A Weekend Without Mom & Dad

Mom and Dad were in So Cal for my uncle's 60th birthday.  I still managed to get some things done, but not nearly as much as when there's three of us.

Friday:  pulled quite a bit of weeds from the front yard.  Soon it'll just be maintenance pulling.  I also painted the backs of the doors for the two bedrooms, study, and bathroom.  I also painted the door frame for the study.

Saturday:  no actual work.  I went thrifting, hoping to find the perfect chair for the reading corner I'm going to create in the study.  No luck, but I came close.  Found a great one, but it was only being sold as a set for to much money.

Sunday:  went to Meeting. Yay!  In the afternoon, I painted the entire hall closet door and the door frame for the master bedroom.  Also, pulled more weeds out front.

So, I still got things accomplished, but a heck of a lot more gets done when Mom & Dad are here, too.

Rain Slowing Us Down

Friday morning we switched out my dining room window.  It didn't take long to pull out the old one.  Putting the new one in was pretty quick as well since we could use the frame that was already there.  After lunch, rain was threatening, so we didn't do the living room one since it's exposed.  The dining room window is under an overhang, so it's protected.  Instead of getting that one in a precarious, leaky situation, I put the flashing around the window.  Stucco will come at some point in the future.  Mom and Dad worked on repairing some door moulding.

Saturday morning we went to a carpet store to see if they had something I liked at a reasonable price.  They did!    Floorman is coming out on Friday to measure.  That afternoon Mom and I worked on putting some insulation in the dining room wall.  When the window was out, Dad could see that there was none there.  Mom cut an opening just under the window wide enough for me to wiggle the insulation through.

Dad worked on door moulding and transition strips between the hall and bedrooms.

Sunday, Dad finished installing door moulding and put up the floor moulding in the hall.  That had been on hold until the door moulding was done.  I got the ceiling trim for the master bedroom denailed, cleaned up, and painted.  Mom patched up the hole from Saturday under the window.

We're getting there on the house.  There should be an open house sometime this summer.  Here's the still to do list (created Sunday afternoon):

• Ceiling trim: master, guest, & bedroom               
• finish painting hallway doors (including linen closet)
• apply socket & switch plates
• kitchen tile
• living room window
• patio door
• texture & paint wall around dining room & patio door
• kitchen trim
• exterior paint
• roof
• blinds
• door knobs
• shower
• door jambs
• electric panel
• closet doors

Getting There

Only 2 days of work this weekend to report about.  Things that got accomplished:

Dad installed attic vents in the front and back of the house:

(back vent photo coming in the future - I forgot to take one in time for this post.)

The vents will allow me to run my whole house fan.  It's much more powerful than it needs to be, but was the smallest one we could easily find.  It empties 3200 cubic feet in a minute.  My house is 7200.  It'll be cooled down in a jiffy!

We all worked at various times at getting the lamps installed in the two bedrooms.  Mom cleaned them, I covered chipped spots, Dad installed them, Mom attached fan blades, I attached sconces.

Master bedroom

Guest bedroom

Mom also spent quite a bit of time with joint compound, getting everything all smoothed out in the guest room.  We'll be able to start texturing it next time.

I worked on painting interior doors.  I got 4 out of 5 mostly done.  They each need one side painted still (logistically, you can only paint one side at a time).  I ran out of time to do the fifth one, so, next time.

Weekend Entertainment

So, I felt useless this weekend.  My wrist appears to be suffering from carpal tunnel and there were many things I could not do.

Friday we worked on interior doors.  I got the doors ridiculously cheaply - only $10 each.  Some of the hinges needed to be moved, but we managed that.

We got them all hung.  Now, they just need to be painted and have their moulding (painted this weekend) installed.

Mom and I (mostly Mom) worked on the moulding throughout the weekend.  Some of it started out in bad shape:

 Looks like a dog was let loose on it.  The spaces got filled in with joint compound.  Then sanded and painted twice.

Saturday and Sunday were spent dealing with the windows in the guest room.  Saturday we removed sheet rock, took stock of what needed doing, and bought needed supplies.

Sunday was the day of major activity.  We removed the two windows.

