need to see.

The entire drain has popped off of the rest of the drainage pipes due to the concrete sidewalk expanding and contracting.

So... basically... the water was just pouring down the side of the basement foundation and the ancient terra cotta drainage system.

Now I put the hose down these pipes and tried to see if they were still usable but no water was ever came out of the "outlet" on the other side of the magnolia.

I did the same to the front gutter and once again, no water ever appearing to drain.

Since that pretty much means that the pipes are probably cracked and/or destroyed by roots and such (or are totally clogged by major debris) there's no point in attempted to connect the gutters back up to these drains. The only way to repair them would be to pull up the side walk and rerun new drainage pipes and that I'm not going to do.

So...

Continue reading "Countdown - Day 20 - Mister Concreter McSoreknees." »

Countdown - Day 21 - Light and concrete.

So I got the light base painted with another coat of paint and managed to get everything rewired and up. Yes. I shattered the bulb when I dropped the top fixture but it is done and the porch is illuminated again.

I continued on the west side and removed the rubbery seal along the foundation back to the side door.

I mixed up some concrete and tried to use it to fill in the gap. Unfortunately, it is the wrong kind of concrete. I need to pick up some of the sand topping mix, a much smoother and easier to work with mix, to do another layer and finish the front steps and from the door to the rear of the house.

Countdown - Day 22 - More progress...

It took me 2 hours but I finally got the window scraped clean. Look at that shine! Not bad.

Not perfect but not bad either.

I got the weather stripping installed and the window installed, railing touch up completed, and the first coat of primer and then paint on the light mount that goes up next to the front door.

Tomorrow will be the 2nd and final coat on the light mount, some touch up on the white siding, and I'll begin cleaning for the concrete work along the house/sidewalk seam.

Hopefully I can get the concrete patch done at least to the side door.

Oh. And I decided to paint the steps with the lighter grey enamel once the concrete repairs are done. I think it'll make them look far more even.

And if I'm stuck in the house longer... well... this enamel is really easy to maintain.

Countdown - Day 23 - 2nd slab coat and cleanup

I got the 2nd coat of paint on the slab and did some foundation touchup painting.

I also started on cleaning up the excess paint on the storm window but got sidetracked by about 5 bottles of Corona across the street.

I barely got anything done tonight.

Countdown - Day 24 - Painting the slab and foundation.

I got the first coat of paint on the slab and will get the 2nd (and final) coat on tomorrow.

I also repainted the porch foundation but this time I did it a darker grey (above). It was a very light beige-grey previously.

The 2nd coat should go on fast and I also hope to get the storm window scraped and hung tomorrow too.

Crawling around on my knees just wipes the shift outta me after a 3-4 hours.

Countdown - Day 25 - Railing painting and slab scraping

I got the porch railings cleaned up and painted today.

I had a can of left over enamel from when I did really did the priming and painting 2 years ago and it was more than enough to put a fresh coat on it. Took a little less than 2 hours too.

The winter salt took a toll on the heavily weathered areas of the porch slab and the enamel I put down 2 years ago has started to flake in these areas.

I've got it scraped up and will go over it all again tomorrow.

I also hope to wash the whole slab down and with any luck, get the first coat of new paint on. I'm going to do the same grey or a darker one. I haven't decided yet.

Either way, whatever one that doesn't go on the slab will go on the foundation once that's cleaned and scraped.

Countdown - Day 26 - Ceiling painted and new gutters.

So the porch ceiling has a fresh coat of paint on it and I did some other touch up and repairs, filling in some gaps and sealing things.

I installed new porch gutter drains on both the east and west sides. These are now both modern drains (instead of the vintage rounded kind) that end in an accordion pipe that lets the horizontal drain be easily moved for lawn mowing and such. The old black "ugly" drain pipes can be attached at the ends now to move water even farther away from the house if needed.

Tomorrow will be cleaning up the porch railings, retouching the black enamel in some spots, and scraping and wire brushing the slap and steps.

I need to get the cracks repaired in some of the blocks too.

We've been invited across the street to cook out at 3 so I've got a shitload to do before 2pm.

Countdown - Day 27 - Not a whole lot done.

I didn't get much done today on account of needing the pickup so I guess I'll have to count today as my holiday.

I got the annoying seam caulked on the front facing side of the porch. The previous person I paid to paint didn't do it and it has annoyed the hell out of me. I have enough of the "sharkfin grey" to paint it over. At least it won't stare down at me now.

Oh. And I got the old nasty ass storm window on the kitchen reinstalled.

I painted the frame and tried to straighten everything.

It doesn't look too bad actually. A shitload better than it did a few days ago.

I got new gutter drains for the front and hopefully I'll install those in a few days. I also go concrete to do some patching and repairs on the exterior as well as the enamel paint for the porch slab and foundation.

Tomorrow I'll try and get the porch ceiling repainted and the siding end caps cleaned up and nailed back on. Hopefully I can get the stained glass storm window cleaned up too and rehung.

Countdown - Day 28 - The main painting is done!

No photos today.

I did manage to get many solid hours of work in and 2 coats of paint on the front.

I also got some gaps caulked.

Tomorrow I'll run to Lowe's to get another gallon of paint and get the entire thing finished.

I hope to have the side storm windows reinstalled tomorrow too.

Countdown - Day 29 - In which it doesn't look half bad...

So I started today's work by removing both the east and west end corner panels of the siding.

I originally didn't plan to do this but I think it'll look better when I'm done.

Too bad we don't have all new ones because it would be easier to put up new than trying to paint these.

Continue reading "Countdown - Day 29 - In which it doesn't look half bad..." »

Countdown - Day 30 - And the front porch work begins.

So I worked through lunch, came home a bit earlier than normal, and started working.

I managed to get several hours in on what I hope goes smoothly and without issue.

Yup. I started on the front porch siding!

I went over it very hard, scrubbing and removing as much dirt as possible. So much of the surface is pitted due to age and weathering that it really is ugly.

However, if you look at the above pic, you can definitely see the difference where I've cleaned and where I haven't.

I removed the drains from the gutters and cleaned the siding behind them, drying as I went along.

I went over everything a 2nd time and tomorrow I'll go over it all yet again, trying to clean even more debris and "chaulk" off.

I hope to also tape off all of the areas tomorrow and if possible, get some test primer up on the one corner above the door or maybe in an even less conspicuous place like behind the gutter at the top.

Oh. And I've primed and painted the stained glass storm window. I'll do a 2nd and 3rd coat tomorrow and that should be done.

All I'll have to do is meticulously scrape and clean up the glass. I've already got what I think was a chewing out by the Vee on it but I really needed to seal the seam due to the shitty job I did reglazing it.

Countdown - Day 31 - In which I waste a lot of time...

Oh my god I totally forgot how shitty I am at glazing old single pane windows!

I mean, I would love some professional and skilled person to show me how to properly do it. Books don't do shit.

First I tried a glazing compound from ACE that was so dry I could barely get it applied. I tried to thin it and make it more maleable but I couldn't smooth it and it kept scraping off.

So I scraped it all of, ran to Lowe's, and bought a latex version that was so sticky and thin.

ARGHHHH!!!

I so hate glazing.

I did the best I could.

I'll try and scrape it as clean as possible before I prime and paint it all.

*sigh*

I just want it too look nice. Hopefully it won't look so shitty from below.

Countdown - Day 32 - In which more painting is done.

The windows were painted today. From afar they don't look as shitty as they did when I was up there painting.

I need to get some more razor blades to scrape some of the paint off the glass and to try and clean up previous owner's painting. Lovely.

Continue reading "Countdown - Day 32 - In which more painting is done." »

Countdown - Day 33 - Exterior painting!

So today I finished getting the kitchen dining area gutters done. It turned out well.

One thing that is pissing me off is that 2 years ago I paid someone to redo the kitchen dining area windows and he did a very shitty job. I'm using this time to try and fix his mistakes and general sloppiness.

Since I'm going to be spending the next 1-2 weeks outside painting I figured I might as well just try and do something to the 2 west side windows as well.

I never got to them and they looked liked total shit.

Continue reading "Countdown - Day 33 - Exterior painting!" »

It begins here on Day 34!

There are 34 days to complete everything on the house that needs to get done, have everything staged and ready to go, and begin the process of finding the House of Love IV.

My back has been getting much better so it was ladder time today.

Instead of tearing down the old gutter like I had planned for the past few years I decided to scrape the old school rounded drainpipe one that is up on the back kitchen area and just repaint it.

It has been a bit since I've been up on a ladder. I forgot how much I don't particularly care to be outside on a ladder!

I got the whole thing scraped, cleaned, and got two coats of primer on it and a good portion of the pipe.

And here I am...

So I came home Monday, changed clothes, and as I've done for so long, descended the stairs into the basement.

And as I started cleaning cobwebs and reinstalling some insulation on the duct work, I was hit with this massive wave of depression.

I just never seem to make any progress and complete this!

I just stood there and I just felt like I'd been doing this shit for years.

And for a second I just wanted to cry.

But no. I called my realtor and asked her to come over and help me refocus.

She came over about an hour later and we walked the house, going over what I'd done and where I should actually focus my efforts now.

So.

Priorities changed.

I'm going to scrub the aluminum siding on the front porch and paint it to make the front of the house as pleasing as possible.

I'm going to scrape the old gutter and drain in the back and repaint that. Though quite frankly, it probably wouldn't cost much to replace it with a vinyl one.

I'm going to clean up the tub and recaulk it.

I'm going to lightly stain and Liquid Gold the kitchen cabinet doors and add a piece of wood next to the dishwasher.

I may roughen up the bathroom vanity and paint it.

And I'm going to finish the touch-up paint on the ceilings.

That should be it.

And I have to have it all done by June 20.

The Attic of Love™ is now officially The Attic of Non-Love Disaster™

One thing that you may not realize is that for all of the work I did on the basement and other rooms, I sacrificed the hours needed to maintain... and I use that would very sparingly... the so-called Attic of Love™.

Over the past 12 months it has devolved into The Attic of Disaster™.

Oy koledy! What a mess I have to work with.

With Star Saber as my guide and task master I will endeavor to spend 10-15 hours a week on the Attic in conjunction with finishing up the comics in the basement and all the other items that need to be completed.

Continue reading "The Attic of Love™ is now officially The Attic of Non-Love Disaster™" »

Day 14 - Evening - It is all painty!

Ok. The painting of the steps is done.

Now all that's left is to clean the stairwell, clean the steps, and do some more touch-up paint on the walls and door. I still need to do some touchup painting on the exterior of the door and some other minor stuff and we can call the Stairwell Project finished!

Day 14 - Lunchtime - First coat.

So I had another fun run home at lunchtime in which I stripped off all of my clothes and had a hot j/o session got the last step painted with a first coat of the light grey.

Yeah. It doesn't totally work with the light beige on the walls but I just don't care anymore.

2nd and final coat this afternoon.

Day 13 - Priming of the final step!!!!"

So I got the final step primed. I'll get a first coat of paint on it around lunchtime and then a 2nd coat later in the evening.

I'm going to do it the lighter grey I did the other steps. I've got a ton of that paint.

Day 12 - Back to the stairwell!

So today I started working on finishing the basement stairwell.

I got a lot done.

The carpeting on the landing is glued down and all of the treads have been glued and tacked down.

I also got some touch-up painting done to the door and frame.

Hell... I even got a shitload of dandlelions picked too.

Tomorrow I'm going to try to get some more stairwell painting done and strart sorting the comics to take to the show on Sunday.

Day 153 - In which principle work on the basement comes to an end!

And after 12 months, and 153 days of major labor, principle repair work on the basement of the House of Love III has been completed. And there's been a major bedroom remodel in that year too.

Now all that's left is some minor painting, some touch up here and there, to install the runners and carpet on the stairs, and get those damn comics sorted and those toys sold off!

It has come a long way since I started on it last April 21, 2006.

What a long year it has been:

Nala's Basement Restoration gallery 01
Nala's Basement Restoration gallery 02
Nala's Basement Restoration gallery 03
Nala's Basement Restoration gallery 04
Basement Stairwell gallery

Day 152 - The final coat of paint is applied! W00t!

And on the 152nd day, Nala applied the final coat of paint to the floor.

And it was good.

(Oh. And the post is primed too!)

Day 151 - So close...

The first coat of thinned paint is down. The second and final coat will be tomorrow.

Satuday will be priming and painting the post and cleaning.

Sunday will hopefully be putting the touches on the steps.

So close...

Day 150 - In which my back hurts, but I work.

Even though my back is still killing me I had to start up again.

I spent almost two back-breaking hours on my hands and knees scraping and and wire-brushing the remaining powdery residue up, all the while holding the blaring shop vac near so it could capture as much of the dust as possible.

Horrible.

Just horrible.

With a damp cloth, I wiped it all down trying to get the remaining dust up.

I then used up the last of the drylock and worked it all into the floor, trying to mix up any particulates into it and create a clean surface for the urethane.

If all goes well, and it is dry tomorrow, I can get the house all smelly and by thinning out the urethane and getting the first coat down. If that happens, Friday will be the 2nd and final coat and then it'll all be good by Sunday.

Day 149 - Evening - The Pole with a new pole!

The World's Most Beloved Polish-American, on this fine Dyngus Day, got a new basement post installed.

One could say The Pole got a new pole and it doesn't even sound remotely dirty.

It fit with a little bit of effort.

Alas, I can't say the same for the floor, which I totally fuck'd up.

The only 2 things I can think that happened were that 1) I somehow got the ratio of water to waterproofer mix wrong (never has happened before) or 2) the fact that I accidentally left the de-humidifier on sucked all the moisture out, not letting it cure, and turning it basically to powder.

The third option is that the active portland cement ingredients in the Sunny Dry have gone to hell.

I spent a couple of hours scrubbing the floor with a brush and trying to vacuum up as much of the potentially toxic dust as I could. Then, and this is the part I am paying for as I write this, I got on my hands and knees and brushed the shit out of the floor, trying to vacuum as I went along.

Basically I need to completely remove any traces of the powder residue from the previous attempt to coat it. I've got a small area cleaned that I'm drying out to see if it worked.

And in other news, my backs now totally mega-hurty.

Day 149 - A post and a screwup!

So Giga picked me up at work and during lunch we ran to the lumber yard.

I had a 6" x 6" post cut to the size we figure it needs to be.

I'll be installing it this afternoon.

Now something really bad has happened that I have yet to figure out how to deal with.

I don't know if my ratio was off or what but the waterproofing I did the other day is totally fubarred.

It didn't dry/cure solid but is powdery. Not at all acceptable. I'm quite worried actually since the most I can do is try to crawl around and wirebrush it down a bit and try to vacuuming up the dust.

I so didn't need this.

Grrrr...

Not a single previous use of this product over the past 10 months has ever resulted in it acting like this after it dried.

Day 148 - More lack of success on the post front.

So I had to take Hensley to the vet for his shots and all today and didn't get around to calling the lumber yards until after 12.

Giga called and managed to find a place that carries the posts and can get them to size.

Alas, they were closed too. Hell... they seem to close at noon on Saturdays.

What sucks the balls is that tomorrow being a christian holiday means every frigg'n place will be closed so I'll be lucky to be able to get anything.

Looks like the post will have to come Monday.

Not to waste the day completely, I went ahead and got the first coat of the final waterproofing SunnyDry down all over the patches areas of the floor and up the walls a bit (above).

Tomorrow will be the 2nd and final coat.

And that's it!

Once that is fully dry and the permanent post is installed (so the temp ones can be removed) I can begin putting down the polyurethane coats!!!

So close to being done!!!

Day 147 - Grrr....

