63. Ready for Visitors!

This week started off with a mission.  Since my sister is coming for a visit from Christmas through New Year's Eve, my goal for the past month has been to work towards having a decent place for a guest to enjoy.  I don't mind it, but most people don't want to vacation in the middle of a construction site.  It meant wrapping up a few loose ends, making sure the basics are functional and ... actually breaking into the cosmetics!  That's the final and most fun stage of this whole project that I've been putting off until now. 

As you know, I spent the previous week taping and finishing drywall, so I could get that guest room painted.  At the suggestion of a good friend, I had chosen a nice blue color "clear blue sky" to paint all the ceilings downstairs, and I decided to use this color on the walls in the guest room too.  And since I was finishing drywall anyway, I began by texturing all the fresh drywall - mainly the kitchen and guest room, but also all the other little patchy-poo areas I'd been working on as well.  Some people spray on texture, but that's so messy, and I don't have the equipment, so I use a watered-down drywall mud and roll it on the wall just like paint.  It's messy but not quite so.

Here's the kitchen, with the walls and ceiling completely textured and primed, and the ceiling painted blue.  I love it!!  Later on I also installed the rings on the can lights you see there.

And voila!!  Here is the lovely guest room - painted and furnished and ready for visitors.  The first resident actually was Dave's kitty, Dee Dee... I failed to get a picture of her (!) but she tried out the bed and the chair and especially enjoyed that great perch looking out the window over the street below.  As you can see I decided on a pair of twin beds that can be combined into a king for the more romantic couples that may be visiting in the future. 

You remember Dave.  He started out last August as a 'mystery guest'  but now is destined to make more regular appearances - singularly the most helpful man I have ever met  (plus he shares my aversion to OSHA approved footwear).  This weekend he volunteered to help me install bead board paneling on the ceiling of the porch and sun room.  The tongue-in-groove bead board that you see there is very old and warped, and it would need about a case of caulk to fill in the gaps and still would look like crap, so he suggested we just go over it with paneling and I agreed.  For about $200 I got a brand new ceiling!

I did help a little bit.  It was my job to put the liquid nails on the back of each piece, and help hold one end up while Dave did the hard work - he used a finish nailer and 2" 16 gauge nails, about 100 in each board, I think.  If anyone in the future ever tries to take it down we will get cussed out for sure.

We used seven full sheets of paneling, and needed just one more strip a foot wide.  I grabbed the scraps I had saved from when I did the inside of the pantry, and Dave made a custom edge using the table saw, so the pieces would overlap the way they were supposed to.

Here is the porch celing all done - awesome, huh?  It will have to be primed and painted when I do the rest of that siding there, but it's going to add so much to that great front porch.  I love it!

Today I had a 'laundry list' of miscellaneous jobs that I thought were going to take me all day, starting with this laundry sink.  Last week I was filling a bucket with water in the sink that came with the house and the cheapo plastic bottom of the sink cracked!  So I had to replace it and I chose a heavier duty one of course.  And, as usual nothing is a simple project - once I removed the old one I decided it was time to paint that portion of the laundry room that I couldn't get to before.  So another prime and caulk job yesterday, and I was ready to paint then put the sink in, which I did this morning.

Then I had to install a new garbage disposal because - did I mention? - the one that came with the house didn't work once I got it all hooked up.  It was gross anyway and there really isn't any way to clean an icky garbage disposal.  That project went perfectly as well.

I hung a ceiling fan on the porch, bam!  A couple of curtains in the bathroom, bam bam!  Washed the linens and set up the guest room, repaired a dresser drawer the bottom had fallen out of, hung mirrors in both bedrooms, and by 2:00 my laundry list of honey-do's was honey-done!  I headed for home, and will be returning soon with my sister in tow.  We are planning to enjoy the place as if we are on vacation, but there might be a few pictures when we're done, I'll be sure to keep you posted on any of the exciting goings-on.  Have a wonderful holiday everyone!!