Once they were removed, we had plenty to do.  The one on the right needed a larger opening, so Dad worked on that.  Mom and I made the frame for the one on the left.  When the frame was installed we put on the first layer of flashing.

Then we were able to install the window itself, complete with the tedious task of shimming.

Then the exterior flashing was put in place.  The second window happened during this time, too.

Best moment of the weekend:  Mom had been working on painting moulding, but said she was ready to help with windows whenever needed.  We knew we needed to work efficiently in order to get two replaced in one day.  After a morning tea break, Mom yelled down the hall to Dad, "Let me know when you're ready to use me in the bedroom!"  Dad then came back and grabbed a bottle off the table, saying, "Let me get this ultra hard, all day hold."  Too hilarious.  (Bottle was hair gel which we had been joking about earlier.)

Trim Work

Today was focused on trim.  Mom laid the pieces all over the house where they matched up by size.  Dad and I went around with the nail gun and attached them.

The ones in dining room, living room, and hallway are painted to match the wall.  The ones in the study match the ceiling.  After they were up, Mom went around and filled cracks with joint compound.  Then she touched up the paint.

I also removed nails from the door trim that still needs to be painted.  It's best to pull the nail all the way through the board - that way the ugly tear out is at the back, not front.  You've got to use a pair of vice grips to hold the nail (nothing to grip on the bottom of it), then pry it up with a utility bar.

I also spent time everyday of the weekend working on the piece that will fill this ugly hole, left from the original kitchen fan in the ceiling.

I bought a vent/fan grill on Friday and some paint.  Put several coats of paint on it (it started out white) and was finally able to put it up yesterday.

I spent the late afternoon taking care of the backyard with the weed whacker - so nice that the rain finally stopped.  Dad put up some trim in the kitchen.  Mom wiped a bunch of dust off the heater cover before putting it back on.  Mom and Dad moved my furniture in my living room more to what I want to to be and brought the TV out.  My house is starting to come along. Yay!

Floor in the Hall

Mom cleaned up a few more ceiling trim boards this morning.

When she finished with that, she went around and matched up the boards with their locations so we can nail them up tomorrow.

Dad and I installed the floor in the hallway.  The doorways were kind of a pain, but we got it done.  Lots of cutting and hammer-tapping.  Good time and a great result!

Spending Money

The first half of the day was spent at the store.  I had a 10% off coupon that needed to be used soon.  I got all of this: one more kitchen cabinet, 4 windows, a patio door, 20 light bulbs 8 table legs and hardware, finish nails, screws, a vent register, and brown paint.

After lunch, Mom continued cleaning up ceiling trim so that she can install it tomorrow.

Dad and I started working on the hall floor.  First, we had o cut off the door jambs so the laminate would slide underneath.  That was a bear of a job that wore us both out - thankfully we only had to do three, two had been done previously.

I got the foam/moisture barrier put down the length of the hall.  Dad put the spacers against the wall.  We're ready to lay the floor tomorrow morning.

Cool Air

In the morning, I got my ridiculously cheap hall light installed.  It looks good in the freshly painted hall. Yay!

Dad and I spent the day installing the whole house fan.  First, we taped the template up to the ceiling.  Then I drilled starter holes in opposite corners.  Those holes let us see exactly where the fan is going once we got up to the attic.  We got all our tools and geared up to head into the attic.

Dad made the first cuts by plunging the circular saw down into the ceiling.  

Boards went crashing down to the hallway below as Dad made the cut parallel to this one.  Mom wanted a photo of us from inside the house:

I then finished the cuts with the saber saw and sent the last two boards plummeting to the ground.

At this point, I headed down to the hallway.  Dad stayed in place.  I handed him the fan and then the parts for the box to hold it up.  He put those boards in place, and we held up the shutter to make sure it would work and the louvers wouldn't get caught on anything.  Then, I drilled the boards in place from the bottom.

While Dad stapled carpet padding to the shelf, I put caulk in the gaps between boards.  Then Dad put the fan itself in place.  I continued caulking.

Finally, Dad came down and we put up the shutter.  Now, I've got a great fan for keeping the house cool come summertime.

During all this, Mom was in the garage, stripping paint off ceiling trim for the study.  Better than doing the ceiling since the pieces got to be on a table and not overhead.  Thanks, Mom!

