Texts from Andy

Oh my! Thunder and lightening! The poor, poor tarp at 178. The poor husband all alone up there listening to the tarp try and fail to hold up against this storm. Home ownership is not all sunshine! 

Try "Shelter" by Ray Lamontagne

Water water everywhere

   Well, as you may have read, the rain finally stopped, at least for the time being. With water coming up from under the slab in the basement, and water coming in through poorly executed penetrations, we certainly have our hands full. (It is looking like my posts will show the grunt side of things, while Sarah will be focusing on the bright side. Balance is good.)

   With the basement being the target for my woodshop, the unpredictable inundations simply will not do. I managed to vacuum up the standing water, and have employed our housewarming (should I say "house-drying?") gift from my in-laws, a nice new dehumidifier! This has gotten the dampness to retreat somewhat, and with our clay soil draining slowly outside, the hope is that I can start moving some tools down there. Not before I try to deal with the smell of cat excrement...    

    I am meeting with a friend today to look at possibilities involving changing some of the grading in the yard, with an eye towards diverting ground and surface water away from the foundation. Word has it that there is a curtain drain in place, but my guess is that it must be clogged by now, or somehow suffering a major leak. Hopefully any grading can be done in such a way as to not disturb septic and water lines.

   The water coming from above is a totally separate problem, though equal in threat. We knew that the "deck" off of the master bedroom was leaking, and I am assured that the design is typically very difficult to flash properly. We are entertaining the idea of doing away with it completely as a place to stand outside and replacing it with some pitched surface that will get the water out of there. The sliding doors that lead to the deck are two of a handful of units that were never properly flashed. I will have to pull them out (regardless of whether they are to be reinstalled), and install a proper pan underneath them. Due to this lack of workmanship, there are two major leaks within three feet of each other: one which I believe to be at the bottom of the post between the two upstairs sliders (See rotten subfloor in previous post), and one which is out near the edge of the deck, presumably where the center support for the handrail makes a penetration. The whole affair has been gooped up with silicone caulking over the years as a means of "fixing" the problem.

   Dealing with the first leak will mean pulling the sliding door units, uncovering the deck (it is rolled granular roofing material, maybe two layers), and basically starting from scratch in that area. I will be detailing my findings in a subsequent post.

   The second leak is one that I have already begun to investigate. I noticed early on that there was some sag evident in the ends of wrapped beam on the first floor which supports the second floor. 

   

 At first it seemed that maybe it was too big of a span for the beam to carry, and I imagined jacking the whole thing up and sistering on some supporting members. Damage to the drywall on the first floor under the beam, and the pinched French door there gave me some clues that there might be a bigger picture. 

   And there we have it. Water damage that has soaked into the end of the carrying beam (Sarah posted an earlier photo of me awkwardly removing the trim), promoting decay in the beam, the growth of nasty black mold, some friendly neighborhood carpenter ants, and...

...the reason for the pinched door. This photo shows a duplex/staging nail hand pressed to the hilt (about 3") into the bottom plate under the triple 2x4 post between the French door units. Basically the middle of the whole end of the house is sinking. This means that these two heavy door units will also have to be removed, the bottom plate(s?) replaced, a proper pan installed (it isn't yet clear if some of this lower damage was actually caused by water coming in locally. I will not be surprised.), and the door units reinstalled and properly flashed (for the first time). These will likely remain door units in this location, because they provide direct access to the big deck on the west end of the house. 

   So I began thinking that I would need to jack up and support the beam, and somehow remove the end of the beam, splicing in dry material, sistering on more material and maybe ending up with a post in the middle of the room. Then I thought I might need to support the second floor and replace the whole span! I was starting to think both options were actually impossible. My head was spinning. Last night, however, my brother offered a different, far simpler (and actually possible!) solution, which I will detail as I get to it. He explained that the beam only needs 1" of bearing on the end, and that I should install a post between the two doors, in the room, that goes through the first floor to load the second floor beam directly on the first floor beam in the basement. Brilliant. I can leave the beam on the first floor intact, and end up with an element that will make for good stories during one of our many cocktail parties.

   On a lighter note... During an intense weekend cleaning session, the drain tube from the dishwasher which had apparently been hanging on by just a thread, was bumped free of its brazing, leaving us with a hole in the kitchen sink drain. While I tried to removed the drain to replace it with a new one, I noticed something odd: the whole basket assembly was loose in the sink. I couldn't get it tighter (or looser) by hand, so we called off any sink usage until I could get the right tool. The basket assembly was removed and cleaned, and the rubber gasket was replaced with plumbers putty. It is now well seated and doing fine.

 









 Other exciting news is that I finally own my very own tablesaw! It's an old Powermatic 63 Artisan's Saw, which falls into the category of "Contractor Saws." Just about perfect for me, it is heavier and more powerful than a truly Portable/Jobsite Saw, while being a substantially smaller investment than a Cabinet Saw. Here it is in pieces, awaiting the drying of the basement lair!

                                            

    That's all for now, folks. Thanks for sticking with this super long post! Please won't someone help me with FORMATTING!? Dern you, Blogger!

1love

Andy

Sunshine!

Today was the first sun-shining day since we closed on Wednesday! Here is all that I have to say about that:

Before/After

A visitor

The hammock and clothes line are high on my priorities list. Sears is coming out to trouble shoot our lemon of a washer and hopefully we will get a fresh load of rags and work clothes on the line soon.

We stopped to get some beans on the way home and discovered that the Nursery in Williamsburg has more to offer than list plants, seeds, and garden supplies...

