Walls up and down

Walls Up and Down....

August 5th -- Walls are around us all the time and we really don't notice them until they aren't there anymore or when they suddenly appear, seemingly out of nowhere.  In the next week or so, there will be lots of walls coming down that have stood for 110 years and even more walls that will be brand new.

Here is a new wall that faces north that is part of the new master bedroom -- there will actually be three small windows framed into that big opening.

The studs and rafters that were part of the original master bedroom are no more and instead there are some temporary support beams because the south side of the roof will be integrated into the new addition design, while what was left of the original bedroom walls on the north side and the eaves have disappeared.

Here is the framing for what will be the new north walls for the new master bathroom.

 Two of the three high windows that will bring light into the stairwell into the basement have been cut out.

 This view from the back of the house shows the west and north walls of the upper-level addition and also the sub-floor for the deck that will be off the master bedroom (the door from the bedroom to the deck is behind that long board).

Finally, for those of you who have asked about my "alternative sleeping arrangement," here you go...this is the 4" pad with sheets and my "sleepy time" pillow case.  A comfy little sleeping nest at the end of another day.

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The Weather Channel Lies and More not-so Good Vibrations

The Weather Channel Lies and More not-so Good Vibrations.....

August 4th -- Just when I thought it was safe....the Weather Channel predicted 0% chance of precipitation until it increases to 30% at 10:00pm -- well, they were just flat out WRONG

We just had a torrential downpour, but unlike last night it only lasted for about 20 minutes. Nevertheless, more rain....just when everything had finally dried out from last night, of course!

Here is the view of my street, with the second and third shots showing the rain starting to flood the gutters.

Ugh, more water is pooling on the second-floor sub-flooring.

The bucket is filling up again....

 Actually more buckets are filling up again....

 

 Water is pooling on the first floor addition again...

 And, in the middle of all of this rain, I hear this really weird noise, like water running inside the house.  So, off I go to investigate and I discover that the downstairs toilet tank is cracked, the carpet is soaked, and there is water on the floor. This can only be explained by more vibrations, right?  I mean seriously how does a toiiet tank that has probably been in the house for over 50 years just decides to crack and leak at this particular time?   

I shut off the water supply and laugh, because hey, this toilet will be replaced soon and I'm back in full-out uber-zen mode!  

Oh well, I'm off to sweep the pooling, standing water off the main floor addition -- a little post-dinner exercise never hurt, right?  Right?


The Weather Channel now reports 0% chance of rain for the rest of the evening.  If it rains again tonight, I am so done with you, Weather Channel!

Two by two....?

Two by two....?

August 3rd and 4th -- This is monsoon season which means that from June until mid-September there is a possibility of afternoon storms that can bring dramatic weather depending on the intensity of the high pressure system.  This could result in a good downpour, but sometimes with damaging hail, winds, and infrequently small tornadoes.  When the conditions literally bring a perfect storm, the downpour can be so intense that there is street flooding and the hail so deep that it looks like snowfall in August.  

It has mostly been a hot and dry summer, we've had enough late snowfall to lift the initial stage 1 drought watering restrictions set by the local water utility.  Before the crew left on Friday, they draped the exposed areas of the house with ginormous blue tarps.  The tarps will hopefully protect the most vulnerable exposed parts of the house which is the old master bedroom area because significant water there will lead to great water damage, especially to the interior of the house (i.e., the main floor ceilings, hardwood floors, etc).  

From the old master bedroom this is the view of the tarps.

                                                                                                                                                                             And this is the view from the northwest back of the house to get a sense of what these tarps are supposed to cover.

Yet again I'm in awe of the construction workers who have been on this job site.  this view shows how they nailed "temporary" steps on the very high pitched roof of the original house (this is the south side of the roof over the old bedroom where the roof has not yet been removed on this side).  Then some brave soul actually climbed up these steps to nail down the tarps.

You can see part of the tarp that is covering the open space between the sub-flooring of the upper-level new master bedroom addition and the existing part of the house covering the old master bedroom.