Just before dinner, we took off random interior window frames from the bedroom windows so we could see just what was going on with those.  We figured what size of windows to get and have an idea of what repair work in the walls we're going to need to do.

Rainy Day Slow Day

Mom started the day finishing up the prime.  I wired the switch for the back exterior light.  Dad connected the electricity for the bathroom fan.  I also went up to the attic to connect some wires while Dad measured for more wiring.  Somehow that took up most of the morning.  Well, that and Dad and I figuring out how to install the whole house fan.  It comes with instructions, but they don't pertain to my ceiling.  Most houses have joists for the ceiling.  Mine doesn't since it was originally tongue-and-groove boards making up the ceiling/flat roof.  A pitched roof was added later, hence, no joists.

After lunch, Mom spent some time touching up baseboards while the primer dried.  Dad went up to the attic to make the final connections for the over-the-range microwave.  That's now done. Yay!

I did some wiring for the house fan.  I spent most of the afternoon building a box frame for the fan.  Since there are no joists, there's nothing to keep the fan from falling through the hole in the ceiling.  Here's my creation:

The four sides aren't connected yet - it needs to be carried up to the attic and will be easier in parts.  It has a shelf to hold the fan over the hole, without letting it fall.  Dad cut up some old carpet pad to help dampen the sound.

Mom painted the hallway.  It looks good!

Tomorrow, we install a fan.  That will likely take a good part of the day.

Bargain!!

We spent the morning buying more work.  I got a bathroom fan, whole house fan, and the duct work to go with them.  I also got a new hall light as the one that I had was absolutely disgusting.  Found one on the shelf that was discounted from $29 to $7.50.  Looked good, so I put it in the basket.  At ring up time, I checked to make sure that it rang up at the proper price.  Got a pleasant surprise.  Check the receipt below (you may need to enlarge it):

Just 1 cent!!!!!!!  The cashier even double-checked to make sure the bar codes matched.  They did, he said that's how it was in the program, so he let it go.  We totally should have gone back and gotten the rest on the shelf to resell for a profit.

After lunch, Mom got to work on the hallway.  She sanded down the rough texture before priming it.  Fine dust everywhere:

She did the primed the edges first (slow going with a brush) and that's as far as she got before quitting time tonight.

Dad and I worked on the bathroom fan and the venting for the over-the-range microwave.  He cut the larger hold for the bathroom fan (there was an old crummy one in there before).  I cut the hole in the cabinet for the microwave venting.  Dad cut the hole in the ceiling, down from the attic.  We got most of the venting connected and figured out for it.  We'll finish it tomorrow.  The bathroom fan was installed, but hasn't been wired yet.  Still need to start on the house fan and installing the attic vents to ensure enough exhaust ventilation.

It feels like we didn't accomplish much today, but, like we told Dad, we didn't actually start doing any work until about 2:00.  More fun tomorrow!

Finishing Up the Weekend

Saturday:  Dad crawled around the attic laying electrical wire.  The circuit works and is ready to be used.  I helped with that and did some other random things that needed doing (I think the lost of hour of time took away my memory of what I actually did.)  I patched a hole in the hallway that I created on Friday. (That actually took most of the time because cutting wallboard with a razor nice is slow work and then I had to repeatedly slice it down to fit the actual hole.  The I taped it and put up the first layer of joint compound.) Mom did some touching up of some baseboards and evening some drywall compound.  It was an early quit day as I had things to do with my girls.

When I arrived back home from soccer this morning, I found Mom emptying my fridge so that it could be moved.  Yay! A fridge in my kitchen!  This evening, out of habit, I walked into the garage to get what I needed from the fridge.  =)

Dad and I then spent the afternoon installing my over-the-range microwave.  This took quite a bit of time - mostly spent attaching the mounting board and prepping the overhead cabinet with strategically placed holes.  It looks great!  And I now have a fully functional kitchen!

Things still to do in the kitchen: toekick, trim around the top of the cabinets, venting the microwave, and the backsplash.

Mom spent the afternoon texturing the hallway.  I gave her a brief lesson and she went to town.  It was quite amusing to hear her pressing the trowel against the wall while we were working in the kitchen.