So Lowe's has the 6x6x9 post I need but they can't cut the thing to 69 7/8 inches!!!

Arrghhhh!!!

We hit Best Lumber but they were closed.

Grrrr...

I so wanted to have the post installed and the temporary ones down so I could finish the floor.

Day 146 - The usual...

So I got yesterday's work sealed and got additional cement down over that area. I also used the cement to seal the seam around the concrete base I made and the floor.

I'm almost done with the floor!!! I need to measure and get the post.

Day 145 - Evening - The last crack fixed.

I came home, moved the one temporary post over about 6", and dug out the crack it was resting on.

I got all that scraped out and completely resealed.

Have I mentioned lately how I'm totally over this?

Day 145 - Afternoon - Chocolate cake or concrete?

Went home and sprayed the curing concrete again.

I may move the temporary post in and work on the area under it. That needs to be chiseled clean and sealed.

Then again, my back is extremely hurty. I was last night too.

Day 145 - Early Morning - Formy McFormenstein

I got up early and removed the plastic form.

It looks like it worked perfectly for the most part.

I've got it sprayed down wet and wrapped in plastic to cure. That'll take about 4 days or so for that thickness.

What I'm a bit worried about is the way the concrete settled.

I did my best to apply pressure and level it since the whole floor itself isn't quite level any more.

The weight of the concrete caused it to all settle a bit so it isn't quite what it was.

Oh well. What can ya do.

Day 144 - Evening - The concrete post base is set!

So I gave up looking for "forms" that would work and resigned myself to finding something cheap and around the house that I could use for the concrete post base.

Once of the containers I bought to store tools and shit in worked nicely!

I cut out the bottom and the handles and while it is a bit more rectangular than I'l like, it'll do.

Unfortunately, I had to get an 80# bag of the Extra Strong Concrete that take take lots of pressure per square inch. I only used 40 pounds though.

Hopefully, and I can say this with some certainty, this is the last of the concrete I should have to buy for the basement!

Sad.

I came home to 4 cop cars blocking all entrances to the street.

I pulled in the Backyard of Love and when I came around front I saw him.

I'm not totally sure what happened but I have a feeling that he got hit by a car and thrown in from of Chloe's Dad's place.

Sad.

Looks kind of like a boxer but could be a pit bull. He's collared and all too.

I hope he died instantaneously with no pain.

Or at least as little as possible.

UPDATE: I got the low down.

Apparently there was a car crash 3 streets over. The dog lives near there and got totally freaked out by all the cops at the crash and such. He attacked a cop and the cop shot him.

He ran three blocks, bleeding all the way, until he collapsed here.

So very very sad.

Day 144 - Lunchtime - Did some minor touch up!

I did some minor waterproofer touch up at lunch.

I need to find what I'm going to use as a form for the concrete base of the post.

I was going to use a plastic bucket but the more I look at them the more I realize I may have to make a wooden form out of whatever I have laying around.

Alas, cutting anything with my current tools is a pain in the ass. Unfortunately, the table saw is buried buy tons of shit and is more or less inaccessible because of the damn comics.

Day 143 - Almost Evening - Sealing the cracks and the "hole".

The gaping hole that was the base of the center post is now sealed. I've been building up layers of cement and some concrete and now I've used the two bricks as the foundation of what I'll build up.

I'm going to use a large bucket as a mold for the fiber-reinforced concrete. The post will rest on that.

Day 143 - Lunchtime - Final coat on the area behind the furnace.

The back of the furnace area is sealed. Hopefully it'll be dry by this afternoon.

I'm taking another fan down to keep the area constantly blowing to facilitate drying of the paint.

The "greater" area of the floor is pretty much done and is just awaiting the final polyurethane painting which will be the final thing.

All focus will now be on the center post area.

Day 143 - Early Morning Fun

There's nothing quite like waterproofing cement at 4:15 in the morning.

I'll get the 2nd coat on at lunchtime which should be dry buy afternoon.

Today will actually be a bit unproductive. I'm reaching the point where I'm almost done with the floor and I'm now fixing the cracks around where the new center post base will go.

So close to being done I can almost taste it.

Or maybe that's just toxic chemicals in my mouth.

Might even get some comics sorted and boxed up today.

I hate comics! I want them gone!

Day 142 - Guess what? More cement and more waterproofing

So I got the 1st layer of hyrdraulic cement over the cracks that originate behind the furnace.

I just wish I could really fix the cracks under the damn thing.

I'm doing my best though.

I also wirebrushed the cracks that originate out of the "post hole" in the center of the room and cleaned and scraped as much flooring as I could.

I have my first layer of water proofer down over everything (pic above) which equates to about the 3rd or so coat specifically over the cracks.

Around 7 tonight I'll do another coat.

Depending on how that hydraulic cement dries and cures, I may be able to seal that area tomorrow and work on applying the first coats of cement onto the cracks by the post.

Day 141 - My cement and stuff.

So last night Giga took me to restock on cement and waterproofer.

I slacked off pretty much until noon.

We ended up heading to Tommy's Diner and stopped by the Meisters but nobody answered.

We even visited with the Powers household briefly.

Oh. Yeah.

I got some more cracks cleaned, I got some more cement applied, and I got some first coats of Drylock on other areas.

Of course, my back immediately started hurting again.

Funny that.

Day 140 - It goes on...

Ok. I got another 2 coats of waterproofer along the seams I did yesterday.

I also got some other areas in the awkward furnace space cleaned out and the first coat of waterproofer shoved into the cracks.

This area is such a paint to work in.

What sucks... and there's nothing I can do about... is the fact I can't fix any cracks under the furnace.

I'm trying to get as far under as I can but it isn't much. The damn probable potential problem is dead center under the furnace.

Day 139 - Afternoon - More cementing!

Ok. I've gone through the last 40 lbs or so of my hydraulic cement this afternoon.

My knees and my frigg'n back are killing me again.

I'm just too old for this crawling around on the floor shit.

Anyway, I got the final cement layer down on the doorway between rooms and that has now been smoothed.

I've got the first coat of cement down over the cracks in the center of the room (pic above) and hopefully this all be dried out by tomorrow.

Anyway, tomorrow will be a cleaning and wirebrushing of the floor areas without cracks and then, if the 1/2 of the north part is cured, a final waterproofing coat.

I need to restock on supplies anyway and that'll be enough for tomorrow anyway.

I may try to get a lot of trash taken out too, making room to start on the floor and post area this weekend towards the center of the house.

Day 139 - Lunchtime - Waterproofing

Second coat of waterproofer on parts of the cracks. That should allow me to wirebrush and clean some slab tonight and get some additional cement down.

I figure 30 minutes at lunchtime and 2-3 hours of work in the evening should hopefully let me see some real progress by the middle of next week.

I'm also going to begin rebuilding the base for the post today too.

Day 138 - Evening - More cement and stuff.

Ok. I managed to get another layer of hydraulic cement down on the north side and between on the doorway between the main basement room and the front porch room.

I also got 2nd coat of cement on a good portion of the cracks.

I also chiseled and cleaned another good section of the floor and got more cracks filled with the initial waterproofing.

Oh. And an additional layer of hydrualic cement to waterproof the "hole" of what will become the new center post base.

My back is really hurty though. We'll see what tomorrow holds.

Day 138 - Morning - 2nd coat

There's nothing quite like applying waterproofer in the basement at 4:30am.

But the next coat on the north section of the floor is done, saving me lunchtime work.

This afternoon I hope to get the south part of the floor cleaned and the cracks dug out as well as another layer of hydraulic cement on the north area that needs to be smoothed out a bit due to my recent chiseling work.

Day 137 - More crackiness (of the non plastic variety)

More digging, wirebrushing, and cleaning of the north floor.

I also did some waterproofing over the cement I did the other day.

I'm really really really sick of doing this.

I so need to finish this basement!

Day 136 - Floor work

So I've got several days ahead of work on the basement floor.

I spent today chiseling out the north wall cracks and sealing them.

Fun.

Day 135 - Unexpected things in the basement.

Major unexpected shit in the basement.

Today I put the temporary support posts up on the main beam and removed the previously installed "temporary" post and with Giga's help I got the wooden post out.

Unfortunately, I thought it was sitting on the foundation and had cracked it and sunk in a bit.

Wrong!

The actual floor was poured around what looks like a "post" made of bricks. I should have suspected as much based on the other post by the stairs. I think that there was probably a brick post just like that one here in the center and they removed most of it and just put the wood one up on a few of the bricks as a base.

Ugh!

So. I'm going to try and repair what exists there in the same general fashion it is. I'm going to use the bricks as a base as they originally were and then seal the concrete and build up additional support around it. A 6" x 6" new post will then replace the old one.

Oh. And I got some Sunny Dry waterproofer up too on the foundation under the pantry and on the door frame.

Tomorrow I'll be digging out the cracks and repairing what I can.

Day 134 - Part 2 - Prepping the next area!

I also got the next, and basically final, area of the basement cleared out so that I can begin cleaning and prepping to repair the cracks, seal the floor, and repair the damaged floor and post.

The Cowlands has been barraged by endless rain the past few days. The ground everywhere can barely contain any more water and even my backyard is soggy and messy.

When we have this horrible rain, the moisture starts to seap up the basement floor along the many decades old cracks.

It doesn't really run or anything it just becomes noticeable.

This is especially true about the damage under the center post.

Unfortunately, the temporary posts we bought a few years back aren't going to work.

I forgot they they are too tall for this area.

I need at max 6' 2" posts and these are more for 6' 6" and bigger.

Which of course means they are totally useless and I need go go out any buy new ones tomorrow.

I'm thinking 1 will truly be sufficient since this will hopefully only take a 5-6 days to fix and at most maybe 8-9.

I really won't know until that center post and that ancient "temporary" post are removed and I can look at the damaged floor underneath.

Anyway, I need to invest in more Drylock and hopefully snag 1 more drum of that Sunny Dry that Lowe's isn't going to carry anymore. I should be able to pick up a new post tomorrow.

Fun!

Oh. And I have to get my resume redone for a job that I think I may actually have a chance of getting.

It'll mean I'm out of publishing and into full blown IT but it is a step in the right direction for something new. I've got a resume in for a design job but I'm really only hoping to get the interview on that and not necessarily the job. My interview skills are rusty. It has been 6 years!

Day 134 - More waterproofing and prepping and old area.

So I got the concrete that was up on the old door frame area waterproofed today.

The parging was so thin that it was pretty much cured already.

I suppose I could have waited a few days but really, this area isn't so much of a concern since it is internal to the house and the floor/wall is really solidly done.

Some of you may remember I redid the stairwell going down to the basement back in February 2006.

Well I've finally gone back and prepped it so that I can put some of the SunnyDry waterproofer on it to make it look like the rest of the repaired foundation.

I can't finish the stairs until all the painting in the basement and touch-up in the stairwell is complete. That'll be the finishing touch on the whole basement ordeal.

Why couldn't Wanda have said "No More Cowtwon Rain"?

Rain. Rain. Please go away.

But so far, the front room work seems to be solid, including the recent floor work.

But of course, I had to move so many bins into that room.

Day 133 - I actually kept working into the evening.

I managed to get a massive amount of work done.

The earlier crap had fully dried so I was able to work in the concrete up along where the door frame used to be.

This should take a couple of days to cure.

I'll seal the wall/floor seam with yet another additional mix of hydrualic cement and I can call this ready for full waterproofing and then get to work on the floor under the post.

Day 133 - Oh my god... I waterproofed some more today! Go fig!

Yeah. I got two coats of Drylock down today. The first at lunch time and then when I got home.

I also got the "concrete bonding adhesive" painted on in preparation for tomorrow's concrete work.

I swear this is a major 'con'. This shit is just Elmer's glue. It looks like Elmer's glue. It smells like Elmer's glue.

If it looks like Elmer's glue and smells like Elmer's glue it has to be Elmer's glue!!!

Tomorrow I run the concrete parging up the area where the door frames used to to be. I'm also going to try and clean up the whole general unfinished area so I can start prepping the cracks and such.

However...

Continue reading "Day 133 - Oh my god... I waterproofed some more today! Go fig!" »

Day 132 - Door frame cementing done.

So I got several hours in today and would have done more but my knees and back started killing me. I also ran out of hydraulic cement so couldn't do much more.

I managed to get all of Giga's toy bins and a ton of other stuff into the porch room and out of the way.

I wish I hadn't taken the comics downstairs. I just don't have time to sort them.

Day 131 - Some floor painting and sealing in the doorway.

I got a lot done today. The floor in the porch room is now painted and should be dry by tomorrow, allowing me to move in the wood frames I had Giga assemble to stack all the Christmas stuff on. I'm just not a fan of boxes and bins directly on the floor in a basement.

Better than when I started, no?

I also got a ton of shit carted out to the trash and a "pile" by the gate that I need to figure out how to dispose of. I should cut up the wood waste and bin it.

I also got the cracks between the rooms cleaned out.

The room under the porch is a later addition to the house, most likely added when the porch was added on.

I've gone ahead and sealed the seam that has been leaking moisture.

I've got a coat of waterproofer on it now and tomorrow I'll begin the process of working cement into it to seal even more pores.

I hope to also level it out since it kind of sinks in here.

Thursday will probably be the mixing of the concrete to run up the areas where door frame used to be, parging over the stone foundation there.

Day 130 - More waterproofing and some chiseling.

So I got the touch-up done on the ceiling/walls of the room under the porch.

I also started chiseling out the best I could under what used to be the door frame.

The problem is, the moisture appears to be coming directly out from the stones that are right on the concrete floor and not from obvious gaps and holes like in other parts of the walls.

I did my best though and have a thin first coat of filler in there.

I also dug out a deep crack that runs from under the porch into the basement. This has always caused problems and unfortunately is right where the two different floors meet. Not a great place to try and patch.

I have a fresh filling of hydraulic cement in the crack now.

Tomorrow I'll see how that's cured and go from there.

Day 129 - 2nd and final coat done

No photo.

Hell. It looks a lot like yesterday just all wet again.

The 2nd and final coat is done. Tomorrow I'll touch up the ceiling and areas that the large brush made a mess of with Drylock and a smaller brush.

I've got the fans and the dehumidifier working on drying out the doorway area where I had to tear the door frame out.

Fun.

Day 128 - The SunnyDry goes up!

The first coat of the SunnyDry waterproofer cement has gone up. I've taken it all the way to the ceiling. I'm trying to not get it over everything.

Tomorrow the final coat should go up.

I'll write about the rain and the basement drama I had.

I'm sad to say I'm not the only one with basement problems.

Day 126 - Part 2 - Another coat!

Imagine this but with a another coat of waterproofer on it.

The fumes are getting to me.

Day 126 - Lunchtime waterproofing!

So I managed to make use of my lunch hour and get the entire waterproofer up the sides and over the floor.

In retrospect, I think I diluted the muriatic acid too much. The cement on the floor where the drylock really needed to bond with still seemed too smooth but alas, I'm too far along to do anything about that.

I've got a fan going and maybe... just maybe.... the final coat can go on this evening.

Otherwise, I may have to wait until tomorrow.

Day 125 - Geez. More cement and waterproofing.

Yup. Yet another layer of cement on the floor/wall seam and the 1st waterproofing coat on the floor.

It never ends.

Day 124 - The floor began!

Day 123 - My last (hopefully) concrete parging in the house!

Today I mixed up 120lbs of concrete and parged the interior wall that faces the inside of the porch room.

This'll take a few days to cure.

Yesterday's waterproofing is still drying/curing.

Tomorrow my attention will be turned to the floor. There's hours of scraping, wirebrushing, vacuuming, and hopefully getting the cracks filled with their first patching.

