Most of the second floor has been painted, ceilings included. A lot more drywall patches have been made, thanks to Ryan. One on the third floor and one on the first floor.
While patching up the drywall on the 3rd floor, we noticed there was no insulation in the attic. So we decided to get some insulation and throw it in there, but I noticed that there was some older knob-n-tube wiring up there. Its probably the last of the knob-n-tube in the house, but that means that you can't insulate over it. So we called an electrician and got a quote to get it out of there. As we discussed the price, she told me that I could save some money on the job if I was willing to run the wires through the walls myself. So I spent nearly a day running wires inside the wall from the basement to the attic. I also ran a line to the second floor kitchen so we could relocate our refrigerator and have it plugged in safely. The electrician will come soon to hook these wires up.
Meanwhile the heating and plumbing is not finished, but its getting closer every day. The photo below is Contractor Rick working on one of our heaters which is actually fired up in this photo. Unfortunately there is a problem with the thermostat, so it didn't stay running.
We have been able to test out a few sinks and toilets in the house, which means that water was now going down the drain. Which unfortunately showed us that we had a cracked cast iron drain pipe. These pipes weigh about 50 pounds (25kgs) per yard (meter). They were all that was available 100 years ago when our house had the plumbing installed, but nowadays PVC is more widely used. It's cheaper, lighter, easier to install and seems to clog less. So with the news that we had a crack in our pipe, we decided to replace as much of it as we could get to. Some of the old cast iron had already been replaced by the former owners, so we were able to join our new PVC easily to this old PVC. Ryan and Rick took out the old cast, and Rick and Dad put in the new PVC one day and Rick and Effie put in the PVC the second day.
In the end, we took out about 300lbs in cast iron pipe and replaced it with nice shiny new PVC. We also took out some old steel pipe which happens to get clogged up real easily, so after 50 years this 2-inch (5cm) pipe was so clogged with debris that there was a hole smaller than a pencil going through it.
We also found that the tub upstairs does not drain out AT ALL and we cant replace the pipe within the wall, so we'll need to run some new PVC through a new hole that we're going to make in the floor. .
And all of the windows in the house are new-ish vinyl double-pane windows except the ones in the upstairs laundry room which were old wooden single-pane windows which did not even shut all the way, so we went to Habitat and found a window that fit on the openings for $28 and put it in and sealed up the other opening.
The other big news is that we now have a new back wall. Dan Coy of Coy Carpentry took out our rotted joist and rear wall and put in all new wood. They were in and out in 3 days and we're efficient, clean, and did awesome work. Couldn't recommend them more highly. Now, tomorrows job is putting on new siding.
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