Feb 24

I swear to criminies  I've messed with every damn door in this house several times.   I've spent so much time on doors, I'm thinking of having an open concept house with no doors anywhere next time.   Just a series of doorways and maybe an electric fence at the front and back for security.

The back door started peeling already.   I didnt prep the door good enough before painting, so I scraped and prepped.  Then I tried to fix the mess that is the area around the knobs.  Again.

Then I installed the locks on the upstairs back door and tried to fix the rather large gap.

Then I tried to fix the striker area on the front door.  This I did before, but it needed to be cleaned up - a lot.  It was just wood filler pushed in there to make it work.   Now I put in wood filler to make it look like a real door frame again.  Then, in doing this, noticed one hinge was loose, tried to fix it and ended up having to refix all 3 hinges, just so the door will close.   How does this happen??

Then later tonight, I decided to put on the closet door, and that didnt want to go on.  We used round headed screws because at the time we didnt have short enough wood scews, and now we sort of did - if I took a 1 inch wood screw and trimmed off the tip, it worked.   So I put that door back up.

Then as I was about to go to bed, I tried to close the basement door as I do for the night, and it wouldnt close.   The hinges had come loose.  I tried longer screws, but they were already 2.5 inches.  So I had to take that door apart and fix that one too.  Yes, its seems like its just door after door after door. 

Or sink after sink.

We bought a nice sink months ago.  But turns out it was too large for our cabinet.  So I bought one the other day that was the right size.   But it was a style they no longer sold clips for.  So I exhanged both of these at ReStore for a new one which uses the new style clips, but although it would fit in the cabinet, it the mounting clips would have to be inside the cabinets on either side of the sink cabinet - a logistical nightmare, so I bit the bullet and bought a new sink.   I even paid an extra $20 and didnt get the cheapest one.  The installation was easy - less than an hour - compared to the 5-6 hours of shopping to arrive at this sink.   :)

Ryan and Dad came over today.   Ryan drywalled up several remaining holes (3 in the closet and 1 in the laundry) and that may be it for drywall patches.  He also made ceiling patch/covers for the pipes, something I kept meaning to get around to.

Dad scraped the bathroom some more and plans to work on some painting tomorrow if time permits.

I installed the new light in the closet, but the switch just outside the closet does not turn it on and off.   Its been months since a light bulb was in there, but I swear that switch used to go to that light - but it must not have - its not even on the same circuit.  Plus, there used to be a chain switch on the old light socket, but I never remember a chain hanging down.  Anyway, its not a switched circuit and we cant figure out how to get power to the box, so I blank-plated it, and will put a chain switch on the light.

I put up some mini blinds around the place and put up the railing on the stairway.

  

Feb 23

So 3 days have gone by and I feel like I haven't done much.   But maybe I have.  I thought it was more days than that since my last update.

I had one day of relaxation.  I went to mom and dads to shower (note to self - get shower working here) and ended up spending the day there.   I was just too tired to move.

I called a heating company and made an appointment to have them come out and check the work we had the other contractor do.  They said it was fine, which was a great relief.  They also said they could do a tune-up on the system for $100, which I figured was good insurance, so I scheduled that, but decided to schedule it for AFTER I replaced a pipe which was too small.   Our cheap contractor used a 1/2" pipe on a 3/4" pipe system to avoid making a run to the hardware store.   The other plumber quoted $250 to drain/fill the system and $250 to replace the pipe.  So I decided to tackle that myself.   I bought a $25 tool and $25 in parts and went to work.   Unfortunately the $25 tool sucked, so I went to go return (aka upgrade) but forgot my wallet, so ended up making 2 trips to Home Depot where they didn't have the sink clips I needed, but they knew somewhere that might.  They pointed me to the next store and so on and so on.   Long story short, I drove around all morning and never found my clips.  It's all because I found a sink at the Habitat ReStore which uses an older style clip not made anymore.  It was a very nice sink, but sometimes I get angry when I spend so much time and energy trying to do things cheaper and more eco-friendly.  I should have just bought a new sink. Which I have to do anyway now.

