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Introduction
November 24, 2004
November 30, 2004
December 5, 2004
December 17, 2004
January 11, 2005
February 7, 2005
February 27, 2005
March 7, 2005
March 30, 2005
April 8, 2005
April 11, 2005
April 18, 2005
May 2, 2005
June 12, 2005
July 15, 2005
Summer '05
October '05
Winter '05
Spring '06
blue-bottle home
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Handyman Special
Renovating that old house on Market Street
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The 18th of April in 2005, Bush and his cronies spewin' out jive...
(do you remember that famous day and year?)
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Brother Pete works
at placing receptacle boxes in Ramon's room. Pete spent this past weekend
giving me a break from the plumbing and electrical by finishing up the
downstairs bathroom DWV (Drain Waste Vent), pulling wires to the second
floor, and placing the upstairs electrical boxes.
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Here's Pete catching air
in the Wasatch Mountains of Utah the week before. A work hard, play hard
kind of guy.
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The crawlspace is where I spent
Saturday installing the heat vents and supply ducts that were removed
when the ell floor was demolished. The duct in the foreground is a return
duct that, when installed, blocks the only feasable entry to the crawlspace.
I'll be spending more time here in the near and far future. The gray
water pipe that serves the kitchen sink (see the white PVC hanging from
the floor joists) connects to an old steel pipe that runs outside to a
dry well in the yard. The old pipe needs to be replaced and I can't complete
the kitchen plumbing until that's done.
I expect to be back on my belly there next fall as I fill up the gaps
that Foam-Tech missed. As I've been crawling around down there I've noticed
several places where Foam-Tech was sloppy with their application: overspraying
some areas and missing others. |
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Another underbelly shot shows the bathroom
plumbing; a collaborative effort where I layed out the plan and put together the copper supply, and Pete
put together the PVC.
I get stressed out gluing the PVC together. I think it has to do with the fact that once the glue dries,
there's no going back so if you don't get it right, the material is wasted. I really hate wasting things. Of course
there's probably some fear of committment at play here too. You'd think after 13 years of marriage I'd have conquered that.
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The kitchen floor as installed by Bud.
There's a story behind this floor. Early on in the project
I had two large spruce trees cut down that were growing too close to the house and barn. The trees were very tall
and straight and I thought I might get some lumber out of them so I asked the arborist to cut them into 12' lengths
and take them to a local sawmill. There they were sawn up into 1" boards and dried in a kiln. The miller
brought the boards to a woodshop where they were planed and jointed. At first I thought I might use the lumber to
make shelves, or bookcases, or use it for window trim, but now it looked like there would be just enough
to cover the kitchen floor. Spruce is what was often used in the 18th and 19th century for flooring but because it's
a softwood, and hardwood flooring is plentiful nowadays, spruce is out of fashion. |
There was plenty of doubt about using this wood for the
floor. First, as mentioned, it's a softwood and won't stand up to the same abuse as oak or maple, and then there
was the problem with these boards in particular. During the planing and jointing, several of them split and the
knots (which appeared nice and tight before) popped out. It would seem that the boards were dried too much. Bud was
real hesitant to start laying the floor because he didn't think there were enough good ones to cover the whole area.
I had him go ahead. I had already invested a decent amount of money in this wood and frankly couldn't afford now
to go out and buy 400 square feet of flooring. He used all the good pieces in the entry places and dining area
and saved the crappy stuff for the kitchen and the area that will be covered by cabinets. The result is just fine,
and once it's all sanded and finished it's sure to look sweet.
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...though not as sweet as this.
My Boy
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