Warm Outside... Warmer Inside

 

We cranked up the furnace for the first time today. Wouldn't you know it, it was also the first warm day this Spring !!!

(I know, I have some patch work to do here).

 

Here's Bobby working on some ducts. We only have the main trunk done, that is, heat to the living room and dining room. We still have to hit the bedrooms and bathroom, then the hardest part, running the ducts up to the second story.

 

On my break, I sat on the front porch and noticed this giant tree in the front yard was blooming. Big Red buds, I'm thinking it's a Sugar Maple, maybe? Well see... 

There are all kinds of trees and shrubs and flowers in this new yard. It will be fun to figure out what everything is as it starts to Green up.

 

Back to work...

 

Fully functioning high efficiency furnace !!!

 

The big challenge... running hot and cold ductwork to the second story. I am going to lose this linen closet for the heat duct.

 

And I'm going to lose half of this closet for the cold ductwork.

On the second story, we are going to lose an entire bedroom closet for ductwork. 

This is hard to swallow, but when you switch out an old house from boiler to forced air heat, you must compromise some space for ducts. I would much rather deal with this challenge than those awful radiators all over the place.

 

My new list of things to do:

Call some more fence companies

Call some more window companies

Order a dumpster

Find a roofer to drop a chimney liner (more on that another day)

Get the water turned on (pray for no leaks)

Search furnace supply stores for some odd ductwork pieces we need

and, oh yes...

the change oil light in the car is screaming for attention...

ugh.

 

 

New Back Door

 

We needed a break from furnace work, so today, we put in the new back door. Well, we put in most of the back door. It is in it's rawest form, shims sticking out, no molding, no storm... yet.

It took a couple of hours just to dismantle the old door and it's fortress like jamb. Once the old crap was cleaned out, the new door had no plans of entering on it's own free volition.

We coaxed, we shimmed, we leveled, and another two hours later it was in.

 

This is Terry trying to put the doorknobs in . I find it hilarious that with all of the things he CAN do, he simply CANNOT put together doorknobs...

And, I find it interesting that with all the things I CANNOT do, I seem to be a great locksmith.

Go figure...

So, I took over and locked the place up.

 

Tomorrow, I hope we get the door finished, but most important, we have to clean up the work area, get tools back where they belong, and have everything ready for Saturday.

Brother Bob is coming in town for another blockbuster weekend...

 

Side notes:

I called the fence guy. He never called me back.

I called the window guy. He never called me back.

I called the Water Dept. to have the water turned on. They said "Sorry, holiday weekend".

Guess I'll start over on Monday...

Furnace Guys Earn Every Penny

 

This past weekend was a busy one. We went all out, Saturday and Sunday. My brother has pretty much got the "guts" of the furnace together, and now it's up to me and my partner to lay a lot of ductwork...

 

Here's a cold air duct we put up today. I won't lie, there was quite a bit of swearing during the process, and I now have much more respect for guys who do this crap for a living. I think we have the hang of it now, and things should go more quickly.

 

Getting heat up to the second story will be a whole new challenge...

I Need a Furnace !

If you cannot tell what this is... It's the beginning of a heat register vent!!! The guys worked their butts off today. The actual furnace unit is in, with the immediate hot and cold ductwork. I learned what a plenum is, and how to put them together (all ten of them). They are the giant metal tubes that run along the basement ceiling... I also got to wrap the furnace seams with the special tape. Ooh.

Tomorrow will be another full day. More ductwork, more hook-ups, and more stuff I know nothing about, like chimney liners, cold air returns, and water heater connections. Not to mention, they still have to run heat up into the second floor. Can't wait to see how they accomplish that.

Well, we did get one big obstacle out of the way, or should I say about fifteen heavy obstacles. These are all of the radiators that were in the house. A big thank you to Nick, who carried all of these monsters out to the garage. He actually lifted the smaller ones on his own, and somehow, manhandled the rest. He also got rid of the old hot water heater and the boiler tank from the basement.. Whew.
He's a good man to have around. He is also the one who has volunteered to scale the roof and drop the chimney liner. Gotta love him...

Shopping is the Easy Part...

 

Here's the new back door and storm. Had to special order and pay double, just to get a window in a 30" door, but I can't live without a window in the back door!!!

Here's a whole bunch of furnace parts... and there's more in the garage!

 

and a furnace !!!

