Coming along...

Here's a photo I took today just before we started vacuuming up the dust from the floor refinishing. You can see through the kitchen, and down the hallway with the 'moorish' doors that Nancy likes so much. You can also see the two 'cut-outs' we made on both sides of the door from the kitchen to the living room. These have worked out great; they let more light into the kitchen, which tends to be a little dark on the north side of the house. I've been doing so much work that you can't see...but over the last couple weeks, a lot of 'finish work' has happened, and it shows. I forgot to mention that Danny Dollar and his crew from Dollar Painting helped us out with the interior paint. The colors Nancy chose are beautiful, and the Dollar boys did a good job putting them up. One coat of high-bonding primer on everything (including ceilings), then two coats of Sherwin-Williams 'Duration Home' interior paint, with light sandings in between. The 56-year-old walls look great.

Solar hot water

I've been meaning to provide an update on the status of the solar thermal system for hot water, but I've been so busy I haven't gotten around to it.

We decided to do solar hot water while we were remodeling the house. It seemed the right thing to do, and we believe in sustainable technology. We decided to use a local alternative energy company here in town to install the two 4 x 8 panels on the roof, and install and plumb the drainback tank and holding tank. The two panels were installed on a rainy day, which surprised me. I came home to find the guys on the roof, attaching panels to the mounting rack in a pretty steady rain. I'm not sure that gave us the best result (more later). The panels were installed at a 36 degree angle to better utilize the available sun in the winter. They're on the south-facing roof plane. I dig them...they look eco-cool, don't you think? Note: You can also see one of the new stainless steel chimney caps in this photo.



Once the system was in, we found that the closed loop would not hold pressure. It's currently cut open with a pressure test on it, and the gauge went from 70psi to zero in about 30 minutes. The installer's best theory is that there's a bad panel, though I'm not sure why they went up on the roof without being pressure tested. The head guy had to go out of town until the 28th of October, so we'll see when he gets back.

We had a night and day of gentle rain, and I have now discovered that three of the eight roof penetrations they made to attach the panel rack and for the water supply/return lines are leaking. So, my previously perfect, water-tight roof now has three leaks in it. Can't say I'm impressed so far. The image below is a leak they created where they drilled the hole in the roof for the water supply line (and I'd rather see someone use an asbestos pad when soldering this close to a rafter...instead of scorching it, but that's just me). I'm hoping that in the next week, these guys will sort it all out. It hasn't gone as well as I had hoped. I'll hold my fire for now, and give them a chance to prove themselves. More to follow on this...hope I can recommend them when all is said and done. They are nice, enthusiastic young guys who believe in what they're doing. You gotta love a sub who shows up driving a bio-diesel car! For now, I'll give them time to sort it all out.

Busy Sunday

In addition to getting the kitchen floor done, we had a visit today from Mark Greer, who showed up to seal the asphalt driveways at the house. Mark and his two brothers made short work of it. I was a little worried that we are about to get some cold weather (in the 20's tomorrow night), but Mark said this commercial-grade sealant would dry by then. He also said if I had a problem, he'd re-coat it in the spring for free. You can't beat that. The new sealant makes the driveways at the house look brand new. Thanks Mark!

New kitchen floor...

Our favorite tile guy Danny May came out this weekend to install the new vinyl floor in the kitchen. We put down the underlayment on Saturday, and the Danny cut and installed the vinyl Nancy chose for the kitchen on Sunday. It looks great. More forgiving than tile, and it makes the kitchen floor look like stained concrete at a fraction of the cost (and weight)! Here you see the underlayment, with its sealed seams, covered with adhesive while we wait for it to 'tack up.'



Then Danny installed the entire sheet. We had been sanding, and my digital camera picked up a floating speck of dust in the flash...there's nothing wrong with the floor! I love it...it reminds me of my favorite baseball glove when I was a boy. And, it goes great with the oak floors. Just enough contrast.

Oak floors reclaimed

We pulled up the 70's yellow carpeting that was through the house, and found that the red oak floors from 1953 were not only still there, but were in almost perfect condition. Mark Menona of Menco Wood Floors said, "Greg, it doesn't get any better than this." That's always a good thing to hear from a floor refinisher. Mark and his helper Drake came in this past week, sanded the floors down, and put two coats of clear industrial grade polyurethane down. The builder of the house chose grade AAA select red oak for these floors originally, and you can't beat quality materials in the long run. Nancy was thrilled beyond repair at how great the floors look after the refinish job. We now have the original hardwood in the livingroom, hallways, and all three bedrooms. Beautiful!

New heating system complete!

The guys at Aldridge Enterprises have finished the installation of our hybrid heating/cooling system: a 16 SEER heat pump with a two stage gas furnace backup. The whole system is supposed to be 97.5 percent efficient. A big improvement from the 38 percent efficiency we got from the old boiler last winter! Since the house previously had only forced hot water heat, we had to give up a closet to get ducts up into the attic. Fortunately, we had great space in the attic for ducts. Many thanks to Lynn, Bill, David, and Shawn Aldridge, who designed and built the entire duct system. I really dig the nice concrete pad the heat pump sits on. Always hated those cheap little fiberglass stands...

