November 29, 2005
Remodeling isn't for the impatient
I haven't got nearly as much done as I'd have liked, mainly due to the fact that the weekend was primarily a lost cause. However, things are slowly moving forward. Over the last two days I've installed six blinds, two shut off valves, hacked out a whole bunch of pipe, installed some pipe strapping, and pulled out most of the cable for the previous owner's short wave radio antenna. And those are just the little projects.
In the big picture, the last of the flooring in the laundry room has been removed, resulting in a rather large (and messy) pile of material that has to be sorted through in order to determine what is and what is not salvagable. I've also removed all of the rotten subfloor, leaving a gaping hole into the basement. The edges of the remaining subfloor have been shored up, I've installed a new (treated) floor joist underneath where the washer & dryer will go, and have one cut and ready for installation tommorrow morning, just to give me a bit more to work with when I install the new subfloor.
Only one layer left . . .
The gaping hole
I've created a very large mess, which will definitely necessiate a trip to the dump tomorrow. I'm also shocked that we didn't manage to fall through the floor, because the rot was very extensive in places. Thankfully, none of the joists were affected, but it was still a big mess. Tomorrow I'm planning on laying the new subfloor, then cleaning up the house, and taking at least one trip to the dump. Trent's coming over in the afternoon to help rewire the laundry room, which means that I should be ready to drywall on Thursday. At least now we're at the point where we can start putting things back together.
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November 25, 2005
It's like Christmas!
I had grand intentions for today and, while I didn't get done what I wanted to, it's been productive in other ways. Our friend Andy is in town (having recently moved to Vancouver) so we spent some time this morning, with the aid of his girlfriend, Lisa, cleaning out his garage (primarily into the back of my pickup). We've acquired a whole variety of plywood sheetgoods, which will definitely be put to good use. In addition to this, we've also gained a couple of sheets of drywall, some PlexiGlass, a ShopVac, drywalling/mudding tools, unfinished oak baseboards, porcelain and ceramic floor tiles, a drill press, several sturdy saw horses, a work bench (complete with vice), and assorted other miscellaneous house-related stuff. Thanks a bunch, Andy!
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Automatic dog water supply
Tasha, our elderly American cocker spaniel, drinks a lot of water, and is constantly getting gunk in her water dish. I'm contemplating the addition of an automatic dog watering system to the new house, although Dana's not convinced that Tasha's smart enough to figure out how to use such a contraption ;-)
It seems as if there are two types: one that screws directly onto a faucet, and one that's basically a small sink with a float and valve assembly that keeps the water at an appropriate level. Reviews of both have been good, but the simpler of the two does have the potential to develop a rather serious leak if not regularly inspected. The faucet add-on is appealing because it won't require much in the way of cleaning. The other, while requiring a little more installation time, seems like it might be the way to go.
I'll have to do some more research, and pick out an appropriate place to install such a thing. In the meantime, the faucet-mount attachment is available here and the sink-style watering system is available here. Now if Icould just find an automatic pooper scooper . . .
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November 23, 2005
Extreme Gardening, Part 2
My cousin Trent gave me a hand today, helping to cut down and haul off to the dump a number of small trees that were in the way or otherwise causing problems. We cut down two old lilacs, a handful of small elm trees, and one unidentified tree that may or may not have been an elm. We cut a few branches off of the tree on the east side of the house, but determined that it's going to have to wait until spring, as it will be much easier to remove when it's warmer out and when there are more people around (to ensure that the tree and its branches fall away from, and not on, the house).
There was much giggling involved, mainly because we seemed to always be dangerously close to poking each other with the tree parts we were trying to move, or because we were inadvertantly poking ourselves with branches. Thankfully, we didn't damage ourselves in the process, but we did wreak havoc upon the trees.
Before
After
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Ewww . . .
Furthering the laundry room project, this morning I very carefully removed the moldy drywall from its plywood backing. Unfortunately, the plywood was in much worse condition than I'd anticipated, with various species of mold growing to a point 45 inches up the wall. Not pleasant.
