Month: April 2014

Expected Plumbing

April 30, 2014 / / 0 Comments

We’ve encountered several plumbing projects since buying the house that were not part of our planned renovations but rather part and parcel of living in an old house. We had the pinhole leak in our hot water pipe, the replacement of our bathroom faucet, and the abrupt collapse of part of our kitchen drain, and I didn’t bother chronicling the recent kitchen faucet swap (the cheap faucet we bought when we moved in started leaking and we got a less cheap replacement). All of these were sudden and unexpected, but the basement drain problem was not. It had been progressively worsening for some time and we had been progressively ignoring it. Well, no longer.

Emily

Emily

Almost two weeks ago our daughter Emily was born (explaining the brief gap in new posts). We’re very excited to have her with us, but it means we’re back on the cloth diaper regimen, which brings me back to the basement drain. Let me explain how our sewer is set up. Our house has two sewer systems: the black water sewer that serves the toilet, tub, and bathroom sink and drains via 4″ cast iron pipe into the city sewer, and a gray water sewer for the kitchen sink and laundry that drains via a 2″ cast iron pipe, increasing to a 6″ clay pipe under the basement floor where it picks up a couple of floor drains before heading into the catch basin in the back yard, where it is joined by gutters and the patio drain. From there it can drain into the city sewer as well. Chicago is one of the bastion cities of combined storm and sanitary sewers. The catch basin is a combination grease trap and local water reservoir to help the city handle the water volume during heavy rains. So we have a manhole behind the back porch (under our grill) and a big brick vault about seven feet deep.

Starting at some point several (six?) months ago, when we ran the dishwasher or the washing machine, water would violently spray out of the top of the drain for the washing machine in the basement. To prevent this, I removed a small pvc screw plug from the basement floor. Now water didn’t spray out, it simply welled up out of the floor and drained to the other floor drain in front of the washing machine. This, in turn, also eventually filled and backed up. Then, during the melt from all the snow this past winter, water started to fill the landing at the bottom of the basement steps, about 6″ deep. Sarah put some bricks into the water to use as stepping stones to get into the basement. It was getting pretty bad.

Removed plug: better than spraying water

Removed plug: better than spraying water

I bought a drain snake, and then I bought a bigger one. As if the problems hadn’t been bad enough, because we’d now be washing cloth diapers, I really didn’t want the water backing up anymore. The water was also pooling at the base of our (very expensive) new hot water heater and I didn’t want it to start rusting.

Previously repaired connection

Previously repaired connection

I bought a cheap USB camera on a 45′ cable to try and figure out what was under the floor. I researched old Chicago sewer systems online. After running snakes down various pipes and floor drains for two days straight, Sarah cut off the already broken PVC fitting just above the floor while I rented a power drain snake from Home Depot. Having direct access to the clay pipe meant that I could now confirm my fear: the snake was pulling up thick, goopy, mud. That’s a fairly sure sign that the clay pipe under the floor has either separated or outright collapsed. Since I wasn’t prepared to start jack hammering the basement floor, I just snaked all the drains as well as I could, put together new PVC connections (including a clean out) at the base of the drain pipe, and called it a day.

New and improved connection

New and improved connection

So far, nothing has backed up since then, so our efforts were not entirely in vain. I still need to clean up all the mud down there. However, I’m not convinced that our current state will last as long as we were hoping. We’re planning to dig down the whole basement floor and replace all of the underground plumbing at the same time. My current timeline put that a ways out (aka years). It may turn out that we can’t wait that long.

Blocking Installation

April 30, 2014 / / 0 Comments
South wall blocking

South wall blocking

Dean came over one Saturday and we tackled blocking installation. Blocking (wood blocks installed between the wall studs) is required by fire code and also adds structural strength and drywall nailing edges. Using 2x4s we salvaged during first floor demo, we measured each stud bay along the North wall and cut separate pieces for the bottom, the middle, and the top behind the ribbon. We need the middle piece because we have 10′ ceilings. I wasn’t sure how fast or slow it was going to go, but we made pretty good progress. With Dean taking measurements and nailing, and me working the saw, we managed to get the entire North wall done and about a third of the South wall.

Bottom blocking

Bottom blocking

We used the nail gun to make fast work of the installation, and employed a couple techniques to avoid toe-nailing. Because the top of the floor joist terminates between the studs (a feature of balloon-frame construction) we were able to nail one end of the bottom blocking down into the joist and then nail into other end from the next stud over and work our way down. For the middle blocks we staggered so we could end nail from both sides. At window edges we nailed a small block to the stud and then nailed the blocking down into it. Finally, for the top we cut down the blocking on the table saw so it would fit behind the ribbon and then face-nailed them. We had to individually measure each piece because of the unevenness of the stud spacing, but it went fairly quickly.

Middle blocking

Middle blocking

The East and West walls we had to hold off on for the time being because the floor joists run parallel to the walls, meaning once we install the bottom blocking it will seal off a cavity below the floor. We’ll wait until the spray foam installation to put in the blocking so that everything gets insulated properly. There’s more blocking to do, but it requires  me to once again rearrange my tools and all the other stuff we have leaning against the walls. I started on it this week, and hope to get through most of it. As always, a big thanks to Dean for his help!