If the walls are ok I'll probably do the last and final coat of hydraulic cement too.

The floor cracks will take until Thursday to finish with the various patching and sealing layers.

Friday the wall should be cured enough and maybe, just maybe, I can start doing the final waterproofing coats all over everything.

Day 122 - More waterproofing goodness.

After returning from a quick trip to Cleveburg I ended up doing another coat of waterproofing.

Fun. But nothing exciting.

Day 121 - Parts 1 & 2 - Waterproofed at lunch and then cemented at dinner!

So at lunchtime I came home, changed into my work clothes, and managed to get a 2nd coat of waterproofer over all the work I did yesterday.

That was dry when I got home from work so I was able to get a coat of hydraulic cement up the walls to mostly ground level.

I at least finished and am where I want to be. This will all cure for the next couple of days while I'm out of town.

Depending on my mood Sunday I may get the next coat of water proofer up. We'll see.

Right now I have cement under my nails, my back is totally killing me, and the mediocre jambolaya that Giga's got cooking is wafting up to the attic driving me bonkers (I'm on a fast this week).

I need a shower and some painkillers.

Oy koledy! My back!

I'm getting so old.

Day 120 - The real work begins and boy does my back feel it!

$130 dollars at Lowes, 3 hours, and now a hurty back have left me with significant progress on the walls for the true first day of work in here.

I worked hyrdraulic cement into the 3 areas that are prone to seepage, filled all of the wall cracks with an acrylic masonry filler, and also got a 1st coat of Drylock into the masonry brick on several areas.

I'm trying to do several things simultaneously that don't really impact one another until they all get coated over with other layers of shit.

Tomorrow will bring a 2nd coat of drylock about 4 bricks up from the floor to cover the areas I patched, as well as the 1st coat on the brick I didn't get to because of the crack patching.

Friday and Saturday will be days off due to a trip to Cleveburg.

Day 119 - The cleaning and the etching.

So I spent today wirebrushing, scraping, and sweep'n and vac'n the Scariest Basement Room In Clintonville Lite today.

Ugh!

Once that was done, I put on my long work clothing, my goggles and respirator, and my big ass rubber gloves and mixed up some acid.

The walls has been washed down from about ground level and the floor, especially the cracks, have been scrubbed.

I continued to dilute the mix on the walls and it should all be neutralized now.

I've got the ever blowing fan and dehumidifier going trying to dry it all out now.

Day 118 - The worst of the basement work begins.

Would you believe that after all I've gone through with the stone walls and the previous 9 months of laborous work that I'm actually more afraid of the front porch room?

Yup.

Some of you may remember I was going to start here back in April but then decided to tackle the rest of the basement first.

I suppose I should have started here.

The past summer and winter have not been pretty here.

Not pretty at all.

Continue reading "Day 118 - The worst of the basement work begins." »

Day 117 - Final coat!

I got the final coat of polyurethane on the floor this evening.

Now on to the real distaster that is the room under the porch.

Day 116 - The first coat of thinned polyurethane enamel is down.

So much progress.

Tomorrow the final coat will go down and then I can let it dry the weekend.

I so want to start on the room under the porch on Monday. I am so behind schedule.

Day 115 - Ugh! The fumes have gotten to me!

After a bit the damn Drylock fumes can get to you. I have the fan running for ventilation but it isn't quite the same has having the side door open and a fan drawing fresh air inside.

Ok. The basement floor section by the stairs' crack sealing and waterproofing is done.

Tomorrow I need to buy another gallon of the urethane and I should be able to get a thinned first coat down tomorrow evening.

That leaves Friday for a 2nd coat and the weekend to dry!

I may be able to start on the room under the porch next Monday!!!

Oh... and I have a job interview tomorrow.

Day 114 - 2nd coatage!

It pretty much looks the same today as it did yesterday.

I got a coat of drylock on the cracks and a 2nd coat of hydraulic cement over that.

Tomorrow I'll finish up the drylock coats. Thursday should be a good clean up and vac'n the floor and maybe just the first thinned coat of polyurethane enamel.

Friday may just see the final coat for this section.

Day 113 - Northwest corner crack-o-rama!

I got the main cracks dug out from the steps to the northwest corner and the whole thing sealed as well.

Day 112 - First coat of floor drylock down.

I got the first coat of Drylock down on the floor area where I sealed the cracks under the stairwell.

I'll be working on this entire section this week, basically aiming at being able to hopefully have this part of the floor fully sealed and painted by Saturday.

I need to be able to store shit back under the stair well and get on with the rest of the floor.

Day 111 - Basement floor crack repair

I got the one major crack in the floor under the steps cleaned out and packed with hydraulic cement.

I'm not certain any of this is making a difference. Who knows.

The rear part of the basement hasn't shown any water seeping through the but I have a feeling that what I'm doing is really just putting down a barrier that may last a year or two. I can't imagine the hydrostatic pressure can be held back by Drylock, but that's how it advertises itself.

I hope all this time and money I've spent makes a difference.

I really do.

Day 110 - Basement floor work starts again!

Yeah... you read that right! Day 110!

It is back to the Basement Project "Proper" and that means today actually had work on the stairwell project and the return of cement/concrete work on the floor.

I haven't touched the floor down there since November 12, 2006.

I'm really scared of the possibility of water coming in through the unsealed floor due to all that ice and snow melting.

And quite frankly, I don't want to waste any time on anything anymore.

Must... get... out... of... ghetto!

Day 11 - And there shall come a carpet!

So I bought 4ft of institutional carpeting today and cut it to fit the landing space.

The with wasn't perfect. You can see the gap on the left. But I think it'll work out fine.

Day 10 - More priming, painting, and floor clean up!

I got a lot more done today.

Some additional touch up white painting and some additional grey touch up was done.

The bottom step is painted and drying.

The pic above will show what it will generally look like when it is done.

It isn't great but it is better than this.

I also started work on the cleaning a section of the floor to redo the concrete cracks and seal them.

Day 9 - Part II - And there shall come a new step!

Ran to Lowes and got a new step. Even got it installed and primed.

I got a 2nd and final coat of grey on the steps and under the stairwell.

The foam is sprayed in. I'll trim it flush and paint over it tomorrow.

Continue reading "Day 9 - Part II - And there shall come a new step!" »

Day 9 - Onto the grey...

So I got another coat of the white semi-gloss up and the 1st coat on the grey on the steps.

The areas without paint are for the adhesive that will help glue down the vinyl runners that will go on each step. Well... adhesive and tacks.

All in all it looks cleaner.

While I'm not being totally anal about this, I am trying to be clean and use tape. I even painted under the steps to seal all that wood.

I still have to figure out about the top landing part.

I need to do the small part of the wall under the pantry cupboard with the Sunny Dry water proofer so it matches the rest of the walls. Once that is done I'll paint the stairs to match what I'm currently doing.

I found a greyish cheap utility carpet that might work there. A 3' x 3' piece glued down might but just want that needs.

Day 8 - In which steps and risers are primed.

Spent today caulking some gaps and shit. I ran out of caulk though so I'll probably have to go out this evening so it has the overnight time to dry.

The steps and risers are primed too so hopefully I can get a coat of cheap semi-gloss paint on them tomorrow.

This has become the shittiest work I've ever done.

And you know...

I just don't care.

I just want the basement done.

Day 7 - I've been negligent in updating

I've been really negligent on updating you all on the Stairwell project.

I suppose the snow, ice, and my general depression have pretty much contributed to that.

I'm making progress.

I got fed up with scraping some of it and started priming and painting part of it. I'll do the risers and steps tomorrow or Saturday.

It won't be great. But it will look clean.

Heat... it does the Hoont good!

The furnace took 3.5 hours to fix. It wasn't even back on for 30 seconds when Hensley ran over to his favorite heating vent and plopped himself down.

So it'll probably run non-stop for several hours.

But we have heat again.

And that's good.

Soon. Quite soon.

Furnace dude is supposed to be here between 1 and 2.

I'm certainly hoping it is the same part that was "repaired" 2 weeks ago so this is all under the warranty.

All I can say is that when it gets working again I'm gonna have one helluva gas bill this month.

Ugh. This sucks!

Ok. From the looks of it, the part that was replaced on the furnace has totally burnt up. I noticed the insulation on the wire that feeds the solenoid is now crumbled off. That was definitely not like that with the new one.

It is supposed to be 3 degrees tonight. Not a good time to have the furnace out.

The faucets are all dripping. We've got some incandescent lights on just to keep some minor heat here and there. I have one of the electric heaters down near Hensley and I've got one on the 2nd floor.

Hopefully we can make it through this without the house getting real cold.

The furnace is out again.

Sometime last night after midnight the furnace decided to stop working again.

Giga woke up around 3:30am or so and the house was 49 degrees.

I woke up around 4:30am and basically encountered him walking outside to check a circuit break on the heat pump unit outside.

While he was out, it kicked in and managed to run all day just trying to get the temperature up in the house.

We spent 3 hours picking up the new dining room set and by about 4pm we got home and it was obvious that it had stopped working again.

I've putzed around with it. He's putzed around with it.

And it clicks on like it is ready to fire, the pilot light seems to go, and then nothing. It never fires up nor does the blower kick on.

So. $400 got use a working furnace for about 2 weeks and now who knows what this'll cost if it isn't the same part that is the problem.

This just after I spent a shitload on toys recently, a shitload on a dining room set, and just want to do as little as possible to get the fuck out of this ghetto neighborhood.

I'm going to bring down the electric heaters from the attic.

Day 1 - Today I was Scrapey McScrapenstein

Got a couple of hours in on the stairwell and about 85% of the old ancient linoleum has been torn up.

Went to Lowe's and got some white semi-gloss paint, some runners for the stairs, and some adhesive to put the runners down on. I still need to borrow a tack gun or something from friends (hint, hint).

I'm gonna spend the rest of the week basically scraping and prepping all of the wood.

Then I'll get a piece of wood and find some way to cut it so that it will become the last step. If you recall, I had to remove that back on May 8, 2006.

Then to clean up the walls and coat the area under the pantry with the Sunny Drylock shit so it matches the rest of the walls in the basement.

I'm doing this pretty much on the cheap.

Day 0 - The Basement Stairwell Project begins.

It was almost a year ago to the day that I began working on the basement repairs.

363 days later I find myself once again beginning work on the basement stairwell.

Yup. All of you care so deeply for the House of Love that I didn't want to deny you more exciting daily coverage of repair work.

And it is time to begin the basement repairs again, eventually culminating in a completely finished basement.

Yup. Excitement galore!

In fact, here's the awesome Flickr gallery of the project so you can visit every day.

The furnace broke.

The furnace broke the other night and has only been working sporadically.

The temperature dropped down into the 50 degree range in the house today.

It was balls fah-reezing!

But at least the Hoont can be warm now.

Day 2 ends... and the dining room ceiling is done!

The dining room is done!

What to do tomorrow?

Day 2 goes on... The primer's up!

So I've got the primer up. I'm getting a shitload done today.

No more slacking.

And I didn't even get a solid hour worth of sleep last thanks to the noise of the neighbors.

Have I mentioned lately how much I hate it here?

Day 2 - Ceilings- 2nd coat of elastic crack!

2nd coat of spray elastic is done.

Hopefully I can prime around noon!

I may just be totally done with this room by end of day today!

The problem with old plaster ceilings.

There's an amazing tactile difference between a plaster wall and a gypsum-based wall (drywall).

The same can definitely be said for ceilings too.

But man oh man, an 80-year-old plaster ceiling can be a pain in the ass.

And of course, that's what I'm dealing with in the House of Love.

I've noticed that I have to be extremely careful with the ceiling repairs. So many areas where the cracks occur are actually weak stress points in the plaster.

Basically, the plaster itself has separated from the wood lathing that forms the wall. I feel as if I could easily have some of it come crumbling down if I apply too much pressure.

Sucks.

Balls.

Day 1 (continued) - Elasti-crack?

I managed to get the first coat of good-bye crack sprayed on the dining room ceiling with minimal overspray and only a minor head buzz.

I almost forgot to mention that Kelmeister's Mother & Father have given me 3 rugs for the house. It has been raining so we couldn't bring them home.

The larger one will go in the Kulpa Suite to try and maybe just distract from the "sea of gray" that is the carpeting there.

The smaller one will go in the back bedroom.

The third will go in the attic.

Oh yeah. The rain. It just hasn't stopped.

I've got water coming in the basement from the porch room too.

I sooooooo wish I had gotten that room done.

We've had so much rain in the Cowlands that the 1/2 of the basement floor I didn't get to seal has been seaping water. The cracks are allowing moisture up.

I've been constantly watching the floor cracks I cleaned, filled with hydraulic cement, and sealed with Drylok and they haven't had any moisture. That's a damn good sign! A really good sign!

I just wish I had finished the whole basement before Thanksgiving.

Day 1 - The Ceiling Project begins!

So today started The Ceiling Project. I'm going from room to room fixing ceiling cracks and repainting things to the bare minimum that need done.

The dining room ceiling has been taped off and I've forced spackling into the cracks (below).

Continue reading "Day 1 - The Ceiling Project begins!" »

Day 24 - In which a bedroom is finished.

Oh. I almost forgot.

Continue reading "Day 24 - In which a bedroom is finished." »

Day 23 - Doors rehung and blinds up!

So I scrubbed and scraped the door hardware for about an house and just finally said "done'. Not great. Still has paint on it. But my fingers and wrists started killing me.

I got a lot done afterwards.

The doors are rehung, the blinds are installed, and I got a ton of supplies moved back to the basement.

It has come a long way since November 20 when I started.

Day 23 - Why won't you strip?!?!

Damn! That paint just isn't coming off.

The hardware has sat in paint thinner overnight now and still it is barely coming off. I putzed around with it at lunch trying to scrape the shit but whatever it is it'll barely come off.

Grrrrr!

I'll do some more scrubbing when I get home but I'm not in the mood to waste too much time on it.

I gotta get that room back in order by Friday.

Day 22 (continued) - Very little progress tonight.

I didn't make much progress tonight. The old latex paint is coming off the door hardware but underneath it there has to be some oil-based stuff since I can't get it off.

I have it all soaking in paint thinner so hopefully that'll take remove it.

I really wanted to get the doors up.

They don't look too bad.

Day 22 - Painting at lunch?

I managed to get a 2nd coat of paint on the 2 doors and furnace grate during lunch today.

I only managed to get paint on one of my socks too. That's a record!

Not only did I get painting done but I also got in a run to Lowe's and bought blinds, a light fixture, outlets and switches, new plates and door stops, and paint cleaner too!

I feel like I've put my house work time in already!

Day 21 (Part 2) - And even a coat of paint.

I managed to get a coat of paint on the doors!

I may have them done and rehung by Wednesday.

Day 21 - In which doors are primed!

So the doors were cleaned, roughened up, and have a coat of primer on them.

I hate painted doors. I really do.

But there's no point in stripping and refinishing them for this house.

That's what I really hate here. I know how things should be done and I know that doing the right thing wouldn't add a bit to the property value here in the ghetto.

*sigh*

To buy or not to buy. That is the question.

So the vintage Art Deco dining room set of a friend of mine is for sale.

I wanted it four years ago when I bought the House of Love but now, with the house being so close to sale, I'm not sure if it is right to buy it.

What do you think?

Continue reading "To buy or not to buy. That is the question." »

Day 20 - Damn! That almost looks good!

The ceiling is done. The walls are done. The molding is done.

Tomorrow I hope to get the detail painting/clean up done and get the doors primed. I might even be able to get a first coat on them as well. They'll have the ultra white just like the trim like I've done before for this wall color.

Looks a helluva lot better than this.

