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Whoa, our thread has really fallen behind. We've been extra lazy lately. It's so hard to get motivated to work when your house is 60 degrees and it's dark outside all the time and all you want to do is snuggle under a blanket with your big ol dog. Since we've posted last, we have done some minor updates. -Our bathtub broke. The first thing that happened is that the handle that turns the water off and on broke. It was just a cheap plastic knob and the grip broke. For about two weeks we had to use a screw driver to turn the water on and off. The second thing that happened with the broken handle was that our tub clogged. I shed a lot of my hair in the shower, and about once a month I take a hemostat and pull it out of the drain. This last time, the clog went way down into the drain, and it was completely blocked. Over the next two showerless days, we tried draino, a plastic snake, a plunger, and eventually resorted to using one of those coil things that you can roll up. Our drain has the metal X in it, so this proved to be a difficult task. Thankfully, Rodnik has perseverance and managed to get the clog out. Needless to say we have since invested in one of those plastic hair traps that goes over the drain. The final thing that happened was that Rodnik, bless his heart, took the hand held shower head out of the holder and submerged it in a draino filled tub for several hours for some reason. The draino dissolved the seal between the hose and the shower head, so now when we turn it on, half the water comes out the shower head and half leaks down the hose. We will be replacing that soon. -We finally got around to putting plastic on the big downstairs window in January, after it had already been cold for several months. I'm really glad we did, we didn't realize how strong the drafts were until we were installing the plastic and the drafts kept blowing it off. Next winter we will be more proactive with draft protection. -We moved the fridge. We have an old white kitchen cabinet that had been sitting in the front entryway for a while, and we finally moved the fridge. Pro: We have a hallway that isn't obstructed by a fridge. Con: We can't open the dishwasher all the way. We also have to reach behind the fridge to turn on the light. Redesigning our kitchen is going to be a challenge. -We plastered and painted the entryway which I wrote about last time. We still need to hang the crown moulding... God we are so lazy. I've finally got around to taking some pictures. Still an incomplete room at this point. -The fuel oil tank has been a little piece of hell in our basement. We have no way of knowing if it's getting low until we run out of oil. The gauge is broken and there's so much sludge on the bottom that we can't auscultate what's left by tapping on it. We've run out of oil twice, and both times were on weekends, so the oil company couldn't come for three days. Cue making a trip to the gas station a few times a day to buy five gallons of diesel, then hauling it home and feeding the tank. We've tried to be proactive by getting it filled when we think it's running low, but maintaining this thing sucks. As soon as the ground thaws we are getting natural gas installed and getting a proper furnace. Then we can also finish the work on our old fashioned stove and get that working! We haven't had a stove since we moved in, and for several months it's been too cold to use the grill, so we've been microwaving, eating raw/refrigerated stuff, and eating out a lot.  Entryway Before.  Entryway painted. This is with flash on my camera. We really don't know what we're going to do with that hideous brown color on the stairs at this point. Rodnik wants to completely rip out the stairs and build new ones, but I'm feeling like maybe just painting a more tasteful color/design on them would be better. Stripping and refinishing stairs sucks, and we've got enough of that going on elsewhere in the house. Something along the lines of this:   Fridge location before. Plus a cat.  Fridge moved. We are still only using the modern grounded outlets in the kitchen for all our power supply until we can get the house rewired. Anywhere we want power, we drag an extension cord.
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Feb 27, 2013 20:18
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Did you guys die in a renovation mishap?