The moldy plywood
After a phone call to my father for advice, I washed the top part of the plywood down with a mixture that was more bleach than soap (or even water). Stinky, but it did the job. When Trent arrived to help cut down trees, we cut the bottom three feet off, being careful not to hit any of the wires leading to the breaker box. We then reinforced the remaining plywood's attachment, adding screws every four inches. Thus, my concerns regarding the soundness of the breaker box's installation have been addressed.
Our solution
I've left a small fan running to dry out the plywood, and will hopefully be able to install the drywall on the weekend, once the remaining flooring (and any rotten subfloor) has been removed.
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November 22, 2005
Too close for comfort
Yesterday I spent most of the day carefully removing water-damaged plaster from the bottom 34 inches of the laundry room's walls. Once that was done, I tackled the (seemingly) much easier job of removing an equally water-damaged piece of drywall. Unfortunately, in so doing, I discovered that the breaker box was much closer to the drywall than I'd originally thought--it was attached to the 1/2" drywall and its backing 3/8" plywood with a couple of screws, and nothing more. What possessed the previous owner to do this? And with the breaker box, of all things?
This necessitated the removal of all of the remaining hardboard from the mudroom, which backs on to the laundry room. Then, the 3/4" plywood to which the hardboard was nailed had to be removed, all without damaging the prehung door that's sitting in the hallway, waiting for next weekend's installation.
It's a good thing that I was more than a bit frustrated when I attempted to remove the plywood, as I'm not certain that I would have otherwise been able to remove the 2 full sheets of it by myself. I've come to the conclusion that I can carefully remove the drywall, albeit in much smaller pieces than I'd like, then reinforce the existing plywood backing so that the breaker box has a solid foundation.
The offending piece of drywall
The uncovered breaker box
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Extreme Gardening, Part 1
I spent the first two days of our home ownership cutting back shrubs—right to the ground. I've been informed by our insurance agent that there were a number of very pretty flowering trees and shrubs across the front of the house. I don't want to know, and I'm not waiting to spring, when I'd see them and surely say, "I wonder if there's a way to save this?" They have to go, all of them. The lilacs growing next to (and even into) the foundation, the small elms a mere three feet from the house, and the three other unidentified trees that have caused the deck to develop an unsightly (and surely unsafe) bulge.
Before
Thus far, the shrubs and smaller trees have been removed. The caragana hedge across the front and sides will stay, but will be trimmed back considerably come spring. We've still got five large trees to come out, plus the large elm outside the master bedroom window.
I'm sure that I've given the neighbours a wonderful first impression, having spent the first couple of days of our ownership in the midst of tangled hedge, in weather that was humid, windy, and -10C. By the time I was finished, I had Medusa-like hair and was covered in twigs, bark bits, sawdust, and a few scratches. What a wonderful first impression.
After
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In the beginning . . .
Dana & Laura's search for a house began as a result of maintenance issues with the house that they are currently renting. Their landlords are wonderful people—honestly. It's just that preventative maintenance isn't something that they really want to do. Thus, when the basement flooded due to a torrential rainstorm, improper drainage, and malfunctioning eavestroughing, they were prompted into slow action.
Over the course of several months in the early fall of 2005, they looked at many, many houses in the Saskatoon area. As the school year progressed, Dana's classes required more and more of his attention, so Laura became the one to house-hunt in earnest.
They made an offer on a small house in Aberdeen, with a very nice main floor, unfinished attic, and unfinished basement. While they knew that the foundation had a few problems, they were unprepared for the results of both the house inspection and the engineer's report, both of which informed them that the north wall of the foundation was no longer bearing any load and, on top of that, that the rest of the foundation was in such poor condition that it would require immediate attention. Due to access issues, it was next to impossible to get the required material into the basement without excavating next to the foundation and then cutting a hole through it, which added considerable expense to the already high cost of properly fixing the house. The sale eventually fell through, as the vendor was not willing to re-negotiate based upon these problems.