Day 19 (Later) - 1st coat of molding and trim done

So I just went ahead and had a fan going for several hours to dry the walls. I lightly taped everything and got the 1st coat of ultra white semi-gloss up on the molding and baseboards.

It is starting to come together.

The "Heavy Cream" color just works for me. It isn't cold really, but it isn't warm either. But it just looks clean and fairly neutral.

I think I may move my dresser into this room when I'm done and maybe the rocker my mother gave me. I figure a couple of either framed prints or fabrics should work too. And a cheap ass rug from Big Lots or Bargain Outlet or something.

I'll do a final coat tomorrow and then call it a day. I'd like to actually lay in bed a good portion of tomorrow doing nothing.

Well... the Christmas shit has to come down, tonight being the end of Six Kings and all.

Day 19 - Second coat done and 2nd caulk!

Well, I managed to get a full second coat on the walls. I've got a little bit of the gallon left to do touchup when I'm done with the molding too. I was afraid I one gallon wasn't going to cut it and I was almost right.

I need to check how much ultra white semi-gloss I have left. I forgot I used it in the basement stairwell. Alas, I may need yet another gallon of that.

Day 18 - First coat of "Heavy Cream" paint on the walls.

The first coat of paint is up on the walls.

Tomorrow morning I hope to get the 2nd coat on and maybe do the remaining caulking on the windows.

I need a solid day to dry before I attempt to tape off the molding.

Day 17 - The ceiling is painted!

I got 2 coats of paint on the ceiling today.

On the whole, I tried to use a shittier roller that would leave something of a texture. I'll have to sand down a few specks of lint here and there but I'm hoping that texture will diffract the reflected light a bit more and hide some of the crappy sanding.

All in all it does at least look better than yesterday. A bit at least.

No sense having a photo since it is all white and pretty much looks like it has for the past few days.

Tomorrow starts the walls! And since they are the heavy cream color that'll at least give you something fresh (and different) to look it.

Oh. And this is what the heavy cream color looks like finished from when I did the front bedroom.

Day 16 - Second coat of primer done

Second and final coat of primer done.

Man did I do a real shitty job on the ceiling.

Words of Wisdom: Learn to do drywall mudding and sanding on an less than visible area.

Day 15 - That's just prime(r)!

It isn't perfect but the plastering and sanding is as good as it is gonna get!

Believe me, the flaws stand out bigtime to me but I have to keep moving on.

The first coat of primer/sealer is on.

I went through an entire can of Killz for the entire room.

Tomorrow I'll do a second coat on the ceiling, some areas of the wall, and some of the trim.

I forgot that the previous owner had used that awful silicone non-paintable caulk to seal the windows so I have to run a very thin spread of my own paintable caulk over it so that the primer/paint will adhere. Pain in the ass!

Hopefully it'll go faster tomorrow.

3 1/2 hours for such a small bedroom is just too long.

Gotta remember I may need to get more masking tape too.

Day 14 - More spackling... emergency style!

Even though my back is hurty I trudged through and got a little bit done today.

There actually was a Day 13 but I forgot to post about my caulking. Don't be mad.

Today I got the 2 doors down and some more sanding done.

Unfortunately, I realized I needed to do some spackling work around the furnace vent to repair some cracks so that's all drying now.

Hopefully I can get some priming done tomorrow once the final sanding and clean up is done.

I really need to scrub the baseboards before priming them.

Day 12 - Hopefully the last spackling.

So hopefully the last spackling was done today. I've pretty much have to call it done because everytime I go to try and sand something better I end up putting a significant cut or gouge in something and have to respackle or remud it. I'm sick of that.

And I saw something Giga posted that you may never have seen. This is what the room looked like (below) when I toured the house prior to buying it.

The previous owners drilled shelving into the plaster!!! You just can't do that in a 80+ year old house.

That's why you've seen the attempts to spackle the walls and continue to try and sand them smooth.

Major holes too. Not just little ones.

And see that drop ceiling? That drop ceiling was hiding a completely destroyed original plaster ceiling. From what I can tell based on the hole in the floor in the attic they installed this wiring and I suspect there was some water leaking in at one time.

Fix the plaster?

Nahhhh...

Just put up an ugly-ass drop ceiling in a bedroom.

But... hopefully it'll all be done soon.

I'm thinking I can get the sanding done of what I spackled either later this evening or tomorrow. Then it is all about the washing down of everything. I then need to caulk the baseboards and windows, get the doors removed and put in the other room, and get the primer up.

I'm hoping to have the entire room done by January 1 if I'm lucky. The doors'll probably take a day or two more.

Day 11 - So close...

My first drywall experience hasn't been great but I have to say that even unsealed, unprimed, and unpainted, mine looks a thousand times better than the crappy job somebody did in the past (arrow)!

The Attic of Love is full of shitty mudding and taping like this!

Day 10 - So close to finishing the sanding!

I managed to get the entire room sanded again as smooth as possible. I also managed to get what I hope is the last coat of mud on areas that I felt needed it.

Hopefully tomorrow will be the last sanding and I can begin the very long process of cleaning up the dust that is now in every nook and cranny.

I may even be able to get the 2 coats of primer on Friday!!!

Progress! No slacking! Must keep working.

Day 9 - Crappy tape bubbles cut out!

So I spent the afternoon sanding everything and then cleaning up the dust.

Man oh man what a mess.

I also cut out the bad bubbles that formed on the one part of the ceiling.

Then I spent another quality hour or so applying another round of joint compound on everything and trying to make sure the tape areas are filled.

I'm definitely hoping this will be the last of the mudding but I doubt it. I've done such a crappy job that I'll no doubt have to add some to some areas. I'm awful with the trowel.

Oh well.

Maybe if I sand it the best I can and get some really good primer it'll help to level out some of the blemishes.

I'm definitely thinking the Heavy Cream color that I did the front bedroom in and a flat finish will help to hide the additional shitty job. I mean, it can't look worse than any other room I've done.

No work on the bedroom today.

Not only am I dead tired but my shoulder is hurty in a bad way.

There's no way I can lift my arm over my shoulder today.

Sucks.

Day 8 - My drywall mudding cluster fuck!

If there's one thing I've learned over the last few days is that I'm absolutely fucking horrible at this drywall mudding!!!

Just awful.

I should have finished the Attic of Love closet to get used to doing it and figure out a technique.

But no, I'm learning on a highly visible place!!! Arghhhhh!!!

The joint I taped yesterday is messed up. Now the wall/ceiling seams I taped all seem fine but this one long area near the door is now a total cluster fuck of bubbles. I really have no idea what to do.

I guess I can try to use a utility knife to cut the bubbles out and somehow patch this with a new piece of tape.

It totally blows!

All I can try to do is make it look good when I sand. And man, that's going to be one major mess!

Day 7 - My first taping experience.

Today was my first taping and mudding experience.

Yup! I taped the wall/ceiling seam and mudded it.

I think I went a little to think in some places for this first coat but after I used up the one batch, the older stuff I opened just wasn't the same and by that time, my left shoulder starting hurting something fierce. Hopefully it won't go numb tonight.

I got the entire room done plus the other seam that needed taping.

Tomorrow I'm going to buy some fresh joint compound and then do a 2nd coat, trying to smooth out what I can where I messed up today.

Thursday will be the 2nd coat and I'll also patch the other holes in the walls and also mud the nails.

Hopefully Friday I create a dust mess and get it all sanded smooth and make it at least look like I'm not totally incompetent.

That is if my shoulder holds out.

And I need to find time to drag more comics to the basement and sort the Marvel shit.

Day 6 - Well. I did my best.

I fit a small strip of drywall up and both glued it to the ceiling and carefully nailed it.

Once it is taped and mudded I think it will be fine and hard to notice.

I also put additional plaster spackling up today.

Tomorrow will be very messy. I am going to do a brief initial sanding of the entire ceiling/wall area and hopefully get the first thin coat of mud and tape up.

Day 5 - The last major gap in the ceiling.

I have been slacking on the back room. I shouldn't have.

I'm trying to get a contractor out here to look at the roof above this area of the house but that's no reason I shouldn't finish what I can.

So I managed to get a lot of the gaps filled with the exception of a very large one where the new drywall ceiling was cut too small.

I've got a few minor strips that I hopefully can get put up there to fill the gap and then spackle the remaining.

I have no doubt that once it is all taped, mudded, and sanded it'll be fine.

Ceiling cat is watching you renovate.

From Kelmeister or Kelmeister's husband. I can't remember through who sent it.

For some reason, I could see shithead doing this.

Small Bedroom Day 4 - The gaps.

So I spent a few hours attempting to smooth out what I've been working on as well as get the first "filler" in the gap between the wall and ceiling drywall.

Continue reading "Small Bedroom Day 4 - The gaps." »

Small Bedroom Day 3 - First patching.

Ok.

So I made the decision, based on cutting out some of the plaster, to go ahead and repair the wall as-is.

I still can't tell if it is damp or not. The wall was cold and quite frankly, after talking with Giga, I feel 60% confident in just going with the repair.

Let's face facts: There's no easy way for me to get on the roof and check anything in that area.

However, based on the drop ceiling's existence when we moved in, and the poor condition of the ceiling, I've got to assume that the new roof from 2001 was done to deal with the problem and the damage, which was not noticeable because of the drop ceiling, is actually quite old.

Tomorrow I'll sand this first plaster smooth and go from there.

Small Bedroom Day 2 - In which sanding is done and other stuff.

To say I'm mildy worried about the southeast corner of the roof is an understatement. I can't tell if the roof is leaking or not.

All of this feels sorta of damp, but it is also extremely cold and I just can't tell if it is the cold I feel or light moisture.

Regardless, there's been water damage here before.

I managed to scrape the loose stuff off and was hoping to hit an area that really felt moist but no luck.

Continue reading "Small Bedroom Day 2 - In which sanding is done and other stuff." »

The great comic book purge begins...

It has started.

With the help of Jay and Giga the comic boxes have all been brought down to the dining room.

And thankfully, my memory has been way faulty on how many comics I still had.

I did a purge back in 87 and then again around 94 and I had pretty much forgot how many I had gotten rid. Back in my teens and during the Dark Ages I needed quick cash and selling off the comics was a way to get it.

Still. This is way too much baggage to have in my life.

The goal here will be to reduce this by 95%, with only graphic novels, trades, and very specials individual issues or series kept.

I think I can manage that.

Of course, some of the stuff from the past 9 years is just as much of Giga's as it is mine. But I think he'll want to thin out the baggage as much as I do.

Small Bedroom Day 1 - It (sort of) begins.

So today I spent time looking at all of the work that needs to go into finishing the small back bedroom.

This room has, for the most part, never been used for anything other than a cat shitter room.

This was the room that the previous owners turned into a walk-in closet by putting wire shelves on every wall, destroying the plaster and lathing in the process.

You just can't do that kind of shelving in a non-drywall house. Bad lesbians! Bad bad lesbians!

The ceiling also was a drop-down hanging ceiling with those crappy rectangular tiles.

Back in 2003, Giga, with the help of Asa and Verena, got new drywall up on the ceiling but for the most part, that's where the room has more or less stayed.

All of the holes have in the walls have had their first spackling done. They still need to be sanded, washed, and then a 2nd fill coat done. There's a few old repairs and cracks that need to be fixed as well.

Continue reading "Small Bedroom Day 1 - It (sort of) begins." »

One big ass pile of leaves!

I got the oak pretty much raked up but I just couldn't bring myself to crawl around on the ground in the damp dirt with hoont bombs mixed in to get them all bagged up.

Maybe tomorrow.

I'd love a slightly warmer sunny day to too.

Day 108 - Cleaning, cleaning, and more cleaning.

Sorry. No pics today.

Today was all about the cleaning.

After breakfast with Chloe's Dad and Hawk's Mom I got many quality hours in on the basement, trying to clean up and go through everything in the north room.

I even got some more duct insulation up.

I probably have an hour or two left tomorrow and the basement can be wrapped up for now, though I may try to do the stairwell repainting and repairs after Thanksgiving. Concrete-wise, I'm pretty much done for the season. It is just way too cold to work in that room under the porch. My fault there. I should have done that first like I intended back in April.

We got a lot of shit thrown out too. Tons and tons of crap. Hell, we basically filled the dumpsters out back and there's a metal shelf out there that I'm hoping some people take.

Day 107 - Getting the basement back in order.

No photos. Nothing exciting yet.

However I spend pretty much the afternoon and into the early evening trying to put the basement back in order.

I am pulling out every single thing and washing it off. Every tool. Every box. Everything.

I bought a ton of plastic bins to organize all of the tools, repair, and various "house" supplies. That will all be done by tomorrow.

I basically had to call it a night because I have to spend a good 30 minutes lugging trash and boxes out. Tons and tons of shit to go into the dumpsters!

It is so nice to have a clean laundry area now. I can't believe I suffered for 3 1/2 years without one in that grimy nasty mess. It was bad at the old House of Love II and I can't believe I allowed it to be so bad when I bought the House of Love III.

Once I get the stairs scraped and painted even that will make me super mega happy!

But enough for today. Tomorrow the goal is to get this shit out, the rest cleaned up as much as possible, and the many of the toys that are ready down into along a wall.

Day 106 - Second and final coat of enamel down!!!

I was able to get home and get the 2nd and final coat of polyurethane enamel down!

Other than some touch up of Drylock for the walls the south room is done!

I still have to really dust the ceiling and such there, and the toilet has to be reassembled, but man oh man I'm like 3 days away from being done for a bit!

I want to wait until Sunday to move things onto the floor. This last coat is pretty thick since I didn't thin it and it no doubt needs the extra day to dry.

I'll be sooooooo happy to have the solvent fumes out of the house!!!

I so hate working with oil paints for large scale painting!!!

Day 105 - First coat of enamel down!

By the time I got home the waterproofer was totally dried so I thinned the polyurethane enamel down and though my knees are still killing me I got a first coat down.

Tomorrow will the the thicker final and hopefully final coat.

Unfortunately, I forgot to turn the lights out down there (the manual ones) and there's no way I can take care of that now.

And damn, even as I type this, I'm a bit messed in the head.

Even with the door open and the fans going I don't think I was getting enough ventilation. I think I need to lay down and call it an early day.

Day 105 - Sealing the cracks with waterproofer

I was able to get the crack repairs covered when I came home to let the Hoont out around lunchtime.

Day 104 - Cement'n the cracks in the floor!

My knees hurt so bad from crawling around filling slab cracks you'd think I've spent the past 6 hours kneeling at a glory hole or something.

Argh!!!

At least with the 7 months of wall rebuilding I was sitting or standing. My knees, never known to be that good, can't handle the floor shit.

Tomorrow a good cleaning and the 2 coats of Drylock.

Day 103 - The final etching done.

So I got the rest of the floor scraped and the cracks cleaned out.

I etched it again with the Drylock Etching shit.

I expected more I guess. It fizzed a bit but I expected the acids to really be visibly doing something.

Maybe I just fuck'd it all up and didn't do it strong enough.

Quite frankly I don't know how much to care anymore.

I just need this done and half of the basement in some kind of decent order.

I think it may take 2 days to fully dry. And that sucks.

The cracks themselves aren't drying out much.

I'll take down a 3rd fan in the morning and move the dehumidifier over there later too.

Day 102 - Etchy Etchy Etchy

I spent another hour scraping the southeast part of the back room, trying to remove all loose cement from the cracks and other debris.

I then poured the Drylock Etch crap down and worked it in with a stiff acid broom.

I should have done the whole thing at once but I really didn't know what to expect.

Tomorrow I'll etch the other side and possibly some areas already done that have crap that will not come off.