62. Inspections, Drain, and Drywall Mud

This may not look like much to you, but here is the building final sign-off on my three permits!!  I had finished all the work a couple of weeks ago, but I kept stalling... I was a little nervous about a couple of things.  One concerned the fence - I'm not sure if I mentioned it, but once side of the fence that surrounds the back yard is actually on the architect's property next door.  He agreed to it when the work was being done - nice because it gave me an extra 2' of width on a tiny yard.  Anyway, something inside told me I should have done a permit amendment, or worse, that the City would require the architect to pull a separate permit for his portion - it could have gone a number of ways.  As it happens, when the inspector got there, we walked into the back yard and I said "here's the fence" and he said "ok".  Yup that was it.  No measuring, lot line examination, nothing.  A big PHEW on that one.

Aside from that issue, I wondered whether the siding should have been caulked and painted before inspection, and whether they would ask for new specs on the garage door since I changed out the steel door for fiberglass without an amendment.  Once again - "here's the door" and, "ok".  It's nice to get that milestone behind me - I remember when I applied for the permits in July and they said I had six months I thought "well, I'll be done in a month or so"  hahahahaha!!!  It's been almost five months but it's done!

Last week was primarily devoted to plumbing the sink, since I only had two days at Grandview.  The supply lines were in, with no leaks so far, but the drain needed assembling. Last time I did a sink drain I had to call for backup (good old John) because I didn't have a wrench big enough to do the job (this is not a pun).  I just couldn't get a slow drip to stop, so he brought over his Big Ass Wrench and tightened it up for me.  This time, somehow I managed to get the whole thing assembled myself without any problem.  I know - I can't believe it either!

Here's the underside all assembled.  The garbage disposal is the one salvaged from the previous sink, and I swear it worked before... but after wiring, no go.  Fussed around with it for a while, but then decide the thing was just old and gross enough to warrant another expenditure - so when I go back I will bring a brand new one to install in it's place.  Once that's in the job will be really done - I'll even be able to use the dishwasher!

Here's one of those pictures my friend Denise won't even read about.  She likes the pictures of curtains and furniture in place... these construction shots are just too much.  I understand this blog has all types of readers... but I'm proud of stuff like this!  I had to make a hole in the kitchen floor, under the cabinet, in just the right place.  Then I had to hook up 2" pvc pipe down over, around, over and down again... in order to miss all that wiring - the main electrical panel happens to be right underneath.  After I finished, I was been told I should have installed some sort of vent (I never claimed to be a professional) but in the same breath that person said forget it if everything's draining fine.  So down the road, if there are any draining problems, I'll have to cut into this and put a little vent in - not difficult at all.

This week I devoted my three days to finishing drywall.  There were two big areas, and about a hundred small patches from electrical work that had been done - outlets, fan boxes, and this exhaust fan in the bathroom.  After going over each area to make sure everything was secure for finishing, I did the first application, bedding the drywall tape over all the cracks.  The next morning I put on a skim coat, which began to fill everything in nicely.  It will need at least one more skim coat or maybe two before the job is complete.  By the way I was told by a professional drywaller that the goal is to not have to do any sanding at all, so that's what I'm going for.  If you're careful with your application, and use the right tools, and wait until it's dry to knock down any small ridges or bumps you have made, it's not impossible.   I'll let you know how that works.

Here's what that big gaping hole in the laundry room looks like after two coats.  You remember, the one where the "vent pipe to nowhere" fell out of the roof?

And here's the guest room wall, where I put the drywall up to cover the AC duct work.  Just to the right of the drywall is a small section of the wall that still has stucco the same as the rest of the walls.  There was one piece of the 8" base that I had not taken off yet, so before I taped I removed that .  Lo and behold, the back of it was covered with black powder... NO!  NOT MOLD!  Well no, it actually wasn't mold.  Whoever put this board up 100 years ago used some huge nails, and banged a hole (see pink arrow) right into the chimney.  There was a chunk of brick missing, and I guess the soot from countless fires had built up right behind the baseboard.  Can you imagine?  This freaked me out a little - doesn't that seem like a fire hazard?

So next step was to pursue something else I had been putting off - calling a chimney sweep to inspect and clean the fireplace before I used it the first time.  It's been going down into the 30's at night, so it was time to get going on that item anyway.  The guys showed up within a couple of hours, and while one proceeded to push a giant power snake/monster bottle brush up into the chimney, I asked the other one all my questions.  He said the hole up in the bedroom wasn't a problem - that I should just push some mortar in there to close it up.  I guess it's more likely to suck air out of the house that shoot flames into the bedroom.

