More Wall Repairs

As usual, we were back at the house this weekend for more repair work. We continued working on the dining room walls, spent some time on the ceiling in the foyer, and did some touch up on walls that are pretty close to complete (except for sanding).


Here is one of the walls in the dining room. There is an earlier picture of this wall in last week's post. Not to sound like a broken record, but the joint compound looks a hundred times better than the nasty brown paint.


Here's a before and after comparison of the foyer. The first picture was taken when the tenant was still "living" in the house and before we even made an offer. Just looking at this picture is nauseating. The second picture was taken this afternoon. No more nasty wallpaper, wall stains or giant holes in the plaster. And most importantly, no more horrid stench.



We are exceptionally proud of the wall repair in the picture below. This wall is on the right side of the foyer and just below the stairs. A lot of the plaster was crumbling and stained. First, we scraped all of the loose plaster off and applied giant pieces of mesh wall tape. Next, we applied layer after layer of joint compound and ended up with a repaired wall. As we've experienced with some of the other walls, some of the yellow stains seep into the joint compound as it dries. We'll use a primer, such as Kilz, to stop this after we sand and are ready to paint.

Snowy Day

We had a little snow this weekend. Maybe and inch to two at best, but it was pretty.

Since the HVAC was repaired early this week, we were able to go back to work this weekend. We worked on the dining room quite a bit. Husband removed all the bits of wallpaper that were still clinging desperately to the wall. Wife began layering joint compund over the brown gloss paint. Joint compound sticks to the paint, but doesn't apply particularly easily. Either way, the white compound looks so much better than the ugly brown.

No Progress

We discovered this weekend that the fan in the basement heating unit has gone kaput for no apparent reason. Lucky us. This means that we have no heat. The HVAC company will be back at the house on Monday morning to replace the fan. Since it's so cold at the house without heat, we would freeze if we tried to work. It's also simply too cold for joint compound to set properly.

Instead of working, we reflected on the life of Anna Nicole Smith and then rented a few movies...The Black Dahlia, The Illusionist, and Little Miss Sunshine. Here are our thoughts:

The Black Dahlia - Read the book by James Ellroy because the movie is unbearably bad.

The Illusionist - One of the better movies we've seen recently. Very entertaining.

Little Miss Sunshine - Haven't watched it yet. But, it's nominated for an Oscar, so it must be good.

FYI - Shut Up and Sing (the Dixie Chicks movie) comes out on DVD on Feb 20. Great movie and band.

Wall Repair Vol. 2

Yes, it is a travesty that Wife is missing the most important of American holidays, Super Bowl Sunday, to post photos of plaster cracks. Well, not really. Our President is a travesty, but that's a topic for another blog.

Anyhoo, here are some before and after pictures of the front wall in the living room. This area is immediately to the right of the location of the big stained-glass window....currently an attractive piece of particle board is in its place.

Where's Tippi Hedren?!?!

As we were leaving to work at the house on Saturday, we discovered that the front yard, and more specifically, our bush, had under attack by a giant flock of robins. In fact, the photo below does not show the full contingent of birdies in the bush, tree, yard, or street. (Take note of the vast number of red berries on the bush in this picture.)


When we returned a few hours later, we discovered that the bush had been picked clean. Not a single red berry was left!

Wall Repair Vol. 1

These are pictures of a wall in the hallway leading from the first floor foyer to the rear rooms. There were significant cracks in the wall and a long area in which the plaster had fallen off (or been destroyed by tenant and friends). The plaster is now 90% repaired. The area still needs a little attention on the corner, but the holes and cracks are gone.

Gravel Parking

We now have a gravel area to park and a temporary wooden walkway to the back of the house. We no longer have to slosh through the mud to get to the house.

Photo Update

Here are some pictures of the work that was done last week.

The heating system and duct work.




The new electrical service.

Contractor Update - Heat Pumps

The two Trane heat pumps were installed today. We're one step closer to having heat in the house.

Post #59 - Contractor Update

This past week the HVAC sub started working on the heating and air systems. Holes for the registers and return air duct work have been cut in the floor for the first floor system and the ceiling for the second floor system.



The wiring for the second floor thermostat has been run from the wall in the second floor hallway wall up into the attic where the second floor heating and air system will be located. This is the first new wiring put in the house.



This coming week the HVAC sub is supposed to continue working on the house and hopefully we'll have heat within a week or so. The electrician is supposed to upgrade the service and start running wire to the various rooms in the house.

What's that noise?

