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...