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May 8, 2013 21:30
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Nope, not dead, just a combination of a career advancement for me which meant eight weeks of full-time orientation and training, blizzard after blizzard after blizzard in April, and both of us with some major Seasonal Affective Disorder going on. We got a total of 46 inches of snow in the month of April, it was a pretty big bummer. There's still some snow on the ground in shadier places, but we were finally able to open up the windows and air out the house this week. Because winter was quite extended, that meant having to pay for heat a lot longer than we had expected. Our fuel oil tank costs about $800 to fill each time, and we were getting it filled about every six to eight weeks. We didn't really have much money to put towards renovation during the winter, but now that we're using less heat, it means more money to put towards the house. The ground just recently thawed, and this week we'll be contacting the City for a natural gas line hook up. It still drops to or below freezing at night, so we still need heat for the time being. We did accomplish one small feat today, we installed a new light fixture on the front porch.  Before: Ugly.  After: Pretty.  We also hung a flower basket. (Big deal, I know.)  I planted some tiger lillys today. They look a lot prettier in the sunlight, but it was getting late, so there you have it. They're not perfectly even, I just wanted to get them in the ground. We are planning a pretty big landscaping project for later on in the summer which involves retaining walls, trees to block the view of the cars, and lots of flowers and wild grasses. Hopefully this year our neighbor won't weed whack our stuff. We've started to scrape some paint off our front porch, and eventually we will sand the whole thing down and repaint it. We're arguing about what color to paint the woodwork and the upper portion of the house. Rodnik wants to do a black/white/gold theme, and I can't decide between white/blue woodwork with olive green house or just keeping the whole house white with blue accents on the front pillars... it will be a while before we have to make a decision so eventually we'll have to compromise on something. Oh yeah, we also got another cat. He was found in the snow so malnourished that he couldn't walk, and they had to amputate the end of his tail from frostbite and shave off his coat due to extreme matting. He's about twelve and pretty sickly, so it's basically kitty hospice until we see if he will be able to make a quality recovery or not.  Tomorrow we are planting a tree in our front yard to add a little bit of privacy in our front window. More to come...
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May 13, 2013 02:21
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How's the house coming along. Haven't seen an update for ages!
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May 25, 2013 05:10
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Koivunen posted:-The fuel oil tank has been a little piece of hell in our basement. We have no way of knowing if it's getting low until we run out of oil. The gauge is broken and there's so much sludge on the bottom that we can't auscultate what's left by tapping on it. We've run out of oil twice, and both times were on weekends, so the oil company couldn't come for three days. Cue making a trip to the gas station a few times a day to buy five gallons of diesel, then hauling it home and feeding the tank. We've tried to be proactive by getting it filled when we think it's running low, but maintaining this thing sucks. As soon as the ground thaws we are getting natural gas installed and getting a proper furnace. Then we can also finish the work on our old fashioned stove and get that working! We haven't had a stove since we moved in, and for several months it's been too cold to use the grill, so we've been microwaving, eating raw/refrigerated stuff, and eating out a lot. IDK what way your tank is plumbed in (or your local safety regulations) but forever, the oil gauge on British tanks has just been a piece of clear plastic piping tee'd off the tank outlet, which rises and falls with the oil level so you can see at a glance how much is left. I'll try and find a pic, but in the meantime, great looking house!
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May 25, 2013 15:12
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Bad pic, but like this - http://www.threedeadflies.com/images/bio/bio_054.jpg - as long as the sight tube goes up to the top of your tank, you can check the level. You can also stick a valve at the bottom to turn it "off", so you just turn the valve to open, see how much oil you have left, then close it. Washing machine type valves are mostly used over here, if any valve at all.