Wednesday I'll wirebrush and clean the cracks some more and then meticulously fill them in with hydraulic cement.

Thursday will be the 2 coats of drylock to seal the cement/cracks and then Friday I can do the first thinned coat of enamel paint.

Saturday will be the 2nd final unthinned coat and that room can be totally put back together Monday and I can start cleaning up the next half of the basement.

Day 101 - The south floor work begins and I also worked in the yard.

Ugh! I haven't worked this long hour after hour for quite some time.

I started today with a couple of hours in the backyard cutting down all the dying vegetation, dumping flower pots, raking, taking down lawn furniture, and other general winter prep stuff.

I still have about 2 hours of work to do back there but I need to get some more leaf bags and a tarp. A good raking and some miscellaneous shit and the yard is ready for the winter.

I finished up back there an set to work on the basement and got all of the contents of the south room somewhat placed into the north room.

The floor cleaning and prep is going to be tedious and my knees are pretty much dead for the day.

I got a lot scraped up and all of the foil and tape up. I'm trying to clean out the cracks in the slab to fill them and drylock them.

I'm going to have to etch the slab to really clean it too. I've got the least-sounding annoying etcher too. Hopefully it won't be too bad and I can rinse it all right into the drain which is nearby. Pretty much my only option.

This part of the basement hasn't been this empty since I bought the house. Look how nice it looks too now that the walls have been redone.

A lot of shit has to be thrown out or given away. There's just no point keeping some of this shit that there has been absolutely no need for over the past few years. I've threw out 2 boxes of my shit today and am disposing of the one table (which has been broken) and all kinds of shit I've kept far too long.

Day 100 - Laundry capabilities are back!

I ended up getting home very late today and with the sun going down early I wanted to get the rest of the magnolia leaves raked up.

Not only did I get the leaves done but some guy walked by and said he'd take all 13 huge 30-gallon bags of them. He's using them to keep his fig trees covered during the winter. I didn't even have to worry about the city having to take them.

Today was day 100 of working on the basement and unfortunately, all I did was get the sink plumbing back to operational capacity and the washer back on the pedestal and connected.

I bought a ton of plastic bins to store laundry detergents and such too. I really want to avoid liquid detergents getting spilled. Especially on the waterproofing.

Once the floor is done those kinds of hazards will be easy to clean up around there.

Before? The detergent soaked into the concrete.

Tomorrow will hopefully bring a good cleaning of the south part of the basement and moving everything tightly into the north part so I can prep the floor for painting and get the toilet back together and stuff. I need to work in the back yard for 2 hours or so too since I need to get everything put away for the season.

Day 98 - Cleaning and prepping for the main event!

Today was all about cleaning and prepping for tomorrow's main event of moving the sink back onto the metal frame.

I got a lot of the duct work and pipes and wires in on the ceiling of the laundry area cleaned of decade's worth of dust and grime.

I ran a ton of duct insulation around the ducts too, getting as much into the crawlspace as possible.

Tomorrow we'll get it moved back and I can reattach the new plumbing drain stuff I bought.

I want to do another interior coat of enamel before I use if to water. Being that it was painted on its back gravity wasn't on the side of the bottom of the basin so I want an additional coat.

I figure if I can get all that done tomorrow I can start using the sink for washer draining and other cleanup by late Saturday.

And on the 90-somethingth day Nala rested...

No work on the basement today.

I want the painted floor and sink to have another day to dry completely. Tomorrow I'll being cleaning up the south part of the basement and trying to get a lot of the trash up and out. Doesn't seem much point doing that this evening with it raining and all.

Thursday night, several manly men will be coming over to help me move the sink back onto the pedestal. It shouldn't take more than 10 minutes or so with 4 or 5 guys. Hopefully everybody's backs will be ok.

I went out and got all new drain plumbing today so I'm ready to hook everything back up too.

Tonight I'm just gonna avoid trick'r'treaters, crawl into bed early, watch some tv or pron, and go to bed early.

Day 97 - Back of the sink done!

No photos today. I know it upsets you.

I managed to get the sink set up on its bottom and got a coat of enamel on the back.

I also managed to touch up the floor and clean up all the foil I had on the pipes to protect them from the waterproofer

Hell... I also got the front yard magnolia leaves raked up to.

Tomorrow I'm going to clean the basement up and hopefully Wednesday the sink can get put back.

I'm going to get new plumbing couplers and drain pipers tomorrow.

Day 96 (evening) - The first coat of polyurethane enamel is down on the floor.

When we got home today it was too late to work in the yard but I did get the first coat of polyurethane enamel down on the floor where the sink will go and the two pedestals where the washer and dryer sit.

Originally I wanted to fix the entire slab, repairing any cracks and waterproofing them and then painting the whole thing.

I'm not sure if I want to do the whole entire basement floor yet but I'm definitely going to paint a nice sized area that is basically the "laundry space".

I'm sick of putting cloths directly on the slab and a painted area will be so much easier to sweep and keep clean.

Day 96 - Waterproofing is done!

So the 2nd coat of waterproofer is up!

I need to run to Big Lots! and get some more cheap ass brushes.

Since the utility sink is removed I haven't been able to clean up my brushes and such so I've been using the cheap ones and just throwing them away. It is just easier with the fact I'm using a solvent-based polyurethane enamel. I rarely ever use non-latex paint so clean up has never been an issue. With the floor paint it is since I'm not a fan of mineral spirits. And without a sink or proper work area it is easier just to treat all of this as disposable. (I'm totally jealous of Mr. T's basement work room with a separate cellar door! He even has a small version of my sink too!)

Later tonight I'll use some Drylock to touch up the areas and put a 2nd coat on the repaired floor cracks and call the waterproofing done!

Soon... quite soon... I can do laundry again!!!!!!!!!

Day 95 - Waterproofing starts!!! So close to being done!

Super mega productive day today. And after I take this break I may have some more time too to work on other stuff.

So I got the 1st coat of waterproofer up on Phase VI today. Almost there... so close I can taste it... literally... cuz I have enough dust in my mouth to know it!

I also got a 2nd coat of enamel on the sink so that should be done and solid in a few days.

Tomorrow will be the 2nd coat of waterproofer and I'm probably going to start hauling some stuff out of the basement. I need to detail Drylock some areas and the areas on the floor that had cracks I repaired.

Monday will be be cleaning the floor and putting down the paint where the sink will go. I'll paint the pedestals for the washer and dryer then too. I'm thinking maybe getting up at 4:30 am and painting so there may be a chance I could do a 2nd coat by late evening and have that done. If not, Tuesday will be a 2nd coat of paint.

And that means Wednesday I need to try and scrounge up about 5-6 strong manly men to come over around 7pm and for 10 minutes help me move this goddamn sink back into place.

Yes. It'll probably take 5-6 guys to do it. We need to sort of push it near to the placed frame and then lift it up, over the frame, and then onto it.

I'm thinking it'll take 10-20 minutes at max.

Volunteers? Please! Help! I want to do laundry again and be able to tackle this mess.

Day 94 - Painty McPaintsalot.

Well the first coat of glossy slate grey polyurethane enamel is on the sink and it looks a million times better than it did before.

I'll need to do some more touch up work tomorrow around the base/drain and do a full second coat in the morning.

The base frame also got a 2nd coat today.

This paint will be the same paint I'm going to use on the floor in my make-shift new "laundry area" and hopefully, depending on the temperature, I can slowly repair and paint the entire slab for the whole basement over the course of the next few weeks.

I'm not really counting that in my work though. The water-proofing work of the walls is truly what had to happen.

Day 93 - Sanding, patching, and painting with enamel

Most of today involved cleaning up the Phase IV area of dust and miscellaneous concrete debris.

I got the rest of the sink frame sanding and cleaned and a 1st coat of a special :for-rusted metal" rustoleum enamel on it. It is self-priming and can be applied directly over any surface rust that would not come off. It'll do for the rest of the life of the frame.

I also sanded the iron drain base and sealed that with the enamel too (pic above). I figured it wouldn't hurt. I'll probably have to touch it up once the polyurethane enamel/sealer goes on the entire sink but who's going to see it.

I need to buy all new plumbing hardware too for the drains. I had to cut off this one coupling with a utility knife.

I am a little worried about some of the tuckpointing and parging though. See the yellow arrows on the pic? Those are areas where the curing is clearly not going the same as elsewhere and the moisture just isn't fully coming out of the concrete.

I'm not sure what to think of it but I'm not worrying too much. Perhaps those batches of concrete had a bit more water or something. It happens when you are doing this totally buy hand in a bucket.

I'll give it a few more days.

Day 92 - Concrete detail work and a decision is made on the sink.

So today I went to Lowes to stock up on more waterproofer and get some enamel for the sink base.

Yup! I'm going to just clean it good, repair what I can, and paint it! The base'll be sanded and cleaned and painted black.

However, I wasn't happy with some parts of the wall that were prone to leaks and since I had concrete on hand I went ahead and parged an additional layer on since it'll take me 2 days or so to work on the sink. That should allow this thin layer time to cure.

I also scraped the floor and floor cracks and sealed the major cracks around the washer pedestal.

Tomorrow I'm going to use a wire brush attachment on the drill to really clean the insides of the sink basic of all loose material and dirt. I'll sand the base again to try and remove as much rust.

The goal is to have them washed and cleaned by tomorrow night so they can dry by Friday evening.

Friday will be the first coat of paint on the base and the sink if time permits since I hope to see the T-ling. Of course, I'm getting a cold and a baby so needs to be around that.

Anyway, with any luck, I can start waterproofing soon and then get the floor painted so I can reset the sink. I want to then paint the floor and create a clean "laundry area" in the basement.

Then I need to hire a plumber to fix the one area and redo the faucet over the sink.

Fun!

Day 91 - What to do...

As I sanded down the old basin I began to realize it essentially, from external appearances, is a formed concrete sink that appears to have steel along the top to give it shape and I'm assuming smooth it out.

I don't know if there is some kind of rebar in the concrete to give it strength but the more I look at it, the more I just want to whack it with the sledge hammer.

I mean really whack it to pieces.

So I spent about and hour sanding both the basin and the metal base it sits on.

I also got the remainder of the rubble trash out and hauled to the back by the gate. Of course, my wheelbarrow wheel is now flat but thankfully, it has gone bad right at the end of the project. (But still... who the fuck puts a tube tire on a wheel barrow. It makes more sense to me just to have a solid rubber tire.)

I came back in to sand some more and I realized I need to consider trying to get a lighter new sink. The original plan may still have merit if and only if that sink breaks apart.

The only way that it is coming out of the basement is in pieces. There's no way that damn thing, with 6 grown men attacking it, will come up the steps without destroying them.

So... what to do...

(What's really funny is I was looking up something on the net and found this pic. Geez. That looks familiar.)

My new hole.

So as of 11am today I have a nice new hole in the Attic of The Damned.

What's sad is that while it looks like the plumbing stack vent (pic above) may have leaked at one time it has been quite a long time since it has done it.

So now I wait 2 weeks and hope that it rains so I can find observable water coming in.

Otherwise, this has been a total fool's quest and I probably didn't notice a gallon or so of water spilled over when cleaning an aquarium.

Balls!

Day 90 - Work on the sink begins.

So today, Mister R. helped me to get the sink off of the stand so it can be refinished (below).

I'm going to sand the exterior and interior to clean it and seal it and paint it.

Not sure about the interior of the basins yet but I'm going to ask around for advice on what to use.

Continue reading "Day 90 - Work on the sink begins." »

Day 89 - The final seam work.

I got the final wal/floor seam done with drylock.

The rest of the parging needs to cure for a few more days before I can start on the full waterproofing.

Tearing apart the Attic of The Damned!

So I spent today moving shit around The Attic to try and free up the space for the contractor.

So much crap!

I guess it is a good thing that I'm letting them open up the wall but damn, I really don't need this mess up here. My basement is still tore up and the dining room is full of stuff from the basement so this is yet another room that'll be way messy.

But hopefully the problem isn't serious.

Oh well. At least it isn't the roof!

The look of shock, awe, and probably horror, as the insurance adjuster and the contractors ascended the stairwell to The Attic of The Damned™ was priceless.

I don't think any of them had any concept when I asked them to "please be careful around the toys".

What was cool was 2 of the 3 loved the Masterpiece Convoy (Optimus Prime).

Anyway, remember the recent water damage?

Well they went on the roof and said that the roof installed in 2001 was actually done very very well and that all of the box gutters that were relined in 2002 were also in perfect shape too.

They used this special infrared camera to look "into" the wall and they are actually thinking that it wasn't water coming from outside of the house but is actually a problem with the plumbing stack in the wall of the attic.

Odds are the stack makes a turn and being that it is 80+ years old and cast iron it may have rusted through at the curve/turn and water is somehow coming in there.

The camera picked up water and moisture in the wall and they need to remove parts of the wall to look at it completely.

So...

Since there's no roof damage it isn't covered by insurance per se.

However, I'm going to pay out of pocket to have the contractor cut the wall out Monday and check. We may need to wait until another good rain to see the problem but this will hopefully work out. The contract I signed also will cover returning the wall to normal.

If there are problems with the stacks leaking then insurance will kick in.

With a $500 deductible it did seem best to just work within that for now and the contractor is only going to charge $250 to remove and then restore the wall area.

Hell. That's fine with me. I could cut it out but who knows when I'll get around to putting it back with all the basement and back bedroom work I need to still do.

So it looks getting the basement concrete done and curing last night was the right thing to do. With the rain and overall dampness, working outside would be a mess this weekend so I'm going to focus on cleaning up the attic.

I need to move all of the TF Universe and Robot Masters figures out of the way so I might as well start really cleaning the Attic since it quite possibly will be contractor-messy soon.

And of course, when the contractor is up there working there will be a certain someone going insane saying "Feed me you fool! Feed me!!!".

Day 88 - Well...

Dear Ladies, Gentleman, and other Assorted Basement/Concrete Fetishists:

I must inform you that...

Continue reading "Day 88 - Well..." »

The House still stinks!

House still stinks!

House still stinks!

House still stinks!

House still stinks!

House still stinks!

House still stinks!

House still stinks!

Arrrrghhhh!

You will not get moist tonight. No concrete.

So it has been raining since about 7pm last night which means there won't be any way I can acquire more concrete.

So all you fans of parging will have to wait until I can continue.

I'm going to work on cleaning up the Attic and trying to sort through paperwork and such.

Oh. And I've got some designs for a friend of Mrs. T. I'll probably need to rework too.

So very little time for extracurricular work these days.

House stinks!

House stinks!

House stinks!

House stinks!

House stinks!

House stinks!

House stinks!

House stinks!

Arrrrghhhh!

In which I make the house smoked-filled an very stinky!

So while I was working in the basement I was also making soup.

I've done this countless times and never have had a problem.

I came up and checked the soup and thought I turned it off.

No.

I turned it to "high" without realizing it and then went back downstairs.

I cannot convey to you all the horror of opening the basement door to walk into the kitchen and to walk into a house filled with awful acrid stinky smoke.

The water had boiled away and the enamel bot was black and sooty with smoke pouring into the open.

Awful. Awful. Awful.

And then... the smoke alarm in the basement stairwell went off!

Grrrr.

So I opened up a ton of windows and put fans in them trying to draw the nastiness out.

Ziggy was hiding under a chair and Hensley was hiding behind the couch totally freaked out.

We ended up leaving to go to eat dinner since obviously I wouldn't be having soup.

The house is going to stink for days.

Day 87 - Fix'n a hole!

So today I managed to get about 240 more lbs of smooth concrete up on the walls and 240 lbs of regular concrete mixed to begin rebuilding the entrance to the crawlspace under the back addition (above).

