House in Progress Diary

Restore & Repair Archive

Bungalow Archaeology

Okay, okay. I've been getting requests to show a little bit of our on-going "bungalow archaeology". Here is a quick departure from the regular inventory (just for a little break).

Scenario #1

We walk to the house for the first time and notice that on one side of the wall, well, there's a chimney. Not a well-maintained chimney. But a real chimney.

However, INSIDE OF the house...there is a wall of hickory wood. Where there should be a fireplace, built-in bookcases and windows above the bookcases. We know this because there are 2 other houses on the street of this same design, same builder, from 1914. Same layout. And that is what they have.

Yes, the above is with some of her stuff moved out already. Amazing, isn't it? At this time, this is the most organized room in the house. During the inspection, the organ and the boxes in front of WHERE the fireplace should be are moved aside. And we have our first clue, Nancy Drew! A HEARTH!

And then, our second clue! The stained glass windows!! (Behind a pile of stuff, of course)

So, when my parents come to visit, we are supposed to be cleaning. But we cannot resist the call of GERALDO RIVERA...who seems to murmur from the woodwork, "Will you find a fireplace or no? Money or a dead body? You cannot change the channel, can youuuuuuu?"

We peek.

And, though our cameras cannot show it, we find....the missing fireplace!! Or, most of it. The brick face will need to be redone, but it is back there. We also found the built-in bookcases in the basement where they were being used in "The Boy Scout Room" (more about that later). No money, no body. Just as well.

And for those of you who are wondering, yes, A is that tall. He is 6' 7". Ergo, our purchase of the only bungalow we could find with that much headroom in the basement, on the first floor and second floor.

Scenario #2

During our first visit to the house, we notice other strange decisions in homeownership. For example, the tiles in the first floor bathroom are stripped out, and the owner is too tired to replace them. She had already bought her condo and so, what for? But this window. It looks a little odd too.

But back to the window. Again, my dad cannot resist taking out his cro-bar. His own renovating days over as my parents are in a cozy house on a lake, one daughter's Victorian house well on its way, our 1920's condo sold...the temptation is too great for him. I mean, does one ever get tired of pulling down other people's muddles?

Not in our family, obviously.

(And I'd like to point out that the renovation chromosome runs in A's family as well. His grandfather and father have a few stories in this area. Or, A's mom has a few stories about them. Anyway.)

Voila! Dad, thanks for the window! The rest of the window, that is. Now to line those walls with plastic and keep the room well-ventilated until the tile can be put on. After the 1951 cast-iron tub is re-glazed. While we are living there.

What can we say? It's like camping with a mortgage. The only way to own a house, right?

Lou, we love you.

Lou from Critter Detectives was our new best friend there for awhile, so I wanted to pay tribute to him here. Every morning he would promptly pull up at our doorstep with his "dogcatcher-like" van and inspect the "Have a Heart" cages on the roof for raccoons. (Raccoons are captured alive in cages that are large enough to roam around in.)

He is very brave. Raccoons also bite. Hard. And their claws can slash through metal. Whoa. He didn't need to tell me this. I grew up near a stable with a raccoon problem. Yikes.

Here is the scoop on Lou's company:

CRITTER DETECTIVES
1294 S. Lloyd
Lombard, IL 60148
630-916-7678
888-CR-1-TTER
Pager: 630-695-8575

Critter Detectives is a nuisance control organization specializing in beaver trapping, muskrat removal, pigeon control, coyotes, bobcats and all other wildlife removal. The methods of trapping are humane and in accordance with the specifications set forth by law.

Critter Detectives are licensed by the State of Illinois and fully insured.

When I read that, I can only be thankful that we were dealing with raccoons and squirrels, not bobcats or beavers. Although, yes, I admit, the babies were pretty cute...the damage they did to the house was insane. They broke the big outtake fan at the top of the house in order to gain access. They used the rafters of the roof and the supports for "teething" (and chomped out quite a bit of pretty important support wood.) Mom had her new four babies in the attic and, for the first two months, they didn't leave. Trying to scare them, using rock music and all sorts of other solutions didn't work. These were very cosmopolitan raccoons!!

There are a lot of things they "left behind", so to speak, in the insulation and the wood of the attic. Things with viruses that humans and domestic pets can catch (i.e. rabies, distemper, parovirus, Aleutian's disease, roundworm, mange, etc. Lovely). They are meat and garbage eaters, so they dragged all that up there and what they didn't want, they left to rot. Inviting all sorts of bugs and gross things. So, yes, we have to have a specialist get in there and remove the insulation, spray it down with 2 percent hydrogen peroxide solution, and install new insulation...as well as fix the fan.

Lou helped us out by installing a new raccoon-proof "cage" for the fan on the roof, using roofing nails and tarring any nail holes to keep it waterproof. This isn't chicken wire. This stuff is like steel.

I like raccoons. In the woods. But not in my attic. Once the smell is gone from the second floor someday, I may like them even more again.

Rub-a-dub-dub...what a cool TUB!

Wow. Tim from Aquarius Limited just came to refinish our first floor tub and all I can say is....WOW

The first floor bathroom was a little, um, unusual to begin with.

When we took possession of the house, the original 1" hexagon floor tile had been replaced by 12" mottled white generic tile. There was a new sink, and a new medicine cabinet and lights (neither were set into the wall...they were just hung ON the wall.) Fake tongue and groove paneling of white coated pressed wood covered half of the walls. And then there was THE TUB.

Periwinkle blue tub from 1951. No tile on the walls around the tub. Just the drywall and old glue. Half of the glass block window had been boarded up.

This is the bathroom we will have to live in for a YEAR while the upstairs is being renovated.

So. We need tile. Obviously. But with new tile...we needed to do something about that tub. Originally, we planned for a clawfoot tub, something very cool. But then we got a closer look at OUR tub.

a) It was a cast iron tub, built like a tank.

b) The floor underneath the tub was...gone.

Yep. You can look straight up from the basement and see the bottom of this tub. I'll show you.

Here is the bottom of the tub and the joists it rests on. One joist had a piece cut out of it that reduced it to about 3 inches. Whoa! Um, that is a bad thing if you don't know joists. My dad and A "sistered" that joist (screwed in another joist-sized piece to the original joist to strengthen it) very early on as best they could with an enormous wall full of cabinets in the way. (Click on the image to see the "big picture")

I was picturing myself taking a bath one day and ending up in the basement. Embarrassed, yet unharmed, because the tub is built like an old army truck.

On second thought, the tub doesn't look too bad. Yes, it is from the 1950's and our house was built in 1914. But it is roomy, and of a simple design and, good golly, I mean, IRON! But the blue. It has to go.

So last night, we bid adieu to our friend, the clean blue tub, and gathered up all 5 shower curtains that protected the walls.

We climbed the rickety stairs to the second floor. This string on the right pulls on the light switch for the hall light upstairs. Classy, no?

Past the old phone with all of the numbers written on the wall around it...

And into the scary, scary bathroom...

Not my favorite room. I killed a big beetle in this room earlier in the month. I keep imagining this headless beetle ghost attacking me in the shower...kind of like a big shiny 6-legged Norman Bates.

Though if something funky happens to the shower pipe, we can always get to it through this handy, dandy "access place" in the wall behind the shower:

HOWEVER! Then Tim came. He arrived right at 9:00 am and set to work. I had read about all sorts of refinishing nightmares...and none of them came true! He was patient and thorough, left the work area neat and clean and did a highly professional job making the tub SPARKLING WHITE! Which will look spiffy with the subway tile and 1" hex black and white tile eventually. By 1:00 pm, he was gone. He had briefed me on how to clean and care for the tub, explained the 5 year warranty, and BEST OF ALL, the tub would be ready for use in less than 18 hours (with careful caulking of the drain and overflow). We're going to wait 48 hours, just to build up our anticipation.

We'd like to thank the folks at Midwest Chemicals who kindly referred us to Tim. (They are also pretty cool...they make the chemicals for tub refinishing, train the professionals and recreate clawfoot tubs in their Lockport shop.)

If you want a real tub and tile refinishing craftsman, contact Tim at:

Aquarius Limited
Tub & Tile Refinishing
Lyons, Illinois
Off: 708/443-5768 Cell: 708/268-1770

Here's what I'm looking forward to taking the wrapper off of (remember to click on a picture to get a close-up):

OLD TUB

NEW TUB

NEW TUB!! YEAH!!!!

Not even James could save us from....me.

I am a muddle seeker. I can't help it. It's in my blood.

Once I see the damage that has been done to something, I want to undo it, um, right away.

Here, James and A are discussing the ADT system that came with our "casa de stuff". There has been a high pitched whine from an ANCIENT component that was installed by the previous owner (PO) a LONG time ago. I've taken a few thwacks at it with a ruler and A decided to call in the experts.

My husband has his techniques and I have mine.

James was able to pinpoint the trouble right away because he knows his stuff. Besides being very knowledgable about the system, he is a straight up, nice, professional guy. And he is a PK (you all know who you are--it's a good thing :) So if you need an ADT System and you live in Chicago, call James.

James Williams
ADT Security Systems
630-458-7649

p.s. James--congrats!

But James couldn't save us from me last night because..well. Here's the deal.

We have this bathroom cabinet that the PO installed over some fake wood paneling. It is "okay". It isn't set into the wall, it is just hanging there. And it doesn't symmetrically fit with the sink. I noticed that something was amiss when I could pull it away from the wall and kind of see a hole behind there.

Sooo....

It's 2:00 am and I can't sleep and I keep thinking about this cabinet. What if the space for the real cabinet is back there and we can get the bathroom cabinet door from the basement to fit it....?

I pad through the kitchen, heading to grab a small cro-bar, a flashlight and a good screwdriver. Because the cabinet is only held onto the wall with two screws. (Remember...click on a picture to make it larger.)

Once back at the cabinet, it doesn't take me long to wreak havoc.

The veins in my neck are straining in this picture because I am holding up the cabinet with the open door resting on top of my head. Otherwise it would just swing on its one remaining screw.

Aha! But why wouldn't they have replaced the original cabinet? Why would they get this extra LARGE one and hang it over the hole?

Oh. Because when they rewired the downstairs, instead of tucking the electrical box inside the wall, they put it right inside the hole where the cabinet was. Interesting choice. Wouldn't be mine, but interesting.

And the door to the cabinet that we found downstairs? Perfect fit. I can't hold it up AND take the picture because it's now 3 am and A is in bed.....sleeping...

Oops. Oh yeah. My husband. Who will wake up tomorrow and probably notice this, I imagine. Uh oh. I'll have some 'splainen to do...

Help - Tile Choices!?

What we do know is that we want to go with "subway tile" (specifically Greenwich Village tile from American Olean). It fits the vintage of the house and is just generally cool looking. However, after that we're kind of torn. Which of these tile border patterns do you think we should we go with? (Disregard the colors...we're not set on green and are considering black or grey.)

Option A--Around the Outside

Option B--Headin' Straight Through

Option C--Looping Around the Window

If you have better ideas, we're open to those too. We'll probably have someone in to do the tile in mid-August...

Busy, Busy, Busy

Busy day, busy day.

We took the TV antennae off of the house and, in the process, got an upfront and personal look at just how badly the brick was tuckpointed on the chimney. Plus, the "wire mesh" over the chimney has TWO holes in it (?) about the 3 inches around (squirrels?) and is tied onto the chimney with an electrical cord complete with plug circa 1965. (Remember to click on image to make it LARGER)

Lovely. (But how do you like our rafter tails? Cool, huh?)

We also cut down a TON of brush from the side and front of the house (with the generous offer of tools from our two FABULOUS neighbors, J to the north and T to the south.) A was quite intrigued by the electric hedge clippers.

AND we diverted the drainpipe AWAY from the house!! Finally! We suspect that underground somewhere it is broken and has been causing the footings below the sunroom to settle. That will have to be fixed. $$$

Or the sunroom will eventually detach itself. But, if in 90 YEARS it hasn't fallen off yet, we've got a little bit of time to address that.

Note two things about these next pictures. First, that stuff in the hole where the old drainpipe went? It is called (no lie) "THE STUFF". It comes out like kind of foamy, fat silly string. BUT! Do not substitute this for Silly String at your next par-tay. Because then it hardens into something like REALLY solid foamy rock. And it gets even more dense when it gets wet. No fun for partygoers. Thanks Dad, for directing us to "The Stuff".

Second, as A towers proudly over his water diversion masterpiece (whoops, I took the picture before the splashblock went in), see how the stucco behind his left knee is, well, dark grey? As opposed to the rest of the stucco which is only a dirty white? This is where they did a really cheap patching job on the house where the footings need to be redone. Again, frugal yet not effective for the long haul.

And where did the TV antennae end up? Well, um, by the trash can in the alley. With the mangled mangle. With the (fervant) hope that our dear Alley Driving Folk (they are like the Leprechauns in Ireland) just magically whisk it away in their trucks. Ah, the advantages of living in a major metropolis.

I mean, that's where the 40 year old cardboard CANS of motor oil, coolant, charcoal briquettes, paint thinner, fire retardent powder and anti-freeze went after we discovered them in the garage. (I know, it was like "Return to Love Canal"...but in our garage.) And may they use them in VERY good health, bless them. And store them more properly then they were stored here!!!

The Fishy Men

Okay, a few key things happened today, so I will try to categorize them in order.

(I ASK YOU AN IMPORTANT QUESTION AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS THAT ONLY YOU CAN ANSWER.)

Remember when I sent away the Cable Guy (on the day of the All Star Game--doh!) because he wanted to turn our new house into Señor Bungalow?

Okay. Well, read back a couple of posts. We'll wait.

(hums to self)

Right then. So today the two guys from the "fishing cable though walls place" came...

I don't know what else to call them. I'm sure that there is not a yellow pages category for THAT.

They looked the situation up and down. String coaxial cable into the house (through the flimsy back wall which already has holes for phone cable) and down the length of the basement ceiling. Which they won't have to fish through because the ceiling is coming down anyway.

Up though the crawlspace under the sunroom (which I already cleaned out) and through the wall for a cable connection.

THEN...up the wall in that corner to the bedroom upstairs. This was the trickiest part because they would actually have to FISH the wire THROUGH something that wasn't coming down already. Then through the hole in the yucky, soon-departing, badly installed drywall ceiling that WE would have to cut FOR THEM. And then through the wall into the bedroom.

That will take 3 hours. And cost us $300.

I immediately dove for my computer to check out HGTV and Hometime's sites about how to do this ourselves. (By the way, these are great sites...when I had cable, I used to like to actually watch the SHOWS!) I mean, it isn't like we are asking for wire to be threaded through a pristine house...the work is practically ALL done for them. The destruction part that is. There is NOTHING TO THREAD THINGS THROUGH! Except up through the wall to get to the second floor.

New fishtape and about a mile of coaxial cable coming up, eh? Served hot with an adventurious attiutude. We're going in OURSELVES!

And look at the cool tools...sigh.

Nothing stands between me and the Daily Show anymore. NOTHING!!

p.s. Okay brave words, but are we nuts to try this ourselves? Be honest. Is this going to be a fiasco*? Or...more of a fiasco than anything else I'm usually involved in?

* Fiasco, This American Life, Episode 61...you can listen to it here.

In praise of craftsmen... (hurray for ADT)

Augh.

My whole body hurts. I think I have a summer flu. Or, A was right and I shouldn't have left that standing water in the pedestal planter and I was bitten by a mosquito and now have maleria.

Not that I am overdramatic or anything. Not at all.

Today, we sing the praises of "craftspeople." Because, when they are good, BOY! Do they make a difference in home renovation.

Like today's vendor of the day, Ray. Ray works for Tyco/ADT, our security system people. (Remember...click on the picture to make it larger.)

Ray is an excellent craftsperson.

You're going to have to take our word on this because to show you pictures of his work would be, well, a breach in security. BUT! When someone uses creativity, skill and knowledge to reconfigure a system through a 90 year old house with walls like steel plate and makes it look and work WAY BETTER than it originally did when we got it and DOESN'T lose his patience with the client?

That's a real craftsperson.

Especially when that craftsperson has to reschedule his WHOLE DAY after he sees what it would take to get the job done right.

Ray, you rock.

Hats off, also, to the craftspeople on the discussion boards at the Fine Homebuilding forum.

Again, here is a group of professionals who love their craft. And it shows in their answers and advice.

Ask them a homebuilding question! Go ahead--make it a tough one! These folks know their stuff when it comes to FINE Homebuilding with a capital "F" and "H".

It's a tough world...but somebody's got to build it and keep it safe. Between Ray and the Fine Homebuilding forum, we've got a large portion of that covered.

Scrub, scrub scrub Cinderella!

So, we tried the first batch of stucco cleaner. Our stucco is not EIFS...it seems to be the real deal. And it is pretty grimey up under the eaves and under the A/C units.

We didn't want to break out a power sprayer first thing because, well, we were afraid a piece of the house might fall off under the pressure. (No, really! Honest!) So we went the into the "kinder, gentler" direction. The stucco has never been painted or tinted (on purpose anyway). So, we used Borax, Power Scrub Baking Soda, dishwashing liquid and hot water. A recipe we got from DIYNet.

So, here I am, bristle brush from Home Depot in hand, trying to test this out on a place where it won't show if we mess up:

And, we're off! Scrubbing with the Borax, dishwashing liquid and Baking Soda Power Scrub with hot water...

And, that worked only relatively well. Not as well as I'd hoped. So it is back to the Home Depot for some stronger stuff...perhaps T.S.P....and some more waterproof gloves to protect from chemicals.

We show you EVERYTHING here at houseinprogress.net Even the stuff that doesn't work. Bummer.

Feeling hot & grumpy? Take it out on the house.

It was really hot and humid in Chicago today. 90 degrees hot. With almost 100 percent humidity.

Yuck.

We decided to take it out on the house. We were curious about what was behind the drywall in the bathroom. We need to run a few conduits for new electrical wiring up the center of the house and since that wall has to come down anyway...welllllll....we wanted to see if we could run it behind something there.

We had not planned on taking the wall down when we had the bathtub refinished. (Take note of this LESSON LEARNED. Electrical work and plumbing BEFORE tub refinishing.) So, working so fast that I am a BLUR, I swath the tub with old towels that were left behind by the Previous Owner. And then cover the whole thing with an old WWII Army Tent that was used by the local Boy Scout troup in the 40's, 50's and 60's.

If you are bummed out about the tent...um...don't be. We have about 6 of them. Along with the U.S. Army regulation tent backpacks. That weigh a kazillion pounds. Unless you are REALLY into nostalgia of the painful hiking sort (or maybe you are in training for an Olmpic event and want to carry a heavy thing), these tents are probably just for show.

Then, I make the first surgical cut.

Wow. It isn't often that you are trying to take DOWN a wall. Usually you are trying to think of a million ways to keep a wall UP. At first, this is stressful. For the first 30 seconds. Then you just begin tearing through drywall (carefully) until a panel is off and you feel very VERY good.

No major plumbing problems back here currently. It looks like some time ago a bad caulking job around the fixtures created problems with water seeping behind the tiles, but a little rip down just got rid of some old mold.

We left the exterior wall intact for now and took two more panels off to the right of the tub. We were rewarded with a nice surprise :)

Behind panel number three, the stack for the plumbing extends from the basement to the attic (with steel wool packed around the pipes on each floor. Not sure if that was the PO's way of discouraging the possible spread of fire up the stack in case of a house fire. But when we moved that aside and shined a flashlight up and down, that lovely balloon framing was doing its job...all clear, straight shot. Enough room for 2 conduits to run from the basement to the attic. Just like Boris advised us to do..some space for wire now and cable/telephone later. NOW if we can get an electrician who is not afraid to take on working around some plaster walls, we are in business.

Whew. I feel better. Not cooler. But better.

Square Peg. Round Hole. Contest.

**NOTE: This is a contest with prizes! If you are into that, read through to the end.**

We are trying to figure out the puzzle that is our bathroom and we need YOUR help. It will be like playing with doll house furniture...er...kinda.

My lovely draftsman Dad sketched out our current bathroom situation like this (remember to click it to make the picture larger):

This bedroom-turned-bathroom is second in awkwardness only to the kitchen.

Since it is 17 feet long (!) and 6.5' wide, you'd think we could do a LOT in there. But we knew from the beginning that, although we were taking out the floor and could mess a little with plumbing and electricity, keeping fixtures close to current water and drainage/vent systems would be ideal from a budget perspective because we wouldn't have to move them around on the floors below.

This is important to know for the new remodeler.

SO! That's where you come in. With a silly, crazy, creative, and/or sensible, "hey that just might work" idea for fitting our square peg of a bathroom into its round hole. You can submit said idea on a scanned napkin, computer drawing or even in a detailed paragraph. By September 1, 2003, when we will announce the winner and their choice of prize.

Why are we asking you, citizens of webland, for your ideas?

Because you are cool and creative and fun! For example, I would love to see a bath designed by ZeFrank but I know he is busy and may not have time for us.

Here are the 3-D views of the room.

Entering in a door to the very left.

You turn and see the current sink area...(those cabinets on either side are freestanding):

You peek behind the door of the room and notice a small "closet" has been built around a vent stack that is needed for this bathroom and the one below it is as well):

You stand by the sink and look to the back of the room and notice a) the built-in, which may have to be moved and b) all of that UNUSED space!

You walk to the back of the room to look at the bathroom at a new angle. You turn and look straight back at the shower and sink and see that the "toilette" is placed behind the little "closet" created by the vent stack:

And then you look at the windows across from the "stack" closet and "toilette":

You know, as you consider how to reconfigure everything, that:

1) Flipping and changing plumbed fixtures around so that they are making the use of current pipes and stacks will save money.