He also noticed right away the soot that had built up on the front of the fireplace.  I guess when they made fireplaces a long time ago, the opening at the top was a slit towards the front, so as much heat as possible would squeeze into the living room.  He suggested I break out some of the bricks inside towards the center, to make the opening bigger - better air flow and less potential for smoke into the house.  He said I could do it myself because "I look like the handy type".  I had to laugh at that one.

Since there is no flue, he said he could install one for $495, or I could just shove pillows up in there when I wasn't using the thing.  Can you guess which option I picked?  He also installed a cap on the top of the chimney because there was nothing there to keep birds/bats/rain out, and $228 later he was gone.  Later that afternoon I took the hammer and pry bar to those bricks.  I can't even begin to describe the mess.  Especially since all the buildup that had just been scraped off by the giant brushy thing was resting on top of those very bricks.  I came out looking like Ollie after Stan's model T backfired right into his face.  I got it all cleaned up and then noticed one more brick hanging loose that I just HAD to remove.  Then I had to clean up all over again.  I will be living with a thin film of soot and black doggie footprints on the couch until I can really do a thorough job.

And guess what?  Today Rufus is providing the comic relief.  When mommy starts moving ladders around and stepping on dogs in the process, Roscoe just creates a road block but Rufus high-tails it to a secure location, in this case up the stairs where he can keep an eye on me from a safe distance.

This week work on the guest room will continue... the drywall will get done, and I might get a textured finish on the kitchen walls.

61. ... Including The Kitchen Sink

I finally finally finally have a kitchen counter!!  It has been so long since I decided how to lay out this kitchen, I was a little worried how it was going to come out.  Yes, there were a million ways to do it, but I had to pick one, right?  I'm not crazy about that barn door of a fridge you walk into from the dining room but the plan is to turn it into a photo display area, we'll see how that goes.

Here is another view, showing the bar top that I built.  I actually made it from the counter top that was removed from my Apopka house when I had corian put in two years ago.  It was an old-style 50's laminate over some heavy duty 3/4" plywood that was too good to toss, so I peeled the laminate off and cut it in half for this project.  It will be tiled at the same time that I do the back splash.

Here's the faucet that I salvaged from the previous sink, installed with the water filter on the tap.  I'm very happy with the kitchen layout, there is a lot more space than I thought there would be.  I still plan to put a rolling island somewhere, for extra space when preparing big meals.

Here's the underside, showing all the supply lines hooked up.  I was amazed that when I turned on the water there wasn't a single drip - usually something needs to be tightened.  This week I have to install the drain and garbage disposal - which I may not be able to do without John's "Big Ass Wrench" but I'm gonna try.  My return to a civilized existence is slow, but progress is being made!

Also this week I worked on the last item before City Inspections:  the siding near the new garage door.  To do it properly I had to remove one row of the existing shingles (shhhhh!).  Underneath you can see the layers of wood where the two floors come together - it's not bad or rotten, just very irregular and lumpy.  My solution was to tuck some tar paper up under there and finish the job at hand - the rest will get done when I do the remainder of the siding on the house.

Here you can see a little of the black tar paper exposed at the top.  The siding I used was some I salvaged from the front porch demo that Steven and I did in August.  It's been scraped, but further stripping will be needed before I paint.  The trim on top of the door is also from the front porch, and once it is all painted, I think it will look great.

Roscoe's latest back yard excavation uncovered the bottom part of one of those wobbly hula girl dolls.  It provided a little entertainment, but obviously it had worn off by the time I took this picture.

This week I will call for inspections, then the agenda priorities shift to preparing for the arrival of my sister on Christmas day.  I want to have the drywall in the house taped and mudded, and I may even get to paint the guest room.  I'd rather get that done before I move furniture in there, so it's a reasonable goal I think!  Things are getting really exciting as a few of the decorative details begin to fall into place.  And there have been other thrilling developments...  The Grandview Project is far from over folks and I'll be sure to keep you posted as always!!

60. Front Porch Window

Sometimes the easiest projects can have a huge impact.  This is the street view from inside the sunroom.  Up til now I had a bunch of salvaged wood stored in here, and I had never cleaned the windows.  But last week I found four awesome tab-top curtain panels for $4.94 and hung them on the $1 Ikea curtain rod I got from the Habitat for Humanity thrift store.  I mean come on - it don't get much better than that.  Add a couple of $5 chairs and a $10 light fixture... and you are singing my song.  Just a taste of how awesomely cool this house is going to be when I get through with it.

