649 6th

happy halloween

Happy Holloween to all. We've been in the house exactly one year!

more partial siding

Looks good, right? Problem is house has looked this way since Thursday, as in no work on Friday or Saturday; worse no explanation for WHY no work. So over sunny mild autumn weekend when every other construction site in the neighborhood was bustling with activity, we got zilch.

fall cleaning

Bet you were looking for an updated picture of the exterior siding. Though progress HAS been made since last post, I think the as-yet-unexplained absence of work on Friday and Saturday affected our enthusiasm. Will try to remedy first thing in the morning so we have a record of each (agonizing) step. Hopefully we won't have occasion to post more "no progress" reports...

Could be a pre-mature move, but we started restoring basement to a proper work space rather than a surrogate bedroom. Added shelving to laundry room in a bid to make some breathing room in the otherwise packed-to-gills storage room. Biggest motivator: the stench of death. It's amazing what a dead animal will do to make you want to break out the bleach and get all your shit off the floor.

Mini-landing at bottom of steps is further enhancement to basement. Great opportunity to use multiple tools and skills on a low-profile project. And most importantly: injury-free!

cheesy rhyme

To the one I love in Deutchland... a picture to make you smile so grand.

patch, check
reinforcement, check
flashing, check
wrap, check
siding, check

Granted there are areas that still need to be finished this same way but, at least Tracy's side is sealed!

partial siding

The guy came on Monday to install the siding. He did an excellent job trimming out around the door which even he said was a trouble. The green planks didn't start going up until after I got home from work so hopefully when they return today it will be quicker work. Stay tuned for the fully covered pictures!

tool time: trim saw

Last Saturday we were using an 18lbs. worm gear drive Skil framing saw to cut out the window openings in the sheeting around the newly roughed in windows. To do this the tool worked fine. Although, Michael was wondering is there less cumbersome tool that might have done it better? Not that he didn't like the Skil saw it's just a bit of overkill better suited for building a barn-- which I have know doubt was the reason it was originally purchased. He had already tried the reciprocating saw and realized that a circular would track much better down the chalk line that had been snapped on the sheeting-- item one in a case for a new tool.

I mentioned that we had a small trim saw in the basement. The trouble with it was when it arrived in Brooklyn (yet another tool from my dad) the least of it's problem was the surface rust that coated. On the more serious side the shank coming out of the motor had been bent. The blade spins with a wobble no matter how the washers are applied. Thus we have a broken saw-- item two in the case for a new tool.

On Sunday afternoon we were discussing how we were planning to repair the flooring in a couple of places on the second floor. It came round to the trim saw again-- item three, case builds.

By the end of the day an item appeared on the check list that said "price trim saws". Later that night we discovered the cordless Mikata. Not only was it ideal for the jobs we had been discussing it had the bonus of using the same batteries as the screw gun we got last christmas-- the case was built.

Priced it, bought it, off the list before 9:00. By Tuesday Mr. UPS had dropped it by my office. We used it a bit yesterday to finish up some framing on the 3rd floor; light, powerful, did the job, love it. The only small complaint I have about it is: literature says "cuts through 2x4 stock. Weeeellll, sort of. If you cut both sides and line the cuts up it does. But, for the plywood and flooring applications I wanted it for I'm sure we will be well served.

safety policies

Three weeks ago Michael took a pretty bad fall from a 4' step ladder. It was late one afternoon when we were both exhausted. We were finishing the insulation in the peaks of the attic dormers.  He ran all the way up to the top step (with both feet) in about a second flat. I could see by the angle his momentum was carrying him that it was only a matter of time before it came to a tragic reconciliation. Like a professional wrestler off the top ring rope he splatted down to the floor. Luckily he was able to shake it off with a few small bruises.

Reno note: If you're in that big a hurry don't go up the ladder. Take scheduled breaks it really helps you through the day.

Last weekend we decided it was time rip the back off the house. From a previous post you know that was a multi-layered project. Judging from the photos you would have thought that Michael did all of the work. However, in between documenting the site I was also wielding a 3lbs. sledge hammer and a large nail/pry bar. I used the hammer predominately with might right hand (even though I am left handed. Hand tool manufacturers when I was growing up only had right handed stuff so interestingly it's the hand I use to wield most tools...but that's another post). My right hand is also the hand that I mouse with on a daily basis.

You could say that my right wrist has been teatering on the verge of a Repetitve Stress Injury for eons. Beating my house like it owed me money for a solid day was the mac truck that broke that camels back. On Sunday I couldn't move any of the fingers on my right hand without excruciating pain. Monday I got some help and wound up with one of those delightful "one of the them" wrist braces worn emblamaticly by the RSI set. The upshot. It's now Saturday and my right wrist is probably 95% back.

Reno note: you're not superman nor even a house ninja. think about the impact you are throwing at your body before it's too late. Look into doing something to ease the R to avoid the SI.