2) Maybe you'd like to try a separate shower. But you also know that possible future kids would require a tub too.

3) Two sinks side-by-side might work best in a master bath. But, drat, the windows are too low to put sinks there.

4)The floor is going to have to be totally replaced. It was destroyed in a leak long ago. So that is good. Vertical pipes could possibly be moved.

5) The internal doors could possibly be moved around, but moving the exterior windows would cost quite a bit!

6)The current bathtub is a "rightie". But it could be replaced by something freestanding or something creative could be done to move it.

Do you have your strategic puzzle hats on? You can move fixtures around, repaint the walls (or do something else with them entirely...they are currently "Wes Andersen" pink), go high-brow or low-brow.

And we are offering a choice of prize to the solution which "moves" us the most...either to laughter or "oohs and ahhs".

The winner can claim one of the following (or if there is something that isn't here that you crave, email us. We'll talk. If it hasn't already been claimed, we could set something up):

We AREN'T expecting a drawing from a professional architect or contractor. Actually, it would be more fun to see what ideas other folks would come up with. That's why we tried to make the prizes silly and/or fun. HOWEVER! If the drawing is cool AND feasible, I will pledge the following choice as a prize, although I love it very much...our vintage, mahogany-finished, wood-handled, smooth-as-butter Miller's Falls hand drill (from the late 40's to possibly mid 50's) with its die cast, red-enamel solid drive gear and three-jaw chuck adjustable 0 to 1/4 inch. It's a beauty. But, well, we also know that a fabulous bathroom idea deserves a fabulous choice of a prize.

Here's an empty room if you need one (you can double-click on it to make it larger, the right hand click on it to save it to your PC):

This is a HUGE experiment for us...especially since we've been batting around different ideas as a couple. But we want to see what you would come up with too! If your room design gets executed, we will even see to it that some kind of "homage" is paid to you within said design. Also very fun!

Open Source Bathroom Contest Update

Who's going to win Mr. Peanut? Is it...YOU?

We've been getting some very clever entries for the bathroom! We'll be posting them closer to September 1st to make sure that everybody gets a chance to get anything in they are plotting. (And we've heard of some unusual plotting!)

There has been a collage, a 3-D drawing, a sketch put on the computer, a Powerpoint drawing, a written paragraph...most excellent. This is going to be fun...and hard to decide a winner so far!

We've received entries from: Kitschywoman (americanbungalowmagazine.com), CloudHidden and piffin at Breaktime (FineHomebuilding.com), nycwriters (ZeFrank.com), my MOM...but she has ulterior Mom-type motives. :)

Maybe we would qualify with the guys at TASTYTRONIC as an "open source bathroom project" :)

p.s. What on Earth? comes tonight....more stuff!

What is our house SUPPOSED to look like?

There comes a time in every homeowner/restoration-type person's life when they are trying to trace back HOW something looked before a previous homeowner "improved" it (usually a la the 1970's) when they THROW their hands in the air and groan:

"How is it SUPPOSED to look? How DID it look? What HAPPENED HERE??!!"

Well, we have some clues from some old sketches. And I found them in our computer files today. But I don't know where they are from and that is sad. They are probably from a late night Internet research stint before we bought the house when I was trying to understand the nuances of bungalow architecture. If you know the source, please email me and I will contact them for permissions.

More oldie-goodies :)

(Bathroom sketches via Standard Sanitary Manufacturing Catalog: 1904 and Kohler Catalog: 1925, via Mac the Antique Plumber )

Sigh. OKay. Someday.

ohmigosh it's August 29th!

Have you sent in your entry for the Open Source Square Peg Round Hole Bathroom Makeover yet???

Over 10-15 creative entries sent in already!

Someone's gonna get these Coasters from 1940's Bermuda!!!!

Might as well be YOU, as Ed "The Man" MacMahon says. :)

Some of the finalists in the "Square Peg" contest...

So, we had this contest. To redesign our really strange upstairs bathroom.

Which has got to be really difficult if you can't actually SEE IT. But everyone was a good sport and we received some EXCELLENT entries. We'll be posting some here over the next few days for you to peruse and comment on. We loved the creativity. Then, we will announce a WINNER who wil choose a PRIZE!

NYC Writers from the ZeFrank message board offered this collage (remember--click on image to make it larger):

Ok, I'll bite. I love playing around with things like this, although take it under advisement I have no plumbing experience.....

Here ya go:(click to make image larger):

Cloud Hidden, from Fine Homebuilding, offered this fab 3-D rendering:

Since it is so long, I'd place things and create illusions that shortened the room. I'd orient everything width-wise. Putting the tub and toilet at the far end has the effect of shortening the room by 2.5' or so. Putting 2 sinks at the near end also occupies some of the length. Using 2 sinks rather than one counter should lengthen that wall a bit. I'd hide the waste pipe in a column, and match it on the other side of the room, and throw a fake beam across them to break the room into the sink area and the shower area. There should be room for a chair or bench in there. No changes to the window or door or waste pipe. Toilet and shower move....oh well. And shower/tub would need to be a 4' model to fit in this way. Good luck, have fun.

piffin from Breaktime also threw his hat in the ring :)

You do not provide some of the dimensions such as to locate the door or the window but here's my thoughts, you have enough room for two.

Mary from AB offered up these great ideas:

1. Remove existing sink.

Good luck! Mary

Our pal TEC came up with this very creative descriptive plan:

Creativity knows NO boundaries...more in the next entry!

More creative "open source" bathroom solutions!

Luka, from Breaktime, gets into the act. (Remember to click on the picture to make it larger...)

Ok, I took care of the whole problem. You now have maximum space in the bathroom.

: )

CAG from Breaktime does too...

Here's my feeble attempt.

Done up with the right trim and such I think the bath could look pretty good.

seymourdunfee sent us his thoughts...

Glass block the windows. Raise the bottom if necessary.
Put tub / shower across bottom of drawing.
Keep stool in current location.
Make top section the vanity area.

Good Luck.

There are a lot of "good luck" sentiments in these messages. Which is making me WAY nervous. Kind of like "Hey, you are sailing on the Titanic...good luck!"

Anyway.

Our American Bungalow pal, Diane, sent us her bathroom design (at our request) because we loved it so much.

It's not shown on the drawing but there is a bump-out on the wall next to the new bathtub where some of the plumbing goes (vents, etc.). I decided to swing the bathtub from the long wall to the short wall under the window. The only downside to this was that I was limited to a 5' long claw tub instead of a longer 5 1/2' or 6 ' tub.

I decided to go with the separate shower but space was tight. The
shower is only 3' x 3' which is about as small as you can go. It works well but
not a lot of room when you need to lean over, etc. I really wanted a
"frameless shower which is just sheets of glass held together with clear sealant. It's mounted on the tile with a small chrome channel. I wanted frameless to minimize the visual impact of the shower in the corner. I talked to
folks with the old style tub/shower setup and they didn't really like it..
The setup I have works well and it seems to fit better in modern life...

Eric A from New York City gave us a really marvelous idea.

Step 1: Move the whole house to New York City.
Step 2: Rip out the wall between this bathroom and the adjacent closet.
Step 3: Put a window in the closet and call it a bedroom.
Step 4: The ~6'x7' area outside the "bedroom" is now the "living room."
Step 5: Put a sink, a bar fridge a cooktop (2 burners you have to plug into the wall is fine) and one of those combo microwave/convection oven doohickeys in a counter/cabinet setup underneath the windows.
Step 6: Put up a curtain around the tub and a 6' tall wall/door combo around the toilet.
Step 7: Put a listing in the NY Times Real Estate Section for a "No Fee, 1BR+LR in private home, OK for shares, $1500/mo+sec."
Step 8: Laugh all the way to the bank.

I actually think my first apt. in NYC was about the size of this bathroom
and it went for $1000 more than 6 years ago, last I heard they were getting
$1700 for it. If you put your house in Brooklyn you'll only be able to get
$1200 for the "apartment" but you'll have a much better quality of life.

Another pal from AB, Rick, sent in these design ideas:

These are just quick ideas, but, here goes. I?m guessing that you don?t necessarily plan on using all period correct fixtures. Your reference to a more modern double sink vanity tells me that you?re willing to use modern fixtures for better functionality. Since you?re gong to be taking the floor up anyway, possibly move the cabinet in the lower left corner (in your picture) and put the toilet there. While the floor is up you can run the supply and drain lines between the floor joists and connect to the existing lines.

And as for the pink paint, as ?unique? as it may be, I?d go with some high wood wainscoting (about 5 feet tall) with a simple rail molding across the top. Dark wood, maybe to resemble aged oak. As far as the wall color above it, maybe an off white or cream color. The ?sanitary bathroom? white look was popular until the late 20?s when color began to be introduced. But to keep it looking like an operating room I?d go with an off white. I?m not crazy about dark walls in a bathroom, makes the room too dark overall.

And, yes, my MOM writes in with her idea:

Mom: Got on this AM and read about the contest. The only suggestion I have is this, if you need space, there are showers that are incorporated with half bath tubs to fit into a small space. This will accomodate a child until they are about size or up to age 7 and then they take showers anyway. If someone is desparate for a bath, they can always use the downstairs bathroom.

Mom: So your 5' 7" 6-year-old (the result of a rather tall father) takes a bath with his/her knees under his/her chin. A small price to pay.....

We love you Mom. So, where did you see this product? I searched online and...nothing. Is this something that you and Dad saw at the boat show?? Be honest.

Sedonia from AB tries to soothe our frayed nerves with encouraging words and her idea...

I like your bathroom space. It is interesting. I don't think you should have to do major renovations to make it funcitonal and attractive. Paint, floor, and some furniture and accessorizing would do wonders with this. You could upgrade the fixtures in the future as your budget allows without having t make major changes in plumbing and flooring. Off the top of my head:

Is the built-in an original component of the room? If so I would try to keep it. *I* would use that other unused space to put some kind of interesting, funky, and unexpected piece of furniture. Like a chaise lounge maybe, set diagonally in front of the radiator.

Note: Although we know she is talking about these kind:

this kind is also interesting. If we could only get to Melbourne!)

I have always wanted a chaise lounge in my bedroom or bathroom. Or set a wooden chair in there. So you have something to sit on while dressing, or to lounge on while you are waiting for your bubble bath to fill up. And some big plants.

Hope any of this helps.

We forgot to write "feeling better" into our final mission for the house. I AM SERIOUS! This is a good reminder from Sedonia. The whole POINT of this is to feel better about this house.

Thanks S!

Just a few more entries and WHAT HAPPENS NOW?

This is from our pal Kristen who did the cocktail napkin thing but then really went all out with her Quark program! (Dig that Quark) (Remember to CLICK on the picture to make it larger!)

I'd love to have a free-standing clawfoot as a focal point in my bathroom, but I have the shower enclosure around mine in my tiny bathroom because it's functional. I'd love a more capacious shower for daily use, since I seldom have time enough for a bath and I usually fight with the shower curtains at least once each morning in my pre-caffeine haze. Still, I think it would be nice for you to take a tub after a long day of "deconstruction." You could find a salvage tub or they have some new ones in great colors that could be fun.

I love the look of side-by-side pedestal sinks and because you have so much other room for storage, you could get away with it since you don't need the under-the-counter space. You could do some great things with built-ins. I had drawn one version that created an arch bridging from the shower over the windows, with the tub set under the arch. The other side had a built-in shelves on the side to hold your bath salts, cup of tea, candles etc. Hard to reproduce in a line drawing though. Oh, the fun you could have in a bathroom that size!! My 35-square-foot bathroom and I are envious.

And, finally, the entry from our very good pal, Kitschywoman! (Over at AB Forum)

WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?

Well, we will be judging these entries based on CREATIVITY! (Definition from our dictionary= "using or showing use of the imagination to create new ideas or things and making imaginative use of the limited resources available.")

If there is CREATIVITY + FEASIBILITY then, well, that gets our attention too, since we need a bathroom :)

The Winner will be contacted and asked to select a prize from our "Pile O' Prizes" (see details here) And then, we will post the winner and the prize they selected! We hope to be notifying the winner by Friday! (All of these entries are amazing...this is going to be really hard.)

In the meantime, we're back to regular programming. Hope you had a great Labor Day!

And we have a WINNAH!

Kristen from the American Bungalow Magazine Forum, COME ON DOWN! Our panel of judges has voted you the winner of the SQUARE PEG ROUND HOLE Bathroom Design Contest!

(This is NOT Kristen. It's actually Karan Sprengle winning the 12th Annual Pillsbury Bake-Off with her main dish called "Polynesian Island Bake...a main dish with an Islands touch."** But I'm sure that she LOOKS as excited as Kristen FEELS right now. :) And we have most of the PBO Cookbooks that began in 1949 so...

While this ISN'T an actual picture of Kristen this IS a picture of her winning entry:

We have to say, the amount of creativity in the 15+ entries submitted blew us away. From Luka's "So, use the whole floor. Problem about space is solved" to Eric A's "why have a bathroom when it can be rental income" idea to all of the other Powerpoint, CAD, Quark, collage (I still think that was pretty darn creative) to Wordperfect entries. They were ALL excellent. It was so hard to choose.

In the end, it was Kristen's creativity and resourcefulness that won the day. She figured out a solution that would fit everything in with minimal moving of pipes or runs. She had an interesting mix of period and more modern amenities. So it was a creative solution with feasibility, resourcefulness and keeping costs down that won it for her. But our judges had a knock-down drag -out debate over the entries...they were all REALLY that good. This was a TOUGH contest to decide.

So, while Kristen is mulling over her choice of prize, let me submit the results of our email interview with her so you know more about the designer and her methods. We know her from the AB Forum, but our judges wanted to know MORE! Here is more of her reaction and her answers to our nosy questions:

Kristen:

That's fantastic! I'm so honored. :) I've been out on the porch stripping a buffet for my dining room all day (giddy that I'm uncovering more of the mahogany under all those layers ... or maybe the giddyness is from the stripper ...) so this is indeed happy news. And a nice day-after-my-30th-birthday present, too!

I'm so glad your judges liked my idea. Let me tackle the questions one at a time so I don't leave anything out:

1) Your hometown

Providence, Rhode Island. Originally from central Connecticut. Came in 1991 to attend The University of Rhode Island, had great internship, got offered job just before graduation in 1994, never left (much to parents' dismay).

2) The type of dwelling you currently live in...bungalow, condo, etc.

Two years ago I bought a 1926 bungalow owned by three other women over the years. The first owner was a seamstress and had two shops; one in the basement and one in half of the garage. Her work table in the basement (since covered with asbestos tiles) has fruit crates from the '20s for drawers. My neighbors knew the original owner, who owned the house for 60 years, and she used to tell stories about when the road was dirt and cows grazed at the park down the street. My neighborhood borders the city's largest park, which houses a zoo, natural history museum, carousel, paddle boats, greenhouses, a Japanese rose garden, a beautiful former casino that now is used for functions, etc. It's truly a jewel in an already-great city.

3) What you do for a living?

I am editor of a start-up weekly, independent newspaper (in direct competition with, and launched to buck the mediocrity of, the chain-owned papers a bunch of us used to work for before and during the time they became corporate-owned). The paper covers two waterfront towns in southern Rhode Island and we have a sister paper that covers three others.

4) How did you stumble across houseinprogress.net?

Loyal reader since your first AB post about buying the house "and all of its, um, stuff" on the AB board.

5) Have you ever done any renovation yourself?

I didn't realize it at the time I bought my house, since I didn't really know there was this whole bungalow subculture out there, but my house is in fantastic shape for its age. Original woodwork remains unpainted. The floors are in decent shape. There is not much remuddling to unmuddle. So the only "renovation" work I've done is pitching in the very occasional hand with my limited skills (more often it's moral support or thoughts on design) to help my friends (three women) who bought a 1846 Federal-style house a few miles away that should have been razed. They are amazing and have brought that house back from the dead.

6) How did you decide on your final design?

My first rendering on the back of a receipt ended up being the final design. (I did make it prettier with Quark.) It sounds a bit silly but it was what I "saw" when I looked at your photos and considered the layout. It was kind of hard not having a real sense physically of the space (although your photo tour helped greatly). I read what you were looking for and thought about what I would like if it was my space and also how you could best use the plumbing that already was in place to save aggravation and cost. Relocating the door seemed to be a good way to utilize that lost space at the back and free up what could be a crowded entry/sink area as you are trying to get ready in the morning. The half wall to create a toilet surround gives a bit of privacy and the clawfoot in front of the windows uses space that otherwise might be wasted. Plus it seems like it would give you plenty of room to bathe little ones instead of being stuffed in the corner bumping into the sink. I love a puzzle! I'm glad it is something that might work for you someday.

7) What's your favorite room in your house and why?

My house is so small (700 square feet plus 126 square feet of enclosed porch) it's like one big room! But seriously, each room has qualities I like and things I'd like to fix but am waiting for time/money. I guess I'd pick my kitchen, because I love the glass-front cabinets that stretch to the ceiling, the great sink and the wainscoting. True, the countertops are '50s red laminate, the counters are narrow and difficult to work on at times and the floor is covered by ugly off-white vinyl that never looks clean even after I've just scrubbed the heck out of it. But this room is so bright and sunny in the morning; I found myself smiling when I walked in there just today. The kitchen had never housed a refrigerator before I moved in. The apartment-sized fridge was located out in the back landing, but you could barely get around it and down the stairs that lead to the back door and the basement door, so I had a friend install an outlet in the pantry (next to the stove), found a skinny, stainless, bottom-freezer beauty and recessed it in the pantry, removing (and saving, of course) the door but leaving the door frame intact. I also replaced the apartment-sized gas stove with a stainless model. I got some great curtains off eBay that look fantastic. So, it has its shortcomings, which someday I will address, but I love it just the same.

Kristen, congratulations!! And KUDOS to everyone else for their amazing ideas and designs. You are ALL talented and fun-loving folk and we look forward to actually MEETING some of you someday if you're ever in Chicago.

Cheers!
______________________________________________________

**Recipe for Polynesian Tuna Bake from the 12th Annual Pillsbury Bake-Off
by 8th grader, Karen Sprengle from Ponoma, California

Saute (in 8 or 9-inch skillet)
---2/3 cup of chopped onion
---2/3 cup chopped green pepper (1 medium) in
---2 Tbsp cooking oil or shortening until tender. Reserve 2 Tbsp for topping

Add
---1 can (10 1/2 oz) tomato soup
---2 Tbsp brown sugar
---1 tsp grated lemon rind
---3 Tbsp lemon juice and
---2 tsp soy sauce. Simmer for 5 minutes

Mix in
--2 cans (6 1/2 oz or one 9 1/4 oz can) tuna. Heat thoroughly.

Top with
--Sesame Strips, crisscrossing to form a lattice top, sesame seed up.

Bake
---at 425 degrees for 15-20 minutes until golden brown.

Sesame Strips

Sift together
---1 1/2 cups of Pillsbury's Best All Purpose Flour
---2 tsp double-acting baking powder
---1/2 Diamond Crystal salt into mixing bowl.

Cut in
---1/4 cup shortening until particles are fine

Combine
---1 unbeaten egg and enough milk to measure 1/2 cup. Stir in reserved onion and green pepper. Add all at once to dry ingredients, stirring until dough clings together. Knead of a floured surface 5 to 8 strokes.

Roll out
---on surface sprinkled with 1/4 cup French's Sesame Seeds to 1/2-inch thickness. Cut into 1/2 inch strips (use in recipe above).

Serves 4 to 6

On Bathroom Fans and EFI Fan/Light Time Delay Switches

That's a mouthful...but it's all we've got while we're waiting for our favorite electrician to arrive.

Needing a contractor during one of the busiest times in home improvement history has left us feeling a little like a wallflower at the prom.

We're here. The music's playing. And....no date. :(

Yet.

BUT! Our ceiling vent fans that we chose for our bathrooms are FINALLY coming! Whoo hoo!

It's amazing what you get excited about when you're in the middle of a home renovation.

Yes, it's the Panasonic WhisperFit VF1 Ventilation Fan!!!

Okay. Whoop-di-do. That's what you're sayin'.

But WAIT! Ventilation of your bathroom, attic, kitchen...any space that can trap humidity is CRITICAL to saving your woodwork and keeping air circulation high. By not venting the bathrooms, the previous homeowners wrecked a lot of the room upstairs. But venting things without it being SUPER obvious? Also very hard.

There are a lot of BIG ugly noisy fans out there. Trust us.

These Panasonic fans are low profile and pretty quiet. If a normal conversation takes place at approximately 3-4 "sones" (that's how they measure it), you can get a fan that is quieter than 0.8 sones. Very cool.

And, what about the turning on and off of the fan? Our most excellent neighbor, K, reminded us that a fan is pretty useless unless you remember to turn it on and LEAVE it on until humidity is gone. Sometimes long after you've showered and dashed out the door. (She already plans on replacing their wallpaper this year in the bath. If you don't turn the fan on? It isn't good to the wallpaper.) And you don't want to waste energy.

So, A's reading of Fine Homebuilding paid off when he spotted this...

Installed >

...the EFI Fan/Light Time Delay Switch. ONE switch turns on a fan and separate light. But YOU can set the user controls to keep the fan running until the humidity in the room has reached a certain point, EVEN IF YOU TURN OUT THE LIGHT. Then it turns itself off.

We are big geeks. Oh well....

Both products came from Energy Federation Incorporated. Which needs to seriously work on its website shop. However, they sell some cool products, so we forgive them.

Save the planet. One bathroom fan at a time.

And so! It begins...

Not with a whimper...but a BANG!

Waiting. Waiting. Waiting. We've been like wallflowers at the dance, moping around, wondering if any cool contractor will like us.

And then...POW! Electrician! Plumber! 1-2-3!

