House in Progress Diary

Do it Yourself Archive

Do it Yourself

We've decided to start a new journal category: Do it Yourself! For certain projects we're going to post photos and steps for how we did certain projects. Because if we can do these, anyone could. ;-)

Once we started thinking seriously about buying this specific house, we knew we were going to have to learn a lot. Luckily we've got great dads and some wonderful friends and neighbors who've gone through this themselves. But since we're both career educators, we also started thinking about how we could share what we learn...and in a real way where problems come up that we have to solve. (They never show those parts in those home improvement TV shows!!) So, later on we started this site and realized we had a great way to actually do that...thus a new category for our website!

Projects will probably run the full range of complexity (although we're starting simple) and should eventually cover lots of topics (since this whole house basically needs to be fixed). We're thinking that most entries will focus on:
- How we approached a project.
- Problems we ran in to and how we got around them.
- Tools and materials we needed.
- Books and websites that helped us figure it out.
- Money we saved by doing it ourselves. (Sweat equity!!)

Hopefully you'll have as much fun reading about our projects as we have doing them! Plus, we'll be looking for you all to share your knowledge too. Don't be afraid to suggest even better ways to do things...especially if you see us doing something wrong! We're sure we'll all be learning something along the way!

Installing Coaxial Cable

Last weekend we installed our own cable. Here's how it went...

The Problem
The previous owners had never had cable (although they did have an antennae, which we removed from the chimney last week) so we were starting from scratch. A couple of weeks ago we actually had the cable company come out twice to do an installation. Long story short, we didn't want cable slapped on the exterior of the house and the bid for custom installation was $300! So, we decided we could do it ourselves...

Our Solution
It turns out cable is about the easiest and safest wiring to install. However, the tools you need are a bit pricey...a coaxial crimping tool was $50 at our local Home Depot! However, in the end we realized that we could skip on the expensive hardware by having the cable company come and do the finishing (they have to come anyway and hook us up to their network) for their standard installation fee. We also avoided any drilling or cutting by using existing access routes (a great idea from A's dad). So, our total cost was $55 ( $17 for cable + $10 for a wire cutter + $28 for the cable company's visit to finish off the installation), a savings of $245 versus the professional quote.

How it Went
We decided to convert an extra (and poorly installed) electrical outlet to a coaxial outlet, rather than cutting a new hole in the wall. We started by running a 3' wire down the hole where the electrical conduit (old BX) had been.

Once the wire was threaded through, we went down in the basement and taped the wire to the coaxial cable we bought.

We went back up stairs and pulled the wire until the coaxial cable came through.

Then we threaded the cable along the center beam to the back of the house. Mid-way we left some slack to add a splitter for a second outlet when we renovate the second floor.

We were able to avoid drilling a new hole by use a pre-existing one from old telephone wiring that's no longer in use.

And the we pulled it out the other side under our back porch, where it was ready for the cable technician to hook us up!

A few days later a technician came from the cable company, finished off both ends of our wiring, and hooked up our service!

Hello Daily Show!!

Tool & Materials We Used
- RG-6 Coaxial cable (RG-59 will also do but is a slightly lower quality)
- Wire Cutter

Other Useful Resources
For education on running wire, we used Stanley's Basic Wiring. It uses clear instructions and photos to explain how to do a variety of electrical projects that anyone can handle. They cover running coaxial cable on p. 110-111.

We also found Advanced Wiring helpful. In addition to detailing more ambitious projects, it addressed plaster and lathe installations (p. 48-49) you'll find in older homes. It was good to know even though we didn't end up doing any cutting in this particular case.

Fixing a Smelly Basement

We hadn't really left the house in a couple of days. Came back from a long day trip running around and...phew!

The Problem

Walked straight to the basement...odor was worse. Smelled kind of like wet, moldy laundry. We have these drains sunk into the floor connected in a straight line and headed for the main sewer system under the street in front of the house. The drains! The smell was coming from the drains. One drain, specifically.

Now, we had these drains rodded first thing when we took possession of this place. Oh man! It had been awhile since anyone had done that.

The Attempt at Diagnosis: Doing our homework

Now...why the quick increase in the smell quotient? And, by the way, it was SO bad, it hit us when we walked in the front door on the first floor. Here was what had changed in the last few days that offered some clues...

Wednesday. We fired up the old dishwasher after Sears fixed the door latch and also had the steam boiler serviced for the cold weather.

Thursday. We began using dishwasher. Had been using it once a day. Who knows how long since it had been used. It was listed "as is" in the sale and, well, who knows what was put through that poor dishwasher.

Friday. We caught up on the laundry. Weather became cold overnight and for the first time ever, at about 9 pm, we fired up the boiler for more than an hour. Mmmmm. Toasty.

Saturday. We turned down the boiler because now the weather had warmed. (As we say in Chicago...wait a minute...weather'll change.) Rolled out the door pretty early to be on our way. Returned at 5 pm to, um, stinky house.

So...where to look first? Clogged mainline drain? Strange boiler issue I've never had to deal with? Suspicious dishwasher? Overloaded clothes washer?

Is this house going to blow up? We've got the windows open, it's freezing, and the only one sleeping happily, peacefully is the dog (she's got a thick coat, that dog.)

Oh yes, and the cat is accounted for. Dave's up here, hanging out in the linen built-in.

No Dave in the drain for this mystery. Unlike our poor pal on the Fine Homebuilding forum...

Our Solution

We wanted to try to tackle this one ourself. So, I turned to three resources:

1) The book, Renovating Old Houses, By George Nash

Really. If you have an old house...GET THIS BOOK! It is the MOST fantastic resource on the peculiarities of old houses. And most practical.

2) The guys and gals at Fine Homebuilding's Breaktime forum. They are most talented.

The folks at Breaktime provided us with a valuable clue, even though they've never seen our system....AIR, not water, is stinky. (I had automatically assumed it was stinky water.) Possibly from a vent stack somehow leaking back into the house.

After church, the DH and I crawled under the room on the back of the house and pulled up the cover on the catch basic. STINKY! Noticed that the water was extremely low and stagnant. Only thing getting into the pipes that drain from back to front of house was air.

Then we checked the drains set in the floor from front to back. Two of the three were sealed with a small amount of standing water in the bottom. Middle one? Stinkiest one? Dry as a bone.

These drains angle from their intake on the basement floor down to the sewer system...(They head down on an angle towards the main line under the house.)

So, the first thing we have tried is this: ran a hose and raised the water level in the catch basin. Poured a few bucketfuls down the dry drain to seal it up again.

We went out for a couple of hours. Left some windows open. If this didn't work, we were going to try something more dramatic.

How it Went

It worked! No more stinky smell in the house! The water in the drain has now sealed the passageway to the vent stack and vented air is not leaking back into the house.

After speaking to a few neighbors later, we realized that this is not a new phenomenon. We have a dehumidifier and a warm steam boiler down there. Whatever happened, that middle drain dried up mighty fast and had to be re-primed. We need to check it once a month (no problem!)

Tool & Materials We Used

- A bucket
- A flashlight
- A hose

Other Useful Resources

-The book, Renovating Old Houses, By George Nash

For example, George's description of an old home plumbing system was critical to solving the mystery:

-Fine Building Magazine's "Breaktime" forum
-Our neighbors

Cost

Nothing but time....

Installling a Thermostat

Last night we upgraded our thermostat. It was really easy--here's how it went.

The Problem
Our old version was probably twenty years old and didn't have any of the modern timer features designed to reduce energy costs. With cooler nights starting already, we were nervous about high heating costs.

Our Solution
Most modern thermostats claim they can reduce your heating expenses by up to 35%, when used in accordance with their gudelines.

Read on for how it went...

Why we chose what we chose...

Today's models provide a range of options and flexibility based on your needs and what you want to spend. There are systems allowing for different settings for weekdays and weekends (often called '5-2' systems) available for under $40. Others allow differences between weekdays, Saturdays and Sundays ('5-1-1' models) for under $50. Finally, some models allow a different setting every day of the week (7-day models) for $50 to $100. Higher end options include large, backlit screens or even the ability to monitor and change your heating over the Internet. Those options can push costs from $100 to $300. We chose a fairly simple 5-1-1 model to give us some flexibility at a reasonable cost.

This will allow us to program the heat to come on before we rise in the morning and to be off during the day...then it comes on before we come home again. Toasty. Conserves energy. Weekends are different start and stop times...so they can be programmed separately. Of course, you can override everything manually if you need to, as well.

How it Went
Our previous thermostat had a single control for the desired temperature along with an on/off switch.

To replace it, we followed four easy steps:

1. Remove the previous thermostat.
- The faceplace should snap off easily in most cases.
- You'll need a screwdriver to remove the base and/or mounting bracket.

2. Disconnect the wiring from the old unit and label the wiring.
- The wiring you will have will vary by situation.
- You'll find each wire labled on the contact point on the base of the former thermostat. Here are some of the common wire labels:
- RH - Heating Transformer
- RC - Cooling Transformer (in case you have AC...we don't)
- W - Heating Control (this is most critical)
- C - AC power to run the thermostat (uncommon on old houses)

3. Affix the wiring to a pencil or large object.
- This prevents the wiring from falling back in to the wall.
- In our case we used a pen and string.

3. Attach wiring to new thermostat.
- Your instruction manual should provide more specific details here.

4. Affix the faceplate to the wall.
- This should be pretty straight froward.
- You may need a more powerful drill to make new holes. We used a cordless.

Tools & Material We Used
- Thermostat
- Screwdriver
- Cordless Drill (optional)

Other Useful Resources
For more detailed instructions, you can try The Complete Guide to Home Wiring from the Black & Decker Home Improvement Library. (Instructions for replacing a thermostat are on p. 106.)

Cheating Around a Temporary Fix

We keep telling ourselves that this is a TEMPORARY fix. Because we don't have time to investigate or develop a long term fix for the smell in the basement right now.

An ALERT READER gave us this idea. Actually, his idea was more elegant and involved buying things at Home Depot. This fix is, um, less elegant and involved digging some things out of the Boy Scout Room.

Step 1: Proceed to smelly drain

Step 2: Stack 2 free weights on top of a Tupperware lid and slide over drain.

Step 3: Center carefully over the drain. Go back upstairs to finish working on something else.

Sigh. We just got our monthly issue of Fine Homebuilding today and, with this fix, I just can't help thinking, "We're not worthy...."

Quieting a Noisy Steam Radiator

So we have this steam heating furnance.

The Problem
Each time the radiator was going on, it sounded like pistol shots in the radiators. Very loud, very SUDDEN noises. You could hear water sloshing in the bottom of the radiators. And then the steam valve on the side of the radiators began to spit rusty water on the wall, floor and anything nearby.

Our Solution
Head to the internet, to find out more information about Steam Heat. Use a combination of boiler maintenance and home remedies to adjust each radiator so that it drained properly.

(Image courtesy of: Old House Web)

Read on for how it went...

Diagnosing the problem...

We have a one-pipe steam heating system...the pipes are original. The furnace is approximately 7 years old. After reading some information about furnace ongoing maintenance, we found out that noise in a steam furnace is called "pounding" (sounds like too quiet a word from our experiences) and may happen when "...steam sent out by the furnace meets water trapped in the system. If this pounding happens in the radiators themselves, this could indicate condensate (condesation of steam=water that is colder than the steam), thus blocking the pipes."

We decided to try two things..."shimming the radiators" and performing a task of routine maintenance the previous owner showed to us that we hadn't done in the last 4 weeks or so. Shimming consisted of sawing down thin layers of board to fit under the feet of the radiator furthest from the pipe that carries water back into the system. We shimmed five of our loudest culprits.

The routine maintenance was emptying some water out of the furnace from a special valve until it ran clear. Not a pretty job, because the initial water out is thick with rust. I don't know why--because I'm told that it is normal--but rusty water makes me UNhappy. I pulled out the bucket normally devoted to this task (the one coated with rust stains) and got to work pulling two buckets out.

Down the drain in the basement floor it went .

I checked the pressure gauge and the water level gauge.

The water level gauge is thick with rusty water deposits so it is difficult to tell where the water level is. It should be halfway full. The pressure gauge was the big surprise. Instead of being above (what we read was) the "required" 5 to 7 psi, it was below...too far below? I don't know what "too far below" is. It was registering "0". This wasn't mentioned in our research and doesn't feel right.

How it Went

The knocking in the radiators was DEFINITELY less tonight. No cannons going off. No rusty water spitting out of the steam valve. No sloshing. But there was still noise NEAR the furnace. I hadn't investigated any noises near the furnace last night, I was preoccupied with the radiators. The noise near the furnace was so loud and violent, one good "pound" dislodged a piece of plaster from the ceiling.

I backed away very quickly.

This has to have happened before from the looks of the ceiling.