I removed the stones that were going to be in the way and am now in the process of building up sides and a solid front with other stones embedded in new concrete.

I'm currently out of concrete so I'm not sure what I'll do tomorrow.

Day 86 - Concretey cretey!

So even though we ended up going to breakfast at Tommy's Diner today and then I had to come home and sort through insurance paper work for the possible roof repairs I still managed to get a shitload of work done.

I got 2 coats of water proofing down over the initial hydraulic cement and then after that was fully dried I managed to get 240 lbs of concrete mixed and applied up from the floor.

I have another 240 lbs of the smooth concrete and 7 40# bags of general concrete to work with tomorrow. I think I'm going to work from the southeast corner and work outwards, going back towards the previous Phase V.

That duct work going into the addition is going to be a fun area to build around.

Why does water hate me so much?

I walked into the bedroom this morning to get dressed and came upon massive water damage on the ceiling.

You'll recall I repaired water damage (from the previous owners) back in 2005 when I redid that room so I'm assuming there's roof problems that have crept up again.

Continue reading "Why does water hate me so much?" »

Day 85 - The final phase of concrete has started!

Yay! Quality time spent today and I got all the digging and cleanup done.

Of course, I probably could have kept going but ya gotta eventually say "enough's enough" with the old mortar removal.

I sealed the wall/floor seam with the hydraulic cement. Hopefully I'll get the two coats of drylock on it tomorrow and start rebuilding the wall near the duct work into the addition.

Full tuckpointing and parging can begin Monday!

Day 84 - A whole lotta work done today!

This pseudo panoramic image represents the current state of Phase VI and what remains of the main room of the basement to finish.

Tomorrow I'll do 3-4 more hours of drilling and by mid-afternoon I hope to start cementing the wall/floor seam.

Obviously there will be a Lowe's run tomorrow.

If all goes well, I'll be able to temporarily hook up the plumbing and we can wash and dry a few loads of clothes too. But there's a shitload of quarters available if we have to go to a laundromat. And I can't tell you the last time I did that for normal laundry.

Anyway. At the rate I'm going the full concrete should be done by the middle of next week and hopefully, barring any problems, I'll be able to do full waterproofing sometime right before Halloween and still basically make my date.

I do want to at least get a large section of floor redone by the laundry area. I don't know if I'll do the whole basement or not but for the sake of dirt and dust the laundry area should have a sealed and painted floor under it.

Day 83 - Finally! Deparging Progress!!!

It took 2 hours but I finally got the stuff behind the pipes removed.

Even had a visit by Max Power too!

Please. No water in the basement.

It is pouring rain right now.

With the current ripped apart state of the basement walls and the general amount of water already in the soil this could be a really really really bad night.

*sigh*

Day 82 - Pretty decent work on the south section today

The south wall is almost prepped and clean.

Rain... rain... go away.

*sigh*

I hope this rain isn't too bad today.

My walls are a bit exposed at the moment.

Day 81 - In which the drilling begins!

No photos today. They pretty much all look the same anyway.

I got all the current batch of rubble up out of the basement and got the drilling out of the old mortar started in the southwest corner.

Hell. I even got the fallen limbs removed and the back yard mowed too.

More drilling tomorrow and I may try to remove the last of the parging.

Day 80 - I'm so sick of chiseling.

I made a lot of progress today but I still have some sections of parge to try and get down.

Tomorrow will be the trash removal and hopefully the final chiseling.

My wrists are hurty.

Day 79 - Something blistery this way comes.

The old stuff, for as bad a shape as it is in, is pretty hard to get off.

The arrows indicate the crap I've worked really hard to remove. I've done some quality sledge hammer whacking and a lot of blunt chiseling to try and create gaps between the hard inner layer and the sotne.

I'm going at it slowly and trying to make progress on a foot by foot basis.

The blisters made me call it a day.

I'll try and really work at it tomorrow. I'd really like to get all the parge down and the whole area swept up tomorrow.

Then maybe rest on Sunday and begin drilling the old mortar out on Monday.

Aftermath of the hail storm.

I'm sure you watched the hail storm video right?

Well.

I walked out this morning to this massive limb in the yard.

It put a huge dent in the fence and has pretty much crushed some of the now dying day lilies.

This'll no doubt take both Giga and I to move it. Neither of us has any retard strength.

I included the Hoont in the pic for scale.

Then again, the inclusion of a dachshund in a photo of destruction and/or evil is pretty much a normal occurence don't you think.

Of course, I could strap this to Hensley's back and start using him as a 'beast of burden'.

Day 78 - Phase VI parge removal begins. I know you're excited.

Well I got the washer, dryer, and sink removed and have started on the parge removal.

I'm hoping I can have it all down by Saturday evening.

Well. That's if all goes well.

Weather says no more rain for a couple of days so that gives me some time to at least try to get the parge down and the beginnings of drilling the mortar out started.

Day 77 - Phase VI really begins!

So I got the entire area of Phase VI cleaned today with everything else (other than appliances) moved back to the finished areas

I'm trying to finish up the laundry so I can remove the appliances and get the parging off.

Of course it is really pouring rain right now.

That's always awesome for when I'm working on the walls.

Continue reading "Day 77 - Phase VI really begins!" »

Day 76 - Detail waterproofing!

Ok. So I got the detail waterproofing done along the top and small additional coats where I felt it was needed.

Tomorrow... the last and final Phase VI begins!

I think I'll open Super God Fire Convoy and assemble him as my mascot. He can sit up on the one shelf with the Mother Fucking Master Sword and be my task master until I'm finished!

Day 75 - Second coat done. Yay!

There's no point in posting photos that end up looking exactly like yesterday's but I got the second coat of waterproofer up by 8:30am.

I even got to the gym this morning and got some clearance shopping done. I found a couple of casual coats for $20 so I bought em. They look mildy adequate on me. Got a couple of miscellaneous other things for this weekend too such as a new canvas side bag, new fiber, and some pill holders for my vitamin routine.

I'm not quite fully packed but I've been organizing things and trying to figure out what I don't took totally like shit wearing.

Four days and three nights is surprisingly a lot to pack for since I want to use the hotel gym too.

I suppose I should get moving on that instead of typing.

Day 74 - First coat of waterproofer up on Phases IV and V

I got the first coat of waterproofer up on Phases IV and V today.

Tomorrow it should get the 2nd coat and then minor touch up with Drylock on Oct 2 when I get back.

Day 73 - Phase IV and Phase V concrete IS DONE!!!

So today brings to a close the long road to redoing the Phase IV and Phase V walls.

Essentially a third layer of concrete has been applied to the wall/floor seem to add additional material to the most fragile areas of the wall. This is where in the "old" wall the water was most likely to seep through.

This'll take a few days to cure and then... *drum roll* the full waterproofing of the entire areas can occur from the furnace to the south chimney!!!

Just call me Busy McBusystein

So I think I'm finally rested up since this weekend's activities that pretty much left me dead tired.

Friday's marathon 6 hour concrete work killed me and that pretty much carried into Saturday and Sunday.

I basically slacked off yesterday and fell asleep very early but that left me wide awake around 4.

I debated about going to the gym but since I need to try and get my final concrete work in, I decided to go into work early so I can just come directly home after a meeting with a possible vendor.

The house is, the say the least, a disaster.

All the boxes from the toy show litter the front room and dining room and everything's in general disarray.

None of it can go back into the basement until I'm done with the next stage (Phase VI) so I suppose the best that can be done is to bring order to chaos and just stack everything nicely against the windows.

That means I have to have the south half of the basement finished by Giga's usual Thanksgiving Day dinner and a highly probable House of Love LIfe Day 2006 celebration the following Saturday evening.

I didn't do Life Day last year but during the recent cookout people asked about it so I think we have to have one this year. More bottles of alcohol will make it tolerable.

Oh well.

The basement has to be the focus the next few days so I can come back from Botcon and get the 2 days of water-proofing done and then immediately start on the final walls of the main basement room.

Yeah. 2 weeks before Thanksgiving is a nice goal to be done with the main basement room. That'll mean it took basically 7 months.

Day 72 - Wall/floor seam sealing.

Ok. The initial waterproofing of the wall/floor seam is done. I'll put a quick 2nd coat on later this evening.

Tomorrow will hopefully bring the final mixing and application of the last 360lbs of concrete from the floor up to about 24" or so. Once that cures it'll be ready to waterproof the entire walls of both Phase IV and Phase V!

Of course, right now I need to go down my salt water colon cleanse and let the joy of intestinal cleansing begin!

Yup! The fast is going extremely well!

Day 71 - In which the south wall gets a complete coat of concrete!

So I managed to not only get the entire Phase V section fully tuckpointed and parged (above) but I also got the floor/wall seam in Phase VI dug out and hydraulic cemented and sealed (below).

Unfortunately, this required a marathone 6 hour session which is the longest I'd put in at any one time since I injured my shoulder.

My back is in a lot of pain and my knees are killing me but at least it can all cure as one mass now.

We'll see how bad I hurt over the next couple of days.

Oh. New rear brakes tomorrow.

I must now go shower.

Day 70 - In which more concrete is applied.

I had to take off yesterday since my fingers, wrists, and back were killing me from Day 69.

Today I managed to get about 300lbs of concrete mixed and applied, adding another thin layer to the floor/wall seam and officially starting the wall at the chimney and working back to the circuit box.

I still have 180lbs left but I just couldn't take it any more so I had to stop.

I did however get the yard mowed and all the hoont bombs picked up.

At present I have salt water gurgling in my loins and I really should get downstairs near the bathroom.

Day 69 - In which the floor/wall is done emergency-style.

I was worried about all the rain.

I had a right to be.

But the time I came home from work the water had started seeping in along the floor where I was digging out yesterday (below).

Of course, it was really coming in under the front porch so I got a fan running and the dehumidifer going to try to make sure it keeps it somewhat dry.

There's no possible way I can even begin to get to that part of the basement until at least the end of October.

Continue reading "Day 69 - In which the floor/wall is done emergency-style." »

I hate rain.

Damn you rain!

Damn you all to hell!!!

It has been really raining today. Major major raining.

I went to the basement during lunch and it was dry. No water from the current wall but who knows how things'll go as the rain continues.

I really wish I had got the east side gutters channeled into a drainage pipe but that didn't happen.

Also, my trusty $15 Big Lots drill is pretty much dead. Thankfully I got most of this Phase dug out but I really will probably kill it trying to dig out the very last (and hardest) old mortar along the floor seam. They didn't have any other ones at the Olentangy Big Lots so I'm sure it will die tonight. I'm surprised it lasted this long with so much dust inside of it.

Maybe I can find time to run to other Big Lots later this week.

Day 68 - My walls? They suck balls.

I always love when I vaccuum really really good because then I find things are even worse than I thought. Not always mind you. But sometimes.

The old sewer drain plug, that appears to have been painted shut (last repair?) exhibits previous concrete slab repair work... and it is all cracked!

The cracks were filled in with dirt and dust and since I've never touched them in 3 years I never knew it was actually all cracked.

The area above it and to the chimney was also previously repaired but it was just full of dirt really with a thin parge on it.

I thought the dirt was concrete because it was so heavy but no. After digging it out I finally hit some river stones.

Continue reading "Day 68 - My walls? They suck balls." »

Ugh. Hurty. And rain is predicted.

So my back hurts. I must have really twisted it when working yesterday and man did it start huring about 2 miles into my cardio.

*sigh*

This basement indeed may just be the death of me.

Or at least of this slacker fat-ass body.

Of course, I'll no doubt end up being reincarnated as another home owner with a shitty basement and be caught in an endless karma loop.

*sigh*

It is supposed to rain big time starting late tonight and most of tomorrow.

My south wall is a tad exposed and I fear when it rains. I can't have a repeat of the "waterfalls of hell" back from June 1.

*sigh*

I so want to be done with this.

Maybe I should just help Giga with his shit at the toy show and just throw my shit on ebay.

Day 67 - Parge free... as free and the parge goes...

It may not look like much but I got almost all of the pain in the ass parge down.

Got a full drilling and vac'n done too!

Tomorrow will be a solid second pass of drilling and I'm hoping... just hoping... to get the wall/floor seam sealed.

I discovered this major problem while working today and it seems I'll need a plumber soon to repair a solder on a pipe.

Any of you Cowtown readers have any plumber recommendations?

Day 66 - Quality mortar drillout day!

So I got several hours in today before my wrists and hands just couldn't take it.

Surprisingly, it is the vibrations from the drill that begin to bother be after a couple of hours.

I just hate turning it off and still feeling the vibrations go on and on and on.

Day 65 - Phase V begins and much is accomplished!

Not only did I clear the entire south part of the basement up and get Giga's toys to the front, I also managed to get about 80% of the parging down for Phase V!!!

I can't believe how easy most of it came off. Of course, there had to be an exception, and the small section under the circuit breaker (image above) is just as hard to remove as most of Phase IV was.

For the most part I think this Phase will go quickly.

Tomorrow I'll try to get the rest of the parging down and all of that out to the trash.

It'll probably take 2-3 days to really clean the walls and since I'm now using the drill that may even go faster.

Oh. And I also reorganized the last year and half of my house repair photos into a solid new gallery called "Extreme House of Love!". Feel free to get your do-it-yourself home repair moistness on!

Perhaps I can be hypnotized to block everything out.

All I can say is it will be an extremely rough next 7 months for me.

Every day is going to be a challenge living in this house now.

Every single day.

Um. The evening was kind of wasted.

So I had cleaned of the rest of the deck so he could finish power-washing the deck but he was nowhere to be found.

I eventually found him across the street talking to Miller and Ryan and before I knew it three hours and 3 1/2 bottles of wine had happened.

Suffice to say, I didn't make it to the gym this morning. My bag is in the car so I may try to get 5 miles or so in at lunch time.

It is raining again. Weather.com is still calling for a partly sunny Sunny with 20% chance of rain so I'm hoping that the cookout goes well.

I do hate it here. Believe me. I don't lie.

Want another reason from me why I regret buying my house 3 years ago?

Continue reading "I do hate it here. Believe me. I don't lie." »

Day 64 - The wall/floor seam waterproofing.

I spent a few hours cleaning up the basement and trying to shop-vac the majority of the dust that escaped the other day when the vac bag broke.

It is a bit cleaner.

I also deemed the concrete set enough to do the initial waterproofing of the floor/wall seam. The first coat is on and I'll get the second coat on before I go to bed.

Depending on how busy I am this week, I still need to get about 10 more bags of concrete to do the second coating up the wall to the window level.

Of course, next week is the 3rd Annual House of Love Labor Day Cookout/Potluck so there's a lot going on for me this week.

Day 63 - In which the first coat of concrete is done!

Woohoo! I blew through all 1200 lbs of concrete and got the entire first coat done!!!

Now all I need is a few days for the subgrade part to cure and then I can get the first water-proofing on that.

I'll then parge an additional coat of about 400lbs of a 1/2" or so layer up to the window level and let it all cure before completely sealing it all again.

My fingers are killing me. My knees are shot. My wrists hurt like hell. And my ankle is sore. I can thankfully take a rest now.

Day 62 - To the window... and beyond.

Well. I managed to get the first coat done all the way to the window.

Tomorrow, if my wrists and knees hold out, I'll attempt to get the entire window, sill, and all the way to the beginnings of Phase V done.

A few days of curing and I'll Drylock 24" up from the floor and then try to get the 2nd coat for the below grade parts of the wall done by next Wednesday or so.

Gonna be a busy evening.

So I'm restocked on a little over 1200lbs of concrete.