So today, the electrician and his team began the prep work needed to eventually do some heavy duty wiring. We talked permits. We poured over some drawings. They cut some additional holes in the walls and ceiling (with our blessing) to see what is behind all of this...

It isn't very pretty. Sure, the PO updated the wiring. To all of the wrong places in a creative abundance of unusual ways. And the pipes for the plumbing? Let's not even talk about it.

So, in the basement, we told them not to be very surgical...It's going to have to all come down anyway. We already moved back everything we've been setting up for the estate sale and made sure everything else was protected in a drawer or box or in a cabinet.

In the bathroom, they were more surgical...because patching plaster and lathe is no fun. And they checked out the space where the fan will go...

...which, oh goodie. Another surprise! The joists for the second floor? 6 inches set 16 inches apart. Not unusual for 1914. But a bummer for 2003. Heavier stuff up there...like a bathtub in a bedroom that was converted in 1951. We're shocked the whole thing didn't fall right through the house into the basement. But, we know the original builder built this house SOLID! So, when we pull up the damaged subfloor in that room, we'll sister those joists and press on!

Or, um. I guess I'm pressing on with this blog entry because everyone else is asleep.

It's 1:09 am. Again. And I'm not asleep. Again. Sigh.

Wheee! Vendors and more vendors!

This morning we had our boiler serviced by A & M
Heating & Cooling Specialists.

When I called them last weekend for a routine check-up appointment, I wasn't expecting a call back until Monday. Their answering service passed along the message and they called me back the same day. The set up an appointment for today.

Bright and early, they came in and went to work on our 6 year old steam boiler.

Just like the pump in the basement, it is good to check the boiler once a month. Well-maintained equipment lasts longer. Costs less money in the long run.

They checked a number of things and were very patient with my questions. Gave me a quick lesson in this particular boiler and its quirks. Now that I think about it, they were particularly nice considering I hadn't had my coffee and was not too quick on the uptake :) I learned about my PSI reading (should be around .05)

And I learned how to do a few other things to maintain it. I also got a lesson in what these things were on our radiators.

They aren't in addition to a steam radiator's regular valve system. They are something that you use instead if you can't (or don't want to) reach down to the valve and still control the amount of steam for that specific radiator. The numbers on the side give you more information than the original turning knobs. But they do look a bit, um, unusual.

I also learned that the radiator in the additional room that the previous owner had built onto the back of the house doesn't work very well. (This is the room with the floor that slants, has little insulation, etc. It is really an enclosed porch that was attached to the house.) We plan on taking this room off at some point and doing something different back there. So, we'll live with this room for now and keep the heat cranked back here so the pipes don't freeze. Which could be a problem.

All in all, a successful visit and we should have heat this winter!

Day One: Windows that OPEN!

Yawn! Make a mad dash for the coffee! Because the crew of Just Sashes is arriving to help out with the original wood windows today!!

Yep...these are the windows that were built with the house in 1914...and we're keeping 'em. The storms, the screens, the WHOLE thing. Why?

A) They're gorgeous, practical works of art...the eyes of the house.

B) When restored properly, they will be weathertight as well as beautiful. (They are NOT maintenance free, however. If you are looking for maintenance free, restoration may not be for you.)

C) It will cost us less to restore these windows than to replace them with a vinyl clad wood window. This is based on the number of windows we have (25) and the shape that they are in.

(NOTE: We should have 30 windows and we actually have 40. But we will eventually do some major first floor remodeling that takes off the old "slapped together room" on the back of the first floor...so subtract 4 windows and add a french door. We will also replace the kitchen windows later...they aren't original to the room and are literally glued onto the house. We aren't touching the basement windows. And we still can't decide what to do with the downstairs bathroom glass block window...I think that I will be cleaning windows for the rest of my life.)

We read up on restoring windows in a book by Terence Meany called Working Windows...it's a great book! Many people do work on their own windows, including our Bungalow Pals.

But we knew we needed professional help. For one, we had a few of these:

HALF windows. Yes. The previous owners had cut up windows to permanently install window air conditioning units. Plus many of the windows were painted (pretty common) and GLUED (not so common!) shut. We wanted someone to check out the sills and make sure they weren't rotted...the house (all together now) hadn't been maintained in a long time.

So, we called the professionals.

The team, John, John Jr. and Frank, showed up and got busy taking out the windows!

Here we see John Jr. working in the window channel. But where is John? And where is Frank?

I know they were here...because this is their stuff. Are they hiding from my camera? They must be shy. I've heard Frank is very shy. Maybe that's it.

Here's John Jr. cutting new chains...

Hmmm. They WERE just here! Because they've already put some windows back in. And they are taking others back to the shop to be reglazed overnight. We had some lights with cracked and broken glass that we had temporarily repaired with, um, paper and masking tape.

And WOW! They put one of the rebuilt windows in! WAIT! I'll show the BEFORE picture first...let me dig it up. Nice how the A/C unit takes up most of the window, eh? That's because we can't CLOSE the window if we take it out. It's been chopped to approximately 7-8 inches high.

AFTER the new matched lower window has been put in...

And the old, chopped up window?

Well, maybe it can be...well...we don't know what it could be made into. Oh well.

Day Two: Window Restoration

Wow. Between yesterday and today, based on what they found when they took out the windows, John and his son, John Jr., replaced the broken glass in the windows that we had.

The windows in our house aren't one pane of glass with wood decoration sitting on top of the glass. They are actually 6 panes of different sized glass squares separated by the wood in what they call "Prairie Style". Very pretty. And classically bungalow.

I didn't know this until John explained it, but he makes the new windows out of cypress wood. Frank Lloyd Wright used cypress frequently because of its durability, resistance to the elements/decay/insects and longetivity.

Our house is 90 years old. That boggles my mind. If the storms and screens had been properly kept and the window air-conditioning units had not been left in the windows, all of our windows would still be in great shape. Water and humidity are not good to wood over time. Both windows in the upstairs bathroom had to be replaced because there was no fan to draw humidity out. The frames of the windows were crumbling.

But they look beautiful now. (Remember to double-click on pictures to get a closer look.)

The old ones are stacked against the wall to the side.

So where is John and his team today? Yesterday, they were moving so quickly, I could only snap a couple of John, Jr. Where is "Shy Frank"...?

Looks like we're going to need a new nickname for Frank :)

Camera in hand, I stalk what Kitschywoman has told me is the "elusive Contractoring Ventanalis"...the scientific name for Fine Wooden Window Craftsperson. Slowly, I creep up the stairs, not making any noise.

Ah HA! Captured on film!

Oh, hey 'dere (as we say in Chicago). It's John, explaining the finer points of restoring and maintaining old windows. (One way to be sure that it is a member of the Contractoring species is by the large "Dunkin' Donuts" coffee cup. A very obvious sign.)

After you remove the stops and unhook the chain/rope that holds the weights from the window, the frame around the window looks like this:

Our windows have a piece of wood that pops out so you can see the weights and where the chain attaches to the weights in their "well". Up top, you can see the pulley for the chain. John has attached a piece of metal to the chain to keep it from sliding around the pulley and into the well while they work on the windows.

Once he has worked on the window, replaced broken glass and so on, he reconnects the outside window (the top one) to its pulley chain and sets it in the frame. He replaces the "parting bead" (which separates the two halves of the window) and then hooks the bottom half to its pulley chains and swings it into place. I think it's a little more complicated...especially the "making a new window" part. (In a few days, I'll recap some more advice John gave us about cleaning up and maintaining old windows...this entry is getting LONG! We're going to have to get John his own website.)

John Jr. came upstairs to ask a question...and "Shy Frank" is not one to be left out of a group photo!

These guys have it under control, so it's off to basement for me...to pour more water in the drains (this is a daily thing--we need a long term fix) and to bundle scraps of wood together for disposal. After the guys have left, I wander back upstairs to look at the progress.

Just one more new window piece (we found some unexpected wood rot) and these will be the future Master Bedroom windows. The sun here in the morning is so nice...they face east.

The house is getting some new eyes. Pretty good for a 90 year old gal.

If you are into restoring your old windows, please give Just Sashes a call:

Just Sashes - John Videckis
5952 West Addison Street
Chicago, Illinois 60634
773-205-1429

Getting the Smell Out

The house still smells less than ideal. We were determined to do a little work on that this past weekend.

Some of it is due to old rugs which we left in place to protect the floors as we moved things around. Some of it was due to the basement drains, which still continue to plague us everyday. (groan) No air circulation was a problem before we could open the windows. And I think some of it is still going to be there until we redo the floors and tear down the wallpaper. And then...there is what the raccoons left behind in the attic over 2 years and 2-3 litters of young-uns'...I don't even want to think about that.

We decided to tackle the front room today. But first! It is out to the roof to take care of the tree branches hanging over the front of the house. The squirrels had been using it as an off ramp for the squirrel tree highway. (We could walk out there pretty easily...the benefits of a bungalow roof is that it slopes more gradually than many house roofs.)

I was all in favor of getting out my old rock climbing gear...harness, rope, the whole deal. A just walked on out there. So, um, okay...I can do this. (I charted the location of the nearest emergency room in my head.)

We carefully sawed through a few branches AFTER the postman had moved on down the street. Safety was always on my mind, but please...use a ladder if you are doing this yourself. A good one. With someone to brace it from below just in case.

We completed the pre-winter inspection of the roof, flashing, gutters, shingles and vents while we were up there. Looks clear.

Then there were the air conditioning units left in the house from the previous owners. These didn't work and had been removed when we redid some of the windows.

It looked the engine from an old foreign car. But larger.

Our kind neighbor, Jay, lent us a hand with these. They were outrageously heavy. It was off to the back of the garage for them.

I busied myself rolling up that rug and discovered a nasty surprise.

The rug pad was older than dirt, crumbling, a haven for bugs and had been the victim of an old leaky roof in the house. It stuck to the hardwood floor like glue.

This rug and pad, as well as the shelves and shelves of books when we had moved in, had hidden another dilemma. The long ago roof leak had come down the walls and gotten into the floor boards on one side and had caused them to buckle.

Nice.

That partly explains the drywall in the ceiling below this room (our living room), I imagine.

After I scraped this off with a stiff brush, I gathered up what I could in garbage bags and vacuumed up the rest.

But what to do with the smelly carpet? It is BIG and HEAVY! Hmmmm....

Yup, okay. That worked. The mailman hadn't walked back this way, right? Wait though...where is the dog?

Okay. We're cool.

Interesting how long that rug has been there. The different color of the wood floor UNDER the rug versus AROUND the rug (even without the dust) is quite different.

Maybe a light vinegar and water scrubbing will get the stickiness out of that hardwood floor.

One more big chore today and then it is back to tagging. We CANNOT get rid of the trap smell in the drains. Now that the weather is colder and we use the furnace everyday, we are pouring water down the drains once, sometimes twice, a day to keep them sealed. We try to flush out the system by running a house into the trap for a few hours.

And the water runs clear and it does smell somewhat better. But later that evening, back to the buckets.

I'm afraid of what is under that floor, in the drains. And we don't have the cash right now to pull up that concrete. So, it will be the bucket brigade for awhile for now....

The Return of....Mr. X!

Well, there are rumors in the air that our mystery electrician-extraordinaire, Mr. X, is returning either tomorrow or the next day to move the electrical box and upgrade us to 200 amps. He has the permit and the inspector lined up.

Currently, the outside electrical meter is attached to the piece of the house we hope to tear down one day. The back room made of cardboard (not original to the house).

But this move will mean relocating it in the basement in order to be compliant with Chicago code. And it's new location will be...

...right above the workbench area that A already lovingly put together and organized.

Drat.

So, now it looks like this.

And, um, don't ask where it is. Because in this picture? It's all behind me.

Ouch. My back.

Removing the Backyard Jungle

It was still RAINING today and the electricians are back and K called to see if it was a good time to tear the backyard out by the roots. :)

You see, there are a lot of "weed trees" in the backyard and K (being a crackerjack landscaper...I call him a "landscape artist" ) sent us drawings from Hong Kong that gave us some ideas for re-imagining the backyard of the house.

BEFORE:

K is our supercreative friend who married my ex-roommate, J! Which was cool because she and I introduced each other to that person's future husband. You know, you gotta have friends :)

A and I and J and K! (Can you tell I'm cold? I'm always cold...everywhere.)

So, now that they are back from Hong Kong, K is in HOT demand. Not only was he an experienced landscape artist from the U.S...but he was able to study in HK for 2 years as well while they lived there! So, he is completely prepped for the Bungalow style...natural, simple, in harmony with the environment, very interested in layering things for the seasons...

He is the only person I know who, when building a waterfall for a client, took extreme care in choosing just the right rock for the tone of the falling water when it landed...he is very into detail that way. His work is amazing. I would not have THAT patience.

So, we had a little destruction party in the rain...in the backyard...to prep for the work this coming Spring...

AFTER PREP:

Oh man! The garage is BALD! I knew it would have to be...there was a tree growing up between the gutter and the roof. Most of the really tall things were weeds masquerading as trees, but...oh wow. And we have to get back there to strip and paint. It's just....so....naked.

Wow.

We reveal the identity of our electrician

We love our electrician and his team. Period.

And we have had quite a few people contact us to ask his name. We needed his permission to post his contact information. And there are some other things you should know.

- To keep quality high, he employs a VERY small team. He is often booked in advance.
- He loves old houses and is skillful at fishing cable through plaster walls.
- He is VERY knowledgable about the codes in Chicago and the Northern Suburbs.
- He STRONGLY prefers to take jobs in North/Northwest Chicago & northern suburbs.
- He is creative, punctual and thorough --his team is courteous and cleans up their work area.

He is the rare breed known as the inluminonis..."craftsperson of illuminating light." He has many of the classic characteristics...quiet and calm, soft-spoken, incredibly knowledgable, creative AND practical, very much sought after...

This young Nepalese boy from Global Adrenaline demonstrates the elusiveness of this prized contractor species.

Yesterday, when I had finished working with Just Sashes on some remaining window elements (we love them too!), they left, I hopped in the shower, got dressed for work at the church and started out of the front door.

And met the very nice man from the City of Chicago Department of Buildings on my front porch. He was there to inspect the electrical work.

Whoa. Okay.

So, I put my things down and we trooped down to the basement where he inspected the new breaker box and the conduit and the hard wiring of the sump pump in the basement. We walked outside and examined the meter and how they had rigged the wires to the electrical service. (More about how Wes creatively solved our problems in the next installment.)

Not only did we pass with "flying colors" (his words), but the inspector also called the electrician "an artist" (also his words).

Ahh, the work of good craftspeople.

He is a very, very nice down-to-earth, soft-spoken craftsman. We've enjoyed working with him and his team. (They work on residential, commercial and industrial buildings.)

W P Electrical Co
Wieslaw Pollak
Licensed Electrician
773-481-9465
Fax: 773-685-5562

As a reminder, we can only comment on the work of craftspeople as we've experienced it and no one compensates us for mentioning them here. We like to recognize good work as we see it. Wes and his team are "keepers"!

Hex tile...YEAH! And, aw noooo...

So we've been trying to uncover the bottom layer of original hex tile in our bathroom to see if it could be saved. (Among 100 other things)

Everything was completely hidden under layers of vinyl tile and tar. But we could see hex tile under the bottom drawer of the built-in! (Always remember to click on photos to take a closer look...)

So, A developed a system of:

1) Using the Silent Paint Remover to get up the big tile.

2) Using the Silent Paint Remover to loosen most of the tar so it could be scraped away with a razor edge scraper (from Home Desperation...er...Depot).

3) Using a liquid tar remover to loosen and liquify the remaining thin layer of tar so that it could be mopped up.

On a 3 am wide awake boredom spree, I added:

4) Washing the tiles thoroughly with clear water and then scrubbing gently with "Soft Scrub with Bleach".

And it was FABULOUS! We have hex tile! Beautiful, beautiful hex tile! This is so exciting, I.....

Oh no.

Oh no.

We should have guessed.

For approximately 2.5 - 3" around the perimeter of the bathtub? No hex tile. Cement. Or something like it.

Honestly. Did they ever leave anything completely ALONE???!!!

I'm going to bed and eating Oreos. I'm not sure how to solve this one.

Electrical Artist

We already explain how Wes, our electrician, is an artist. And he is also a strategist.

We needed to upgrade our 100 Amp Box (which was a nightmare of crossed wires) to a clean, compliant 200 Amp Box for future power needs.

But there was a problem. The room that had been stapled, I mean, BUILT on to the back of the house in the 1950's? 60's? was blocking access to where the wires would need to go. The old meter was attached to this room (which is falling off of the house...no lie! You can roll tennis balls down the floor it is tilting so badly).

The above door swings out INTO the room at the top of the slope. Now you can see why we are nervous about this room. This room will eventually be taken off of the back of the house, but not very soon because of how our budget is allocated.

So Wes proposes that we think ahead, move the meter from the flimsy room to the PERMANENT outside wall and mount our breaker box in the new location in the basement.

THEN, because the wires to the powerlines have to be code compliant in the meantime, he and his crew ran a vent pipe (tower?) up the outside of the house, neatly cutting a small hole in the wide bungalow eaves, running the wires up through it, then fastening the wires to the outside of the FLIMSY room that stood between the main power supply and our house.

This allows us to comply with the code, plan for the future and someday rip off that back room so that the wire will be free to run high above the roof line and straight to the electrical power supply in the alley.

Whew. Now I have to go grade papers, prepare a presentation, write a quiz and a final for my class to take, update grades and organize a change initiative. And do the dishes and laundry. A's upstairs beginning the dismanteling of the front room. More later.

Opening a New Front in the Battle

Today we began a new chapter in our assault on the house...the master bedroom!

Up until now, our work on the second floor has been limited to cleaning (the previous owner left a lot of stuff up there!), repair work (the replacement windows) and a lot of dreaming (the infamous 'open source bathroom' contest). In recent weeks, that space has been mostly left empty and we've only gone up there for showers and for occasional dreaming about a future without all this chaos. But that all changed today, when we started work on the master bedroom!

Since moving in, our goal has been to make the master bedroom the heart of our upstairs "retreat" from the ongoing mess of home improvement. This weekend it felt good to finally start work and move this dream from concept to reality...

We've knocked around various ideas to make it unique and cozy and we've come up with this:

Before

After

Our new floorplan represents a number of major changes:

- Removing the closet installed inside the bedroom (circa 1970's).
- Converting the original closet of the neighboring bedroom into a "nook" for the master bedroom. (You can't tell from the floorplan, but the ceiling of this nook angles down towards the front of the house, matching the roofline, to create a very cozy space.)
- Enlarging the master closet in the master bedroom by borrowing a little from the neighboring master bathroom (which originally was a bedroom at as well...now it's an awkwardly long bathroom.)
- Raising the collar joints on the dormer to create a "barrel" ceiling and a more expansive feel to the bedroom. (We're also hoping to cover the ceiling with beadboard for a cozy look.)

So, with the goal of completing the full second floor by late winter, we started to open up the space today by removing the former closet and wall to the nook. Here's what it looked like before we started:

First, we removed the existing 1970's closet after carefully removing the baseboards that they had recycled! (Did these come from our living room...maybe so.) Look closely and you can see the outline of the future "nook" marked with duct tape:

Then we removed the wall for the "nook" down to the studs:

Fun! Destruction has been more fun than construction so far. Now we just need to figure out what to do with all of the nail-filled scrap wood...

Unlike our predacessor and unless it is wood from the trim, we will probably NOT be storing it in the basement or the garage. We have enough scrap wood in this house to build a second house...if it were in one piece. Without existing nails.

p.s. Note from J: (Isn't there always a last word? :) Instead of whacking away at the walls with a hammer, we used the "deconstruction opportunity" to practice straight lines with the SawZall...regardless of the plaster dust. No better time to get in the game for when we are cutting smaller holes in walls that we want to actually KEEP...

Still Working on our Hex (Tile)

We're still working on the first floor bathroom. Today J did great work on the first floor bathroom tile.

It's not completely done, but J made AMAZING progress! Check out her handiwork...

...it's fun to see the original floor come back, even though there are some cracks and problems. After we finish cleaning and bleaching the majority of the tile, we'll be focusing on the edges where some of the tile has been damaged or removed.

Cheating!

Okay, I'm kind of cheating because today wasn't really about the house. It was about work before vacation. And because A and I are musing over whether to just tear down the ceiling in the upstairs bedroom or sketch out a comprehensive plan first. Just tearing down would just FEEL so good...so future focused. But a plan would take into consideration all of the elements of rebuilding that ceiling, as well as how and when to dispose of the attic debris.

After so much WAITING for contractors and decisions, it would just be nice to just DECONSTRUCT. But....I don't know. Too impatient? So...votes on what we SHOULD do...including stories of your own experiences...are welcome.

Okay. So more cheating. Who KNEW I would find THIS where I did?

So, here's the story.

Of course, being bungalow owners, we can't help but lured into the gorgeous Craftsman and Mission items available and lovingly gaze upon them...until we see the price tag. And then we fall over.

Don't get me wrong! They are usually worthy items...gorgeously made to last and true works of art. And these days, it seems that everything from lighting to napkin rings to doorstops to doorBELLS are being marketed to the bungalow owner.

But, well, we're what my mom calls "house rich and cash poor."

And CHRISTMAS is coming. So, I was blundering into Amazon, 'cause I hadn't cruised my Wishlist in awhile. (Sorry, I've been an Amazon fan since the earliest days. Because, in my old job, it was a total wonder to work 70 hours a week and still be able to drool over books at 11 pm. And then CD's! And then...well.)

I'm clicking around for fun and then...WHOA. Like. lighting. And Adirondack chairs And Garden benches on Amazon?