I am definitely pleased with the work at radiator level. Not so pleased with some furnace elements. We should have that visual water gauge cleaned and the pressure valve checked. We should have pipes from the furnace to the first floor checked for "rise". The pipes are supposed to rise at an angle that measures 1" from start to stop. (The house settling over the years has taken away from this necessary "rise"...I'm betting on it.)

Tools & Materials We Used

- Internet website, Old House Web
- Bucket
- Saw
- Piece of wood cut into 5 pieces
- A's brute strength to lift one end of 5 radiators
- Drain in basement

Yup, sounds like the cannons are in our basement now. At least they are no longer in the bedroom. Hmmm....

VENTILATE your workspace!

Lesson learned today.

When the home improvement books and magazines CASUALLY mention ventilating an area under construction....

TAKE THEM EXTREMELY SERIOUSLY! Or you and your things will look like everything has been splattered with flour. And it will be around for months and months.

When we moved in, we inherited (ha ha!) THIS fan. This fan was so covered in grease and grime and dust that turning it on made everything around it filthier. I spent a lot of time with rags and ammonia and water and Fantastik on this fan.

And I am glad I did.

This fan has come in EXTREMELY handy. Well. Now that it isn't spewing disgusting bits (as our friends across the pond would say).

And when the room is full of plaster dust? That window just slides right up with TWO fingers (thanks John!) and we point it out right over the roof. Sorry world. Sorry squirrels. But you've been digging in our flowerpots as well as trying to break into the roof again, so....(shrugs). War is hell.

Boiling Paint from Window Hardware

Yesterday, I did many things (it was my "day off"...bwah ha!) but one of the most interesting was trying out a suggestion that I read long ago to boil old paint off of some window hardware.

You see, we need some curtains. We took the greasy miniblinds off of the windows so we could work on OPENING the windows and didn't have the heart to put them back up. They are so hard to clean. So I've been picturing period curtains, hung halfway down the window to provide privacy and let in the sunlight. My timetable sped up when the dog began barking at our neighbor...a lot. She was in our dining room and he was in his. He is a excellent neighbor and she's not the brightest bulb, but...these houses are CLOSE.

I dug around in the basement and came up with some old curtain rod hardware...not nearly as old as the house, but old enough to be interesting.

The most interesting type, to me, is on the end in the above photo. A barrel shape with some deep groves cut into it. And under the paint, the patina is a bronze-ish color. (My dad tells me that these are still available at some hardware stores...I'll check that out when I have used up what we've found.)

So, I deposited the ones that needed the treatment most in a pot with water, set it to boil, and buried myself in a media project.

It worked relatively well. I'm sure there is something that I skipped because I didn't search around for the original recommendation. Some paint boiled off immediately and some had to be chipped off with my thumbnail, but it all came off.

So it's CURTAINS soon. Temporary--until I actually free up some time to make ones that I like better--the ones left over in the house of course. :) No more barking dog.

Why do we reuse? Because we would love to afford to buy old/new and just can't swing it right now. "Working bathrooms" come before "pretty." Bummer, eh? And it's always good to recycle old parts when they are working and when you can.

(To wrap up this entry, I wanted to call out a delighted "hello!" to some old friends at Table Talk via Salon.com. This group, besides being one of the wittiest, smartest, most fun, fast moving on the web today --you may preen now, I think Micki Sue would say ;) --is a group that I miss terribly. For those who are into Houses, you'll find the groups at American Bungalow and Fine Homebuilding's Breaktime Forum to contain some kindred spirits...)

making "do" until...

Well, we are sketching out lots of big plans, doing research and...in the meantime...patching things to see us through until the work is done.

The hardest part is putting off the REAL decorating until AFTER the construction is finished. That is the most fun for the both of us to think about and it is what will come last. After the bones of the house have been reset. But it is hard not to sigh over pictures of curtains or wallpaper or shelves. We just know that whatever is being used now will probably be cleaned and recleaned and possibly covered in inches of dust and dirt for awhile.

Sigh.

So, these curtains don't fit my master plan AT ALL. They were left in the house and we needed something to preserve our dignity and keep the dog from barking. But we don't care if they get yucky either. They are polyester and they were...well...here.

And, the other current survival trick? Using DUCT TAPE! We have a seriously funky second floor bathroom...the vent from the tub was hooked into the main stack in the 50's...not very well. So the threads from the vent pipe have deteriorated. Yep, rusted through. Meaning. The sewer gases that need to travel up the stack and OUT above the roofline occasionally wander into our second floor bath. The one we are using right now. Which has contributed to some funny looks between us until we figured out what it was. I mean, you would have thought that was strange also! Not knowing where that smell was coming from. So...until we overhaul the plumbing in this bathroom...DUCT TAPE! We love duct tape.

Last list of survival ingrediants for living in a house under construction?

1) A sense of humor, preferably dark humor.
2) Denial alternating with motivation.
3) Some nice classical CD's...like the new Joshua Bell
CD or a Norah Jones CD. So soothing.
4) Some lemonade. And something to put into that lemonade.
5) A fabulous grill and a freezer full of grill potential.
6) Some careful negotiating skills for spouses...plus, one spouse who is amazingly level-headed and says helpful soothing things like, "I know. It feels important now. But what is the worst that will happen here? Will someone die?"
7) REALLY nice neighbors.
8) Great wet/dry vac and wicked awesome cleaning supplies.
9) Strong family and friends support

and #10 is....

10) An escape plan for when you need to get away...still working on this one. Or renting the video, The Money Pit

Then you may not feel QUITE so badly.

Removing a Load Bearing Wall

This weekend we finished opening up a "nook" corner of the master bedroom.

The Problem
Our aspirations for the second floor include a master bedroom that's a warm and cozy retreat. (A necessary luxury as we go the slow "live-in-it--as-you-restore" route.) To get more space, we wanted to convert an ajoining closet into a reading nook by removing this wall:

Unfortunately, this is a load-bearing wall. Assuming we don't want the roof to cave in on us as we sleep, removing it would take some extra effort.

Our Solution
With some extra effort and planning, we could still cut out the load-bearing wall. We just needed to replace the support provided by the wall studs we removed.

How it Went
Prior to this project, we'd already removed a closet that had been added by the previous owner within the room. This opened up the space a little, but we still wanted more. The duct tape in this photo outlines the edges of the nook we wanted to create:

The angle is due to the roof line. This will give the room lots of character, but poses a few additional challenges to the project.

First, we used a sawzall and a crowbar to remove the plaster and expose the wall studs. Even though we'll eventually have an angled wall above the nook (necessary to match the roofline), we had to remove the plaster and lathe all the way to the ceiling in order to brace the wall properly.

Then we removed the baseboard trim. We did this carefully, so that we can re-use the trim when finishing the room later on.

We were ready to remove the studs. For each one, we cut them near the base, dislodged the bottom with a sledge hammer, then twisted each one until the top came free.

Because the studs help to hold up the roof above, we didn't fully remove them. After cutting one free, we replaced it again to bear the load once we had removed the final stud. The weight was then transfered to this single stud.

Next, we installed the first of two 2x8s that will act as the new support system. Because we rotated the last stud 90 degrees, we were able to slide the new 2x8 in beside it.

We then re-used the old studs as support for the new brace. We cut them to the right length with the cordless trim saw and then forced them in place under each end using a sledge hammer.

With the basic support structure in place, we removed the temporary stud, slid a second 2x8 in beside the first, and nailed everything into place.

Basically, that did it! After a little framing work in preparation for finishing off the angled wall, we wrapped up for the night.

One interesting thing about the project was that the old 2x4 studs are actually slightly larger than modern 2x4s. Reusing the studs was handy because boards of the same dimension will make it easier down the road to create a smooth finished surface. We're hoping we'll get to that by late winter. For now, removing the ceiling will be the next major step for the room...

Tool & Materials We Used
- Milwaukee Sawzall
- Cordless Trim Saw
- Crowbar
- Sledge hammer
- Three hammers (For a funny story click here.)

Other Useful Resources
- How to Identify a Load Bearing Wall
- Renovating Old Houses (A fantastic book in general, which also addresses load bearing walls.)

Installing an Exterior Vent in Stucco

Wes, the electrician, installed a bathroom fan for us a while back. Here's how we installed the exterior vent for the fan.

The Problem
The electrician did a great job installing our special fan and light switch to operate it. And we were going to handle the exterior work to install the air vent.

Luckily, my dad had a few specialty drill bits to get the job done...

The Solution
We got started late in the day, but fortunately, this was a quick project. The challenge was determining the right place to punch through the house and actually cutting through the stucco. It requires using a special drill bit designed for masonry.

How it Went
Starting inside of the house, we measured from the top edge of the glass-block window to the edge of the ceiling. Going outside, we measured the same distance up and over. This was the point to begin our cut.

Publications that I checked recommended making numerous holes with a drill, then knocking out the stucco with a chistle. Modifying this a bit, we used an extra large 1" bit to make the initial hole.

That hole gave us enough of an opening to begin using the sawzall. Since we drilled at the lower left-most corner of the target, we made two cuts--one upwards and one to the left.

About half way up, we started angling to the upper-right corner. Ultimately we were able to carve out a section roughly the shape of a football.

After a few more cuts to round out the opening, we fished out the tubing that had been installed between the floor joists. We then affixed the tubing to the exterior vent and sealed it with duct tape. As it started to get dark, we finished up by sealing the opening with 'Great Stuff', a foam sealant that would prevent heat loss and seal out humidity.

After that, we drilled in a few holes for screws to brace the vent and sealed the edges with sillicone caulk. By the morning everything had set and the fan worked like a charm! (And it is so QUIET!)

Tools & Materials We Used
- Cordless drill
- Masonry drill bit
- the Sawzall!
- Tungsten Carbide Sawzall Blades (3-Pack)
- Exterior vent cover
- "Great Stuff" foam insulation
- Silicone caulk
- Caulk Gun
- 4 long screws

Removing a Plaster Wall

The Problem
As a next step in the first floor bathroom, we needed to prepare to lay new tile. First, that required removing the plaster so new backer board can be installed as a new even surface.

Our Solution
We've already removed plaster and lathe while working on the master bedroom. This project just took more care because we wanted to leave the plaster in place that wouldn't be covered with new tile.

So, we took a slightly different approach...

How It Went
After marking out cut lines with a pen, I took a utility knife and cut out the edges we wanted to create. This helped to make sure that lines would end up relatively straight and would avoid the crumbling typical of plaster removal.

Then, exercising a lot of care I used a chisel and hammer to break up the plaster I intended to remove.

After that the plaster could be pulled away easily by hand, leaving the rest of the plaster safe and sound.

After that we just cut away the lathe and cleaned up with the ShopVac!

Tools & Material We Used
- Chistle
- Graphite Hammer
- Utility Knife

FINALLY! No smelly basement

I have been fighting with the drains in our basement all season.

The drains need water in the pipes at all times so that sewer gases do not travel back up into the house creating smelly problems. For some reason, two of our drains have problems holding water now that the furnace is on. I suspect evaporation. Within 48 hours, I am to be found lugging buckets from the sink to the drains to refill them. Even trying to cap them only hides the problem for a little while. (Our cap is the poor man's version of products on the market.)

And then I found this...baby oil

Baby oil is mineral oil with a little fragrance added in.

I filled the drains with water, poured half a bottle (7 ounces) of baby oil into each one, covered them back up, and....yes. Less lugging of buckets. I can only imagine the the oil sits on top of the water and slows evaporation? However it works, let's hope that it buys me 5-7 days of time (or more maybe? Please?) before it's back to the bucket brigade.

Protecting a Wooden Shower Window...Nautical Solution

With the bathroom starting to come together, this weekend we tackled finding a suitable way to protect the bathroom window above the shower...

The Problem
When we first bought the house, our first floor bathroom had a glass block window. Unfortunately, several of the glass blocks were cracked and were very dangerous. After a lot of thought, we eventually decided on a "two light" frosted window of safety glass. We had the window made and installed by Just Sashes to fit the existing sill (which was a non-standard size).

While the window is a safer and attractive solution as a window, its frame introduces another long-term possibility: wood rot.

We wanted a wood exterior frame so we could stain it to match the existing wood windows. Wood exterior frame meant wood interior frame. Not the best choice for a shower. Our tiling friend, Paul, suggested tiling OVER the sill of the window and as close to the glass as we can get. Sounds good. But there is still some wood to protect.

Our Solution

While any paint (like an exterior weather-resistant latex) would provide some measure of protection, we would like to have something even MORE resistant to mildew, water or steam. Our bathroom fan pulls a ton of air out of the room quickly, quietly and efficiently (it will also stay on up to 60 minutes after someone turns out the light in the bath). So, a lot of moisture will be pulled out by the fan.