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May 25, 2013 15:25
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Updates: It's mostly been small, slow-moving things that aren't picture worthy. -We are stripping more paint in the dining room. We're using heat guns which strips most of it, but we'll have to go over all of it with some kind of a chemical stripper to get the small flecks that the heat gun leaves behind. -Also stripping paint on the front porch in anticipation of priming and painting the whole thing. Haven't decided what colors, though. We definitely want to do two colors, one more neutral and an accent color. This has been a debate between us. -We've recently discovered that our front porch could cave in at literally any second. The large square pillars which support the entire structure aren't very thick at all, maybe an inch or so. This one inch of wood is standing on four large hollow square concrete blocks. We were able to remove three of the blocks since the ground settled underneath them, and the entire weight of the porch is resting on just a few blocks. We're going to figure out something pretty quick, not entirely sure how we're going to fix it though. -We retired our Ikea foam on top of a futon mattress on the floor bed, splurged, and got a super nice queen mattress. We took the old bed and cheap frame and put it in our guest bedroom and got rid of the twin mattress than was in there. Little did we know that our dog was using the twin as a toilet, so that got tossed, and the door to that room will remain permanently closed. -On another dog-being-naughty note, we've also discovered that dog urine is the perfect thing to strip any stain or varnish that was on our downstairs floor. We were going to redo the floors anyway but jeez. You'll be glad to know he has since been trained to use puppy pads. He's an old dog that we adopted last November, and his elderly bladder can't go more than four hours before he has to pee again, which makes it a problem when both Rodnik and I are gone to work at the same time. -A few days after I planted those tigerlillies, we had a freeze snap, and two of the plants died. That nice hanging plant that I posted last time is on the way out too. Nothing has bloomed yet this year, the trees have only just started to bud, and it's still too cold out for planting flowers or hanging baskets. -We have supplies to make a trellis to grow some ivy. There's a large picture window in the dining room that looks straight into our neighbor's siding and small bathroom window. Since their house is so close, we barely get any light through that window anyway, so for privacy's sake we want to put up a trellis. We're also thinking of doing a trellis on the side of the porch with some ivy because there's an apartment four-plex kind of kiddy-corner to us that is full of trashy people with a million kids. I'm pretty sure they are all unemployed because at any given time there are like five or six morbidly obese adults on the porch drinking beer and smoking cigarettes and yelling at their obnoxious kids as they run around in the street. Anyway, I'm finally getting around to posting pictures of when we planted our tree. We went with a Spring Snow Crabapple tree. We paid extra money to get one that was a bit older and bigger. It took us about six hours from start to finish.  House before the tree. Does anyone have any color suggestions for what might look nice for the porch and the second level? I won't tell you what the two of us are debating at this time, but our opinions are vastly different.  Our supplies, minus several bags of dirt and manure.  Doesn't show depth or dimension at all, but this was our saucer-shaped hole in the ground.  Our land is incredibly clay-packed, which makes for a hard shovel. It was interesting to see all the little bug and worm holes that run through it. I felt bad for destroying the home of so many worms. We transported as many as we could to our compost pile.  Mixing 50% soil from our yard, 25% manure, and 25% nutrient enriched soil for planting.  Filled everything in, covered with a bit of mulch, made a decorative brick border, and we're done! I can't decide if the brick looks too 1970s or not, but we just went with what matched the house. Also, the bricks are just free standing, no mortar or glue or whathaveyou, though I would like to fasten them together somehow. Rodnik says I'm paranoid, and maybe I am, but we don't live in the best neighborhood in the world (someone got shot about eight houses down last month, someone got stabbed in our alleyway last summer, cop cars everywhere all the time), but I'm kind of nervous that someone might come along and hurl a brick through our window if they aren't fastened in place.  We also dug up that little bush that was in front of the porch the next day. It wasn't a bush at all, it was a tree that someone was trying to get to grow like a bush. Last year our overly-helpful neighbor weed whacked it almost down to nothing without asking us first, so whatever little bit of privacy it offered is gone forever. So, we got rid of it. We might do some kind of plant in front of the porch, haven't decided yet. This picture was taken on the only sunny day we've had in a month.  When it's full-grown, the tree should look something like this.
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May 29, 2013 16:31
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 How about these colors?
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May 30, 2013 04:30
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I was going to suggest a lovely heritage green as well. It goes nicely with red, white, cream and a few other colours and doesn't look bad dirty.
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May 30, 2013 15:08
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c355n4 posted:
I like the green, any idea what it is branded under?
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May 30, 2013 15:51
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Nebulis01 posted:I like the green, any idea what it is branded under? Sadly, this is not my house. I just found a photo of the color scheme that I like.
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May 30, 2013 17:30
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Nebulis01 posted:I like the green, any idea what it is branded under? It's pretty close to Olive Drab, which is a fairly universal colour.
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May 30, 2013 18:02
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I would call that Hunter Green. Too warm for spruce, not saturated enough for bottle green, too dark and not yellow enough for olive drab.