Anyway, my dad came over and helped me get the countertops together and helped me move in the stove and mount the medicine cabinet.   Oh yeah, I bought a stove.   Other than that, I've battled 3 doors and 5 knobs - some easy and some a pain.  I did get my PEX pipe fixed and the heating system refilled.  I was quite proud of draining the whole thing without getting a drop on the floor, something our contractor could never do.

The scrap wood pile grows larger by the day.

Planing down the front door.

New PEX installed.

My custom drainage system.

Mirror

Feb 20th

Got a nice early start to the day today.  Went to McDonalds for breakfast so I could use the free wifi and uploaded the last journal.  Then got right to work at 9am and worked through until midnight.   Yep, 15 hour day and I feel pretty good, although I think I'll sleep pretty well.

I spent the first 3 hours of the day painting doors.   We're doing doors in the same color as the walls, just in a gloss.   All told I did 6 doors.  But they're 6-panel doors, and each door has 2 sides, each panel has 4 sides, so thats like 288 little side edges that needed to be painted.  I gave myself a blister.   First time I ever got a blister from painting.  Yessir, this was extreme painting.

 A also added the frosting on the sidelites around the door and added the hall light and unit number you can see in the first photo.

Now, for my secret project.  Fanette left one week ago.  I wanted to see how fast I could get the kitchen in to surprise her.   But if I only worked on the kitchen all day, then it would look like I was getting nothing done.   So I'd spend 60% of the day working on other rooms and 40% of the day working on the kitchen.  Unfortunately, when I said I was dazed and got nothing done, that was the truth.  I wasn't secretly working on the kitchen - I really didn't do much on any room of the house for those 2 days. 

So heres the kitchen. 

Not everything is bolted down yet.  The countertops are just resting in there.   I would have installed the sink, but it turns out its too big for our cabinet.  :-(   I fixed the one new closet door (the way I put it up the old hinges didn't work on the right side door, so I needed to modify it with new hinge)s.  Then I took the spice rack for the door and mounted it on the wall.  There is still a TON left to do on this kitchen.   The cabinets are bolted in place - not an easy task as the floor is really not level.  A lot of shimming was involved.  The cabinets along the back wall are a full 1cm higher than the cabinet which is next to the stove.  All in all, they're all level and they all match up.   I almost mounted the microwave, but the overhead cabinet we planned to use it with is way too tall, which means it would sit pretty much 1 foot above the stove top.   I put it in place and realized how awkward it would be.  So either we scrap the overhead microwave idea or we put it up and build some sort of shelf above it.   If you look at one of the photos you can see where it would have gone.   The countertop is how high the stove top would be.  I have installed an outlet for it to work off of, so its all ready to go up.   I was pretty proud of my drywalling - Dr Dryanwall tought me well.  I got the back wall up, had it inspected and then mudded it up and painted it.   Then set to building the box for the window.   I actually made a real nice window ledge which fit perfectly with the old molding, but I had to destroy it when the countertops I bought were an inch higher than the ones we had used upstairs (which I had used when trying to decide how high to make the ledge).   Anyway, in the photos below, the flooring is just laid there for effect and some of the trims are tacked in place for the photo as well.  Also, the countertop is a 2-person job so I'll need to wait for Ryan or Dad to get that done.   Right now it just sits there.  I've used some wood from the cabinet I bought to make some trim for the short cabinet, and I've also bought some wood and stain to make a shelf for that area as well.  Several of the cabinets were damaged when we bought them so I spent some time fixing up the ones which were broken as well

 

Feb 19th Afternoon

Feb 19^th Afternoon

After meeting up with the guy for the cabinets, I headed over to HD to get a couple things and then got to work on the hall light.  I don’t know how this thing didn’t burn down the house.  The light must have been 80 years old and the fabric over the wire was completely gone – mostly due to whoever installed it back in the 30’s tying several knots in the wire.  It was in such bad shape I was shocked.   Anyway, the pendant light I bought to replace it has a ceiling attach unit, but I’m opting to keep the old one for posterity.  There’s a nice glass unit which I think will complement it well.  I would have bought it tonight, but HD closes early on Sun. 