But there is still a chance of moisture on the wood....even if the window has a sheer, waterproof curtain to draw across it during showers. So, we decided to turn to the boating industry (specifically ideas for wooden sailboats) for a solution to protect the wood of the window. (In the summer, our family sails on an Ensign Class sailboat originally purchased by Keith, my grandfather. It has a classic hardwood interior and he made its latest set of sails.)

How it Went

We chose some products from West Marine that are suitable for protecting wooden boats ABOVE the waterline. This is an important distinguishing characteristic. We couldn't use paint from BELOW the waterline because it includes chemicals that deal with algae that you wouldn't want in your house.

The primer we chose was Interlux Brightside Primer to help prepare for the wood for the paint and to seal it against moisture.

This white Interlux Brightside One Part Polyurethane paint has some of the benefits of a hard enamel. It also works to seal the wood against moisture and resists mildew as well.

So far, we've put on a coat of the primer and still need to put at least two coats of Polyurethane paint finish on the wood that will be exposed when it is complete (the paint comes in a variety of colors...we chose white). Charlie from West Marine recommended a light sanding between each coat (which you clean up with a tack cloth before going on). This helps even out the paint (which is thick and can only be cleaned up with mineral spirits) and makes the bond stronger.

Tools & Materials We Used

- Blue painter's tape for lining the area to be painted and a straight edge
- Tack cloth
- Paintbrush (thin with a slanted edge)
- Interlux Brightside Primer in white
- Interlux Brightside One Part Polyurethane
- Mineral spirits and a tin for clean up

Other Useful Resources

- Staff at West Marine

ReMOOving Milk Paint

Milk paint...we love it and hate it.

We love it because it is this lovely, non-toxic incredibly hardy paint made from milk protein, lime and other things. It is especially good for children's things and for people who are allergic to chemicals. On antique furniture, it can be the coolest thing...especially since you can move furniture from room to room.

("Udderly Sunflowers" by by Jodi Mendlinger via Art Select)

When it shows up as a complete surprise under many layers of cracked and chipping latex and/or lead paint on something immobile, like a built-in, life becomes no fun. No fun at all.

How do you know it is milk paint? If you have ever tried to get bubble gum out of your hair, you have known what it is like to mess with milk paint.

When heated with the Silent Paint Remover, it does very little. Scraping or sanding was working S-L-O-W-L-Y, and the thought of scraping and sanding all of the surfaces in this house that may have milk paint sent me off to bed with a bottle of aspirin and visions of finishing this house when I hit 60.

Milk paint seems to be untouchable.

Here are the things gathered on various boards and conversations that are supposed to remove Milk Paint:

-A product from a company called Behlen, called the P.D.E. Milk Paint Remover
-Powdered Milk Paint Remover (found somone on Old House board who used it on a dresser)
-Ammonia (Yikes! The fumes! And it might darken wood...another Old House forum recommendation)
-Peel Away Paint Stripper from Dumond Chemicals (via the American Bungalow Magazine Forum)

I decided to try Peel Away first. Why? Because I didn't have to order it through the mail. And ammonia...well, let's say I've worked with ammonia before. The screens aren't on the windows yet. 'Nuff said.

I called Dumond before heading out to a nearby distributor because I was unsure of WHICH Peel Away product to use. Dumond Chemicals is in New York. The town of my birth. The gentleman who answered the phone couldn't believe I found milk paint in a Chicago house. It was as if Chicago sprang up from the prairie 50 years ago! Hel-LO, history lesson. After I described it to him, he agreed, "Yeah, sounds like milk paint. Peel Away One, right?"

(I can't spell a real New York accent. But I do love it and miss it, right?)

So, I head to Sherwin-Williams...they carry Peel Away and they are close by. I compare the labels of the Peel Away 1 with Peel Away 7 and, heeeyyyy. Wait a minute! Peel Away 1 cautions that it can darken hardwoods. Says nothing about Milk Paint. And is definitely the more caustic of the two.

Begin cautious, I pay a sum for Peel Away 7 that makes me want to hug my Silent Paint Remover and take home a little sample pint.

I apply it with a brush on a small test area. The consistency is like pudding. There is no strong smell.

Hmmm. The sample size comes with no "Peel Away" paper. Something they don't tell you on the label. So I grab some old Cling Wrap, cover it up, and leave it for 20-24 hours.

I come back, take off the wrap and scrape away the Milk Paint...for the most part. I then rub the wood down with some denatured alcohol to neutralize it.

If I wasn't in a hurry to finish the bathroom built-in, I would definitely give some of the mail-order options a try. The milk paint + Peel Away 7 has the consistency of gooey taffy...no fun to clean off your scraper every few minutes. And this is still going to require a lot of sanding to boot.

The expense of using this throughout the house makes me plenty squeamish. 10 seconds with the Silent Paint Remover takes off 7-8 layers of paint across a 12-14 inch area in one scrape. It is harder to manuever in crevices but we have a lot of flat trim. Comparing the SPR with the Peel Away 7, the SPR has paid for itself after two rooms.

Hmmm. I may be experimenting with the mail order products after all. After the bathroom is finished that is.

Right now, I have a lot of scraping and sanding to do.

Sleep? What's that?

Creating a House Wiring Plan

So, as we wrap up the first floor bathroom, we're starting to think about the second floor again. Not that this is new...we started work on the second floor back around Thanksgiving of last year. Wow... Thanksgiving of last year...

Anyway! I just got an email from Smarthome with this week's "Solution of the Week"...home wiring. Pretty good timing...this is something I've known we should do as we prepare to tear out the second floor. I just haven't done it. So here's the progress we've made so far...

The Problem
The second floor will be the largest project we've undertaken so far. We've decided that we're going to need to gut everything (even the plaster...sniff, sniff) and start fresh. The upside to the approach is that it will allow us to lay down the electricity, phonelines, coaxial cable, and even the ethernet that homes increasingly have today. The challenge is in the planning...no re-work allowed! ;-)

The Solution
The most important step we've done so far is was to prepare for wiring the house at the time we tore out the first floor bathroom. While those walls were exposed we installed three 1/2" pipes to run cable all the way from the basement to the attic. This "home run" piping runs along side the main stack and should allow us the flexibility to get all the different types of wiring upstairs in their own shielded piping.

Second, we've also sketched out the current and future floorplans with electrical service, including where we want all the outlets. Our electrician, Wes, helped out by specifying the symbols that will clarify for him what we want where.

Existing Wiring

Future Wiring Plan

So, the article I found at Smarthome got me interested in doing some more research. The main think it introduced me to was the concept of structured wiring--a new approach to bundling wiring from a central location rather than the traditional approach to daisy-chaining wiring in a more ad-hoc fashion. While I'm still researching the pros and cons of each approach, structured wiring does seem more planful.

What Comes Next
Overall my research has basically just uncovered that we need to get more precise about what we want where. It also raises an important issue that my drawings didn't: where each cable should begin and end. Again, the timing of this is actually pretty good because we're just starting to get to the next level of detail about the whole second floor.

I guess we're just proving the home improvement rule that things are always more complicated and take twice as long as we expected!

Other Resources
- "Getting Connected: the High Speed House" at bobvila.com
- The Complete Guide to Home Wiring
- Structured Wiring How-To <-- a very comprehensive site!

Removing the Attic Insulation

This was the most trying weekend ever at the house.

The Problem

Our big project was to tear out the "Raccoon Family Nests" and attic insulation, disinfect the crawl space, open up the front bedroom ceiling and put in new insulation. The raccoons left a lot of, um, "unpleasantness" from years of attic living. Plus the insulation was in four layers and had gotten wet from roof leaks.

We begin by...acting silly for the camera.

More problems? The space we were working in was 3.5 feet high at the peak. (We are 6'7" and 5'7") With evil looking roofing nails poking through and SPIDERS. Unbearably hot in the outfits we had to wear to reduce the risk of contact with "raccoon matter."

We wanted to prevent insulation and contaminents settling on the second floor as well.

Our Solution
Layers of heavy plastic across doorways to isolate the hallway from the rest of the house. And closing the door at the bottom of the stairs.

Suiting up, "haz-mat" style. (See list of materials used below). Sending the shorter of the two of us (me, of course) to do the harvesting and stuffing. A was responsible for the bleaching of the first bag and the double bagging.

Light was a key element. We used halogen lights to increase visibility.

We used boards and plywood to spread our weight across many joists.

We double bagged the material after spraying the first bag with bleach (to kill germs). Tied it up. Then lowered each bag through a front window so it could be disposed of properly.

How it Went
Not bad, I guess, in that we did get quite a bit done. We didn't expect so much sawdust and wish we had a way to easily vaccum particles out of the attic. By pulling on the sawdust and tar paper layer, I could roll up each piece between the rafters. Many times, though, the insulation was too fragile or had electrical cable laying across it.

The raccoon souvenirs were as nasty as could be imagined. Thank goodness for thick rubber gloves. And thick rubber (washable!) garden shoes from Target...$18.99.

We still have about halfway to go , so next weekend will be another tough one. Especially since we--make the "I"-- will have to get into the smaller part of the attic on my stomach and move far away from the opening. No quick escape. *Shiver*

Let's just say we wouldn't wish this on anyone, but it will be good when it's done.

We had to get the haz-mat stuff off and into a bag while we were still on the second floor so that it could travel to the basement for a special disinfectant wash.

Tools & Materials We Used

- 2 halogen lights
- two extension cords
- 1.3 mil "contractor quality" garbage bags
- Clorox spray starch
- A razor cutting knife
- two respirator masks
- two full-body painter suits
- heavy duty rubber gloves
- head socks
- arthritis strength Tylenol...ow. My back. My legs.
- chutzpah or desperation, we don't know which

Next time we'll wear baseball caps (one more layer of protection against scratchy roofing nails) and tie the cutting knife around a wrist or waist. We lost one in a roll of insulation that got stuffed. Ah, well.

Living in it while working on it

I've been dragging around for a few days, my bottom lip quivering and hanging all the way down to the floor (pushing around dust balls...WAY yucky). I finally decided, "Stop! Enough!" That's when I turned to the experts.

Image via SatireWire (but it LOOKS like it could have been taken in our basement. Unfortunately.)

ToolBeltBabe and the Kilted One are on their THIRD...(yes, that's right people, THIRD! 3! Trois! ) house renovation and I find their story downright inspirational.

Because, isn't that what this is all about? Passing the torch? Providing support for the next poor fools enlightened people who love old houses and decide they want to do this?

Ahem. Where was I?

So, TBB (ToolBeltBabe) was kind enough to share some "Do It Yourself IF YOU DARE" tips for living IN the house that you are also tearing APART. Because, honestly, her photos look durn good for a house that's being lived in AND renovated. (Go look at the pics at the bottom of March's entries. Yes. Go now.)

Here is what she wrote to me (she is SO incredibly wise):
__________________________________________________________

Living in it? Suuuuuuuuucks...

So we have JoeyWithaCousinintheNailBusiness, and you have UncleCarlwhoDiscoveredLiquidNails**?

Our sympathies, truly, but misery loves company!
__________________________________________________________

Yes, yes it does! And TBB's note gave me a good laugh, some great ideas and kicked my bottom lip off of the floor and right back onto my face where it belongs.

Actually, Misery Loves Company and Do It Yourself IF YOU DARE will be new situation comedies about renovating old houses coming out this Fall. Check your local cable channel for show times.

** Uncle Carl wanted to make sure that HIS re-muddles around the house stayed PUT! We've had to tear out a few Uncle Carl creations. He LOVED the LONGEST NAILS HE COULD FIND. PLUS liquid nails. Fasteners were his thing. Quality materials? Not so much. The back porch is made of cardboard (no lie). We can still see the items printed on the subfloor. Thank you, Uncle Carl.

What not to do...

Since we want to tell as much as we can here on the site, you might as well know now. jm has put her back out!

Was she manuevering a big ceiling beam into place? Well, no.

Or scaling the chimney? Or hoisting buckets of plaster up the steps? Um, no.

She mowed the front and back lawn, the neighbor's front lawn as a surprise, and then carried 5 loads of laundry up and down the stairs. On the fifth one, BANG! Lower back was in tremendous pain that she has never experienced before.

The glazed look in her eyes would be a WHOLE lot of Tylenol and muscle relaxants. The sweater is hiding a grimace of frustration and impatience. She doesn't like the down time.

Ah well. So! For the rest of you...DON'T pick up things using the following technique:

And remember! According to these little "lightening bolt" graphics thingies, lower back pain is contagious. (You know I'm kidding, right?)

So practice "safe friend lifting," okay? Keep your back straight, bend your knees and lift from the muscles in your legs.

Friendly tip from someone (ouch!) who now knows better. If you are going to do your own home renovation, stay in good shape. Better shape than I am, at least!

