Carpet installation guys were here an hour earlier than I expected them, and were out of here in about an hour. Man I am happy with this room! I almost hated to put furniture in here. I've got my desk in here now, as well as the oak hutch which holds a portion of my collectibles. There is a LOT of shit I'm not sure what to do with, but I have a big garbage bag here in case. The room I was using as an office is an absolute mess, and I'll get it cleaned up by the end of the day I'm sure. A fresh coat of paint and she'll be good as new. It's funny how excited I was about this. I was awake at 5am like a kid on Christmas.
Today was the day I fixed water damage to the wall and ceiling, then painted this entire room. Sounded easy, especially with the bead board but it was a lot of taping to keep from getting paint on the woodwork. Then I moved the fireplace, which was easy but when I went to move it back, I broke it. Which caused soot to get on the carpet. Which caused a lot of swearing and me nearly dragging the whole thing out of the house. Cooler head prevailed, if only as an example to our 21 year old son. I finished painting, fixed the fireplace and put the whole room back together before dinner. Im shooting for an Adirondack theme because I live that region so much. I’m only showing that side of the room because it’s furnished. I still need to get a chair and lamp for the corner. Where I’m standing to take that it’s an archway with floor to ceiling book cases on both sides. Two weeks left of summer vacation, and I am fucking done painting.
Fuck people who did shit repairs. I am pretty dam confident that the reason i have that weird window is there used to be a door and a deck that went all the way across the back, that is why there is the different tile of wood siding. Well when they put that window in, for some reason they used polly on both the inside and the outside. Luckily it was only just below the window. And just for fun, that is my 3rd story. So way the fuck up on a ladder for many hours.
You think that's fucked? A friend of mine bought a house a couple of years ago, and was redoing his bathroom. Hammered a nail into the wall to hang a picture, and heard glass shatter. Pulled the drywall down, and there was a window... completely dry-walled over. And sided over on the outside. But not removed, with proper insulation, etc. Literally someone just covered a sliding outside window over in his bathroom. Major WTF moment.
I can’t find a better pic at the moment but if you look at the window shaped cutout on the right wall you’ll notice drywall on the other side. Our master bath had an exterior window there, when they added the addition they didn’t remove the window and just dry walled over it. Addition was in ‘96, they just lived with a window to nowhere until we bought it in ‘17. Also you’ll notice a romex wire and LED light hardwired to the romex with black tape. With an old school rolling switch for the on/off. Which was glued inside the window to nowhere and invisible until I cut the window out.
I am probably super late to the game on this, but bear with me. I read somewhere that in order to get rid of a water stain on a ceiling before painting, hit it with a mix of 2 parts water and one part bleach. That did the trick, room painted and only a very faint spot if you know where to look. While washing the siding this week, I was having a tough time getting it really clean, even with a power washer. So for shits and giggles, I used the above mix. WOW what a difference that made. I ended up spraying the whole half of the house, by hand, and rinsing with the power washer. The siding looks brand new. ( Note: It's WHITE siding, I have no idea if it's safe for other colors. ) This week I wanted to get rid of some moss on the roof. I looked online and saw that a 1:1 mix of bleach and water will kill it. Then you just rinse. I'm happy to report it definitely killed the moss, and I'll treat again in Spring to get rid of remnants. Our porch railing has been a thorn in my side for years. I can never get it really clean and end up painting over whatever shit is growing on there. But what I noticed today was, where I got some of the bleach water on the railing below where I was working, there were spots of bright white. I sprayed some on the decking, which is stained mahogany, to make sure it didn't affect that. And it didn't appear to. So I sprayed down a section of railing. Holy shit, what a difference. Spray, wait 5 minutes, spray with the hose to rinse. You can see the difference in these pics: My wife took the day off and left to go shopping. She asked if I needed anything. "More bleach!" I'm gonna try a 2:1 mix just to make sure I'm not wasting bleach, but I know the 1:1 will work for sure.
For water stains inside, i use an oil based paint that is capable of taking latex based paint over top. The water stains don't seep through the oil based paint, then you paint what ever latex you want over top.
Getting new interior doors & trim installed this week. Bye-bye shitty hollow core doors and hello solid core sound dampening doors. You could hear a gnat fart through the old doors
Nice! That's on my list of things to do this winter... I want to build out all new doors, window trims, etc. The wood has been sitting in a big pile in my garage for 3 years now, figured it's time to do something with it.
I am working on my alternative energy plan, gah. I know we can capture methane gas for re-use from landfills. We should be able to do the same from gnat farts, assuming they produce as much methane as termites and cows. Once I get my $7 million grant to study it, I will let you know.
Doors are in and painted. Really surprised at how much of a difference it made to the look of the house interior.
A few weeks ago I heard the sound of running water in the room where the water main enters, and noticed a wet spot (not the fun kind) on the front lawn. The water line into our house was leaking, and further investigation by a plumber revealed that our fucking water line was - sprinkler hose. Several sections, connected with plastic connections and hose clamps. How this lasted 60 years is beyond me- obviously it was never inspected. They started replacing it today, hopefully they’ll be done tomorrow. I can think of better ways to drop 10k.
Redid the guest bath a while back and was waiting for the doors to be installed before posting pics and then completely forgot about it. A little before and after with a pic of the permit police checking out the demo
I went to change out what I thought was a bad breaker in the basement and found a complete mess of rust and corrosion on a brand new breaker panel thats only 7-8 years old. The guy that put it in did a nice job overall, except that part where you make sure no moisture can get in. I called a very reputable electrician today and he said without looking at it he is certain the whole thing will have to be replaced. I'm actually glad he said that because yeah, it's gonna cost more, but I'll know it's done correctly and avoid any more future issues. Also, I took the plunge and bought a bidet ( this one ) after using one at my in-laws. Amazon had it on sale and I figured if we really didn't like it, we were only out $20. It's safe to say it's not going anywhere. Although there is a slight learning curve I've found, but well on the way to a shower fresh clean after every go.
Holy shit, since it's raining out I just went to look at the breaker box. The water that's getting in there is coming from INSIDE the service cable that goes from the meter outside into the house. The outside of it is dry as a bone but when you look close you can see drops coming down from inside it. I am damn glad we caught this when we did. Electrician said he should be here in the next day or two once he's finished with the current job.
Crazy. I wonder if that kind of leak has to be addressed by the electric co? I hope it works out well for you. In the meantime, you should toss pennies at the open box and record for our entertainment.
Oh. The meter to the house. Reading comprehension failure on my part… was thinking the other side of the meter. That sounds pretty easily fixed by your electrician.
Yeah, I’m guessing it’s somewhere between the meter on the house and the breaker box. I’m not poking around too much, I kinda like living. Still should be something the electrician can handle. At first I felt kind of stupid because I didn’t catch it sooner, but then again I’ve never had cause to take the front panel off the box until now. I also took a shitload of pics in case we can turn it in to our homeowner insurance.