Turning colors with the season

Not a lot is progressing inside, but the exterior is a whole new house now.

Our neighbor Tony and his crew got started painting during a sudden chilly snap last week. That makes for good house painting, apparently. Temperatures in the 50s with low wind are best for them, and that's exactly what they had.



We actually dipped below freezing two nights, so I pulled in the last of our grape tomatoes and bell peppers. They, um, didn't taste very good this late. Oh well.

The house is sided with T1-11 plywood siding, which has four-inch vertical grooves cut into it and a rough surface. We find it very appealing, but ours had the original paint job on it, we think -- and it was very, very tough work for the crew. In fact, the house soaked up twice as much paint as we estimated it would. However, that's a good thing, because that means the siding is literally saturated with the very high-quality acrylic in Lowe's Valspar Duramax paint.

Because the painting was so much more work than Tony's guys expected, I decided to go ahead myself and rip off all of the shingle siding that used to look gross underneath the windows. Glad I did that, because it was an enormous factor dating the house right back to 1979.

Among the many reasons you don't want shingles on your house: mud daubers love to build nests behind them, as I discovered when pulling them off.



Apparently this kind of wasp isn't aggressive at all towards humans, but I'm still absolutely petrified of them.




All the shingles gone, with the original siding still underneath and continuous. Add in a bottom line of the 2 x 8 cedar and cut off the vertical trim that used to go to the bottom of the wall, and we have a house that looks somewhat timeless.



Bit of a difference, huh? We really can't wait till the porch can be painted (actually stained) white. But we have to wait another five months or so to let the treated lumber dry out sufficiently to hold the stain properly. Doing it too early can make for bad adhesion -- and we want to do things right.






Oh, and the trees and other foliage are gorgeous all around the lake. Hope to be getting back on track inside soon.

"Close" is in the eye of the beholder

So I said on the 14th of September that we were close on the library. Well, all things are relative, aren't they?

We would have been well and fully done by this time, I'm sure. But as we've come to expect, life got in the way.

In the form of this.



Long story short: Installing the baseboards in our bedroom, we evidently put a nail through a pipe in the bathroom wall. The nail goes in and seals the hole, until it rusts through some weeks later. So we came home a couple of weeks ago to this gaping hole, filled with dozens of gallons of water from the out-of-control leak all day while we were at work.

Also meaning we had to tear a huge hole in our bedroom wall for the plumber to work.



All fixed now.



And the library shelves are all finished and the crown molding installed too.



Plus I ran cable through the walls to get phone and computer network cable installed where we'll want a desk. Why not, when I'm tearing things up anyway?

Ready to move to the guest room. Stayed up till 1 a.m. today getting the popcorn scraped. And a nice bonus for once: The single wall of wallpaper was installed with a very water-soluble paste that came off with no struggle whatsoever.

However, the wall had always had a strange lump right in the dead center. In fact, it's obvious the textured wallpaper was installed expressly to "hide" the lump -- which it didn't do one bit.

Always realizing the cause might be a lot stranger than I thought, I dug in. I didn't bother to try to strip a section of wallpaper around it, which was a good thing. A 3-by-4 foot section was pretty much all torn up, as though the top layer of drywall paper had been removed. Jeff theorizes they had something glued to the wall, and I bet he's right.



Let's cut away.



And what I discover when I get inside the wall:



Look at the stud closest to the camera. Your eyes aren't playing tricks. It's been cut in half and then sorta-kinda put back together, with a huge bend outward.



In close up. This is one of the more bizarre things I've ever seen. I have absolutely no idea why they would have done this. Especially strange is the little nail seemingly attempting to hold the two pieces together. The pencil line you see is where it needs to be in order to fall in line with the rest of the wall. It's an easy fix with a swipe of the circular saw, and an easy patch.



And that's all done. Time to smooth and paint. Then trim, then floors, then doors, then baseboards.

Then the laundry room gets its doors and everything receives a final once-over. And then upstairs is done.

Small update, big changes

The shelves are pretty much built now. All pieces are cut except for the six vertical frontpieces, which can't go in until the shelves are all installed.



I don't have a wide enough lens to get them all in, but you get the idea from the terrible photo.

Wet and too wild

We are well into the work on the library shelving. We started out here after the KC Deck Builder guys got the new window into the north wall.



This room's a lot more open and airy now. The whole thing will be lined with bookshelves when we're finished (which is soon). The ceiling's all de-popcorned and smoothed -- definitely our best job so far.

Unfortunately, we were sidetracked. By -- all together, now -- another flood. The worst one of the year so far, in fact. Which came along with a tornado watch that Jeff had to endure while I was in Lawrence doing a review for the paper. While he was herding the cats into the basement for cover, he was treated to the window well doing this. (Pringles help a lot in cat-herding. - Jeff)



Not as much water as we used to get. But DANG IT. We were sure we'd fixed it.