"Honey, I'm in the bathroom"

Progress on the hall and master bathrooms. Demo is complete, and Jeff and I framed in the kneewall and enclosure for the cool new walk-in tiled shower in the master bathroom.



Soon after, all the hardibacker went in on the floors and walls, and Jared Munday -- our electrician -- came out and laid the electric radiant floor heat. Danny May, the guy who is doing our tile work, will lay the tile over it. Like Jared said...'when I finish, no one goes in but the tile man!'




We're looking forward to warm feet on a tile floor (for a change). This house will have at least two things I've never had: radiant heat under a tile floor, and a jacuzzi!

Trench Warfare

Well, this old house was on a well, and the well was on its last legs. The well head is under a concrete slab, and connected to the basement with two 8 foot lengths of galvanized pipe installed in the 1950's. It's only a matter of time until the galvanized gives way and then...no water. Also, every fixture in the house was filled with red sludge from the old well and again, the wonderful galvanized supply main. Since we're in the city limit, we decided to bit the bullet and connect to city water. So, off the Farmer's Rental for a big honkin' trencher. The good guys from the Town of Boone came out and installed my new meter, and augered under the street to connect to the town water line behind the house. My buddy Jeff came out again to help me handle the trencher...for us anyway, it was definitely a two-man job. Those things are heavy! The result was a nice 42 inch deep, 90 ft long trench to hold the new water line (and a spare).




It didn't go perfectly, though. Even though I 'called-before-I-dug,' and asked all the old-timers in the neighborhood if they knew of any other lines in the ground, Jeff and I cut two french drain lines in the process. We were going down over 40 inches, and we knew it wasn't good when the trencher started belching up hunks of PVC. To repair them correctly, I had to dig them out, along with enough room to work. Long story short: I mended the lines, wrapped the repair in landscape cloth, and buried them back with a 1/2 ton of gravel, then soil. Even Jeff said I did the repair 'the cowboy way.' The basement of the house has always been dry, and I didn't want to change that, hence my care in doing the repair. It was a lot of work though...that hole is big enough to bury a Mini Cooper, and I paid for my mistake by digging it by hand. You can see the water line and spare under the drains in the photo below.




Speaking of lines, my wife Nancy hated the power, phone, and cable lines coming in near your head by the back door. We took the opportunity to move all the utilities from the back of the house (north) around to the east side. So, another day with the trencher (though this was actually two months later) to cut a 225 foot long trench for power, cable, and (I thought) phone. The nice guys from New River Light and Power came out and dropped the power line in the trench, along with the coax for the cable. The also put in a nice pedestal by the street.



From the pedestal, the trench takes a left and head to the house. It's a long one. Notice in the pics that the water line trench has already 'healed' by this time...



Note to AT&T/Bellsouth: Get lost. I called about having my phone line put the trench while it was open, and they would have none of it. The word was that they'd come out and dig their own trench when I requested service. I don't think so. I suggested that 1) they were being unnecessarily uncooperative, 2) selling an antiquated service, and 3) charging too much for it. I had hoped to keep the landline in case we wanted to get satellite or something, but they did not play nicely with the other children, so they're out. Looks like cell or cable is it.

Smash and drag

I just could not get these old American Standard tubs out in one piece. There were two of them, and both were damaged to start with. I have to say thanks again to Jeff, who discovered the magic tool for breaking up these old tubs: a 15 lb pike, with a pointy end. He used it to make a crack, and then we were able to easily chase it along. Soon we had these beasts cut into quarters, and took out the hunks with a hand truck.

One made way for the new Jacuzzi (my first ever), and the other space will be converted to a tiled walk-in shower.

Out with the old...

...hot water heating system that is. My dad and my brother came up in July to help me get the 1953 New Yorker oil-fired boiler out of the basement. We rented a 600-lb rated appliance dolly, lashed the old boiler to it, and wheeled it over to the basement door. Fortunately, this house has a nice 6 ft. wide set of concrete stairs for access. We covered the steps with 3/4 in. plywood, attached a logging chain to the whole rig, and pulled it out of the basement with my 1999 Toyota Tacoma pickup. Many thanks to my dad and brother for coming up and offering some much-needed help and expertise. The pic below is the three of us posing with the old boiler, looking like we just landed a 600-lb marlin at the beach...

Gutted Kitchen!

Since I lost a lot of pics when my blog was accidentally deleted, I'm rebuilding some old posts in chronological order (roughly). Here's the kitchen back on June 2nd, the day after our renter moved out. My buddy Jeff came over and we took out our frustrations on the 1960's kitchen. Here's the lovely before shot...dig those stylish cabinets, curlicue cornice, and florescent lighting. And you gotta just love a carpeted kitchen! You can also see the old double hung windows over the sink, with about 9 inches of wood and plastic right in your face while you're doing the dishes.



About 4 hours later..a big improvement in my opinion. Thanks Jeff!