Transforming Your Apartment

Ever since I discovered ApartmentTherapy this week, I've been daydreaming about my old apartment.

I loved it very much.

It was at the top of a 4 story walk-up, which was actually 4.5 stories because of the front steps. It was tiny. The bathroom wasn't a shared one but it WAS in the hallway. Meaning, yes...I had to LEAVE my apartment to take a shower.

(I was at the very, very top. If you were to keep following the blue arrow, you'd be there.)

I used to assure my friends that leaving the apartment to take a shower was very very French...very chic. This was before I had actually traveled TO France.

And being on the 4th floor meant that my legs were in AWESOME shape. All the time. I called this the Urban Stairmaster. This is no longer the case, sadly.

Anyway...there are advantages to owning a house and advantages to having an apartment. I'm sure house-owning readers will be able to clarify those in the comments section below. Give it up for our apartment dwelling brothas and sistahs!

Most of all, apartments are TERRIFIC practice for preparing to live in a house. If you can fiddle with the things in your apartment successfully, you'll start to gain the skills and confidence needed to tackle the big stuff later on...if you want to! (Sometimes, it's awfully nice to be able to call the janitor.)

Here were the things that I remember about furnishing and changing my apartment to make it my own.

1. (My husband is never going to believe this but) I actually had less clutter then. Less clutter, less knicknacks. I would even keep anything extra in my big side table/trunk and rotate them.

2. Obviously, I couldn't change much of the architectural things. Which is why I began collecting old windows. Yep. A long, beveled glass window. Multi-pane wood windows. I hung them up instead of posters a LOT. Mine actually came from alley scavenging. eBay is a great place to find this stuff.

3. Very large grates make gorgeous wall hangings and cool old doors make great headboards.

4. Try to save up for those few gorgeous pieces of furniture that you will have for a long time. So you're living in an apartment...so what? You deserve nice things too!

I made myself a window seat that I always wanted out of two deep and tall bookshelves and a padded bench from Room & Board. I LOVED that thing. Used it all the time. It gave a depth to my room that it naturally didn't have. All the pleasures of a built-in and I took it with me when I left.

If you don't want the bookcases, put this in front of your window for your perch to read and dream.

This is furniture that you will have for the rest of your life and probably pass along. It is constructed well and has timeless design. So...know yourself and take your time saving up for it and choosing it.

5. If they're ugly, ditch the doors on the upper kitchen cabinets. (Save them in your storage unit for when you move.) This will open everything up...provided you keep the dishes and glasses neat!

If you own your place, swap out some of your interior doors for doors with glass panes between rooms. (Measure carefully before purchasing and installing. Try not to waste REAL wood doors...they are better than anything made today. Hollow fake wood doors? Eh...no problem. I wouldn't think twice about replacing them and letting more light into the center of my apartment.)

6. Swap out lighting fixtures. Bellacor has hundreds of styles...many under $100 dollars. Keep and store the old ones if you want to take the new ones with you when you go. Changing light fixtures is VERY easy and can make a WORLD of difference to the look of an apartment.

7. Finally, and this is really the simplest trick of all, SWAP OUT those light switch plates. You know the ones. The yellowing, ugly plastic ones. Ditch 'em. (Or save 'em to take your good ones with you.) And get ones that will be pleasing to the eye.

(Images courtesy of Restoration Hardware)

This sounds almost TOO simple, but better cabinet hardware and chain pulls and light switch covers and so on can make your "eh" apartment, furniture and cabinets look like fabulous jewels.

For example, we took an old brown veneer dresser of Aaron's (you know the type...70's colonial, veneer and plywood, good lines, bad look. Little fake brass handles.) We ditched the brass handles for brushed aluminum handles and we painted the whole thing flat black. Painted 4 garage sale chairs flat black while we were at it. We had to do this in the parking lot below the condo because we had no room upstairs. Before we were done, THREE (3!) people approached us and asked how much we wanted for the furniture. A can of spray paint! 6 brushed nickel handles! And it made a HUGE difference.

(Before & After...kinda. We don't have the original photos. The real brown dresser didn't look as nice as this one.)

From bleh to fantastic in a few hours. Just make sure that you're not painting over an antique or vintage piece that will lose its value with a coat of paint!

Rules of thumb...

...change the space, don't fill it up.
...Buy the nicest quality pieces and just have a few things in there.
...Don't keep college furniture around (plastic milk crates and so forth...buh-bye.)
...Put a small tool kit together with: a multi-bit screwdriver, a small drill, flashlight, super glue , screws & anchors, measuring tape, small hammer, small wrench, small prybar.

Then enjoy the fruits of your labor from feathering your nest :)

Preparing the Structured Wiring Home Run

OK, so after a lot of research and planning I've finally started the structured wiring installation. Actually, by 'getting started' I really just mean the prep work. I've found even that takes quite a bit of work...

The Challenge
My goal for the weekend was to get everything in place for pulling the bundled cable throughout the house. This meant creating a path for the major cable runs--combination of cable trays in the basement and a PVC raceway from the basement to the attic. I also had to install the media center panel where all the networking hardware will reside:

The good news was that this ended up being a reasonable weekend project...

The Work

I started with the distribution panel. It's pretty simple, actually, consisting of the box itself and a cover. I'd also bought an AC power source designed to afix to the bottom of the box.

The panel can be installed either surface or flush mounted (i.e., set between studs in a wall). Our basement isn't finished, so surface mounting was the only option. Much of what I've read suggests anyway, though, because of the easy future access it allows to cables and such. It won't be real attractive but it's located in the shop so that wasn't a concern.

Next I prepared the horizontal cable trays where the cable coming out of the panel will lie. I'd located the panel close to the center beam of the house. This will make for a practical and fairly concealed location for all the cable--it runs the full length of the center beam and allows cable to "exit" to outlets by running out between the floor joists. This also happens to be where our heating pipes run, so the cable trays will serve to keep the cable a safe distance from the heat source.

Next I installed the vertical raceway to get cable up to the attic. I did this with 3" PVC. This required making some circular cuts through the first and second floor. These were made with a 3 1/4" bi-metal holesaw, which I picked up at Lowes:

It goes up through the back of a closet we're modifying to house our laundry chute. As you can see in the photos below, I needed a few PVC elbow joints to handle corners and to accomodate the slope of the roof up to the attic. Hopefully these corners won't be too severe when pulling the cable through.

I'll admit that a 3" raceway is a bit of overkill. In fact, I had to add 1" strips to the rafters upstairs so that the drywall will clear the pipe. My rationale was that it just seemed to provide more flexibility to go large. That and the wiring is pretty huge (3/4") and it seemed the extra space should make pulling the cable easier.

What's Next
So now everything is ready to pull the actual cable! Which is great because it just arrived in the mail...all 500 feet of it!

Stay tuned!

Materials Used
- Cordless drill
- Lenox 3 1/4" hole saw (w/ pilot drill)
- 3" PVC (including coupling and elbow joints)
- Cable trays (Search Google)
- Leviton SMC-280 Media Center (Search Google)
- Leviton AC Power Surge Protective Module (Search Google)

Creating a Cable Schedule

For those who've been following our site for awhile, you may recall the evolution of our planning to wire the house. We started modestly, installling coaxial cable ourselves the first summer. Then we started to think more holistically and developed a whole-house wiring plan that included electrical and low voltage services like telephone and computer networking. It was at that point that I stumbled upon the concept of "structured wiring." Since then I've been researching and planning for our own structured wiring installation. Last weekend, I installed the distribution panel and prepared raceways for running cable to the attic.

The Task
The priority is to make final decisions on the location and number of access points throughout the house. This is important in planning the cable runs (our next task) and in purchasing the various materials that will be needed later.

Our Approach
The materials needed depend upon the number of locations around the house that provide access and the type of access we want. This allows me to calculate the type and quantity of materials we need.

Defining Requirements
Structured wiring can provide support for a number of media and communication solutions. In our case, we wanted:

• Cable TV - While we only have one TV, we decided that we would like the future flexibility to have cable access in most rooms in the house.
• Closed Circuit Video - This allows the distribution of local video from sources within the house, like watching a DVD in a different room or incorporating a security camera. We don't really have an interest in this, but since the bundled cable I purchased includes two coaxial cables, doing this will be very inexpensive.
• Computer Networking and Internet Access - Beyond PCs, more appliances and entertainment systems are incorporating networking capabilities. Therefore, we're putting network access in every room.
• Whole House Audio - The ability to distribute audio throughout the house is cool and dedicated wiring is the traditional approach. However, lots of newer solutions are allowing the distribution of audio over a computer network so we decided against dedicated audio wiring.

Developing the Cable Schedule
Next, we had to identify the exact number and location of access ports. Creating a cable schedule is a convenient way to document this process and will help when adding up the materials needed for the job.

I found several examples but, in the end, I created my own. This was partially because I didn't need all of the information typical spreadsheets included (like audio wiring) and I wanted a more automated way to calculate the actual materials. Here's a screenshot of what I came up with (click to see a larger image):

Breaking it down to its elements, the spreadsheet identifies:

• Room/Wall - An itemized list of each room we which will have access and on which walls.
• Port List - This includes all of the possible ports in the plan. In our case, that includes telephone (Voice), computer (Data), cable TV (Cable EXT), and closed circuit video (Cable INT). This allows the creation of a grid of codes we'll need later for labeling the actual cables. More about that in a future post...
• Port Usage - This is a count of the number of ports we'll actually use for each location. For example, we'll want telephone, cable TV and Internet access in the master bedroom but we don't need a telephone line in the master bathroom.
• Task Checklist - A printed copy of the document will serve as a task checklist when we pull and finish the cables.

Resources
Everyones' wiring schedule and material needs will vary. If you find this approach useful, you're welcome to download the Excel spreadsheet I created: download file.

Next Steps
We're pulling the cable according to the schedule soon...pictures and a write-up will follow. I also expect to write up my lessons learned in identifying the materials needed to finish the cables at both the centralized panel and at each port location throughout the house.

Pulling Cable

With detailed plans in place, AJ came over the other evening and helped pull the structured wiring thoughout the house.

Our Approach
We focused on the runs to the second floor, and started by setting up the cable spool on a makeshift cable reel.

Then we ran a nylon cord down the PVC raceway that I'd installed from the basement to the attic as part of the project prep. I attached the cord to the end of the structured media cable with electrical tape.

Pulling the Cable
AJ headed upstairs to pull the cord through the PVC while I stayed below to help feed it up and through.

After we'd fed enough cable upstairs, we ran each one across the rafters and down the wall to the location where the individual access outlets will be. At each of these locations, we had already attached metal "mudrings" to the studs. (Depending on local electrical codes, you can also use metal or plastic electrical boxes instead.)

We pulled four cables to the second floor. We cut the cable back at the panel in the basement and marked both ends with colored electrical tape so we could easily tell them apart.

After finishing the second floor runs, pulling the cable for the first floor was much easier. Everything ran along the basement center beam and between the floor joists up to the first floor outlet locations.

Lessons Learned
While this wasn't a complicated task, we did discover a few tricks along the way:

• Make your raceway pull cords twice the length of the raceway itself, then nail down each end. We didn't at first. After we pulled our first cable up and through, we had a tough time getting the nylon cord back down the raceway. Learning from our mistake, next time we attached the bottom of the nylon cord to fishing line so we could pull it back down each time.
• Be careful when weaving the cable around obstacles. Two or three times we pulled the cable without noticing we'd gone the wrong way around a pipe or joist. Going back wasn't time consuming but you do feel dumb...especially the third time!
• If you've got any bends in your raceway, consider buying wire pulling lubricant. We didn't, and by the fourth cable we were working pretty hard to shimmy the cable through.
• Get the largest PVC raceways you can. Four of the 3/4" bundled cables were about as many as we were able to get through the 3" PVC pipe. Technically more should fit that size raceway, but since ours had several elbow joints, each subsequent pull became increasingly difficult to force through.

Materials Used
- Nylon pull cord
- Mudrings or electrical boxes for each outlet location
- Wiring pulling lubricant (optional)

Up Next
Two things remain for the structured wiring project: terminating the cable at each outlet location and setting up the modules in the structured wiring distribution panel. Stay tuned! :-)

Choosing Structured Media Distribution Panel Modules

The latest episode in the structured wiring project...

The Dilemma
With the cable schedule planned and the wire pulled throughout the house, it's now time to select and install modules in the distribution panel in the basement.

Over the past few weeks I've researched the various modules that Leviton offers and selected the best fit for our needs. I'll outline the thought process I went through in selecting the telephone, Internet and video modules among the various modules available.

(Note: Because I've already selected Leviton's Structured Media Center for the distribution panel enclosure, the options reviewed here are limited to their products. Other manufacturers will have slightly different options, but I'd expect the concepts to be the same.)

