Renovation reality......nightmares!

OK, my project has officially become a reality show episode. Just when I thought things were coming along reasonably well, despite the fact I was working outside under halogen lights until 9 PM the last 2 nights. Friday night was great but Saturday was getting pretty cold by then but I had open holes in my attic gable which had to be closed in before bad weather arrives.


Saturday, having turned out nicer than expected, looked like a good time to get a bit more plywood on the house. Standing near the top of the 16 foot ladder, ripping down fiberboard was fine, then I decided to remove the last piece of masonite siding, at the top of the gable. I sliced through the plank as it had a large screw eye in it which the electric wire from the pole attached to.

Unfortunatly, a small miscalculation occurred about this time. The screw eye, which I thought had been screwed into the 2x4 running up the wall behind the electric box, was actually only screwed into fiberboard. When the last piece of siding was cut, the electric meter and the 10 foot steel pipe running from it to the roofline, had no support at all and the next thing I knew, the electric wires were on the ground and the meter was hanging from side of the house.

Nice, eh? Ever wonder what you should do when your electric meter falls off your house? Not really something I spent a lot of time contemplating up to this point. Forced to think about it, the first thing that came to mind was "Is it safe to touch it?" followed by wondering if I would end up with a pile of crispy critters if the little dogs ran into it. I decided first priority was to herd the dogs into the house and lock them in. Then I debated what to do next while continuing to pull sheathing off the house. I thought about calling for someone to come cut the power off but had visions of spending the rest of the weekend in a dark, cold house. I thought about just leaving it laying in the yard until Monday when utility workers would be on duty. I was so flummoxed! What to do?


Fortunately, about that time a neighbor drove up and having been a friend of my son during childhood, he commented on how much fun it looked like I was having. His brother works for the city so he called to see if it was safe to leave the meter down over the weekend. The brother didn't think this would be safe so he called a crew who showed up shortly and cut the meter loose from the pole. They then rehung the meter on the house and connected the wires back up so I didn't have to spend Sunday in the dark. I didn't get the plywood all up but that will have to wait for another weekend.

Winter construction......

NOT such a good idea! It hasn't exactly been WARM but over the past 2 weeks it has been above freezing a few times so plywood has been going up. Sadly, today was beautiful as are the next 3 weekdays predicted to be but of course dark arrives at my house before I do on work days. Am I likely to be taking any time off this week to work on finishing up the plywood? Not a chance.

Not to worry, Saturday and Sunday I get to stay home but then temperatures are predicted to return to around freezing for the weekend. Top that with the fact that the worst part of the installation is yet to come, the upper part. Given that a sheet of 3/4" CDX plywood weighs around 75 lbs and the gable of the house starts 8' above ground, this promises to be a formidable task. There may be more cutting on the upper

level as a 32" wide piece will weigh significantly less than a 48" wide piece.

The biggest challenge is over, the sheathing behind the electric meter went in last Saturday. It took cutting a keyhole (?) slot to slip over the wiring where it enters the electrical box but that was the most worrysome part of this process. There will be another hurdle at the top where the wire comes to the house but it won't require cutting around, just sliding the plywood under the pole.

Now, if I can just manage to haul the new patio door from the garage to the back of the house, real progress will be happening.

BRRRRRR.........

I think it is official now, winter is here. No one showed up in early December to put siding on the house so there stands the bare house, wrapped on three sides with white plastic. The back, uncovered, waits for me to have time off on warm days so the black fiberboard can be replaced with plywood.

The deck frame now stands independent of the house, resting on blocks, all the decking boards removed and stacked on the plywood sheathing. I think this tactic worked to flatten some of the warp that was in the plywood when I bought it. Apparently, even in large stacks, CDX plywood can warp the long way.

Now, if we could just get some sunny weekends with temperatures at least in the upper 30's, perhaps I could start putting up the plywood. Yesterday was beautiful, the sun was shining and it was in the 40's but of course that was a workday. Tomorrow is predicted to be overcast

and close to freezing all day. NICE! On the other hand, compared to last weekend, it is

pretty comfortable. It was -15 last weekend and

with wind chill was more like -25 during the
night. Needless to say, it would have been nice to have siding on the house.

The snow came last weekend, too. It made quite a mess but did get me a day off work. In fact, the office closed because of it and that is quite an event. On Tuesday however, which I had taken off to attend to personal stuff, I had to stomp through the snow to the dentist then to get my driver's license renewed. Following that, I had to dig out the truck so I could drive to the next appointments. By the end of the day, I'd had my fill of snow for the year.

BREAK!

Daylight Saving Time began last weekend. Now I am arriving home after dark on workdays. I needed a couple more months of summer but as they say, "Time waits for no (wo)man!" so we are getting into winter and my house is not sided. The good news, the contractor finally called tonight and said they could start in December. I won't be painting after the siding is applied but that was the case, even if they started siding this week.