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May 30, 2013 19:30
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Pinterest may be a great place to look for color schemes but something similar to the period colors would look good, like that green and white
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May 31, 2013 11:46
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TheMightyHandful posted:Pinterest may be a great place to look for color schemes but something similar to the period colors would look good, like that green and white Yeah I've got a few ideas I'll post here tonight. In order to paint we have to strip and sand, reinforce rotten wood and then prime everything. Unfortunately it has rained all month and there has been one or two sunny days. Haven't been able to do anything this year other than plant that tree. I would kill for a few nice days while I'm not working. Haha just realized I posted this with my alt account. This is the other owner, Rodnik. This is Duluth all May every year.  This is a part of town about 10 blocks away from us called Little Italy. That beautiful church was built by Italian immigrants, the same stone masons that built the foundation to our home. It is going to be torn down this year due to water damage. The city wants to make a historic landmark, but the Catholic Church is blocking that movement and wants to sell the land to developers. All the skill that was developed during the Italian renaissance found homes all over the American landscape. You can see the work of the descendants of the people who built Venice and the wonders of Europe everywhere you look. Those skills that took centuries to hone over generations came to die in America and most people don't care. Unfortunately this is just an every day reality of the rust belt. Nobody has money and nothing can be saved. In Europe it took 2 world wars to destroy their culture, in America all it takes is nobody caring and another real estate bubble. The Walking Dad fucked around with this message at 14:27 on May 31, 2013 |
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May 31, 2013 12:02
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Some more pictures... Our tree is flowering! First nice day in weeks.  Getting artistic with a close-up.  I think we have a dandelion problem.  This is what happens when your winter lasts nine months.  This is what I was trying to describe in my last post. This is what our entire porch is sitting on.   Eventually we will get around to hanging the crown moulding in the entry way, but in the meanwhile, the cats are enjoying it.  We took some chalk board paint and made a note board in the kitchen. This is at the bottom of the back stairway in the middle of the house. Eventually when we redo the kitchen, we'll make it a bit nicer, maybe with a frame or something. Just for fun. Sorry about all the vomit-inducing cutsey stuff and terrifying pet portraits.
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Jun 3, 2013 19:31
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Looking for some opinions in this post. We are thinking more about remodeling the bathroom, and sooner rather than later. However, we are having a debate about what exactly to do.  This is roughly what our upstairs looks like right now. Obviously it took me a minute to draw it in paint so the dimensions are a bit off, but you get the idea. Our bathroom is very small, and there are a lot of doors that bang into other doors or into the radiators that are under the windows. Our staircase has two lower halves, one from the kitchen and one from the main entry way, and these meet on a platform and join into one staircase up stairs. There is a large wall that goes from the floor to the ceiling since there is a closet that hangs out above the staircase.  This is Plan A. All we would do is demolish the wall between the toilet and the studio and get rid of one of the bathroom doors. We would probably keep the toilet and shower where they are but change it to an upright shower, and add a tub in the studio space. The sink and medicine cabinet would go across the room, next to the closet. Fairly straightforward.  This is Plan B. Demolish the wall between the toilet and the studio, but also demolish the closet space as well as the large wall that goes from floor to ceiling. We would also get rid of half the wall in the hallway to open up the space and be able to see the two windows in the atrium. Pretty much like this, but we would leave the solid wall instead of doing railings.  Now, here's the debate. I like Plan A because it's simple an easy, and I like having a closet in my bathroom. It would be nice to have an open atrium space, but it seems like such a hassle, and it would turn a huge project into an enormous one. Rodnik likes Plan B because if we're going to renovate the bathroom, might as well go all-out and open up the atrium too. Also, we have a closet in the hallway that I forgot to include, it's stacked on top of the two closets between the Master and the Guest Room. He thinks that a closet in the hallway is sufficient and it would be a waste of space to have a closet in the bathroom as well. So, what does everyone think? Keep the demo to only one wall, or go berserk and demo a whole lot of walls to have an open atrium? Here is a video starring our dog if my crappy MSPaint floor plans are hard to visualize, just a look up the staircases and into the rooms in question (don't mind the grossness of our house - it comes with living in a fixer upper): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nTalvIMtnqE
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Aug 6, 2013 21:32
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Koivunen posted:Looking for some opinions in this post. You need to figure out if a wall is structural or not before you go taking it out, so your attic doesn't end up in your bathroom. I seriously doubt that you could go fully open without major restructuring, and even removing that bathroom wall could be out of the question. Consult an engineer.