If you're in the metro Lexington area and hear a loud vacuum sounding noise don't be alarmed. It's just the "Money Pit" starting to suck up some major cash. The contractor and several subs started working at the house today. The electrical service is being upgraded to a 400 amp service and the HVAC sub is starting on the downstairs heating system.

Happy Holidays

We took a break from living through our personal episodes of This Old House over Christmas to enjoy some time with our herd of cats and dogs (which recently expanded to a total of 2 dogs and 2 cats). The cats enjoyed Christmas morning by spending much of it in present boxes. The dogs, not content to be lazy like the cats, helped with the dishes after Christmas dinner.



We are spending a good portion of New Year's weekend back at the money pit. Despite having used about 20 gallons of joint compound in the past couple of months, we still have plenty of cracks left to repair.

Stained Glass Update No. 481

The repaired stained glass window has made its way back to Lexington. For the time being, it will live in our garage in Lexington. There's no sense in putting it back in the money pit and taking the risk that it will be damaged while we finish renovations.

The repaired window is absolutely beautiful, and Joe and Mitsy were able to reuse the majority of the antique glass. The pictures below do not do it justice.

Stained Glass Window Update #2

Here are several pictures of the completed stained glass window. It will be installed later in the restoration project when the rest of the window work is being done.




Thanks to Joe & Mitsy Yager for doing such a great job on it.

Rear bedroom

This is the rear guest bedroom. This first two photos show the room as it looked before we closed on the house. The third photo (of the fireplace) shows the room after it was cleaned out and we began removing wallpaper and the wall (not original) that divided the room. The last picture shows the room in its present state....awaiting more joint compound, sanding, primer, etc.

Stairwell

The marathon of applying joint compound to the cracked plaster at the money pit continued this weekend. We finally started on the stairwell. The first picture above shows the stairwell as it looked when the tenant was still in the house. The middle picture shows the wall with the paper removed and drywall screws installed to secure loose plaster to the lath. The last picture shows the wall after the initial application of joint compound. We have a lot of work to do to finish the wall, but it already looks so much better after the first layer!!

Brrrrrrr!!!!

Brrrrrr!!! The temperature has dropped from the sixties (very pleasant) to the thirties (not so pleasant). This means a couple of things for the money pit project....
1. It's too cold for Wife to apply joint compound.
2. It's too cold to apply joint compound since it will not set/dry properly.
3. Scout's designation as "barn cat" changes to "house cat". (We don't want her to freeze!!!). And, she seems to be enjoying naps in our spare bedroom.

We have made a great deal of progress repairing cracks at the money pit. We've used a lot of joint compound so far...probably 15 gallons....and have just about finished 2 rooms and the upstairs foyer (see below). The upstairs looks so much better with the wall repairs. Fortunately, the ghastly odor lingering from tender love and care provided the former tenants has also vastly improved.

Scout

We have a new cat hanging out in our old barn. We've named her Scout and she's doing a fine job of watching over the comings and goings of the backyard.

Weekend Work

This past weekend was spent working on the walls and the plaster cracks and holes. We're slowly making progress on the upstairs rooms.







We also did some much needed leaf raking and yard work.

Stained Glass Window Update

Here are several pictures of the stained glass window. The repair work is almost complete.

Plaster Repair

Today was the first day of many to come. Today we started to repair all of the holes and cracks in the plaster walls. We started in the master bedroom and will work our way through the entire house.



For anyone wanting to help, the following link is a quick tutorial on how to repair plaster: Plaster Repair Link

Kitchen Ceiling

Both Saturday and Sunday were spent removing the old plaster and lath from the kitchen ceiling. The old plaster was rough and in bad shape. It'll also make it easier to wire the kitchen lighting.



We also continued to work on the removal of the old plumbing and gas pipes. The main thing left to remove is the main cast iron drain and roof vent.

Miscellaneous Work

This past weekend we did several miscellaneous jobs at the house.

On Saturday we removed the wall framing that divided the small back bedroom. The room is now restored to it's original size. We also took down the remaining part of the drop ceiling in the kitchen.

On Sunday we started to remove all of the old plumbing. The hot and cold water pipes have been removed from the entire house but the drain pipes still remain. We hope to remove them this week.

Electrical Wiring

This past weekend we removed all of the old electrical wiring, outlets, and switches from the house. There was a lot of knob-and-tube wiring dating back to the early part of the 20th century and some wiring from the later half of the century. It all has to be replaced.

Pit Stop

We're temporarily at a pit stop along the renovation road. Wife has been very busy at work, and then we took a vacation at the beach. We should be heading down the on-ramp again this weekend. More wallpaper scraping and paint removal await. Our other contractor bid is also ready. Hopefully it won't be astronomical like the first one!!