I stood back and admired that view for a minute, took a deep breath, and finally began the restoration of the front porch window.  The paint was all chipping, the trim had been removed back when the front wall was done.  The glass was broken.  I had a piece of replacement glass that I had ordered from Dave months ago, but this project kept getting put on the back burner... until now.  This is the window sill, which is representative of the rest of the window's exterior wood.  I used the heat gun, and over the course of two days managed to strip most of it off.  Fortunately the woodwork inside wasn't quite as bad - needed just a little sanding to be ready for primer.

Here's the full view of the window all taken apart.  The bottom part had to be taken out, and re-glazed, but since I did a lot of glazing photos with the kitchen window, I skipped that part.  See those spaces along side the window jamb?  Inside there are the sash weights, which got some new rope.  Unfortunately the pulleys that the rope is supposed to slide over are in rough shape.  One worked ok but the other kept pinching the rope.  It's about $45 per pulley to replace them, so that's just going to have to wait.

This is the inside, where the sash weight rope is knotted and fits into a neat little groove in the side of the window.  After installation was complete, the window went up and down fine, but not as nicely as it would if both pulleys were working.

Here is all the stuff I used to make a new screen for the window (except the screen material).  The white pieces are cut to size with a hack saw or metal jig saw blade.  They fit together using that corner piece.  The black coil you see is called spline, and it's shoved into that groove in the white metal piece using that pizza-cutter looking thing there.  I probably should have gotten a few more pics but it was late...

Here now is the window, all painted and put back together.  An extremely satisfying project, even though it was a marathon and took two whole days.  I love it.

This is the inside view, with some more $4 curtains.  The black things at the top are just unpainted areas left from when I removed those ugly wooden valances - that will all be covered up when I paint the rest of the room.

The really big news is the counter tops are going in this week, and soon thereafter I will have everything in my kitchen including the kitchen sink.  I will also be finishing up the siding by the garage door, which is the last item that needs to be completed before inspections!

59. Countdown to Inspections

Another project this past week took place in the guest bedroom.   Of course my constant companions weren't far - Rufus is usually just beyond the commotion, but Roscoe is always right in the middle of it.  I have to say I rarely feel lonely with these two around.

You may remember that when I had the AC put in, the ductwork had to get into the attic somehow, and the logical place was right alongside the chimney.  Since I'm not going with the "Jeffrey's Tube" (an obscure Star Trek reference for those of you who are scratching your heads right now) motif in this room I decided it needed to be walled up and made to disappear, just like the ducting in the living room.  Here you can see where I've begun the framing for the wall.  I built the wall on the floor and tilted it up into place - I find this the easiest way to do it when I'm working alone.  Mike Holmes would say to put the top plate in place and work down, but hey... I'm just one skinny girl, Mike!

Finished product is what counts, anyway, and upon inspection by those in the know, this passed with flying colors.  When it's all finished and painted, it will be flush with the bump out where the chimney is, and you won't even know it's there.  It's a great place for a dresser and I put some special cross-pieces for hanging something heavy like a mirror.

This picture was taken downstairs in the living room.  It's the AC controls, all taken apart.  When they originally installed it, the chase was not complete, and the wire for this needed to be re-routed now that everything is done.  When I got the thing apart I realized I needed a tiny jeweler's screwdriver for that row of eensy little screws you can see there.  I tried a knife and my fingernail before I came up with this - it's a tool that came with one of my deadbolts that you would use when re-keying.  Worked like a charm.  When I was done I realized I had flipped the wrong breaker and it was never off... lucky it was only low-voltage, and the AC guy said I was also lucky I didn't blow the _________ (I can't remember exactly what he said).

Another big project for the week was to finish the fence along the left side of the house, between me and the Architect.  I left the posts a little high in case I decide to put something decorative there on top.  It's a nice side porch, tiled with slate - might make a nice place for a table and chairs, maybe a couple of lounge chairs.  When you walk out the door on the inside staircase landing, this is what you see.

