Some recent housework

I've been sporadically working on my house, but obviously haven't been posting anything up here about it. Lately, I've decided I want to have my kitchen ready for use by the end of the summer. This means having the walls framed out, new electric run, new gas lines, new water lines, new drainage, new ceiling and lighting, a window replaced, a new back door, new sub floor, the random brick chimney vent in the roof removed and the roof fixed. That's a lot to do and considering I really only work on it one day a week, I don't know if I'll get all that done, but I will have most of it ready.

I started by cutting off the water to the kitchen and removing the old iron piping that ran from the water heater to the back of the house (the 2nd floor bathroom is run with PVC). In the process of getting rid of that pipe, I learned that I didn't have to cut it, it could easily be removed at any joint by simply pulling on it. I don't know how clear the picture below is, but I removed both of the connecting pipes without any tools; it's almost completely rusted inside. Makes me happy I rarely used the kitchen sink and even gave Chloe water from a Brita. I also removed all the gas lines going to the back of the basement (Stove/Dryer) and the one that was going to my non-existent furnace.



I took out the ceiling in the kitchen (no pictures of that though) except for the light. The next step was to remove the floor. I made a decision that I was going to lay an entirely new subfloor because I wasn't sure what type of flooring I wanted and this would be the easiest way to be ready for what ever is decided. This is the back wall of the kitchen before I started doing anything.



The first section I removed was a huge pain in the ass because I didn't really know the best method of cutting everything up. The floor consisted of the original 3/4" hardwoods from who knows how long ago, a linoleum type floor directly on that, another thin subfloor with another layer of linoleum and finally a third subfloor with more linoleum. If you remember back to the beginning, there was also a layer of laminate wood floors on top of this. I ended up cutting the floor into square-ish pieces and pulling them up with a wrecking bar (my new favorite tool). I was able to get a decent amount done in a short time and was happy that I could easily see the results.



The joists seem to be in good enough shape to re-use, which is good because I had no intention of replacing them. I'm going to lay a temporary floor so I don't fall through, and hopefully be ready to lay the permanent floor in a couple weeks.

Fun with Layouts - Kitchen

Three cheers for progress ... at least of the planning variety



The cabinets I've been looking at are from Ikea and I like the Adel Medium Brown so far, but that could change. I would like to get a tall cabinet in the space between the fridge and sink cabinet but don't know if there will be doom yet until I demo and prep the kitchen and take better measurements. I already have my stove and matching overhead microwave.

Heading out from work early today to meet with a duct work guy.

Fun with Layouts - Living Room

I did this in MS Word because I am limited in the programs I have available to me (it is to scale +/- an inch or two in a couple places):



I got a great deal on a front loading washer and dryer set a few weeks ago so I have those sitting in my kitchen right now and that got me thinking that it makes more sense to have them accessible on the main floor than having to hunch over in the basement every time. Also, getting them down there would most likely damage them in some way since there aren't really any openings wide enough. I thought about putting them in the kitchen, but since I already need to have that part of the room sectioned off for plumbing and possibly HVAC ducts, it wouldn't be too hard to frame out an enclosure there.

I contacted someone to come out and give me an idea of how the duct work will need to be run and what I'll need to work into my layout; I'll post an update once I get that info.

I'm working on the other rooms now and will try to put my ideas out there so I can have a record somewhere to compare against when it ends up being completely different.

This 1 post a month thing has got to stop

I've been terrible with posting over the past few months but hopefully that will change. I've been doing a lot of planning for my house and been working extra hours so I can take off an extended amount of time and get a lot done in one shot. Some random stuff from the last month.

The holidays were a lot of fun and it was nice to spend time with the whole family.

We had our first big snowfall of the year; getting about 20ish inches. Chloe had a lot of fun but decided to run away when she got wind of a deer. Of course since she couldn't catch the deer, she decided the next best thing would be to find a group of dogs playing while their owners were shoveling. While posting my "lost dog" craigslist ad after searching for about an hour, I got a call from one of the people who's dog she was playing with. Only about 5 minutes away from where I turned back during my search, I was thankful she was found and went back out to get her.



The house directly behind me is being gutted and a sign on the front indicates they'll be building up, adding a third level and a rooftop deck. While cleaning their back yard, they tore down the cement wall between our property. I'm pretty sure this was mostly on my property and now there is nothing preventing people from breaking into the back of my house. I think I am going to research if I can take them to small claims for the cost of the wall, and they also broke some of my concrete yard. I'll post pictures when I take them tonight.