I hope to get the wall done from the corner to past the window tonight. What's so slow is that I can only easily hand mix about 40lbs of the concrete, then I need to apply it, then mix 40 more, then apply it, then mix 40 more, then apply it, and so on.

The actually wetting of the wall down and the tuckpointing and parging is actuall the quickest part of the process.

I don't like to do the concrete in sections since it is better it all sets and cures as one one part. Maybe I should go from the bottom up and work horizontally so that at least the areas below grade would be more solid without vertical "lines" where two different concrete areas butt up against each other.

Oh well. We'll see what I end up doing tonight.

Day 61 - Woot! Something accomplished.

Not letting anything like a minor sprained ankle stop me, in the past 2 days I've filled in about 720lbs of concrete and hydraulic cement amd got a lot accomplished. Especially today.

I got the small north wall at the start of Phase IV filled and a first coat of concrete parging up to bond with it. All the major voids in the wall where I removed the 100-year-old mortar have been filled with standard concrete and should now have much better strength.

In two days the first 18" from the floor will get waterproofed and then, when that's dried, I'll add a 2nd and possibly 3rd coats of concrete up the wall.

I usually do 2-3 coats for the below grade parts of the wall, ensuring that all pores are closed in the concrete or at least as must as Nala-possible.

Hopefully I can convince Giga to do two trips to Lowes tomorrow while I'm working on the last bag of concrete. I need to stock up on about 1200lbs more or so (20 bags) to get the east wall and window area done.

Wow. Even incomplete it looks better than it did way back on Day 30.

Grrr...

I really hadn't realized until this morning how bad my left wrist hurts.

This is of course the same arm that has been troubling me since June.

But yesterday, when I fell and messed up my ankle, I tried to break my leg-twistingly excited fall by putting my hand out and also fell only my left wrist.

It didn't bother me that much last night but man oh man today has not been fun.

That being said, my ankle feels better today and I'm walking without much pain.

Day 60 - Basement injury. Joy.

I got the major floor/wall gaps sealed with hydraulic cement and once that set I got a 1/2" or so of concrete up about 18", filling the major gaps.

I try to use the smooth concrete that doesn't have any stone for the wall below grade since it is easier to stuff the major voids with this stuff. It tends to fill the tiny cracks and crevices deep in the walls without the hassle of the pebbles. Of course, it costs more too which sucks the balls of nastiness.

In 2-3 days this'll have cured enough for me to do my quick coat of Drylock on it and then floor.

Once that is done and sealed I'll begin bringing concrete up from the floor, filling the gaps and tuckpointing the joints up to the top.

With that said, I'll be able to do that after getting about 20 more 60# bags of concrete. That is if this (below) doesn't get worse.

I was in need of more water for mixing and as I walked to the sink I tripped on my shoelace (which I hadn't noticed became untied) and fell pretty hard onto the floor. I almost whacked my head on the dryer which probably would have been horrific.

Needless to say, my ankle took the brunt of the fall and slammed pretty hard into the slab.

Hopefully it is just bruised and I didn't break or hurt it any worse than that. I mean, I can walk on it and all it has done is swell up a bit.

I'll go shower and ice it down in a bit.

Day 59 - The concrete work begins on Phase IV

I continued digging and drilling out the old mortar today.

I'm just about done with the prep work and I only have a small part of the earliest done wall that I want to go over again with the drill. I hadn't been using it before and it makes a big difference.

I also started the first concrete work today, filling the massive void in the top of the walls that surround the window (below).

I got both sides of the windows filled with both a fiber-reinforced concrete and a general concrete. This should last quite a long time.

The problem with the 100-year-old degraded mortar is that on the top of the walls here there is no real pressure from the house and the mortar is pretty much moisture free. This results in nothing but powder that crumbles to the touch.

I didn't notice it so bad on other parts of the walls but here it was just awful.

Well. Scratch that. I'd have to say it was the equivalent of the work from way back on Day 7.

Wow! Has it been that long since I did that part of the basement? That was April!!!

Day 58 - In which good cleaning is done and some minor problems arise.

Saturday, August 19, 2006 -

If you follow this repair work you know I damaged my shoulder in June and things have slowed down considerably since then.

Well. I had to resort to half-assing something power-based since my arm and wrists can't handle the scraping and chiseling for hours upon hours any more.

I got my cheap-ass Odd Lots drill, several 79 cent Odd Lots 3/8" bits, and went to work power drilling the old crap out.

It works wonders.

However, it also takes too much out if I'm not careful and some of the 100 year old mortar, held together only by the pressure of the stones, bursts into dust balls!

Day 57 - In which much mortar is dug out.

I got a ton of mortar dug out today and the south wall is looking pretty good.

And hopefully, the rain that is currently pouring down on the house will not invade my walls.

It would not be pretty.

Not pretty at all.

Will reconvene tomorrow morning after the Hoont's 8:40 vet visist.

Day 56 - Parge free! As free as the water flows...

All the old parging is down.

Now the fun digging and scraping and wall prep can begin!

Hopefully it won't rain over the next few days. Man oh man do I have some major areas where the water comes in!

Day 55 - Progress.

Since the last photo was taken on Day 53 I've made quite a bit of progress.

Whacking the wall about 12 times with a sledge hammer seems to make a distinct difference. While not really breaking anything, the vibrations from the whacks seem to really help loosen up just enough areas that I can get the chisel in and help bring it all down.

Tomorrow I'll work on the small part of the south wall up to the electical box. That'll be my stopping off point for Phase IV.

Hopefully by Friday I can begin the chiseling out of the old mortar and begin vacuuming a lot of this out.

It is conceivable that I could even begin doing concrete by Monday!

It'd be so nice to have Phase IV fully curing by next Wednesday or so!!!

Day 54 - Presenting... a blister!

Solid work today and I made a lot of progress.

Alas, the new gloves I have have resulted in a nice old blister. Hopefully it won't be too bad because it'll be a pain in the ass to swing the hammer.

I have been using the sledge hammer to take a few whacks at the hard stuff and I think it makes just enough difference since so much more came down today than in previous days.

Six hours of work and not much accomplished

I managed to get six hours of work in on the back yard today.

What sucks is I barely managed to get 1/3 of my list done.

However, I tackled some unfinished business from last year... namely redoing the oval flower bed that I hate.

Before:

Continue reading "Six hours of work and not much accomplished" »

Day 53 - Chisel. Chisel. Chisel. Hammer. Chisel.

I managed to get 3 solid hours in today and made some progress on removing the old parge and tuckpoint under the window.

You can see that yesterday's photo doesn't look all that different.

This shit is tough.

Day 52 - Chisel. Chisel. Chisel.

I got about 2.5 hours in today and managed to enlarge the areas I've been chiseling away to the left of the windows.

My goal is to try and go downwards towards the floor but this stuff is not easy.

These walls are totally different than the previous ones.

It appears that this area was repaired in the past. I'm encountering a tuckpointing that was cured and then layers of concrete over that.

Pain in the ass.

Day 51 - In which more wall is chiseled and I have a lockable gate.

So I got a couple more hours in on parge removing.

I have the entire area of Phase IV above grade removed and the powdery mortar is just waiting to be awled out and shop-vac'd up.

Below grade? Well. That's another thing indeed.

It appears that the area towards the south of the house, past the old weird wall seam is a more recent repair job than anything I've previously encountered.

The stuff above ground level just came right off with a bit of hammering but the stuff below grade is just solid.

Yes. The mortar behind it is damp powder, but man oh man it just won't give!

I'll diligently keep on trying to get as much down as possible but I'm thinking that maybe I should consider cleaning up what is there by sanding/wirebrushing it and then trying to just remove say 1 1/2 feet from the floor up.

That way the floor/wall seam can get any roots cleaned out, a good solid layer of hydraulic cement can be applied, and then the whole thing can just be reparged with fresh concrete. Hell. I have a ton of QuicKrete bonding adhesive too that I could use.

I may have to go this route if I can't get this stuff down easier.

Oh. And after 3 years I finally implemented a lockable back gate.

I drilled a 2" whole in the gate itself and purchased a 5' chain to wrap around the post and through the hole. This way the lock can be easily reached and unlocked or locked as needed to get in or out of the drive.

After the recent vandalizing of my car, I'm going to try to start parking back there.

Day 50 - More chisel'n!

No photos. I was too tired to go to the Attic of Love and get my camera.

I've decided to try and get more of the parging removed and will have a massive wall to clean. That way, when I tuckpoint and reparge it, it'll cure as one massive wall and hopefully last better than if there was a seam.

Maybe I can get enough done tomorrow to be photo worthy to get you all hot and bothered.

Day 49 - Not as much done as I had wanted to get done.

I didn't get as much done as I wanted to get done.

There's a solid 4 more hours of cleaning to be done on the stones and old mortar and I can't just try and seal the seam with so much debris and powder still there.

So. I'm calling it a day and hoping that any rain we might get will be light.

I'll pick up again when I return to Cowtown on Saturday.

Continue reading "Day 49 - Not as much done as I had wanted to get done." »

These balls? They are sucked.

*sigh*

I've got 2.5 hours in on the basement and there's just no way I'm going to get any cement in.

The area needs about 4-5 more hours of cleaning, scraping, and washing and my arms are pretty much dead.

I'm going to try to put in another 30 minutes or an hour but I'm kind of mad at myself that I'm not moving as fast as I used to.

Sucks.

Balls.

Day 48 - And all the parging is finally down!

So I spent a little less than 2 hours working today and managed to get the last remaining parging chiselled off.

I swear it basically was me whacking the hammer against these parts for 90 minutes and breaking off crap in an inch-by-inch fashion.

Pain in the ass I tell you!

But I've got the fan running to try and dry the corner out some.

I'll run to Lowes after work tomorrow and get some additional hydraulic cement to finish up tomorrow night. I figure I can get the majority of the bottom 15" of the wall cleaned out really good and the seam totally dug out and sealed with at least 1 decent coat of hydraulic cement by 7pm tomorrow.

I'll be heading to Glass City Thursday afternoon so I'll have to take a couple of day off. I dont' want to leave the seam open to moisture coming in if it rains.

Of course, with the massive gaps in the wall any amount of rain would just fly right on through should it rain.

Video Blog - Day 47 and Nala babbling.

View the video entry at You Tube .

Day 47 - A good solid amount of time cleaning mortar.

I got a shitload of work done today down in the famous Basement of Love.

I decided to do a major pass on 3/4 of the wall from the top down and got a ton of shit cleaned out of it.

Tomorrow will be an attempt to remove that last bit of parging from behind and besides the toilet that I wasn't able to get removed the other day.

Day 46 - The toilet area is almost deparged!

Well I got a solid 2.5 hours in on the basement and most of the parging by the toilet is down.

Hell. Two of those hours were pretty much me smacking the hell out of the wall with my hammer. Sucks balls I tell you.

It finally crumbled though.

Unfortunately, I've got a dentist appointment tomorrow after work so I don't think I'll be working on the walls when I get home.

My shoulder will need a rest though. In fact, I think I'll ice it down when I get out of the shower.

I ended up carrying out all of my rubble so far and that wasn't exactly what my left shoulder wanted to do. Believe me. It told me.

Day 45 - I worked until I hit the hard stuff.

So I got a shitload of parging down and a ton of debris bagged up for eventual disposal.

The remaining area behind the toilet is really solid and the area where the weird seam is begins a totally different kind of concrete/mortar that is a helluva lot stronger than what I've been removing during Phase I - III.

I decided to call it a day when I heard the thunder rumbling. No doubt rain'll be here soon.

Hopefully it'll stay out of the basement.

Day 44 - Phase IV begins!!! WooHoo!!!

It is with great excitement and joy that I announce that Phase IV of the Basement of Non-Love repairs has started here at the House of Love!

It has been exactly one month to the day since I began my sabattical in the hopes the my left arm would heal and I'd be pain free.

Alas. I still have pain, my arm is still problematic, and the basement was not going to fix itself so back to work for Nala.

Continue reading "Day 44 - Phase IV begins!!! WooHoo!!!" »

Day 44 - A 2nd coat up and some yard work done.

So I got the 2nd coat of waterproofer painted on.

I kind of painted myself into a corner so I couldn't do the work I need to with the more easily used Drylock. I'll have to wait for today's work to totally dry before I can get down and do the detail stuff. My bad.

I also cleaned up part of the back yard where 3 of my arborvitae (planted last year) died.

Give it a few days and the spirae and the marigolds should hopefully take and start filling in.

It at least looks cleaner.

They forecasted low 90s today but it doesn't really feel like it. I suppose I should go out and weed some other areas sometime today. There's this one section between the day lilies and the shed that I want to do something with. It is mostly shaded so impatiens would work. I got a 1/2 a flat left.

Day 43 - Basement Phase III is almost frigg'n done!!!

The first full coat of waterproofer is on! One more coat tomorrow and some Drylock touch-up and Phase III will be down in the record books.

You know you get off on my basement repairs! I know you do!

Day 41 - The waterproofing of Phase III begins.

Day 40 was pretty much an uneventful cleaning and moving day but today? Oh boy! Waterproofing started!

I got a coat of drylock in the areas where water used to come in. I'll put a 2nd coat on tonight.

Tomorrow I'll hopefully get the first coat of the powder waterproofer that I have to mix.

Now for some reason, I'm assuming I've been made to believe the marketing on the more expensive and pre-mixed Drylock product. I use it in the most notorious areas but I use it sparingly too due to the cost.

I honestly don't know if there's much different between the expensive Drylock or the economical powder I mostly use when it comes to actual waterproofing.

Hell. There's a Quikrete waterproofer that is $4 per 60 pounds (instead of the $25 for $60 on the one I use) but it is grey and I really wanted the basement to be brighter instead of dark and dingy. Yeah. I suppose I should go with the cheaper one to save money but I think it makes the walls just look better and more appealing.

Great unjoy and unhappiness.

Water in my basement? Sure! Why not.

Yes. The "Fuck" that came out of my mouth this morning, as opposed to yesterday, was due to water in the basement. But this time, it is water coming in due to the repairs of the north wall.

Instead of the water coming through the wall, it seems to have gone around it and entered the basement from a different part of the front porch room.

So while I should be somewhat happy that I've managed to create a solid north wall I've also created an additional situation that I'll need to correct when I finally get to that room. Of course, that room is the last part of my basement repairs too!

Well. There's not much I can do when it rains. I've got the fans on and the dehumidifier going 24/7 already. Not much more I can do.

(And I'm hoping... so hoping... that the dampness on the west wall is because of the new concrete curing and not water entering in!!!)

Day 39 - 3rd coat done! W00t!

I managed to get home, get suited up in my work clothes (I should photograph the lovely "outfits" I wear while working), and got a 3rd layer of concrete pretty much all along the way from the hot water tank to the stack.

I even got the hydraulic cement shoved into gaps behind the stack. Quite frankly, I don't think I could possibly have done a shittier job than this on these area! *sigh*

And yes, I even managed to get all the trash disposed of before the rain started.

I feel like a good Nala.

Day 38 - Phase III - First parging coat done!!!

The first coat of parging is complete for Phase III.

I've got some touch up to do in a couple of days but overall it is looking good.

Of course, I can't get my fingers and hands behind the plumbing stack so that is proving to be troublesome. I have no idea what a trained mason would even do on this since tools don't even go back there. It won't be pretty but hopefully it'll be waterproof when I'm done.

Day 37 - I wish I had gotten more done.

Alas, an unfortunate encounter with yet another problem area resulted in my not getting everything done that I had originally planned.

But I did get a good 7 hours or so in and got the area where the water came in tuckpointed and a first coat of concrete parging done.

My back is really hurty though and I needed to call it quits for the night.

Day 37 begins!

