Mud Fight!...Well, not really.

The mudding for the drywall has been progressing.  Both the Nursery and Guest Room might be complete by the end of today.  Jim and his mother are currently upstairs mudding as I type.  I'm not much use to them at the moment since I am now 32 weeks pregnant.  I'm not allowed on ladders, and I can't bend over easily; so I would just be able to mud in the middle.  LOL!  I would just be in the way.

Here is a shot of them that I took this morning in the Nursery.

After the bedrooms are complete, all that is left to mud is the hallway.  We want to have everything mudded before we start to prime for paint.

Jim has continued to work on the new hallway closet and built-in.  We went to Building 9 to see if we could find any discount doors and drawers for the project.  It was a success!  We managed to find a 3 panel door we liked for $30, matching cabinet doors for $10 ea, and $5 for a drawer front.  Sorry, no pictures yet of the doors, but I do have one of the closet framing.

The bottom part will be cabinets.  The middle is where the fake drawer will be, and the top will be open shelving.  That is a peek into our Master Bedroom on the left.

We have also finally installed the fire-rated drywall for the attic stairs.  I actually screwed it in place while Jim held it up.

Because an old house always has a trick up its walls, we recently had to replace our kitchen light over the sink.  The previous owners had installed a fluorescent workbench light for over the sink at some point.  The kitchen isn't one of our top priorities at the moment, so we just left it like that.  Well, one of the lights burnt out  and wouldn't work even with a new light bulb.  After a bit more fiddling, we decided to scrap the whole thing (it was ugly anyways) and traipsed over to Lowe's to peruse their clearance rack.  We were delighted to discover that they had a 3 pendant light fixture on clearance for $25.  Score!  The fixture didn't include the glass pendants, so we had to buy 3 of those.  We ended up still paying less than what the original price of the fixture would have been, so we're happy.  Oh, and in case you were wondering...Yes, Jim did have to fiddle with the wiring since the previous owners did it wrong.  Surprise!  Surprise!   Not!

Here are some pics.

 Of course, now the rest of the kitchen looks really sub-par with these new stylin' lights.

Haha!  Oh well!  Don't worry, Kitchen.  One day, your time will come for a remodel. :)

Stairway to Heaven? Nope, Just the Upstairs

Apparently, we've been super productive this month.  Once more, my in-laws came up on Sunday and helped us to install the hallway drywall.  I am once more amazed at the progress.  They are drywall installing gurus or something.  Our upstairs hallway is actually starting to look like a hallway.  :)

Here are some pics of their work.

 Looking up from the stairwell

 Looking down the hall toward the Nursery

 Looking down the hall from the Nursery (Ignore the mess in the Bonus Room/Renter's Kitchen)

Looking down the hall toward the Guest Room

There is only a little bit left to drywall and then the mudding can begin in the hallway.  Yea!

Of course, after all the drywall was up, Jim noticed that the illuminated switches in the hallway didn't seem as bright as they should be.  Jim checked it out, and he discovered the the current was active even when the lights were in the off position.  Hmmm...not good.  He was afraid that maybe a drywall screw nicked a wire or something, but he couldn't find any live screws.  He did some more investigating.  Fortunately, it was a simple fix and he didn't have to take down any of the drywall.  It turns out that the 2 switches at the top of the stairs were faulty.  He has since removed them and will replace them.

We recently had our water tested for bacteria by Davis Water Treatment for peace of mind.  Ever since our septic failed, I've been worried that our well water was contaminated.  I've been using bottled water for cooking, drinking, brushing my teeth, and other activities since.  I didn't want to take any chances with me being pregnant and all.  It also didn't make sense to have the water tested until after our new septic system was installed.  Well, the test came back negative for bacteria.  Yea!  This means that we don't have to shell out even more money to have the well chlorinated.  