Lastly, I'm having trouble finding a vendor for metal stringers. Right now the company I'm planning on going with is in Canada and freight would be several hundred dollars. I may contact a contractor, but I'm planning on installing them myself and don't know how that would go over just to get the info from them.

Watch HGTV tonight at 9:30

Tonight is the night that two Baltimore house bloggers will be shown on the HGTV show, Bang for your Buck.

Corey and Leigh (congrats, btw) over at Baltimore Rowhouse

Jon and Craig over at Project Rowhouse

I've been to both of these houses (and am jealous of both) and followed their work through their blogs and can tell you this will be an interesting show to watch.

Bang for Your Buck is on HGTV at 9:30 EST.

Lots of wood to keep me busy

This will keep me busy for a while. Over 300 square feet for a new sub-floor.



More to come ...

I'm Back ... Kinda

It's been a long time since my last post but don't worry, you haven't missed much. I haven't really done any work to my house and other than a few fun nights out I've been pretty boring.

I have a pretty busy Memorial Day weekend as long as I can survive past the sunburn I got from golfing yesterday ... or at least attempting to golf.

This morning I am waiting for Comcast to show up so I can get faster internet (currently have slow Verizon DSL). I'll be saving around $15 a month and get about 3x - 4x the speed ... as long as my cable internet is as fast a my neighbors. While waiting in my 4-hour window, I decided to fix something that's been bothering me and really needs to be fixed for a multitude of reasons.

When I exposed the brick in the living room, I noticed that light was coming through from my alley. Today, I decided to scrape out the remaining mortar and clean the area so I could fill it back in. Since it's a relatively small area, i just used regular mortar for the outside layer and will fill the rest in from the inside with something different.

As always, instead of writing, I'll opt for pictures:


From the outside looking in


Living room to the alley


Outside layer of mortar

Once I get the rest of the supplies and finish the inside, I'll take more pictures.

Have a great weekend everyone.

Chimney TV Walls

I haven't posted anything in a while because I've been busy with friends visiting and doing other fun and exciting things that I could write about, but don't want to get back to this being just a bunch of pictures of me hanging out with friends.

The only work I've done on my house involves cleaning ... and it is definitely cleaner than it has been in a long, long time. I even had some of the aforementioned friends sleeping on the first floor. Anyways, the next thing I want to do is frame out around the chimney. This is basically what I want to do:



I used IKEA's room design freeware which limited me from showing what I actually think it will look like, but you can get the idea. The shelving will be built into the wall on both side and there will be a HVAC duct on the left side of the image closing in that section of shelves. The chimney will have a mantle on it with the flat screen hanging above. I am going to use an in-wall mounting bracket so I can wire electric to it and easily hide all the wires. I am looking at the Sanus LR1A system (below). It will bring the TV flush against the wall and also allow me to extend it out and rotate toward the "dining" area in case I am working over there and want to watch something.






If I find better freeware to use, I'll make a better mock-up of this and other areas I need to work on.

I have light!

I have more pictures from other work I did this weekend, but they are on my camera at home; this is from my phone. I am pretty happy to have this wired up the way I want it now. It will also make working on the rest of the first floor a lot easier.

Baby Steps ... What about Bob!

I haven't really dedicated too much time working on the house this week, but I have been doing small one-off things that I can finish quickly and feel like I made some progress. I decided to clean the basement area at the front of the house since there were large piles consisting of plaster, mortar and other random debris from working on the front wall on the first floor (a lot of the debris feel through the holes left from the radiator piping). I don't have a picture, but the front area in the basement is now clean and I will start moving some of my stuff in storage to that area. I also covered the radiator holes so more debris doesn't fall through (see duct tape on floor).

I installed the first outlet in the living room and had to place it a little lower than planned (was going to do 14" to the bottom of the receptacle but it would fit under the window so I did 12"). I am glad I did this one first because now I will install the rest on the first floor at the same height.



I also got a chance to clean up my kitchen and have that room in a state it will remain in until after my friend's visit at the end of April. I'll probably hang some drop cloth in the doorway between the living/dining room and kitchen so the dust from any other work I do is minimal.



