Year: 2011

Sealing the Deal

July 1, 2011 / / 0 Comments

We needed to close some of the gaps in the outside walls to prevent critters from coming and going. This meant boarding up a few basement windows, adding a threshold to the main back door, and adding some wire mesh to a few other spots. We have our work cut out for us in the attic, but we haven’t gotten to that yet. For now we’re focusing on the ground level perimeter.

Basement window before

This fusion of plexiglass and incompetence was the laundry room window. I ripped all of it out, but left the original window intact, though it was missing a couple of panes. After tucking the wires into the siding to get them out of the way, I screwed a 2×2 cedar board into the bottom so I had a flat surface on all four sides. Cutting the plywood to fit was a trick because the brick foundation is parged in a stucco-like cement. After a few trims I got it in and screwed it in place. Then I painted it, filled the gaps with spray foam, and when that had set I sealed the edges with an exterior caulk.

Basement window after

The back door had a large gap under it, due in part to the porch sloping to one side and in part to the door being a standard size and the doorway being not. I cut out a clean space using the reciprocating saw and used a two by four, along with some shimming blocks to get it level-ish under the door. This wasn’t meant to be quality work, just create a nice snug fit for the door. We filled underneath with spray foam and painted the whole thing to keep the water out.

Back door threshold

The result wasn’t half-bad. I’m sure it could be better, but ultimately we’ll be tearing the whole enclosed porch down, so I wasn’t about to make it especially pretty. It’s now keeping the elements and the rats outside and making us feel a tad more secure.

And Then There Was Mother Nature

July 1, 2011 / / 2 Comments

As if the rats, roaches, ants, and flies weren’t enough…  Our dear Mother Nature decided today to put in her two cents.  As we were working on grouting the bathroom tiles at the new house, we started hearing a popping noise.  Matt thought that it was fireworks at first, but the sound was very close.  Like our front yard close.  I went to investigate and found that the popping noise was actually hail the size of golf balls hitting our porch awning.  It was literally raining ice balls within a minute and car alarms were going off up and down the streets around us.  One of the porch windows did not survive the hail, but it was a crappy window so we don’t mind too much.

Thank goodness our car was in the awful garage that came with the house.  I am ever so thankful for that POS garage right now after seeing the cars on our block.  We are not thankful for the gaping holes in said garage that allowed wind to knock siding onto our car tonight and dent the hood.  Poor car. 🙁

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.

The Plan: Getting from Here to There

June 27, 2011 / / 0 Comments

Before taking on this project, we spent a fair amount of time working out the hows, whys, and how much. At a high-level, we’re going to go through several phases to gradually convert the house one floor at a time, inside-out.

Phase 1 is Moving-in. Because we want to rent out our condo (and not just pay two mortgages), we’re trying to quickly get the second floor into a livable state. On the surface that doesn’t seem too difficult because there was someone living there just a month or so ago. However, the way they were living isn’t quite the way we’re prepared to live. We’re willing to make sacrifices, but the toilet should be attached to the floor, the roaches have to go, and something has to be done about the smell. As a result we’ve got a bunch to do, ideally in the next month, to get us moved in. Better yet, because our long term plan involves gutting the whole house, everything we’re likely to do in the next month we’ll have do again down the road, so we’re not doing anything permanent.

Once we’ve moved in we begin Phase 2: Preparation. First we need to address some structural problems in the basement. We’re going to bring in a structural engineer to take a look and make a recommendation on replacing the column supports and basement header and re-leveling the house so it doesn’t slope to the back. While that’s going on we need to talk to an architect that will draw up our plans and get the plans approved by the city. Once that’s done we can get permits.

That brings us to the start of the real fun: Phase 3. Phase 3 we gut the entire first floor (while living in the relatively undisturbed second floor unit). We’ll rip down the walls, take out electrical and plumbing, and redo everything brand spanking new. We want to put in a modern open floor plan with living room, dining room, a big eat-in chef’s kitchen, and an office.

With Phase 4 we’ll move downstairs, using the eventual office as a bedroom. We’ll gut the upstairs, put in a master suite with tub and walk-in shower, upstairs laundry, and a shared full bathroom for the other three bedrooms. At that point we can start occupying the entire house.

After that we’ll focus on the exterior, with new roof, siding, front porch, and back deck. Down the road we’ll rebuild the garage and landscape the yard. When we’re done we hope it will be a beautiful single family home. We know this will take us years, especially doing so much of it ourselves. We plan to live in the house for the next ten years, so if everything goes well, at least several of that will be in the finished product and not the work in progress.

Walk-through Video

June 27, 2011 / / 0 Comments

I shot a series of video walk-throughs of the house in it’s “pre” state so you can see what we’re working with, and really what we’re up against. I apologize in advance for the rooms that don’t have light bulbs yet and as a result are too dark to see. The first video starts out front and takes you through the first floor.

The second video shows you the second floor. Since this is a two-flat, it’s fairly similar to the first story, but it’s got a couple of extra bits.

The third video is a tour of the basement, which could be used to shoot the new Saw or Hostel movie.

The last video looks at the yard and garage. Here too are a couple of wonders the house has on offer.