Oh, right, yes. And the schoolhouse light that clued me in to begin with.

So, if we find something we like, WE'RE CHEATING. Especially because the original bungalow philosophy--besides celebrating the simple, well built and casual--also celebrated the AFFORDABLE and the departure from EXCESSIVE, OVERPRICED Victorian living.

And that's what attracted us to bungalows in the first place.

The Little Nail That Could (Not Be Removed)

My dad came over to help work on the master bedroom. If we've ever worried about the endurance of our 90 year old house, we're worrying less tonight.

When trying to remove a bent nail, we found out that these old timbers are at least stronger than the average hammer:

Oh well...good thing the previous owner actually left us two identical hammers. We'd still get that nail out. We just went ahead and used the other one...

Hmm. Needing reinforcements, my dad went home and returned with a steel hammer. We weren't going to get beaten trying to remove a simple nail. And, in the end, we showed it who's boss:

Walls, floors, fans...what a weekend

I woke up this morning....(sounds like a Blues song, doesn't it?)....and everything ACHED!

Lots of things going on this weekend.

A and his dad bravely cut through the outside of the stucco exterior to install the nifty, quiet bathroom fan for the first floor. Whoo hoo! I'll let him explain the details later.

Coco wishes she had opposable thumbs so she could help. And then get a treat for helping. Actually, it's all about the treat.

I spent the weekend wrestling with our severely injured vacuum cleaner (we suspect a wayward nail that we didn't see ahead of time sliced the hose) as well as the hallway floor which was COVERED with dry, flaking black mastic tile adhesive.

The tile had already been pulled up in the kitchen and hallway by the PO, but the thick GLUE was still in the hallway (and traces of it were still in the kitchen). It was sending black gritty dust everywhere. So, using a blunt scraper to avoid gouging the wooden floor, I scraped up old mastic and lots of lacquer. This will make sanding the floor easier later on and will help me to keep the bottom floor cleanER for now. Though, "clean" is a relative term to me these days.

And, just an aside. If you are going to muddle your house in esthetically displeasing ways, please. Please. Don't use a combination of SUPER LONG nails, Liquid Nails, tar, thick/awful glue and so forth so the new owners have a heck of a time restoring everything.

Making something permanent is GREAT if it's STRAIGHT. And if it uses real wood and not particle board or plastic. Otherwise, at least leave out the Liquid Nails!

First floor bathroom

For once, we aren't grumbling about living here while the restoration is going on. Because we've decided to go in a different direction with the first floor bathroom now that we've lived with it.

Better to decide that now than later, eh?

We're changing out the vertical plumbing runs in this bathroom and the one above to update them. (Also the horizontal runs in the basement.) I want them tight and long lasting. I don't want to burrow through a wall in 10 years or even 20 years from now. Plus, there was very little plaster left in the bath...the PO's had made a mess of the walls from patching things together. We decided to gut and start over.

A has been more than patient with his tools as he carefully strips the ceilings and walls. Thank goodness for the wet/dry vac with the HEPA filter! Plaster dust, possible lead paint and old mouse party favors aren't good things for the pulmonary system. As it is, I usually wet mop and wipe down all surfaces after work completes for the day just to be safe.

Even with the plastic protecting the work area, it still comes out when A steps out. He looks like he has aged and turned grey...all over :) He dodges for the shower upstairs when he is finished and I wash his clothes separately.

Surprises abound behind these walls. As we work towards finishing this bathroom over the holidays, we'll share some with you!

Hex tile disappears under grief

Bad news.

The tile which we so carefully uncovered in the first floor bathroom won't work out. There are too many repairs, too many problems behind the fixtures where the PO's tightened them down and cracked the floor.

So it will have to come up and we will prepare a "bed" for new floor tile.

Sigh.

I rummaged around and found an old set of chisels in the basement (REALLY old). I set about prying off tile from its bed of concrete one at a time. My hope was to be able to leave the concrete underneath. We could use a leveling compound to smooth out the top and lay the new tile on that.

I found that approaching the hexagon-shaped tile from the flat side rather than the point yielded the best results. I was able to pop a whole tile that way versus create chips. Either way, sparks flew and safety glasses (plus a good glove for my hammer hand) were crucial.

Unfortunately, I didn't count on the tenacity of tile adhered to bare concrete. My chipping began to crack and then split the concrete underneath. Small boulders came up from the boards below.

So I took out my grief of the past few months out on the bathroom floor. After attending the second of two funerals in less than four weeks, I was ripe for some deep sobbing and lots of banging around. It was pretty cathartic. With each SMACK of my hammer, I found the pain in my heart loosening along with the concrete.

I had to stop because we haven't removed the fixtures yet, which we'll do in the next few days. Now we have a drop off about 3-4 inches deep between the wooden floor of the hallway and boards below the bathroom.

And so, the renovation of the house experiences bumps and bruises to its schedule that reflect the detours of our life. But it helps us over our personal hurdles as well.

We work on transforming the house and it works on transforming us.

If the radiator's a-knockin'...we call the experts

We shall sleep sweetly tonight.

Al & Jose from A&M stopped by. They are teaching us about our steam boiler. As I told Al, "I am beginning to understand that this system is like a violin...she likes to be kept in tune."

A & M had stopped by to help us learn the boilerwhen we had called them before the season started. And then we began using the system every day and had knocking and a few sleepless nights. Like some of YOU have had. We know this because "knocking, noisy radiators" has been the most popular search term on the site since winter began.

So Al was very kind and patient and tried to help us out with a few extra questions on the phone. We tried some things that definitely helped. But it seemed our problems were beyond the usual. So he came to check things out. He also helped us to remove the radiator in the first floor bathroom (prepping for a new bath there!) and plot our strategy to move the radiator in the second floor bath.

First, using a wrench, they removed our bathroom radiator. I'm glad THEY did it because:

a) it is the middle of winter and our system is on...steam burns are NO FUN if you don't know what you are doing, and
b) our built-in is right up against the radiator pipe. If it needed to be capped, someone REALLY creative and knowledgable was needed.

(Click to make the photo larger)

What the valve looks like inside...

What the radiator looks like, inside and out...

Luckily, our valve is tight enough to hold but only "just". It would have been difficult to cap and we'll have to watch it...it's an old one, but we'll keep lots of towels around and keep a careful eye on it.

Now! To the basement, to answer some of my new questions and check on the knocking! (See entry on "why does it knock?")

I had been concerned that I wasn't seeing a lot of change in the psi reading. You check that reading here:

We turned up the boiler and observed it in the middle of the cycle. Al pointed out that when the boiler is moving steam, our reading would show .5 psi (where the blue line is on the picture) and sure enough the line got there. I was worried that it had to be higher but that is all the pressure that is needed to move the steam right up through the house.

The sight glass is a little bit dirty (water in old steam systems gets dirty...it's a natural reaction between oxygen, iron and steam in the system) but not dirty enough to block reading it.

The photo isn't terrific but you can see the level. Al taught me a great trick...put a flashlight on one side and it is easier to see the water. Sight glasses are difficult and expensive to replace...we'll make due with ours for now.

The water should be at 1/3 to 1/2 full. Ours has been running a little high so I draw off a bucket or so of water once or twice a week. We have half of our radiators turned off (we aren't warming the rooms where we aren't living) so perhaps that is contributing. Again, something to keep an eye on. Al made some slight adjustments. If the water gets too low, a boiler should have a low water light that prevents the boiler from going dry. It also has a mechanism to shut the boiler down if there is no water. A dry boiler will explode if it turns on. Ours is working fine. (aka no worries, Dad)

Now to check the "pitch" of the pipes. Steam systems require the pipes to be angled slightly back towards the boiler from the radiators. Steam rises up and condensation runs back down. If the pipe has a "valley", the steam will hit the cooler water trapped in the pipe with a noise like a cannon...hence, "knocking".

Two of the radiators seemed to be the worst offenders...the one in the bedroom we're using and the one in the sunroom at the front of the house. So we got out a level to check them.

Sure enough,this pipe is at an angle...in the WRONG direction! This isn't surprising. It's an old house, the footing on the sunroom sank and has to be repaired. Sometimes radiators will settle the boards under them after years and years...they are pretty heavy.

Al and Jose take out a battery powered circular saw, I find some wood and they create some pretty heavy duty "shims" for the radiators. Then they use some leverage to get those radiators up and get those shims under them.

When they were done, NO MORE KNOCKING! And look...our pipes are angled the right amount of degrees in the proper direction...

But it's amazing what it took to get them that way. You can see that they had to pull the pipe up about a inch through the floor because the room and the boards had settled so much!

So, if you live on the northside of Chicago or in the north/northwest suburbs and you need your system "tuned" by the masters of steam/hot water/central air, call:

A & M
Heating & Cooling Specialists
Des Plaines, IL
847/803-1333
773/292-1313

(Tell Al's super sweet wife, Marci, that I said "Hi!")

They've been at this for a couple of decades and they KNOW old houses. They know new ones too. (It's the love of their work that keeps them looking young...funny, that's what A & I hope will happen to us with this house. Right?)

p.s. As always, House In Progress only mentions vendors here if we are 100% satisfied with their service or product. They don't ask us or pay us to...we offer. And we pay for our services and products just like everybody else so that you know you are getting an unbiased opinion.

New bathroom window...no glass block!

Originally, the first floor bath came equipped with a window pretty common in updated bungalows 'round here. Except with the special added feature of having been boarded up on the inside.

Glass block had replaced an original double-hung window years ago.

We're not sure HOW long ago...a good bet would be the 1940's.

Over time, the glass block had shifted in the window frame, had cracked and splintered. There was a "Florida Vent" built into the window to passively let out humidity. But it also let the cold air in during the winter time.

We wanted to go back to something better. Something that could be painted to match the other windows outside. Something in keeping with the character of the house, which would keep cold air out. (Our new bathroom fan is working like a charm to pull humidity out.) Something safer than glass block.

So we turned to John from Just Sashes for a creative solution. And he delivered!

He and John Jr. knocked out the glass block--a little dangerous since it was so splintered and cracked. (It wasn't going to last much longer, it was really falling out of the window.)

They created a non-opening casement window of insulated, opaque glass. The glass is in two pieces, with a bar across the middle to reinforce it for safety.

We'll treat this as any other window on the outside and use the same kind of marine paint and lacquer used on wooden boats for the inside. (Keith--A's grandpa--has been working on wooden boats for years and has a lot of experience. So we've seen this used this before.)

The bathroom tile will extend all of the way to the window and the sill will be a marble slab. A curtain that can be drawn over the window inside of the shower will directly protect it as well.

We're all pretty pleased with it! Especially the crew of Just Sashes, who did some elegant work fitting it into the old frame...which was ever-so-slightly tilted (90 year old frame house...bound to be a shade of settling here and there).

Once in, their work makes it look nice and straight...even though the frame is not (quite).

We are really looking forward to having ONE room done finally...and a bathroom at that! Whoopee! It's getting closer!

Lesson Learned...Get Pressure Balancing Valves

So remember how we were really excited about our bathroom fixtures from Chicago Faucets?

Well, our contractor came over to discuss the bathroom plumbing and tile work. Everything was going very well and it looks like he's ready to start next week. (!!!) We showed him the tearout work we'd done, told him the tile patterns we want, and discussed replacing the supply lines with new copper pipe.

Then he asked if we wanted to go with the old or new fixtures. I said we'd be keeping the tub, sink and toilet but that we'd chosen new plumbing fixtures. Remembering how some folks on Fine Homebuilding's "Breaktime" discussion boards spoke highly of Chicago Faucets, I walked over with pride to show him what we'd gotten.

"Yeah, Chicago Faucets makes a really solid fixture," he said. "But the bad news is that shower faucet isn't up to the new Chicago code changes." I was crushed.

As it turns out, Chicago code now requires that all new shower installations include a pressure balancing valve. The device, included in the fixture has a mechanism that prevents rapid shifts in water temperature. Our Chicago Faucet was a traditional design that didn't include pressure balancing.

To make matters worse, we got the faucet online (found a great price at faucet.com) and the refund policy isn't promising. "Yeah," he said, "that's going to make it tough to get rid of."

So, I broke the news to J when she got home and we started researching new faucets. Our contractor used Grohe fixtures in his own home, which we'd also heard praised in the Breaktime forums. But the thought of paying a 20% restocking fee made us cringe.

The payoff might be that our Internet research ended up uncovering a solution. We're still waiting to check with our contractor, but we think we've found a fix that would allow us to still use the fixture we bought...

We found an "Automatic Pressure Compensating Valve" manufactured by Tempura available at A-Ball Plumbing Supply.

The valve is installed "upstream" from the shower fixture, the valve regulates the water flow of both the hot and cold water supply lines. A single moving part senses changes in water pressure in one line and adjusts the water flow in the other supply line accordingly.

Accomplishing the same goal of compliant fixtures, the valve is marketed as a way to stay compliant with codes but still use traditional fixtures.

We haven't run it by our contractor yet, but we're crossing our fingers that it will work and that we haven't just spent a bunch of money for a really well manufactured faucet we'll never use...

Sistering the Joists for Floor #2

The joists that support the second floor of our house are already more shallow than we'd like.

They are 6 inches deep and set on "16 and a half inch" centers (meaning, if you measure from the center of each joist...the joists are 16 1/2 inches apart.)

The size of your joists, the material they are made of, their span (or their length before they are supported by another vertical wall or post) all are part of the equation that helps you to determine how much weight they will support. (You can click at my poor illustration attempt to enlarge this picture of joists, a beam and floor. Many apologies to "This Old House".)

You want to avoid cutting into joists if you can. Any material that you cut out of a joist (and there are better ways to do this than others) can weaken the support the joist . You CAN cut up to a third out of a joist to run a pipe or BMX without compromising it too much and depending upon the span...but it's best to avoid testing this out too thoroughly. The beam looks like the backbone of the house, but the joists look like the ribs of its back. And you aren't going to want to break the back of your house!

When we look into the ceiling of our first floor bathroom, we see potential trouble (these are the joists under the 2nd floor bathroom...Click to enlarge):

The most disturbing cut in the joist was for piping that drains the bathtub.

The second floor bathroom was added in 1951. (Our house was built in 1914.)

To do this, if you recall, they turned a very narrow bedroom into a strangely configured bathroom--put it in a cast iron tub, a toilet, a sink. These all needed plumbing for hot and cold water plus drains and vent stacks.

If you follow the arrows above, you'll see that ALL of the plumbing comes up ONE wall, even though there are fixtures for 3 walls upstairs. At start, follow blue arrows to the water for the shower and bath, purple arrows for water going down the drain, and a green dotted line for a vent pipe that goes between floors to the vent stack.

The hot and cold lines for the sink? That starts in the same place, snakes between the floors and then THROUGH the hollow in the bathtub where it "folds" over. Out the back of the bathroom wall, into the attic, bends round its second corner and ends up back in the bathroom where the sink is. The drain and stack for the sink? We're still trying to find that.

These are the plumbing problems were are to unravel before we close the walls downstairs back up.

Yuck.

Of joists and pipes

Argh.

I know for a fact a lot of the funds we had saved up for the house are going to things that no one will ever see...because they are behind the walls and under the floors. Many days that is frustrating.

Without this work, though, it would be like slapping cosmetics on a face with no bone structure. We want the house to work well, stand straight, be strong. We don't want to have to go back into the walls for a very, very long time.

So, the joists above the first floor bathroom have been reinforced ("sistered") to help support the bathroom above. (You can see how it used to look here.)

When we could get into the walls and inspect the pipes (plumbing and vents), we found a few lengths of pipe and vent stack that needed to be replaced.

Hidden behind the wall and the toilet on the first floor was this vent stack...which has a pretty large hole in it around the back. (Click on the image to get a closer look.)

So, the sewer gas smell in the house wasn't entirely from the basement drains :) Looks like it's been coming into the first floor as well. We already knew about the problems with the vent stack on the second floor. Oh well. You expect the unexpected before you launch into restoring old houses.

There are differences between how lead pipes for water and vents for sewer gas "weather" time. Water pipes and drains tend to accumulate deposits from hard water sediment and "stuff" that goes down the drain. So, they end up looking like an artery or vein when it develops plaque on the inside. (This is actually one of the better ones....yuck, right?)

Sewer gas corrodes lead vent stacks from the inside OUT...so the walls of the pipe end up thinning. Like this...

Old Dip Tube, New Water Heater (Ugh)

In the course of working on the plumbing for the first floor bathroom, Paul (our plumbing & tile guy) discovered we have a bad dip tube in our water heater. Quite a bit of small white material had settled at the bottom of the tank and came out when he drained the tank down to install a new hot water return line.

Now all our hot water valves are clogged up and little white plastic pieces are visible in the upstairs shower head.

Sure enough, a quick search for "dip tube" on Google revealed that pretty much everyone with water heaters from the '90s now is having problems with bad dip tubes. A few of the highlights:

- The "dip tube" is designed to direct incoming cold water to the bottom of the tanks so it heats properly.
- Basically every manufacturer used dip tubes that were created defective materials in the '90s.
- The tube disintegrates and small particles of plastic end up settling at the bottom of the tank and and clogging up all the faucet screens and filters throughout the house. (Sure enough...most of ours are completely clogged since the hot water was reconnected).
- The tube can be replaced, but this often requires completely draining the tank and putting it on its side. (Most of the time the basement ceiling isn't tall enough to pull it out standing up.) Even then the whole system may need to be flushed several times to get all the junk out.

Paul's recommending we just replace our water heater. Besides the bad dip tube, it is also over 10 years old (a point at which they may need replacing anyway) and it's somewhat small (40 gallons) for a full size family.

We'll probably go ahead and do it. Another quick Google search provided a consumer guide with top ranked gas water heaters by capacity. They rank Bradford & White and Maytag models highly, but we think we've also found a 50 gallon Kenmore model from Sears with very similar efficiency ratings and a 12 year warranty.

If anyone has had a good experience with a particular make or model of water heater, we're all ears!

Say Hello to Our New Sears Kenmore Water Heater

There's a new member in our household today. A new 195 lbs., 50 gallon, natural gas water heater!

While we're trying to do as much as possible ourselves, we got help on this one. Anything involving natural gas...na' ganna' do it.

So, we had Paul and Dario (our tile and plumbing guys) take a break from the bathroom work and help us out. Today they spent most of the day draining and detaching the old water heater and then installing the new one. By late this afternoon we had hot water again!

But our Sears water heater isn't just new. It should be better, too:

• Greater capacity. Our old heater held 40 gallons while our new heater is a 50 gallon model.
  
• Better efficiency. Even with 10 gallons more capacity, our new heater is rated to cost $60 less per year to operate. (Actually, our savings should be even more because the sediment in our old heater was probably reducing efficiency by up to 75%.)
  
• Hot water return. As part of some plumbing tweaks, Paul recommended adding a loop in our hot water piping, going from the water heater to the tallest water fixture in the house and then back again. This allows hot water to continuously circulate and then return to the heater when it cools. The result: water should be hot right when we turn on the faucet. While this costs a tiny bit more in heating costs, we'll use less water waiting for the shower to heat up. And the highest fixture in the house is pretty high. With these ceilings, it is approximately 21 feet above the top of the HWH in the basement.
  

The return pipe attaches to the valve at the bottom of the tank, pictured here.

So, new water heater!

Anyway, even though this expense snuck up on us we knew from our original inspection that the old water heater was pretty old. It was going to happen some time.

Besides, our new water heater has much more entertaining warning pictures than the old one!

Evolution of a bathroom

This is not quite to the "after stage."

Instead, there has been an evolution going on in here. And bathrooms in general have a LOT of history. Ours is no different.

Tonight, I'm seeing walls going up instead of coming down for the first time.

And that is a thing filled with HOPE. It really is. There is a reason that hope rhymes with soap. Everyone deserves a clean place. Everyone in the world.

Here's where we were back in June 2003.

Then, by December 2003, we had started deconstruction in earnest.

Tonight (February 2003), I opened the door and VOILA!!!

If the top two pictures look like I was sitting down when I took them, well, I WAS! I was too shaky to trust my legs, it was really late and I was excited. I was also really tired. BUT! In my head, the words, "Here we go! Here we go!" kept spinning. We are starting to put things back ON TO the house instead of just taking them off.

We are going to have a bathroom. Wow.

The tile for the floor is here...white octagon tile with soft grey accents. The colors in the picture aren't really "true". For more on the tile, you can look around here. We ordered it through Lowe's. It took a few weeks because this isn't a color they usually stock.

p.s. The tile is going to cover the sill and the frame of the window completely. The middle bar of the window will be treated with marine paint or stain and we can hang a sheer plastic curtain just for the window to protect it. Pull it back when we need some sun.

As for the fan? It pulls humidity out of this room so quickly that some friends we've worked with can't believe it. And the timer is so quiet. No ticking at all. So the "ventilation obsessed-me" is quite pleased. Wow. A bathroom. Wow.

Tile Subfloor Won't Crack Under Pressure

We're getting ever closer to actual tile being laid down for an actual bathroom. It seems hard to believe! As a last step for the floor, the subfloor was laid down yesterday and was set by this morning.

This material is really cool!

As explained by Paul, our friend and help on this project, high-tech materials like this provide several advantages over traditional subfloors:

• Waterproof. Water can potentially work its way between the tile, but the subfloor prevents it from getting to the concrete below where it could cause greater damage.
  
• Extreme strength. It really is amazing stuff to feel. It rolls up and bends but is impossible to tear and holds up like steel.
  
• Withstands substrate cracking. Paul said that technically this material should prevent any cracking in the tile. Shifting in the substrate cannot be transfered through this material to the tile above. Therefore, even with further settling in the house our tile floor should be crack-proof (unlike the previous tile floor).
  