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Aug 9, 2013 02:13
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Koivunen posted:Plans an' stuff What iForge said. At the very least you should determine if the walls you're omitting are running perpendicular or parallel with the roof joists. If perpendicular (and I suspect the wall separating the studio and toilet is such the case), the wall is likely load bearing and shouldn't be demo'd in a will-nilly  fashion
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Aug 9, 2013 03:36
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DuckTalesWooHoo posted:What iForge said. But removing load-bearing walls is FUN*! You get to play with Acro Props and everything! *It was awful. ~~ Seriously, though. A beautiful open, airy staircase would be absolutely lovely, but please do your homework!
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Aug 9, 2013 03:59
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Is this your forever home? If you're planning on being there a long time I say do it how you want it, you're used to living in a construction zone as it is. A nice and open area would be beautiful there, but I'd agree with a lot more work. If you can reasonably swing it financially, I think the extra work would totally be worth it. If you want to move out in 10 years or something, just do what's easiest.
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Aug 9, 2013 16:08
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We will definitely explore the structure of the house thoroughly before making any decisions and if necessary, bring in a professional. The big tall wall that is in the staircase is not load bearing at all, it's about two inches thick and is only plaster and lathe. That one could come down without an issue. I didn't draw it very accurately, but the wall that runs down the house in the hallway of the master and guest room is actually the wall in the center of the house. I have awful spatial reasoning skills and thus produced some lovely floor plans. We bought the house with the intention of only living here for a few years before moving on. Paying almost $1,000/mo to rent a two BR apartment all costs included didn't make much sense when we could own a big ol four BR house for $600/mo. Our intention is to leave the house in much better shape than when we bought it and hopefully make a decent profit when we sell, and the next home we buy will be our home that we will raise a family in. We're debating selling this versus renting, I want to sell and Rodnik wants to rent... We'll address that for real when the time is right. This weekend (we mean it this time) we are going to start work on the office. If we really put our minds to it, it shouldn't take more than a few days to completely finish it. If we're feeling incredibly ambitious, who knows, maybe we could have it finished by next week? Since there is a door that joins the Master and the Office, we are painting it a more steely version of the blue that is in the bedroom. Different, but similar enough to tie the rooms together. We also found some cute matching light fixtures at an antique store about two years ago that have been sitting in the basement, waiting to be hung. Then, we will move around some furniture, move my studio and music stuff into that room, and use the space more efficiently. Then the studio space will be clear to possibly expand the bathroom. Next project after the Office will be the staircase. I can't wait to get rid of that gross tan/brown color.
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Sep 4, 2013 06:07
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I've probably said this before but your house is rather like our house except better laid out in terms of amenities like closets. Even the room layout upstairs is eerily close except our closets are awful, tiny little things on the outer walls. And your woodwork all seems to be non-painted/intact! You should feel very good about that. Ours is all painted a very dark brown-black, except the stairs. Even the doors and fireplace mantels were painted! I want to strip it all but I'm terrified of the cost/smell/work involved. I'd vote for the open atrium. It's more work but it will be pretty when it's done, and you can always build in a set of shelves in the bathroom and/or a cabinet thingy (or find one at Goodwill and paint it the same color as the wall for a built-in look without the bother). That way you won't necessarily be losing bathroom storage and you can customize it better. I'm not a big fan of closets in bathrooms. They seem like a great moisture trap.