As the day goes on, the Weather Channel keeps changing its predictions about the chance of precipitation.  Again the storms usually come late afternoon and the clouds roll in and out and it looks like we'll dodge the storm.  Just when I think that maybe we'll get through this day relatively dry, the odds change on the Weather Channel to 50% precipitation at 7:00pm and 8:00pm. That means the odds are even it will or won't rain.

Around 7:00pm the wind begins to pick up and the blowing tarps start speaking to me.  The wind is pulling some corners of the tarp away from their nailed edges.  I remember that I have a few tarps in the garage so I go to find them before the rain starts.  Fortunately, the construction crew left a small ladder in the old master bedroom.  I can see the storm clouds through the rafters where the wind has pulled the tarp up from its nailed mooring.  I decide to grab a hammer, some nails and climb up the ladder to see if I can drape a tarp over the rafters where I can see the storm clouds.  After I'm on the ladder for a few minutes there is a flash of light and I start counting until I hear the clap of thunder.  Even though my counting tells me the lightning strike is quite a distance away, I am standing on a metal ladder -- not a good place to be in an electrical storm.  I climb down, put the ladder away and proceed to spread out the tarp with the help of a long broom handle that is wood.  

The sky opens up and a torrential downpour starts and just keeps getting more and more intense.  This goes on for an unbelievably long period of 45 minutes.  I grab a few empty construction buckets and everything I have left in the house that might hold the run-off of the rainfall that has collected in the crevices of the tarps. Finally the rain eases to a drizzle.   Here is what was collected from the tarps in just one bucket:




Between the dark clouds and the late hour, the lighting isn't great for taking photos, but here is the standing water on the upper-level sub-flooring of the master bedroom addition. Fortunately, not enough for a second-story swimming pool.

Then I go downstairs to the main level to check out what is going on down there, and I find about 2 inches of standing water and water is dripping through the overhead joists and sub-flooring of the upper-level addition.  So, I get out the broom and start sweeping the collected, standing water into the exposed stairwell. 

All things considered, this downpour could have been a whole lot worse.  There was just a little bit of water in the covered old master bedroom and the extra tarp that I put up over the exposed rafters (shown in the photo below) helped to channel the collected rainfall into buckets and tubs that I placed below the tarps.  I ran into my neighbor this afternoon, and he told me the rain gauge in his yard recorded 2.5 inches of water from the storm last night!  He had some water damage from a roof leak in one room of his house, which was built about 10 years ago.  There were no roof leaks in my 110-year-old house, except for the areas where the tarps were blown off their moorings.  Not bad.

Here is the result of the tarp being pulled away as shown by the sun shining through.

 And here is the reason why...the wind blew the tarp off the peak of the old roof line as shown in this photo

 Although it feels a bit humid now, I'm going with the Weather Channel's prediction of 0% precipitation tonight with an increased chance of 30% for rain, thunder and lightning at 10:00 pm.  The ten-day forecast is looking good with each day predicted to have no more than a 30% chance of rain, or a 70% chance of NO RAIN.  If we can get through this week with no more torrential downpours that would be great as the framing should be completed by the end of the coming week. Keep your fingers crossed!

Life Among the Ruins

Life Among the Ruins.....

August 1st --   Shock treatment would be an understatement....even though my contractor told me that they would be "breaking through" my bedroom and it was time to take my bed out of the house, I thought I was prepared and knew what to expect.  I took apart the bed, carefully wrapped the mattress and box spring in heavy gauge plastic "bed bags" from Uhaul, put the bedding in a plastic zippered storage bag and was ready to move on to my "alternative sleeping arrangement."  As the construction progresses, I move into fewer rooms of the house.  I'm out of the kitchen and have set up a temporary kitchen in the living room.  As long as I have water (a borrowed 4-gallon reliance plastic water jug with spout), my espresso machine (notice the beer bottle opener!) and coffee grinder, I'm ok. 

