Yesterday our electric service was replaced, and as a part of that the old 8 foot tall weatherhead on the back of the house decommisioned. You can see the new short one on the front of the house.
Next to the leaking patio and subsequent rotting subfloor, this weatherhead was the 2nd worse thing going on. The wire from the pole across the street travels a very long distance, and as such bucks wildly in the big east winds that we get from the gorge in the winter.
All this bucking causes that big weather head to move around and leak into the house. That's bad.
Now consider that if it were properly sealed with a gasket over the opening and installed under the roofing materials, and if there were a proper anchor kit holding the pole steady it wouldn't be such a problem, but alas, we had nothing but an old brittle tar seal, and no anchor kit. Bad juju.
Additionally our 50's vintage electric panel had exhausted it's useful life, this year our Air Conditioner actually fried (toasted, burned out) on of the old school breakers. When it was pulled out it was a blob of melted metal and cracked enamel. scary.
So we now have a new weatherhead (short and tidy, on the front of the house, properly sealed and anchored), and a new paned, all modern and ready to serve. Yeah!
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
New electric service
The makings of a roof over the patio
The trusses that were delivered saturday are starting to turn into a new roof over our patio.
Tuesday, August 5, 2008
Stripping the roof.
Our roof is now stripped of 3 layers of asphalt shingles. By the end of next week (I guess this week now) we will have most of a new roof.
Water Feature: Mostly finished
At long last . . . Andrea spent Sunday laying out rocks, tediously stacking rocks to hold down and cover the rubber liner, and create a zen like trickle.
I think it looks awesome, sounds amazing and most impressively . . . works.
Nice Job Andrea!!
Waterfeature: Nearing completion
With water flowing, lots of rocks beginning to cover the attractive black rubber sheeting, we are beginning to see the light at the end of the waterfall.
Water feature: Trial rock layout
Once we had water flowing one of the critical tasks (and one i am clearly not good at) was positioning all the little flat rocks in such a way as to create an aesthetically pleasing stream-like look and that satisfying running water sound. This was an early prototype. I thought it was good.
Monday, August 4, 2008
Water Feature: Wading pool!
VK thinks this whole water feature thing is the bomb on a hot summer day. Mom and Dad spent hours wrangling a heavy awkward sheet of rubber, hauling big ass rocks and VK shows up just in time to dip her toes in. Man it must be fun being 4.
Water Feature: Andrea takes over!
After a while Andrea decided that this wasn't really the look she was going for and made me go away.
Water Feature: Pretty!!
Look how pretty our water feature is. Well it is holding water, that is a step in the right direction.You get the idea though. Rubber in the holw, cover edges with rocks. Presto. Water feature.
Water feature: View from the top
Again, cleaned up the water feature is a series of pools, an upper and middle pool with a bridge over them, with the middle pool overflowing onto a terraced waterfall. The lower pool collects the runoff and a pump delivers the water back to the top. Pretty simple stuff.
Problems are:
1) The concrete is porous and cracked, any water you run over it will simply run away, in behind the rtaining wall and all sorts of messy things. I know, I tried. :)
2) The whole pumping thing can be as simple or complicated as you want, but lets start with the fact that in order to have enough water "on the track" you have way more running water than the bottom pool can hold. You need a pump that moves enough gallons per hour that the downward flow doesn't overwhelm it, but not so much that it just slurps up every last drop and end up cavitating ( I think that is submariners language for sucking air . . . not sure but i like it ).
Anyway . . . the solution is 1) Get a giant rubber liner. They sell those things at landscaping shops. Cover everything with it and you can contain your water. 2) Ask the guy at the land scaping shop what kind of pump you need. Problem solved.
Water feature continued.
The upper pond cleaned out and filled with sand to protect the liner from evil sharpness.
Mini Saga #2: Water Feature
When we purchased our house 5 years ago, we imagined that we would reactivate the long forgotten and unloved water feature . . . how hard could it be? Overgrown, cracked concrete with dirt and leaf filled pools? Just imagine the soothing trickling of running water . . . ahhh . . . relaxing.
Well let me tell you something about ponds. Serious business. In the 5 years we have been here I have spent several hours scratching my head thinking about pumps and liners and how seaworthy the plumbing that seemed embedded in the concrete was . . . always ending up with . . . "Nah. Not worth it".
