One day, I did 30 joints...

And it just so happened to be today.

Earlier this week when I was trying to install the bathtub, I had some issues with the slip joint for the drain.  After I had the tub set, leveled and supports attached to the wall, I found that the tub drain had come loose... grrr.

So I pulled the tub out and re-did the joint, this time with some PVC cement.  While I was waiting for it to cure, I started to work on pulling out the toilet and sink.  The toilet valve, the one in the wall, had been leaking so I wanted to replace it before I installed our new toilet.  So I turned off the water and went to loosen the connections to the drain flange... the toilet was attached, it was just sitting on top of the flange which was broken.

Next, I pulled the old, decrepit sink out.  I hadn't been able to turn it on; the valves were stuck so I was replacing them as well.  Once I had the sink and toilet out, I turned off the main water line and took the valves off.  I was surprised to find out that they were connected to galvanized pipe.  Surprised because the water supply for the tub was copper and those were the only lines I saw running to the 2nd floor from the basement.  The only other set of lines I saw were to the kitchen sink so the water for the toilet and bathroom sink must have been coming from the neighbors.

Before I could get to the toilet flange, I pulled up a layer of extremely thin plyboard, had to be less than 1/4".  I found that underneath a piece of 3/4" plyboard covering a hole that had been cut in the floor to the provide access to the toilet drain.  The drain went through a humongous rubber gasket into the cast iron drain... and of course, it wasn't supported anywhere.

So now I'm at the point where I have access to the walls to solve some problems I wasn't anticipating.  I plugged the galvanized water supply lines.  Put a T in the hot and cold supply lines for the tub and ran lines from there for the toilet and for the sink.

I wish it was as easy I that just sounded but in order to get through joints, around vent lines, around drain lines, around more joists and then between joists, I ended up soldering about 30 joints, or around 60 connections.

One of the indispensable tools I used was this tubing cutter for confined spaces that I picked up at Ikea for about $10.  It came with a hole saw to cut openings in stainless steel sinks.

Eventually, I got all the lines connected... and when I checked just before leaving the house for the evening, none of the connections were leaking.

I took the opportunity to secure the lines where they came out of the wall with copper clamps.  I hate loose valves and shower heads and they always eventually wear a bigger hole in the wall.

The last time someone was back behind the walls working on the plumbing, they had cut out a joist and had done a poor job splicing it back together.  I'll fix that and I'll be ready to put the tub, toilet and sink in.

The toilet doesn't work...

But we've started moving stuff to the house...

Friday was a busy day and we accomplished quite a bit.  In addition to hauling our first load of furniture to the house, we also had high speed interet (40mbps) installed by Qwest at the house along with Diretv (with free NFL Sunday Ticket!).

Thursday, the house finally came off the City of St Paul Vacant properties list so we were able to remove the vacant property placards.  Here's Robyn working on the one on the back door...

We also finished up the laminate in the master bedroom, except for the closet.  As for the bathroom...

When I started replacing the toilet and sink, I found that the water supply was via galvanized pipe.  When I took off the old valves, I could see that the galvanized pipe was over 50% closed.  I decided since the wall and fixtures were out, now was the prudent time to hook the toilet and the bathroom sink up to copper supply lines which had already been run up to the bathroom.

Tornado...

Sunday afternoon as Robyn and I passed the 3M building on Interstate 94 on the way back to our house from Home Depot, the tornado siren went off.  Startled, we looked at each other and said, "Wow, that was loud."  We had already heard on the radio about the tornado warning and to be honest, I was more concerned about it having rained all weekend which prevented me from cutting the grass or moving my table saw outside.

It wasn't until we woke up this morning that we heard about the tornado that had struck north Minneapolis about 15 miles from where we are going to live.  Although one life was lost in the storm, this tornado paled compared to the tornado that hit Joplin, Missouri and the ones that struck the southeastern United States.  ...sort of puts my complaints about the rain in perspective and helps me to remember my blessings.

It was just one of those weekends.  I should've expected it since there was a bear wandering around in our part of St. Paul last week.  The weekend got off to a great start. Robyn discovered that the scraggly bushes on the side of the yard were actually lilacs and there were blooming...

These, along with the crab apple tree, add some well appreciated color to our yard.

Everytime we came back to the house, Robyn, taking a big sniff, would ask me as I was unlocking the door, "Can you smell the lilac?" Unfortunately, the only way I could, with my bad sinuses, would be if they were practically in my nostrils.

My plans for the weekend was to get flooring down in the living room, dining room, master bedroom; paint the middle bedroom; and get a functioning bathroom.  Thanks to Tino; Mary and their daughter, Danielle, we were able to accomplish most of that.

Danielle has a gleam in her eyes as she shows off her paint work in the middle bedroom (that's a Sherwin Williams' color called Griffin.)

Tino was much more efficient at laying the laminate than I was...

