For Deliver, Press "4"

Yesterday was a bit of a frustrating day.  Appliances were supposed to be delivered.  However, when Wednesday morning rolled around, Home Depot had yet to schedule a time. 

Yeah, Robyn and I had both missed a call from Home Depot on Tuesday but no message was left.  When we tried to return the call, we got stuck in “auto-attendant” hell without any way to break free.  The calls went something like this…

“Thank you for calling the… Home Depot.

• “For Store Hours and directions, press 1.
• “If you know the 3-digit extension of the person you are trying to reach, press 2.
• “To speak to an associate in one of our departments, press 3
• “If you are calling about an installation, special order, or delivery, press 4

Pressing “4” then brings you to this menu tree…

• “For water heater installation, press 1.
• “For heating and air condition installations,  press 2.
• “For other installations or special orders, press 3.
• “For deliveries, press 4.
• “To repeat these options, press 9.
• “To return to the main menu, press #

Pressing “4” then brings you to this menu which said to press “1” that brought you all the way back to the first menu.

Jeez….  At least when I tried it again today, it had been fixed.

So Wednesday morning, Robyn and I both headed off to work with a contingency plan that if they called again we would set a time I could be there which was 10:30 am as I was in a meeting in the bowels of a building in St. Paul where there was no cell phone service.

When I finished up my meeting around 10:00, I had a text message waiting from Robyn saying, “The delivery people from Home Depot are there.  They said they could come back at 10:30 am.”

I’m thinking, “Great, I can be there in 5 minutes.  Even if they’re late, this will take an hour at most.”

Wrong!!!

11:00 am came and went… no delivery

12:00 noon came and went… no delivery and waiting in the wintry mix had gotten old.

Robyn gave me the contact number which I called.  I asked the dispatcher, “Where’s my delivery? You said you would be here at 10:30!”  He said he’d call the driver who called me back.

 

I asked the driver, “Where are you?” 

His response was, “You weren’t there. So I called Home Depot and they told me to bring the stuff back to the store.”

I’m like, “What???? You told us you would be here at 10:30.  Why would you take the stuff back?”

He said, “That’s what Home Depot said to do.”

I asked, “Why would you do that? You couldn’t even call?”

He said, “We called and told you we would be there between 8:00 am and noon.”

I said, “We never had contact with anyone who told us what time the delivery would be.  If we had, we would have been here.”

He said, “We called and told you we would be here.”

I ended the call by expressing my displeasure and opinion about his competence in as restrained colorful manner as my anger would allow.

…and then I drove to the Home Depot where we purchased the appliances and spoke to the store manager.

The manager was quite apologetic and very helpful with rescheduling the delivery and promised her personal attention.  She also made a small adjustment for our inconvenience.

Weekend Update...

Even for a long weekend, sometimes it's difficult tell the progress that has been made.  We ended up putting a a third coat of blue paint on the bottom part of the dining room (2 coats just didn't appear to be enough) and then took the masking paper and tape off the molding.

That's a reflection on the wall...

While Robyn was going around, touching up the places covered by tape (or pulled loose by the tape), I put the first coat of paint on the ceiling medallion.

There was a ceiling fan previously on the ceiling which was just attached to the slats under the plaster with 2 lag bolts.  I don't know how it didn't fall down.  I cut a hole in the ceiling where the wire was dangling and put a junction box in, attached to the ceiling joist.  I don't like plastic boxes, but the ceiling fixture we're putting in is much lighter than the ceiling fan, plus it won't have whirling blades.

Both of the wires were the same color, so I put a piece of black electric tap on the on that connects to the black wire.  The mirrored cap for the light fixture is also a little bit bigger than the hole in the medallion so I traced around it and then cut out a recess for the edges so it would fit flush against the ceiling and I would be able to attach the medallion to the ceiling.

This was a "paint" weekend with us priming the master bedroom, but forgetting to prime the closet.