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Sep 11, 2013 18:48
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We have made some progress on the room that joins the master bedroom. History tends to repeat itself, and I got way too ambitious about the timeline goals (again). However, some progress is better than no progress! We've scraped the walls, still have to scrape the ceiling, and then it's on to plastering. I don't think I've posted pictures of our completed guest bedroom.  Before: Bright Purple  Feminine touches.  After.  Oh look a cat.  Window looks out into the back yard.  This is pretty much the paint color. Looks great with the rich orange of the wood. We would love to find some picture rail to put by the ceiling but they don't sell that anywhere around here. We would have to get is custom made, and since this isn't our forever home I don't really feel like spending $200 just for some wood to frame the ceiling. Not to mention it most likely wouldn't be used properly in the future since people don't think twice about banging holes in walls to hang up pictures instead of using a hook and picture wire. Exciting news: The city is installing our natural gas line as I write this! We were put on the list at the start of the year and were told they install through November but couldn't tell us when they would be here. The house hit 55 degrees a few days ago so we caved and got some more fuel oil. Now starts the exciting adventure of furnace shopping! We've got some savings in the joint account and will possibly look at the tankless water heaters that could serve both as heating for the house and our hot water supply. As much as I would like this to be a DIY project, I don't think that would be very smart. We've been sidetracked by some other projects, which we may post about in another DIY form or create a new thread. But until then it's a surprise. Edit: Just went out and inspected the city's work with the gas line... They ripped up my garden and put the gas line directly in the middle of it. They also squashed the tiered metal thing that I used for my tomato vines. So much for digging next spring. Koivunen fucked around with this message at 18:42 on Oct 9, 2013 |
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Oct 9, 2013 18:25
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Koivunen posted:Edit: Just went out and inspected the city's work with the gas line... They ripped up my garden and put the gas line directly in the middle of it. They also squashed the tiered metal thing that I used for my tomato vines. So much for digging next spring. Could you do a raised bed instead?
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Oct 9, 2013 22:25
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Koivunen posted:Here is a video starring our dog if my crappy MSPaint floor plans are hard to visualize, just a look up the staircases and into the rooms in question (don't mind the grossness of our house - it comes with living in a fixer upper): Dog nose!  That's some insane progress you've made, I would have taken one look at that nicotine stained out and beat a hasty retreat.
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Oct 10, 2013 14:53
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daggerdragon posted:Could you do a raised bed instead? Yeah, definitely. We were planning on doing some landscaping in the back yard with raised beds, but I really would have liked to have salvaged some stuff out of my garden. Maybe it will grow back next year, but they went right through my strawberries and flattened my chives, so we will have to see. Not that getting the tiered wire thing for tomato plants is expensive or anything, but it would have been nice if they had moved it instead of running it over. It's really not a big deal at all, I was just kind of surprised that they didn't tell me first. When they first showed up I asked if we needed to move anything and they said everything was fine. I'm just being a bit dramatic, I think. Anyway eventually we were thinking of something like this. Sorry about the snow, it's the only picture I could find of the back yard, and it's dark out now and I'd forget to take a picture in the day light.  Two raised beds, the upper having some of those arbor vitae trees and the lower having some kind of plant, maybe hostas since those are low-maintenance. Tearing up the concrete sidewalk and adding something a bit nicer would be a nice touch. May as well go all out and do a raised garden as long as we're at it.
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Oct 11, 2013 03:56
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The Instagram filter really makes the ms paint come alive! Fantastic progress you're making. The paint colour looks great & much better than I would have said before seeing it on the walls.
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Oct 11, 2013 05:09
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We FINALLY got a furnace! Will be on a tighter budget for the next year while we pay it off but it's worth it. No more late night trips to the gas station to refuel! Will post the full story with pics this weekend, just saving this thread from falling off the last page.
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Jan 1, 2014 04:21
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The furnace update! WD swears we had more photos of the old furnace but I can only find one... Our old boiler was fuel oil powered and from 1983. It was like having a small rocket engine in the basement. Our new boiler is Weil-McLain and runs on natural gas and is much quieter.  Old furnace.     Our old boiler vented the exhaust through our chimney but that wasn't possible with the new one unless we got a new chimney liner, so they drilled some holes in our house and it's vented out the side wall now. This happened without our knowledge, we understood that it was going to be vented through the chimney and got a little surprise when the work was done. It got rid of a huge pipe that we had to duck under, but there's no escaping heat into the basement any more and it's significantly colder down there.  Now we just have to find a way to get rid of our fuel oil tank...
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Feb 4, 2014 03:16
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As I understand it, having a fuel oil tank decommissioned is a real pain in the rear end, so good luck with that. But I bet it's way nicer to have a newer boiler, that thing has to be more efficient all-around.