In the meantime, Laura had gone to B.C. to be with her family, as her uncle was very ill with terminal cancer. Trying to deal with the real estate agent and all of the paperwork for this offer, while out there, was rather difficult. When the sale of the first house fell through, Laura asked their realtor to take a look at another house in Aberdeen that had just come onto the market before she and her father had left for B.C. The realtor's report was promising, so Laura made arrangements to view the house several days later, after she had returned to Saskatoon.
Unfortunately, before she had even returned, the house had sold. So, they made arrangements to look at other houses in the area, even though most of them didn't come close to meeting the criteria that they'd set out at the beginning of our search. They were getting frustrated, but Laura's mother, who's survived many a real estate deal, told them that things would just come together when the house was right.
Their realtor phoned at 8:20am October 19 to tell them that the sale of the house that they'd wanted to see had fallen through. She and Laura made arrangements to see the house at 12:30pm that day, with the possibility of looking at another house in a different town later that afternoon. By this point, the two of them had been in every single house that was for sale within a 45 minute drive of Saskatoon, even the ones that didn't remotely meet our search criteria.
When they looked at the house, it was still full of the vendor's stuff. It seemed promising right from the moment that they opened the lockbox to discover that the key was an original skeleton key. Even though the house was full of the vendor's stuff (and he was already living elsewhere), they could see that the house had a lot of potential. The large, south-facing windows, the original hardwood floors, original doors and door hardware, in combination with 1450 square feet of space and an open floor plan only added to its potential. The main floor's bathroom was hideous, the hardboard panelling not much less so, and the basement had problems of its own, due to poor drainage and a high water table.
Laura liked it, Dana hadn't seen it, and there were three other couples scheduled to view the house that evening. As they drove back into the city, she knew that she had to make a decision, and soon. When they got back to the real estate office, the agent was set to make plans for them to look at another house that had just been listed. She was rather shocked when Laura told her that she'd make an immediate offer.
When Laura arrived home, Dana met her at the door to tell her that her father had just phoned. Her uncle had passed away earlier in the afternoon.
Around five o'clock, the realtor phoned to tell them that the vendor had accepted the offer. Now they just had to make arrangements to get the house inspected, hopefully before they left for B.C.
The inspector was very understanding of their situation, and agreed to meet them at the house at nine o'clock the next morning. Dana was in class, but Laura drove out to attend the inspection. The house had definite issues—cracked heat exchanger in the 1968 furnace, dry rot in the floor joists under the kitchen sink, no drainage around the foundation, horizontal cracking and fragmentation of the foundation walls, mysterious roof vents that drained onto the floor in one of the upstairs closets, among other things—but was structurally sound. Laura and the inspector agreed that it was going to be a lot of work, but that it was by no means impossible, nor did it have the structural issues that the first house had had.
She went home to pack, feeling a little more confident about the sale, but still concerned that things weren't going to go well. The realtor contacted the listing agent about their concerns and questions—primarily the basement floor (which was not, in some places, capable of supporting new foundation walls), the furnace, and the large, mysterious antenna on the west side of the house.
The vendor agreed, soon thereafter, to adjust the purchase price by $1500 for the furnace, but was not willing to renegotiate further. They decided, after thinking it over on the drive to B.C., that they were satisfied with this, and made arrangements with their lawyer for the remainder of the sale.
Buying a house is stressful at the best of times. Buying a house while not in the same province, while preparing for a funeral, was even more stressful. Their agent was wonderful and very understanding, which made things much less traumatic than they might otherwise have been.
Laura and Dana took possession of their new house November 2, 2005, at one o'clock in the afternoon, which was the first time that Dana had seen the house. They didn't move much, a table, some chairs, cleaning supplies, dishes, and some tools. It was old, ugly in places (and worse in others), but it had potential and, most importantly, it was theirs.
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