The existing master bathroom, which is accessible from the previous master bedroom, will be the last bathroom to be renovated.  So, I'm pretty much now living in the smallest room in the house, a bedroom on the upper level that is really my home office.  I've crammed all my computer (desktop, laptop, notebook, router, two printers) and electronics (TV, blu-ray, stereo) into this room. I have a fold-up 4" thick sleeping pad that is a bit narrower than a twin bed, but is actually very comfortable.  I have my clothes and shoes in this room as well as my desk and file cabinets.  I enjoy backpacking so, this is a step up from that -- hey, I still have indoor plumbing!

When I arrived home, the framers were just packing up for the day.  I couldn't wait to see what they had done.  I walked upstairs, opened the door to my office/bedroom and was greeted by a shattered light fixture on the floor.  Hmm...ok, when they were working, there were vibrations and the glass globe from the fixture fell to the floor and shattered into lots and lots of tiny glass shards.  OK, I get it, but a huge mess to clean up.  Not a big problem.

I opened the door that led into the existing master bedroom and where my bathroom is, and this is what I saw:

Ok, this is kinda interesting.  The north side of the roof is gone, the roof rafters are exposed, the exterior back of the upper level of the house is gone, except for the 1903 framing and I'm looking at the framing of the new upper level west wall of the master bedroom that will lead to a covered deck off the back of the house (facing west).  

Here is the south wall of the old master bedroom -- that pink insulation is what I put in myself 26  years ago.  There were no closets in the master bedroom when I bought this house so I had a carpenter create these closets that would fit into the eaves -- you can see the closet in this photo with a note to "save" it so I can eventually put it into the eaves in my office (it has cool drawers behind those doors). The insulation install was memorable, although I always wondered how my house could be any hotter in the summer time without it!

Here is a view of the southern wall of the bedroom (which shows how it will tie into the new master bedroom addition) followed by a view of the northern wall of the bedroom with another built-in closet under the eaves and more of my insulation artistry.

Still, this isn't so bad and it is interesting.  There is construction dust and dirt everywhere, but the guys have done their best to clean up what they can.  If I stand on the new upper-level flooring of the master bedroom and look back at what was my bedroom and bathroom (open door on the left), this is what I see:

After I sweep up the glass shards from the fallen light fixture, I flip the wall switch and discover the light fixture is not working.  OK, lots of vibrations.  I walk into the bathroom, flip the wall switch, no electricity.  I try to catch the framing crew as they are leaving and they tell me that the electrician had to cut the electricity to the old master bedroom to remove a ceiling fan light fixture (you can see the fan in the photo above -- it needs to go into the dumpster.  Apparently the electrician cut the power to the entire upper level of my house!  My computers and all electronics on the upper level are dead.  OK, I begin to lose my uber-zen ways.  

One of the framing guys calls my contractor's partner and is told to call the contractor.  I get him on his cell as he is driving to a meeting about 45 minutes away.  I tell him there is no power and the light fixture shattered.  He tells me he is going into a meeting and will call me.  While I wait, I start thinking that I have no Internet, bad cell reception and a smart phone that is now dumb because it won't connect to the Internet (even the mircocell my cell phone provider gave me to improve reception in my house is not working).  It is now about 7:00 pm and I'm trying to figure out whether I can spend the night in my house with no power (on the upper level) and no Internet.  I am growing less zen-like and more freaked out.  Finally, about an hour later, the contractor calls me back and tells me that there isn't anything the electrician can do until the next morning.  I'm really starting to freak out.  The contractor stops by my house on his way home and offers to bring me a bunch of super long extension cords so that I can bring power from the main level of the house to the upstairs. Why didn't I think of that?  I start thinking about how I would rig up a maze of cords, and even though I thought that I had the largest personal collection of outlet adapters (non-grounded to three-prong grounded), power strips, and extension cords, there is always one connection that never is the one you need.  

OK, I swore that I would not be like my contractor's other clients who cry, but I'm pretty close to utter frustration.  The contractor clearly sees that I am stressed out, but he didn't have to stop by and offer to bring me extension cords -- I really do have an impressive collection.  My contractor is an extraordinarily nice and kind human being, besides being an outstanding construction logician, he is empathetic, even though he thinks I'm nuts for living among the ruins.  I call a friend who is out of town to ask if I can spend the night if I need to.  Then, I decide to gather myself and make this yet another adventure; yet another character-building experience.  Of course, the contractor reminds me that I must be careful to wear shoes when I walk into my former bedroom to get to my bathroom because there might be construction debris and it would not be a good idea to walk through that barefoot.  