Not sure what I am going to do when I get home tonight (after volleyball, of course), maybe start moving all the stuff in the basement to the front so I can cut down the remaining radiator piping this weekend, or maybe just partition off the kitchen.

Also, I should be able to procure a hammer drill pretty soon and once I do that I can finish wiring the rest of the outlets in the living room and turn that breaker on.

When I named this post "Baby Steps," I didn't really think about it ... but when I went to publish it, I thought about the movie What About Bob? and had to post a picture.

A little building, a lot of destruction

Look at that wonderful installation. I re-ran some of the wiring between the recessed lighting and cleaned-up the connections. I also sketched up the electrical layout for the living room and dining room and the stairwell light switch ... I would show it here but don't have a scanner and don't feel like drawing it in excel or paint or visio. The second switch in this box is going to go to the stairwell light but I need to get a 4-way switch to put at the bottom of the stairs and run the wiring to this 3-way switch. I also found out that the basement walls do not extend as far out as the living room walls and I'll need to cut into some brick in order to run the wiring for the outlet that is going to be next to the chimney; should be a great time ... anyone have a hammer drill?



After constantly tripping on the uneven flooring when coming in the front door for the past 2 weeks I decided it was necessary to pull up the rest of the floor in the living room. A short time later I am left with this hideous green laminate that has stains all over it. I thought the point of laminate was that it is stain resistant. Oh well, I'll be leaving several pairs of sandals around to ensure I never step on it barefoot.



Where to put all that flooring you ask? In a pile behind the door making it harder to take out when I eventually dispose of it, of course. I blame my friend Brian for not pointing this fact out when we were stacking it.



So, right now I have my utensils in a box, a box that is balancing on a pot, a pot that is in a pan, a pan that is on a stack of cutting boards, a stack of cutting boards that are on my microwave ... why? Cause I am a great friend that donated my main kitchen cabinet to my friend so he can make a liquor cabinet out of it.

Oh, oh, look ... more laminate ... it's so pretty, I can't contain myself.

Once I clean up the now vacated area, I am going to put my mobile island there and use that as my primary cabinetry until I determine how I want to design the kitchen.

The List that isn't finished

Let's see … what order am I going to do the rest of the work on my house?

Here is my master list (in progress) … some of the stuff may seem out of order and may get re-arranged down the road, but this is how I envision it going right now:

1. Run electric to living room of house (4 outlets and 1 light switch)
2. Seal/fill the gaps and cracks in the chimney
3. Frame out the area around the chimney
4. Finish all the demolition in the open areas (not kitchen)
- a. Expose the remaining brick in the stairwell
- b. Expose the brick on the wall joining the kitchen and living room
- c. Expose the brick under the stairwell
- d. Remove the wall under the stairwell to the basement stairwell
- e. Tear up flooring
5. Have HVAC duct work installed
6. Frame out remainder of the alley wall
7. Level the ceiling in between the living room and dining room
8. Hang the living room ceiling
9. Drywall the living room around the chimney
10. Run electric to the dining room (# outlets TBD, 1 ceiling fan/light)

That’s really all I have right now. I guess I can't really call it a master list since I don't have everything planned and I am pretty much doing what I can until more money starts growing on the trees I planted out back.

My big thing is that I want to have all the demolition listed above finished by mid April so I can have it cleaned up and removed before Vanessa comes to visit at the end of the month. I also want to have the living room in a relatively finished state even if it's not being done in the typical order so I have something to look at and motivate me to do the rest.

This whole experience is a, learn as you go, do what you can, when you can type thing and I really wouldn't have it any other way … it just wouldn't be my style. Of course, if someone wanted to buy me a complete house, I wouldn't turn it down.

As Promised, Step One of What Do I Do Now

The first thing I am going to do now that I have the front walls framed out is run the wiring to two outlets and the lights for the living room. This will provide me with a better environment when I begin to frame out the rest of the alley wall. I already have the boxes for the outlets and light switches (I am going to make the stairwell a 4-way switch and add one next to the front door). I should be able to have this done by tomorrow night (Tuesday) and will post some pictures.

I guess I need to make a list of all the steps because posting them one at a time really doesn't seem like it will be too effective. Next step - create master list; look for that next time.

I have a Wall ... or at least the framing of one

This weekend was very productive as far as moving forward with my house goes. In between endless amounts of college basketball and the BSG finale and football and volleyball, I (meaning mostly my dad with me doing whatever I could) were able to frame out the front wall and the section between the front and the chimney.