Options
Leviton offers lots of different modules you can mix and match to suit your needs. In general, these options are designed to meet four basic needs: video distribution, internet sharing/home networking, whole house audio distribution, and telephone jack distribution. To simplify things, I'm going to group their options into three general categories:

• Basic - A basic setup is good for a condo or smaller 2-3 bedroom home. For these situations, Leviton makes economy panels that combine several purposes. For example, their Basic Home Networking Unit can distribute telephone to nine locations, internet to six locations, and video to six locations. Combined with their 4-port Internet Gateway, this provides a small home but with limited future flexibility.
• Average- For greater flexibility and expansion possibilities, Leviton's 12, 18 or 24-Port Media Panels can route internet and telephone access to more locations. Panels also use a jumper-cable system that allows any individual port around the house to switch between telephone or networking capabilities when necessary (more on this later). The same4-port Internet Gateway from the "basic" configuration is still needed, but larger networks may also need an additional 4 or 8-port router. With this approach video is also handled with a separate video distribution module. Leviton sells many models with varying features.
• Advanced - Advanced systems build on the"average" configuration by adding various optional modules. Leviton makes specialized modules for whole-house audio distribution, closed-circuit video (like a security camera), and infrared repeaters for controling A/V equipment from different rooms.

Our Solution
Based on the cable schedule I drafted, the media panel downstairs will eventually need to support:

• 7 phone jacks
• 12 computer network ports
• 8 cable TV jacks

With these requirements, I've decided on something between the "medium" and "large" configurations. Here are the specific modules I chose...

24-Port Media Panel (Telephone & Data Networking) This panel allows the installation of up to 24 access locations around the house, each of which can provide either phone or data/internet access. As each cable comes in to the media panel, it terminates in one of the 24 RJ-45 ports. Jumper cables then connect any port to either a data router (a separate module, below) or a telephone distribution module (included in this panel) that provides multiple connections to the outside phone service.
4-Port Internet Gateway (Router) This basic router allows all computers and ethernet-ready devices to share an Internet connection and talk to each other within the house. It supports up to four connections, which will be enough for starters. In the future we'll likely want more than four connections, at which point I expect to also purchase a 4 or 8-port ethernet switch. (Note: Avoid Leviton's ethernet hub...it's less expensive but is a lower quality technology that manages data inefficiently and slows down a home network.)
3x6 Bi-Directional Video Module The video module I chose can accomodate outside video service from cable or satellite providers. It can also support two internal video sources, such as a security camera or a DVD player. This particular version amplifies each signal before distribution so that video quality doesn't suffer (as can happen the more times video is split).

To make sure everything fits in the media panel that I chose (the SMC-280), I created a PowerPoint document with 1/3 scale representations of the distribution panel and each module. Here is the layout I came up with:

Beyond the modules identified above, my diagram also includes an AC power module (also from Leviton) and a DSL modem (provided by our telephone company).

The PowerPoint file also includes some of the other common modules to test other combinations. If you find it useful, you're welcome to download it: click here.

Finding the Best Deal
Costs for modules can vary widely. The good news is that I was always able to save at least 30% off the retail price by shopping around. I got the Internet gateway at Home Depot and the other two modules on eBay.

So, now the panel is in place. Next, I'll begin connecting the cables...

Prime Time

Time to prime some exterior wood that we had to replace before the rain and snow of Chicago does it in.

Even though the wood is Cypress and quite hardy, we want to protect it. Water does bad, bad things to wood. Everything from detention after school to reform school to "lock it up for LIFE!" bad.

We're not ready to paint the whole house yet (mechanicals and infrastructure before beauty...sigh.) So, primer it is!

I got busy prepping the wood with a sander then wiping it all down with a tackcloth to create a great surface to start from.

We want the wood to be only slightly rough and any wood that has been exposed to the elements has to be sanded before it is painted. Gets it clean and ready to adhere to the primer.

I also dissaembled our double-hung window so the painting would go a little easier. This was very easy to do once I carefully popped off some interior trim. We'll put the trim back on when we are done.

We had chosen a basic oil-based primer in white so that it would be easy to paint any color over it.

-Why use a primer?
-Oil or Latex?

Aaron took up the brush and worked on a piece of new exterior trim and the outside of the window.

We left the insides of the windows alone because we'll stain them.

I'll post more about our "repairing exterior trim challenge" later on this week.

ohmigosh...I fixed the dryer!

The Dilemma

The dryer broke. Pretty clear cut. One moment, I'm doing the laundry so critical to my sanity in this house. And the next moment...nope.

I had immediately run for the internet...for repairclinic.com. I needed the sketch of how a dryer works and how to get one open without making things worse.

From the information about gas dryers, I was able to comfirm my guess that it was a belt or a roller...the heat was still working, the blower was still working, but the "drum" wasn't turning.

Being an non-practicing, insecure engineering tech grad (first degree was from Purdue), I immediately placed an emergency, geeky call to my dad to confirm my diagnosis. The phone call went somthing like this...all in a very rapid-fire, clipped tone:

Me: Dad? Hi, it's me. Are you in the middle of something?

Dad: Hi! I'm in the car driving to a client...what's up?

Me (all serious): We have a dryer problem. I just need to confirm the diagnosis...drum's not turning, but the heat and blower are working. I think it's the belt.

Dad (a practicing engineer, gets all serious): How's the timer? Is the door closing correctly and triggering the cycle?

Geekism. It's genetic.

Options

After I opened up the dryer and found the broken belt, there were really four options:

1) Call the Sears Repairpeople.

2) Find the parts in Chicago, get them and fix it myself.

3) Order the parts online, wait until they arrived and fix it myself.

4) Go into denial and live with dirty laundry.

Our Solution

Based upon the diagrams at Repairclinic.com and the minimum estimate I received from Sears for a visit ($189! Minimum!), I decided to try it myself. The parts weren't in stock in any Sears store near Chicago. So, $30 later, I had ordered the "kit" for replacing rollers, belt and idler pulley directly from Sears. And chewed my nails wondering how long it would take to arrive.

I ordered the parts on October 20th. They arrived on October 25th (because I decided against paying for overnight shipping...too expensive so soon right after the laptop meltdown.)

So...I took the dryer apart with the blind faith that somehow I would be able to put it back together. (I turned off the fuses and the gas connected to the dryer first.)

I used a block of wood to support the drum after I took the front of the dryer off. (Before I took the drum out.) And to support the drum again after I put on the belt and before I looped it through the idler pulley and around the motor drive shaft. (Are you sufficiently geeked out yet?)

And it worked. I was completely surprised! It was actually relatively easy. If you can follow directions, remember the phrase "righty-tighty, lefty-loosey" and tie a ponytail using a scrunchie, you can do this. You can put a new belt in your dryer.

Tools Used

-Internet
-Phone
-Replacement parts: belt, idler pulley, roller wheels
-Screwdriver
-Small wrench
-Putty knife

Lessons Learned

Maytag Repairman who? I guess the lesson learned was to give it a try. If I hadn't been able to do it, I still could have called in a repairperson to use the parts I purchased!

Venting the Attic

Time for another mechanical "guts" project--ventilating the attic. You may recall that we've written on this topic before, and now we've come back to apply what we learned.

The Problem
While our house did have a ventilation system when we bought it, it was poorly designed. It also wasn't operating properly, for that matter--our friends the raccoons had snuck in through the vent and chewed on the cables to the vent fan and cut the power. At that time we solved the immediate problem (keeping furry creatures out) but waited until now to repair the fan.

With the ceilings removed we've taken the opportunity to fix the fan but also to enhance the overall circulation by adding vents in new locations.

A poorly ventilated attic can cause several problems. In the summer, without proper exhaust heat from the sun can warm an attic to over 150 degrees. This can drive up energy costs--especially since we've installed the central duct work for our central air conditioning up there. In the winter the problem is more about moisture--any moist air that gets in the attic and can't escape will condense, damaging insulation or rotting wood. This can be a problem in summer months, too.

Our Solution
First we dealt with the attic fan. The attic fan is used in the summer when proper ventilation requires a more rapid circulation of air (this article suggests at lest one air change per minute in warm months and one per ten minutes in cold ones).

Fixing the fan was a simple matter of buying a new one. Home Depot carries attic fans in several sizes and we picked up one appropriate for the square footage of our attic--a 750 CFM (cubic feet per minute) model. It has a thermostat switch which turns it on when the temperature exceeds 120 degrees.

With the fan installed we turned to the venting system itself. The current system had three vents on the roof--a large one for exhaust (that had the fan) and two small vents for intake. The problem is that they're all at the same level fairly close to the peak of the roof and in fairly close proximity. There are no vents in the dormer at all. While the entire attic is a continuous space, the vent configuration did little to facilitate true circulation.

Complicating matters, the design of our roof exterior prevents us from using the most common solution--soffit vents. These would provide continuous intake venting under the eve of the roof and are common on retrofits in our neighborhood. However, our home has beautiful rafter tails that we'd have to remove if we used that approach.

Our solution? Eve vents! We found 3" circular vents that we installed between each rafter tail--here's a close-up on one installed on the side of the dormer. The great thing is you can't even see them from the street unless you really look.

Half a dozen of these along the sides of the dormer will provide a new current for cool air to enter and will greatly increase circulation. We'd also like a ridge vent, but will have to wait until we re-roof in a few years. Our roof is very complicated. So we will be relying on the mushroom vents for outake right now.

Before finishing we needed to make sure a continuous path for air flow wasn't blocked when we install insulation. Typically, this calls for rafter trays that are attached to the under side of the roof and preserve a 2" gap between insulation and the roof. However, we've also heard these have a disadvantage--condensation can form on the under surface and run down the edge to create moisture spots. So, we decided against them. The way that the insulation is set into the channel, we already have a gap between the insulation and the roof.

However, we did find one good use for the sample tray we bought. I cut 1' square channels and stapled them to the framing over each circular eve vent to ensure a gap for air to flow by preventing the insulation from bunching up and clogging the vent over time.

So, the additional intake locations and a functioning fan should put us in a better place and insure our roof has a longer lifespan. Soon I'll be continuing the insulation work by finishing the walls and then insulating the ceiling.

CAVEAT: There are a million ways that a roof can be vented and/or insulated. Everyone has strong opinions. We read and listened to experts and experimented and did calculations and Jeannie fretted a lot over this. This is our documentation of how we did ours and your roof/attic will be completely different. To each his own.

Insulating the Attic

Normally, we wait until the end of a project to summarize "do it yourself" stuff, but recently we've been getting good advice from readers and there's no sense in waiting until after the fact to get more ideas.

The Challenge
We've finally gotten to the insulation phase (horray! < This is a combination of "horrors!" and "hurray!") for the second floor. I've insulated the walls over several weekends and have now started to insulate the attic and ceilings.

The challenge around insulating the attic is twofold: first, the higher ceiling in the master bedroom leaves relatively less room for insulation. Second, the main attic space criss-crossed by the air conditioning ductwork from our Unico air conditioning system.

Our Approach
First, we researched the recommended insulation levels for our climate. This information is widely available, including at the point of sale in stores where you can purchase insulation. The government's EnergyStar website has a simple summary here. They recommend that a Chicago home have between R-38 and R-49 for ceiling and attic spaces. (The R-value rates how well a material insulates. A higher rating indicates more insulation.)

Selecting Materials
There are a myriad of insulating materials to choose from, with many newer 'hi-tech' varieties cropping up in recent years. One way to categorize the types of insulation is by the methods of installation: rolled material insulation (primarily fiberglass) is the most common; 'blown-in' insulation is very popular for existing homes because it is so flexible; 'sprayed on' varieties of insulation are frequently used in new construction and commercial applications; and rigid foam materials are good for getting higher R-values into tight spaces.

We chose to use a combination of rolled fiberglass and rigid foam. The rolled fiberglass represents the majority of the insulation we are using, with the rigid foam solving a specific problem at the peak of our cathedral ceiling in the bedroom. We wanted something that we felt confident in installing ourselves, that would fit the space, would create the cost savings we were comfortable with, and which was affordable.

When would you choose one over the other? The following factors are considered when choosing insulation:

-Space available for installing insulation
-Cost (cost of insulation/installation vs. savings gained over time from insulation).
-Specific characteristics of the space being insulated (ventilation, above ground, below ground, wall, ceiling, exterior, interior, etc.)
-Ease of installation for your specific application
-Personal preference for specific material-types

The Department of Energy has a helpful primer regarding insulation types and decisions. There are MANY different opinions regarding insulation AND ventilation, with no consensus among home professionals as to the BEST type and technique. So, learn as much as you can in order to make an informed decision for your specific situation.