When I got home, I decided this had to end, so we got out in the unreal torrent. While Jeff held the flashlight (and got bitten no fewer than TWENTY times by mosquitoes -- no exaggeration at all - Jeff), I got a big piece of plastic sheeting and crawled under the deck. And there I finally discovered the problem. When we had the grading done on the outside of the foundation back in May, the landscapers put a big line of earth under the north edge of the deck. Seemed like it would keep water out, which it would -- if only the land were sloped so that water ran that way. None of us realized it was actually sloped the OPPOSITE direction. Meaning that all this time we've had the floods, it's been because water's been coming from the other side of the deck and getting trapped, creating a lake that eventually backed up into the window well.

Which explains why we never saw previous water damage. We created this problem in trying to ward off future problems.

Back to the rainstorm. With about nine inches of clearance, I dug out a trench through the dam. As soon as I hit the other side, the lake started clearing immediately.



By morning, there had been almost four more inches of rain -- well over six total in just one night. But the basement was DRY. Well, save for the new leak in the opposite corner, the result of not having put a downspout extension on after they finished the porch. Some dirt-moving and downspout work later, it's fixed there too. Not a huge deal, considering how much water we had.



The catch-basin low spot in our backyard, as I used the pump to clear it out. Note the dirt berm at the lower left, which Jeff made before the storm, buying us a lot of time under the deck.



A neighbor who's been at the lake for decades says this is the very worst flooding she's ever seen. The docks down at C-point are all unbelievable. The water was way, way up over the seawall. It's starting to recede now, but it has a long way to go.

The bathroom ceiling had also leaked again earlier in the week. This time we finally got a roofing repair guy over, who discovered the culprit: A 4-inch pipe flange on a 3-inch drain vent. Grrr. Fixed now. Tight as a drum for the latest storm.

And we're also having a pro dig a nice, deep French drain under the deck to funnel all this stuff out efficiently into the creek next to us.

Back to the shelves. They're almost done.



And Jeff did a nice cartoon where the last one will fit into place. Note Liz watching in approval while I toil away in my Gary Numan shirt.



We're close on this room, thank goodness.

Randomness

Looking through the house pix, I just came across this hilarious shot.



This is the result when we were tiling the bathroom and poor Jeff had to take a barcode sticker off about 2/3 of the tiles we used.

Really lame. I know why the stores have to do it, but BLECH.

Windows and shelving

Lots more done in a relatively short time. The guys at KC Deck Builders finished up with everything, and we're very pleased with the results. The new windows are in, and look like they've always been here.



The dining room looks vastly bigger. Unbelievable what a difference it makes to have light coming in this north face.




Ditto on the bedroom upstairs, which we're turning into a library/sitting room.



And from outside, everything lines up and looks just fine. It won't win any design awards on this face, but it's not terrible. Another window in the kitchen will help to balance things a bit.

Today I finished trimming out the tops of the porch posts with details to give them a bit more weight.



Meanwhile, Jeff finished up the painting on the new shelves in the master bedroom closet. While the closet's a good size, its depth was totally wasted before with nothing but a set of bars and a shelf at the back. Like that, it might as well have just been hanger-deep.



These new open shelves are going to provide a huge amount of storage. Living with our clothes in the weird shelves between the dining room and living room have sold me on this kind of storage. You can see everything and get to it easily, since the piles can't get too tall and disorganized.

Next, back to scraping popcorn -- this time in the library. Blech.

Big changes out front

These past few days have seen some monumental evolution on the front of the house.

Our beloved, amazing Myriam was in town Friday and Saturday -- and her visit coincided with the new doors going in up front.



Yes, that's right. This house finally has a front door.



Seen from inside. We splurged on the Pella fiberglass with a custom three-pane top panel, and couldn't be happier. It's very attractive, and the guys from KC Deck Builders did an absolutely perfect job installing it.



As they did on the upstairs window-to-door replacements.



We finally have the elevated porch to sit outside -- with a railing that keeps the cats from being bad and running away.



Jeff painted the new siding to match the semi-gross grey color that was already here. We'll fix that eventually, but it looks finished now at least.

Next, the new windows on the north side of the house go in. This is going to be an incredible change.

Prepping the dining room

Beastly hot here, making us feel not quite so motivated. However, we're anticipating the installation of the new doors and moving the old windows soon, so it's time to clear out the dining room to make way.



First, the dry bar in the corner goes. Lucky for us, it wasn't attached in any way at all, save for the Romex simply poking out of a hole in the wall, through another hole in the wall of the bar, and into a (non-attached, of course) junction/outlet box inside. Grr. Oh well -- the circuit's exactly where we'll want a wall outlet, so it'll be easy to repurpose. The cabinets against the wall were pretty easy to remove, too, and the blank wall is ready for its new window.



Best of all, our friend Brigid (another Weatherby Laker in fact) has a great use for the bar, and reports it works very well where she installed it after picking it up this morning. We love to give things a new life instead of throwing them out.