I get myself together, connect the extension cords from downstairs to my upstairs office/bedroom. 

 I get the desktop to reboot and things are starting to look up, until after I've tried everything I can think of there appears to be nothing I can do to reestablish the DSL connection for the Internet.  I recheck all the connections and then pick up the phone attached to the land line and discover that I have no Internet connection or DSL because the phone is dead.  No electricity.  No land line. Spotty cell phone reception. Very dumb smart phone.  No Internet, but I got the computer rebooted.  I grab a flashlight, I find my backpacking headlamp and strap it on, and then venture out to the bathroom, while looking at the stars through the exposed rafters of the roof.  I walk into the dark bathroom and brush my teeth by the light of my headlamp.  If I try very hard, I can make this into something poetic, right?

Poetic, well maybe not really poetic, but the way houses are constructed is an art form, just not of the literary kind.  In 1903 the use of lathe and plaster was the way to build houses. This is an interesting shot that shows the framing for the roof with the original cedar shingles and directly to the left is an example of lathe and plaster framing covered by a plaster wall.  I am amazed that the roof has actually held up for all these years even though there is about two layers of original cedar shingles and over that is another three layers of modern roof shingles, the last put on in the mid-1980s when everyone around here got a new roof when a billion dollar hail storm blew through.  Because of the huge change in the barometric pressure, about a week after that storm I came home and found that the plaster ceiling in my living fell -- but that is another story.  I knew that I needed a new roof because roofs today have a sheet of plywood over the rafters and the roof shingles are attached to that.   And, this is why old houses are so interesting --- who knew?  

This shot shows the attic and that white stuff is the insulation that I had "blown" into the attic when I moved in 26 years ago.








As I prepare to fall asleep I try to convince myself that it can't get worse and tomorrow will be a new day.


August 2nd -- I got through the night, the sun will come out tomorrow and all that stuff.  I'm no longer freaked out and after an early  morning workout at the fitness center, I'm getting back into my uber-zen mode.  You have to admit that the view is pretty cool.

Because there was so much demolition, the gigantic construction dumpster is not only filled, it is overflowing.  Remember when the dumpster was empty?

Yet another measure of progress.....

I'll admit that I am finding even the most mundane aspects of construction interesting.  For example, I never really considered what is involved in dropping off and picking up a construction dumpster.  While I'm waiting for the electrician to reconnect my power and phone, the dumpster delivery guy shows up.  He drives this huge rig that is carrying an empty dumpster.  He finds a spot on the street and "rolls off" the empty dumpster.  Then he positions his truck behind the filled dumpster, attaches it, and pulls it off the street and on to his rig with the miracle of modern hydraulics, as show in the following sequence.

Then the guy finds a spot on the street to off-load the filled dumpster that he just picked up.





Then he drives his truck back to pick up the empty dumpster that he arrived with so he can place it in front of my house.

Notice how the dumpster is placed perfectly in front of the overflow pile!  I talked with the dumpster delivery guy and we both agreed how amazing it is that he can move this several ton thing with astounding deft and precision.  And, when the dumpster rolls off the lift, it gently hits the ground -- no vibrations there!  Then, he drives back to where he left the filled dumpster, picks it up and off he goes.

By noon the electricians have restored electricity and the land line is reconnected.  It takes an inordinate amount of time to reboot the microcell, which is connected to the router.  The microcell has to link with a satellite before it restores connectivity and makes my dumb cell phone once again smart.  I just reread that last sentence and realize how ridiculous I am for complaining about how long it takes the microcell to reboot - after all the satellite is orbiting the earth -- it's not like it is just around the corner!  

Life is good once more as life among the ruins returns to the new normal and I'm back into uber-zen mode.