Slow Going

I've just realized that we haven't posted in quite some time. It's not that we haven't done anything at all, because we have done a few things. Things outside of the house have been pretty busy. With school back in, Andrew has his hands full working on his thesis, taking classes, and teaching classes. Also, Two Way Radio has returned to the studio and is currently recording their second album. And with my severe dislike of the cold, I've been hibernating. So we have not been working too hard on the house lately.
In fact I can only think of two things right now that we've done in the last few weeks:
1) I started scrapping layers of paint covered wallpaper off the walls in the second bedroom and
2) I finally got tired of scapping the tar off the kitchen floors (probably because I can really only focus on scrapping one thing at a time without losing the ability to use my arms later and/or going insane) so I headed to Home Depot last Saturday while Andrew was teaching a class and picked up some of those wonderfully cheap stick-on tiles. Now we have a very busy black and white fake tile kitchen floor instead of a part hardwood part tar floor. Yay!

Dusty Business

Andrew began the wiring process Saturday. At first we thought it wouldn't be too bad, in terms of the mess it would leave behind, but that quickly changed. One of the long term goals includes changing the location of the breaker box. Now it is in the pantry. One day it will be in the laundry room (that too is a long term goal). So Andrew and the electrician, our brother-in-law, Paul, decided to go ahead and install and run the wire from the location that it will one day be in, which right now is a spare room. I call it that because it's pretty small (11 x 10 feet) and mostly functions as a closet/ computer room.
So the first step in installing the new breaker box was pulling down the paneling. The entire room was paneled at some point, but Andrew only pulled down the stuff on the wall that's getting the breaker box.
This is said wall:

The location of the box will actually be on the wall behind the door.


So off with the paneling.

The paneling was placed over the existing walls (after they put up 1 x 4 in boards every few feet). This we had suspected since all the trim and moulding were covered by paneling. What we did not expect was the wonderful preservation of this delightfully old wallpaper.



I don't know why, but I just love this stuff!

So then they (Andrew and Paul) cut a nice big rectangle into the plaster and lathe so they could hang the new box. The long term plan here is that one day, when we get to work in this area of the house, all the paneling, plaster, and lathe will be removed. Then the one room will be split into 3 areas: laundry room, bathroom, and closet. So in order for the breaker box to make sense now and then, it had to be installed where there was no paneling, plaster, or lathe. But since we don't want to live in a construction zone, and had previously decided to do one room at a time and seal that sucker off, boys decided that cutting that nice big rectangle in the wall would be cleaner than taking down the entire wall of plaster and lathe. Here I agree. It was cleaner, but not that much!!! It trully is amazing how much dust plaster creates. It left a nice thick layer all over everything in the room. It took a nice good cleaning (which, to be honest, was needed back there), but we got it done in time to start work and school on Monday morning!

Oh, and we also got that nasty water damaged wood above the fireplace replaced!!!

It's been a While...

since we posted anything, I see. We have actually been pretty busy though. The living room is completely bare (that's right- all the plaster and lathe is GONE from the walls!) Now we're just waiting on getting this little problem fixed:



The "header boards" have water damage. We've got a guy coming on Friday to make sure the damage isn't in the joists or causing any other structural issues- Andrew just wants to be sure and I completely agree!

So after that Andrew and Paul will begin wiring the living room. That's exciting because that means that we get to pick out light fixtures soon!!!

We also replaced the old kitchen faucet:



which was beginning to make me crazy because it was getting hard to wash the French oven under that thing and since it's winter- Andrew's been making a lot of soups, chilis and stews! (They've all been very good) So my sweet husband spent almost his entire first Sunday of 2007 installing a new faucet.


Now we both agree it was worth it!

Keep on Working

Since we both had the day off, we decided to get some more work done in the living room. Originally we were not going to remove the plaster and lathe from the south and north walls, but after rethinking some wiring things, we decided to just go ahead and do those two walls as well. What's a little more plaster to clean up and lathe to burn, right?

So we started the day on the south wall.


We got most of it done.