We also got in a bit of shopping at... you guessed it... Home Depot.  Home Depot was having a clearance sale on floor and discontinued models of appliances.  Even though we were a week or two in front of when we intended to purchase appliances, we got such a great deal, saving several hundred dollars, we went ahead and purchased a side-by-side refrigerator, gas stove, dish washer, washer and gas dryer. This complied with our mantra... Never pay full price!!!

...and Robyn got drapes for the dining room windows as well.

This helper doesn't scream when you hit it...

Today, I continued the building of a soffit around the ductwork in the living room.  This particular run of ductwork requires a box 12' 8" long X 12" wide X 12" deep.  Building the box and then attaching it to the ceiling would basically mean that Robyn and I would have to lift five 12 foot long 2x4's and hold them up until they are attached; something we can't do by ourselves.  So I decided to build them in place.  Difficult still but not nearly as challenging.  Using "helpers" like the one below, I could put up a section at a time and attach it by myself.

I figured this was a more prudent approach after the first 2x4 came loose from the ceiling before I could get it nailed up and conked Robyn on the head, leaving a nice little mark on the back of her head where the 2x4 hit her and her forehead where it knocked her into the ladder.  She didn't scream either... but her eyes watered.

We also bought our first appliance for the house.

This way we can bring leftovers from home in the cooler Tammy got me for my birthday and heat them.  Today we had Cincinnati chili over spaghetti squash.

We also put the final coat on the dining room; Robyn did most of the work.  

No, dear, that isn't a scepter

Today was spent getting new Minnesota plates for Robyn's car, getting her oil changed, a quick trip to Home Depot for more painting supplies, and her surprising me at Sam's Club with a card and the receipt for my birthday present.

An awesome hybrid grill...

Too bad the food doesn't come with it.  I can't wait to put it together and use it.  It will be great to grill again after being in an apartment where it isn't allowed.

We did get some work done on the house today.  While I was painting the ceiling in the dining room, Robyn was taping off the living room.  Later she joined me in the dining room and we got the first coat of paint on the walls above the plate shelf.

After priming, it looks like we'll only need one coat on the ceiling.  The upper part of the wall will definitely need 2 coats.

As we were wrapping up the day, Robyn "discovered" one of my gadgets, the painter stirrer I use for the 5 gallon buckets of paint.

You should have heard her exclaim, "You use this with your drill to stir the paint? This is so cool!!"  You would have thought it was me.

Itchy... Itchy...

Wednesday while I was waiting for the City of St. Paul inspector to show up to inspect the water heater installation, I took the opportunity to put some fiberglass insulation around the ductwork where it passes through the ceiling and walls.

I will be boxing in all the ductwork with 5/8” sheetrock which is 1 hour burn barrier rated but in the meantime I wanted to add some additional protection by filling the open areas around the ductwork which could be a potential pathway between floors and rooms if there were a fire.

Not really that difficult to do.  A $15 25 foot-long of R19 unback insulation was my raw material.  I just cut off 6” strips to insert around the ductwork wherever it passed between rooms and floors.  Basically a 15 minute job.

I’ve installed insulation before so I know how itchy it can be if it gets in your clothes and on your skin.  For that reason I work long sleeves and gloves.

And wouldn’t you know, it still got on me in a few spots.  Fortunately, the itching is still mild and I’m not scratching like a maniac.

As for the water heater inspection, it passed.  The inspector, Steve Fernlund, was a great guy and gave me some tips on the City of St. Paul inspection process as well as some advice on when a permit is required and when it isn’t.

So that's why it's call a chip brush.

Today, I made it back to the house to take another stab at priming the dining room after yesterday's abortive attempt with the Wagner Power Sprayer.  In about 30 minutes more time (and with even more paint on me), I finished priming the dining room ceiling white and the walls gray. With the darker colors that we've chosen, we'll get better coverage using a gray primary rather than the usual white.

The other day, our friend, Joel, said he used a foam roller to paint popcorn ceilings.  So last night when I made my trip to Home Depot to pickup a paint roller, I grabbed some.