Friday evening, when I was at wit's end trying to get the joints to fit together properly in the master bedroom, Tino, along with Mary, came over and not only showed me some tips and tricks but also put most of it down.  When Sunday evening rolled along, we had a pretty good system going with me doing the cutting and Tino doing the laying. 

After Tino put that last piece down in the dining room...

It was great seeing the results...

Mary demonstrating how exhausted we all are...

Our final activity for the evening was to unroll the rug for the living room that Robyn had found on clearance at Home Depot...

Copper thinks it will provide a nice play surface.

As for the bathroom, the most productive part of the weekend was hitting my finger with the hammer while nailing up a support for the edge.

Jamming a splinter up under the nail of my pinkie finger was no comparison.

Crying over spilled paint...

Robyn has been giving me crap about how much paint I get all over myself when I paint.  Now I will admit, I may not be the neatest person when it comes to moving paint from the paint can to the wall and ceiling but most of what I do get on me is the results of drips.

Yesterday, while I was working on setting the bathroom tub, Robyn was painting the middle bedroom.  Her first comment to me was, "Gee, it's really hard to paint the ceiling. It drips everywhere."

Her next comment about 30 minutes later was loud and something along the lines of, "*&^%, @#$*&<^!"

I rush back upstairs to see what the problem was.  Robyn was cutting in the primer on the wall (which is gray) below the ceiling (which is white).  She was holding the roller pan in one hand and had tipped it back accidentally, pouring paint down the front of one of her favorite shirts and leggings, soaking into one of her favorite bras.

I was able to get most of it out of her shirt and bra using the old-fashioned washboard attached to the laundry tub in the basement.

And I must say, she looks pretty sexy in my t-shirt.

Get 'er down...

Wednesday evening I started on the master bedroom laminate after I finished up connecting the bathroom ventilation fan duct.  The first decision I had to make was which direction to lay the laminate.  There were two conflicting trains of thought about this.  One train says lay the laminate in the longest direction of the room; the other, parallel to the direction the light comes into a room.

I had gone online to find the manufacturer's instructions for this particular laminate and they said to lay the laminate parallel with the light coming into the room.  I still mulled it over until I remembered one of the houses we looked at when we were home shopping. The house had laminate laid the longest direction across two rooms but perpendicular to the light coming into the rooms.  I remember looking at it and the glare of the light was just ugly.

So I decided to go parallel to the light.

This meant I needed to do a dry run of laminate across the room to determine how much of a gap would be left on the far wall... about 18 sheets as opposed to 9 sheets if I were to lay the direction.  Once the gap was there, you measured the gap, subtracted the expansion space for both sides (between 1/2 and 1 inch) and then divided by two.  This result was how wide the first course of laminate should be.

30 minutes later I found out that the length of the room was exactly equal to the 18 or 19 sheets needed to cover it.  But that didn't mean I didn't have to rip the first course.  The tongue of the first course of laminate that would go against the wall had to been cut off (ripped lengthwise) so I wasn't saved any saw work.  Each tongue of the laminate that was against the wall had to be cutoff as well.

So, I finally started for real...  I laid the first three courses exactly as the directions called for (and they seemed counter-intuitive to me).  Basically, start with a full length sheet, then start the 2nd course with a 2/3 length piece, and then the 3rd course with a 1/3 piece.  Next the directions called for putting a full length piece on the 2nd and 3rd courses before putting a full length piece on the first course. 

It was difficult but I got that sucker in there.  The instructions then said to repeat the process... Full length on the 2nd course; full length on the 3rd course and then the piece on the first course.  By then I was having to deal with 2 walls and I just couldn't get that piece in there.  If I had been using regular tongue and groove laminate, it might have been possible but I was using an interlocking tongue and groove and it just wasn't possible.

After much frustration, I gave up on following the directions and I did one course at a time.  It started going much better and in about an hour I was able to get about 1/3 of the room done.  Here's how it looks...

Best Laid Plans...

Tuesday afternoon, the contractor who installed the HVAC system came back to fix a minor issue that came up during the permit inspection.  While they were there, I also was planning on them fixing another issue the inspector brought up... the bathroom fan wasn't vented to the outside.  However, the guy who came looked at the fan and found out that it wasn't installed correctly.  The outlet was right up against the joist  and was installed with the screws screwed into the sheetrock sideways.

Downside was they weren't able to vent it for the price I had been quoted and the new price was considerably higher than what I was willing to pay.  So where my original plans for Tuesday were to fix some of my sloppy mudding in the middle bedroom....

sand and then prime the room so we could paint and install flooring this weekend.  Instead, I had to work on the bathroom fan.  Which involved removing the old fan, adding a block to the side of a joist for a secure surface to attach the fan...

Cutting a hole in a piece of plyboard that overlaid the joists next to the opening, rotating the new fan 180 degrees, attaching it to the block and then powering it up.

