Wow, Other Wall

The crazy pace continues relentlessly. Sunday, Mike tackled the other side of the outside basement door. Starting early in the AM, he had plywood up and half the shingles before lunch time. We went to the Home Depot and picked up more trim boards, white paint, and flowers for our moms.

After lunch time, his parents came by and he and his dad completed shingling on that portion, set up the scaffolding, ripped off all the old stuff off the next portion, took out a living room window, plywooded, and put up the Tyvek. Oh, and did I mention our carpenter came by and finished up some flashing on the left side, up at the top? Yes, it was that kind of a day.

Shingling is done here

Adios Window - Hello Plywood

Much like the upstairs window right above the living room, this particular window was crooked. Not because we installed it incorrectly, but because we installed it in a crooked house. Then, we lifted the house to add a basement (this was years ago now). We leveled the house (as much as we could) when it came back down on the new foundation, but that made the once straight windows crooked! Especially on the back wall of the house.

As you may recall, the upstairs window on this side was leaking water into the bathroom... and kinda started us on this mad shingling spree. Though the living room window wasn't leaking, it was still crooked. And, as such, it was difficult to get out. It was just wedged hard in there! But it needed to come out so that new plywood could be installed behind it.

The plywood will be cut and the window re-installed. But by the time the guys had reached this point, it was the end of the day.

TyVek Up - No More Window

 So what could be more insane then a Sunday like that? (Happy Mother's Day to me, by the way. I got to go to BJ's... woo? hoo? It is what it is. Renovation life.) Anyhoo - more insane? Today. Today Mike wrangled a couple of his friends into a do-or-die re-do-all-the-rest day. Last night we talked logistics... shame that I can't be there today to oversee, since I helped him plan the most efficient course of action. On the goal list:
* Strip the tippidy top of the back side of the house, near the roof line
* Re-install the living room window
* Plywood and re-shingle the remainder of the house backside
*Strip the old siding off the entire other side of the house (pictured below)

*Install an octagonal window (that I've had in my basement now for four years, awaiting this moment)
*Remove those two windows you see pictured
*Plywood and Tyvek that side of the house
*Re-install those two windows
*Put up siding (that we've had under that blue tarp you see in the lower right hand corner of the photo)

Holy shamolies.

Why on earth do we think this can get accomplished? A. There's four guys. B. So much work got done on Sunday. C. That other yucky blue side, it's the shortest, smallest side of the house. D. The siding, as opposed to the shingles, goes up upber quick.

My brilliant logistical plan that I came up with to get it all done efficiently?! Here it is:

*When the first guy (G1) arrives, start him stripping the blue part where the new octagonal window will go. While this is happening, Mike and his dad continue shingling/put in living room window.
*As soon as the octagonal window portion is stripped, put up plywood in that section.
*While Mike is putting up plywood, send G1 to the tippidy top of the back to start stripping there.
*At noon, G2 arrives just in time to begin installing the octagonal window
*By the time the octagonal window is in, G1 should have finished stripping the tippidy top - send him back down to stripping the blue side.
*Once the octagonal window is in, send G2 to the tippidy top of the back to install plywood and shingles.
*While this is all happening, Mike and his dad continue to shingle the back.
*If back is finished, send Mike and his dad to help strip the blue side.
*Once blue side is fully stripped, Mike and his dad remove the two windows and begin plywooding.
*G2, once finished with the tippidy top of the back, go down to the blue side to help plywood, re-install  windows, or siding - depending on where the other guys are at in the process.
*Any back shingling that needs to be done can be accomplished by Mike, by himself, later in the week

This all might be a fruitless mission impossible. Typically in an old home, there's always something that goes awry and screws up even the best laid plans. Nothing to do but try your best and hope for some luck.

Would You Like Windows With That?

Ok, so I'm stoopid. I'm checking out Monday's post and reading right there in my own writing, "no windows [on the left hand side of the house.]"

This is entirely wrong.

There are two windows - the two living room windows - on that side. DUR. But the siding will still be easy. In looking at that side of the house, I forgot that our gambrel style roof goes waaay down. Like to the level of the first floor ceiling. Yes, we won't be siding up two stories even!