The foam roller is the bomb!  Easy coverage of the big popcorn texture on the ceiling.  The only downside was every once in a while a stray piece of texture would get stuck in between the slices that are in the foam.  My other new favorite item are the disposable paint pan inserts.  Clean up has always been a chore when you finish and these little $.77 items are worth the price.  When you done, just empty the paint back into the can and toss the liner.

A couple of weeks ago, I'd also bought a 15 pack of chip brushes.  The cheap little things are great for areas that don't require a really good brush.... like those little chips out of the wall that I missed when I spackled the holes in the wall.

Here's a four corner review of the dining room after priming this evening.

In these photos, the primer isn't dry yet but the coverage was unbelievable.  These walls were filthy and the gray primer covered everything right up.

I'd thought we'd wasted our effort putting plastic over the windows and doorway once I decided not to use the sprayer.  But rollers inevitably splatter paint and this plastic means we won't have to scrap the splatters off the windows later.

That's the smoke detector above the entranceway and the thermostat right next to it.

Wagner Power Plus Sprayer Review

I must confess... I am a gadget addict.  That's why I've been excited to try out the Wagner Power Plus Sprayer that I'd bought to paint the bedroom before we moved from Ohio.

Robyn was leery about me trying out the new sprayer on her bedroom.  I agreed because it was a smaller room and probably was a bit overkill.

Good choice on her part!

Robyn works late on Mondays, so I took the opportunity to run by the house and try the sprayer out on the dining room.  I figured in a hour or so I could have the whole thing primed and ready.

WRONG!!!

There are insufficient adjectives and adverbs that are printable in a blog for general publication that describes how bad the Wagner Power Plus sprayer is.

It is extremely difficult just to attach the sprayer to the paint container.  It is difficult to align and difficult to tighten.  But once you get it attached, the fun starts!!!

I spray painted about a 4 foot strip before the sprayer started spitting out little gobs of paint.  Not good.

I figured the primer might be a little thick.  So I dumped it back in the 5 gallon bucket.  Went downstairs.  Rinsed out the sprayer.  Sprayed water through it to it misted.  Went back up stairs.  Put a cup of water in the paint container.  Dipped paint out of the bucket.  Stirred it up really well, getting even more paint on my hands.

Struggled some more with attaching the sprayer to the container.  Spilled more paint.  And then started spraying some more.

This time I got about 4 square feet spray painted before it started spitting out little gobs of paint.  Jeez.

Most definitely not worth the time, trouble, or money.  A good gadget works easily and intuitively.  This does neither and ranks right up there in the Hall of Ignominy with the "As Seen on TV" boiled egg peeler.

Gift wrapped....

Yesterday, we got our first piece of mail at the house.  Our insurance policy...

Today we started doing serious prep work for paint.  Robyn and I carried the crown molding out to the garage to store it until we have a truck load of stuff to haul to the transfer station.  While Robyn was cleaning the built-in linen cabinets in the upstairs hallway, I took down the ceiling fan, hauled it out to the garage and then started taping the molding and windows and doors in the dining room.

It was like wrapping Christmas presents for everyone... hours and hours of taping paper around and over stuff.  And I'm almost as neat doing this as wrapping Christmas gifts.  Thank goodness for the tape machine that put a strip of masking tape on the edge of the 12" paper.

Robyn came along behind me and taped the bottom of the masking paper to the bottom of the plate shelf.  Thank goodness this is our most difficult room to mask because it took hours.

We also finally got rid of the three radiators that were left behind in the house. (Someone had saws-alled them but left these three behind.)  I'd put them up on Craigslist and someone took them away for a good price... free!!!  He's planning on using them in a duplex that he is rehabbing so I'm glad they're going to be reused rather than scrapped.

Heavy cast iron, the two upstairs were difficult to get downstairs and out.  But the one downstairs was a BEAST!!!  The heaviest thing I'd lifted since me and my cousin Charles had moved my grandmother's wood stove.  And nearly as difficult to move as the armoire I helped move out of Pat's and Bruce's house.

