Tag: roaches

Looking Ahead

July 22, 2011 / / 2 Comments

We’ve been talking to the structural engineer, and while we haven’t figured out the exact plan we’re hoping to get the basement shored up. If we’re lucky we’ll find that the footings under the wall go a foot down below the basement floor. If that’s the case we’ll get the new steel header and steel support posts, as well as new concrete footings under the posts. Those new footings will be set deeper than the current floor, so that down the road we can dig out the basement floor and gain about 8″ of height. I was relieved to find out that we could do those two separately, because digging out the basement is expensive, and not something we really need right now. The support posts need to be done now, though, because the house needs to be leveled before we can remodel the first floor.

So far we’ve been working on the second floor and everything has been temporary stuff to make the house livable. The structural work is the first thing that’s actually fixing the house up, well aside from exterminating roaches. The exterminator told us we can move in, but I was disappointed to hear that we probably won’t completely eliminate them until we tear down the walls and then call the exterminators back to spray again. That means we’ll be sealing everything on the second floor up as tight as we can with caulk, wood fill, spray foam, and whatever else it takes. He said it was one of the worst infestations he’d seen.

Once we’re moved in and the condo is rented we’ll move forward on the structural repairs. Then we’ll work with an architect and plan out the rest of the project. In addition to the obvious stuff like new walls, drywall, and floors, we need to install new heating and cooling. We’d like to put in hydronic radiant heating and high velocity forced air cooling, but they aren’t cheap. High efficiency boiler, pumps and manifolds, condensers, blower and ductwork will run tens of thousands of dollars. We can do some of it in phases, but it’s probably the single most expensive part of the project. We’ve spoken with an HVAC guy and gotten some ideas, but it’s tempting to just go with traditional forced air, even if it means installing bulkheads.

We’ll figure it out once we get closer. Right now we’ve got more pressing needs, like getting the rest of the trim back up and the second floor painted, plus a laundry list of little tasks that add up to a lot of work.

Slow, Varied Progress

July 7, 2011 / / 6 Comments

Leveling the Toilet

I’ve been trying to finish a project so that I can write about it, but so far things have been going slowly and with several projects in flight at once, we’re not getting any one thing completely finished. Another challenge is that we’ve wound up having to do a lot of things that weren’t in the original plan. I knew the toilet wasn’t attached in the upstairs bathroom, but hooking it up has turned into an extensive bathroom project. Once it’s done I’ll cover it in a post, but for now enjoy the picture of the level toilet and the not-level floor.

During the toilet escapade I wound up having to re-mount the bathroom pedestal sink to the wall and redo the drain. That’s finally complete, but it took much longer than anticipated because I didn’t have the right parts or tools and as always it took multiple trips to the store to resolve it. The good news is that’s at least finished. We have a working and not leaking sink upstairs, which helps quite a bit.

Bathroom in progress

We’ve been re-tiling the floor in the upstairs kitchen, which Sarah will be posting about once it’s done. We’ve been fumigating and baiting the roaches with limited success (they are incredibly resilient, as you know), but are probably going to bring in an exterminator. The drop ceiling and track lighting in the back bedroom upstairs is down, another round of garbage bins have been emptied and re-filled in a day, though the backlog is starting to diminish.

Removing the lighting in the bedroom was interesting. They’d added a light switch in the wall, but it was just wired into the receptacle, which is also where several outlets were wired in. After we used the tester to get the circuit turned off I disconnected and re-wired it. The results as usual aren’t pretty but they’re a substantial improvement over what was there.

Ceiling receptacle

We now need to strip the cracked paint, clean the walls, bevel the top of the drywall that they put over the plaster with joint compound so that it blends in somewhat, tape everything off, and eventually paint. Then we can install carpeting and a ceiling fan and the room will be ready. Since this is just one room, and one of the simpler ones at that, I’m not feeling optimistic about moving in by the end of the month.

Getting Started: Locks, Bugs, and Base Camp

July 1, 2011 / / 0 Comments

Front door

Right after closing we headed to the house and started work. After taking a bunch of “before” pictures to feature in our various projects, the first order of business was changing the locks. Even though the tenants were gone, we wanted to make sure they stayed gone and with the house empty and us not yet living there, it was important for it to be secure from vandals, squatters, and kids.

I’m a technophile, so I’m planning to eventually have some home automation tech for the lights, security, and HVAC. We bought some Kwikset locks because they sell a line of remote-controllable, combination dead bolt locks that are compatible with Z-Wave. We’d order those right away except they’re pretty expensive. I found one on eBay, but I’m holding off on getting any more for now. They also have a neat “SmartKey” technology that lets you re-key your own locks without having to go to a locksmith. I got those installed on the garage, front and back doors. For now we’ve left the interior front and back doors as-is, and we barricaded the lower back door with a board. If we’d gotten full lock sets for all of the doors it would have been a ton of money, and since we’re not going to have two units anyway, most of it would be a waste once we convert things.

With the disgusting state of the house and the roach infestation we decided to set up base camp in the relatively clean garage. In order to prevent any contamination of our condo, we’re changing clothes there and not bringing anything back with us. We brought, bought, and ordered tools, cleaning supplies, clothes, snacks and got our operations center up and running. We even brought our toaster oven and this weekend our grill so that we can cook food. Sarah’s able to work on the house during the day most days, but I’m at work until the evening. Since our condo is twenty-five minutes away, not having to go back and forth is pretty important.

Our first orders of business were “pre-cleaning” and extermination. Sarah started by getting some of the remaining garbage thrown out and I boarded up the basement windows that were letting rats in and out. In order to get rid of them you have to first isolate them: divide and conquer. Then, anything that the roaches were hiding in and feeding on had to be thrown out. That meant tearing out the carpeting, both kitchens, and taking down some of the trim. Then we removed the tile in the second floor kitchen and part of the first floor. This was much more demo than we’d planned on doing right away.

First floor kitchen demo

There are four “toter” style garbage cans for the house and we’d filled all of them within a day and a half. Once they were emptied we filled them up with a bunch more stuff. Because we’re in a bit of a hurry, we’re taking a multi-pronged attack on the bugs. We’ve used pyrethrin spray cans, boric acid, foggers, and sprayers. We’re killing them in droves, but we won’t be happy until they’re completely gone, and that will take a bit. We set a bunch of baited traps for the rats, but thus far haven’t caught a one.  We’re pretty sure they’re there, but until we’ve got all of the holes sealed they may just be feeding outside. Once they’re stuck and it’s the only thing to eat, they’ll probably go for it.