And finally-- last night. We were both home from work and rain was coming...again. The trouble with the rain is mainly the seal between our and Tracy's roof. When we got the down pour a week ago she sustained water damage because of this non seal. Now I've been trying not to bash my contractor on the blog because it seems he has been tipped off to its existance and has had occasion to read it. Not having the thickest of skin and to avoid his defensiveness I had sort of backed off.  That all being said, If the he would have sent someone out to wrap the house, oh a month and a half ago, this would not be a problem. Even if the siding couldn't be put on until next week at least the water could have been kept out. Of course that would have meant more labor cost for him or some such I assume. Maybe we should have done yet another task of his in our copius spare time too, errrrr....

But, I'm getting off the point here. We decided in an effort minimize the water seeping into Tracy's house we would go up and tape the worst places with a water seal tape before it started raining. It was way after dark at this point. I had helped Michael get the ladder out to the lower part of the roof and he was going to position it while I went back inside to get the tape and scissors etc. When I got back outside he was already on Tracy's roof waiting for me. I looked at the ladder and thought "wow, putting the end of the extension ladder right on the eve caps makes that an awfully low angle. It  looks like it could fall easily. But if I lean it higher it will ding the new shingles and we'll end up having to bicker it into a better place, ah screw it I'm going up."

I made it to the top of the ladder and put the materials on the roof before coming up the rest of the way. I stopped briefly to chat about if we had a different tape than the one I brought, I said "no this is the best one." Then I was gone. the ladder came slamming down with me on the top rung. Judging by the marks I can decidedly say this: my ass must have touched down first about the same time as my left hand. Then my head snapped back and hit one of the rungs. Luckily that part of the house is not so tall, like 6.5" at the end of the eves. From the photo (yes I know it's certain sickness that both of us wanted to document it before bandaging but that's another post) you can see that I put a pretty serious cut on the back of my head. My left hand must have done a awe inspiring karate chop to something as it swelled immediately. Meaning henceforth the left and not last week's right hand will be reffered to as the "injured" hand.

Today let's leave it at, I'm having a bit of trouble getting up and down but suffice it to say I will probably not need any more medical attention and I will probably be 100% in a few days. Knock wood.

reno note: if something looks remotely unsafe, take the time, fix it. It's not worth it for the extra couple of minutes you get back.

So far we have been really lucky. Stupid at times and looking back on it I'm a bit embarrased that all of these tales can be told. With the Saw, safety has always been first. Maybe these reno notes can begin to round out a better menu of policies.

tuesday night highlights

Here's the punch list on the kitchen white board from the weekend. We did get a lot of crap done, but there were a few stragglers that I wish we could have worked in. Much like last week we're taking a couple hours on week nights to finish up the big To Do list. "Finish insulation on 3rd floor" is still up there, but we determined we still need to do a bit more framing before we're ready for that. Call me crazy but I think it's impolite to run a power saw at 8:30pm on a Tuesday night.

First and foremost we had to finish the rear siding project we started this weekend: stapling up tar paper. The one thing we didn't want to do was leave it exposed for days on end (or god forbid weeks) until we'd tracked down the siding of choice. Some jobs really are better done in steps, especially when facing a considerable time span between beginning and end, and half protection is better than no protection.

Another significant accomplishment was disconnecting the radiator that sputtered at leaky coupling from the moment we turned furnace on last winter and was eventually shut down to eliminate water seaping into floor. Everyone we mentioned this to told us to be really careful messing with plumbing connections, which over time built the project up in our heads into a major ordeal. In fact the coupling loosened up without much of a fight. Almost anti-climatic. Took radiator outside to flushed it out, but no obvious sludge (unlike when we flushed the boiler) so back it went -- this time with a nice wrap of plumber's tape around the threads. Now the steam valves are soaking in vinegar, which I read will rejuvenate them, before firing up the boiler for the year. I'm sure there'll be more mention of heating progress in days to come.

what'd you do this weekend?

 I think this may be the only existing photo (shocking I know) of the second floor exterior rear. As was the case in the front, there were(are) two lop sided window mountings. The contractor had provided replacement windows for the rear that he was going to install (like a month or so ago). In an effort to speed things along and do it the right way, the line where our work begins and the contractor's ends got a bit blurred this weekend.

We ended up totally reconstructing the exterior wall. We tore it back far enough to insulate from the outside and rebuild. This was sort of a convoluted approach to insulation, but it meant we didn't have to remove the original plaster and lathing on the inside of the house, which is very messy. The windows were the contractor's job, but the removal of 5 layers of siding and asphalt wasn't. I was afraid of what it was going to look like once they were finished "flashing" back the almost 6 inches of siding to "install" the new windows. I was pretty convinced it was something I didn't want. So we did it the right way. All we have left to do is tar paper and side it. We're thinking some sort of metal siding. Think modern or think barn-- either way will get you to the material we're talking about.

Below is each layer we exposed as archeological dig. Well there's one exception: another layer of stone looking asphalt came between the aluminun foil foam board and the green asphalt. This layer was sadly shot with the lens cap firmly in place on the camera.

shopping list

Shopping list for Home Depot today.