Thank goodness Joel and Sue had stopped by to chat and see the house.  Joel was drafted as manual labor to help tote the things downstairs and outside.  The guy taking them put the two small ones in the back of a compact stationwagon and the "BEAST" on a car dolly.  I suspect his front wheels were barely touching the road.

We were hoping to get the dining room primed today but with this little interlude we weren't able to get started.  I'm hoping this part goes quickly using the Wagner sprayer.  Here's a video of the room nearly completely prepped.  Turn your head sideway, apparently my phone doesn't auto-rotate videos...

Seriously, who puts popcorn texture on crown molding???

We had a very productive day... starting off with a trip to Home Depot.  I needed three 14 foot long 2 X 4's to finish boxing in the ductwork in the living room.  And we picked up some Murphy's Oil to start cleaning the woodwork in the rooms Robyn scraped paint.

Because the 2 X 4's were 8 foot longer than the 6 foot bed of my pickup, I put one end down in the tailgate, rested it on the cab of the truck with the other end was sticking out over the hood.  I wrapped it tight both bottom and top and headed down the interstate.

Not one of my brighter ideas...  Those 2 X 4's sticking up in the air acted like a kite, even though I tied them down snugly, or at least so I thought.  The ends over the hood were raising up and down like a kite.  I decided I should travel city streets to the house.

Good thing too!!!  About 2 miles from the house, the 2 X 4's had slipped to one side and slid off the cab next to my door.   Startled the heck out of me and sticking about 2 foot out the side of the truck.  Quick dip into the Red Cross Headquarters parking lot and Robyn, Copper and I were on our way again.

My primary responsibility today while Robyn was finishing up trim cleanup was to get a working faucet in the kitchen so we could clean walls before painting. The handles were broken off the existing one and the valves wouldn't turn.  Here's why:

They were full of gook.  And of course, in a house with a few years on it, the water wouldn't shut off completely.  Robyn and I decided to grab some lunch at the restaurant across the way, Leo's Chow Mein, on the way to the convenience store to get my next tool.

Leo's is known through out the Twin Cities for its cuisine.  Basically, filling, cheap, greasy Chinese food.  And it tastes pretty good too.  As for the sliced bread, it was so stale is probably wasn't good for much besides what I needed it for...

Stuffed in the tubing to stop the water drip.

A few minutes later, I had replacement valves on and was ready to start on the faucet... If I could ever get the old one off!  It was so gooked up, I unpacked my new Dremel and ground the plastic nut off.  Which promptly fell in that 1/32" opening between  my glasses and my nose, leaving me with a nice little welt.

Ohh... and the hoses I bought at Home Depot a couple of days earlier were about 8 inches too short.  And they were they were the longest ones they had.  So off to a new hardware store, Seven Corners Hardware store in downtown St. Paul.  Founded in 1933, it is a really cool old-style hardware store.

Forever later, I had the faucet hooked up, and the water turned on.  And just hot water, without a lot of pressure.  I suspect that gook was other places than the valves.  Fortunately, the pipes are readily available just below the kitchen in the basement.  I was going to have to replace some of them anyway because someone had mixed copper and galvanized pipe... a no, no.

So, in the meantime, Robyn has finished cleaning wood work with the Goof Off, Goo Gone and Oops and is ready to wipe them down with Murphy's Oil and mop the floors.  Only problem was I hadn't finished pulling the crown molding out of the rooms yet and got some of her work dirty.  Pain in the butt because someone had put the crown molding up with finishing nails about 2 1/2 inches long... serious overkill.  But my new Dremel came in handing cutting an opening so I could get leverage with a crow bar to pry it loose.

After we paint, I'm planning on putting up stained crown molding which will look better.  (And has the additional benefit of we don't have to mask off between the ceiling and walls.

Here's a shot of the popcorn crown molding I mentioned...