Speaking of repurposing, the new grading in the backyard left an enormous step down from the deck without a use. So I cut it into two pieces, which I attached at a right angle to each other. Then I took the leftovers cut off from the top of the front-porch support posts to create new legs -- and we have a really swell new bench on the back deck, which will give us great party seating. Best of all was the cost: Sweat and sweat alone. Even the screws were leftovers from another project.



And speaking of the back deck, the portland cement dried and I filled in that nasty window well. All you see now is as it should have always been: Heavy clay left over from digging out the posts on the front porch.




Back to the dining room for a moment: I'd measured when we moved in and determined the china cabinet wouldn't fit under the soffit on the east wall -- the most logical position for the furniture in the room. So instead, we'd planned on parking it on the west wall, where it would work, but wouldn't be the most elegant solution. Well, after some exploratory drywall chopping revealed the bad news that we couldn't get rid of the soffit (darned ductwork in the way), Jeff asked me to measure again, because he thought the cabinet would fit underneath.



I was wrong. He was right. It fits and actually looks great (and will be much better post-popcorn).

Tomorrow night the library upstairs gets cleared out and perhaps the beginnings of de-popcorning.

Oh, and here's a picture of Tequila being weird.

Wow

Just wow.



The guys got a lot more done today.



It's looking like a real house now, huh? A whole house.

Lots of progress...

and few blog updates. We've been too busy and tired to do much.

Let's see -- what happened? That new berm is keeping water away from the house much better than before. However, that was all a moot point when we had an ENORMOUS flash flood July 2, which gave us our second instance of water in the basement. 4 3/4 inches of rain in 90 minutes, according to some estimates.

Judging by the fact that the carpet we removed from the basement when we got the house had definitely not been wet before, this must have been its second flood ever. At least Jeff had everything picked up off the floor, so we didn't have any troubles with our stuff getting ruined.

Even more infuriating, a spot leaked into the bathroom ceiling. One of three ceilings in the entire house that were finished. Now with a big water spot and peeled drywall tape. So angry that I can't really even write about it any more, much less share a picture. I may even just hire someone to fix it to keep from having to think about it.

Anyhow. That stupid window well is now history. Hired a mason to block it closed.



Then today I had to coat the exterior with a heavy layer of portland cement to create a moisture barrier from outside. In the 96-degree heat, I had to lie down in the mud UNDERNEATH the deck -- a space of no more than maybe 14 inches tall -- while I troweled the cement on. Absolutely hands down, this was the most difficult task I've had to do in the house thus far. I could hardly believe how taxing it was. However, I feel better about closing in the window after spending time under the deck. Even if there were a fire, nobody would ever be able to escape from the basement underneath there. We'll have a proper egress window installed later in the north wall, where it will actually make sense.



Tomorrow I'll fill the hole in with dirt, and the possibility of flooding will be history. Two layers thick of cinder block and an inch of portland is more impervious than the concrete foundation itself.

At least I got to mow the lawn as soon as I was finished with the cementing. Joy.

Anyhow, this all sounds a little dour. Which isn't very representative of our mood, because this is what we returned to after our little four-day vacation to New York this weekend.



Yes, there's actually a porch on the front of our house now. I can hardly believe how much they got done so quickly.

The guys at KC Deck Builders got to work last week digging the holes for the piers.



We had a little worry when we tried to get the building permit, as there's a required 50-foot setback from the front of the lot for any construction, and ours apparently didn't quite qualify according to the boundaries of our lot. However, we are a good 57 feet from the street, and the building inspector was a really nice guy who agreed to let us go for it without a variance hearing. That would have been an incredibly awful experience for something that will so greatly improve the looks of the house and the whole neighborhood.

We're building this porch like a deck structurally, so we decided to go with Azek composite decking material. It's sort of like Trex, but has no wood products in it and seems to be impervious to the blotching and mold problems. And the coolest part: For a small upgrade fee, the builders are using the screw-hiding option, which pops a tiny matching plug into the screw holes, completely obscuring them for a seamless surface.



They're even taking the time to match the grain in the plugs to the boards, if you can believe it. These guys are very conscientious.



Which also goes for their concrete skills. Look at how finely this walkway is finished. They'll come back after it hardens to cut in expansion joints.



Later this week, we'll get the handrails installed. We're still waiting on the doors to be delivered, so we may have a bit of a lag while that happens. No big deal, since we have three rooms to clear out before we can let the guys put them in anyway.

Oh, and I also got the rest of the floor in the hallway upstairs done, so we have all nice, clean hardwood and rubber tiles to do our laundry on.



These boards demanded some major figuring and finagling on the top step, so I had to mill my own nose piece from an existing stair tread. It came out well, I must admit.



Much more to do, of course, but this is a major leap forward. Let's hope this heat breaks. It's pretty fatiguing.

But after that mow earlier today, I got to take my little PVC raft across the street and jump in the lake for a nice 45-minute swim. That puts things in perspective.