I'd like to take this chance to update the whole knob and tube wiring thing because I got that wrong before. Andrew re-explained it to me. So this little white guy going through the stud is the tube:
Its purpose is to keep the wire from touching the wood and causing an electrical catastrophe.

The knob is this little white guy:
His job is to hold the wire in place.

So there you have it. Knob and tube wiring: still a pretty simple concept.

Christmas!

We spent Christmas eve and Christmas day at my Mom's house. Christmas Eve was filled with food, games, and a few early Christmas presents! This year we all drew names and because we could wait no longer to exchange our gifts, we opened those first. I got an awesome pink tool box with a pink drill from my brother-in-law, Paul! Andrew got a circular saw from my brother, Aaron! Mom was so excited about her new apron and matching chef's hat she got from Joe and Amanda, she wore it for most of the night! She does look pretty cute in it.


We also all got some quality time in with Bridget and Paul's new baby girl, Madison. She's very sweet! Look at that grin!

Really it was just nice to hang out with everyone for hours upon hours talking and playing games, it seems like it's been a while since we've done this.
Joe and Amanda introduced us to the games Apples to Apples, and now we're all hooked!



Christmas day was more of the same: food, presents, and games. And of course, playing with Madison.


Mom had us all vote on the person with the most Christmas spirit this year. The winner was going to get a surprise gift. Well, her ploy to get rid of the gingerbread house backfired. She was elected the one with the most Christmas spirit and won the gingerbread house! So, she fed it to the birds.



It was a wonderful Christmas!

Burning Down the House!

We drove to Little Rock Thursday to see Andrew's father and step-mother for the holidays. His sister Carrie flew in and we drove into the city just in time to pick her up from the airport. We had a great time. Andrew and his dad, Ed, hung out while with ladies did a little shopping. Catherine took us to some neat little shops in her neighborhood.
So we did Christmas with them this morning and then drove back home. We did a little unpacking and then cracked open a bottle of champagne to celebrate an early Christmas present! We got a chiminea.


Not only is it fun, but it also helps us solve a bit of a problem we've been having: What do we do with all this plaster and lathe that is on the living room floor? We'll figure the plaster problem out later, but we've solved half the problem (good thinking Andrew!) . We burn the lathe!




Lathe burns great! It's pretty quick to burn, but it burns nice and hot- so we were warm for about six hours.


My brother Aaron stopped by to have a beer and check it out and then later my other brother, Joe and my sister-in-law Amanda came over. We all sat around and burned all walls. It was great!
We burned about half a wall. Only three and a half walls left!

And it continues...

We began working on the east wall of the living room tonight. This wall has two windows and a fireplace. So we figured it should be pretty interesting. Plus, we thought there would be insulation to add to the ever growing pile of junk we still have to figure out how to dispose of! Oddly enough, there was no insulation. That's one less thing to dispose of, so yay!



This wire goes to a socket and I'm glad we hadn't used it yet! It's a little scary, but apparently this is not a problem- it's just what this old wiring does! Yikes, glad we're rewiring too!

Another odd thing is that the plaster and lathe is under the fireplace mantle. Maybe this is how houses are built, I just always thought brick or stone fireplaces were put up before the walls. It appears I was wrong!

Living Room work continues

We spent the day working on several projects (and laundry). I dismantled the rest of the ramp from the front of the house while Andrew finished the west wall in the living room.

When we bought the hosue the ramp also had a rail on the right side. It was removed by Joe and Corey on the first day because we all agreed it would make moving things in easier because they wouldn't have to manuver around the it. We opted to keep the ramp part because the guys figured that would come in handy, which in did [fridge, washer, dryer, dishwasher, etc.).

So in the front I did this:



I was pretty proud of myself. This weekend we'll take out the A/C unit. We're not sure why it's there since we have central air and heat (which it awesome!).

Meanwhile, in the living room Andrew was working away.



I finished up outside and headed in to help Andrew. We got the whole wall done!