While that's all fine and good for the long term, the best thing is that having the subfloor down means that the final tile floor can't be far behind!

P.S. The substrate is concrete and floor leveler.

The Bathroom Medicine Cabinet: An Epic Saga

A few months ago we purchased a vintage medicine cabinet on eBay. It was notable because it had a distinct design and was surprisingly consistent with the existing built-in furniture original to our bungalow. So we decided to buy it. The box arrived via UPS.

Ack! The box was torn to shreds and, from looking at the exterior, it was pretty clear that the medicine cabinet took a beating as well.

Sure enough, the medicine cabinet had been seriously damaged.

After a few frustrating phone calls to UPS, we realized that there wasn't going to be an easy answer to our problem. UPS is used to handling damage claims of mass produced items and offers free returns for a refund or free shipping for a replacement item. The only option they could suggest for our situation (unique item, no returns) was offering a reimbursement for the repair work up to a certain dollar amount. On a unique item like this, to have someone else do the repairs cost more than the cabinet's value on eBay and would exceed the insurance coverage UPS offers. So, after thinking about it for a bit, we decided to bite the bullet and restore it ourselves!

We started by removing the door, hardware and the moulding around the outer edge, which was damaged beyond repair. (The interesting thing, in hindsight, is that it will actually look more consistent with the existing trim of our house without this moulding.) Next we stripped the old paint off with a combination of chemical paint remover and the Silent Paint Remover.

After that we squared up the box again using two large clamps and fastened it back together using wood glue and nails.

A sanded the edges, especially around the trim corners. These were pretty rough because they'd been covered up by the original edge moulding we disposed of. We went over it with a tack cloth to get rid of all of the dust.

We applied a primer coat of Kilz. This helps the finish coat bond to the wood and should prevent any staining or dark spots from the wood showing through the white paint.

We'll remount the door and latch after the box is installed and squared up in the wall. So, after a second primer coat tonight, the medicine cabinet is pretty much ready to go. Next up tomorrow: put it in here!

A Bathroom Teaser

OK, so Heather requested a better look at our progress on the bathroom. Yes indeed, we have been hard at work and Paul has accomplished quite a bit with the tile.

A friend of a friend, Paul has been a great help in getting the work on the bathroom done and on giving us advice on the work. He also owns lots of cool tools!

So, how far along are we? Well, we do have the biggest things (tile, bathroom fixtures, etc.) done. However, completing the final details probably won't be done for another week.

In the mean time, J suggested this "tease" for Heather of what's done. :-)

Looking for more!? Stay tuned...it's almost done! :-)

Lesson Learned #...um...we're up there

Lesson learned for today.

When restoring an old bathroom, have the ceramic refinished on tubs, sinks and toilets LAST. Not first.

Originally, we were not planning on doing as much to the first floor bath as we did. But plumbing problems, insulation issues, window issues...everything kept adding up to an extensive gut and rebuild.

Now, when we look back at these original pictures, we have only one question.

WHAT were we THINKING?

Bad idea. To do the bathtub first. Tim from Aquarius even ASKED us about this when he came the first time. He was willing to delay and come back if we were doing more work. (He is such a nice and honest guy.)

We naively and firmly reassured him, "No! No! This is great. We're just going to use these current plumbing fixtures and put up new tile and... really ...everything is fine."

We are such, um....what's the word I'm looking for...hmmm. Newbies? Dunderheads? Goofs? That's sounds like the word...inexperienced, making a big mistake without realizing it. Goofs.

When we realized that more work needed to be done (i.e., gutting the walls, the ceiling, the floor, replacing some plumbing fixtures, replacing floor tile, replacing the window)...I swathed, SWATHED the refinished tub in towels, plastic and a huge canvas army tent.

We learned that--no matter how swathed--sharp tools dropped accidentally from a certain height will chip the porcelain. Again and again. We are also happy to know this before we have had kids. Swathing doesn't protect tubs or kids.

So, we taped together some trash bags and DRAPED the hall door AGAIN.

Okay, so. Though embarrassing to write about this in public, it's important. DO NOT DO AS WE HAVE DONE!

LEARN from our mistakes. That is part of what this site is for.

1. FIRST, take all removable porcelain objects out.

2. NEXT, redo the plumbing, electricity, fans, windows, strip wood, etc.

3. Insulation and walls next.

4. Prepare floor for receiving tile.

5. Then tile walls.

6. Then tile floor.

7. Install porcelain fixtures.

8. Then have porcelain tub reconditioned....LAST!

The extra money we had to spend on this is what my dad used to call "tuition. Try to learn from it and only pay for it once." This story we've told here...consider it something that you won't have to pay tuition for.

p.s. Tim, you "told us so". And you were very nice not to have rubbed that in this morning. Thank you.

Vintage Clawfoot Tub, Check!

Our plans for the master bathroom have always included a clawfoot tub. In fact, we'd found a pretty good deal on newly manufactured 5' tubs from Midwest Chemicals south of Chicago.

But last week we came across a better local deal and as of yesterday morning we've got our vintage tub!

It's the exact size we were looking for, but actually has much cooler feet than the new one we were considering. The fixture isn't exactly what we were thinking of, but we'll have to look at the budget when the time comes and decide if we can afford a replacement.

We got it through Paul, who knew we were looking since he was already helping us with our first floor bathroom. It just so happened that his sister, Marian, and her husband were upgrading their own master bathroom and looking to replace their own tub. The picture is actually taken at their place (which Paul is also helping them with) when we first checked it out.

So, now it's sitting in our garage. It will need some work, including refinishing the porcelein. But even so the total cost will be cheaper than buying new. We're also thinking that this time we can save some money by only having this one refinished once...lesson learned! ;-)

Bath time...then and now

Yes, I know. We still have not finished the details for the bath on the first floor to be able to show you a finished product. But we have a good excuse. We are still trying to help someone else pull the pieces of their life back together...something that is not very easy to do in these troubled times. So, all the time we haven't been spending at work, we've spent on that. And we are glad to have made that choice.

Which is why--tense and tired--I was really craving a bath tonight.

For those of you who might not have been with us in those early days, here is what bath time USED to look like in the first weeks of the house.

This was the blue bathtub from the late 1940's that didn't fit all of the way across the room. So there was a funky little box there on the one end. And the room came with no tile. Only glue. And the hex tile on the floor had been covered up with layers of tar and vinyl tile. And everything leaked.

THEN! Months later, after scraping out the tar and vinyl, hammering up the concrete, gutting the walls, rerouting some electrical work, replacing the broken glass block window, choosing new non-leaky fixtures, insulating the wall, re-tiling (thanks Paul!), refinishing the tub (twice...thanks Tim!) and making some small design changes....

THIS! This is Bath Time NOW! w00t!

To keep costs in line, we chose to keep the iron tub, the sink and toilet fixtures. We kept the radiator (which we will sandblast and refinish someday when we can do them all at once in the backyard :) We refinished the tub. Chose wall tile that was more in line with the typical subway tile of the early bungalow era and redesigned that "ledge" at the one side of the tub.

Now, it can be used as a shelf for bath products and a candle...OR it provides a lovely headrest during a soak.

The marble that protects the shelf and the window sill is actually cut from pieces of scrap from a distributor. It is tilted ever so slightly towards the tub and towards the wall to encourage water to drain back into the tub. But the tilt is so slight, it is not visually noticeable.

We are still stripping the wood of the built-in, the medicine cabinet and the trim. We found layers of milk paint under the more recent latex coat (recent as in "the last ten years")...and that has proved a formidable foe. Milk paint has the consistency of glue when you strip it. Ergh.

But enough about that tonight. Tonight I soak. Tomorrow I worry.

P.S. That is a copy of Stilwell and the American Experience in China, 1911-45 next to the tub which we found in the house. Barbara Tuchman won the Pulitzer Prize for this novel and it is a dandy read...especially since the items from Japan and China that we have found in the house are from the previous owners' travels to Asia in 1931 and 1937(?). And that is fascinating to me. Living history. Outstanding. Reading during bath time (and not getting the book damp)....mmmmmmmmm. Really wonderful.

P.S.S. I have discovered that our bathroom fan is very quiet but SO STRONG that it isn't good to have on during a bath. We will use the other light. It pulls moisture from your skin the second a wet knee pokes above the surface....brrrrr. Excellent for preserving bathrooms. Chilly for bath time. So, hooray! It works beautifully!

A Labor of Love

We spent almost the entire weekend on just one thing: stripping bathroom woodwork and trim. J worked upstairs on the bathroom built-in.

At the same time I was downstairs working on the cabinet drawers and bathroom door.

Our conclusion? This is tedious work! But this morning we did have one gratifying feeling of closure...

...we finished the medicine cabinet!!!!

Its hard to describe how big a deal this is! Those of you who have known the origins of this story will have some sense, but you really only get the magnitude of the event when you're right here, unlatching then closing the mirror door. Its like having a kid (I'd imagine) but with less doctors and more Phillips screwdrivers.

Let's just say this one thing made for a satisifying weekend.

More Labor, More Love

Even after last weekend, to get things done we both had to take off from work today to focus on the final touches for the bathroom...

...sanding the woodwork...

...and painting the drawers...

...and waxing the drawer rails...

You know, there's surprisingly little closure on most days of home restoration. That said, we did get a lot done and should be posting final, final, final bathroom pictures soon. We should have a functioning bathroom door again, which will be nice too!

PS--As a reward for our hard work today, we took a break to hear an excellent lecture by Anne Lamott. J couldn't bring a book for Ms. Lamott to sign (they are still packed away). She got Anne's autograph on the back of her drivers license instead. So J is an organ donor and Anne Lamott has witnessed it. After the lecture I'm convinced that J is Anne's alter-(home improvement instead of book writing)-ego, but that's another post for another day... :-)

Jeannie Gets a Gold Star

Well actually, Jeannie got the "hero" award and a gold star for hardest worker, all in one day...

After getting started last week, Saturday we finished off packing up all of the rolled pink insulation and most of the original sawdust and tarpaper beneath that.

Why does Jeannie get both the gold star and the hero award? Well...

While I stayed below double-bagging and hauling out the insulation, she was up there crawling around in places on her stomach where my 6'7" frame would never fit. Nobody should ever be expected to do this. It's dirty, disgusting work.

While it was very rewarding to get 37 bags of insulation packed up, there was one setback. (Isn't there always one!?) In the narrowest crawlspace, over the master bedroom, she found what seems to be loose, disintegrated organic matter...dusty beige and the consistency of baby powder. It fills 2-4 inches between each rafter. While we've been able to scoop out the pink insulation in clumps and roll the sawdust/tarpaper up, this stuff just runs through her fingers.

We picked up a mini shop-vac with a 18' hose and HEPA filter that could reach the corners. However, the tube was too small and clogged up regularly. At this point we're trying to figure out a way to get the larger shop-vac up there--it has a larger tube and stronger motor which would hopefully do the trick.

Any and all suggestions are welcome! :-)

One Person's Trash...

While much of our focus in this first year is getting miscellaneous old stuff out of this house, today we made an exception and reversed the trend.

We picked up three doors from a building in our neighborhood that is being torn down. Unfortunately there wasn't as much to salvage as we had hoped, given the building's condition, but it was good to get a few doors that did match dimensions we needed. For now, we've stuck them in the basement, but later they'll be something to use upstairs where two doors are missing.

Things we learned in the process:

Bring the right tools. Definitely bring several screwdrivers (Phillips & standard), a pry-bar (or two!), a hammer, pliers, a razor (for scraping paint out of old screw tops) and a flashlight. We also wish we'd have brought a hacksaw or even our Sawzall.

Think before you get there about what you need. We measured the doorways in our house that were missing doors, including both the desired height and width as well as the height of the doorknob hardware.

Brush up on the proper technique for removing items. There is an art to removing old molding/trim or built-ins. Don't overlook details like hooks and drawer handles.

Also, think about what's important to you. Do doors have to be an exact match? How much wear and tear is acceptable? In our case, we didn't really consider that there were deadbolts on some of the doors we took until we were loading them into the car. Those will have to be cleaned up and some wood will have to be patched.

Scraping Off Mastic

Yesterday we spent the afternoon scraping off residue from the 9x9 tile in the first floor bedroom...you know, the one with the nutty, fun map wall.

During work on our first floor bathroom, some of the tile had come off in this bedroom, leaving the underlying glue exposed. We had covered it with strong plastic sheeting, but now we were ready to deal with it. Fearing this material might be "less than not toxic", we wore masks as we chipped it up with scraping tools.

Our near term plans are to move into this bedroom, so that we can tear out the ceiling of the other first floor bedroom. That will allow us to reinforce the floor joists for the master bathroom upstairs. It should also allow us to begin preparing the first floor bedrooms to (someday) offer short-term housing to seminary students.

With about one-fifth of the floor scraped at this point, we're going to use duct tape to secure the edges of the remaining tile to prevent it from popping off too. Then we'll be moving our bedroom furniture over in the next few days.

Weekends

Generally, weekends are an all out tag team frenzy to make a dent in our "to do" list. These things fall into two categories...maintenance and restoration.

Spring mornings have not been starting with the sweet chirping of the little finches that make Dave the Cat so crazy to be outside. No, they have been starting with the asthmatic wheezing of a pigeon couple who have taken up residence under one of our eaves.

We have already moved our "base of operations" to the back of the house. We're preparing to renovate the second floor--that will also require going up through the first floor bedroom ceiling. We don't know the condition of the joists.

Aaron heads to the second floor storage room to prep the upstairs space.

Then he goes to the first floor bedroom and prepares to "break it down", as it were.

And out falls....??? A little paper log cabin. Of course.

Whoa! What did they do to that joist???!!! Is there any joist left under there? Okay, kids. Do not try this at home. This is one of the bigger no-no's in home renovation.

We have our work cut out for us obviously.

p.s. For those of you who have expressed curiousity about how this story ended, this weekend we helped to move the woman we know into relatively affordable housing. In an impressive show of tag team support, the pastoral team at our local church carried the ball into the end zone. They are the real thing.

p.s.s With the help of our friend, R, we were also able to salvage a station wagon full of tools for carpentry, well-digging and infrastructure projects to support the work of a neighbor in Africa. (The wagon was so full, things were hanging out the windows...hurray!) My back was complaining all weekend but my soul was lightened. After all, there is always Tylenol for the back.

Progress on the Bedroom Ceiling

Tonight we finished off the bedroom ceiling. Removing the original (badly damaged) ceiling will allow us to reinforce the joists under the master bathroom.

This ceiling ended up coming down pretty quick...

...the bigger job was bagging it up! Thankfully the job just took two nights, not three like we'd expected...that means we get tomorrow night off!

We're guessing a whole room might take 4ish evenings or most of a day. If that's true, getting the second floor done (3 rooms and the hall and stairway) could take several weekends on our own. The great news is that we've gotten offers from friends to help. So, we're hoping to make quite a bit of progress this weekend.

However, we'll be holding off on the second floor ceilings a bit longer. Even though we were able to get most of the old insulation out, the loose material over the master bedroom dormer proved beyond us and our feeble tools. So, we're bringing in the big guns--a professional is coming Monday to suck the rest out. While we're disappointed we couldn't finish it off ourselves, we can't say we'll miss the haz-mat suits!

Plans for the Second Floor

This weekend we're getting a real start in on the second floor. We've gotten a few things started before (like this and this) but our real focus on getting the whole floor done starts today.

So, it makes some sense to clarify exactly what we're intending to do...

Current	Planned

Our plan involves moving several walls, including modifying both original closets. One becomes an enlarged master bedroom closet while the other becomes a reading nook (a project already underway).

The master bedroom will have a vaulted ceiling, although we're still trying to figure out exactly how we want that to look. Our major thought is to have a beadboard ceiling. We're also expecting to install a skylight.

The master bathroom will become a little smaller and a lot less pink. We'll be removing the existing tub and replacing it with a glassed-in shower and then a clawfoot tub under the window. The toilet and sink will be replaced.

The second bedroom looses its closet, which is OK since we're expecting it to function as an office or nursery (speaking from a purely architectural standpoint at this point, of course!). We're thinking a freestanding wardrobe can function as a closet when necessary.

Finally, the unfinished portion of the floor will remain that way for the forseeable future. We have visions of that serving as a light-filled studio space, but that's probably so far off it's depressing to think about too much.

So that's that plan. There are plenty of detailed decisions still to make, but we've got plenty go to on to start with. We get things started tomorrow when some friends come over to help us tear out as much of the bathroom as we can get through.

Yesterday's Progress on the Master Bathroom

As promised, we dove in on the master bathroom work today. We definitely had mixed emotions about seeing the plaster go, but the combination of the cracking, the years of unventilated moisture and the hodge-podge of work done on the room over time meant it was definitely in the worst condition of any room in the house.

The great news was that some great friends helped us out so things went quickly. J (who has worked on old houses like ours countless times) took the lead on the tearout work.

A and C did a rockin' job with the heavy labor of boxing up the plaster and lathe and taking it out of the house.

In case you're wondering, yes JM and I did our fair share too. However, we were the ones behind the camera so you'll have to take our word for it!

With all that great help, we actually made pretty quick work of things. By early afternoon we were down to the studs and the room was broom clean. Check it out:

It felt really good to actually get so much work done...our progress makes it seem much more real that we'll have a nice master bathroom some day!

(Note: We just wanted to take a second and acknowledge all the helpful suggestions we got last week when we did similar work on the ceiling downstairs. We definitely value and discuss all the ideas we get, even though we sometimes do our own thing. For example, in one case we got an excellent time-saving suggestion from Gary to leave on the lathe as backing for the new drywall. In our situation we decided that removing it here makes sense, because we expect to do some infrastructure work and also want to roll insulation. However, every suggestion has its merits in the right situation so keep the feedback coming!)

Ummm, What's That?

More progress on the second floor today. Specifically, we took out walls in both the bedroom closets and one wall in the master bedroom. That let us see the dead spaces hidden behind the walls where the roofline meets the floor.

This was great...except for what we saw when we found the chimney behind one of the walls...

The chimney is a mess! The brick work is original and it has deterioriated quite a bit.

This photo shows the bricks closer up.

So, this looks pretty bad. But how serious is it? From our inspection, we know that there isn't a chimney liner inside, so it seems likely that we could have air vented from the boiler leaking in to the second floor. However, we need to research the situation. Is this something we can just have tuckpointed, or is it more complex than that? At this point we don't know.

Anybody have experience with this?

The Attic Experts are Attic Experts

Quick entry tonight...we were rescued today by Steve from "The Attic Experts", who arrived and dealt with the remaining insulation and raccoon "stuff."

They were very quick and thorough, plus Steve once did work on a house designed by Frank Lloyd Wright!

So, if you're looking for help with blown-in insulation, moisture control, venting or pest contamination (like us), we can definitely recommend them.

Superior Insulation & Attic Ventilation Inc.
"The Attic Experts"
http://www.atticexperts.com
Telephone: (630) 941-3800

Chimney Repair Advice

After discovering last weekend that the interior chimney on the second floor had deteriorated horribly, we quickly got a contractor in today for advice. His advice was largely consistent with the comments people posted on our site. (Thanks Gary, POPS"30", Kristen, Stuart and Marty!)

At first he was thinking we could get away with a aluminum liner (cheaper) but when he saw that our chimney was originally lined with tile he recommended a stainless steel liner. Aluminum liners are cheaper, but not as ridged or durable as stainless steel.

From what we've read, one of the problems is that the unlined venting of older chimneys is just too wide for modern boilers. The extra space allows gases to linger in the chimney, and moisture then seeps into the bricks or mortar, causing deterioration, as in our case. This is dangerous because fumes then leak through the brickwork (and into the house!) instead of up and out. Yikes!

The good news is that the contractor we spoke to thought we could get away without rebuilding our chimney above the roofline (even though the more recent tuckpointing job is so poor). Rather than removing and replacing it, he suggested having the mortar above the roofline ground out and re-tuckpointed. They would do the same below the roofline outside, too. An acid wash would help to get rid of the efflorescence (white stains). They would also repair the wall of the chimney on the inside of the second floor.

This wouldn't look perfect but would still be an improvement. Rebuilding the chimney wouldn't be perfect anyway, because they don't make 8" bricks to match ours anymore.

Balsam-Wool Insulation

Back when we were trying to get all the attic insulation out ourselves, we ran in to this strange stuff. It seemed to be a loose, disintegrated organic matter...dusty beige and the consistency of baby powder.

Eventually we called in the experts, who took care of it with more industrial quality tools. They did recognize the stuff and called it "balsamite." However, a search on Google didn't turn up any insulation with that name.

Since the we've been working more upstairs and have run in to more of the stuff, and today we found further proof on just what that stuff is...

Inside one of the knee-walls we finally found a label on one of the bats: "Balsam-Wool Insulation."

We even found a huge piece of the paper that one of the original roles came in.

That name turns up a lot more info on Google. Several posts on BobVilla.com and Old House Web discussion forms mentioned it. From there we learned:
- The insulation was manufactured from balsam wood pulp
- It was manufactured by Weyerhaeuser
- It isn't toxic and contains no asbestos
- It doesn't have a great R-value

So there you have it--mystery solved. We're taking ours out, since most of it falls out of the walls anyway and much of the moisture barrier was torn by the racoons that were living up there.

A Rolling Black Fog

Well that was interesting! Yesterday we looked a bit closer at the chimney. During the recent visit of the chimney guy, he wanted to check out the condition of the fireplace to see how it would play into the job of tuckpointing and relining the chimney. Unfortunately, he couldn't check it out because it is paneled over.

So of course, being self-starters we took it upon ourselves to check it out on our own. This was a decision we would come to regret.

So, one by one the pieces of tongue-in-groove paneling came off. So far, so good!