Well apparently it took a determined Andrea to get the whole project off the ground. She lit the fire, did the leg work, and i designed, or undesigned rather, the pump flow system thing.
Tree saga gets heavy
So now that he was ready to go we discovered that the thing weighted . . . oh . . . I don't know . . . 1000 pounds. Even with the 6 guys we couldn't realistically move him. It seems like just a little tree, but when you consider that it has been there for over 20 years, and probably much longer than that, factor in the clay soil prominent in this part of the country . . . that is one heavy tree.
Another day elapses.
Finally Andrea happened upon a dude with a backhoe down the street who was all gungho to move the tree ( for a few bucks of course) and after several harrowing moments where the tractor almost tipped over Snufflupagus is home on the other side of the yard. VK is happy that we didn't have to kill another tree like the dogwood that we murdered to install the hot tub.
Life is good.
Tree saga continued
The next day they came to dig snuffy out . . . they did mention that this is the wrong time of year to move these trees and he will probably die, but that is beside the point, we could have cut him down and thrown him in the dumpster, but we wanted to keep him.
Anyway . . . these guys dug in blazing heat (Jeans, boots, long sleeve shirts and hats) until the whole root ball was undone, and burlap and jute bound him.
The tree saga continued
After looking around . . . did you know that professional tree service will charge you $3000 to move a tree this size? Wow. We ended up hiring a couple arborists that one of our worker guys knew. The came over and knocked out the landing hole across our yard in 2 hours. You may not be able to tell from the photo, but that is a huge hole, 2 guys with sharp shovels, 2 hours.
Mini Remodel Saga #1
The Japanese Maple: The front stairs will come down right into our very old and very large Japanese Lace Leaf Maple tree. We call him Snuffleupagus because he closely resembles Big Bird's mysterious friend from Sesame Street.
Anyway . . . we discussed this early on, "hey that tree is going to be in the way, you should figure out what you want to do with it", but we didn't really rush out to make a decision. Then one day Bo said "hey did you figure out what you are doing with the tree? It's going to be in the way .. . . Like . . .. tomorrow".
In the past people have mentioned that these trees, this size (6+ feet tall, and around 10 feet across) are very popular and worth around $5000. We listed him on Craigslist, but not takers. So we decided to keep him.
*** I should also mention that in this picture you can see that the big giant window which spent so much time leaning against the dumpster in the driverway has now made it up to the balcony in front of it's future final resting place. My nervousness about the big window finally inspired the crew to get it up there. Thanks Bo!
Friday, July 25, 2008
A closer view of the front porch framing
Pretty soon the sub-floor will go up and we can get that big giant window out of the driveway.
After a lot of tearing stuff off the house there is adding going on!!!
The framing for the new front porch/stairs started. The roof will extend out over the large porch in front of the front door to provide a rain free entry/exit.
VK's back porch!
It is almost done, just missing a little trim on the bottom step. She loves it, we love it. Thanks Bo!
Landed safely in it's spot
Now we just have to deal with the electrician, get some water and chemicals in that puppy, a nice glass of wine and sit back and enjoy the view.
The Hot tub project
While not explicitly a part of our home remodel project, the hot tub is a part of our whole life improvement plan and is happening in conjunction with the house remodel.
What better time to bring a bunch of vehicles, a giant crane and lift a hot tub up in the sky than when you already have a bunch of rigs in front of your house, a giant dumpster, a port-a-potty,and regular visits by a lumber truck with a forklift.
We blocked the street in front of our house and lifted this sucker skyward, but only after blocking the street in front of the previous owners house and lifting it up in the sky there. Transporting the whole operation the .5 miles to our house and causing neighborhood mayhem! :)
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Previously the studio had 2 bare bulbs hanging from the ceiling . . .
now I have 8 can lights on a dimmer. :)
The new studio wall.
This will ultimately be painted and trimmed out to look like the other garage door.
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
New windows in the studio.
2 single pane aluminum windows (only one opened) turn into 3 properly installed and opening vinyl windows.
The roof demo has begun.
The roof will be demo'd on the end and extended to the north edge of the patio. We will then get a new roof surface.
Sunday, July 20, 2008
2 of the three windows have been replaced . . .
in support of the new slider and back porch that will go in the middle bedroom upstairs.
New windows in the basement
Smaller, but better insulation and security. The previous windows were just up against the concrete. We end up with properly framed windows. We will still get some light, and ventilation but we didn't really rely much on these windows anyway.