Seriously... this has to be the ugliest application of popcorn texture I've ever seen.

Popcorn texture can cover up quite a few flaws, so we aren't removing it from the existing ceilings.  Just touching up with an aerosol product.

So as the day wound down and Robyn finished up mopping the walls, I spread another layer of spackle and tackled this bad patch job in the dining room ceiling.

The directions say to drape off the area to avoid overspray and bounce back of the texture.  I figure how messy could it be... I was only doing a small area.  As it turns out, it can be quite messy.  I had to go get a cheap shirt so we could go out to dinner at Pat's, Robyn's coworker.  But the initial results of the touchup aerosol texture aren't bad.

We'll see how it looks tomorrow when it dries.  Here's a short video of us as our work day wound down.

The snow, not the Taxman, cometh...

Yes, it snowed overnight here in the Twin Cities.  Who would have thought that this would be happening on April 15?  Upside... we can't see how much work needs to be done to the yard with all the snow.

Here are a couple of shots from last night...

Robyn's convertible.  Yes, she drove it all winter.  Even when it was 25 below.

The streaks you see are the snow falling.  My snow-covered truck...

Copper wondering where the white stuff came from.

...and off we go on another Home Depot Adventure.

When you gotta go, you gotta go...

To Home Depot.

Last night when I picked up my laminate for the bathroom, the woman checking me out asked if we were working with an interior designer.  I said nope, Robyn was coming up with the color scheme and design ideas.

Now I was back to pick out that essential household furnishing... a toilet.  The trip was a little bit more frustrating than my usual trips to Home Depot.  Usually you can't walk across the store without 4 or 5 associates asking if they could help you.  This time I lingered and lingered for what seemed like an eternity before I could find someone to help.

After spending 20 minutes with a associate who called the warehouse, he found out that the toilet I'd picked out was no longer manufactured... well the bowl was but the tank wasn't.  So then the process started over, back to the displays, look at the specs, go through the catalog, pick out a different model, explain him home to widen the columns on the display so he can see the order number, watch him "hunt and peck" type my order in. 

Once he finished my order, he was more in his comfort zone helping me pick out a new bathtub and wall panels.  I was looking for a fiberglass one that I didn't have to reinforce the tub bottom.  And it had to be a 4 piece to get it up the stairs and around two 90 degree turns.  Found one.  Since it is a stock item, I didn't have to order it.  I'll just pick it up in a couple of weeks when I do the bathroom.

So what makes the toilet so special?  You know if it goes down, does anything else really matter?  After living in an apartment, I definitely wanted a "more efficient" model so I checked out the flush power ratings on all the models.   And then picked one that matched our bathroom color scheme...

Yep... black.  I hear it's even stain resistant.

That just sucks...

The new vacuum that is...

Our vacuum bit the big one about 2 months ago.  It was a gradual death.  The switch, a step-on type, started where it wouldn't turn the vacuum on consistently... then I was wedging a quadruple-folded paper to keep it down and just plugging it in... and then, not unexpectedly, it just died...

So today, when I went to Home Depot to pick up our special order laminate, Dupont Black & White Chess Slate,

I also snagged a vacuum cleaner.  One with a hepa filter that will also clean wood floors (since we won't have carpet just some area rugs.)  This laminate will go in a bathroom with a white ceiling and Sherwin-Williams' Cloak Gray walls.  Along with a dark cabinet with a glass bowl sink we're also considering a black lavatory.

And you know I can't go to Home Depot to get just an item or two.  I also picked up an inexpensive kitchen sink faucet to replace the one that doesn't work along with a Dremel to help me disassemble the crown moulding around the downstairs rooms.  There are somethings a saws-all just doesn't work well on.

I could be in for running for customer of the month at Home Depot with all we've spent there in the last 3 weeks.

Plugging away...

During the week, we don't make very much progress on the house.  So when I stopped by today to check the mail, I took some pictures of my plugs that I had done for the radiator piping holes.

