One Sixty: Chimney Holes, Stair Stringers, and Other Surprises

Chimney Holes, Stair Stringers, and Other Surprises

All of a sudden and out of nowhere - chaos! Yesterday evening, the chimney guys arrived to begin construction. Yes, yesterday evening. They arrived around 5pm and worked until nearly 9pm. After those few hours, we had two brand new holes in the basement wall:

And outside, we have the start of a chimney nearing ground level:

Bad news, some of our materials are the wrong size... the liners do not fit. Mike's going to have to make a call and see if we can get them exchanged. Once that's taken care of, the guys will return and it's up, up, and away with the rest of it.

Believe it or not, while the chimney guys were working, our neighbor stopped by and told us that our carpenter told him that Home Depot had the stair stringers we needed for the porch for just $15 each. He was going over there and offered to pick them up for us... uh, ok? And sure enough, he was back around 8pm with four stair stringers. So... the porch is all of a sudden happening again. After the stair stringers, we really don't need to purchase much more. The biggest ticket items will be the two railings and the 6 post end caps. Which I suppose I'll be ordering soon?

If that wasn't enough, I've still got bathroom on the brain. Last week I visited Lowes and picked up a brushed nickle mirror for over the sink:

I also ordered the Rubbermaid FastTrack Pantry Kit - from Amazon. Theirs was just $116 with free shipping, as compared to Lowes $149. (And I did check it out while I was at Lowes - they had one left in stock and it had already been opened. No thank you. It was meant to be, I saved big bucks buying through Amazon instead.)

The kit is due to be delivered next Monday, so I'm hoping Mike will be able to take a break from all his other tasks to install it for me.

Blog Story

My now husband Mike and I purchased this quaint home back in spring of 2004 - our first home - and, being the handy folks we are, expected to have the entire thing renovated in about a year or so.

And here we still are... renovating away.

This house needed a complete overhaul. Its plaster walls were uninsulated, its attic floor covered in 2" of bat guano, its basement - dirt and snakes, its exterior - asbestos siding, and lead paint windows in every room. The electric had not been updated and light sockets hung bare from the ceiling. Plumbing featured cast iron radiators - and only one for the entire upstairs.

We began by gutting almost the entire house from top to bottom. (sans bathroom - we needed to pee) We rebuilt the entire upstairs, with a new floor (not new carpet or wood - the once unstable framing underneath) and turned 3 small rooms into two. We reinvented the downstairs by turning a closet into a hallway and eliminating interior exterior windows and doors from old half-assed additions.

New insulation, windows, electrical wiring (including phone and CAT-5 internet), plumbing and baseboards, and drywall were all added.

We purchased kitchen cabinets from a yard sale. (None existed previously.) Our families helped us replace and purchase new appliances including the once also missing washer & dryer.

Then we had the entire house lifted - straight into the air - dug out the dirt, and had a real basement foundation poured. We updated our oil tank and burner and created heating zones.

Outside, we took down trees and planted grass. We dug out an awkward hill to create a 2nd part to the driveway and used the rocks our house once sat on as a retaining wall. We electrified and repainted the garage.

And of course, we spent many an hour on finish work like paint, trim, closet doors, lighting fixtures, hardwood floors, curtain rods, dimmer switches, and many other things everyone else takes for granted. We are still working to complete all this final finishing, but happy to report that we are FINALLY nearing completion of all little things in all rooms!

In 2008 we began overhauling the exterior by creating a new french door entryway and building a farmer's porch and garage addition. We replaced our roof and then stripped off our siding and replaced with new clapboards. We then planted two new flowering trees and a maple in the front yard - our first major landscape purchases. I'm happy to report that here in 2011, the porch is nearing completion and the back yard is on the road to recovery with some new loam and grass. More plantings soon to come!

In 2012 we plan to attack the last MAJOR (emphasis on major) job in the house - the dreaded BATHROOM! We plan to first add a second bathroom in the basement. Then, demolish our current bathroom and rebuild it, adding a second bathroom on top for the upstairs.

And that pretty much brings you up to date. The battle continues day to day as we try and complete everything.

2 comments:

Plumbing said...: Regular cleaning of your chimney is an important part of maintaining your chimney. It is also necessary to do it in order to reduce the risk of chimney fires. But cleaning your chimney doesn't mean just making it look nice and shiny. When you clean your chimney, you remove all of the hazardous and extremely flammable creosote in addition to the soot that tends to build up with regular use.; 11:49 PM
Kermit Lukacs said...: It seems that your chimney contractors are doing their best to do so much each day along their construction timeline, don’t you think? It’s really important to hire worthy contractors that can deliver the type of service that’s worth the long-term gain. Anyway, by the time you get your chimney up and working, be sure to have it swept regularly to prevent ash and soot from accumulating.

Kermit Lukacs; 12:09 PM

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Chimney Holes, Stair Stringers, and Other Surprises

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