Incredible - that's not a lot of siding at all. I can see that side really getting done sh*t quick....

Second Time These Windows Sent Somebody to the Hospital

An explanation for that title is certainly due. Several years ago - pre-baby, pre-prego, for sure, I had a TRIP at my house. (TRIP = Totally Random Incredible Party) This TRIP was in honor of my bday, a small affair that turned a little crazay thanks to a little green fairie.

We were all in the kitchen when Mike tripped (literally this time) and his hand landed on one of the old windows... and when right through the glass. And me? I was so excited about the window breaking. "I hate these windows!" I think I yelled, and started punching out the remaining glass panes. I may have destroyed the neighborhood had the guys not pulled me away to the sink, where they washed my now bloody hand and bandaided me up. Then I ran off and started dancin' but that's another story.

Mike and I post-accident at the TRIP with Wigs!

The next morning, Mike and I woke up with swollen, painful wounds on our punching hands and had a nifty story to tell the morning crew at the ER.


That was the FIRST time the old kitchen windows sent someone to the hospital. Now let me set you up for the second time.

Sunday, Timmy's son had a brand new baby - so he was definitely excused for stair-duty. But Mike decided to get started anyway. He dug and poured the one needed sonotube footing.

He also prepared and poured the larger slab footing.

But after that, he was excited to rip off the siding on the kitchen. Excited... PSHAW. You couldn't keep that man from his mission. But I'm proud to say, he set himself a stop point. He'd take the siding off, but not the old shingles underneath. Good thing. If the shingles came off, that was the point of no return. Shingles off - you have to put up plywood, take out the old windows, and tyvek. And at this point it was 1pm, soooo... yeah. Shingles off - he'd be working til midnight.

I'm proud to say he stuck to his stop point too! He took off the siding and then cleaned up and that was it!

Here was the outside of the kitchen - this morning.

We're getting to the hospital story now...

So today Mike got some free time and decided to finish up the job. He took off all the shingles and repaired the sill, which was leaking air like crazy. I talked to Mike on the phone and he said he could already feel a difference in how the room was holding heat. Awesome, I thought.

Now... somewhere between the shingles off and the plywood on, there was an incident. I'm still not quite sure of the details, but basically - nail gun + foot = mucho malo. (Our framing gun has gained itself a little bit of a temperamental reputation. I'm scared of it, personally.) Thinking it wasn't so bad, Mike kept on working. He took out the windows and completed the plywood.

Unfortunately, by the time I got home from work, he was in a whole bunch of pain and decided to go to the ER. He's probably on his way back right now, actually. He sent me a text and said they had to cut into his foot. Sounds terrible! I almost don't want to hear the details. And I definitely don't want to see the foot, but I know that's the first thing he's going to want to show me.

Anyway! (I'm not thinking about it!) Those windows were cursed, and I'm so happy they're gone. This is not a trilogy!

On a lighter note

After this morning's rant-post, I now have to return you to our regularly scheduled programming. When we last left our heroes, they had a long weekend to-do list....

And do it we did! Boy did we do it.

First thing in the AM, we replaced the old leaky dryer vent with the new one.

BEFORE

AFTER

Next, I got up in the attic to see what was up with the track light wiring - was it wired or what? Well, it was wired. So the problem was in the connection of the track light wire to the recessed light box. Turns out, Mike had to squeeze in there and reconnect. But that got it working beautifully!

By then it was early afternoon and Mike's friend JP was over to help us with the french door caulk and pan. So they made a little lunch, then took out the door, caulked all around, installed a drip pan thing at the bottom, and re-installed the door.

Here's the bottom of the inside of the door where you can see the metal drip pan folded up on top of the doorway. Now we're all ready for tile! (Although not this weekend.)

JP left shortly after the door was in, which left us to our next task - the kitchen window! And to think, I don't even think that was on Friday's to-do list! Mike just offered to do it after a giant wasp got into the kitchen the other day.

I wanted a huge sill on this one - for misc junk 'n plants 'n stuff. So we picked out a 10" shelf-like sill as you can see here. Unfortunately, we didn't have time to finish, as we were headed out to the first BBQ of the season down in Yarmouth.