We've seen some new wildlife in our yard and house lately.  On Sunday, we saw a skunk come moseying up our neighbor's driveway.  It went into the bushes beside their house.  It was at this point that we saw their cellar door open by the bushes.  Oh no!  We called our neighbors to let them know that they might have an unwanted and quite stinky house guest.  While Jim was on the phone with them, the skunk appeared once more and kept on walking and exploring the yards.  I hope it doesn't decide to take up residence nearby.  PU!  Jim came across a mouse in our basement the other night.  We bought some mouse traps and baited them with peanut butter.  The next morning, we found the mouse in the trap.  We're not sure if there are more of them, so we baited the traps again.  So far, no more mice.  I've been enjoying watching the finches at my new finch feeder and have managed to get a picture with both types in it.  I took it from my craft room window.  Our camera doesn't have the greatest zoom, so I cropped the pic.

Gold and House Finch at My Feeder

Sorry, it is a bit blurry.

Well, we've researched appropriate style/vintage newel posts for our stairwell landing and have decided that the best fit would be a box newel.  Unfortunately for us, this also seems to be the most expensive kind of newel post.  :(  Vintage/salvaged ones are just as expensive as new ones.  They can be upwards of $300 or more per newel.  We just don't have the budget for that.  So, Jim and I are playing around with the idea of making our own.  I'll keep you posted on what we inevitably decide.

This is the style box newel we like the best:

Whether or not we'll be able to replicate something like this is another story.  LOL!  Our's might end up being a little simpler since we do have to make 2 1/2 of them.

If you are interested, I have recently added 2 new entries into the Spirit Watcher page on this blog.

Enjoy!

Now I Know We Are Crazy!!!

*If you want things to make sense, you might want to scroll down to the post titled "Hooray for New Septic Systems!" and read up the blog.  If not, you will end up reading backwards through time if you start with this post.*

Here is how our Independence Day holiday weekend broke down:

Saturday

Jim and his dad designed and built the scaffolding for the stairwell while Jim's mom and I worked outside with the new planters that I wrote about earlier.  I was pretty impressed with their design.

Here is the scaffolding.

The individual beams across the top in the pic on the left can be removed for people to go up and down the stairs.  I referred to them as the "pregnancy barrier," since I can't get up the stairs unless the final beam furthest from the camera is also removed.  I could probably climb over it to get upstairs, but there is no way I am going to climb back over it to go downstairs.  I don't feel like taking the express way down. 

At some point, Jim's dad suggested removing the other 2 walls surrounding the stairwell.  This has been an idea I've brought up to Jim before, but he has always come up with reasons not to do it.  These other 2 walls are not original to the house.  They are walls previous owners put up when creating the rental space upstairs.  I believed that there originally used to be a guardrail surrounding the stairwell opening and not walls.  Jim's dad agreed with my theory.  Now that my FIL was on board with the idea of removing the walls, Jim decided to give the idea more thought.  This is another "now or never" project, so it does require a lot of thought.

*Pros to Removing the Walls*

~the space would really open up and be easier to move things around

~there would be more light in the hallway

~the hallway is currently super narrow already and would become even more cave-like after we finish leveling the ceiling and floors

~we would be bringing the home back to its more original state

~the area would be airier/breezier

~we most likely wouldn't regret taking the walls down in the long run, but might regret not taking them down when we had the chance

*Cons to Removing the Walls*

~Jim would have to redo some of his rewiring that he already has done

~we risk not finishing everything before the baby arrives

~children might decide to either try to squeeze through the landing spindles, attempt to climb the guardrail, or decide to toss/drop things down the stairs between the spindles.

~this would cost more $ than keeping the walls

Sunday

Jim was still debating with himself whether or not to remove the walls still, so Jim and his dad worked on other projects upstairs including more electrical, framing in a small corner closet with triangular built-in, and framing a future linen closet that won't be fully created until the bonus room/upstairs kitchen is renovated.  Since I wasn't allowed up there still during demolition, I'm not sure of everything they did.  I know of one casualty, though.  Jim accidentally dropped a tool in-between the wall.  It dropped all the way down to the first level, so we won't be able to recover it until we remodel the family room...and who knows when that will be.  LOL!  Poor Jim.  At least it wasn't an essential and/or expensive tool. 