Up in the attach, I found some nails coming up through the ceiling right next to the fan outlet so it wasn't possible to connect the ductwork directly to the fan.  So another trip back to home depot to pick up an 3" elbow and a 3" to 4" connector.  Once this was done,  it was a simple matter of just connecting the ductwork to the fan and to a roof vent.

The R-8 insulated flexible ductwork seems a bit of an overkill for a bathroom fan that won't be part of the internal distribution system... but hey... that's what the inspector wanted and I was able to do this for about 1/3 what the contractor wanted.

Don't forget me!!!

After work today, I headed back over to the house to put the second coat of butterscotch paint on the walls in the foyer.  Because it's Robyn's night to work late, I ran by the house to pick up Copper and take him for his afternoon constitution.  As soon as he was done, we loaded up and headed to the house.

...and of course, when I was halfway there, I realized we were out of paint rollers.  This necessitated a side trip to Home Depot to pick up a package of rollers, along with garbage bags and 2 gallons of Killz primer.  Since it was finally starting to get warm (70's), I didn't want to leave Copper in the my black truck so I loaded him up in the cart and brought him with me inside.

He always enjoys riding in the cart in the hardware store and just about always gets a lot of attention.

Once at the house, I made quick work of getting that second coat of paint on the foyer wall.  But first, I wanted to leave a remembrance underneath...

I'm really pleased with the rich colors Robyn chose for the house.  Except for the kitchen, the downstairs is now ready for the new flooring.

I watered the new plants that Tino and Mary planted and was back home in time for a late supper.

Friends... the force multiplier

Another busy weekend at our old house.  Saturday, Tino and Mary joined us, helping to paint among other things.  It was a good thing too because Friday morning as I was getting ready for work, I tweaked my back.  But hey, that's why I buy ibuprofen in bottles of 500 (and the muscle relaxers weren't too shabby either.)

Saturday morning, Robyn and I went to our storage locker and picked up our propane powered lawn mower and my table saw and then stopped at... Home Depot... on our way to the house.  Dreary day.. mid-50's with drizzling rain so we weren't able to cut the grass nor was I able to set the table saw up for use outside.

But we still were able to get stuff done.  While Robyn pulled up masking tape in the closets and did touch-up in the master bedroom, I sanded the soffits.  Boy... does it generate a lot of dust...

This air return just seems to have the worst luck.  If mud was going to fall off my knife, it was just about a guarantee it would happen over this return... and about half the dust seemed to go down it as well.

Tino and Mary's timing was just about impeccable.  Just I was finishing sanding this and Robyn was finishing masking the entrance foyer, they showed up.  Their hands were quickly filled with brushes and rollers and all of us were slapping some primer on the ceilings and walls.

Once we were finished priming, Tino started on that 800 pound gorilla that was on my back, otherwise known as the cast iron tub.  With my tweaked back, about all I was good for was throwing my weight around... on the end of an 8 foot long 2x4.  While I was levering the tub up, Tino was putting blocks under it.  Once we had an edge we good get our fingers under (about an hour later), Tino and I were able to stand the tub on end.  I was standing on top of the toilet with a leg braced against the wall (I didn't even work about the toilet seat lid cracking because I knew I was putting in a new toilet later) while Tino had the awkward position down on the floor.

We strapped that sucker to my appliance handtruck and wheeled in down the narrow stairs with the nice 90 degree turn that had about 1/4 inch of clearance.  I WISH it were as easy as it sounds.  Tino, because he must work out, was guiding the bottom while I held onto the handles up at the top.

Once we got it outside, Tino took a well deserved break.

Later, after the break was over, Tino installed the curtain rods for Robyn's dining room curtains.

A long day but we accomplished a lot.

Sunday, we didn't make our customary trip to Home Depot.  We went to Lowe's instead.  I'd ran out of sheetrock screen and I needed some more to sand the middle bedroom which I had finished mudding during the week.  As I was putting that last coat of mud on, I thought I was going to run out once again.  I didn't but I did cut it close.  This is all I had left from a 3 1/2 gallon bucket.

The reason for the trip to Lowe's rather than Home Depot was to check out their selection of bathroom vanities.  We found one that Robyn and I both liked.  We didn't buy it 'cause it wouldn't fit in Robyn's Eclipse.

Five minutes after we got to the house, Robyn's co-worker and friend, Pat, showed up to help Robyn paint.

While Robyn and Pat were painting, I unpacked and put together the lawn mower as well as started plugging some of the holes from where the radiator pipes once were run.

I made a couple of loops around the yard to try the mower out and then Robyn took over as Pat was painting the foyer.  Just as she was finishing up, Tino and Mary showed up bearing gifts.  Mary was dividing some of the plants in her garden and she brought some over to share.  Tino was kind enough to prepare the beds and plant them for us.

Once the 2nd coat of paint was dry, we were able to put the curtains up in the living room.  Mostly gold with dark red trim, they were hard to get a good picture of with the sun shining through the window.

At the end of the day, here is a picture from the front of the living room to the back of the dining room, complete with the construction mess.

As we headed to the local Holiday Stationstore to get gas for Robyn's car and a 52 ounce fountain diet Coke for me, Robyn sighed like I'd been for the past couple of days... seems like tweaked backs are contagious.

Thank you Pat, Mary and Tino for all of your help this weekend.

Tornado...

Tornado certainly describes the past couple of days in our household.  Robyn had been complaining about her leg for the past couple of months.  She strongly suspected that the artery leading to her leg was blocked; she had stents put in about 3 years ago.  Friday, she had an angiogram and the surgeon found that the stent in the right external iliac artery had closed.  He said this was basically due to tissue growth caused by inflammation; the left side was okay.  He put in a new stent inside the existing stent that rotated as it was inserted to remove the tissue.

Friday was a long day.  We had gotten to the hospital at 8:00 am expecting her to go back shortly thereafter.  She was taken back for the procedure until about 12:15 pm.  They finished up about 1:45 pm.  After laying completely still for 3 hours, Robyn was moved to a room in cardiac care where she spent the night.  She on restrictions (no driving for 3 days) and then reduced activity for 10 days.

As for the other tornado in the news, my sister, Tammy, who lives in Mississippi about 30 miles south of where the tornadoes went through, went over to Alabama near Tuscaloosa with a friend of her's to volunteer at one of the local churches.  After spending the first part of the day sorting donations, they went to a local residence where they worked to clear debris from the yard.  Tammy compared the devastation to that which was caused by Katrina.

Here are a couple of photos she took yesterday:

Saturday morning, while I was waiting on Robyn to be discharged, I went over to the house, which is only 10 minutes from the hospital where she was, to put another coat of mud of the soffits in the living room.  Robyn was discharged at 12:30 pm.  We picked up some El Loro for lunch to celebrate a late Cinco de Mayo ( the line was out of the door on May 5th) and had Robyn home by 1:30 pm.

After getting her settled in, I headed back to the house for some more work.  I actually had a very productive day.  

I worked on the small closet in the master bedroom which I needed to complete so I could put down the flooring.  Alternating with the other closet in bedroom two, I spackled, masked and primed.  I could hardly believe, in one of the closets, I could see wallpaper patterns bleeding through; I wondered if it was the original and if there had been only one coat of paint over it in the past 110 years.

As spackle was drying, I pulled the ugly cove molding off in the middle bedroom.  I couldn't understand why anyone would have put something so ugly and sloppy up... until I saw what was underneath.

Once again the original wallpaper was visible... along with a gap of anywhere from 1/4 to 3/4's of an inch.  Apparently when the house was re-wired, they put sheetrock on the ceiling.  Rather than tape off the edges, they covered the gap with cove molding.  Although the joints were pretty sloppy, they weren't anywhere as sloppy as the tape job I saw in the larger closet.

Rather than replace the cove molding after we painted the room, I decided with all my new mudding experience I would go ahead and tape and mud the junction of ceilings and walls in the room as well.

We had to do our most extensive wall repairs in this room.  The floor has settle some and the stress had caused the plaster to crack and, in some places, fall out.

Between the general grunge and scribbling on the walls, sometimes it was difficult to see where to patch.

One more layer of mud and some sanding, this room will be ready for paint.

Mudder's Day

As it gets closer to summer (hard to believe as the trees are just starting to get leaves), the days outside are getting longer and so are the days inside the house.

We bring Copper with us and he hangs out as we work. he's never been the type to lay down whenever their are people out and about.  Sunday, he was nodding off on the arm of the couch and Tuesday morning he was still having issues getting out of the bed.



At the apartment, there is an informal "adopt a piece of furniture" corner next to the recycle bins.  Robyn and I will keep an eye on stuff that appears there and if it's something we like, we'll wait a week or so to see if anyone takes it and then check it out closer.  We found an interesting octagon end table this way a couple of months ago.  I found this lamp a few days ago...

We'd also been scouring Craigslist looking for a headboard or bed to go in the 2nd bedroom.  We were at the point where I was going to make a headboard when this one showed up that we picked up a couple of weeks ago.



The basic styling fits the house and we'll sand it a bit before we do a "shabby chic" paint job on it.

Tuesday evening, I went back over to the house and finished screwing the sheetrock to the soffit boxes covering the ductwork in the living room.  I brought an electric drill this time with some 1 5/8" self-tapping sheetrock screws.  It went much easier.  I also was able to mud most of that sheetrock except for a couple of corners (I ran out of mud.)

As three coats of mud are recommended before painting, I'm headed back over there this evening to finish the first and get started on the second.