Calling in help

It's hard to remember all the bits and pieces of things Mike has been doing since Saturday, but some of it involved plumbing, some framing - as well as having to go to school some. Today we called in reinforcements. We asked a neighbor, Bill, to help out - at a good time for him because he's between construction jobs. So while Mike mostly crawled around under the house today, connecting pipes and pulling out old ones, Bill worked on framing a closet and straightening out some problems left by whoever did the remodeling in the 1930s. No pics of Mike - or even of Bill today - but here's the closet frame.

Demo Day!

The day began with Mike and his brother, Terry, carefully deconstructing the front part of the rental side of the property. From the beginning we had planned for this to be a parking area, and we had long since closed it off from the rest of the house so that we could no longer use it as a work room. This makes a huge difference in the overall look of the house - as all our neighbors keep saying.

Terry and Mike begin the dance.

First break about 9 AM. The weather was great but they were already sweaty.

New, young help arrived: Jake works hard outdoors all the time.

Jake brought his work truck and TRAILER!

More Demo

Terry in front of the last of two big loads to the dump.

Its all gone!

Clean-up AFTER the clean-up. Mike, Jake and Terry working on bricks.

Sydnie in front of the new temporary fence.

A little more than planned

Tomorrow Terry, Mike's brother, and Jake, our nephew, are coming to help tear down the part of the house, so Mike has been doing a lot of prep. As he did a bit of cutting away, the whole front of the house shifted and became unstable, so he realized he needed to pull it on over. Soo look at this:

Floor soon

More work today for Mike - mostly getting the floor ready for the rental kitchen.

Out goes the old.

The old 2 crowbar technique.

Lovely sub-floor ready for plumbing and flooring.

Clean and sort

Thursday and Friday have been productive days with Mike working on several projects. Though he did a bit of plumbing and some work on the floor, he mainly worked on a frame for air-conditioner ducting in our kitchen AND on cleaning and sorting the back junk pile.

The junk pile - to be hauled off Saturday.

Seeee? All neatly piled for use - and that cleaned out corner!

No imagination needed

Some of you may have had trouble visualizing things in the bathroom, so Mike did this work today just for you! No, it's not nearly finished, but it's closer!

Can you see it?

Years ago, before the seminary had a steeple on the chapel, students used to say that it was there for those who had faith enough to see it. Today, by the way, it is back up after having been lost to Katrina. Well, I want to see how many of you can see the washer and dryer in the space that Mike began to make for them today?? They will sit back under the skylight, and he moved the bracing (cripple wall) back for them today while working on the floor of our bathroom. Can you see all the nice tile there??

More old stuff

I tore out some nails and screws in prep for drywall in the near future and got to what remains of the old lath and plaster. Mostly just remnants but I finally found some bits of the old plaster we'd been told about. It used horse hair as a filler or binder or something. I also found a cool old peg that's still holding something together.

Whoo-hoo again

Mike spent his whole work day yesterday in bed! He got up at 4:30 AM throwing up and was sick all day. No work. No air conditioning. Today he woke up feeling better, and by 10 AM we decided we'd join my brother and his family at my mom's for Mothers' Day. When we arrived back home at 8 PM I did NOT expect to work, but Mike had other ideas in the sticky warmth. By 9:30 we have an AC working. It's not elegant or pretty; not finished; not on both sides of the house, but nonetheless we have AC and it's coming into the bedroom on the opposite side of the house by a series of fans. YAY, MIKE!

Up on the housetop

Look at those chimney caps!

New chimney tops

Our chimneys are fake. It's sad and a bit embarassing but true. They have lots of concrete in them, but sometimes they still leak. So, as a break from working on the metal roof, Courtney made chimney caps and then put them up there. Gorgeous material! And he scared me to death getting it put up. I love them!!

More work

Mike is still working on the ducting, making more connections, but in the meantime the weather has been really nice.

More shiny things

Though we've hit a snag with an electrical problem and that has slowed us down, Mike has done a bit more work on installing the air conditioner ducting. One thing he did was to make a flange from flat metal. To him it was no big deal but I was impressed. On one level I see it as similar to a sewing project. On another level, it's big shiny METAL! There are a couple of things to notice besides the nifty flange. First, the tongue is a necessary part of the body when doing this sort of work. Second, probably the best part about this project to Mike was the fact that it was being done with his dad's tin snips, rescued this year from tools his mom saved. So though the air conditioners are yet to come, there is some progress.

He started with just this.

Dad Edens' tin snips

The tongue MUST be in good working order!

Nifty flange, huh?

Roofing!

Yesterday Courtney and Elijah, our roofers, were actually more than coffee drinking friends. They worked on our roof!! Last night we had major thunderstorms and today more, and we have more leaks than BEFORE they worked, but everyone assures me it will all be good eventually. It would have been a short process but first some fascia board had to be made to match the old. AND, as Courtney was installing it he texted me that - just in case I didn't know it - my house wasn't really square. Smart aleck! However, once that was done, the actual panels on the roof went fine. There's tie-in (to the main house roof) and finishing of ends left to do - after we stop having rain. But this nice green metal blends well with our slate, and seems to blend fine with the paint colors I've chosen. Don't worry; the bright turquoise stuff is just underlayment for the slate. After tie-in, that will no longer be seen.

Elijah, left, and the boss, Courtney, strip away slate.

Courtney begins while Elijah hands it up.

Meanwhile

Mike's still working on air conditioning, despite a setback. I just wanted you to see a little project I'm working on. It's simple. Just take out the old window glazing on the 4 original french doors and replace it. Only on the windows which are broken do we actually have to take it all out - a relief to realize after many hours of work. The glazing that went in around the 1980s is fine. It's easy to remove and will be easy to replace. The stuff that is older than that is another story!! I don't know what it was made from but somehow it has turned to rock. Even GUYS who try to get it out have trouble. But, it's a type of job which can be worked on from time to time and I will eventually get it all done. And it surely should keep me from griping about not making a contribution for a LOOOONG time.

A.C. soon

Yesterday I spent the morning chasing down supplies for the AC/heating duct work. Not a one-stop shopping expedition at all - but not too much of a challenge for me and the red truck. And I love getting to be the one getting things ready for the work. Unfortunately for my hard-working husband, that's about where my talent ends. But yesterday, while I tutored and ran herd on kids on the playground, he began working more on the AC ducting. Temps are in the 80s - much higher upstairs where the main work took place - and he worked until after 9:30 last night. Hopefully by this weekend, we'll be on our way!