There are still projects outside I need to finish before the siding goes up but weekends are the only time available to work on these. Some indoor projects have been getting a little more attention though. The library is being pulled together. The third bookcase is now getting a coat of black paint and over half the paneling is up. Windows still need trimmed out and the final bookcase needs painted but this room is getting closer to where I want it.

Seasonal jobs have to be done now. The plants moved into the house last weekend, filling the south window in the craft room and spilling over into the dining room window. My "carrion plant" decided to bloom(TWICE) this year, only the second time it has bloomed in the 10 or more years that I have had it. It is a most remarkable looking bloom but it was good that it was mostly done blooming before it had to come inside. There is a reason it is called a carrion plant. It does seriously STINK!

The tomatoes were harvested over the weekend as well. The crop was not real impressive this year but as is usual, now that it is getting cold at night the vines are covered with lovely green tomatoes. Unfortunately, I am not a fan of fried green tomatoes so I am storing the green harvest, hoping they will ripen inside. Of course, large tomatoes did not appear until last month, so no slicers in red. I have no idea why I keep planting a "garden", I'm in the hole by the end of season, year after year. I hate gardening! I just want a few nice, homegrown tomatoes.

Summit!

I believe the rockpile has reached it's maximum sustainable height. One more layer of blocks

could be all it takes to topple the entire thing down into the street and driveway. As it is, I'm unlikely to be able to get my truck out until the rubble is gone.

I don't know what this stack weighs but I know the city better bring one of the big trucks to pick it up. Scooter very graciously agreed to pose on top to show how big the pile is. Actually, she found herself placed on top and when told to "sit" could not really see any alternatives anyway so she sat there.

The excavation of the back yard yielded a variety of artifacts. Dog toys, a rusty drill bit, numerous tennis balls, pop cans, pieces of old china and Ducky's ID tag were among the treasures unearthed beneath the cement. The downside, it has left a huge hole in the yard which today's rain turned into a massive mud wallow which the dogs romped through before coming in for supper.

Day 6, the hole grows!

I would not venture to guess how many pounds of cement I have stacked out by the curb now. The pile is about 2' x 4' and 3' tall and this doesn't include the 5 wheelbarrows full of small chunks and cement dust that has been deposited in the parking lot next door.

The deck boards were removed today, yet to come is removing the deck from the house. Still no sign of a contractor so who know, I may live the winter in plastic wrap. Since the siding is cement, installation could continue into cold weather but painting opportunities will soon be past for the year.

An end to this outside work wouldn't be all bad, a nice long nap in the afternoon, instead of demolition work, would be welcome but reality is, there are enough inside projects to last the next 1o years. Five rooms of flooring needs to be laid, finish the paper and paneling in the library, trim out the inside of a half dozen windows and the list goes on.

If I hold out for living until I finish all my projects, I should make at least 100. Hmm!

WHAT?

Taking "do it yourself-ing" to a new level, I started removing cement slabs from my backyard yesterday. This first involved the purchase of an 8 pound sledge hammer since I decided that handling a jack-hammer was most likely beyond me. That, a shovel, a spade and lots of elbow grease are the tools I set about this with.

I considered hiring someone to come in and take out the cement but the only company in the area with the equipment to do this is difficult to get out for "little" jobs like this. I'm still waiting, 8 years later, for them to return to repair my basement wall, a job they started then never returned to finish. Fortunately, they started by stabilizing the wall so it wouldn't collapse when they started digging out the basement and that has served to control the problem with the wall bowing inward.

Cement removal was prompted by the fact that when the basement and back half of the house was added, the backfill was not adequately tamped in before the cement pads were poured. When I moved in, 25 years ago there was no obvious problem but over time the ground has settled, dropping the cement nearest the house, draining directly to the basement wall. So far the water has not infiltrated the basement but it has been hard on the exterior of the house.

Change was needed and it appeared the only way to make it was grab a hammer and take out the cement so this is the latest job. Of course, I was aware of the fact that cement is generally hard but I was feeling confident. I've broken cement before. About 15 years ago I took out an 8'x12' slab before putting the deck on the house. What I didn't account for is how 15 years has treated me.

Now on the third day of cement removal, I have removed about 1/3 of the cement and stacked over half of it out at the curb, hoping it will be picked up when city clean up day comes next week. Getting out of bed this morning went much better than I expected but during the day I found that if I sneezed or coughed, all of my ribs hurt. I actually think swinging the hammer tonight eased the soreness but I may think differently in the morning.

What I found interesting during this project is that when I started taking out the sidewalk, I dug down to remove some dirt from under the slab to make breaking easier. About a foot down I discovered another sidewalk. At the end of the first day's work, I had a 3 foot square hole with a cement slab in the bottom of it. Obviously, at one time the yard was lower than it is now. Hmm! Maybe I could just fill it with water and toss in a couple fish.