On the last day I was there, while I was having my coffee, I hung the two upper cabinets.  We didn't have time to do it when Dave was there, but he suggested I put a ledger board underneath to support it, so I could do it myself.  This particular part of the project went surprisingly smooth.  And now I have a place to put dishes!

Here  is Roscoe quietly watching the neighborhood goings-on while I'm hard at work in the kitchen.  Everyone loves looking up and seeing him!  After everything that got done this week I am ready for City inspections on three of my four permits:  Staircase, check!  AC, check!  Fencing, check!  All I have left to do before I call them is finish the siding by the garage door and trim out the window on the front porch.  I'll be starting that this week.  Oh, and I spoke to my neighbor when I got back to Apopka, Juan, who happens to be a contractor that specializes in building exteriors especially stucco. I asked him to give me a price on stucco-ing that block wall of mine in Daytona.  He said he would give me all the materials, and the tools to do it, and since he has a small project he is working on at home... Saturday I get a stucco class!  I am such a weirdo I am actually excited about this.

58. Outside and Inside

I've been at Grandview for a full week as I write this... I'm hoping to find a Starbucks or someplace with wifi so I can do a blog post from here.  I will be home in a few days but I have so much to write about!

If I haven't mentioned it before, in the front yard of the burned-out Misty Shores Apartments there were some beautiful landscape stones – some really large and a lot of little ones.  Every day I thought about sneaking over and scalping a few, despite the “No Tresspassing” and “24 Hour Police Surveillance” signs designed to scare away squatters.  I don't have an arrest record yet and have never spent a minute in jail and I certainly don't want to start now, so I looked the other way.  Then on the way in this week I had a brilliant idea: Ask The Owner.  I called the Realtor and she actually said I could take whatever I wanted, as long as it wasn't holding up something else.

I cut a hole in the chain link fence (see photo above) and proceeded to rescue 50 large landscape rocks and a whole bunch of little ones.  I'm guessing $500 worth of stuff!  And I discovered that a hole in chain link is a lot easier to cut than it is to “sew” back up... not sure what I'm going to do about that.

Work on the landscaping front continues... I added another leg to the retaining wall and a bunch of those lovely stones.  Along with a couple of plants from Home Depot and a bunch of stuff I brought from home, the place is starting to look a little more loved, don't you think?

Right behind that I added the four posts for the fence and gate that will enclose the side yard.  I guess this has been a kind of alley way and cut-through between the two streets, and many times people would walk right through even when I was there!  It takes a while for it to register with the neighborhood “wanderers” that someone actually lives there, and I'm hoping a fence will do the trick.

Here is a view of the back yard, after I got everything kind of cleaned up and laid out the way I want it.  It still needs some plants of course, and it would be nice if Roscoe didn't create a race track around the stair case, but it's a big improvement anyway.  It's hard to adjust to this little bitty yard, and I try to give him a little leeway on this.

When they're not quite in the mood to get their feet dirty, or I'm a little to aggressive with my hosing, this is where the two puppies hang out.  They really love it because it allows them to look out over me and the whole neighborhood... kitties and all!

Here's another view of the back yard, in the afternoon...

And here's the side of the house after I planted the ruellia I brought from home. That stuff eventually takes over, so it's perfect in an area like this where it can't go anyplace. I'll end up moving some of those stones to other places, like when I do the front yard. I want to make the front into a cottage garden, with a path and mounds of flowers everywhere. That will be a good project for next spring.

Let's move inside, shall we?  I finished grouting the tile in all the spots I had to fill in.  Here of course you can see one of the ones that is not exactly a match – it will be under the fridge.  You can see where I have run the icemaker water supply line under the cabinet and out – it will end up tucked underneath the baseboard and you won't even see it. It connects to the line from the fridge when I move it back into place.

I also moved the dishwasher into place, but of course it's not functional until the kitchen sink, garbage disposal, and drain are installed.   This is the underside of the dishwasher, where I've connected the drainline, water supply, and am about to hook up the electrical.  Looks like a mess, but it's really not all that complicated.  When I put it in place I realized that the toe kick is missing (a skinny piece of metal on the front bottom that covers up the guts).  I can't remember if it ever had one, I disconnected this so long ago.  It's $45 to order a new one for this model, so I'll probably make something myself that will do just as good a job.