I hope to get the entire area of Phase III tuckpointed and parged today from the hot water tank to past the main stack. Three is a chance of thunderstorms the next few days but I honestly can't let that stop me. This has to get done.

I've never attempted to do so much in a day so I don't know if I'll actually complete the task or not.

If it does, I'll set a personal record for the amount of concrete mixed and applied!!!

And boy will my wrists and fingers let me know about it tomorrow!

Ok. I must make coffee.

Day 36 - Phase II complete!

Spent most of the day at the Victorian Village yard sale and wandered around my old neighborhood.

When I came home I actually got the lawn cut, a 2nd coat on the north wall, and about 15lbs of hydraulic cement stuffed into one of the major voids where the rain came in the other night.

I can happily say that Phase II that began on May 16 is complete!

My (sugar) walls. My (sugar) walls. Water inside my (sugar) walls.

18 hours and 13 minutes later and I still have a stream coming through the one corner of my basement wall.

It really does suck.

But on the whole, the finished walls seem to be holding up and dry. I suppose I can find solace in that. (At least for now.)

God Bless!

Will there be a Day 36 today?

I didn't sleep well last night.

In fact, I got up three times and finally, around 10 I just got up and went to the Attic of Love to clean up some files.

The rain never quite stopped and even by 11:30pm or so there was still water coming through the wall in the basement.

Not as bad as when it started but still a depressing site to see.

Best I can do today is get the 2nd coat of water proofer on the north wall/corner and start cleaning up my work area to begin the process of getting more concrete. According to weather.com (and looking out my window) there's 100% chance it'll continue raining today. Pray to whatever god's you believe in that it doesn't deluge like it did yesterday. Me? I'm just going to take it hour by hour, trying to not get frustrated by it all.

And since it is supposed to rain quite a bit this week, that means acquiring the 1200 or so pounds of concrete I need to tuckpoint and parge the rain drenched wall will be a challenge. Then again, I can't mix and apply the concrete with such an insane risk of rain. I also can't risk removing any other parging or old mortar on additional walls for fear of this water drama happening elsehwere.

I have a little over 200 lbs of different concretes but these aren't for the vertical surfaces. I had planned on using them to fill some of the major above grade gaps in the stone I encountered. I suppose I could continue with that. It'd free up the floor space too.

Finding a plus side in all of this is hard but at least the temperature should hopefully drop down back into the 70s for a bit. And the rain will hopefully be good for everything I planted. (Of course, I still have a flat of annuals to get in!!!)

I think I will begin working now.

Day 34 - In which the rain comes through and Moses is not around.

Like I said before it has been raining.

And I was at a place in my wall work where I really really really didn't need a downpour.

I also didn't need a clogged gutter right above the place I'm working at in the basement.

It doesn't matter that I got a full coat of water proofing on the north wall.

It certainly doesn't matter that I got the east wall cleaned out now.

The water came in and in and in.]

I'm too numb and covered in cement to even cry right now.

It is bad. Really bad.

And then the rain poured down.

And a literal flood of water came through my basement wall.

And it hasn't stopped.

Day 33 - Some waterproofing done.

Alas, no photos for you today.

However, if there were photos, it would be of the first coat of Drylock on the north wall and northeast corner.

Fun.

Day 32 - Not as much as I'd like.

I didn't get as much done this evening as I wanted to.

I got a first pass behind the hot water tank and near the furnace done.

I also noticed moisture near part of the curing Phase II part that has me worried. I didn't have any moisture on the concrete for Phase I. Hopefully this is just part of the curing process. I don't know what to do if it isn't.

My hands hurt really bad too.

*sigh*

And I'm not even 50% done.

Video Blog - What working in the basement is really like!

If you've seen my progress on the basement wall repairs than you know how insane it has been.

Wanna see what it these walls are really like?

Click for YouTube Hosted Video Blog Entry

Day 31 - In which a major problem area is hopefully fixed.

I spent several hours working on Phase III today.

And boy, did I discover something I really didn't want to see.

The area around the stack where the roots were coming up is actually a huge previously repaired gap!

I managed to dig out the remains of the previous repair and clean up as much as possible around the stack from the bathroom.

I also got the whole wall/floor seam from Phase II done as well.

I managed to fill the entire gap with water plug cement and hopefully this will last several years.

I did my best to clean out the roots and really try to fix that area that is always so damp and leaking.

Day 30 - A lot was done!

I fixed the a/c drainage pipe I accidentally crushed yesterday and got several hours of hammering and chiseling accomplished.

The entire area of Phase III is now free of covering.

I can begin the mortar clean out tomorrow or Monday. I'm thinking Monday since my wrists are now major hurty.

I also got the lawn mowed, the one side shrubbery trimmed very shittily, a ton of my hostas moved, a dead arborvitae dug out, about a flat and a half of impatiens and begonias planted, and other miscellaneous shit.

Quite a full day.

Tomorrow I'll be going to see X-Men: The Last Stand with Mr. and Mrs. Evebird. I think I may rest too!

Day 30 - Not quite a Kyoto Song.

Upset there's not another lame new basement picture? Just look at yesterday's and imagine the wall with another thin coat of 180lbs of concrete. That's pretty much all I did today.

But of course, that wraps up the parging work and that means 4-7 days of curing before I can clean it up again and start the drylocking.

I'll be working Phase III while that part is curing. I need to rearrange some shit down in the basment yet again. Hopefully Giga will want to get rid of some shit that's down there at next week's Victorian Village Yard Sale.

Oh. And the handle fell off my trowel. Do you know how much balls that sucks? A lot.

Day 29 - Yay! A full coat of parge done!

I got another 420lbs of concrete mixed and done today. The wall isn't quite finished as there is a small band that I really need to add a 2nd coat on (it only has mortar now) but I was just too tired. It looks so much better than it did a couple of days ago.

Cowtown is currently experiencing major storms and the rain is just banging major league onto the roof above me in the Attic of Love.

Hopefully, the fact that I started Phase III and began removing some of the major bad wall parge won't cause more water to come in.

This kind of rain is the super mega heavy drencher kind that my basement totally hates.

No doubt the room under the porch will flood too.

*sigh*

Day 28 - In which Nala runs out of concrete and mortar.

If I'd only had 3-4 more bags of cement...

Continue reading "Day 28 - In which Nala runs out of concrete and mortar." »

Day 27 - It has begun!

I got a ton more chiseled out today and pretty much decided I had to make a logical stopping point.

I really could keep pulling more and more crap out but that really isn't going to make much difference from what I can tell.

So I got everything swept up and managed to get 20lbs of hydraulic cement and water plug cement mixed up and a good 2nd coat along the wall and floor seam. This should serve as a good base to begin with.

Tomorrow I'm going to begin the repairs to the window sill and window sides and if possible, perhaps get the tuckpointing down from the floor up to about 15 or so inches.

I'll probably be due for a major Lowe's run on Thursday to pick up more mix.

Day 26 - No real excitement just more chiseling.

Believe me. You really didn't want another picture of the stone foundation wall that looks practically like every other picture of the stone foundation wall!

I got a couple of hours in on the basement after work.

Most of it was detail chiseling in the corner.

I fired up the new reciprocating saw and cut off the ends of two old pipes that were jutting out of the wall. One was an old water line and it looks like the other is probably an old gas line. Now when I tuckpoint and reparge they'll just become part of a flat wall and not jut out anymore.

I kinda went way off my regular diet and pigged out the past couple of days. Today saw us going to Hoggy's (no pun intended) and I ate way too much and now I feel like total shit.

Tomorrow will see more chiseling and I should get a good 5 hours of work in. Hopefully that'll include a good floor/wall seam clean up and another patching round with they hydraulic cement.

I'd really really really like to get the first coat of concrete parge up at least 2' from the floor by Thursday.

This week has to be some major work since we'll be heading to the Victorian Village Yard Sale on Saturday. I can pretty much write that day off entirely.

Remember last year's sale?

I don't really have much to sell so it won't be as exciting as last year was for me. Giga may have a few things and no doubt his parents will too

Face it. It's true.

A man's best friend is not his penis.

A man's best friend is not his dog.

A man's best friend is not his wife or girlfriend.

A man's best friend is not his boyfriend should that be the case.

No.

Not at all.

Continue reading "Face it. It's true." »

Day 25 - More cleaning out the mortar (and stuff)!

Geez. Guess what I did today?

I've still got a section behind the gas meter I'm not happy with and of course, the eastern facing walls just having dried out enough for me to really dig out at least 3" of of mortar. I've got to clean it out at least 30" or so from the floor.

But it is slowly coming along.

Perhaps some more hydraulic cement and the first tucking pointing repairs can begin on Tuesday or so depending on how bad my fingers and wrists hurt.

Sweet like candy to my soul... Sweet you rock... And sweet you roll

I can't say I'm getting much done today.

After the gym I just got all tired again.

And the fingers?

Oy koledy!

In the past month or so I feel as if my hands have aged 20 years.

Lovely.

Day 24 - Basement Wally World

With only a 30 or so minute wrist rest earlier today, I managed to crank out a solid day of work on the basement and other assorted items on my list.

Not bad. Not bad at all.

I'm really looking forward to getting small tonight and having a good night's sleep.

I'm gonna lay around until 8:30 and then head to the gym for 90 minutes or so. I know I'm retarded and all but there's something insane and serene in the fact that my body is pretty much in a constant state of sore these days. I almost enjoy it in a strange way.

Hopefully I can finish the corner clean up and at least 15" towards the hot water tank.

I'd be happy to end my day tomorrow with the lower portion of tuckpointing and fill started. That'd be nice.

Can't... move... wrists...

I've worked my ass off since 7 or so this morning and I can barely move my hands and wrists.

Ugh!

Talk about your show-stopper.

The north/east wall/corner is going to take a lot longer than I had originally planned. I need to get at least 4" of mortar out of that wall and so far, it is is in worse condition than the other one I finished. I'm assuming that the Japanese maple is the cause. It was right there outside the wall!

The stone under the fire place is really bad too. In some places it is just dusty powder. You can put your entire finger right through what used to be the mortar. Scary. I need to get as much of that replaced as possible.

So, barring any worse finger/wrist pain, this'll definitely take me a few more days before I can even start with the retuck pointing.

Oh well. What's a bloke to do.

Day 23 - Work in lieu of laying down. Joy.

With a thunderstorm warning in effect for the rest of the evening, and a good chance of storms the next 3 days, I needed to shake off the dental pain and at least try to seal the holes and major voids along the wall/floor seam.

I took some painkillers when I got home from the dentist and after resting a bit I realized I didn't have much choice in the matter and would have to suit up and try and do some work in the basement.

I had left major gaps open when I removed the parging and dust yesterday

I had gotten most of the parging removed to to hot water tank. The weather, as I reported this morning, has been a bit rainier than when I worked on the first part of the west wall.

And of course, I'm working on one of the worst walls for water now.

Continue reading "Day 23 - Work in lieu of laying down. Joy." »

Day 22 - An initial pass at the north wall.

I spent about 3 1/2 hours doing an initial pass of the walls today. I got all of the parging down. There's a section on the corner (to the left above) that is actually fairly new and looks like it was probably done in the past 20 years or so. It is very solid so I'm just going to leave it there, spray it with bonding adhesive, and parge my own concrete over that.

I'm afraid that Phase II will take a few days more than I had planned. The area under the gasline and behind the hot water tank is worse than I thought. I have a sneaking suspicion when I get that parging off I'm really going to have to dig a lot of old shit out and replace a lot of what is there.

I'm thinking that perhaps the huge Japanese maple that was on that side of the house (but we removed) may have caused a lot more root damage that I thought.

Day 21 - In which preparations are made for Phase II

So today was not an actual work on the basement day but more of preparation for Phase II to begin tomorrow.

Yup. North and northeast wall time kids!

I spent about 3 hours cleaning up and organizing all my tools and such, making sure everything is where I need it to be. I cleaned up all the finished areas of Phase I and got a everything moved around so I could free up space to work.

The freezer is back to its normal location at the foot of the stairs. I still can't believe how good that wall looks. A month ago it was totally crumbling in.

Miscellaneous other items have been stored under the stairwell now that it is finished. There are 2 boxes there that Giga and I need to sort through. I'm thinking most if not all of that can be thrown away.

In fact, I'm looking forward to having the basement totally done and going through each bin/box and thinning out what exists down here.

But that has to wait.

For Phase II (below) begins tomorrow!

Day 20 - A second coat is done.

Came home and started working to get out my frustrations. Though my prostate has also flared up again so I didn't want to sit on a can and chisel for hours.

I did however get the second and final coat on the walls done.

So basically that amounts to what I'm calling Phase 1 being done.

This was the area I set out to do to see if I could do it and now that I know I can I will continue to the north wall.

Tomorrow (or maybe later this evening) I'll de-dust the freezer and move that back to the wall. I've got to shift some other stuff around too so I can move the dust clothes around too.

I suppose I should look up the scratch I spent on that wall from start to finish and work up what the others will take. I'm going to change my game plan a bit for the underlaying mortar and not do a total skim coat over the stone above 20" from the floor or so. The tuckpointing will still occur but the concrete coat will be the main layer, which is much like what I'm removing was 50 years or so ago.

Any of you basement fetishists care to give a ballpark guess to what I've spent in the past 20 days? If so, please comment.

Me? I'm going to take a shower.

Video Blog - Waterproofing the basment!

New videoblog is up.

Day 19 - In which the one finished wall is waterproofed!

I got a coat of Drylok on the seam before I left for the gym and then, when I got back, I got the entire wall that I've been rebuilding for the past 18 days coated with the first coat of waterproofing.

Continue reading "Day 19 - In which the one finished wall is waterproofed!" »

Day 18 - The beginning of the waterproofing

So today ended up becoming a sorta-kinda slacker day.

But I did get home and get the waterproofing started on the wall-floor seam.

I'm using drylock about 15" up the wall and 6" into the room on the floor. I'd love to use this product for the entire sealing of the concrete but the cost is just prohibitive right now. So. In lieu of that, I'm using it only along the seam.

The rest of the wall will be done with another masonry waterproofer that is a powder I have to mix and apply. That'll be a pain in the ass but will save so much money in the long run for the entire basement repair.

Day 16 - Where I should have been 3 days ago!

Woohoo!!!

I finally got the space all the way to the washer parged!!!

And I got a 2nd coat up from the floor about 12" too!!!

The entire northwest section and under the steps is now one mess of curing concrete!!!

Continue reading "Day 16 - Where I should have been 3 days ago!" »

Day 15 - Up up up the wall!

So I didn't quite meet my goal for today.

I got most of the main wall going up the stairs done, the top, and miscellaneous other parts.

It would have taken me an extra hour or so to finish under the stairs so I only got about 12" from the floor.

Tomorrow, if my back and knees can take it, I'll mix up 120 more lbs of concrete and finish off under the stairs and up on the top of the stairs.

The parts between the stairs and the wall worry me too. I can only do so much with the tips of my fingers and the end of the trowel. I hope at least the part above the floor is solid.

I'm thinking that once the wall has had a day or two to cure I'll mix up the remainder of the hydraulic cement I have, work it up to a putty consistency, and then kind of press it into what voids I can. It is really the best I can do without removing the stairs.

I'm wondering how much the 60lbs of powder masonry waterproofer will cover. I should take some measurements tomorrow and get an idea.

I'm going to use that for the majority of the walls and then probably Drylok for the bottom 18" or so. Depending on the coverage and the number of coats I need to do, it may not be that much more economical than the premixed Drylok.

Day 14 - Stair Addendum

I removed that last step yesterday.

I got a good solid layer of hydraulic cement back in there and should have enough room tonight