Monday (4th of July)

Decision day!  

Our final decision was to remove the walls!  Yea!  I am over-joyed!  :D  I am so glad Jim has finally seen that it would be so much better in the long run if the walls were gone.

*Happy Manda Dance!*

Jim's parents and youngest brother (Eddie) came out to celebrate the 4th of July as well as helping out with demolition.  They once more closed themselves upstairs via the scaffolding and got to work.  I remained downstairs and went along with my business of updating this blog.  While the guys were destroying things, my MIL was mudding the drywall in the guest room and nursery.

Here are some pictures of the hallway/stairwell.

Before

This is what the hallway looked like when we first moved in.  It illustrates quite well how narrow it is.  The doorway to the right leads to the stairwell.  The doorway to the left is to the bonus room/renter's kitchen.

After the Drywall Removal

Looking down the stairwell

Looking across stairwell

 That is the nursery doorway straight ahead and the bonus room doorway to the far left covered in plastic.

View from the nursery doorway

After the Stud Removal

Looking up from the stairwell

Looking across the stairwell

 That is the balcony door that is open that used to lead to exterior stairs for the renters.

View from the nursery doorway

The door covered in plastic leads to the master bedroom

Looking down the stairwell

If you look to the immediate left of the stairwell on the floor, you can see where the old newel posts and spindles used to be before the walls were erected.  It's sad.  The original guardrail and newel posts were probably thrown out.  :'(  We're currently on the hunt for new newel posts and spindles that are in our budget and look Victorian-esque.  We will need a total of 2 1/2 newel posts (the half is for the newel post that will be against the wall) and about 30 or more spindles.  Current code wants spindles to be no more than 4 inches apart to prevent children from getting stuck between them or slipping through them.  I measured the distance between the original spindle marks, and they were 6 inches apart.  In the meantime, we will close off the hole in the floor with the scaffolding when we are working up there to prevent anyone from falling off the edge.

If anyone knows of newel posts and/or spindles for a decent price, please let us know.  We will end up needing about ~10ft of guardrail.  The guardrail needs to be a total of between 34 to 38 inches in height to be to code.

Here is a picture of our corner closet and built-in so far

The closet won't be very big, but it will be able to hold a vacuum cleaner and other cleaning supplies.  The triangular built-in will consist of a cupboard on the bottom, a fake drawer in the middle, and open shelving on the top.  The shelving will hopefully be too high up for a toddler to try to climb it.  It would be nice if the cupboard doors had glass, but that probably wouldn't be a good idea with small children.  *Sigh, sacrificing for them already.*  LOL!

And, that is where we stand in our upstairs project.

Let There Be Light (In The Attic)!

Jim has been a busy bee.  Unfortunately, I haven't been much help to him.  The last project I helped with was putting insulation on the walls of the nursery and guest room and on the nursery ceiling.

 Nursery walls

Guest Room Walls

Nursery Ceiling

This is at the point where I stopped helping due to being constantly sick.

Jim decided at this point that it would be good to install electricity in the attic.  I believe he spent a weekend installing 5 lights in the attic.  Now we won't have to struggle with portable lights and extension cords like we had to when removing the blown-in insulation over the nursery and guest room.

The attic without electricity

Let there be light!

Yea!  This is the portion over the hallway and bonus room.

During this time, Jim also created a new HVAC box for the new louvered vents that we purchased a few months ago.

If I remember right, his fingers suffered a few cuts and scrapes from shaping the metal.

Jim started back in on the insulation after completing the side projects.

 The nursery

The guest room

These 2 rooms looked much more like rooms once the insulation was up.  We could also tell a definite difference in the room temp and outside noise level.

Panoramic view from the guest room.

Status in stasis

Woah, it has been a little while since the last post. Sorry for the lack of communication everyone. We've had a bit of a rough time with flu season, it seemed like Amanda and I were taking turns playing a terrible game of disease ridden hot-potato. We have had varied delays and distractions with our second story renovation; although, I'd bet that if I tried hard enough, I could attribute most of the delays to my laziness.

The renovation project is slowly coming along. During the weekends I have been able to dedicate a majority of my time to installing fiberglass insulation. However, there have been a few distractions worth mentioning.

A good portion of a Saturday was spent designing and building a new HVAC duct box for the wall registers. Originally, one duct was split between the two bedrooms by a pair of dilapidated registers. The new box will accept louvered registers, which can be adjusted independent of one another. I'm super pleased with the results.

A few days were alloted for installing lighting in the attic. While we do not intend to spend any significant amount of time in the attic, the addition of overhead lighting will make any work up there a little more bearable. A total of five CFL lamps were installed in stratigic spots with an illuminated toggle switch near the entrance hatch.

While crawling around in the attic, I also installed an empty junction box for future work. My dad had some spare 12/3 wire from another project. I was able to terminate one end in the future box, and coil the other end up inside the circuit breaker panel. The 12/3 wire can be connected, when needed, to establish two separate networks in the future.

During the renovation, I decided to run CAT-5 ethernet lines in the two bedrooms. However, I have been hesitant to terminate the ethernet lines, as I would need to chop a hole in the wall of my den. A weekend and a half was spent excavating and fishing lines through the walls. We installed Class-2 boxes in Amanda's craft room as well as my den for the network connections. Eventually I may install a patch panel, but for now there is a multiport coverplate with a few RJ-45 receptacles on my wall.

It seems that most of my side-projects are the never-to-be-seen type of projects. Ah, c'est le vie. I'll try to include some photos in the next post.

The road to electrical inspection approval

First and foremost, I have been appointed to show off the new curtains from the exterior of the house. From outdoors, you can see the sheer back layer Amanda talked about earlier. Behold, curtains:

 

I may have mentioned previously that we have been doing some renovation in our second story. Before installing the insulation and drywall upstairs, we needed to pass a rough electrical inspection and address any major findings. However, the conclusion of the essential electrical work has been prolonged for various reasons. The primary cause of delay is a dramatic increase in my professional workload, which has been quite demanding both mentally and physically. We also had a surprise vacation to NYC for a movie premiere in November; what an incredible yet brief trip! Another factor was the process of framing-in the new closets for the bedrooms. After finishing the construction, I was able to wire the closet lights and one additional outlet receptacle. Happily, this phase is complete and both closets are plumb and square.

However, an unexpected delay was encountered while investigating the lighting in the second story hallways. We intended to redesign the hallway lights in order to have three switches to control the lights. Not too big a deal since the studs are exposed, and my dad and I were able to run wiring for one of the 3-way switches and the 4-way switch during all our work in October. While completing the hallway lighting circuit, I looked into the lighting circuit in the stairwell. These lights were connected to one of the chaotic sprawling networks from the basement. The mess behind the two 3-way switches looked something like this:

I suppose we shouldn't be too surprised, but I was nonetheless. The second story switch (shown at left) had several apparently unnecessary wires terminated with tape only. In the box were three different types of wire, including 12/2, 14/2 and a single 12 gauge wire, and nothing was grounded in the metal box. The first story switch (right) was entirely different wiring, indicating that there is a hidden/secret junction box sealed in the wall or ceiling somewhere. The neutral for the first story lamp was 'borrowed' from a receptacle in the adjacent room - I hear that this is called an 'illegal substitution' in football terms. You can see the cloth-insulated wire and the duct tape added for extra flavor. Elsewhere, I found a splice in one of the runner wires simply buried in the attic insulation. After a more thorough investigation, I traced the network back to the source and found the following savory sight:

In conclusion, the stairway lighting circuit was entirely unacceptable. I isolated the circuit and essentially turned off the lights. The wiring for this network has now been entirely replaced and is supplied from the new second story circuit breaker. I was able to run the new 14/2 and 14/3 wire with minimal intrusion in the stairwell walls, and Amanda installed one of the new 3-way switches. 

We had our rough electrical inspection nearly two weeks ago. I was anticipating that the inspector would spend some time and scrutinize my work, but he was done within 10 minutes. With only minor findings, we can close up the walls and continue with the renovation. I just need to find enough time and energy to keep at it.

I never knew ceiling fans could be so epic!

I was looking at ceiling fans online to buy for the nursery and guest room when I came across this piece of pure awesome...

 Above: Sterling Walnut   Below: Belcaro Walnut

They are called Minka Aire F502 42" Traditional Gyro Ceiling Fans.

Of course, they are SUPER expensive, and we can't afford them.  However, if we could, we would get them for the library.  Somehow, I think the Victorians would have loved these fans.  ;)

In other news, we passed our rough electrical inspection.  We only need to make a few minor changes before the final one.  This means that we could theoretically start to insulate the walls this weekend.  That, however, won't be happening because this weekend is also my birthday.  Yea, me!

How is everybody doing with their Christmas shopping?  We still have to get a few more gifts.  I asked Jim what he wanted in his stocking, and he said carpenter pencils and outlet insulators.  lol.  

Oh, if anyone is looking into buying fans or lighting.  Check out Lowe's online this weekend.  They are having a sale for 30% off most fans and lighting.  The promo code is DIMWATT.  *Sigh* We still wouldn't be able to afford those awesome gyro fans if they were 30% off.  ;P

I'm hoping the weather holds out this weekend. There is a tour of a Victorian house that I want to go to on Sunday.  Each room has a Christmas display sponsored by a different business.  My interest in going though is purely to see the architecture of the house.  I hope the Christmas displays don't get in my way.  Haha!

Wow!  Either the wind is making a very creepy howling sound right now, or the coyotes are back.

Baby, It's cold outside!

We've had quite a snowstorm yesterday and today.  When I returned home from a doctor's appt, I discovered a huge snowdrift blocking access to our garage.  I was able to shovel my way through it and park the car, but I was pretty cold by the time I finished.  Jim's work even closed early today, so he was home earlier than usual.  This gave him time to work on the stairwell lighting.  I think I hear him finishing up...

Yep, I just checked.

Yea!  This means we can finally call the electrical inspector!  Once he gives his OK, we can start to insulate and install drywall!  Hallelujah!  The upstairs is frickin' freezing right now!  I am so looking forward to having walls back up in the nursery and guest room.  Right now, the warmest room in the house is my craft room.  The vents for it are right off one of the main trunks of the furnace.  I've been spending a lot of my time in here the past 2 days with the weather the way it is.  We're hoping we can schedule an inspection before the inspector's go on holiday break.  This way, we can work on putting up the walls while Jim is on vacation.

I have some more bird pics for you.  They looked so pitifully cold that I couldn't resist.

Poor little guys!  They look so cold!

 They had to fight against the wind to get to the feeder.

My fluffy Joco Juncos

 These pics don't show their full cuteness adequately.

Even the mourning doves and blackbirds are coming to the feeder now.

Fluffed up Titmouse and Cardinal

I lucked out and this blue jay came to the feeder while I was eating breakfast.

 The blue jays and cardinals really stand out against the snow.

This black squirrel was rooting around in the snow for fallen seeds.

I might be about to jinx myself, but the squirrels seem to not try to go on the feeder anymore...at least when I'm watching.  ^_^*

What we've been up to...

I must apologize, folks, for not updating this sooner.  November was a busy month for us here at Blue Century Home.  Besides working on the house, I had won tickets to go see the red carpet premiere of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows in NYC.  I also was prepping games for a cousin's bridal shower, and reconnecting with high school friends...not to mention all the Thanksgiving activities.  Now with the apologies out of the way, it's down to business.  :)

When Jim was working on the electrical, we discovered that the stairwell lights were also partially connected to the old breaker upstairs.  This basically means that we also have to rewire the stairwell before we can have the electrical inspection.  One of my favorite lights in the house is the one at the bottom of the stairs.  I'm not exactly sure what it is about it that attracts me, but it looks like a giant ice-cube.

This is the old UL label for the ice-cube light fixture.

  Maybe one day, we'll try to research it to see how old this light actually is.

