Nothing But Words

When we moved into our house last year, I noticed that the walls on the third floor had an odd texture to them, and that they had very noticeable vertical lines (but not quite the kind of lines that I’ve seen before on bad drywall taping jobs). My guess was that the previous owners had painted over wallpaper. I didn’t mind if the walls weren’t perfect, so I wasn’t too worried about it. (I should point out that the third floor is not original to the house – the first two floors have nice plaster walls).

Lats month, I started on a new project: I was going to run new electrical lines on the 3rd floor, and paint. Not only are the existing electrical lines old, but when the third floor was added, they just ran the new electrical lines off the existing second floor lines. That means we’ve got 5 rooms all on one circuit, which is asking for trouble. My plan was to pop off the baseboards and run the new lines behind them, so I wouldn’t have to make too many holes in the walls.

When I removed the baseboards, I could see what the walls were made of, and I learned why they looked the way they did. They weren’t made out of drywall or plaster – they were made out of particle board (a type of board that essentially consists of glued together sawdust). And those funny lines? They sealed the gaps between the boards with….duct tape. Whoever did this work was a fool. Building the interior walls out of wood is a huge fire hazard. You could put a match to them and then watch the house burn down mighty fast.

So all the walls on the 3rd floor have to come down, including in the stairwell. As you can see in the picture, the demolition is underway. I’ve discovered that it’s a lot harder to tear out particle board then drywall. If you try to cut it with any kind of motorized saw, it kicks up a huge amount of dust – even worse than drywall. If you try to pry it off the studs with a crowbar, you end up just tearing out a tiny piece where your crowbar is. After some trial-and-error I came up with a reasonably good technique – I pry the board free all along one stud, and then get my hands behind it and slowly work it back and forth. That loosens up the nails and I can pull the board apart in fairly big chunks. In some spots they went crazy with a nail gun though – putting nails every couple of inches – so some of it is slow going.

Putting up new drywall for the entire 3rd floor is too big of a job for just me. Once I’ve got the demolition done and the new electrical lines in, we’ll dip into our line of credit on the house to hire someone to install new drywall. We had other plans for that money, but something as hazardous as this has to come first.

It’s always an adventure.

I mentioned in an earlier post that we had all the old, overgrown shrubs and trees on our property razed to the ground. Since then I’ve mulched the garden areas (we’ll start planting things in the spring) and I’m tremendously impressed with myself for growing some nice, thick grass in the spots that needed it. But we’re still the scary house on the block. One afternoon someone came by and stuck a Democratic Party flyer in our door. That evening I was out in the street playing with Kai and some of the neighborhood kids. A canvasser was working his way down the street, stopping at each of the houses where the flyers had been placed, and following up with the residents. I watched him as he approached our house. He stopped on the sidewalk in front, looked down at his clipboard, then up at the house, paused, looked down and then up again, paused again, and then walked right on by.

So the house looks better than it did a year ago, but we’re not there yet In a couple weeks we’re having the front door and the back door replaced. I’ve acquired many home improvement skills over the years – from tile work, to laying floors, to electrical work. But I’ve never gotten the knack of hanging doors (I think my problem is that, unlike most other home improvement skills, it’s an art, not a science). So I’m leaving that job to the pros (we’ve been lucky to find a very good contractor – it’ll be the same guy who did our kitchen windows).

I’ve realized in all this time I haven’t posted any exterior shots of the house yet (actually, I have, but you’d have to hunt for them: they’re tucked away in my Route 50 travelogue). So here’s a shot from when we moved in last year, and then a couple showing the recent yardwork.

What the house looked like when we moved in last year:

What it looks like now – we’ve removed the shrubs, and replaced the windows and roof:

Since taking this picture I’ve mulched the garden area and planted grass:

It’s always a challenge keeping my hobbies under control. My blogging has slowed down as I’ve been distracted by experimenting with my new DVD burner and iPod, building a web site for Maria, and working in the yard.

Maria and Kai visited her folks in Denver last week. They had a great trip, but they lost many of Kai’s DVDs on the plane. Previously, he’s also had DVDs that became unplayable due to scratches. So I’ve invested in a DVD burner so I can make back up copies of his DVDs (well, after we buy or rent the originals again anyway). Unfortunately, the Digital Millenimum Copyright Act has resulted in a situation where we still have a right to fair use of DVDs, including having backup copies, but the tools which allow us to make the copies are illegal. But I started finding ways to back up copy-protected software when I was a 13 year old with a Commodore 64, so I’m not about to stop now….Anyway, I picked the right time to buy a DVD burner, as the new dual-layer burners are on the market now. I got the Sony one. The dual-layer discs can hold as much data as commercially released DVDs, which means you can make direct copies, with no compression required. The only problem is, you can’t get the blank dual-layer discs yet (actually, you can, but only through Verbatim, and all they have is a 10 pack, in which only 1 of the 10 discs is a dual layer one). In the meantime, I’m using single-layer discs with DVD Shrink, which is without a doubt the most well-made freeware desktop application I’ve ever used.