Top blocking (behind ribbon)

Top blocking (behind ribbon)

Purpose

April 8, 2014 / / 2 Comments

When we’re growing up, we’re given the impression that as we get older we will discover what we are truly good at, what we’re really interested in, and then go off and make ourselves a career of that. We’ll do that thing until we retire, and while retirement means different things to different people, we generally view it as a time of leisure, to enjoy ourselves and live off our accumulated work, spend time with family, that sort of thing.

As we reach adulthood, we usually come to discover that the world is vastly more complex than we thought. Our own interests more nuanced, challenges are not so easy as they seemed, and simply diving into a fascinating lifetime career isn’t always the way forward. Some people find themselves doing things that they’re good at, things that may even pay fairly well, but don’t fulfill them in the ways that they thought life was supposed to. Maybe it’s not as exciting or glamorous as we envisioned, maybe we thought we were “special”. We end up searching for a purpose, something more meaningful.

Along the way, we may start families, build friendships, move to new cities, come up with dreams and plans and new ambitions. Sometimes we simply cling to ambitions we held as children, convincing ourselves they will yet come to pass, that we’ll conquer the world… next year. Maybe we’ll start a business, earn passive income online, invest in real estate, win the lottery, travel the world and eventually get the glamorous life we know must be in store for us. In the meantime we watch television, play games, and read books.

Sarah and I decided to buy a crappy house and fix it up ourselves. This was our dream and our plan. Maybe it wasn’t going to give meaning to our lives, but it was a way to stretch ourselves and do something more than just watch TV. We both knew what we were getting into and we both didn’t. I think what we didn’t know was that we were going to have less than half as much time to work on the house as we planned, and that everything would be twice as much work as we imagined, meaning it will take four times as long to finish.

Part of the reason we bought the house was that our condo was small, and Sarah was pregnant with our first child, Derek. He’s two now and our second is due in the next few weeks, maybe sooner. The upstairs unit of our house where we’re living is smaller than our condo. I tried for a while to really push, working on the house every day, as much as I could. The result was that it didn’t seem to go much faster, I was more worn out, and we weren’t as happy. It seems the regular pace is the one that works for us, no matter how long it takes.

Working on the house is frustrating, time consuming, and expensive, but I do derive satisfaction from it, and imagining what it will be like when it’s done keeps me going and makes me smile. The house presents challenges and problems to solve, mental far more than physical. I know that I’m getting better at the work, day by day. I may not attain the level of craftsmanship that I aspire to, but I keep trying. I just hope that by the time we get to trim work I’ll be good enough to make it look nice.

We envisioned working on the house together, but between pregnancies, kids, and graduate school, Sarah hasn’t been as hands-on as she’d hoped. Instead we’ve been overwhelmed by family and friends who have volunteered their time to help us with this crazy project. It’s made us feel very grateful for the people around us.

I’m still dreaming of winning the lottery or stumbling upon the amazing idea that changes the world. Until that happens I’m going to keep working on this house. It’s more than something to do, more than just a hobby. It’s building a home for myself and my family. It’s a purpose.

Blocking Preparation

April 6, 2014 / / 0 Comments
Subfloor installed

Subfloor installed

The subfloor is finally all installed, which means it’s time to look forward to the next project: blocking. Blocking is the process of installing short pieces of framing between the wall studs at the bottom, middle, and top of the wall. This provides structural bracing (since the house tends to sway when there are strong winds), fire code (fire inside the wall takes longer to spread if there is solid wood in its way), and as a nailing edge for drywall. In addition, all along the kitchen wall we’ll install extra blocking to make cabinet installation easier.

Before we can get to work measuring, cutting, and installing blocking, I need to do some wall straightening. Because our house is built from rough sawn lumber, the studs are not exactly the same thickness. The original lath and plaster evened things out in ways that drywall will not, so we need to establish what straight looks like and then plane and shim the studs so that they are even and plumb.

Laser line establishes straight

Laser line establishes straight

I started work along the front of the house, where in addition to the above described challenge we have to allow for the support column in the wall and the front door, which is fairly thick. The column is 3½” thick, so it should sit flush, but the column cap at the top extends back, so the column is proud of the wall by about a half inch. I debated framing it as a visible column, but decided instead to bring the wall flush with it. I will still have to deal with the column cap and bolt at the top, so something will wind up being visible regardless, but that’s a finishing detail I’m not currently worried about. Maybe I’ll use a cornice or something.

Laser line on 6' level

Laser line on 6′ level

I used my laser level to project a plumb line and marked my shim position. I ripped that down on the table saw and then cut an angle off of it so that it would match the inside edge of the bay. After I glued and screwed down the remaining shims I ran my straight edge down the wall and realized that things weren’t quite where they were supposed to be. I wound up cutting thin wafers to shim my shims out so that everything was actually flush.

Shimming progress

Shimming progress

One challenge is that I can’t install the blocking at the bottom of the wall in the front or back of the house until the spray foam is put in, since there is a joist preventing the spray foam from being installed from below, as we’ll do on the sides of the house. I’ll wind up measuring and cutting the pieces, but leaving them loose, since we’ll need to put them in during spray foam installation. I also need to contend with the inside corners of the house, since they aren’t framed with a proper nailing edge. Basically, I have some more work to do before I can start putting the blocking in.