View from the Continuous Arm Rocker

It's been raining since we closed on Wednesday. The monsoon conditions are showing us to all of the water problem spots in the house. The issue we (really, he) are tackling first is the issue of sagging, most likely caused by rot, of the first floor beam. Then we will move upstairs and address the problem from that angle. 

Here's a sneak peak at what's happening upstairs.  Andy found this little surprise beneath the kitty-hair infested, weird stained carpeting

 So, I am sitting here in the rocker, enjoying my morning coffee and watching the beam be exposed. It is only 9AM and I already fixed part of the staircase that was making lots of noise so I deserve a little break.

I tightened one of the rickety loose metal bulbs on top of the posts - it's more complicated than it sounds,  I swear.

Watching Andy unwrap the beam from the comfort of this rocking chair is sort of like Christmas morning. Except I do no celebrate Christmas and I do not think I am looking forward to the "presents" this beam is going to surprise us with.

We have brought up enough provisions to be comfortable while we clean and investigate the punkiness of the rot situation. This morning was buckwheat waffles with apple topped with Aunt Becky and Uncle Mike's gift of Canadian maple syrup. There are little pieces of friends and family all around the house that are making it feel like ours...

-Snake plant from my Mom

-Blanket from Peg

-Owl soap dish from Will and Caity

-Salt and Pepper shakers from Wendi

-Ceramic bowl from Josh

-Test tube vase from Grandpa and Grandma

Oh and the fact that Andy is tearing it apart also makes it feel like this place belongs to us!

We are learning a lot from this experience. If I could go back in time and offer one bit of advice to myself it would be: Take your time with the walk through. Do not let the excitement of closing cloud your vision. In hindsight, I know we might have been better served by not rushing the walk through and waiting. Nothing major has cropped up yet, but we quickly learned that the front burners on the stove do not ignite. In our rush, I only checked the back two. What luck! Our buyers agent and the sellers agent both agree this is something the sellers should have disclosed. They offered to buy the replacement pieces for us. It's definitely a nice gesture and we will be grateful for their support but it shouldn't be their responsibility - it might have fallen on the sellers if we had carefully and slowly gone through the house. Lesson learned: take our sweet, sweet time.

We are investigating the CSA up the road later today and I am desperately trying to rally enough dirty clothes to test out our new washing machine. Laundry had never been so appealing. But I will be patient. For now it's time to clean the kitchen.

XO, Sarah

Cleanup

   Well we are in! The sellers left a pretty greasy kitchen (somehow we missed that when we first saw the place), so we are working into some nooks and crannies. I realize I should have photographed the inside of the fridge yesterday, but I don't think anyone else should have to suffer through that.

    Q: What spills in a fridge that, when left to do its thing in the most unreachable (but visible!) spots takes on the notes of feet, cheese, and pickled foot cheese? A: Who knows, but I'm glad it's mostly gone now.

   The oven and range are caked with baked on grease, so I had to call in the big guns, the stuff that takes pitch off of saw blades...

This never happened.

   So in addition, yesterday we went through a mess of disinfectant wipes that Sarah had the good sense to bring along. I tightened almost every single knob in the kitchen, and started to wipe down cabinet doors. It's amazing how sticky and greasy literally every surface had become!

   Today, I am going to tear up and remove the carpeting in the master bedroom and upstairs hallway. Cat dander makes it impossible for my wife to  breathe, and inheriting other people's carpet is just weird.

I have a huge long list of projects with varying degrees of urgency attached to them. This one is urgent, but not like the water seeping into the basement after some heavy rain......

More later

1love

Andy

Waiting game

    With all the parts and pieces of the home-buying process falling into place over the last couple of months, the last few days before the closing seem to be really taking forever! I am trying to be patient, but as homeownership is something I have dreamed of my whole adult life, the last wait is agonizing. 

    We have the luxury of taking our time with the move, which will save us the trouble of renting a big truck to do it all in one shot. Our plan is to start with the futon and some house plants, some sheets, towels, pillows, and if there is any room left in the car, a couple of our chairs. Oh yea, the hammock is up there on the priority list as well. 

    The major moving will likely occur on the weekends, when Sarah can help out, though maybe I can convince her into a couple easy evening/overnight schleps. It seems crazy not to spend as much time as possible in our new abode, but work is still right here or both of us.

    Our list of projects involving the new house seems to grow all the time. If I can make it to (through?) Wednesday's morning closing and afternoon walk-through, I think I'll be ok. The sellers are also closing on a house on Wednesday, and are moving during the day. Every time I think I am stressed about buying this house and moving, I have to think about them, and the domino effect of something not working out for us, which would then keep them from their new home. Pretty crazy process, no matter how we look at it!

1love

Andy

Both guns blazing!

Here we go! Time for a new blog! I plan on posting about the process of moving and tackling repairs, and life in general as first time homeowners. My wife Sarah and I could not be more excited! Plan on this being boring for most, and really exciting for some!

Today, with most other elements in place for our closing on May 22nd, I lined up our homeowners' insurance policy. The good news is that the new policy will cover our belongings while we move, so we can cancel our renters' policy starting on our closing date. This will save us a little money, which is always good. I plan to spend the money saved on a new bag of rice!

We have been making little lists over the last couple of months of the projects that will need tackling, and making note of the urgency. Clearly, a family has been living in the house we are buying for a number of years, but we encountered evidence of neglect or poor workmanship that we feel we need to deal with sooner than later.

It's a funky number, to be sure. We are excited about the natural light that the design affords. Also looking forward to our first legitimate garden, as well as the prospect of pet lover-ship. I am looking forward to squeezing chairs out of an awkward basement that is probably about four times the size of my current awkward shop!

OK, good first post! Let's see how this whole thing unfolds!
1love
Andy