Hmmm, the brick face is all ripped away. That's a shame.

But hey, the brick work IN the hearth is still in good shape. Actually, it's gorgeous. I wish the exterior looked that good!

Hmm, so what's up there? I wonder if the flu still works. They couldn't have filled in the whole thing with cement or something, could they? (Well, yeah, I actually could imagine them doing that...) Nah, it just looks like a few pieces of wood up there.

There, got it. Wait a minute...what's that black stuff coming at us!? Oh no, stop it!!! Stick something up there! What? I don't know, make it stop! How? Is it just going to keep coming!? You can't even see through it. Where did Jeannie's feet go!!?? Turn on the window fan!!

Three hours of cleaning later and everything was back to normal (as least as normal as it will ever be for now).

Just another day at the House in Progress...

More of the Same

Now back to our regularly scheduled programming: the longest continuous sequence of tearout photos ever. Here Jeanne removing the trim from below the master bedroom window.

Later the same day we'd removed most of the plaster and lathe from the ceilings and the walls...

Here's J breaking up the plaster with the blunt side of a prybar.

The I followed her up with pulling down the lathe, which brought down the remaining plaster as well.

It looks like we're both using ladders but guess which one of us isn't. ;-) Unfortunately, all the dust in the air made flash photography a bit problematic.

For now we're bagging up the plaster and the broken down lathe separately in contractor quality bags and keeping it upstairs. We'll haul it all out at once after everything is torn down (to save costs on the dumpster rental).

What's In Your Gutter?

Rainy weekend...new homeowners. What to do? What to do?

Clean the gutters. Especially since the maple tree down the way has let loose its little "helicopters of Spring." Which I thought were really cool when I was about 8 years old.

Now?

Not so much.

We get out the regular tools for this...a ladder and rubber gloves to check the downspouts. (The required facial expressions registering distaste and disgust are needed also.)

A test with a bucket of water shows that there are still some problems.

So we get out the BIG GUNS. The homeowner's friend. The wire hanger.

Let's see what the boys from the City of Chicago have in THEIR toolbag, eh?

Show-offs. This Daley Administration is SO over the top.

A Miracle in Silica and Water

Yesterday we met a sage of vintage masonry. After an extensive parade of contractors came by with contradictory advice on how to repair our chimney and front porch, Andy settled the debate. Within five minutes of arriving, we were up on the roof. Five minutes later his grinder was out and he'd removed the mortar one inch deep over a two square foot area. What did we discover?

• The chimney had actually already been rebuilt, just with the wrong type of mortar.
  
• The existing job was done using a cement mortar with little to no lime, which is much too hard for use with old bricks from 1914.
  
• The existing chimney cap isn't keeping water out. This, combined with the hard mortar and soft bricks, is forcing moisture out through the bricks and causing the white efflorescence to form on the brick face. (This can create spalling and eventually ruin the bricks beyond repair.)
  
• The chimney cap covers over the decommissioned chimney vent. We'll need a new cap and two stainless steel liners (one for each flue) to install the gas stove we've had our eye on.
  

Sounds bad. Don't worry, it gets better....

Andy surprised us by coming by one afternoon and doing a sample area on our front steps (the left side). The combination of grinding out the mortar and gentle low-pressure washing off the efflorescence and paint was a huge difference! The photo doesn't actually do it justice, since new tinted mortar will get rid of the remaining white and leave a rich dark look to the vintage brick. (Jeannie, heritage research watchdog, wants to talk to him a little about the psi used for washing, the actual silica product and machinery, and protecting the face of the brick. While we prefer to reuse this brick, we don't want to accidentally have the hard exterior of the brick blasted off and leaving it unprotected from future dirt, soot and salt.)

After his tests, Andy suggests that our chimney and front steps don't need to be rebuilt at all. He's recommending a complete grinding out of all the mortar, a water and silicone washing, and tuckpointing with a more appropriate mortar to match the composition and tint of the existing brick.

This was more hopeful news since every previous contractor insisted that we'd have to rebuild the entire front steps, check walls, sidewalls and the chimney above the roofline. (Obvious fact of the day: that would cost more and not match the rest of the house at all.) The improvement from Andy's sample makes us optimistic that we'd be able to save the unique brick-laid steps hidden under that awful blue paint as well as not waste money on a solution that wouldn't "suit" the house.

We still need to talk through the details of the job before we give him the thumbs up to start, but we're much more optimistic that we were a few weeks ago. Some things are looking up.

Laundry Chute Question

We're trying to figure out if and how we could fit a laundry chute into our first and second floor bathrooms. We think it could work, although the space and placement of the access holes would be tight.

Does anyone out there have experience with this? Information online seems to be sparse. Specifically:

- How wide should the chute be, minimally?
- Is it typically round (like PVC) or square (like metal duct-work)?

Any ideas are welcome.

Yuck!

Homeownership is not always pretty.

This spring, we had Gary (from Cellar Master) take a look into the sewer system underneath the house when he came to service our Celler Master unit. (Which was installed by his dad. How COOL is THAT?) Things hadn't been smelling quite so, um, "fresh" lately.

Look away! LOOK AWAY! Yuck. Obviously, there was a little blockage underneath our urpy old house. The Cellar Master keeps sewage from the street from flooding back up INTO our house (which has come in handy this rainy season) while pumping our water up and out of the system if the "gate" is down. Gate works fine. The blockage was between the house and the street.

We tried to dislodge some things with the garden hose. In the end, Gary needed to fetch "the cool yet intimidating Star Wars thing" to rod out the pipes. (That's what I call it, anyway.)

At this point, it is better to let the pro's take over. This is one of those "jobs on the edge" type careers which calls for strength AND know-how AND delicacy.

A few tree roots later, I am reminded that we just don't use enough bleach in our wash. Gotta kill those roots off. My oh my.

Thanks Gary!

Cellar Master Flood Control
815-727-7355

We can handle the truth...give it to us.

Sorry. A pet peeve of mine lately has been books and resources directed to homeowners that are too simple or too complex. The selections in the home section of the book store are either written for the "in one weekend DIY person"..."Three tricks to brighten up any room!" Or are aimed at contractors, "the HVAC Project Manager Planning's Guide".

Why? Why?

I would love to see more books for DIY folk who need to work on the STRUCTURE of their house. Not just windows or trim. How do you assess whether your mortar / footings / appliances installation / stair runs / ductwork or boiler pipes / etc. etc. are RIGHT or WRONG? (With clear illustrations.) And how do you fix these things if they are not? What are the advantages and problems of different fixes? How do contractors try to fix problems and which methods are better?

The home improvement book that I use to cram before any contractor interview or plan any systemic change has a simple name. But it can't be found on any store bookshelf.

Why do we love this obviously UNsexy looking book? Because IT IS DA BOMB!! And the knowledge it contains makes a homeowner feel...well... downright powerful.

How did we find one? Chance. We researched honest home inspectors and came across an article about Tom Corbett.

(It was actually an article showcasing him from Chicago Magazine. It is entitled The Home Reckoner,by Bill Clements-- Tom Corbett inspects houses. Some real estate agents wish he’d find another line of work. ) It's from the October 2002 issue.

This guy and his staff are hard core. Home sellers and real estate agents FEAR him. Because if there is something very wrong with the house you are considering investing all of that money and time and emotion in? He'll find it.

Then he'll compile the whole thing into a detailed report (not just a checklist) and debrief you for an hour at least.

It was scary to hire Tomacor...sometimes ignorance is bliss, right? But we've never regretted it. We were able to go back and negotiate a bit more PLUS we had a detailed checklist for things to fix in the house starting Day One.

To back up their data, Tomacor gave us their typical inspection binder. This thing is a TOME! A well-designed tome. You can get to your situation pretty quickly without having to read much else and just focus on that. It shows (with illustrations and limited photography) what something is supposed to look like versus what can go wrong. (Double-click on this sample picture to make it larger.)

I've been researching home cooling systems. Something I knew little about before I read this binder. And now? I can ask some educated questions about different parts of the system. Good thing! Because not everyone is giving us the same answer.

We love Tomacor, that they stabbed the wood gently and fearlessly with a screwdriver to test for rot, crawled into dark crawlspaces under the house, used mirrors to peer into strange places and so on in their dedication to GET THE DATA!

And they did. We even knew what length and diameter external tube we needed for a part missing from the hot water heater before we moved into the house because they noted it in the inspection.

And this is why they are so GOOOOOOOOOD. They KNOW old AND new houses and they've seen it all.

Best money we have ever spent and this great binder besides.

If you are lucky enough to need an inspector in Chicago, call:

Tomacor
333 W. North Ave., Ste. 342
Chicago IL 60610
(312) 475-0835
tomacorinsp@aol.com

I don't know if other out-of-state inspectors use this binder, but Tomacor would know and it wouldn't hurt to contact them and ask. They are courteous and professional.

Mission Accomplished!

We've finally finished the tearout work on the second floor!

This was something we'd wanted to finish by the start of Summer, and since close definitely does count in tearout work (just like in horse shoes and hand grenades) we declare the mission accomplished!

It is amazing how open the whole second floor feels with the walls and ceiling removed. There is lots of space up there! The photo above is from the master bedroom looking to the stairs. (The lathe you see to the left is the stairway wall, which at this point we aren't sure we'll remove.)

The photo below is the floor as seen from the opposite direction, from the top of the stairs into all three rooms. (They're smaller so they'd fit side-by-side. Click on them to enlarge each one.)

We're thinking we can keep some of that openness with some small tweaks as we refinish things. For one thing, our friend Dave (an architect) and his daughter Addie (clearly a future artist) stopped by the other day to help us with ideas. They both made useful suggestions:

• Dave suggested we put small interior windows along the ceiling on both sides of the hallway. These would allow light to come into an otherwise dark hallway without disturbing privacy.
  
• Addie thought it was important that we have lots of toy horses around to play with.

A Very Long Day

Saturday A's dad came over and we all worked on the second floor. By the end we'd outlasted the sun and only had the light from a few halogen worklamps to go by.

Needless to say we're too tired to write a whole lot. :-)

Managing the Projects...Regrouting

Well, we kind of "backed into" a project and, last week, I was wondering how we got there. Let's debrief together.

Our chimney and cheek walls were a mess. Someone had "tuckpointed" them with pure cement...no lime. We needed a liner for the boiler flue and cap for the chimney to prevent the brick from spalling (we were already seeing efflorescence).

Then we discovered the interior section of the chimney behind the knee wall was in dangerous shape. Lots of missing mortar meant possible carbon monoxide being leaked into that space. Oh yes, and the flue for the chimney which was going to be tough because the concrete cap on top of the WHOLE thing only has one opening.

And chippy blue paint needed to be removed from the brick and concrete steps.

We talked to two contractors who told us that our only hope was to completely rebuild the chimney above the roofline, rebuild the cheek and sidewalls, powerwash the steps and repair the chimney below the roofline. The bricks on the house would be either a) mis-matched (they don't make that size anymore), or b) very expensive to find and buy that quantity of matching vintage brick.

It was too much. We couldn't afford it.

We did find a recommendation through a local home improvement network for another contractor. We called, he visited and even demonstrated how he could carefully grind out the old material and put new mortar in. We could save the old bricks, replace the mortar and spend less money.

This is where my management skills fell apart.

Because of many distractions, I broke my #1 and #2 rules:

1) Get references and see previous work if you can.
2) Get the proposal in writing.

The work was difficult to schedule because it was weather dependent. It was just one craftsperson and his helper. They showed up one morning and started removing the concrete mortar (as best they could without hurting the face of the brick).

Up until that point we only had a verbal agreement on price and the scope of work. Plus Aaron and I had spoken with him separately. My understanding was that the price would cover the grinding out of the porch walls (cheek, columns and side), the chimney above the roofline, the removal of the concrete cap so we could put a two flue cap back on, and the repair of some mortar problems on the chimney below the roofline. We talked about getting a price on liners later.

He showed up to do the grinding, I didn't have a proposal, but he had started work and was a very enthusiastic, dependable sort. He was there when he said he would be. He took great pains to keep the site clean and neat. I went out to talk with him on a break...he went to write up the proposal but there were a lot of distractions that day and his hands were dirty. I reassured him that giving me the proposal before he left was fine.

Unfortunately, our beautiful weather turned to rain and they needed to quickly secure their work from the elements. By the time they were ready to call it a day, they had been there for almost 10 hours. He reached for his clipboard but hesitated. I sensed his fatigue and told him to bring me the proposal copy Monday.

Monday, he was prompt, this time with two helpers to make the work go a bit faster. They were grinding and blasting the paint on the front porch so I couldn't leave the house through the front door. I'd injured my back and hd another person for a different project coming through. Then they set up shop on the second floor and fixed the chimney from the inside. By the time I could get outside via the back door to the front, they'd already mortared the chimney and left for the day. But I never got to choose the mortar and the chimney cap was still there! And no proposal. And they only had one more day.

The next day, the back pain was even worse (was this possible?) and I was exhausted from lack of sleep (pain), not thinking straight, worried about work and a class I was looking forward to teaching. They'd started before I was up and had blown through mortaring the front walls and cleaning up the steps....finished and needed to move on to their next project.

The proposal, now more of a description of what was done, was exactly the agreed upon price. Now it appeared that there was a misunderstanding about what was covered in the original quote which was entirely likely.

I was a bad client. I should have insisted on a detailed proposal in writing before work even began. Luckily, their mortar match was pretty good...I would have liked a little more input there and perhaps have known more about the ratio of Portland Cement to Lime to Sand. But a language barrier made technical questions difficult.

At this point, we got lucky and the work is quite good. It only presents a problem where that blasted concrete chimney cap comes in. I don't think we can chip a hole in this current one. And removing it means removing a few rows of bricks with it. Bricks that have just been freshly mortared. In fact, I was never entirely certain that it could be removed without a complete rebuild above the chimney line...that was our hope. But we never had a written proposal to guarantee it.

So...no fireplace chimney flue for now. Still need a liner for the chimney and a raincap.

But the mortar has been repaired.

I wish I would have known about THIS site and Colorbuilder program before work began so that I could have seen my color choices for mortar. I think I would have considered choosing something different but then that would have required more grinding out and tuckpointing and....

Sigh. Oh nevermind. Learn from this. Communicate, communicate, communicate. Luckily, this was a very honest contractor and the only surprises for me were my own fault (through poor communication). It could have been much, much worse with someone who wasn't so trustworthy.

Leaky roof...drip, drip, drip

While we have been working on the second floor, a few thunderstorms have blown through the neighborhood.

While we are tearing down the old ceiling, we found a roof leak that still hadn't been repaired. The hard way. Drip, drip, drip. On us.

I got a bucket.

Looking for a way to fix it, I stumbled across this explanation.

And I'm going to pursue this leak! We will find it!

Agh.

Until then? The bucket.

Sistered joists, sure...but sistered walls?

We spent much of this weekend doing more grunt work upstairs...today it was reinforcing an existing wall with new 2x4s.

Why did we have to do this at all? The original builder made a rather strange decision when building the original hallway...

Once we'd torn out the plaster and lathe in the hallway and bathroom, we realized that this particular wall was framed running the 2x4s 90-degrees askew. You can see what we mean in this closeup of a few of the boards:

We have no idea why they would have done this. The only benefit we were able to determine is that it made the hallway or the bath 2 inches wider...not that anyone would notice. The downside of the approach is that some of the boards bowed over the years. (90 years)

So, we decided to reinforce the wall by adding back the typical 2 inches...which we did by "sistering" the entire wall.

2..4...6...8...Ventilate!

I'm being pulled to look at patterns in the house, but...before I do...I've got to figure out the business of this ventilation meets insulation situation.

Dig?

Two things to know about ventilation in the attic...intake and outflow. All of this has to happen above the warm part of the house. Folks with other houses would have a soffit that runs down the length of their house for the intake part...like this:

(Courtesy of Royal Homes)

Instead of soffits, we have eaves and raftertails, like this:

Hmmm. So we need to get intake in somehow. We have a few outtake spots...some static roof louvers and a powered attic exhaust fan. But is it enough? There are equations for this kind of thing:

In a house with a vapor retarder (which we will have), the minimum requirement is 1 square foot of ventilation for every 300 square feet of attic floor space. (via AirVent)

Figuring out our attic floor space is a tad difficult, just because the construction of a bungalow roof has funny knee walls and dormers. It isn't completely square. All angles and slants. Darn.

Going under the eaves and THROUGH a super old stucco wall will be no picnic. Especially when we will have to work our way down bay by bay. Really high up there.

Since the inside of those bays look like this...

I imagine that those under the eave vents near the top of the wall in each bay will look like one of these:

(via Dixieline)

Perhaps get some passive gable wall louvers for the north and south wall...like this:

How ever we do it...it isn't going to be easy. Or pretty.

Any ideas out there?

Fine Homebuilding has a great online article about insulation, ventilation and old houses...check it out if you want to know more...

Lesson Learned - Insulating a Vaulted Ceiling

So our goal has been to install beadboard on the vaulted dormer ceiling in the master bedroom. My father and I have been working on the room for the past few weekends and had made quite a bit of progress. As an important first step, we identified an Owens Corning product specially designed for insulating vaulted or "close" ceilings:

Bottom line? We picked the right insulating solution but should have read the fine print a bit more closely once work on the master bedroom had begun.

Here are the specs on the insulation from the Owens Corning website that I found in my initial research...

Or at least that's how I remember it. So, my Dad and I set about to sister all the rafters to allow us to use this new insulation. (The original boards are 2 x 4's!) We picked up 20 2x8x8s at the nearby Lowe's, did some quick work with the chopsaw and we were done!

About that time Jeannie wandered up to admire our work. As she was admiring it (she really was being supportive!), she asked about the insulation again. Specifically, she wanted to make sure that we had allowed enough space for air to circulate between the insulation and the roof as it traveled from the intake to the exhaust ventilation. After assuring her that everything was just fine, she went downstairs to "check something."

A minute later she was back upstairs with the laptop showing us that very same Owens Corning webpage I'd originally read through. Lo and behold, there was the same table. But what was that subtle difference in the specs she pointed out...?

2x10. 2x10!? Where did that come from!? Yes, either I'd missed that detail the first time around or Owens Corning had gone and changed their website (and product specifications).

Anyway, some quick thinking (on my Dad's part) and another quick trip to Lowe's and we were back in business! We ended up toenailing an additional 2x4 on the end of each 2x8. The resulting 2x12 will insure that we now exceed Owens Corning's minimum requirements for insulating a vaulted ceiling. And here we are:

So the lesson? It isn't just about picking the right product of good quality--you have to pay attention and install it correctly, too. Or wait, was the actual lesson learned always listen to Jeannie...

Hmm, can there really be two lessons learned on one project? ;-)

Patterns in the House

Sorry about the uneven posting schedule. I've been waking up sitting on the couch with the laptop on my knees and the lights in the room blazing. Such is insomnia...one minute you're awake and the next minute you're wondering "Wah? Wah is this rice cake still doing in my mouth?" Especially when you have pets. Hungry pets.

Anyway. It was during another insomnia-fueled episode that I took these photos while looking for the patterns in the house.

Some of the clues are: the role of uneven numbers, especially threes; borders; and "x = y". Intuitively, this house appealed to us before we even figured out that these patterns existed here. In our old bedroom, we had a dresser that illustrated the basic principles in this house:

Three rows of three squares each, each square bordered and all the squares bordered again.

As I walk through the house, I see the pattern of three vertical panels in every door:

I see the uneven numbers and borders in the tiles of the entry way (7 geometric starbursts right in the door with a border around the edge):

Squares on the borders even :)

The x=y equation is sometimes a little more difficult to see. The joints of our original moldings are known as "butt joints" (we didn't name them!) This is different from mitered corners.

You can see this best in the original trim around doorways and windows. The width of the vertical flat trim pieces (x) are the same width as the horizontal flat trim pieces (y). So the look is extremely balanced. A little decorative trim on the top (and bottom if it's a window) lengthens the look without compromising the balance.

Then you look to where the border trim was replaced years after the house was built. X does not equal Y here...and it sets my teeth a little on edge. Obviously, some folks would think that I'm a goof. And I am. But it's something in my bones. I respond to balance and patterns and form.

Except in my sock drawer. Or my closet. Don't look in there.

A unique solution to cooling off: Part 1

Four weeks ago, Coco and Dave the Cat were complaining that there wasn't enough space for us to ALL huddle in front of the window A/C unit. I guess Aaron and I WERE taking up a lot of space.

So we researched and talked and researched and talked, and then we called:

This Guy

Tony, from Unique Indoor Comfort in Elmhurst

Why Unique? Well for a couple of reasons:

-They have extensive experience installing the high-velocity system we preferred

-They demonstrated impressive knowledge about the system and how it could fit into this house

-This house isn't framed to provide any soffit space and even less knee-wall space. We are short on closets that can be sacrificed. We preferred the airhandler at the top of the house along with the cold air return. (Physics of hot and cold air.) Unique easily overcame all of those things.

-Their installations were high-quality, low-profile and (best of all) they were concerned about quiet...(shhhh)

-They had a history of experience with older houses and historic homes in Chicago and produced MANY references of houses in Chicago who had a variety of time living with installations similar to the one we were considering.

After the specifications and paperwork were turned in and approved, we were good to go!

Impressively, some of the people who designed the Unico System work for Unique. Their experience with the system's requirements and design was extremely helpful. We were able to comfortably fit the air handler in our attic space, and it was chained to the rafters to cut down on vibration.

It was installed to work around our existing electrical work and attic access...one cold air return at the top of the house cut down on the amount of openings in the walls...

Balloon framing assisted with running the ductwork to the first floor ceilings.