And here's somebody who's been working too hard...

This weekend is gonna be a doozy...

Wasting Time

     My man has been bugging me relentlessly about "MENARD'S" lately. Menard's is 30 minutes from home, so I have been holding him off for some time now. Since Home Depot is a half mile from our house, that is our go-to place for all things home related. We hate Home Depot, and it's clone, Lowes, but it's a quick drive for most needs.

     Today, we went to the project house and unloaded our new door, we went inside the house and looked around at things that need to be done; more garbage to clean up, more floors to scrape, old radiators still sitting in the middle of the floor. We looked at each other, our breath billowing out in puffs of frozen air ( 24 degrees today), and made the executive decision to go shopping.

     So, we finally made the trek to Menard's in Chesterfield Township. It looked like Costco inside, a giant warehouse; cavernous, and loud, and lots of people milling about. I found it strange that on the aisle with power tools was a giant display of Nacho chips, and next to bathroom faucets were frozen foods. Very odd, but I get the motivation; I might realize that I need some pizza rolls while I am looking for a showerhead.

     I did find that Menard's had a much larger variety of options than Home Depot. We were concentrating on figuring out the type of flooring we would choose for the kitchen. Since we're open to anything; ceramic, vinyl, slate, laminate, etc., we spent quite a bit of time looking at all of the options. We settled on a high-end vinyl flooring (in stock) that is priced right and perfect for our needs. But, wait a minute... it was out of stock. Hmm... just like at Home Depot !!!

     We looked at some smoke alarms, same price as Home Depot. We looked at some kitchen cabinets, same as Home Depot (but out of stock), and we decided that our feet hurt and it was time to stop wasting time here. We grabbed some pizza rolls and toilet paper, and skedaddled...

The Nitty-Gritty

 

 

                 We are deep into the nitty-gritty now. Anyone who has ever taken on a project like this, knows what I mean...

Me and my partner in crime are getting impatient and testy with each other. He is a pessimist and I am an optimist. I guess it's good over-all because we keep each other balanced, but during the day-to-day, it is a challenge for us to stay "loving". Not to worry, this is completely normal during the process of rehabbing a house.

The city has given us 90 days to complete it's list of requirements for occupancy, and we are continuously hampered by freezing temperatures, with no heat and no water in the house (well, that's because we have no plumbing hook up and no furnace). Spring comes tomorrow, but someone forgot to tell Mother Nature.We're about halfway through our allotted time and she continues to hammer us with frigid temps and snow.

 

Our new entry and storm door come in Wednesday, and we will figure out how to get them home in the trunk of our car, ha ha ha.

We purchased the heating & cooling systems plus all of the ductwork and little things to go with it. They will be delivered on Thursday.

Friday, my brave stepson will scale the roof, in order to drop a liner down the chimney, to the new furnace.

Saturday and Sunday are going to be busy! It's going to be all about the furnace.

 

I cannot wait to get some heat in this place. Once we have normal temps, I can start the magic...

tile, paint, carpet, light fixtures, and window treatments.

 

I just detest the nitty-gritty part of it all. I want to decorate!!!

 

 

 

 

A Little Work, and a Little Play

This weekend wasn't all about the work, it was a little bit of play too. My hard working brother had a surprise 50th Birthday party, and boy, was he surprised... It was a nice break from a lot of hard work.

After the party, I spent the evening working on my signature address sign. It is a little something I do for every new house. A scrap of wood and a little tile work makes a spectacular statement at your front door. This along with my new hammered Copper mailbox and matching light fixture, and the porch will look great.

Tomorrow, we finish off the little bits of plumbing work to be done, and Monday, we purchase the furnace, ductwork, and air conditioning unit. Next weekend will be a whirlwind of activity...

Upstairs, Downstairs...

 

Today, I spent a little time contemplating what to do about this kitchen... A tiny 10 x 10 space, poorly laid out, and straight out of 1950. Do I start tearing down walls, and get needed space, or do I keep the integrity of the time period, with a few modern touches. I'm sure my checkbook will dictate how I move ahead with this particular project, but my eyes are seeing slate floors, farmhouse sinks, and punched out garden windows...

 

The other notable thing I did today was try to map out the bathroom plumbing, (with my partner in crime). We ran downstairs to look for main pipes leading up to the first and second floors. Then we ran upstairs to locate where the pipes led to.

 

 

Then we got confused and ran back downstairs again, noted the pipes, and ran back upstairs. We located the 1st floor bath, then went to the 2nd story, got confused again, and ran back downstairs. With all of the old boiler pipes and locating hot, cold, and toilet pipes, we were running up and down stairs for an hour. Once we felt sure of all of the bathroom pipes, we realized that we should make sure that the kitchen pipes were in proper condition.

 

As I went on these journey's, up stairs, down stairs, up stairs, down stairs, I found myself silently, (then out loud) asking this question, "Didn't I make it clear, when we were house hunting, that I wanted a ranch?"

 

 

Radiators

Still freezing to death, still working toward getting that furnace in. I never thought I would appreciate a heated house, and I think I'm going to kiss that furnace every day.
But, this project house has given me a new motto, "first things first".

First, we have to find a way to get rid of fifteen cast iron radiators scattered throughout the house. This is just one of the behemoths, pulled it out of the wall, but that's as far as we got. I have called numerous scrap companies but no one wants to come and get them ???  Gee, maybe because a couple hundred dollars a ton isn't worth the haul.

This radiator is in the bathroom, behind the toilet. We can't even budge it. I am starting to think that they actually built the house around the boiler system, because I cannot figure out how they got these things in here.

There were little pockets of fun though...

We found a Sterling baby spoon and fork, a 1942 Silver Quarter, a couple of old pop caps, and some marbles. I have collected marbles from every house I have lived in. I have a small crock full of them. Not sure why, but I love the marbles and I am always excited when I find them. In the closets, under old carpet, even outside in the dirt. I'm sure I will find a lot more marbles in this old house...

 

The Thrill of the Renovation

Busy couple of days...

Here's the new hot water heater.

Here's the new laundry tub... oops, got one of the crew members in the pic.

 

Got a lot done; ran pipe to the water meter, and to the water heater, ran the gas line to the water heater and to the proposed new furnace site. Ran new electric throughout the basement, and placed the lights. That was what the guys did... What did I do? Little girl on the job. I pulled at least 50,000 nails out of the basement ceiling, that were left behind after we tore down two layers of ceiling tile and drywall. I took out all of the shoe molding on the second story to prepare for carpet. I hauled out more garbage, took down three unnecessary doors and hardware, and made two trips to McDonalds (breakfast and lunch) for the crew. Oh yes, I also removed all of the ceiling light fixtures, bathroom fixtures, and a pile of outlet plates.

But this is the most interesting thing that I came across today...

I tore out the old medicine cabinet, in the upstairs bath, and behind it was this note, tacked to the back wall... If you can't make it out, it says, "GUMBY SAYS: GET US UP WHEN YOU DO, THANK YOU". I found this very strange. Why would that be back there? What a strange thing to leave there. My mother says it is a ghost and I should be freaked out by it. I think it is pretty cool and I will add to it and put it right back in there for the next renovator.

Thank Goodness for Great Brothers

Well, we all know how cold it can get in Michigan. This first week of March has been "typical". The temps have been in the twenties and has made it extremely difficult to work in a house with no heat or water. We power through it...

 

Here's the guy who is making magic happen. My brother Bob is an amazing "jack-of-all-trades" kind of guy. He built his own house, from the ground up, so I knew he was the one to call for this particularly difficult challenge. The house has been empty for two years, with a sixty year old boiler system. The boiler does not work, the radiators are all cracked, and all of the copper plumbing has been stolen from the house. An estimate from a licensed plumber was $20,000, to get the boiler up and running.

 

 

Enter Bob. He comes in and takes control. He draws up a plan and makes things happen. He decides, "Screw this boiler, we will put in a forced air system", and he's going to make it happen for $5,000 (which is a quarter of the quoted price). We need to purchase a new water heater, copper plumbing , ductwork, furnace, air conditioning unit, and humidifier. He's got connections, friends in the business, and the know how...

 

But first things first...

 

We had to tear out the ceiling in the basement. This is the first important step because all of the new ductwork will run along the basement ceiling, also all of the new plumbing. Unfortunately, we found two ceilings; drywall, covered with ceiling tiles. So this is what me and my partner in crime worked on over the weekend. The tear down was easy but the clean up was back breaking and time consuming. There are now about fifty industrial strength garbage bags full of building material sitting in the garage. My next challenge is to find a dumpster company...