Maria gave me an iPod for my birthday, but my hard drive crash happened soon after that, so I haven’t really had a chance to use it until recently. What a fabulous toy! The people at Apple are colonizing my mind. It’s a fundamentally different kind of music player than a tape or CD player, and at first I was worried there would be an intimidating learning curve (here’s an amsuing comparison of an iPod and a cassette). But I found it to be amazingly intuitive. Every time I wanted to do something with it, I’d take a guess at which button to push, and my guess was always right. It’s impressive how much functionality they’ve squeezed out of an interface that consists of a small screen, four buttons, and a dial. A while back my friend Jay sent me a bunch of CDs full of mp3′s, and I never found the time for the task of converting them to regular music CDs. Last night I downloaded them onto my iPod in no time, and so far I’m enjoying the new Convenant album (well, new to me anyway, it’s actually two years old).

Maria and I have started building a web site for the Decision ’04 class she’ll be co-teaching this Fall. We’re using the Xoops content management system. One of the features we really wanted to use was the “Headlines” feature (an RSS newsfeed service, which you can use for things like embedding the current New York Times headlines directly into your site). But I discovered our hosting provider had disabled the PHP fopen function, which Xoops relies on for the newsfeed. They turned it off for good reason: it has a security hole big enough to drive an open mail relay through. I solved the problem by rewriting the Xoops newsfeeder to use cURL instead. There’s a discussion thread on this problem with the newsfeeder on the Xoops site, so I posted the fix there.

And the yard…A couple weeks ago I hired a crew to come through and remove all the trees and shrubs (save for a nice Japanese maple). I would’ve done it myself, but I don’t have a stump grinder, and they do. The previous owners of our house were an elderly couple, and they neglected the yard for probably 20 years. So the easiest solution was just to remove all the overgrown shrubs and half-dead trees. So now I’m removing all the weeds, defining the borders between the garden areas and the lawn, etc. Until now, I’ve deliberately avoided working in the yard much since we moved in, as I enjoy it more than working inside the house, and I was worried I’d end up neglecting important indoor projects (like re-wiring the electrical system). But I figure it’ll be ok to work on the yard for the rest of the summer, and then turn my attention indoors again in the Fall.

I bought 3 new windows for our kitchen last summer. These are “new construction” windows, not replacement windows, as we wanted to replace one window with a smaller one, and the frames for the other two didn’t look to be in very good shape. We just recently hired a contractor to install them. Originally I wanted to do it myself, but I lacked the equipment for capping the windows with aluminum (as our house has aluminum siding). And it turned out to be a fairly big job, so I’m glad I didn’t do it – it took the contractor a couple days, but it probably would have taken me 3 times as long. Here are some pictures.

This was the contractor’s aluminum “break” which he used to make the capping for the windows – not a tool I’m ready to invest in! View at Picasa This was the contractor’s aluminum “break” which he used to make the capping for the windows – not a tool I’m ready to invest in!31-Mar-2004 17:40, Canon Canon PowerShot S230, 2.8, 5.40625mm, 0.017 sec	The rubble pile from just one of the old windows – a lot more than you’d expect! View at Picasa The rubble pile from just one of the old windows – a lot more than you’d expect!04-Apr-2004 15:31, Canon Canon PowerShot S230, 2.8, 5.40625mm, 0.008 sec
Exterior view of the new pantry window. We got one shorter than the original window, as we added counters in the pantry, and the original window came down too low. (The contractor is coming back to finish the siding). View at Picasa Exterior view of the new pantry window. We got one shorter than the original window, as we added counters in the pantry, and the original window came down too low. (The contractor is coming back to finish the siding).04-Apr-2004 15:31, Canon Canon PowerShot S230, 2.8, 5.40625mm, 0.004 sec	Interior view of the pantry window. I told the contractor I’d take care of the interior patching, since I’m comfortable doing that work. So far I’ve just cut and mounted the drywall. (We’ve temporarily removed the cabinets from under the window.) View at Picasa Interior view of the pantry window. I told the contractor I’d take care of the interior patching, since I’m comfortable doing that work. So far I’ve just cut and mounted the drywall. (We’ve temporarily removed the cabinets from under the window.)04-Apr-2004 18:45, Canon Canon PowerShot S230, 2.8, 5.40625mm, 0.125 sec
The main kitchen windows. As you can see, we’re close to our neighbors on this side! View at Picasa The main kitchen windows. As you can see, we’re close to our neighbors on this side!04-Apr-2004 15:29, Canon Canon PowerShot S230, 2.8, 5.40625mm, 0.017 sec

View at Picasa Kai in the kicthen cabinet I had to temporarily take down, to run the new electrical line for the spotlights20-Mar-2004 09:12, Canon Canon PowerShot S230, 2.8, 5.40625mm, 0.017 sec

Maria is in Montreal this weekend for a conference. Whenever Kai and I are alone for any length of time, he always says “it’s just the boys.” Unfortunately, I came down with a cold on Friday, so it’s been slowing me down. But I’ve had just enough energy to keep him entertained and get some more work done in the kitchen too. It’s the last 10% of any project that’s always the hardest to get through, but I’m trying to stay focused.