The thorniest problem by far was running ductwork from the attic air handler to the front of the first floor.

There was no easy way to do this because of the placement of a header for a large double-opening on the first floor.

Also, on the second floor, the vertical bays extending from the attic to the floor are "broken up" by our unusually wide set of prairie-style windows.

(Remember this period of time? Boy...I sure do!)

More on this story in a future installment...

Vent! Vent!

After I recovered from the blues & greys on Saturday, I moved it into gear on the second floor. (It's hard to stay down when you hear your dedicated spouse really working it up there. Just the guilt alone propels you out of your funk...)

So I borrowed this handy tool from our awesome neighbors, Krystina & Jay.

It's a Makita hammer drill designed to give your drilling a lot more "umph!" Necessary when you are trying to drill holes for bullet vents through a few layers of 90 year old wood and more than a few layers of stucco.

I cannot convey properly in words how DIFFICULT it is to drill through this stuff. Even with a masonry and wood circular drill bit. I felt like the world's biggest wimp!

(Above my head, you can see where the raccoons gnawed on the overhead rafters. That's all over the place up there. Our house was a big teething ring for various families of raccoon babies before we moved in.)

Aaron gave it a try, putting his 6'7" body into it and made a LOT more headway than I did in a much shorter amount of time.

This succeeded in putting my wimpy feelings over the edge and I made a pledge under my breath to fit in my old weight training routine between house and work.

I'm hoping that if we can get center holes drilled all the way through the stucco from the inside, we can spend a lot less time outside drilling the larger 3" holes back in from the stucco side by lining the circular bit up with the center holes.

That's the plan, anyway.

Old Plaster Ceiling Finish...

We thought the Dining Room ceiling was JUST drywall. With a bad tape job.

And a strange, out of place chandelier.

Turns out that it is drywall OVER the original plaster.

And the original plaster had a very cool surface treatment. We can't figure it out. It is like nothing we've ever seen.

The colors are light variations on yellow...the palest of yellows. The texture is smooth but you can definitely feel that a coating is on there. It is only slightly shiny and it is hard...not something you can chip with your fingernail. Like a yellow varnish, almost. It is hard to describe.

The installers found this piece when they were drilling the careful holes for the air-conditioning ducts. We all marveled at it...even the experienced installers. And they KNOW old houses.

Anyone have an idea what this finish is?

Back to the Boiler

Chicago weather. Hot. Cold. Hot. Cold.

So, in preparation for the upcoming winter, we had the boiler serviced. If you recall, last winter, we were having some funky problems with the boiler. We needed to shim the radiators to stop some knocking. We were properly maintaining it by draining off the sediment in the boiler on a very regular basis (once or twice a month). But...water was being added back to the boiler until it backed up into the pipes and out of a couple of steam vents in the basement.

Our steam boiler :)

We do love steam and hot water heat. There is nothing like a warm radiator on a cold day.

But we want this boiler to work correctly. We want to keep it clean and efficient.

Unique Indoor Comfort stopped by to examine the boiler. And noticed something that we missed!

The low-water level control was working...it was putting water BACK into the boiler when the level became low. But it was OVERFLOWING...it wouldn't stop. And it backed right up into the pipes again and through some steam pressure vents in the basement (we thought we had a leaky pipe!)

(You always want to have a clean site gauge and properly working low-water shut off valve. Although it is much more rare these days, boilers without this essential element could explode. Luckily, many boilers in old houses have a low water shut off control...this is something that building codes require. Anytime you get an old house, and an old boiler, make sure you have the boiler maintenance folks give you a proper inspection and lesson. Or check into some self-education.)

We took it out and checked to see if the level was dirty and needed to be cleaned. But it was pretty clean. A few more tries. Unique really threw themselves into this! They were determined to make this work rather than replace it.

But in the end (sigh), as we know at House in Progress, we have a lot of old things that need to be replaced here. We applaud their efforts, patience in educating us, and their service spirit. And we are looking forward to using our NEW low-water level unit.

Raindrops are falling on my head

Remember the ceiling leak? Way back when?

Well, yesterday we did get around to finding that. I had been such an Eeyore about it . Poor Aaron was overwhelmed with my visions of the snow and ice and rain and everything else that would cover us this winter if we did not find and fix it imMEDiately.

I was being pretty grouchy.

Some days are like that. One of us is motivated and the other is not.

This weekend, it was my turn to wring my hands and moan about the house, fret about our camping with a mortgage, and want to pull the covers over my head and hide. Being the more dramatic (read: royal pain) of the two of us, I tend to moan a little louder and sigh a little more deeply. Therefore, I am Eeyore.

Aaron, demonstrating the good sportsmanship that he is famous for, takes the bucket of water to the roof.

We know where the water was dripping when it made it INside, but that doesn't mean that is where the leak is OUTside. Water is famous for leaking into a roof and then traveling down rafters or other things, falling vertically somewhere lower than the leak.

So, Aaron took the water to the roof and--starting low--began to pour it onto the roof below where we thought the leak was. I kept an eye, and a tissue, on the underside to check for the leak.

Eventually, bingo! Found it. And patched it using "roof tar."

No more buckets on the floor, please.

And no more cranky Eeyore, please.

Skylight Installation

As I said yesterday, here are photos of the two new skylights Jay installed in our master bedroom. Jay, our neighbor, worked evenings during the week and finished up this morning (which explains the varied lighting in the photos we took).

Jay's a former carpenter, so we were thrilled to get his help....

Here are photos of both skylights installed, both from inside and from the roof outside.

We didn't document the installation in great detail, but there are plenty of good tutorials on the web. Here are a few:
- Lowe's step-by-step instructions
- Do it Yourself.com's overview
- Homestore.com (with airplane emergency card-style drawings! )
- Bob Villa (features video, although this is a sun tunnel installation)

Contest: Worst renovation project EVER!!

Really...we shouldn't feel better when someone shares our pain.

Being human, this strange coincindence DOES make me feel better. It is yucky and twisted. So, Derek of Human Improvement Hell in Massachusetts sent us a picture to, um, make us feel better.

He found the Mother of All Mouse Nests. In his house.

(If you click on any photo, it should enlarge it. For those of you who have never seen it, this is original KNOB and TUBE wiring.)

I think that this needs to BE A CONTEST!!! Send us a digital photo of your worst renovation nightmare. Get it as detailed as possible. Include the story. We'll have folks VOTE on them and we'll be giving out FABULOUS prizes that we find somewhere in the house.

Photos need to be in by October 1st at 12:00 midnight and sent to owners@ houseinprogress. net in order to qualify.

Anyone, here is Derek's story. It goes with the picture:

I clicked on your site after making my daily check on AM Bungalow and had quite a chuckle to find somebody as eager to restore their home as we are and just as miserable. First of all the windows are awesome. I have done the same thing with mine. I kept 'em against the advice of seemingly every person on the planet who say their drafty, noisy yadda yadda yadda. But they are unique and original so they got restored and look awesome.

Anyway, Our Bungalow is a 1920 Mission style stucco nightmare... I mean diamond in the rough. Put it to you this way, in great shape we could get 350K for it easily. We bought it for 180. It had been a rental, and then vacant for 3 years. The sill was rotten, chimneys crumbling (both) and... well, there isn't enough room to list other maladies. BUT, it was intact, not having ever been re-muddled. The bones were there for resto---though they were riddled with osteoperosis. I am a school teacher with summers off. This year I planned to do three rooms. Started with the pantry. The original butler's pantry had been ripped out years ago( the only missing element of the house). Once I ripped out the plaster and lathe I found what was literally a ten ft by 2 ft HOLE in my house. There were four rotted studs, subfloor rotted out (no idea why italics sorry). A miserable black hole of house a project. Its coming along but tomorrow I will cut off about 70square feet of stucco so I can replace the side of the house.

I am sending along a picture of the "worlds largest mouse hotel" that I found. But you know what, I love the look on people's faces when I show them my work. They all seem to contemplate their own home maintenance inadequacies and just begin to nod drunkingly when you point out s**t you've done. My buddies don't bring their wives over any more because they leave with long to do lists and their wives just glare at them contemptuosly (can't spell that word) because they "haven't un-stuck that double hung window", or "fixed the whole in the screen door."

OK, by rambling on like this I've avoided sweeping broken plaster but since I've lost the sense of taste due to a plaster coated tongue, and I can't breath through my nose, nor blink, I better go clean up.

Keep up the good work.

Derek

______________________________________________

You GO Derek!! I am behind you!!! I salute your mouse nest...and your gumption.

Anyone else with some photos? Anyone?

Design Quirk #238: Interior Windows

You may recall a good while back, our architect friend Dave came by with his daughter Addie. We took them upstairs to check out our progress--at that point we'd just finished tearing the walls down to the studs.

Observing that our second floor hallway (the photo above) was a bit bland and isolated, Dave came up with a fantastic suggestion: open up the hallway with interior windows!

Installed high to the ceiling on both sides, they could provide natural light, create a more open feel, and tie together the whole second floor. It was just the type of design idea we love--a bit of the unexpected when you reach the top of the stairs that can make that space feel special.

I had no idea then just how much work that simple idea would require...

But before that, a bit about the design itself--where exactly would these windows be? Well, Jeannie came up with the best location that would create a sense of symmetry in the hallway but also feel right in each of the adjoining rooms (a second bedroom and the master bath). The window locations J chose are perfectly aligned on both sides of the hall as well as with the exterior windows in each of the adjoining rooms, and just high enough to let in light without compromising privacy when someone walks down the hallway.

Jeannie taped off the space so that we wouldn't accidentally cross the space with a stray run of Cat-5 or conduit.

So the other day I finally got to work roughing-in the windows where Jeannie had marked them. All started well--I took a few measurements and then marked off the rough opening using a level. It was only after my first few cuts that I realized my problem: one of these two walls was the infamous "sistered wall". On that wall, the original studs were installed 90-degrees off (the boards were turned to the side). They were still installed 16-on-center, but the resulting wall was 2 inches deep instead of the typical 4 inches.

As a remedy, I'd "sistered" the entire wall with additional 2x4s to build it up to a normal depth. I thought this would be helpful because the interior windows would be the same depth. Now the problem was that every measurement on one wall was 2" different than the other wall! To make the two windows align I'd have to shim everything. My head almost exploded.

To make a long story a bit shorter, I did eventually figure it out. It actually wasn't that tough conceptually, but getting all the various measurements and cuts right involved more than a few errors along the way. I'm pretty convinced it would have been less work if I had just re-built the "sistered" wall in the first place. It would have been cleaner construction, too.

Anyway, here's the finished product, all framed out and ready for drywall, glass and window casings...

Master Bathroom Redesign

(Psst! You. With the computer. You have two more days to vote in our "worst house project" contest! The votes are streaming in, so make sure your vote is counted!!!)

Some of you may remember our past contest. And you also might remember the winning entry of that contest. Kristen's winning design ultimately directed us to the bathroom design we're now working towards today. But even with these decisions made, our detailed designs for the bathroom have remained on the drawing board for a while. Since that drawing is nearby, here you are...

(click on the images above to see enlarged versions)

Actually, these drawings don't reflect ALL of our latest thinking.

There will be an obscured-glass interior window above the toilet (that wall is between the bath and the hallway. Therefore, the light fixture shown will actually be to the left of the built-in cabinet. These drawings also don't do a great job showing the detail between the toilet and the door--that area will bump out to surround the stack, providing a bit of privacy for someone "using the facilities." ;-)

That said, they do give a general sense of what we hope the room will look like eventually. I'm particularly excited about the beadboard wainscot. It will be a nice visual tie to the beadboard ceiling in our master bedroom.

There is a lot of detail work to do around the sink--we're hoping to install two medicine cabinets on either side of the mirror. We're also trying to figure out the best way to fit in our laundry chute around there--right now the door for it is located below the pedestal sink.

There you have it. Well, except for that little part of actually building it... sigh

What NOT to do

Have you ever had one of those restoration weeks? The kind where nothing goes right?

Fixing the wood trim last week with a cycle of carving out, water-resistant Bondo, sanding and priming went pretty well. I was feeling good...we were cruising!

But this week? Not so much.

When I came out to sand down the Bondo-repaired wood, it was gooey...like Silly Putty. It couldn't be sanded.

Worse? It had rained over the last 48 hours and the Silly Putty/Bondo directed the water right where we didn't want it to go. Right into the space between the original sill and the extender.

Someone in the house's past had nailed a piece of wood to the original sill that made each sill project out further. This probably happened right after the most recent layer of stucco was applied (over the original stucco).

But that left a seam between two pieces of horizontal wood directly taking abuse from snow and rain. When I stripped the paint, I left the rotted wood exposed and covered with Bondo. Great. It was swollen with water.

Bad enough that I just had to take the extender off and trash it. Luckily the old sill was very hard wood...it would survive. The extender was a soft wood, which needed to be hardened and protected.

So, one of two things happened. I either grabbed the wrong kind of new Bondo container (the kind for cars, which has to be protected from water immediately with primer and paint). Or I didn't stir in the hardener in well enough. My guess is the mixing.

Either way, it was three days of work...gone. So I was back on the ladder again today.

And all the dog wants to do is play. I don't think she likes the ladder.

Gearing Up for Winter

Winter. Cold. Water. Snow. Ice.

Protect. Protect. Seal. Protect. Protect.

Get cover for external air conditioner unit so it doesn't get full of water and snow.

Wrestle it on.

Update: After lots of consistent feedback (thanks readers!) we've decided against the AC cover. Our HVAC installer also confirmed it--they can cause more harm than they prevent by holding in moisture that can damage the equipment. The better alternative? A plywood board across the top to simply protect from falling ice.

Let there be...

I asked my husband to design some light into our soon-to-be-sanctuary and...voila!

Let there be light!

Oh, yes. And Aaron worked on insulation a lot today too.

Which was also very nice. He's an incredibly thoughtful guy.

Wall Insulation Question

As Jeannie mentioned, I've been insulating the second floor (with some valued help from my dad) the past few days. A bit later than I'd hoped but at least we're beating the start of the true cold season by a bit.

For the walls I've been using standard kraft-faced R-13 fiberglass batts. (More of a write up on that coming soon...) Anyway, I've run in to a question and figured I'd throw it out to visitors of the site...

In the case of stud bays that are filled with the duct work for our high-velocity air conditioning system, should I cover them with kraft paper?

I know the kraft paper acts as a vapor barrier, so I'm inclined to think that putting kraft paper over this area would make sense, too, but I'm not sure. I don't even know what material "kraft paper" really is and if you can buy it alone.

So, suggestions anyone?

The House the Internet Built

(Image courtesy of CNN.com)

Having a blog like this one is the gift that keeps on giving--twice in the last two weeks, we've gotten great advice from readers that has changed our thinking.

First, several folks (including our HVAC installer!) discouraged us from using an air conditioner cover for the outdoor condenser during the winter. Their advice--a plywood board resting on the top--will still protect it from the harshest elements but won't trap moisture inside like the cover could have.

Second, after posting a question about using kraft-faced insulation, readers consistently pointed us to 4 mil plastic instead for a tighter seal (i.e., a combined air/vapor barrier).

So, thanks everyone and keep the advice coming...our house wouldn't be the same (or as interesting to work on) without you!

Survival. A Renovation Reality.

We're hunkering down here at HouseinProgress for a long, cold, dark winter. Very Little House on the Prairie.

This is partly due to the fact that short days work against us; can't work much in the evening. And partly due to the fact that I am, once again, going through a wicked, messy med change that makes a hospital bed sound very, very good.

So, we aren't advancing in leaps and bounds. Poor Paul (hi Paul!) pulled his back recently and so the second floor bath...? Not going anywhere fast. Backs are important and they get priority.

We need to seal up the house against the elements and quickly! Aaron is working on the insulation...I'm trying to do my part as well.

Right now we are into keeping the house warm and saving money on heat.

We put up the storm windows last weekend but I think we lose a couple of them somewhere in the house each season. Currently there are 4 full-sized ones and 3 tiny casement ones missing.

Is this like socks in the laundry? Where do they go? No, really. Are we the only ones stuff like this happens to?

So, we have entered survival mode. We've even whipped out that kinda tacky but "make-do" product....

...insulation plastic for windows! (Ohhh, pretty. Not.)

Right now, I have a few hours each day where my body will do what I ask it to do because of this health mess. I keep chanting through gritted teeth, "Baby steps. Okay, one thing each day minimum. One thing. One thing..."

Tonight, that one thing was my focus on window locks. Once I get layers of paint cleaned off of the window locks, I can reinstall them and make sure that our double-hungs are tightly locked this winter. This presses the wood into the frames and forms a seal against drafts.

So I cooked up some hardware soup late last night...mmmm. (Tudor and Verona Jeff from the Bungalow Forum turned us on to this one.) It's great for quickly removing layers of paint from hardware. Just a little water, a little baking soda, and...voila! **

Coco is less than impressed with my soup. Nothing for hungry Labs here.

It's all about staying warm and getting things done in small steps. I wish it was more about making things pretty right now, but this IS survival. A renovation reality.

** (If you use this technique, don't use a pot that you use for everyday cooking. Because there might be lead paint on that hardware. This little pot was sacrificed from the Boy Scout Room in the basement.)

Stripping the Woodwork

If the house is cold, put on a sweater and break out the Silent Paint Remover.

(Click on the photo to enlarge it. Admire the nice stain on the wood!)

You'll be warm and have nice woodwork in no time. Later on, I'll use it to heat up leftovers.

Sadly, it is more trustworthy than my oven.

Front Porch Evolution...the year in review

Wow! We are so close to having the welcoming front porch we would love to have. We're just a door, a mailbox, house numbers and new exterior paint job away from PERFECTION! (Or, at least, very nice and better than before.)

Over Thanksgiving weekend, my dad and I worked on the front porch light together. It wasn't straightforward because of the age and the installation of the wiring.

Here is the "muddled" light (not original to the house...and not in keeping with the style of the house.)

We got up there, took the old one down, made some changes, and strung up the new one. That is, once we had figured out the optimal height for Aaron, our 6'7" house occupant. :)

I love learning new things from my dad. He can be a very patient teacher when he forgets that I'm a girl :) After that, he'll let me handle the screw driver and drill and everything!

I'm kidding. Working alongside of my dad or mom (or my in-laws or pals) embeds positive memories into this house. Everytime I turn on a certain light, or look at a window, or hang something in a closet, I'm instantly reminded of the person who stood next to us and helped us to hold that piece of wood or pipe or wire.

That's another cool part of this process that we wouldn't get with a modern, already-assembled house. And I'm glad that we get to experience it.

Dad, we'll keep the light on for ya ;)

Still camping with a mortgage?

Last night, I was searching for some information about the house that I couldn't remember. And I stumbled across old notes and photos from our very first tour inside.

It's hard not to want to "grade" your progress at this time of year. Time still seems to move very slowly. And, because we are still working inside of the walls, progress looks like chaos.

It really was a bit more chaotic back then, although it is difficult for me to see that sometimes. Does it still feel like we are camping with a mortgage, as I wrote to our pals on the Bungalow forum in June, 2003?

Well. Maybe not AS much. I used to come home to this...

Now I come home to this...

We used to have a lot of these that didn't work and blocked the sunlight...

...now we have re-built windows and no need for these. Which is means lots of sunlight.

So.

What is the next large project we'll be tackling?

We need to transform this. (Photos taken right before we moved in.)

Yes, all of those pictures are from the second floor bathroom. The one we used last winter. Where we had to turn the shower on and off with a wrench and there was no heat.

Please wish us luck. And stop by if you'd like some s'mores.

I Married the Maytag Repairman Woman

So you may recall that Jeannie had previously fixed our dryer. We were all understandably impressed.

But when the washer broke, I'll admit that I was skeptical. You see, a dryer seems relatively simple to me--it spins and clothes rotate until they're dry. But a washer is a whole different ballgame--there's water involved!

Anyway, I shouldn't have underestimated my wife...

In this case, the washer stopped mid-cycle. It didn't spin. It didn't agitate. It didn't drain! It just sat there, full of water and soaked, soap-filled clothes. What could we do?! (Besides pick the clothes out and let them drip dry in the sink?)

Well, after just two days of research, Jeannie diagnosed the problem and ordered a replacement part over the internet.

Me? My first instinct was to quote Consumer Reports--"consider replacement over repair for washing machines older than four years." Four years--a clear cut case, since our washer was over ten years old.

Jeannie, of course, goes right to the fine print. The real rule of thumb from Consumer Reports? "We suggest fixing nearly anything in its first year, especially if it's under warranty--and replacing products, regardless of age, if their repair cost exceeds 50 percent of replacement."

So, while a service call to diagnose and repair our washer could reasonably exceed 50% of the replacement cost, the replacement part itself is likely much cheaper.

Sure enough. Jeannie has determined that we only need this: a "washing machine lid switch assembly." The cost? Just $26.30 from RepairClinic.com. The pump is fine. The agitator is fine and she was able to get the thing to drain by manually activating the lid switch wires.

So let's all raise a glass to Jeannie--a likely successor to the Maytag repair man if he ever chooses to retire!

When is a 2x4 not a 2x4?

Actually, I've known it for awhile--modern 2x4s are smaller than they used to be. As lumber mills became more sophisticated over the past century, the industry settled on the modern dimensions to maximize the number of boards they could get per tree.

That's all fine and good, but I didn't expect this difference to cause so many problems as we worked on our second floor.

More tomorrow...

Survivor Bungalow: Temporary Kitchen Makeover

OK, here's the scoop.

Our budget will carry us through most of creating a "clean space" to live in on the second floor. We'll still have a lot of work up there...but this will finally be a clean space for us. No open walls, no open ceilings, no open floors. Whoo hoo!

But we need a survival plan for the kitchen.

