Termites!

We've been a bit lackadaisical in our efforts to post lately, mostly due to the missing usb cable for our camera. One which Gravy chewed up and the replacement, which has gone missing.
It was a bit sickening opening up the walls and being greated by nearly 100 years of termite excrement, but I guess I would rather it not reside in my walls any longer. I removed the areas where there was major damage and replaced boards or "sistered" in boards next to any boards that looked questionable. It's deflating to spend hours tearing open walls only to find more work, but it's necessary and the house will be stronger for all of the work.
Nothing special here, just removing damaged wood with saws and/or chisels and replacing with new wood, but I did get the chance to plug some more holes with caulk or "Great Stuff".
There was no insulation in the "sun room", so we put up a vapor barrier with tar paper and prepared the walls for insulation as well.

oops

The shower fiasco (part2)

I returned to my shower fiasco with the problem of building up enough space between the studs and where the new tile should meet with the old tile. I had some 1/4" backerboard, which had been purchased from the scraps section at Home Depot for a different purpose. But since I changed my mind how we would handle the concrete pier in the kitchen I had this backerboard laying around. I cut the backerboard into strips to fit the width of the shower. However since there used to be about an inch and a half of plaster on the wall, I had to figure out a way to make the 1/4" backerboard meet with the old tile. I ended up cutting shims from an old pine stud that was still in good condition. With some help from brother (aka Gladiator) we cut them at full 1" blocks and nailed them to the studs, after putting in some tar paper for a moisture barrier of course.



After double nailing each shim to the studs, I screwed the backerboad into the shims. You might be able to see at the bottom there is a strip that kicks out a little bit. I tried to get fancy and have some angled tiles at the bottom to encourage the water to drain towards the old floor. In the end the angle wasn't enough and had to use more caulk than I would have liked between the last row of new tiles and the old tiles. But as Grandpa Stanley says: "Caulk is the best carpenter on the job".
finally the tiling began. At the advice of a Home Depot tiling video I decided to use a batton positioned at the center of my tile wall and tile up from there. We ended up spending almost a hundred bucks for the tools and tiles and supplies. Tiles, trowel, grout float, grout, mortar, caulk, spacers, fiberglass tape, etc...We plan on working out a realistic cost of total remodel with and without out puchase of tools and supplies. After taping and mortaring all of the joints in the backerboard, I tile up to the top. Luckily brother let me borrow the wet saw, which made cutting the handle hole much easier.
After removing the batton I tiled down to the floor using tape to keep the tiles from sliding down. Yes this tape was necessary as I quickly found out. Tiling down is completly different than tiling up. As Radiohead said: "he used to do surgery for girls in the eighties, but gravity always wins".
Finally the whole wall was grouted and caulked. Finished pictures coming soon...
Update: The finished shower wall:

New Window

My mission has changed temporarily. Our new window has arrived and "baby" wants the window installed. What baby wants, baby gets...so in goes the new window. We went with Home Depot, their windows were slightly cheaper than Lowes. We got a double pane insulated glass with Low-E. If you don't know, Low-E is a treatment that reflects the sun back outside and keeps the house cooler in the summer. The brand is called "Silverline" it is an Anderson Window company. We had to special order a window, because the windows in our house aren't exactly standard size. We ordered a window 4ft by 4ft. I didn't pull the trim off or pull the window out before ordering, luckily my measurements were pretty good. When the window came it measured 48" (4ft) on the bottom and 48-1/4" on the top. My stand-in contractor "grandpa Stanley" and I made it fit. More pictures below:

The shower fiasco

I made it my mission to have a working shower, so we could stay at the house and work. We have stayed at the house on the weekends twice, but not being able to shower puts a damper on things.
The plumber had to knock out a bunch of tiles to install the new water lines. So, I decided finish the job and just take out the one wall of tile. I'm not exaggerating when I say these guys had about an inch and a half of plaster or concrete masonry or whatever they used on showers 1935.
I tried to save whatever tile I could, because I knew we would never be able to match this mint green tile. So the idea was to save some and work it in to make the tile job seem cohesive.
Originally I was going to go with a black and green classic art deco type design as shown below:

But it would have taken too long to remove all of the mortar and grout from all of the old tiles. So we decided to go with something simpler and easier.
(by the bye, if you're doing any remodeling and you want to plan things out visually and spatially, use google sketch up. It's easy, it's free, and there is a warehouse full of things already made that you can use in your sketches...i.e. ovens, drawer handles, etc.)
more on this fiasco to come...gute nacht.

Plumbing the depths

The plumbers spent two full days in, under, over, and digging around the house. We re-piped hot & cold for the whole house; two full baths, kitchen, hot water heater, washer hook-up, 2 hose bibs. We got a brand new water heater, which ended up costing us $100 more than originally quoted 6 months ago. Their costs have gone up in the 6 months since the quote, they only charged us for the increase in the water heater, because it's not one of their parts. But apparently water heaters have gone up a hundred bucks in 6 months, who knew water heaters were such a volatile market? The other surprise was the valve box for the washer and dryer, which was about $250, too bad they retail for about $25.
I guess with so much going on at the house i'm going to "take a bath" here and there. (pun intended)
We had a little leak where one of the toilet water line meets the floor, so they came out to fix it, after they left, the electrician there was a leak in the toilet line. I said, I know. He said no, this other toilet. It's ok they're coming back to hook up the fridge any way right? He wanted me to build a wall behind the fridge where he can put a valve for the fridge. Luckily, this was included in the original quote price.
More plumbing pics below...

The plumbers box o parts

Our new hole for the fridge, we pushed it back in the wall so it will be even with the 24" cabinets

New water service line.

Free Dust!

The grinding down of these four cinder blocks created all that dust you see surrounding it. Andy was the angle grinder man. Down on his knees, hunched over laboriously cutting them down to floor level. I now have the duty of taking a wet rag to the whole house after sweeping. Dusting is just out of the question because it ground down to the same consistency as baby powder!

a day in the hole...

A long day in a hot hole. At the suggestion of my framing guy, I installed a sister beam next to one of the roofing trusses that had seen some termite damage. I'm no structural engineer, but I think I did a pretty good job. The existing beam only had damage in one area around the spot where the chimney used to be, so spanning from the edge of the roof to far beyond this spot should insure that this truss will not fail. I used the longest beam that would fit in my rice burner...12 feet from the trunk to the windshield. Who says you need a truck? I ran two 4" bolts on each end of the sister beam and then some wood screws about 16" apart along the beam, skipping the area where the termite damage was. Then I removed the board that was surrounding the chimney, which was so damaged it was doing nothing.
Below are some pics of damage and the installed beam: