Paint stripping, for the first time

This is my back door. The window was broken and it didn't quite fit right in the frame. Down it came. The joint that was loose and causing it not to fit right was repaired (nothing a little glue and a clamp couldn't fix) and the yuck ucky mucky paint was stripped. My hats off to those of you with the ornate moldings that you've stripped, I don't know how you do it. I decided to go the chemical route. Wipe on and 1/2 an hour later scrape off. It worked pretty well, it took the whole tin to do one side of the door though. Each spot needed 2 applications of the stuff, and it had to be put on quite thickly to get a result. The only problem was the ribbed molding around the door inset, the stripper hardly took anything off, and the rest had to be sanded off. After Stripping the door got sanded down, and a coat of linseed oil while I wait for my alanine dyes to arrive. The goal is for a pretty dark finish. My hope is that the dyes mixed with some shellac are going to do the trick. We also replaced the glass that had been broken while the house was vacant. Home Depot won't cut glass for you to size, luck for me at 8:00 on a Friday night, Lowes does. The trim around the window was removed, glaziers putty applied, window set in, more putty, then the trim nailed in place. The glass that Lowes caries is pretty thin, I was so worried that nailing the trim in was going to break the glass, but it survived. The putty that comes in the tubes is pretty runny, to err on the safe side of caution, I applied quite a bit, and it formed putty stalagmites. I'm not sure how long to let it harden before it gets scraped off.

Rooftop adventures

The roof is done. There is not a missing shingle and the leaky drain pipe has been fixed! Working on the roof was harder on my body than I expected, I got owies, but the roofing process its self wasn't too hard. Remove loose shingles, starting at the bottom nail new ones down till you get to the top. The top row was the hardest, lifting the row above without tearing them was a little tricky. I'm just happy that we had a warm sunny weekend. Seems like as soon as something gets fixed, another problem is found. While I was cooking dinner Saturday night the kitchen light died, come to find out that it died because the insulation has rotted and cracked so they were touching...I have no idea how much of this is going on throughout the house, The Boyfriend expects that it's all through the attic and I'm not looking forward to finding out he's right. I also killz'd some of the floor that used to have glued on carpet. I'm hoping this will reduce the stench and also stop your shoes from sticking to the floor until I can put down new tile. Ohhhh....(daydream time) it's gonna be so nice all tiled and purdy.

...and because I did the floor (since one thing fixed = one thing broken) the hot water tank has died again. What we came up with was that the top element has died (ohms across the terminals = infinity) the bottom element is just barely chugging along (ohms = 2.6, I have no idea what they're supposed to be but more like 5 I think) so it took 2 days for the bottom element to create the hot water in the tank, then I had a shower and so long hot water. So 2 new elements were ordered, hopefully the switches are ok on them, but the elements only cost $5.00 a piece not the $25 that I expected. Tonight the tank's going to get drained, new elements installed and woohoo for hot showers!

On another note...hooray for Craigs list and the bounty that it holds...new (to me) washer & dryer set that looks fairly new for $150 !!!! No laundromat for me! Going to pick them up tonight!

Let there be...heat

Last night was the perfect example of how if you don't hire a trained professional, you will have to pay to train yourself. As moving day is rapidly approaching (I have to be out of my apartment on Saturday the 15th), I'm doing my best to get the house at least slightly livable. The nights challenge was to get the toilet working. In my home inspection, it was stated that the toilet plumbing was leaking, as evidenced by the extra yuck and rust on the sewer pipe in the crawl space. So, sawsall in hand I braved the insulation, critters, and everything gross that inhabit the space, to go take a peak at how it was leaking and which parts needed to be replaced. I got down there to find that there was nothing wrong with the waste pipe, everything was good and it wasn't leaking from anywhere I could find...back into the house I trudged wondering what in the heck was going on. The problem turned out to not be the waste pipe but the old, proably lead, toilet flange. It's not one piece like the modern ones, but a flanged lead pipe that fits down into the waste pipe and a collar that fits under the pipe. So after staring into the oblivion that is the pooppipe for a while there was an ahhah moment, and while it was lacking the lightbulb, it got the problem solved...part of the lead flange had gotten bent over the years and with the help of a hammer it's now flush and tight, no pun intended. My education came in the form of the wax ring. Rushing thorugh the process, the box was never read. It clearly explains that you should afix the ring to the toilet not the flange first. Oops, no wonder the toilet sat so cockeyed, back to Home Depot we go. Now that it's done I have a wonderfull flushing toilet, with no leaks. That flange could probably use to be replaced, but the floor isn't level around the toilet so I think I'll wait untill that problem is solved before replacing it.

I also wanted to say thank you to mummy and daddy for my fantastic new source of heat. It's amazing how much this little guy heated up the house. It's just a Homes 2000 watt plug in thing but it warmed the room in a matter of minutes!

Dinner time

I cooked my first meal in the house last night! It's starting to feel like home. There's been no toilet or roof progress, however, my hot water tank miraculously started working! Eric swore that the elements were bad, but I think he bumped the reset button when he was poking around to make sure the switches were still good. No one really knows why, I'm just glad I don't have to go buy a new one that would be replaced in 6 months when I go tankless.