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Feb 4, 2014 17:47
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toby posted:As I understand it, having a fuel oil tank decommissioned is a real pain in the rear end, so good luck with that. But I bet it's way nicer to have a newer boiler, that thing has to be more efficient all-around. I had 2x 215 gallon in my basement removed. Cost me about $700 because they had to dismantle them to get them out. Made a huge loving mess too.
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Feb 4, 2014 17:55
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Any idea how much oil is left? I bet you can find someone on craigslist who ran out of oil, doesn't want to pay delivery fee or buy a lot of oil, just enough to get through the winter, and would be perfectly happy to pay you market rate or somewhat under it for your oil. Once the tank's mostly empty, let it drain down for a day or so to make sure there isn't a lot of oil on the inside walls, then sawzall that fucker up into 1 foot chunks and scrap it. There will be some oil in the bottom still, but by the point where you've cut that much of the top off, you can probably put a 5 gallon pail under the outlet and lift the other end to drain the remainder out, then finish it off with the sawzall. Diesel/fuel oil is pretty hard to set on fire with a sawzall but go easy, if you're getting the blade red hot or throwing sparks you are going too fast anyways. Keep a fire extinguisher on hand, but don't expect to need it.
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Feb 4, 2014 18:05
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kastein posted:Diesel/fuel oil is pretty hard to set on fire with a sawzall but go easy, if you're getting the blade red hot or throwing sparks you are going too fast anyways. Keep a fire extinguisher on hand, but don't expect to need it. Agreed. Diesel vapor is more flammable then the liquid itself. So don't knock your tank over then shake it then saw.
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Mar 1, 2014 10:02
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Jeherrin posted:But removing load-bearing walls is FUN*! You get to play with Acro Props and everything! Oh its not that bad. I'm currently replacing a load bearing wall with a 16.5' steel beam.
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Mar 1, 2014 15:59
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dyne posted:Oh its not that bad. I'm currently replacing a load bearing wall with a 16.5' steel beam. I've done that once for my parents. I'm a mechanical engineer and had mocked up the proper calculations in my finite-element stress/strain-calculation tool. It was a really scary experience though. Definitely not something you do by just eyeballing it and "feeling good about it".
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Mar 1, 2014 16:25
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I hope they haven't died in an explosion/fire, last we heard they were getting the fuel oil tank taken out 
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Mar 1, 2014 16:38
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kastein posted:I hope they haven't died in an explosion/fire, last we heard they were getting the fuel oil tank taken out Or it was so expensive they can't afford internet and/or electricity anymore.
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Mar 1, 2014 18:04
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Sir Cornelius posted:Definitely not something you do by just eyeballing it and "feeling good about it". Certainly not. More than a third of the cost of putting our beam in is the structural engineers drawings and we still bought a heavier beam
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Mar 2, 2014 05:35
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The fuel oil tank was supposed to go out when the new furnace was installed but here it sits... We keep forgetting to call them to ask about removal but we'll get around to it soon. Since we knew we were getting a furnace this winter we skipped having it filled by the oil company, instead we filled it with 5-10 gallons of diesel at a time from the gas station. It is currently completely empty. Not sure about how much residue/sludge is in it, but we ran it dry before we got the new boiler installed. Yesterday was the two year anniversary of owning our house! We celebrated with some spring cleaning. It's barely warm enough to open the windows so today we are airing out the house. What a difference having a few windows open makes, especially since they have been closed since September. In the past two years we did a total strip-down demolition, floor to ceiling nicotine removal, we have completed the master bedroom, the guest bedroom, the living room, most of the front entryway, getting a new furnace, and we had a small garden. We are currently working on the dining room, the studio/guest room #2, and the stair/upstairs hallway. Our goals for the next year include finishing stripping paint off the wood in the dining room and possibly finishing it, completing the studio/guest room #2, doing some landscaping, and possibly redoing the exterior of the house. If there's time before we need to seal the house up for winter we may finish the stairs/hallway. Then come 2015 we might have enough money saved up to finally do the big kitchen and bathroom reno. Keeping our fingers crossed that there are no more blizzards (last major snowfall was April 16th) and we can get started on our work now that we can have adequate ventilation.
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Apr 20, 2014 23:06
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