But Sunday. Woa Sunday. We started the morning by working on the window again - but soon realized it was taking way too long - and we had to pull the siding off our house and make it to the dump by 3pm! Crazy time schedule, eh?

We switched gears and started tearing off the old blue siding - only going up 4' because we didn't have enough plywood or time or money to do more then that at that moment.

Here you can see that under the old siding is even older shingles. Can you imagine? So even when we got the siding down, we then had to pull off the shingles.

You can see Mike starting here on the shingles. And for once we thought to put down a tarp first to contain the mess! Finally - I think we're learning! (Takes us a while, ya know?) This way, we were able to just drag the tarp to the truck and dump it.


Under the shingles - barnboard. The stuff that's probably circa 1910.

And, unfortunately, we also found some rot under all that shingles/siding. Look here at the bottom right of this pic and you can see a large beam is crumbling. We replaced many of these during the house lifting process, but the problem with this one - it was covered up on the outside, and looked perfectly solid from the inside. Just goes to show you - you never can really tell what's rotting....

Luckily, this beam was the only one that really needed replacing along the entire front of the house. Great news, actually. So we finished loading up for the dump - dumped the demo - and then stopped at the DeepHo for a PT beam and some 3/4 ply.

When we got home, Mike used the large wooden T we made for leveling the house to jack it up just under the rotted beam. (After the house was put down on its new foundation, it was not level. Our carpenter had to lift the house in portions using the T and jacks and then add wood to the sill to even it out.)

Then Mike cut out the old beam using the sawzall, adding a couple smaller jacks to the sill as it was cleared of the old beam. Then he cut and inserted the new beam and lowered the house back on it. Phew. I always get so nervous when it comes to jobs like this. If that corner of the house were to fall because of a jack failure or anything weird like that.... I don't even want to imagine the repercussions.

At this point, you've noticed the pics have stopped. Of course, Sunday was also mother's day. And unfortunately, Mike couldn't leave while the house was still jacked - so I had to head over to the folks home all by my lonesome.

By the time I got back that evening, Mike had the entire front of the house plywooded. I was just in time to help clean up and get the Tyvek on. At this point it was just getting dark. Mike was so exhausted. But we did it. We got nearly everything done that I'd listed out.

I can't wait to see what this weekend will bring...

Walls, Windows, Trees, and Motivation

The madness continues on!

I've barely had time to breath this week - and let me tell you, it feels good.

Lets rewind the this week's tape back to last saturday morning...

8:30am - We're up and at 'em and out of the house, headed on cape.
9:30am - We arrive at Mike's parent's house, and the guys start taking down trees. I head over to the vet's to drop off cat poo.
11:30am - Five trees are down and cut. Poo is off to the lab. The truck is loaded up with logs. And we're out again, this time to mike's friend's house.
12:30pm - Another tree is down in Yarmouth and we're on our way to Hyannis.
1:30pm - We've filled the gas tank and our bellies and are now on our way to the dump.
2:15pm - Dump is done and we're home and start ripping down the old side door.
4:30pm - Side door is out and the new window is in! We take a break for a light snack.
6:00pm - We randomly decide to get drywall. So, off to the DeepHo we go, and purchase drywall, screws, and some other supplies.
10:00pm - Most of the drywall is hung. We finally eat dinner and go to bed.

Here are some pics from Sunday morning:


Now for Sunday.

9:00am - Once again were up and out of the house, this time with an old dresser loaded in the truck.
9:30am - We arrive at my friend Amanda's place and give her the dresser.
10:00am - We arrive at Mike's parent's house to help them move their new 700lb gun safe into the house.
11:30am - We're back on the road, this time to try and figure out bike week accommodations at our friends' house.
1:30pm - No luck on the accommodations, so we leave for home. Upon arriving home, we start again on the mudroom. First drilling holes for the new exterior light location and doorbell. Then, back to drywall.
5:30pm - All the drywall is hung and we're ready for mud when our drywaller neighbor comes down and chews us out for doing drywall without him. He tells us not to do anymore and offers to come on Monday to do the first mud coat. We grudgingly agree and clean up our tools.
6:00pm - We're headed up the hill to the same neighbor's house for some stuffers and clams casino with drinks.
8:30pm - At home at last, we chill out for about an hour or so and then hit the hay.

