Demolition 2

More work on the apartment this wekend

The walls in the kitchen have been sheet-rocked, the floor has been patched and the door to the laundry room installed

The water heater has been moved and the laundry room has been switched and the electric has been re-run so it make more sense and is less dangerous.

I still need to finish the wall opening, which I think I will do with MDF next week.

The 9" header  that will separate the kitchen/ laundry-room drop-ceiling from the entryway/ living room   full ceiling still need to be sheet rocked, but is installed and looking good.

I am still moving some electric wiring and switches, but should have that done by next weekend. Other things I hope to do by next weekend include salvaging the bathtub with a bit of cleaning, patching the ceiling where the old walls were, and set up backer board for the tub surround and sheetrock around the breaker-box in the bathroom.

I have contacted a plumber to move some pipes... that should happen this week. I will be meeting with the window installer Monday morning and I plan to talk with a flooring installer for new carpets/ vinyl sometime this week as well.

Demolition

The tenant living in the first floor apartment moved out at the top of the month. Jeff had been in the apartment since 2006 and in discussions about rent rates vs. building improvements he opted for low rent. His moving out gives me the opportunity to make some major upgrades to the apartment.

Top 0f the list is new rear windows. Next is removing some walls and opening the floor plan so there is a bigger kitchen area. Finally the bathroom needs some major care because the bath surround is rotten and needs replacing. Also a 'storage' room will be finished to be a storage room (without quotes).

This week I finished the demolition. I ambitiously hope that I can get the framing done by the end of this weekend. I will then focus on finish work with sheet rock, paint plaster, new carpets, etc.

NEW BATHROOM

When we bought the house there was a room on the east side of the kitchen. It was heated by an electric monitor heater and primarily used for laundry, storage, and had a large chest-freezer. It had wood paneling and a hatch that went to the basement and another that went to the attic. There was a fiber tile ceiling and linoleum floor stapled down over a plank sub-floor.
When we moved in we got rid of the chest freezer and moved the laundry machines to the basement. We christened the area the 'Mudroom' and it was an off-and-on storage area for things as we did renovations on the house. About two years ago I started chipping away at making the space usable, which not only included the mudroom, but the area above and below as well. The first project to be done was the basement, because it was the easiest. Next was making a functional second bathroom (sink and toilet) which was completed about a year ago, but not finished... just functional.
About a month ago I got the bathroom finished enough. There are still a few bits and bobs I want to do, but for the most part it is complete. Toilet, shower, sink, tile, lights, shelves, cabinets, and the rest.

We also had the outer walls insulated, new electric and plumbing, and new windows along the way.
We did everything ourselves except run the plumbing.
Tah Dah!

New Closet

When we bought the house the door off the side of the dining room did not lead to a closet, but rather stairs to the basement with shelves. At one point it WAS a closet until some Yankee genius cut a rectangle out of the floor and installed some scrap-wood-stairs. I'm sure there was a good reason for doing that at the time, but for my lifestyle I prefer to have the closet space. The 2 biggest downsides of this modification was that it took away a really good place to put stuff and it made the house very drafty. So a couple months ago I decided to reclaim the space as a closet. So I re-installed the floor, threw on some sheet-rock and did a little plastering. And voila!

One thing that makes these jobs totally worth it is when Alden discovers the new space.

Fixin' the Truck

On the edges of the spectrum there are repairs and patching. 'Repair' is getting as close to a restoration of original quality as you can manage, 'patching' involves making something functional with the least amount of effort. In the middle are stages of the 'fix'. There is 'fixing', 'fixin', 'fixun', 'fexun', 'pheksen' and so on. I would say I am somewhere around fixun the truck.
The truck accident last week TOTALED the truck, but for something like $600 I was able to retain ownership and get the insurance settlement. All the damage was to the truck bed (none to the frame) so my pal Darrell came by and we went at it with hammers and pry-bars.

The two best tools of the afternoon were the come-along, which we attached to a tree and then pulled the point of impact back to original position. This move fixed about 50% of the problem. The next best tool was a pipe we used to extend the handle on my ratchet set to remove the bumper and lift-gate bolts.
We made good progress and I ordered a new bumper, bumper-brackets, and driver tail-light. When they arrived I continued/ finished the fixun... and voila !

Phytoplankton Pumpkin

Emiliania huxleyi jack-o-lantern. I'm really proud of how this one turned out. Are there any more suggestions for microbe-oriented pumpkin carvings?

Pumpkin Fun

My mom visited us this week and we carved pumpkins with Alden. This is the first time I've done this in like twenty years. She made the cat, I made the bacteriophage. Alden liked blowing out candles.

Kerstin video

I made a quick video of the Poetry Out Loud event that I did for the Maine Arts Commission. Alden thinks it is a great thing to watch, which makes me feel pretty good. He calls it "kids building".



The video isn't sizing right on the blog, so you can also see it here.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TAIVDY64E50

"I AM PROGRAMMED TO BEAT YOU."

I got a COMP IV yesterday from the Goodwill and straight out of 1978. This thing is amazing! If the instructions were not included I never would have figured out how to play it. It's basically a logic puzzle where you have to guess a randomized number the machine generates. One would think the basic instructions might be on a sticker on the back. NOPE. The interface is so opaque my mind was blown. To make sure the machine is working correctly, you type 7E12345E and all the lights flash if things are good. Sweet.

Building facade repair

Sunday was a lovely fall day and I spent it with Darrell painting the facade of Berry and Berry Floral in Gardiner. It was a good way to get out and be productive and enjoy the sunshine. At the start the facade looked like this.


We scraped, patched and caulked from about 8:30- 1:30, including spraying expando-foam at the bottom. There was a bunch of sand and dirt packed in and I hope the foam will keep it cleaner and dryer over time. Ilana and Alden drove to the store for us and picked up replacement 1/4 round for the stuff that was punky and some wood for the top of the facade so rain would have a harder time getting behind the boards. As it was there was nothing there.
We used paint that matches the Berry and Berry store in Hallowell, to help with business continuity. We were going to add a second color (green) to the panels, but the green I got was not dark enough and just looked icky next to the red/brown. We painted over the test spot we started.
All in all the job took about 9 hours. We took a break for lunch at The Depot, just around the corner, but it was quick. I am impressed we got it done in a day.
Ta-da.

Marble Game

I built this contraption I call a "Marble Game" for Alden and a few other babies I know. It's based on the design of a toy I had when I was young. My grandpa Fritz made it for me and it was a similar construction, only it used marbles. This one has difficult-to-swallow 1.5" wooden balls so it is safer for people who like putting things in their mouths. It has a detachable foot that was not up to the task of keeping Alden from pulling it over on himself, so I ended up screwing the game to the wall, which was an excellent solution. He likes pulling himself up on on it more than making the balls roll down, but I figure he will grow into it.  

There are a few design flaws to this model and I hope to make a version 2.0 before Alden has his second birthday.