Installation
First, I tackled the higher ceiling. There is a partial vault in the front bedroom dormer, with a 2 foot high, 3 foot wide space at the peak that accomodates the AC ducts. (Actually, we prefer that look to a fully vaulted peak anyway.) For a majority of this ceiling we used rolled batts between the rafters. That space only allowed for using R-30 while preserving the ventilation we needed, a bit below the government recommendation. At the peak we're using foam board because space is so tight we couldn't get much more than R-20 with fiberglass. Stacking foam board with an R-value of 10 should allow us to exceed R-38. I haven't gotten to install this yet but I hope to soon.

The ceiling above the second bedroom and the bath is lower, so there is plenty of space in the unfinished attic for meeting the recommendations using fiberglass. However, installation is tricky because the AC air handler and the main trunk line circle through the entire space. I decided to tackle the space as three layers:

• Kraft-faced R-13 - Typically for walls, this was actually a useful first layer because it is the same depth as the 2x4 ceiling joists. Our joists are roughly 14 inches apart, so common 16-on-center insulation was inexpensive and I was able to cut and staple it into place quickly.
• Unfaced R-25 - This sits on top of the first layer and covers the tops of the joists (wood conducts heat and moisture and covering the top of the joists cuts down on this). This is where the AC ducts become a challenge, so there is a lot of cutting involved to achieve a proper fit. The nice thing is that the R-25 is roughly the same height as the AC trunk line--about 8 inches. This will create another even surface when the R-25 is laid next to and around the ducts.
• Unfaced R-11 - This final layer rests across everything and will run uninterrupted across the whole attic space. This provides a protective layer over all of the AC ducts, so it should help prevent any loss of cooled air traveling through the ducts on the hottest summer days in the attic.

I'm not finished with this yet, but here's an in-progress photo showing the first two layers amidst the AC ducts.

The attic ultimately achieves close to R-49, although I know some of this benefit is cancelled out by the lower value of the insulation above the front bedroom. We can help to influence this by closing the door to that bedroom when the air-conditioning is not in use--the main attic then serves as the highest point of the house, adjoined to the first floor by the stairwell.

Special Considerations
There are a few additional unique things we're planning that are worth pointing out:

• Because the AC trunk is in the hottest part of our house (a necessity), we're concerned about insulating it from hot attic air during the summer. Although the ducts themselves are wrapped in foil and some insulation, we wanted to increase that. We found a useful product from Johns Manville called DuctWrap, available at Menards. It is foil-faced so it will reflect radiant heat from the sun that penetrates the roof.
• Our air handler is also in the attic, so it will require some space on all sides to allow for air circulation. We're expecting to build some sort of box around it with rigid foam.
• I'm sure someone will wonder why we didn't used blown-in insulation for the attic given all these obsticles. Our main concern about any loose material was its possible interference with our attic ventilation system over time.
• Before we began insulating the attic, Jeanne suggested checking the AC trunk line for air leaks (the trunk is installed from a series of joined pieces taped together with a special reflective heat tape). We found and sealed several small leaks...we will create a separate journal entry to explain why and how we did this.

So, there you have it. Given that we're not done yet, suggestions are welcome. We expect to finish up insulating in the next two weekends (except for the bathroom, which we've delayed pending some of the other work we are doing there).

More Reasons to Need a Slow Hand

The dog and I decided to rally and pull the ladder out of the basement to do more "weatherizing" on the house. So, we worked on what we could reach...storm windows.

The Problem

Honestly? The problem is that we're using more gas to heat the house than we'd like. It's expensive and it feels wasteful. The boiler is now very efficient, so it's time to fill in the little cracks and spaces that let Old Man Winter IN.

With our original wood storm windows being restored a few at a time, it was necessary to find ways to just survive with the windows which haven't been restored yet.

Our Solution
They currently don't fit as tightly as they WILL...once they've been reconditioned. So, for the ones that had to go back on before refurbishment, we had to think of a more temporary fix. SEASONSEAL! Removable Weather Stripping (caulk)

I had to "relearn" how to use a caulking gun. This recent med challenge makes my hands a bit shaky, so getting a straight line was a bit tough. I like the caulking gun though. It's actually a very fun tool. I practiced a little first.

Ummmm. Not so good. Wow, what a messy job! So I tried again. This time, I kept the tip of the caulking gun at an angle and worked from the top downward.

Oh YEAH! Way, way better. Top and both sides. Leave the bottom uncaulked as an escape route for condensation.

I was able to try out the "peel off" factor when I made a mistake and...COOL! It really does peel off! It felt like...well...it felt kind of...well...it felt like this. < click here

So, if you've always wanted to combine 7th grade kid's humor with home improvement, you will probably enjoy this project. But SeasonSeal isn't safe for kids...so only grown-ups, please.

Installing Foamboard and the Vapor Barrier

The Thanksgiving holiday was good for many reasons, including time spent with J's parents. It was also a good chance to make more progress upstairs...

The Challenge
I'd recently insulated the walls and the primary attic space. However, I hadn't yet insulated the peak of the vaulted ceiling in our master bedroom. It had its own unique challenges--a space filled with duct work from our SpacePak air conditioning system.

Because of all the duct work taking up space, there wasn't enough room to use traditional fiberglass insulation at the peak of the ceiling...

...we needed something else...

Our Solution
Compressed foamboard insulation is designed for just these situations. Foamboard comes in a range of R-values and thicknesses. We chose Johns Manville's 1" R-6.5 foil-faced insulation (it was a regular stocked item at our local Menards). By stacking the boards 5 high, we achieved an overall total of R-32.5. That's just a bit more than the 10" R-30 fiberglass insulation we used on the slated ceilings, but in half of the vertical space.

The insulation went in pretty easily--I cut pieces to fit between each joist. Sometimes I had to do a few extra cuts to work my way around the electrical conduit.

After installing the foamboard across the peak of the ceiling, I had to go back and stuff 10" unfaced fiberglass insulation in to fill the gaps. I also used reflective duct tape to seal the gaps along all of the foamboard edges.

After completing the insulation, I had time to start installing the vapor barrier. On the advice of our educated readers, we're supplementing our kraft-paper vapor barrier with a 4 mil polyurethane polyethylene wrap. It will prevent humidity within the house from working its way through the insulation and into the walls, damaging the insulation or rotting our wood.

I finished everything off by sealing the plastic edges with red house wrap tape. By late this evening, the master bedroom looked like this:

I liked installing the vapor barrier--it went quickly so it was easy to feel productive! ;-)

Caveat: Many professionals have different ideas about insulation and ventilation. Do your research and choose a method appropriate to your specific house and climate. Your mileage may vary. :)

Building a Laundry Chute, Part One

A good while back we asked for advice about laundry chute dimensions. That question wasn't just theoretical...the time has finally come!

The Challenge
One of the conveniences we've wanted to add as we renovate our craftsman bungalow. (Jeannie already pulled out her back once hauling laundry to the basement.) And while it's nearly impossible to find a perfect place for a chute in an old home, we found a pretty good compromise.

First Floor	Second Floor

This location will allow us to access the chute near each bathroom and most of the bedrooms. It did mean losing half of a small hall closet, but this seemed to be a reasonable trade-off compared to other options.

Read on for an overview of how we started the project.

Our Approach--Building the Chute
After considering our options, we decided to build our chute with melamine, a plastic-faced particle board commonly used for shelving. The material is extremely smooth--a perfect surface for allowing clothes to drop down without any resistance. (As an aside , metal ductwork is another common choice you may want to consider--it's less sturdy but works in smaller spaces.)

The total height of our chute will be 16 feet from top to bottom. (They'll be doors for the chute on both floors and a trap door in the basement. This is critical for preventing the spread of fire...knock on wood.) The floor joists allow for a chute that is approximately 12 1/2" wide, while the depth of the chute will be about 11". Overall, it should be pretty generous in size.

My first task was trimming the melamine to fit between the floor joists. I picked up a new carbide blade for the saw--melamine easily shows chips where the blade exits the cut so a clean sharp blade is a must.

For a clean look, I decided to assemble the chute box using a dowel kit--all the fastners will be invisible when finished, unlike nails or screws. i picked up a 1/4" kit for a couple of bucks, which included dowel centers, a brad point drill bit, a rubber depth stop collar, and plenty of wooden dowels. The depth stop collar went over the bit as a marker to prevent drilling too deep into the boards.

After some quick work with the dowel centers, I'd made four holes for each joint and glued each dowel in place.

I also ran a bead of glue (I used Gorilla Glue) all along each joint. Then it was time to assemble the box. Clamps held the joints together firmly, which I let set for the night...

The cut-out on the top board is for the door in the closet on the first floor. I'm assembling a second box that will rest on top of the first at that point and go the rest of the distance to the second floor.

Next, I'll be cutting access holes through each floor and putting the chute boxes in place. More to come...

Building a Laundry Chute, Part Two

Tonight I built the second half of the laundry chute box.

This will rest on top of the first. The next challenge will be cutting holes in the floor and ceiling, then installing the two halves of the box in place.

More to come...!

Correcting Poorly Framed Walls

Believe it or not, progress is being made on our second floor. Beyond moving the clawfoot tub from the garage to the upstairs, we've also been squaring up the walls in preparation to hang the wall board.

When J's dad was here for Thanksgiving, he helped us identify some areas that needed correction.

The Challenge
The problem is that many of the wall studs aren't square.

It turns out there are three problems to fix before the walls can be installed:

• Wood that isn't straight. Some of the old boards are warped with age. However, it turns out that the new boards can be just as bad! The higher moisture content of new boards means that they can bend and twist after installation. We kept them in the space to dry them, but humidity levels in the house rise and fall with the weather.
  
• Mismatched board dimensions. As I mentioned two days ago, modern 2x4s are actually smaller than vintage ones. By framing with both, we've ended up with some slightly uneven surfaces.
  
• Missing framing members. Each wall needs special framing members at the edges so the wallboard can be screwed down properly.

So, this was the weekend I tried to set things straight (literally)...

Our Approach
Rather than show you everything we did (it was a looong weekend!) here are some sample photos of how we corrected each problem.

Straightening Warped Boards
This was the fun one. On the recommendation of a friend, I went to Lowe's and picked up an electric planer. (I bought the Bosch...I'll try to do a review soon.) It was helpful to shave down boards that had bowed out out of line. Here are some photos of how it worked.

Smoothing out a warped board.	Afterwards all the joists lined up evenly.

Correcting Mismatched Boards
This was the "not-fun" one. I've spent hours fretting over how to correct problems that I basically made for myself. New rule of thumb--preservation doesn't apply to wall studs, just replace them.

Anyway, in the end correcting these involves plenty of shims and 1 1/2 x 1/4 lattice. The shims were available at Lowe's but the lattice required a trip to the lumber yard. Here are some photos of how I used shims to smooth out some abrupt edges between framing members. This should allow the change in surface to be gradual enough so the drywall can be screwed down without problems.

Boards of different widths aren't even.	Shim pieces are thick on one end and taper off on the other--smoothing out the differences.	A closeup of the finished surface.

Admittedly this solution wasn't ideal and luckily I only did it in one place. In hidsight, I wish I would have just rebuilt that whole wall.

Adding Missing Framing Members
This one was pretty straightforward. In some places, corner members were missing. Without adding additional boards, there wouldn't be anything to fasten the drywall to where two walls meet.

In this example, a wall that continues between two rooms is broken up by a door frame. The door is framed out, but there's no framing board right at the point where the door's wall bisects the other wall.

I fixed this by cutting a few more wall studs from a few vintage 2x4s we found in the rafters of the garage.

The doorway is missing a framing member.	After the framing member was added--ready for wallboard!

So there you have it. This project was a bit stressful as it was time consuming and we have deadlines. It really is true that the last 10% of a job can be more complicated than the first 90%.

Building a Laundry Chute: Part Three

Hmmm, it seems like a long time since we've actually written about work on the house...oh yeah, that's because its been a while since we've actually worked on the house. To prove it, I'll point out that 'part two' of this laundry chute series was posted way back on December 12th. Wow, that's depressing...

Anyway, today I took the day off from work (everyone else seems to be taking it off too) so J and I could work on a few projects.

In the morning we continued refinishing the clawfoot tub (more on that later) and this afternoon we worked together on the laundry chute...

The big progress was made prepping and in trimming out the closet that the chute will go in...

Obviously, there's still some priming to do. Hopefully that and the chute installation will take place this weekend. Who knows, we might actually be dropping our clothes effortlessly down to the basement within the next week!

Bathroom Wainscoat Pt. 1 - Beadboard Prep

After deciding to go with high quality panel sheets for the wainscoat in our master bathroom, we picked up the sheets from Lee Lumber.

For starters, J and I spent a few evenings priming everything.

A quick tip if your doing this yourself--be sure to prime both sides and all edges. It keeps moisture from penetrating the wood and causing it to warp or flex. This is especially important in bathrooms and kitchens.

Jeanne had figured out all of the measurements , so we were ready to go with the basic cuts.

(Note from jm: The trick to the measurements was to make the most of fitting the beadboard around the perimeter so...no waste! So, working with 8' x 4' sheets, I had to figure out how they would fit around the perimeter once cut. I drew an outline of the room and played around with the math until I could fit the beadboard around the room with the least amount of cuts. Thank you, high school geometry class!)

Not having our own table saw (yet!) we decided to rent one from the local Home Depot. Here are my dad and I late in the evening getting the most from our rental fee before it's due back...

Up next? Mounting the beadboard and re-installing the original built-in cabinet!

Bathroom Wainscoat Pt. 2 - Hanging Beadboard & Cabinet Backing

After priming and cutting our beadboard sheets, we started the installation in the upstairs bathroom.

The beadboard will be forming a 36" wainscoat around the whole bathroom, trimmed with a fairly simple craftsman-style pattern, mounted on the face of the beadboard sheets (more on that later). We started by mounting the sheets with a combination of finishing nails and liquid nails.

This work also gave us a chance to work on another piece that will tie the new room back to its original look...

...the built-in cabinet! When we first moved in, the bathroom originally included a rather run-down cabinet in the back corner of the room. You can see part of it here (if you aren't blinded by that awful pink).

Well, we decided that the cabinet was actually worth saving, under the many coats of brown paint and the tacky wallpaper that was put over the glass doors. While it isn't anything special, it does have character and we were especially interested in an element that would carry forward the room's history, even as we change so much of it.

We were especially lucky that our wonderful neighbor volunteered to strip it down after we'd removed it. (Thanks Krystina!) Here's a photo of my dad using a beadboard sheet to give it a back panel (which it didn't have).

Also, note the pieces of blue painter's tape that mark the location of the studs within the wall.

(You'll notice we've also done an initial coat of paint on the walls--a blue we found at Restoration Hardware that closely matches our original master bathroom design.)

Unfortunately, once we'd put it in place my dad noticed somewhat of a problem...

...the cabinet was built crooked! The original wall and floor were actually crooked, then the built-in was installed askew to compensate for the wall and floor. But we straightened both the wall AND the floor. Today that means straight wall and floor, crooked cabinet. Here's a photo where you can see that the cabinet's bottom edge doesn't exactly follow along with the new tile border (click to enlarge).

Oh well--we wanted the room to have character and a tie to its heritage so I guess that's what we've got. Here's a photo of the full cabinet re-installed, along with the partially installed beadboard wainscoat. We shimmed one of the sides and the back in order to compensate for the orignal crookedness.

Next up, hanging more beadboard and designing and installing the wainscoat trim...

Building a Laundry Chute: Part Four

Meanwhile, back at the ranch...today we got a fully finished laundry chute on our first floor!

I'd previously built the chute and roughed in the opening, so today was the big payoff.

I think it counts as lucky that only one problem came up: the chute door wouldn't stay shut. Its default position ended up about 1/3 open, so I needed to find a way to hold it closed.

The solution was a simple magnetic clasp--79 cents at Home Depot. It holds the door closed without requiring any kind of complicated latch.

So, that's it--for good measure we threw a few dirty garments down it as an inaguration, and sure enough they came out the other end!

We're not completely done though...the upstairs access will need to wait until after the pedestal sink is installed so that the opening is positioned properly. In the basement, we'll also need to put in a closed access panel in order to comply with building codes. All that is for anouther day, though.

Stay tuned, there's certainly more to come...

Heigh Ho Sawhorse! Away!

Since Aaron and I were both working upstairs this weekend, we both required a set of sawhorses. However! We only have one set that was left in the basement when we purchased the house. So we needed another set.

Well! What is a wife supposed to do when her dear husband requires a set of sawhorses? She plunders the wood cast-off's pile, fires up her miter saw and makes him some.

There are a million ways to build a sawhorse. I like this one for longer jobs that require a lot of sturdiness because it is so solid, but it is a little more difficult to break down or store away.

It's one of the easiest sawhorse patterns because it requires only 1 angle size. It's a perfect pattern for a beginner looking to practice some skills because--hey--it's just a sawhorse. So you can use scrap wood and make mistakes and correct mistakes and it doesn't have to look beautiful.

Here are the pieces of wood you'll need and their measurements. The angles are all 17 1/2 degrees (cut with the wood up on it's edge...not flat. If you are unfamiliar with angle cuts, you might want to practice angle cuts on a scrap piece before diving in.)

For the angle cuts, I use our 10" miter saw (yes, this was my Christmas present from 2004.)

Bring the guide around to 17 1/2 degrees when cutting angles. If you are a beginner and have never used a miter saw before, you will be amazed at how easy this is after you have cut one angle.

If electric miter saws are a bit intimidating or not in your budget right now, try what I call a "muscle powered miter saw". It gets the same result plus a bit of a workout too!

I nailed these together but you can use wood screws if you prefer. I assemble mine in order of the numbers below but you can invent your own way as well.

No matter what you use, just try it. Get out the tools and work on it. Woodworkers don't emerge from the womb holding Sawzalls (except for Norm Abram maybe....) Everyone was a beginner once.

Et voila!

Bathroom Wainscoat, Part 3 - Wainscoat Trimmed Out

More progress on the master bathroom, we've now got much of the wainscoat trimmed out with a first finish coat of paint.

The trim was Jeanne's design, and ended up being easy to complete given it was all based on stock paint-grade pine at our local lumber yard.

We're getting there! Next up...we'll be installing the bathroom door. Paul has also informed us that the new shower glass has been cut and he's picking it up this weekend. He could start the final installation this week. Cool!

Repairing & Glazing Wood Windows, Part 1

Of course, during the restoration of windows, you're going to have to reglaze a few panes. I feel pretty lucky. Most of the glazing on our windows is in good shape and only a few panes became cracked during stripping.

There was at least one window with some wood integrity issues due to unaddressed unaddressed condensation issues. This window was right next to a steam radiator and poor radiator maintenance also stained the wood trim closest to it.

For stripping the windows, I used the Silent Paint Remover, a spray bottle with water (to keep down the dust), a very sharp tungsten carbide blade scraper, some steel wool and denatured alcohol. This got the paint and old shellac off.

Then the cracked panes of glass had to be carefully tapped out of the frames of the windows. (I used an old towel over the glass to make sure chips didn't fly.) Using the Silent Paint Remover, I was able to soften the old caulk/glaze so that it easily peeled out of the frames.

I cleaned out the residue with some denatured alcohol and steel wool. It's important that anything touching the new glazing is clean so that it creates a tight seal.

This was the perfect time to attempt some of the minor fixes...like gluing a loose runner with wood glue (held in place by a clamp and a scrap piece of wood)...

...and determine if some of the larger fixes were worth attempting. That piece of wood with integrity issues? Turns out there was a substantial amount of wood rot that entered the wood through the rotted mullion. I dug out the rotted wood to determine the extent of the damage. It was pretty extensive, so we'll probably have to replace this mullion and bottom rail.

I used Abatron epoxy to repair some smaller cracks and pitting that didn't expose wood rot. (We'll do a review of this soon...it's great stuff.)

Then I was able to sand it down smooth to the good wood. After that, I primed the exterior surfaces to prepare it for a future painting.

Then, if was off to get some glass from the local Ace Hardware! Part 2 soon...

Repairing & Glazing Wood Windows, Part 2

Augh. Conquering the wood rot. I knew that this day was coming, I just didn’t expect it so soon. However, surprises are par for the course when you own an old house.

Let me just say right now that this is the first time I’ve attempted this with such a large repair. So, your mileage may vary. Consult with knowledgeable professionals before trying this yourself. Remember, we are just regular homeowners in here.

I winced all the way through digging out the rotted wood. With each scrape and dig, I was praying under my breath that the rot would end. But ended up with a larger hole than I was hoping for. Well, of course. I’m just thankful that it didn’t go all the way through to the other side!

Originally, I saw the damage and decided I should probably have a new bottom rail made. Then I was inspired by Bill at Enon Hall’s fix! I’m going to give it a shot.

So, armed with my copies of Working Windows and Renovating Old Houses, I headed out to find some LiquidWood or Rot Fix. I found out quickly that the closest stores that were still open (Home Depot and Lowes) had neither. I did find some Copper-Brown Jasco. I decided to give it a try.

First, I drilled some short holes in the good wood in order to improve the absorption of the fixative through the wood (being careful not to drill too closely to the perimeter of the wood.)

Then I soaked the wood in the Jasco by pouring it inside of the rail and tilting the sash slowly to enhance coverage.

Now I have to let it dry thoroughly before working with the epoxy. Knees knocking, I turn my attention back to the other windows.

Repairing & Glazing Wood Windows, Part 3

Okay...windows and windows and windows.

I've finished two and I'm working on four others. There are 27 windows that need work in here. And four more which need to be replaced where they were taken out of the walls. Ack! So, we last left off with the rot...

Wow. I'm tired.

I had researched a variety of wood epoxies and wood restoration products...there has been a great discussion about this over on Enon Hall's Forum. Getting a quality wood epoxy is important for windows because they are exposed to wind, cold, water and a lot of physical stress (because windows are made to move.) Following a tip in a back issue of Fine Homebuilding, I added sawdust to the epoxy. (Woodworking.com mentions this too!) Unlike cheaper epoxies, WoodEpox gets harder in larger quantities instead of thinner applications. So I felt comfortable filling up the entire space in the frame all at once.

After the Jasco dried, I painted the wood with wood hardener. And right before it became completely dry, I mixed up some Abatron WoodEpox with sawdust and applied it. The tackiness of the wood hardener helped the epoxy to adhere to the wood.

Because a quality epoxy can be sculpted and sanded just like wood when it hardens, I built the repair up beyond the boundaries needed in the frame. In order to give the epoxy something to cling to at the point where the mullion meets the sash, I sharpened a wooden dowel, cut it down, and inserted the point up into the mullion. The end of the dowel descended into the sash and provided a frame for the epoxy.

After the epoxy hardened, I was able to use the Fein to sand the epoxy down to the shape and depth of the original frame.

I measured the inside of the frames and purchased pieces of glass from my favorite Ace Hardware store. The right measurements are pretty critical. Measure the inside of the frame in a grid pattern...not all old windows are perfectly square!

And always fit the glass in the frames before you begin to make sure it is correct before you apply any glazing. Then remove it before you begin.

After I sculpted down the epoxy, I glazed all of the windows. I could put a step-by-step explanation here, but I don't think I would communicate it half as well as Ed at Fixing Our Historic House. The steps he describes are the same steps I followed to replace the glass. (Except I also kept a little bowl of mineral spirits next to me while I was working to use on the putty knife. It is so important to keep the putting knife clean...I can't even tell you how important this is. Otherwise the putty knife drags the glazing right off of the window.) Note to self: Keep expectations low while dog-tired and writing for the houseblog.

After the glazing "skins over", I'll paint it with primer. Painting the glazing is also important, because that little 1/16" stripe of paint that overlaps the glazing and the glass helps to keep moisture out of the glaze and the frame.

Installing the Attic Access Panel

Sometimes the smallest projects can still give plenty of satisfaction. With temperatures jumping to the high 80s today, we used our central air for the first time this season.

The problem was that there are still a few unfinished areas upstairs that let too much of that cool air out the roof (or the hot attic air inside...take your pick). The largest culprit? The unfinished attic access in the upstairs hallway.

So, we decided today was the day to start sealing things up...

After I picked up some 3 1/2" trim and some 1/4" birch veneer plywood, Jeannie set out to trim the portal cover down to size.

Together we mitered the trim and nailed it in place. Not long after we had a working access panel:

I went ahead and primed the remaining pieces this evening. Jeannie will stop by the store this week to pick up some remaining insulation to really seal things up.

Stripping Painted Trim

So, after asking if other housebloggers would write up 'how-tos' about their own stripping techniques (and seeing some already do it) I am of course obligated to share my own approach.

Here's how I've been stripping painted trim...

Early on when we bought the house, we made the lucky decision to invest in the Silent Paint Remover. While an expensive investment up front, the SPR has saved us lots of cash over the course of our renovation. Specifically, it's allowed us to do lots of stripping work without purchasing any chemicals.

Most recently, we've been stripping the window and doorway trim for our second floor. In those rooms, the original trim has been preserved but painted several times. Our goal was to strip the paint and original shellac off, and then restain the woodwork to match the original look.

For our work on the second floor, we've removed all the trim because the walls all had to come down anyway. That said, these steps should work when leaving the trim in place, too.