So how do you like that for motivation, eh?

Another Day, Another Window!

Saturday was almost a complete bust. In the AM, we rushed out of the house after seeing missionaries coming down the street towards our house. But we had planned on visiting a friend of ours in Hyannis anyway.

After we stopped there, we went to check out some possible free Anderson windows. Unfortunately, they had been sitting outside unprotected and were no good. Too bad, there were 8-10 big, nice windows.

So, we went home. Hung out for a bit, and then went to Home Depot to purchase windows. For the first time, they actually had the windows in the sizes we needed in stock.... Or, I should say, for the first time, we actually had a need for windows of a NORMAL size. Most of our windows had to be special ordered because of the old non-16-on-center construction.

We purchased the two for the mudroom. One to replace that old window, and one to replace the old door. But by the time we got home it was 6.

Mike, that psycho, said, "When does it get dark? 7? Do you think we could put this window in by 7 - in an hour?"

And so we did! We ripped out the old window, and just caulked and nailed in the new one. It fit so perfectly - no additional prep work was needed. Amazing! And, we were done in about a half hour. Record time!

Out with the Old

A few nails to hold in those shingles...

And In with the New

Done by Sundown!

Now, replacing that old door with a window will take some doing.... That will have to wait until this upcoming weekend.

Whatta Weekend!

It's 7am on Saturday and my alarm is going off.

Instead of whacking it violently, like I usually do, I calmly turn it off and get out of bed. I hop into a pair of jeans, my black sheep shirt, and a pair of Chooka Love Hurts purple rain boots and head downstairs to do all those morning chores - you know, feed the cats, brush my hair, make some oatmeal etc etc.

By 8am I'm on the road, headed to the ER to have my stitches taken out. (Long story, don't ask.) I'm there before 8:30 and low and behold - there's no one else there! I get right in and those three little pains are out before 9. My mom pops into the hospital room where I am - we were supposed to grab breakfast together, but I didn't expect her to meet me at the ER!

We run out, through the rain, over to pickup my new glasses - which have been sitting at the eye doctor's for two and a half weeks. And then we head over to Panera's for a coffee and pastry. It's not even 9:30.

We just barely get out coffee and get seated when Mike calls.

"Where are ya?" he says, obviously just waking up.
"I couldn't tell you last night," I replied, thinking of the impromptu neighborhood bash he'd had in the garage the previous night. "But I had a few things to do in Hyannis this morning"

I listed off my to-dos and promised him I'd be home by 11:30. While I was away, he offered to start working on the mudroom. AOK - cool.

By 10 I was off and running again, this time to drop off my friend's scarf she'd left at my house at my b-day party the previous weekend. We hung out at her house for a little bit, and as promised, I was on my way home by 11.

When I got there, Mike was just finishing up some wiring. And I won't bore you with the unending details - but by the end of the day, we had reconnected the mudroom outlet power (returning power to the laundry closet, all outlets, and a couple of the kitchen fixtures), disconnected the side light and replaced it with a security light, disconnected and removed the side doorbell, increased the laundry closet door height to match the new floor (thus preparing it for new doors), and installed the new basement stairs door complete with trim, new hinges, and a new knob.

What a day! And I had been worried that my morning errands would make this day another wash.... But boy did we get a lot done. We would have even put the old side light on the front next to the new doors, but Mike didn't have his drill bits at home, so we couldn't drill the hole for the wire.

Sunday, I was able to get more accomplished - even though Mike was out riding. I did errands like cleaning, laundry, grocery store, home depot, gas - the usual Sunday stuff. But I was still able to put up my two new candle sconces in the living room, paint the new basement door and trim in the same off-white as the hallway, and install the last remaining outlet needing to be installed in the hallway.

What a fulfilling weekend overall! I was so psyched! I can't wait for this upcoming weekend. I hope to get the new windows for the mudroom and put those in - taking out that 'ol original side door in the process. With the windows in, we'll be officially ready for drywall!

And... dare I say it? That means we're almost done....