More Electrical Fun

We found and fixed my circuit relatively quickly.  It was the first outlet on the circuit - a wire in it was wobbly so it would connect and disconnect with every touch.  We just tightened it and problem solved!

Dad and I then moved on to other electrical activities.  We realized that the wiring we needed done was holding up finishing the hallway.  We need to run a new circuit for a whole house fan, bathroom fan, over-the-range microwave, outdoor outlet, and outdoor light by garage.  This morning, we cut holes in the hallway and the wall that is the back of the electric panel, so we would have access.  We then drilled holes up into the attic and stuck wires up there so we can find the holes when we go up and crawl around tomorrow.

Mom did some cleaning of outlets and switches in the kitchen and living room.  Then we ate lunch and went to the store to buy wire.

In the afternoon, I drilled the hole for the microwave.  Dad got the exterior light prepared.  Mom did some drywall patching.  Generally thrilling day.  Ready to crawl around the attic tomorrow and get a circuit wired.

Sore Arms

Sunday morning Dad and I continue working on the kitchen sink.  We attached two countertops to their respective cabinets with silicone.  Then we did the same with the sink, being very careful to clean up all the squeezed out stuff so it won't be visible on the counter.  That part was messy, but we got it done.  Dad then went to work getting all the plumbing connections joined under the sink.  That took him most of the day.

While he did that, Mom continued her battle with the hall wallboard.  She was using 2 pieces of 1/4" board (we had a bunch left over from the heater hole).  At one edge, it would be flush with the 1/2" piece adjacent to it.  At one edge it would bulge and be almost 5/8".  She planed that edge down and was finally successfully.  I knew she would win the war!!  When she finished that, she spent the rest of the day with joint compound smoothing out joints and all those ragged edges from the scraped paint.

I spent most of the day outside with the weed whacker attacking the jungle that had sprung up recently.

I earned a blister and sore arms for my efforts.  It took several hours (not sure exactly how many since I wasn't actually paying attention to the time).  Looks much better now.  Sorry, no before/after pics.

After Dad and I finished our jobs, we hung some cabinets in the bathroom.  They'll give me some much needed extra space there.  Putting those up was not fun.  Everything was super heavy yesterday with my sore arms.

Scaring Dad

Saturday started with Dad and I finishing the living room floor.

While we did that, Mom scraped paint from the last wall of the hallway.  She then cut open a hole that had been kicked in at one point in time.  It took a bit longer than originally though because he kick had cracked the backside of the board.  It wasn't visible, but made the board wobbly.

At out lunch break, we went to the store and bought a bunch more stuff, in order to use a coupon that was expiring this weekend.

When we got back, Mom attempted to patch her hole.  It turned into a war and the wallboard patch piece won the day's battle.  Mom came up with a plan to be implemented Sunday to try to win the war.

Dad and I worked on installing the kitchen sink.  Dad put the sink baskets and stuff on while I cut the counter for the sink hole.  That took quite a bit of time.  Dad's little jigsaw hadn't had such a workout.  Here's a shot of Dad doing the last of the cutting.  My arm was tired of the constant vibration and needed a break.

It was pretty funny taking this photo.  Dad was focused on what he was doing and had no idea that I had pulled out the camera.  I took one photo without flash, but it didn't turn out very well.  I turned the flash on for this one.  When it went off, Dad looked up, frightened.  He thought the saw was blowing up!  Totally didn't mean to scare him at all, but it sure was funny.

The last bit of work for the day was painting the cut edge of the sink hole to seal it.  By the end of the weekend, I'll have a kitchen sink.  That will make living here much nicer.

Frustrations

So, my electric meter hasn't been registering anything.  At the beginning of the month, I called and let them know there was a problem.  The first time they sent someone out nothing happened.  Thursday, they sent someone out again.  I arrive home at 11:30 at night to discover my power is off.  Street light is working so I know it's not that the rain storm knocked out power.  I somehow manage to find the flashlight in the garage and head out to check the meter.  It's totally gone!  Now, I'm pissed off.  I know what has happened before I call - previous tenants had tampered with it to get electricity for free. I just know it.  I call customer service and wait for 45 minutes to speak to someone (clearly not many people working the overnight shift).  I'm willing to wait because I want to get someone to come out on Friday to fix this problem.  No such luck when I reached someone.  All she could tell me was that I had to call Revenue Assurance in the morning.  Alas, we got disconnected before she was able to give me the number.  I had to start the whole process all over again.  Finally got to go to bed at 12:45 - very upset and annoyed.