First, I removed the paint with a single pass of the Silent Paint Remover. Applying the SPR for 10-15 seconds to any 20"x5" area should blister the paint, as shown in this photo. (Note: Be careful to not let the SPR stay too long or you'll burn the original wood surface1)

While still hot, take a quick pass with a wide flat scraping blade. Typically, the paint should come off easily. This is especially true when the paint was applied over a smooth surface like varnish or shellac (like this example).

After a single scrape, you may find that scraping a second time is complicated by residue left on the blade. Latex paints may become very sticky when hot and stick to the blade.

To address this, I keep a second, narrow blade handy to scrape off the primary blade between each pass. It may also help to apply the SPR a second time for about 5 seconds between each pass.

As a second step, after going over the entire board with the SPR, I then go over it again by rubbing it down with denatured alcohol. I apply the alcohol with steel wool.

The alcohol degrades the shellac, leaving the warm smooth stain beneath. The nice thing is that the process also loosens any remaining paint residue because the alcohol is loosening the shellac below. I find that often a pass with a paper towel is necessary at this point to remove the gunky layer of paint and shellac and get the board truely clean.

Going over the board with the denatured alcohol can be a messy process, so be prepared with plenty of steel wool pads and roles of paper towels.

This process should get you down to the original stained finish. The added benefit is that the steel wool can smooth out any rough patches leaving you with a very smooth board. The alcohol also helps, giving the board a warm glow and an almost satin-like finish. From here you can either re-apply a shellac to restore the original look or change the hue of the wood with a different color stain.

In our case, we plan on using a darker finish than the original. This will actually be pretty close to (but more attractive than) the color when we bought it, because the aged shellac had darkened the overall color over the years.

Keeping Jack Frost Out

I've flip-flopped. There. I admitted it. I'm a flip-flopper when it comes to choosing weatherstripping.

I started out with spring bronze on the bathroom windows and (honestly) was slightly disappointed. The stuff sold nowadays is not as tough or sturdy as the roll of the old spring bronze I found in the basement. It was a bit flimsy and tended to tear if you didn't crease it "just so". It worked, it was just odd to be comparing the old to the new and finding the newer material more difficult to work with.

When I started on the bedroom windows, I made a startling discovery. Some of them were already weatherized. I hadn't noticed it because we hadn't been living upstairs. Instead of spring bronze, metal strips (rails?) were nailed to the jambs and the window ran snugly on the rails by way of grooves cut into the frame. It's hard to describe this, so here is a photo of one of the frames I had taken out of the jamb and the metal rail.

These rails were fabulous. The windows rode the rails up and down easily (there were rails at the top and bottom too.) And the windows sealed up nicely. No drafts. No rattling. Wow. I was intrigued.

So I immediately turned to my favorite hardcore renovation boards (Fine Homebuilding's Breaktime was one) and called around to folks in Chicago who might be able to tell me what this type of fix was.

I still don't know what this technique is called (so enlighten me if you know!) but I found a supplier of this metal weatherstripping in Chicago, tracked down a slot cutter with a 5/32" kerf and a 1/4" collet, and got to work trying to figure this out.

But then, ummmm...I got pregnant. So, I actually didn't restart the project until I was out of the first trimester. Finally, that day is here. And it worked out pretty well I think! So I'll be recapping the project here, step-by-step, with diagrams and photos. If you're interested and you have wood windows, stay tuned.

Keeping Jack Frost Out: Part 2

How to begin to do something I've never done before? Take apart what is already done and working, and then copy it. This only gets me into trouble if I forget how to put it back together. Ahem.

I took a wood frame that had already been weatherstripped out of the window and measured it to death, making cryptic notes on a napkin as I went. How wide was the groove for the weatherstripping? How far was the groove from either edge of the side of the wood frame? You get the picture. Overanalyzing? Me? Well, yes. Few can exploit that obsessive compulsiveness like I can. Ask Aaron. Or my mom. My dad would just ask, "What obsessive compulsiveness?"

Here is the edge of an already completed window frame (the window is laying on its side):

Here is what you are looking at in the above picture:

Yes, the drawing is awful. Man, I miss Adobe Illustrator. Microsoft Paint just doesn't compare. And it's late and the "little frog" is kicking up a storm in there. No respite. Better get used to that now, I suppose. Anyway...

I figured out that the groove I needed for weatherstripping could best be made by a:

1) Table saw. (We don't have one yet.)
2) router with a slot cutter that has a 5/32" kerf.

I could borrow a router (thanks Kurt!) so I chose to try that. Ordered one and waited for it to arrive. Fixed up a couple of sawhorses, two clamps and a stray piece of trim for a guide. Here's how the set-up looked:

Yes, that is me, pregnant and wrestling with a router. Had I ever used a router before? No. Was I willing to give it a try? Sure. I just practiced on some scrap wood before I even got NEAR a real window.

The clamps held the window frame, the guide and the top of the sawhorse together firmly.

And the makeshift guide helped me to guide the router and adjust the depth slowly so I didn't go to the full depth that I wanted right away. It was easier to cut the slot by 1/8" each pass than all at once until I became a little more confident.

After I got used to handling the router and measuring the depth of the slot each time, it was relatively easy to cut the slots in the sides of each window frame.

That just gives you the overview. I'll cover a few details and then explain the rest of the project in the next installments.

Right now, I need some warm milk and a soft bed...mmmmmm.

Insulating Steam Heat Pipes

Although our gas usage has decreased from this time last year, our energy bill has not.  Rising gas prices have cancelled out any savings I was hoping for, but at least we're not paying MORE this year (yet) which is a relief.

Part of that is due to the insulation on the second floor, some credit goes to the weatherstripping and insulation around the windows, but I am still not satisfied.  Our basement was far, FAR too warm last year from the steam heat pipes running hither and yon.  Since we don't live in the basement, I selfishly wanted that heat for upstairs.  So, I decided to insulate the pipes.

Before I could purchase insulation, I had to measure all of the exposed pipe to determine its diameter and the length of insulation I would need for each exposed run of pipe.  I drew a little sketch of the exposed pipe in the basement and how long each run was.

Just that activity tired me out.  Seven months pregnant and sharing things like lungs and other organs with the kidlet make me feel like I am living at high altitudes now.  I still had more steps to accomplish, even though I was already exhausted.

On to figuring out the different diameters of pipe...how to determine that?  My eyes blurry with fatigue, I grabbed a piece of string and a measuring tape.  Then I wrapped the string around different pipes, figured out the amount of string that would wrap around the pipe once, and then I measured the string.  In a daze, I guessed that let me off of the hook and went immediately to bed.

Day two and I'm at one of my absolutely favorite hardware stores in Chicago, Clark-Devon Hardware.  (Also a favorite with Chicago Two-Flat.)  Why is it my favorite?  You can get anything there...anything.  I swear to you.  Need an ancient, obscure part for your steam radiator/1920's toilet/ancient wood storm windows?  Yeah, they have it.  And they know what to do with it, too.

So, I hit the counter, all ready with my drawings and calculations and excited to begin.  The helpful hardware guru looks at my paper and asks, "Are you SURE that these pipes are 6.5 inches in diameter?!"

Um, no.  That would be circumference.  And my father, reading this, is now clutching at his heart in agony.  "No, no, no!"  Because I was supposed to be the math geek and now I'm standing in a hardware store, belly out to "yar", with a brain addled by mom-nesia.  What is the calculation again?  How can I calculate diameter from circumference?  Where is my calculator?  What is pi again?  HAS ANYONE SEEN MY BRAIN?!  Anyone?  Bueller?

The guys behind the counter were very busy and I was on my own to figure it out.  So, I borrowed  a pen and paper, and got to work trying to salvage my dignity.  Um...this wasn't working.  Because the material that a pipe is made of is thicker than a circle on a page in a math book.  So, while the INTERNAL diameter of a pipe may be 1.5 inches, this does not match up neatly with its EXTERNAL circumference using pi and my nifty calculations.  Finally, I borrowed a twist tie and a folding ruler, and just headed into the plumbing aisle with my twist tie to figure out which pipe had the circumference I was using.  Sometimes, you just gotta punt.

Installing the insulation wasn't as difficult as calculating the diameter of the pipe.

Fiberglass pipe insulation is made from inorganic glass fibers bonded with a thermosetting resin.  It is jacketed with a high intensity white kraft paper bonded to a metallized polyester film reinforced with tri-directional fiberglass.  It comes in larger sizes than the polyethylene or neoprene foam pipe sleeves in most big box hardware stores.  (Those sizes are terrific for hot water pipes.  Also handy for making lightsabers, apparently.) 

You just measure, cut to fit with a straight edge, and wrap the fiberglass around the pipe.  The jacket comes with an adhesive strip that seals everything up neatly.

 Now, I'm actually hoping that the basement is colder than the first floor.  I'm also anxious to see how much this works!  Now, on to blanketing the hot water heater.

p.s. Please don't ask me about my personal circumference.  I would need a MUCH bigger piece of string.

Installing a Door Jamb Extension, Pt. 1

Yesterday we finally broke through the 'baby barrier' and--believe it or not--did some work on the house.  With power tools.  And wood.  And a tape measure.  No, seriously.

It wasn't a full blown project, just part of one.  We're definitely pacing ourselves here.  It was a rather complicated one, though, so bonus points for that.  I decided to tackle the jamb extension for the master bathroom door upstairs.

The reason we're doing this project at all goes way back to how we framed out the second floor.  One of the original walls upstairs was very thin because it was built with 2x4s turned flat.  Why would they have done that?  Who knows.  Anyway, when going in this time we decided to strengthen it by, well, sistering the entire wall.  The good news is that we've ended up with a wall with normal thickness.  The bad news is that when we reinstalled the door jamb it was too narrow.

Saturday I started the process of installing a jamb extension to match the new wall thickness.

For starters, I took some measurements to determine how wide the jamb extension should be.  Basially, the gap between the old door jamb and the outer face of the new drywall.  It turned out to be 1 3/4" all the way around, although there was some variance.

As luck would have it, we ended up with an extra door jamb due to the changes upstairs (it's being replaced with a pocket door).  So, we've decided to use that jamb for the extension.  The wood already matches and the boards are already cut to accept the header.

Even better, this was my first real-world chance for me to use our new table saw.

After cutting the jambs down to the proper width, today I went over them with some of the Burnished Walnut stain we've been using.  Then I'll just need to go over them with a few layers of shellac and install them upstairs.

See, real work is under way!  :-)

One of my favorite tools

Lest you think I do absolutely nothing to earn my keep.  Today, I reconnected the dishwasher.  And I am not fond of working with water OR electricity.  Especially so close together.

This is where the hot water connects to the unit. 

This is where the electrical power connects to the unit.

What?  What is that, you ask?  HOW do I know how to connect a dishwasher?

Well, I don't.  That is what the internet is for.  Go RepairClinic.com! 

And how do I muck around under the dark dishwasher while keeping both hands free?

Headlamp.  REI headlamp.

This is my homage to Olivia Newton John, circa 1982. 

Because nothing says "EIGHTIES!" like a headband.  And nothing says "HOME IMPROVEMENT GEEK" like a headband with LED lights on it.  It's one of my favorite tools.  Also awesome for reading in bed at night.

(C'mon.  You're singing it in your head now, aren't you?  Aren't YOU?! Admit it.  Yeah, right HouseMade!  I hear you!!!  You too, Ninja.) 

A girl's gotta have leverage

Now that the appliances are back in the kitchen, I re-attached the back porch screen door last night.  Thought I'd use the opportunity to demostrate a little trick I learned from the pages of Fine Homebuilding awhile back.

All my power is in my legs.  My arms are just these weak, wimpy things.  All long and skinny.  No "omph" there.  So I have to compensate in other ways when lifting things is required.  Therefore it is all about leverage.

(Three things:  Ignore how yucky that door and porch are. They are not long for this world and, here at HiP, you have to prioritize what to save.  Also, don't attempt home improvement tasks in open-toed shoes, as I am doing here.  I couldn't find my work clogs but I could easily have lost a toe.  And then this would be a completely different blog entry.  Also, do not make fun of my hippie sandals.  They are super comfy.)

Slipping a pry bar underneath the door at the point that I wanted it to be lifted, I could step on the end of pry bar and leverage the door up slightly to where I needed it.

See?  Bottom of the photo, step on pry bar.  Top of the photo, reach for the hinge so I can move it into place and use the screwdriver.

There are all sorts of ways to use levers around the house to compensate for a lack of muscle. Ah, the strength of a geek's love for applied mechanics.  Finally, my undergraduate degree is paying off.  

Give me a place to stand, and with a lever I can move the whole world.  -Archimedes 

Give me a place to stand, and with a lever I can replace my screen door.  - me

Give me a place to stand, I'd like to learn how to stand already. C'mon, mommy!  - Grace

 

(About the photo...Well, if she's going to hate me when she's a teenager, she might as well have a good reason.)