We also found the wiring for that second hidden wall light
(I thought this stuff was cool because I had never seen knob and tube wiring up close before. I especially like the simplicity of the name. Knob and tube: so called for the white knobs that hold the black tubes (that contain electrical wires) apart, thus preventing a fire- I think that's what this all is anyway).


And here's some of the scripty writing that says Miss something L-something.

Serious Renovations have begun!

The living room renovation has officially started. First we sealed the doors so the rest of the house would stay clean.


Removing plaster and lathe isn't so much hard, just long and it can get a little boring. Andrew took down the crown moulding. Then we began pulling lathe, starting at the door. The plaster usually just fell off, in chucks that create a lovely smell and dust. We like wearing masks for this job.

Progress wasn't slow.


I'm glad we kept the carpet from the bedroom. It was the newest and thereby the cleanest! And now we're using it to protect the floor (sometimes we think ahead!). As you can see, all that plaster adds up. It's heavy too. We haven't fully decided how we're going to remove this junk. We'll either take it to the city landfill at a cost of $7.25 a cubic yard or have a 10 yard bin dropped off by Environmental Services, Inc. for $205.00 (total for drop-off, 14 days, and pick-up). There are pros and cons to each and we're still wieghing them. The landfill drop-off will cost less especially if I didn't throw the last utility bill away when we paid it. I am told the first 3 cubic yards of junk are free if you have a utility bill (showing you pay for garbage services in the city of Memphis) and a driver's license (with the same address as the one on the bill). But the major con with the landfill trips would be loading the plaster into what? We have to get something to put it in before loading it up- and that stuff gets heavy fast! So garbage cans don't work. I fulled one up the other night and we couldn't even pick it up! So we may go ahead and spend the extra money for the convenience of throwing the plaster and lathe into a large bin that someone else will pick-up.

The most interesting thing about taking the plaster and lathe down is what we've found in the walls. First we found electrical wires that used to go to 2 wall lights. The evidence of their existence had long since been patched up and wall papered over.
Then there is the pipe that goes to nothing in the attic and didn't come out of the wall. It was just hidden behind the wall. It it close to where the radiator used to be, so we are assuming it was part of that.
We've also found writing. Now I was expecting to see a small amount in the form of theconstruction notes and marks, but what we found seems to be different. First we found this "B."


Then we found some very scripty writing, in the same blue-green pencil, that says Miss somebody L-something. It's very scripty so it's hard to make out anything past the Miss.
So the plaster and lathe removal will continue on Sunday!

Not much getting done

We've been keeping pretty busy unpacking so in the last week we didn't really get any major projects done, unless you count box removal! We had planned on starting a project last night but instead we got our first niece!!!!


She is, of course, perfect. Congratulations Bridget and Paul, she's great and we love you all!

New dishwasher!

The dishwasher works just fine, but it takes about 3 hours and 80 gallons of hot water for a load so we decided it would be more economical to go ahead and buy the pretty new one we'd been eyeing at Appliance Liquidators. Plus it's our birthday week (Andrew and I celebrate a whole week because our birthdays are a few days apart) and Andrew thought a new dishwasher would be a fun birthday present from each other. I thought this was a great I idea.

So first Andrew took out the old one.

Which proved to be fairly simple. Then we were off to Mississippi to get the new one.
Installing a dishwasher wasn't too bad. The major frustration was tracking down this tiny little part that you have to purchase: an elbow joint. It costs less than $2.00 and is about an inch and a half in size. It connects the water line to the dishwasher, so it is very popular! It took 1 Lowe's and 2 Home Depots before we found one! They all really should keep more of these little suckers in stock! But after we got that little guy things went smooth.

And now we have...

It looks great with the floor, doesn't it!!! Still scrapping away at that one.

Thanksgiving, then Right Back to Work

We had a great time visiting Carrie and Mike in Virginia for Thanksgiving. Thursday we all cooked together. The food all turned out so wonderful that we all had to go to bed pretty early considering it was a mini vacation. Friday, Carrie showed us where she works. She's an equine vet so we got to see lots of cool things vets use on and for horses! And Andrew got to be pulled from one room to the next as if he were a horse being taken into surgery.