We built the small section between the front of the house and the chimney first because we didn't need to account for any windows or doorways and the floor and ceiling were pretty level. It was straightforward and didn't take very long to complete.



To make sure everything was flush against the floor, I pulled up the fake wood floors and got as much of the linoleum up as I could and scraped off the remaining residue. The original floor must have been pretty sweet, I am anxious to see what it looks like when I tear up the entire floor and get rid of all the linoleum. I am a sucker for hardwood with reddish coloring, my mom has Brazilian cherry hardwoods and they look great. For some reason I can't get this picture below to be in landscape so just turn your head sideways.



After measuring (and remeasuring) all the spacing between the walls and window and doorway, we (my dad) decided to make a Home Depot run and get two 10' studs for the top and bottom plates so we didn't need to connect shorter lengths. We also got some metal plates to attach the top plate to the joists. During our measuring, we found that the joist doesn't run parallel with the front brick and the floor is not completely level. We made sure when installing the frame that it would be plumb. This will allow me to use it as a point of reference when determining the final placement of the recessed lights. Now, for your viewing pleasure:







Oh, I forgot to mention that I had someone haul all the crap I had for $20. I replied to an ad off craigslist because they said the would take metal for free and I didn't really want to deal with transporting the 3 heavy radiators and iron piping to sell them for $50ish and then take the several bags of plaster (also heavy, and dirty) and the fake wood flooring and all that to a dump. I'll probably have them come back once I have finish doing all of the demo I plan on doing.

Now, I am going to document my next steps and hopefully set up some sort of timeline that I most definitely won't hold myself accountable to. I have to keep in mind that I am having a friend come visit for almost a week at the end of March and want my house clean for that portion of time. Tune in tomorrow (or quite possibly the next day) for the first of several installments of, "Where do we go from here?"

I also have to thank my dad for his help and his previous carpentry background. If it wasn't for him, I would not have paid as much attention to detail when ensuring the frame was plumb and level and probably would have built something unusable.

More house work (but not much)

Wednesday's volleyball match went well and we defeated the other team fairly easily. Unfortunately, the game was early and I didn't have any time to work on the house because the team goes out after for some food and drinks. Last night I made plans to go to Pho Dat Thahn in Columbia and have my first pho experience; it was really good and I am looking forward to trying different places now. The plans weren't until 8 so I decided to get some simple work done.

I figured it would be easy to cut the iron pipes in the living room that were running to the radiator in the bedroom. Well, I guess I am just a dumb ass because it took about 30 minutes to get through one pipe (I was using a hacksaw because I didn't feel like spending money on something better). Halfway through the second pipe I gave up and decided to do something else until I got a better saw. The failed pipe cutting results:



I grabbed the crowbar and decided to see how well the plaster was adhered to the front wall. To my surprise, most of the upper portion came off very easily. I didn't want to get too dirty since I was going out to dinner, so I just pulled off the pieces that were loose and decided to move to the kitchen. Front wall:



I only had about 20 minutes before I had to leave to get to Pho Dat and decided to detach the radiator in my kitchen. That was easy, but moving it proved to be a lot more difficult for just me. The feet of the radiator were set into holes in the floor, which made me have to lift it out so that I could slide it over. It got done, and I amazingly didn't get dirty in the process. Now I am looking forward to the time when I have to clean that wall (as you can see below).





I picked up a reciprocating saw and a metal blade so I hope to accomplish a lot this weekend.

Radiator #2 ain't got nothing

Day two of the radiator removal project happened to take a lot less time than I planned but involved a lot of effort. The radiator in my room is shorter than the one in the living room, but it is a little longer and felt about twice as heavy, probably because I had to get it down a flight of stairs. Other than the few dents in my stairs, it wasn't really that bad ... Newman and I just tipped it down and rocked it back and forth until we reached the bottom. I am not sure what I am going to do with the extra space in my room, but now my bed frame will fit without having to worry about it getting scratched by the radiator.


Pre-removal


Post-removal


That's a lot of iron

My next step is to remove the radiator from the kitchen and then start cutting the pipes and taking those out. I'm not going to be able to do that tonight since I am going to the Terps - Wake Forest game. The next chance I'll get to work on it is Thursday because of volleyball tomorrow, but maybe if I don't go out after the match (or don't go out for too long), I'll be able to do part of it.