Besides working on the electric, we've also been busy having the drywall delivered, buying insulation, and framing in the 2 closets.

This is how they got our drywall upstairs...

Through the 2nd story hallway window.

This is some of the insulation and drywall.  Right now it is in our bonus room.

This is the stack in the guest room, with just as much in the nursery.

We've lucked out with the insulation.  With the tax credit, store rebate, and anniversary gift gift-cards; we'll have basically bought all the insulation for half price!  Sweet!

Here are pics of Jim working on the closet framing.

I hope the closets turn out ok, because I was the one who designed them.  I wanted more than just a closet with a top shelf and a long rod to hang clothes.  We've decided on sliding doors.  We'll most likely have to buy custom doors since we didn't like the look of any of the doors in stock.  We want doors that look like they'd belong in a century home, so we are most likely going to go with a 5 panel door design.  For the bedroom doors themselves, we want to go with a 4 panel door design that is similar to the only 2 remaining original doors in the house.

These are just some pictures I took from our front door of a November sunset.  It was raining at the time, and I thought the scenery was quite beautiful.  The whole atmosphere seemed to be glowing.

Well, it is time for dinner, so I must go.  I plan on writing another post tonight, so stay tuned.  :)

Electrical Progress

As you know, we have started a major project. We have stripped-down, dismantled, and thoroughly gutted two of the bedrooms and a hallway wall in the second story. The majority of the prior electrical wiring was unceremoniously discarded with the rest of the debris. Now it is time to stop destroying and start creating. Well, perhaps there is a little more demolition yet to do.

My father and I spent nearly the entire weekend rewiring the two bedrooms. I am very grateful that my dad was and is willing to help us out, his knowledge and experience are extremely valuable. Plus, many of the applicable regulations in the NEC are practically indecipherable due to the language or context. I think that there are a few good puzzles involved in any project, and it was great to have another engineer to help riddle them out.

Starting with morning coffee and notes, we assembled our resources and made a plan of attack. Phase Zero: Drink coffee.

Moving on. Phase One: Install load distribution panel & splice the service drop. After some carpentry, I was able to mount the new circuit breaker panel. Dad worked on the splice in a separate junction box up in the rafters.

We had considerable trouble with the insulated neutral bar in the GE panel. I was surprised that the plastic stand-off feet were so slim and brittle.The spring tension of the 2AWG service line was enough to snap one of the feet in half. My anguish doesn't shown in the following photos.

When I turned my back, dad took out part of a wall. We intend to build-up new closet spaces in this area. Removing this partition now sure makes it easier to get around with the ladder.

We made decent progress the rest of Saturday. All of the receptacle and switch boxes were mounted, as well as the overhead boxes for closet lights, ceiling fans and smoke detectors. Phase two - complete. We were even able to run a few lines before we collapsed with exhaustion.

We started working again half-way through Sunday. Phase Three: Run wire. Much of our time spend pounding staples into beams and routing the lines to outlet boxes and junction boxes. Here is a good picture of me pretending to do some work.

And here are some photos of dad really working.

The branch circuits were being defined as the various boxes scattered around the rooms were connected. The receptacle boxes look a little haphazard with all the leads hanging out, but soon enough we were starting to terminate them and populate the boxes.

Which leads, at last, to Phase Four: Termination. After supper, dad set to work on the circuit breaker panel. The photo below show the branches that he expertly crafted into a clean and orderly distribution panel. I was able to finish-up the light switches & fan controls and most of the receptacle outlets before quitting time. Once the branches were terminated at the circuit breakers, we engaged the external main breaker and tested the network. A piece of the preexisting network is supplied on a separate breaker, and I guess we shouldn't be too surprised that it did not entirely behave as expected. For whatever reason, the lights and outlet in the bathroom are not energized with the rest of the circuit, I have some investigation to do. 

When my dad left, there were only two receptacles yet to terminate. Amanda and I took one each and mounted the outlets. We did a lot of good work this weekend, and made substantial progress for our renovation.
Thanks dad!