After a little turkey chili, Andrew and Mike decided to test Angus and Roy's invisible fence collars, to make sure they are safe...

They experieced minor shocks and we all experienced lots of laughter.

Saturday, we arrived back in Memphis and thanks to Jess and Drew got home from the airport.
After checking on the cats and relaxing for a minute we decided to go check out our new house and begin a "minor" project. The floors turned out great so we headed to the kitchen.
We had discovered last weekend that the fridge (as pretty as it is) combined with the additon of the washer and dryer would leave little room for exiting the house through the back door (we'd be lucky to get 8 inches!). So after a little thought I asked Andrew if the smaller pantry could be widened a few inches so that fridge could slide into it and then later we could finish the walls around it. So we tried it.

It began like this:

And then we began to pull off the panelling, door frame, etc. Once we got to the old plaster and lath, we ripped that off too.



With some electrical help from our brother-in-law, Paul, it now looks like this:



Aaron came by and helped Andrew get the washer and dryer into the house and we can still get out the back door!! We'll have to finish off the wall around the fridge with drywall and Andrew is going to add a cabinet above it. Oh yeah, and we'll have to run the waterline through the crawl space so the it reaches the fridge in its new home! But all this will have to be put off until we get a couple other major projects done.

Today was also a big day because we spent the morning and afternoon moving! With the help of Joe, Jeremy, Warren, Kate, Polly, Amanda, and Corey we almost got everything out of the old house!. Now we'll set up the bed and sleep!

Continuing on the floors

Yesterday and today we continued polyurethaning [is that a word?] the floors. It takes about an hour and a half to do the whole house and we got super stoned off the awful polyurethane fumes, which was not actually as fun as it may sound. So the first coat looked something like this:






And Andrew got to wade in polyurethane again.



And the second coat looks even better...
After having dinner at Los Compadres with Joe, Amanda, Corey and Kate and their kids, Oliver and Polly, the gang came by to check out the floors before we started the third coat while Oliver slept in the car. It was great to have friends over to see our progress!

Then we began the third coat. We're hoping to get a fourth coat on tomorrow before we leave for Virginia to spend Thanksgiving with Andrew's sister, Carrie and her boyfriend Mike. Yay! A mini vacation will be great. We get to relax for a few days and the floors get to completely cure!

So Happy Thanksgiving to all. Enjoy spending time with your families!

And the work continues...

We woke up bright and early, well okay not so early. I headed to Starbucks for some caffeine and Andrew went straight to the house. By 10:00 the caffeine was starting to hit.
Andrew began the final run-through of the entire house with the finishing sandpaper and wonderfully powerful sander and then began the touch-ups with the palm sander while I swept the house by room, again. Around 1:00 Andrew and Jeremy were on their way to Home Depot to return the sander and to pick up polyurethane. Who chose to go with the oil based gloss because the oil based brings out the wood color a bit more and the color of the polyurethane richens over time. I headed to a baby shower for my little sister Bridget to celebrate the upcoming arrival of my first niece! Andrew continued sanding while I was gone. I arrived back at the house just in time for another sweeping session. Then the mopping began. Lots of mopping. We mopped all the floors several times to make sure we got all the grit up and the headed out for some fresh air and dinner. When we arrived back an hour later, the floors were dry and ready for the first coat of polyurethane. And so we mopped the floors with polyurethane...

And we mopped...















And mopped...















Until we backed our selves right out of the dining room door.




(Andrew really likes this picture of himself: "It looks like I was wading in it!")














Oh, but I almost forgot the treasure find of the day. While I was away, Andrew decided to open the odd grate in hall wall. It is a grate that appears to have at one time been the in-take vent for the old central heating system or perhaps the old furance. We're not sure which, but it is odd because it is under the attic stairs. So Andrew opened it because it looked like something was in there. And so he found:



Lots of bags filled with tuperware! Yay. All shapes, sizes, and colors. Now why these treasures were inside the old intake vent, we'll never know, but I sure can't wait to pull them all out and use those suckers!!!