I am going to leave the radiator in the basement for a while because there is no way I am carrying that up the stairs. I'll take it out the back and bring it through the alley whenever I decide to take the radiators to the scrap yard.

Weekend House Progress

I got a lot of work (for me) done on my house Sunday. I have all 4 recessed lighting housings up in my living room and just need to wire them; which I am planning on doing tonight. I am not going to completely hook them up yet until I frame out the front wall and I am not going to be able to do that until I expose the brick and remove the radiator piping to the second floor.


Now all I need is power going to these

As far as removing the radiators, I was able to drain them fairly easily. The water that came out was pretty nasty and had an awful odor. It took about an hour to drain all 4 and I was able to make use of the tub in the basement as a drain. After draining them I disconnected the one in the living room (since it wouldn't matter if a bunch of nasty water leaked there) as a test to see if they were actually empty. There was a little water left inside but I was able to drain that by tipping the radiater into a bucket. Not sure how heavy the radiators are, but I am going to go with 300+ pounds. I'm pretty sure the one in the basement is going to need to be taken out back and through the alley.


The faucet connection was not that great


Anyone thirsty?


There used to be a 300 pound hunk of iron here


Now I can start exposing that wall so I can frame it out

Also, I found something I can do when I am bored or only have a few minutes to work on something. I grabbed my golf club cleaning brush to clear off a chunk of plaster on the brick and decided it would be a good way to prep the brick on the wall I am going to leave exposed. It's not fast, but I can be more detailed and take extra care on the spots that have loose mortar. I bought a couple brass wire brushes so they wouldn't be too abrasive and the results turned out great.


Brick with the left-over plaster on it


More brick & plaster


Brick after cleaning it up

Getting while the getting's good?

So ... by "getting back to work," I definately meant drinking and playing poker then passing out after doing nothing more than pull the light housings out of their box.

On the bright side, I have some extra money to buy the wiring.

Tonight is the first game for my "social" volleyball league. What is the definition of a social league you ask. Well, I am leaving work early today (got in early) so that I can go to Mahaffey's and enjoy wings and several rounds of beer before going to said volleyball match then going to a sponsor bar with all of the other players and teams to drink more and watch the Maryland - Duke game (that I had tickets to but am not going). This would not fly in the Sunday league I play in, but these games are for fun and the competition isn't really on the same level as the Sunday league.

Speaking of the Maryland - Duke game ... go Terps! I went to the UMD - UNC game on Saturday and it was probably one of the top 5 games I've been to (I have been to a lot of amazing Terps games ... and a lot of really bad ones). I love the hustle and I love the gold/yellow uniforms, I think they are undefeated wearing them. Since I can't post without a picture, here you go:

Getting back to Work

So I got back to work on my house a little bit and now I feel like I'm motivated to work at it on a consistent basis.

I bought six of these and an going to put four of them up tonight in the front part of the living room and two of them in the back narrow half (where the stairs take up some of the room width). I need to determine how I want them to be controlled so I can run the electric and buy switches and boxes. I think I am going to put the front four on a dimmer and the back two separate since the front is going to be the TV room and I'll have my desk or small dining table in the back. I spent about two hours in bed reading up on wiring standards and I am going to draw out a plan before I do anything since I also need to incorporate the stairwell light.



I also got bored and decided to take down one of the kitchen cabinets (just for fun) since I am going to replace the entire kitchen after doing the living room. This is what I found:





I just downloaded Google's Sketch program and am trying to draw floor plans and will give you an idea of my end goal once I have it out of my head.

Feeling Neglected?

I find myself starting another post saying that it has been a while since my last post even though it hasn't really been that long. I don't really have much to say here right now except that id you haven't seen Gran Torino ... you really should go see it. It was really great and I look forward to seeing it again.

Oh, and I have to say I love Dorito's marketing firm ... last year's mouse trap commercial was great and this year they had the crystal ball that was pretty good.

Anyone watching Chuck in 3-D tonight? I don't know how I feel about it because wearing those glasses makes watching something in HD look pretty bad.

Once it warms up a bit I will get back to work on the house ... anyone know where I can sell all the metal from my radiators? Tearing that system out will be one of the first things I do so I can frame out the walls on the first floor.