I cleaned up the dining room “Ace Hardware” in anticipation of the arrival of the most awesome dining room table that I found at a Habitat for Humanity thrift store last weekend.  I won't describe it here, you'll just have to wait for the pics.  I put a couple of shelves in the under-stair closet in the kitchen – that's nice birch plywood that I had salvaged from something years ago, and it's been waiting at my other house for just this kind of thing.  I moved most of the hardware store in here... I call it the “Tomboy's Pantry”.

I also got to do a little electrical this week.  This outlet was just bouncing around loose in the drywall, and needed to be secured.  It was placed vertically, but there was no way to secure the outlet box with the drywall in such bad shape.  I cut the drywall to turn the outlet and put a new box, secured to the adjacent stud (A).  Then I cut out a neat rectangle of drywall and held a piece of lathe behind it, using two screws to secure it in to place as a backing (B) for the replacement drywall patch (C).  I ended up with a lot of these drywall patches this week, so I'm going to mud them later on, all at once.

I cut this hole in the ceiling of the downstairs bathroom, to install an exhaust fan/light that I had also picked up at the Habitat thrift store.  It's helpful when somebody takes a hot shower – in Florida we're all about moisture control.  It's also handy when something stinks but we won't go there.  I learned doing this that I can fit into an 8.5” x 16” hole... yes I had to get up into the ceiling. It was a bit of a challenge figuring out the wiring, since the existing light and the vanity light over the mirror were on the same line and I wanted to change them to separate switches.

Here's the finished installation (sans mud, or as they call it up north "spackle") which doesn't at all reveal the drama that was required to finish this job.  I had to take it down three times because something was loose or not hooked up right.  I stuck to it and got it done though... earned my glass of wine that day for sure.  I think I also earned a massage, but that's not likely to happen any time soon unless I get a volunteer because I'm too cheap to pay for one.

Here's the 3-gang switch box in the bathroom, with all it's guts still hanging out.  I have also added an extra outlet, essential for hair beautification devices.  You can see there's another drywall patch job – there was just one switch there before, and there's another switch on the reverse side of the wall so to put the big box in there it had to be lowered.

And here is La Stove in place, slid right in between the two cabinets that used to be one!!  You can't see it but there's yet another drywall patch job behind there.  Believe it or not, when I moved the thing in, my beautiful little range outlet that I installed months ago was in the exact spot where a box sticks out of the back of the stove and it wouldn't slide all the way in!!!  Talk about aaargh.  I recommend having the appliance on site before placing the outlet, if you ever try anything like this.  Anyhoo, I had to cut out the outlet, move it down six inches, and when I finally got it plugged in the dang thing wouldn't turn on!  I thought maybe the breaker was bad so I bought another and braved the opening of the main breaker box in the basement.   What I found was that one of the wires was loose, and after tightening it up everything was fine. I tell you if I had to hire someone to do all this I would be broke now for sure.

The highlight of my week though was a visit from Dave.  He graciously offered to pick up the dining table that was sitting on my carport at home and bring it to me.  I left it home for two reasons: It was raining the day I drove over, and also I can't move the thing myself!  It's a monster.  We got it moved in together though, and he also climbed up on the roof with me to help do a patch job up there. I think I mentioned in a previous post about the vent pipe that was left in the wall in the laundry room that was leaking.  Fortunately there were some leftover roof shingles in the basement (remember that mess?) so we took care of that this weekend.

Here's the most exciting picture of the finished roof job.  Not bad, huh? It was such a beautiful day to be up on the roof – it was windy and you could see the ocean all choppy out there.  We decided we would watch the air show from up there next year.  I have to say I didn't enjoy the climb down and I was so grateful to have someone who was willing to assist - I wouldn't have tried that alone. 

I snapped this shot facing north – there's that building, still there... no comment, right?  At least I got the rocks out of the yard before they ended up in the land fill.

We wrapped up the day with "Key Class".  This little jewelery box is Dave's key kit – all those little pieces are what goes inside the lock to make your key fit right. Pins and shims, little ball bearings and all the associated tools.  I actually learned how to change a lock!  We re-keyed all the locks in the house to the same key... not sure I could do it without supervision, but it was fun to see how it's done.  And it's awesome to have all the doors on the same key!  Thanks Dave!

I already have more pictures but I'm going to save them for the next post.  Maybe tomorrow!