We’re making headway on a number of different projects. The window company replaced the broken pane in our new front door. The pattern of the privacy glass is a bit denser than the original, but it’s close enough. We got the clips and tape we needed to finish up the bay windows. The new clips are different than the other ones we had, so I had to do a bit of swapping to put them to best use, but the bay windows are now fully installed and flashed and Sarah put Great Stuff into the gaps around the windows. We need to go back around with the backer rod, but things are looking just about done on the window and door front.
Lester hung our new boiler on the wall in the basement and he’s run the venting for it, but there’s still a lot to be done. I ordered the radiators and Lester is getting all of the assorted pumps, valves, and pex we need to hook them up. It’s gotten cold fast, and we’ve been relying on electric baseboards to keep the house warm. It’s going to be a pricey electric bill this month, but hopefully we’ll have heat in the next few weeks.
Speaking of radiators, we disconnected the old radiators on the first floor and moved them to the back. We still need to get them out of the first floor, but one step at a time. Once we’ve got the upstairs radiators out as well, we’ll call a local company to sell them to. Hopefully someone else can use them.
We’ve also cleaned up the wood pile on the first floor. Most of it was from the old windows, including frames and trim. All of it was painted, most of it was rotted, and between the dimensions and all of nails, we haven’t been saving it. Some wood that is in small pieces and doesn’t have paint we’re saving for firewood, other stuff is more usable as fireblocking or future framing. In any case we’ve got some sorted stuff that needs to be moved to the basement, but it’s otherwise taken care of.
I’ve been talking to contractors about leveling the joists and putting in the new subfloor. I’m playing phone tag with one, another told us it was good enough and didn’t need to be leveled, and the third gave us a quote that was more than we expected. I’m contemplating doing the back section myself and seeing how it goes. If nothing else it would reduce the cost and give us a place to put all of the stuff.
Our neighbors in the crappy house to the North moved out and the house was bought by a broker who is planning to convert it into a single family, though probably a lot faster than we’re doing it. We’re excited that there will be a nicer house next door, but it will also be a little disheartening if there’s is started and finished and ours is still putzing along.
Finally, our next big project is removing the chimney. I went up on the roof for the first time and took stock of things. It honestly doesn’t look like it will be terrible. While I was up there I took down an old antenna that was literally in the chimney and not attached to anything. More scrap metal! We’re planning to tackle the section of chimney above the roof this Sunday. The goal is to get enough taken out that we can repair the roof. At that point we can take it down from the inside, floor by floor.