Next I battled with the sink in the bathroom.  I was able to get the faucet out.  I actually had to put a vise grip on the nut, and then put another vise grip on the first vise grip so I could turn it.  Then, I tried to remove the drain.  I tried everything.   I even had a vise grip going one way, a pipe wrench going the other way and a 500lb strap pulling them together an nothing.  Upon closer inspection it looks like the builder epoxied these threads together.  So I have to find a way to use it, or find a way to get the whole sink out.

 New faucet installed but not hooked up.

I then went to work on the back door, which I had glued earlier and put a couple coats of white paint on front and back.  I put in a metal plate on the door frame to work with the latch that was already on the door.   I think before it just went in to the trim which made it useless.  Then I installed the trim molding over it.  Next, I went to work on figuring out why the deadbolt never worked properly.  It was always sticky.   There were 2 culprits.  First, the striker hole and the cylinder hole were not aligned at the right heights.   I drilled out the striker hole and that helped.  But it still stuck.  Then I noticed that the cylinder hole was not completely rounded out and part of the lock mechanism was rubbing on the top of the hole.  By the time I put it all back together, I’d drilled, cut, and sawed so much wood, there was nothing left to attach the lock to.   So I started finding little shims to hammer in there.    Eventually I got enough shims in there to hold it tight and put some wood glue on it and I’m letting it sit overnight. 

All in all, 3 projects really beat the heck out of me this afternoon.  The light, the sink, and the door.  Each of which I thought would be quick and each battled me right back.  By 9:30 when I went off to HD I was beat.  So when they were closed, I went to Wawa and got a hoagie and some coffee grounds for tomorrow, then over to Coletti’s and picked up a 6-pack of Rolling Rock, came back, finished reassembling the door (I had just gotten it to lock when I left) and came up here to work on this and have a couple of beers.

Now off to bed with the idea of trying to get up a little earlier and making use of more daylight. 

Feb 19th

Its only 1:30 -I've come home to meet someone buying the cabinets.  Woke up at 9:30 and got to work by 10 so I didn't get much done yet today, but feeling energetic.  Started off by spray-foaming all of the holes where pipes go in to the floor.  There were probably about 20 holes all together that needed filled.   Also spray-foamed the basement windows which had massive gaps.

Worked on changing out the faucet here.  We bought that white sink with a real nice faucet for $20.   Turns out the sink is a different size - Fanette was right (there -it's in print).   However, it looks like with the hole they cut, it would have fit, if the sink could come out.   Its really cemented in there - I think taking it out would destroy the tiles - so it stays, but it looks like the old faucet hasn't come out in years.   I am having a heck of a time getting the plastic retaining nuts off.   I've put spray oil on them and letting them sit for the day.  Hopefully it will come off easier. 

Feb 18

Feb 18-

Today was mostly a painting day, although I didn’t get any photos of what I painted.  It was dark by the time I thought to take photos of that, so I’ll wait until tomorrow.  

I think I’ll try this – writing and sorting photos on the laptop at night at the house, and then uploading when I can.  

Today I painted the stairway, the front room, and the front hall.  Including edging it all with the new paint-mate trim-it tool, which worked ok.   Was messier than I had hoped without as great as a result than I’d hoped, but in the end it did do an adequate job.   I’ll probably use it again.  I also painted the last bit of wall in the upstairs kitchen, which has been bugging me since ages.   I started to do the ceilings, but the white-paint turbo roller is clogged and I’ll need to give it a good washing.

Other than that-  I put a new seal on the downstairs toilet – no more leaks.

Fixed one hole in the ceiling where the pipe goes in.

Took out that awful outlet which was duct-taped to the wall.  I put wire nuts on and a steel cover and threw it back in there.

I put quarter-round in the bathroom.

I was in a hazy mood again today.   I think my better moods for the past 2 days might be because of the weather, but also might be because of the radio.  I’ve stopped listening to 104.5, and started listening to 95.7 where they play a much bigger variety, including a lot of 80s.  It’s better than listening to the same 20 songs over and over.  I even started listening to NPR so I could hear some people.  :)