What I had done was take some wire window screen, cut it to the width (hole diameter times 3.14) that would role up to the diameter of the hole I was plugging.

The holes....

The window screen cylinders...

The holes immediately after the cylinders were inserted and filled with spray foam expanding insulation.

Two days later after the foam had a chance to cure...

These particular patches are on the ceiling so for my example on how I intend to finish the patches, here is a picture of two patches lower where the pipes originally went through the wall.

Here you can see how the foam expanded out from the hole.  I wish I had made a cylinder and filled it outside of the wall so I could have seen how it expanded through the screen.  I tugged on the foam and it was firmly wedged in the hole, much more securely than filling it with newspaper would have been.  And by completely filling the cylinder all the way through the wall, I don't have to worry about knocking a hole in the wall in the same spot.

Next, I trimmed the foam slightly below the wall surface...

And knocked out some of the loose pieces of plaster.  Next, I put my primarily layer of spackling...

After this dries, I fill in any remaining depressions.  Later, I hit it with a sanding block and prime it before the wall is painted.

Welcome to the world Madelyn Grace!!!

Born April 11, 2011 at 7:00 am, 19 inches long and 6 pounds, 3.2 ounces.

Weekend 3 - Filling stuff in

Slowly and surely we are starting to see progress.  This week saw the completion of the HVAC installation and the water heater installation.

Also, this weekend, Robyn finished up cleaning the paint off baseboards and molding in the dining room, living room, entranceway and front bedroom.  After spending most of 2 weekends working in the dining room, she flew through the living room, entranceway and front bedroom.  This leaves only the middle bedroom, the back bedroom and the upstairs hallway for removal of paint overspills on the molding.  Every once in a while, I pass the paint gun over the door molding in the kitchen and peel a bit of that old paint off.

My job this weekend was to start boxing in the ductwork.  It's slow going.  I had to build two boxes around the upstairs air return in the living room because of the proximity of that ductwork to the first floor air return.  There wasn't room for the frame, sheetrock, and molding before the edge of the air return register was encountered.

See what I mean...

Here's the box framing for the dining room side.  We took it all the way to the edge of the doorway so it would match the other side of the wall in the dining room where the chimney goes up.

After I finishing building the box on the left, I said to Robyn, "I think a built in bookcase would look good there."  (There's about 21" of usable space.)  Guess where no sheetrock is going and what one of my first projects will be.  Yep... a built in bookcase.

After I replace the door handle on the storm door on the front 3 season porch, I started on these old radiator piping holes.

After all the ductwork was run, I was only left with 3 sets that had to be filled in the ceilings and walls.  They ranged from 4 1/2 to 9 inches deep and 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 inches deep. I'd been mulling over options trying to figure out the best (and easiest way) to plug the holes and this is what I came up with.

I purchased some metal window screen material and cut off a strip 9 inches wide.  Then I used a bit of high school geometry (circumference equals diameter time pi) to determine how long a strip needed to be to make a cylinder to insert up in the hole.  So basically, a hole that was 2 inches in diameter need a strip of wire screen about 6.28 inches long.  I then took the strips, rolled them into a tube and stapled them together.  Here's what the two for these holes look like...

My idea was to use a can of that aerosol spray insulating foam that expands.  It would expand after I sprayed it up into the cylinder and the expansion through the mesh would hold the cylinder in place but not use up cans and cans of spray foam nor would I have to stuff the hole with newspaper and put multiple layers of spackle 

And the almost final results...

This was just after I finished spraying the foam.  About 30 minutes after I took the picture, the foam had expanded about two inches down below the original hole.  It should cure completely after 12 hours.  After which time, I can trim it a little below the surface and fill the depression with a thin, rather than thick, layer of plaster.

After a long, busy weekend...

Robyn and I went to the 5-8 Club with our friends, Tino and Mary for Juicy Lucy's.  (Well, I had a Juicy Lucy; Robyn had a salad.)