(Kitchen before we purchased the house.)

We know that we will have to be living in the kitchen without any major changes in cabinetry or appliances or such for at least five to seven years (if not longer). So the kitchen has to be made more useful and safe (and attractive) without a lot of investment right now. Triage only.

So, I'm going to put a (somewhat) 180 degree view of our kitchen up here. It is not pretty. But I love you, our gentle readers, for not making fun of our...um...really "interesting" kitchen space. Which will now be on the Internet. (sigh)

(Click on any photo to make it larger.)

I know. It's AUGH! in the round.

Checklist of things not useful/attractive about current kitchen:

• Counterspace is in woefully short supply
• Exhaust fan for cooking is not close to the stove. (It is across the room.)
• Walls are dingy and difficult to clean of soot and (gross!) old food stains. Wallpaper in some areas is torn and peeling.
• Floor is unprotected maple with patches of other wood where exterior wall and porch once were. The old finish is patchy and there is danger of water damage unless something is done. They've historically been finished with Tung Oil.
• Huge nails have been sunk into the floor in many places. Nails with large flat heads.
• Original hardware for cabinetry is gone, so cabinets do not latch and they swing open.
• Not enough cabinetry for everything needed.
• Window in kitchen was enlarged at one point to extend below counter height. Windows are glued into wall and do not open.
• Tiny dishwasher. But is does work now! So at least we have one.
• Old electric stove with unreliable oven. Burners take a long time to cool after stove is turned off.
• Backsplash is unprotected.
• Refridgerator is too large for the kitchen space. But it is new!
• Original backdoor has wood where the glass should be.
• They left three of the built-in's in place. (Hooray!) But they are heavily painted and the doors have particleboard where glass used to be.

  That just gets at some of the major issues. We'll tackle some of the details in future idea sessions...

  
  
  
  

Too Much Going

This seems to have become the guilt and handwringing blog, of late. I guess one can only take so much dust, reduced living space and general chaos before it starts to wear you down. ;-)

The real kicker for me? Unfinished projects. It just seems like we've maybe started too many things.

I'm hoping a recap here will bring some sort of moment of clarity in which I can priortize some of this all and figure out what we could actually get some closure on...

• Laundry chute - Boxes built, waiting to be mounted in the closet.
• Structured wiring - Wire run to all locations on second floor, but still need runs to first floor. Termininating each location should be time consuming, too.
• Second floor - The big one. Really this is where we've been focusing because it really is important that we get back to a more sane living space. Alot remains here and the next step is really to get Paul in to prep the bathroom. Drywall should be due up soon, too.
• Stripping woodwork - We've got two projects here really...the first floor sunroom and all the second floor trim we'll be re-installing up there.

Given that we've been contemplating even more new projects in our recent entries here, I really want to get closure on one of the open projects soon. I really expect we'll want to move in upstairs before we do the cosmetic kitchen makeover and I even hope we can get several things done before our new front door arrives in 6-8 weeks!

Present Kitchen, Future Kitchen

I'm actually getting a little less depressed about our current kitchen with all of these great ideas coming in. w00t!

Here is the layout of the current kitchen:

(Courtesy of IKEA's Kitchen Planner and Paintbrush...you can click on it to enlarge it)

I used Kitchen Planner because it was a free online tool that required very little set-up. I wish I could have done more to adjust the measurements of the cabinets and so forth, but for free? Well, I managed to make due.

We have a few ideas for the future kitchen, but they aren't fully formed. So, for now, we can use the ideas suggested that don't create a problem for a future plan.

Future Kitchen #1

Many of the design changes inspired by Kitchen #1.

Too tired to post more tonight. It's to bed with me.

Entryway Light 1, Super Bowl 0

I spent most of the Super Bowl last night finally installing a new light to replace one that wasn't a good match for our place.

Did I mention the entry way is right next to the TV? ;-)

My favorite commercial? The one with NFL players singing showtunes.

Spring Cleaning, Out of Season

So today was the first Saturday in awhile where we got up and actually spent most of the day (all day and evening hours) working on the house. This was even more amazing to us given the fact that by 'working on the house' we don't mean writing for this website or (even more frequent these days) reading websites about other houses.

It didn't hurt that it was almost 50 degrees in Chicago today. (A heatwave, people!) As a recap, here's what we did on this beautiful not-Spring day in February...

Rolled out of bed at 7:30 am to confer with our pal, Paul, who's helping with the tile in the bathroom. Because making four crooked walls, a slanted ceiling and a slanted floor look normal requires a bit of an intervention.

JM started in with the aspirin at 8:30 am. First batch with morning coffee! Dog is still sleeping.

The warm weather got us out into the garage to reorganize and pitch a lot of junk we'd accumulated there over the cold months. We got pretty far--we can walk around in there again! Unfortunately we didn't get far enough to allow for a good snapshot of the arts and crafts sideboard we got ourselves for Christmas, so posting photos of that will still have to wait.

Dog is still sleeping.

Momentum then propelled us to the first floor bedroom--the one we formerly were using until the ceiling came down. Since then, gaps in the exposed beams above have allowed a layer of dust and gunk to form on everything we've been storing in there...much like the morning after a new snow...except that this stuff doesn't EVER melt and it sucks to clean it off everything. Especially since the Dave the Cat got loose in there. His fur is a magnet for sawdust.

Later it was a quick trip to the lumberyard to spec out the beadboard wainscoating we'll be using in the master bathroom. Paul has already told us he's going to need the exact trim depths when he does the pattern we want on the tile floor. We had to use advanced math and geometry skills on not a lot of sleep. Always a bad idea.

Yep. Dog is still sleeping.

More cleaning. More scrubbing. Dusting. We filled both of our garbage cans, part of our friend's garbage can (he offered!) and part of my parents' garbage cans. Garbage pick-up is....Thursday. It's Saturday.

In some way, it felt we were getting back on track again. After several weekends where I didn't want to set foot upstairs at all (and often didn't), it was good to feel like we accomplished something. Hopefully, we can keep that feeling and make some good progress in the next few weekends!

But tonight? Tonight, we get a satisfied night's sleep. Except for the dog...the dog is still awake.

AND. WILL. NOT. SLEEP.

Back to Work!

OK, down to business. After a fair amount of downtime and time spent on other things, we began the next phase started upstairs--with reinforcements to help!

Yep, our friend Paul and his team will be helping us with the master bathroom. You remember the upstairs bathroom, right?

Yeah, that one.

Well, that was a long time ago. At this point, it actually looks a lot different...removing the walls will kinda do that to a room.

(Actually this is an older photo, but I'm tired and it's dark upstairs now...)

Paul and his crew are going to pick up from here and do a lot of the specialty work--laying tile, installing the custom glass for the shower, and such. Basically the things that would take us a million years and still wouldn't look exactly right. Especially since the room in this old house is no longer level and no longer has nice "right angles" to work with.

Paul and crew are perfectionists...the perfect choice to help make a lopsided tiled room appear square.

The guys started out laying a new plywood subfloor for the tile and also framing out the area where the new sink and shower will go. For a quick reminder of our plans, check here, or for a real trip down memory lane go back and check out the contest we held to help us get design ideas!

Hopefully, with some help, things will start crusing along now. The guys are coming back to put in a little overtime, even, and get a jump on things. Hooray!

Things are Taking Shape

It's so pleasing to admire professional work with Paul's team onsite. Especially when things have been in disarray for a while. Even small things like the well-built frame of a future medicine cabinet can bring a lot of hope.

I feel compelled to say that we probably could do this ourselves, and have in fact done a lot of the framing upstairs up to this point. This wall, however, is going to be integral to our new shower and that was a task that we decided we really should contract out.

The tight fit of the room (see here) and the glass and tile work required made us nervous that any errors could be costly and/or visible. We're just not ready to take on a project with so little margin for error, so getting professional help seemed to make sense.

The other important benefit is speed--these guys do in a day what we'd do in a weekend. We're actually going to have a second bathroom some day!

Up next we'll post some photos of the shower framed in...

Cool Portable Table Saw!

Apart from the craftsmanship, it's also neat to have Paul's crew around for the cool tools they bring to the site. Like this portable table saw.

(And no, we're still not getting one ourselves any time soon. )

Paul has been pretty productive with it, so soon we'll have some more photos to share of the framed out sink area and even the new shower enclosure.

Stay tuned!

Custom Shower Framing Complete

As promised, here is the framing for the shower.

Paul's guys have done a great job, packing alot in a space that will be compact but very efficient...

The medicine cabinet (this one) will be to the left in the first photo. Then there is going to be a second storage space to the right of the sink--just above where that Dewalt case is sitting on the floor.

Here is the bathroom way long ago (August 2003!) when we started out.

The second photo above shows the framing of the shower. The angle of the ceiling made us decide that we'd need a custom shower. The dimensions of the floor pan are above average--36" x 48"--but not overly luxurious. (Our friends Dave and Carol still have our dream shower--4' square!) Regardless, I've stood in the space and it will definitely be large enough for a 6'7" guy.

Our shower's size will be a bit reduced by the "neo-angle" cut out where the door will be. It makes the actual shower space smaller but was unavoidable because of the dimensions of the room--you can see in the second photo at the top that there is a bump out from the opposite wall where the vent stack is enclosed. Without the angle cut the shower wouldn't allow enough room to pass through the center of the room.

So anyway, Paul's guys made so much progress that it's time to insulate the bathroom walls. More on that later.

Working for Your Contractor

This has got to be one of those experiences that do-it-yourself'ers can bond over...those times when you feel like you work more for your contractor than they work for you.

I took a morning to insulated the bathroom. Paul's team finished up the framing for the new shower, so insulation the outer wall is the last thing that needs to be done before they install the durock and the drywall starts going in.

Insulating is clearly something in the 'DYI' category--a project that we can manage and a chance to save some money on labor.

For some reason, though, it seems like I'm working to fit in to the contractor's schedule instead of the homeowner that writes the checks. It doesn't have anything to do with Paul--his guys are great--but work has to be done in a certain order. I'm just lucky when it does indeed fit perfectly into the schedule of a "weekend house warrior".

The Durock is in the House!

Paul's team has made a lot more progress in the master bathroom. The Durock backing for the shower walls and the tile floor are in place. What is Durock? Good question that the folks at US Gypsum answer here.

The next thing up will be the walls. Not just the bathroom--the entire second floor!

You know what that means--things upstairs will no longer look like this:

Hard to believe, really. We've lived for so long with this situation--the photo above is from late June last year--that it's hard to remember that it's ever been different. And to think that I'd hoped we'd be done with the second floor last fall!

So, we're talking to two new contractors--a plasterer (our first choice) and a drywaller (our backup). Our plan (ever since we had to tear out the second floor walls) had been to go with a historically-accurate plaster skim coat over blueboard, but lots of people have told us that price will be an issue. So we're getting bids for drywall as a backup.

More on that to come!

Home Improvement Projects at a Glance

We've added a new overview of our active projects to our home page, down just a bit on the right hand side. For each project, it displays a percentage completion. It's a rather subjective measurement, but it does help show others what we're (supposedly) working on and keeps us motivated too.

If you maintain your own houseblog, you can add your own version pretty easily: instructions are available here.

Restoring a Clawfoot Tub

We were really excited to find an old clawfoot tub through a friend for the upstairs bath. It had a few layers of chipping paint on the outside, and the inside had been "flower decal-ed" (a la the 60's)...but, all in all, it was in great shape. Solid iron.

So, how do we bring this tub back from the brink...?

First, a call to our pal, Tim at Aquarius Limited...he had refinished our downstairs tub if you've been following along.

And the inside is smooth and beautiful. All the way out to the edges of its rolled rim.

Then, I had to go to work with an orbital sander and some heavy grit sandpaper on the outside to prepare it for primer and repainting. I'll follow up with a finer grit before we actually put the primer on.

Surprise! When I got down to stripping the lion's paw feet...shiny metal underneath! We will paint the outside white...but I think we'll leave the feet shiny and silver.

p.s. Just a quick note...be very careful when choosing a contractor to refinish your tub. There are many fly-by-night companies who will train people to refinish tubs too quickly, or without proper materials/techniques. You want someone who is very familiar with the different types of refinishing techniques, who will prep and ventilate the work area, who will offer a warranty on the finish and who will educate you on how to care for the tub. We got a referral through Midwest Chemicals...a manufacturer of tub refinishing products.

Ouch.

For a while we'd been posting about our intentions for the second floor walls.

Specifically, when we had to tear out the original walls (extensive water damage to the wood lathe as well as years of the raccoons using the ceilings as their litter box), we did so on the condition that we'd re-do the room with plaster as well.

The plan had been to use a technique called plaster skimcoat--a sort of hybrid approach using a sheetrock-like material called blueboard as a base, then covering the entire surface with a single pass covering of plaster. Faster and cheaper than original plaster, it offers many of the same benefits regarding durability, look, and integrity with the original period our home was built.

That was the plan. Unfortunately, life didn't work out quite that way...

After getting several referrals, we solicited two quotes--one skimcoat and one typical drywall job. Our thinking was to do this as a first round and, depending on what they came back with, we'd then get a third quote to cross-check things before moving forward.

Both contractors came by, took the measurements, and discussed some of the same pros and cons regarding unique spots in each room. (There are some unusual angles....master bedroom ceiling, the "nook", the unusual closet.)

The wrinkle came when the quotes came back--they were WAY different. We knew that any type of plaster work comes at a premium, but the size of the difference caught us off guard. This wasn't just a gap you could drive a truck through--you could almost buy a truck and then drive it through this gap using the difference in price. Yikes!

So we were faced with no real choice--neither our budget nor the future value of the house could justify a plaster treatment as we'd been quoted. We talked to the plasterer, and while he could have cut some costs here and there ,it wasn't going to make a significant dent. He didn't seem at all surprised that he was out of our price range, actually. Either he does this kind of work in the "higher end digs" around town, or he mainly just sees repair and restoration work on existing walls. There are tons of restoration projects going on in Chicago, so it could also be the market.

On the flip side, the drywall quote seemed unusually affordable. Maybe it was just the difficulty of getting our minds around how much cheaper it could be done than plaster for what is basically four walls and a ceiling. We might have been suspicious about the quality of their work, but they came on recomendation from Paul (friend who is in house restoration) and he's a real stickler for quality work.

So, that was it. Kind of a gut-wrenching tragedy and a non-event all wrapped up in one. There was really nothing to do about it, but it was hard to get slammed with such an unexpected surprise.

Wall It Up

Well, we survived the delivery of the 5/8" drywall through the front windows of the second floor. Barely. My nerves are still recovering.

Walls are up. This is pre-taping and pre-mudding.

With funky angles and openings galore.

This stuff is SOOOOOOO heavy. The acrobatics required to actually get this on the ceiling still boggle me.

And hey! Walls! How about that? It's been awhile.

The real bathroom :)

Sorry for the little April Fools joke. We couldn't resist. The tile is in upstairs.

Just to remind you...here is what the upstairs bath looked like before we moved in...

When we moved in, we cleaned it up and had to use it while the downstairs bath was being done.

We also had an Open Source Bathroom Design activity. (Boy, that was long ago!)

We tacked up our REAL inspiration from a magazine...

And here is the beginning of the transformation...

Looking back, we wish we would have used only one line of blue trim on the perimeter of the room because it makes the area between the shower and the boxed-in bathroom stack look a little narrow. On the other hand, it visually seperates the room into two distinct sections which is nice for sharing the room.

Here's a close-up of the tile. We're using a combination of 1" hex tile, 1" square tile and subway tile from American Olean. The blue is a match for the unglazed mosaic in the front hall entryway.

And getting the tile to look straight in an old room where there are no perfect 90 degree angles? That was some brilliant craftmanship on the part of Paul's team.

Taped, Mudded, Ready to Paint

First up, lesson learned. PUT LOTS OF TARPS OR PLASTIC ON THE FLOOR WHILE IT IS BEING MUDDED. Around the edges isn't enough. Obviously.

Walls and a ceiling. Okay. This is starting to become a reality, right?
Maybe we'll get to move up to the second floor by the end of Year #2. We only have a couple of months to pull that off.

Sigh.

Now, the stess-inducing decision! Choosing a color for the walls. Argh. This room goes through such extremes in light and dark due to Chicago weather. We the want the color to be warm AND relaxing, yet not too bright or too dark. A color that fits with nature. And matches the dark trim we're putting back up. And matches the bed linens.

Argh! Decision overload alert!!!!

The new front door has arrived!

Whoo hooo! The new front door has finally arrived! We have to stain it and install the hardware before we put it in, but it will look so nice eventually.

The current door is a very plain and awkward door from the 60's or 70's that the previous owner installed when they took the original door out. It makes the front hallway very dark and doesn't look very nice on the outside (or wear very well.)

Here is what we currently have:

Soon, we might fit in with all of the other bungalows in the neighborhood who still have their doors.

Thanks a Mullion

I have been stripping the windows and I need a better technique for taking paint off of the windows mullions.

This is a mullion.

Luckily, it is latex paint over the old shellac and stain. (Not lead based paint.) But it is one VERY WELL ADHERED coat of paint.

The process has been excrutiatingly slow since I can't use any heat (will crack the glass). I've been carefully dry scraping off the latex using a blade. But the scraping sound of the blade as it skips off of the paint is like fingernails on a chalkboard. Ack!

This might be the only way to do it, but if there is a BETTER way, which won't hurt the glass, I'd love to know about it.

Any techniques that you could share? Thanks (a mullion)!

Mullions and Mullions

Whew. Seven windows. Seven large, painted windows in our sunroom. And I'm seeing mullions in my sleep.

But the work has been paying off.

Whoo hoo! Stripped windows! I've been using a special scraping tool on the mullions and it's been working pretty well. (It looks like this...except mine has a tiny bit of a curve on one side to follow the pattern of the mullions.)

I just have to be careful around the few damaged places that I've found. Decades of condensation soaked into some places and rotted a little bit of the wood because the windows had never been cared for.

I'll have to carefully sand these places down and try to match the stain.

The old shellac and tiny flecks of paint need to be carefully removed with denatured alcohol and steel wool. Then we will need to reapply the shellac.

After that, I'll weatherstrip them, insulate the window wells and the spaces behind the trim, and tighten the hardware. And we should have nicely restored windows! Someday.

Back to the mullions...

This is My Window to the World

Aaron was working on the laundry chute this weekend, and I was on windows duty. Restoring windows duty.

I won't get into the restore vs. replace debate here. We're restoring. For us, it's less expensive because the current windows are in good shape. After we tighten them up, and get all of the storms repaired and put back, they will be extremely weather tight.

Upstairs, that meant repainting and weatherstripping the bathroom windows with spring bronze. We used primer on the outside for our future exterior paint job (to protect the wood) and used primer and white enamel on the inside to protect the wood against condensation and humidity.

(We're going to try to restore the stain and shellac of the other windows in the house.)

Finding a local supplier of spring bronze was not easy...the big boxes don't seem to carry it anymore. Thank goodness for small neighborhood hardware stores! They were able to get me rolls of spring bronze for (about) $6 per 17 feet. It will work but it isn't as tough as the old stuff I found in the basement. I wish I had 200 more feet of that!

I installed the older stuff with tiny bronze nails and the newer stuff with galvanized staples.

I was able to disassemble and reassemble the windows using my handy copy of Working Windows. (A seriously brilliant book.) Anything that can walk me through removing the parting bead without breaking it...that is good writing.

And I began insulating the window wells with a combination of Great Stuff, Johns Manville AP™ Foil-Faced Polyisocyanurate Foam Sheathing and CW Venture Tape. A trick that I learned from Tom Silva on Ask This Old House, I confess. (Episode 119)

The work is slow and careful. Each day I have to settle into a groove and find my rhythm. Sometimes it's difficult to imagine getting beyond the windows...walking by the windows and just looking out of them instead of focusing ON them.

And on that day, I'll look down at my knuckles and there will be twenty-five scars from the scraper and the heat gun...one for each restored window. A map of the house's windows on my hands.

Aaron will be holding hands with the windows for the rest of our life together. A nice thought.

We Have a Bathroom Door!

As part of our work this weekend trimming out the master bathroom, we also re-hung our bathroom door. When we realized that we were going to be forced to tear out the plaster and lathe walls upstairs, we took some small consolation in the fact that we could still retain the original solid core Prairie-style doors (and all of the trim, which we carefully removed). In the bathroom, the same door is going back in.

Unfortunately, like all projects, reinstalling the door turned out to be more complicated than we'd expected...

This time the problem was entirely of our (read as "Aaron's") own making. When I framed in the new doorway, I didn't realize quite how much you're supposed to allow for the rough-in space. In my case, this meant that I installed the header about 2" too low. Because the new tile for the bathroom floor added a bit of height to the floor.

Luckily, the trusty Bosch electric planer was ready for the task.

To make it fit, I had to start the installation by reattaching the door to the jamb BEFORE the installation. Then I planed the bottom of jamb (which we also saved) almost an inch and planed the door an inch plus an extra 1/8" (which is the recommended clearance between the door and the floor).

From there, it was on to the actual installation. We each handled one side of the door, and after a few tense minutes when we seemed to have locked Jeannie in the new bathroom (OK, that's not really true) we seemed to have it level.

I'll note here that there's a pretty specific technique you should follow when re-installing a door (Jeannie took a crash course courtesy of a back issue of Fine Homebuilding, January 2001), in order to correct for weight shifting and balance as you set it in place. The goal is to prevent the door from running aground when it's opened. There are steps you should follow: where to place the shims, where you place the first nail, second nail, and so on. Jeanne did a pretty nice napkin drawing of the steps, actually, but I can't for the life of me find it right now so instead I'll just treat everyone to this funny photo she took of me nailing in the jamb.