***Eric***
Here's the scoop on what really happened with the water heater. I had checked the resistance on the top element by removing both wires off of the element and connecting my ohm meter to both terminals on the element. It read infinite (aka open). I did the same thing with the bottom element, and it read 2.6ohms. On the back of the cover plate there was a wiring diagram, and on the name plate it showed the element resistance was supposed to be 12. I was showing a resistance through ground (hold your ohm meter to anywhere on the tank from one of the leads) which means there's a short in the element. So I picked up new elements from work (you can try some of the plumbing supply house for them, though many are wholesale only). I ohmed out the new elements, and they showed 12ohms. I drained the tank, just like you should be doing every 2 years, and got to pulling out the old elements. There is a particular tool called an element core removal tool for this job. Not having such a tool in my arsenal, I used a gas pipe wrench which was easier said than done. When we got the elements out, the bottom element was all bent and kinked and split open. This is what was causing my resistance on my ground. The element being split open is, what was causing the strange resistance to ground. It had fused its self to the element casing which is why we got any hot water in the first place. It was taking so long because the entire element wasn't working, the electricity will always follow the path of least resistance, and because water was our most resistant part (in this situation) the electricity was still moving around the element pathway (basically). So then the old elements got tossed, old gaskets removed, new ones put in complete with new gasket, and then you got some f'n hot water. This has now caused Leila to complain that the water is too hot. My next job that I keep putting off is to turn it down, sorry sweetheart.

Moving Day

I don't think I like moving. Between the 300 pound dining room table and the myriad of boxes, I'm beat. The apartment isn't even moved out of for all that work. There was a lot of cleaning to be done this weekend. I think I can call the kitchen clean, the floor is mopped, all the cabinets have been scrubbed inside and out. I think the grossest part was the nasty nasty fridge, I didn't even want to keep it it was so bad I was just going to buy a new one once the rehab money surfaced. There were flys frozen to the walls of the freezer and the nastiest smell that you could even imagine. But outside it went, the hose took care of the big chunks of yuck and what didn't come off that way got a gallon of bleach and some serious scrubbing. I think it still has a faint yucky odor, but I'm told that's the "normal" fridge smell. The water got turned on friday too, no leaks to be found, woohoo! I did find out that the hot water heater is kaput though. Luckily Eric was there to diagnose the problem, 2 bad elements. I'm not quite sure what to do yet. Either replace the elements ($50.00) or buy a whole new thing ($150.00). Neither of which I want to do, I was hoping to have the house re-plumbed and ran for gas before installing a new fancy tankless hotwater heater, but as much as I don't like spending money, I do like hot showers.

The things I've learned

I learned something last night that I should have known already...water based caulking washes away in the rain...so the leak hast returneth and the upstairs closet has almost enough water to float an ark.

Leaky Roofs and Demolition

I should really bring my camera over to the abode to document some of these fun adventures. Last night was great fun, I got to go up on the roof for the first time...in the dark...after it had been raining. The previously mentioned leak needed to be addressed before we got another rain (which I'm glad got done since it's pouring today). So, after dismantling the upstairs closet, which I must say was a smashing good time, and not being able to find the leak, I headed up to the roof. Turns out the pipe that drains the flat part of the roof to the pitched roof had rusted through...a little caulk later and viola no more leak. Other than that more of the sticky stinky icky carpets got tossed out the back door. I think I'm going to need a dumpster. While the City of Tacoma gives you 2 free bulk pickups a year...I'm not sure that carpet and drywall are included. Oh yeah and under the sticky stinky icky carpet was stairs and 1/2 a room of hardwood floor (hooray) though why only 1/2 a room I'll never guess.

Last night was another wonderful evening at the new house. The washer and dryer got moved back into their proper home, which made the laundry room seem much smaller. The carpet from the rec room got hauled outside, as did the carpet from the dining room which was for some godforsaken reason, glued down. Upon pulling up the dining room carpet it was discovered that there is another leak in the house other than the big one in the living room. It seems that either the flat part of the roof is leaking or the seam where the addition and the main house are joined is leaking. Hopefully the root of the problem can be discovered and a speedy resolution found. On the mouse front, 3 were caught, so if there is the hundreds that I think there is, 97 more to go. I got a dryer vent cover and some caulking from the Re-Store which along with a compact fluorescent light bulb cost me all of $6.00. Hopefully some of the little mousie holes are now plugged up, so we can get the little buggers out.

Keys!

Finally, the wait is over, the paperwork is done, and in my hand is a pair of nice shiny keys. I didn't' think the buying process would ever end. Now that it has, it's time to renovate! Well...not quite yet. I went over to the house for the first time last night. Unfortunately not much had changed, I was hoping the renovation fairys might have been there while I was gone and done a little work, but alas, they must be helping some other poor soul.

I was hoping to get more done last night. I have to move into this place in 11 days and it's in no way ready for ocupancy. It ended up being more an inspection with some dreaming thrown in for good measure...yes the kitchen could go like that...what about recessed lighting...However, the toilet was taken off it's base so the sewer plumbing can be repaired, the last owners did an odd configuration of cast iron and pvc that just won't work, and got to work trying to manage the mouse infestation. I bought 10 snap traps (I would rather use something a little more humane, but KMart just doesn't cary anything like that) and set them up around the house. I'm really not looking forward to seeing if anything was caught.

I feel like I'm spinning my wheels and am not quite sure what to do until my 203K rehab money comes (7-10 days). There was an unexpected $850 that I had to pay at close which took just about everything from my getting started fund. My realestate agent has promised me a $500 Home Depot gift card that should come in really handy right about now.