I set my alarm for 7:55 so I could call as soon as they opened at 8:00.  Did that and only got the chance to leave a message.  They would call me back by the end of the next service day.  That did little to quell my anger as there was no way I was going to wait until Monday to talk to someone about this problem.  I left a detailed message explaining the fact that I had called to report the problem so there was no way I was the one to have tampered with the meter.  It was quite obvious from my tone that they had a disgruntled customer on their hands.  As I was telling Mom ad Dad, I would have been significantly less pissed off had they left me a message on Thursday.  Apparently simple courtesies escape some people and businesses.

After leaving my message, I start getting myself ready for the day.  It's then that I discover that I have more to add to my frustrations.  The rain storm has shown me that I have a leak somewhere and it is evidencing itself in the bathroom.  Fortuitously, it's coming down right into the garbage can.  One more thing for us to work on.

Since we had no electricity, we chose to do work in the hallway that needed doing.  Mom finished cleaning the ceiling.  I scraped paint from the walls.  Mom and Dad have never seen paint behave this way in all their years of fixing up houses.  It's just coming off in sheets.  The end result:

Alas, I swept up the paint before I could take a picture.  They really were large sheets, not little chips.  While this was going on, Dad was working on that hole above the heater.  He added some cement board to try to insulate some of the heat from coming all the way through the wall.  We'll have to buy some 1/4" wallboard to finish the job.

We're thinking the heat from the furnace is what is causing the paint to peel away in large chunks.  It just does it for the top half of the board.  The bottom half of the wall has the paint stuck on well, like it should.

At 10:30 I get a call from Katie at the power company.  She's wonderful.  She clearly listened to my message.  First thing she tells me is that it was their fault.  I'm right about the fact that I called the problem in and that I should not have had my power cut off.  She's already called it in and someone will be out to replace my meter that day.  Thank goodness!  At 11:45, Kevin showed up and fixed it.  I now have a working meter and electricity. Yay!

After the paint chipping and cement board putting up, Dad and I rehung one of my kitchen cabinets to be 2" lower so that my antique cookie jar will fit in the display shelf the cabinet creates.  We then worked on finishing the living.  We got it mostly done when we discovered a chip (which would quickly grow significantly larger) in the end of a board that had already been placed.  It would require us to remove some boards to get to that one.  We decided that would be a good stopping point for the day.

The Rest of the Weekend

So, Saturday saw Dad and I laying more floor.

Mom took this while she was cleaning the ceiling.  It was a short day of work.  I left for a friend's birthday.  Mom and Dad, being the wonderful people they are, worked the rest of the afternoon laying floor and plugging holes with spray foam.

Sunday, Dad and I continued laying floor.  We got the kitchen finished. Yay!

While we worked on that, Mom spent her time removing the damaged wall board from over the wall heater.  It had bubbled out and was going to need replacing.  This is what she found:

The wallboard had actually been on the furnace piping.  The constant heat has disintegrated the sheetrock, which is why it missing on the pieces that have been propped up for the photo.  Time to figure out how to fix something else.  This seems to keep happening.

At about this point, we stopped for lunch and made a shopping list.  When we got home, all three of us worked on fixing the gate.  Earlier this week, it had been windy and rainy.  The wind hates my gate and I came home to discover this:

The wind is just too strong coming off the channel behind my house.  It puts far too much stress on the hinges, as you can see.  So, we took down the gates and cut them shorter since the above post was clearly no longer good at the top.  This involved removing two support bars, cutting planks and reattaching the support bars.  Then, we rehung the gates.  We then used a bar closure (similar to a barn door).  This provides a lot more rigidity at the center where the two gates meet.  Hopefully this will be enough to keep the gate from swinging around wildly in the wind and stressing the hinges.  The new gate looks much the same, but is significantly shorter than the original.  It's kind of humorous actually.