After I put in all the new electrical wiring, and all the painting, etc. was done, then we realized that just one overhead light was not enough. There was no way I was going to start cutting new holes in the ceiling for new fixtures. So today I came up with a less drastic solution. I put an outlet above the wall cabinets, and placed it directly over the light switch, so it was easy to run a line in the wall down to the switch. From there it was just a question of mounting a couple spotlights on top of the cabinets. Unless you’re 9 ft tall, you won’t see the cords.

View at Picasa The outlet I added above the cabinets for the spotlights. I connected the outlet directly to the light switch below it.20-Mar-2004 15:32, Canon Canon PowerShot S230, 2.8, 5.40625mm, 0.017 sec

View at Picasa View of the new spotlights from a normal height20-Mar-2004 15:33, Canon Canon PowerShot S230, 2.8, 5.40625mm, 0.017 sec

The other thing I did this past weekend was some stop-gap electrical repairs: we had a bad outlet, and a couple of lights that weren’t working because of worn-out switches. In the process of replacing them, I learned – much to my chagrin – that all of the 2nd floor and the 3rd floor are on one circuit. We’re talking about 5 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms here. That’s just nuts.

On top of that, the breaker for that circuit is bad. I had to flip it half a dozen times to get the circuit to shut off. When we bought the house, the seller had the service panel replaced, and it looks like they put in all new breakers too, except for one: this one. So I’ve got to replace that breaker ASAP – it’s quite a fire hazard.

The 3rd floor is not original to the house, so my guess is that, when the house was built in the 1920s, one circuit for the 2nd floor was probably considered ok. Back then bedrooms just used electricity for lights and radios, right? Then when the 3rd floor was added, I bet they were just lazy and tied into the closest circuit, rather than running a new line to the service panel in the basement.

This will complicate my plans for replacing the wiring. As I go room-by-room, I’ll have to be careful to not mess up the existing lines, otherwise we’ll end up with no power in most of the house. It’ll be a pain when I want to put a new outlet in the same spot as an old one. Grrr.

As promised, my 45 second tour of the new kitchen is now available. Enjoy!

I spent a good part of the weekend wrapping up some work in the kitchen. The windows and doors still need to be replaced, but other than that, it’s just about done (the only other significant task remaining is for me to build a cover for the radiator). Here are some before and after photos. I also created a 45 second video, which I will upload tonight.

BEFORE: Kitchen – with the sink, dishwasher, range, and fridge crammed into a tiny space, the original kitchen was almost unusable

BEFORE: Pantry – the previous residents were using the pantry room as a computer room (and yes, that is the back of Maria’s head)

AFTER: Kitchen – moving the fridge out and rearranging the other appliances made the space much more comfortable

AFTER: Pantry – we moved the fridge into the pantry, and put in some more cabinets and counters. The pantry has a window facing south, so even though it’s small, it’s a nice space

Living as a bachelor this week, I’ve gotten a lot of work done in the kitchen. Yesterday after work I got about two-thirds of the floor tiles grouted, and Sunday I cut and installed most of the cabinet cover panels and kick panels. It’s a good feeling to be almost done, and I can’t believe how long it’s taken (I started the kitchen remodel in July). I guess I got used to how quickly I was able to get things done on the house in CA, but in retrospect I realize that 1. I was under tremendous time-pressure, as we had to sell the house and move, and 2. Maria’s folks were there to watch Kai. I’m happy to not be under that kind of pressure again, and now I spend more time with Kai than working on the house, which is a trade I’m extremely happy to make!

The next project on my list is rewiring the house. All the existing wires are original – from the 1920s – and at this point they’re a fire hazard (the insulation is crumbling, exposing the copper). I may have to juggle that project with another one – replacing all the water pipes in the basement. Although age isn’t so much of a concern with copper pipes, between the fact that I have several leaking valves and that many of the pipes run in a maze of water-pressure-reducing forks and dead-ends (presumably due to hare-brained projects of former owners), they’re in need of being re-done.

I drove Kai and Maria to the airport this morning. Maria is on spring break this week, so she and Kai are headed to Denver to spend time with Maria’s folks. So I’m alone in the house for a week. I hope I don’t starve to death. I can forage in the fridge for a day or two – I’m not sure what will happen to me after that.

I’ll probably put the finishing touches on the kitchen. I need to grout the floor tiles, put in baseboards, put in a GFCI outlet, and re-install the cabinet over the fridge (it needs to go 8″ to the left…). The doors and windows need to be replaced too, but we’ll save that for warmer weather. I have a draft written up describing all the work that’s gone into the kitchen since we moved in almost 8 months ago. Once I finish it, I’ll post it along with some before/during/after pictures.