You want to be disgusted, appalled, and fascinated?

Other than a hearse, this is the last vehicle you want
to see in your driveway.

Read my blog, or call Mr, Rooter to clean out your sewer. It all started a couple days after we moved in. I took a shower before work and headed into the office. About an hour later, Cindy called with the bad news that we have water in the basement. I came back home and became pretty sure that water was seeping though the concrete from the main sewer pipe. We called Mr. Rooter and  made an appointment for the next day. The technician showed up the following morning and confirmed that the pipe was blocked. While running the snake down the pipe he commented that there was a significant sludge build up, perhaps complicated by paint, likely dumped down the drain by someone working for the previous owner. However, the main problem was a ball of root removed from the pipe by the snake. After that, we flushed toilets and ran water clearing the sludge. It looked like we were all good. HA!

Root mass and tired plumber.

Almost exactly a week later, after  a shower, the problem returned. So did Mr. Rooter. Well, after dire warnings from the technician that this could be any of several expensive issues, he ran the snake into the pipe again. More sludge was found along with other unmentionables that he dragged back from the sewer main in the street. Then on what was to be his last try he latched on the something big. Pulling the item back to the clean out damaged the snake and lodged the item in the pipe. Well, I know you are dying to know what was lodged in our sewer so I won't keep you in suspense any longer. A massive root ball, likely from the sewer main, was clogging our pipe's connection to the system. Now the problem remained of removing the massive root ball out of our clean out, where it was wedged. The poor technician pulled, cut, and ravaged his knuckles on the inside of the cast iron pipe but could not remove it. He finally decided to go back to the shop and return with a new blade and for his snake and proceeded to cut at the root mass pulling out chunks at a time. He finally was able to get the last THREE FEET of it out in one piece (see photo). Since then, we've had no sewer issues, fingers remain crossed.

There HAVE been other plumbing problems. I continue to try to solve a leak in the drain of the half bath related to the stopper, and there is a mystery leak under the kitchen sink. Also, at some point I need to install hot and cold water plumbing to the clothes washer, They were removed at some point for unknown reasons. Why they had a new washer and no water is a real mystery.

*NOTE* I encourage comments on my blog but there may be an issue. If you try to comment and cannot, please let me know.

We moved in!!

With plenty of work still ahead, but a good amount behind, we finally moved into our (new) home this past Thursday. I'm kind of skipping over some projects on this update simply because I wanted everyone to know.

Moving into a home, after living in your previous one for 25 years, presents problems and issues that had not occurred to Cindy and me. Some very simple daily routines are completely different now. For example, for 25 years I walked in the house and put my jacket on the same hook. The first time I came into the new place, I realized I had no idea where to put it. I still don't. Also, we have no handy place to keep our recyclables. In the old house, you opened the back door and tossed them in the bin.

Headboard strapped to truck roof. Pro Tip: If you can't tie a
knot, tie a lot. 

There were some larger issues as well. Our queen box spring would not fit up the stairs. This has forced Cindy and I to sleep in our guest bed. FULL SIZE guest bed. Cozy. Then, like a hack scene from a bad sitcom, the bed collapsed during the night landing on my laptop computer and glasses (which were stored under the bed for the night). Miraculously, the Lenovo laptop seems fine, and my glasses, while bent at a funny angle, seem to be o.k. as well.

Also, the bathroom was not quite ready yet so we had to drive back six blocks to our old place to shower. While I don't have a picture, Cindy apparently drove back to the old house one morning wearing Christmas pajamas, knee high black boots, and a fake fur jacket. Must have been quite a sight.

Tearing down the home theater. *sob* It'll be months before I
get around to setting it up at the new house. That's Natasha
peering out from below.

The new gas range and refrigerator are in but we've been slow to bring any food over so meals have been a bit of a challenge. Internet and cable are in the new house, but it took me a day or so to get the modem, phone, and WiFi going.

We have a room on each floor set for what I've been calling staging. When we bring things over from the old house, they go into the staging room where Cindy can inspect and clean items before they are released to be welcomed into the new home. The only things to bypass staging were Natasha and our new kitty Katia. I couldn't have kept them in staging with an army of cat herders. Katia the intrepid explorer from the streets made herself at home almost immediately while poor Natasha, traumatized from the new cat and the move simply sat wide eyed under the Christmas tree for almost 24 hours before venturing out. She's much better now and ignoring the antics of Katia with a stiff upper lip like the Queen she is,

Katia seems pretty comfortable at the new house. What do
you think?

The downstairs staging room is also jammed with the queen box spring. Anybody want a nearly new box spring? Olum's is delivering a split set tomorrow so hopefully we will be in a safe and large bed this week. By the way, any potential visitors need not worry. I have repaired the bed frame and it should be damn near impossible for the bed to collapse now. I think.

That's enough silliness for now. Lots of updates coming including more plumbing issues (major), appliance delivery issues (minor), and further restorations (endless).

Lighting, Electrics, and Christmas

Strange outlet. Those two little knobs were hot! Note the
ceramic outlet box. 

These depressing fixtures were everywhere in the house.

Three items stood out from the inspection report when we purchased our new home, plumbing, electrical, and the chimney (flue). I finally got around to calling the electrician that gave me an estimate for replacing all of the outlets, and bypassing what was left of the knob and tube. Also of interest was this strange outlet in the floor of the living room and bonus room. The inspector who has done thousands of homes had never seen one before. The retired Union electrician with 50 years experience had seen one before, but didn't know what it was used for. I was fortunate to resist the urge to stick my fingers in there when I first saw it as it turned out to be live. Yikes! They have been removed and I plan to use the now empty living room outlet box as a way to run the speaker wires for the surround sound system. I plan to get around to that in 2017. (kidding Cindy).

New dining room fixture

Porch light.

The house was filled with low end fixtures (understandable considering they had student renters), so I'm going around removing and replacing them as I work on the rooms. I found so far that they have not used ANY standard light boxes instead using electrical boxes for mounting the fixtures and wire junctions. I've found two examples so far where the fixture was mounted to the drywall on the ceiling, not even anchored to the box. SO I've had to be inventive in finding a way to safely anchor the fixture. In the dining room, I removed the lower drywall ceiling, then the upper lathe and plaster to access the floor joists above. On the front porch, where there was a bare bulb in the center of the porch, and an el cheapo fixture by the door. I managed tap into the wooden slats for the hanging light, and adapted mount for the wall light. Speaking of the porch, Cindy's girlfriends gave us a house warming gift card to Lowe's and we used it to purchase two matching outdoor fixtures. Very nice.

Me, my Santa hat, and our Xmas lights. You can see both new
porch lights too.

Cindy and I both love to decorate for Christmas and the fact they we haven't moved into the Park St house hasn't stopped us. In the mild weather after Thanksgiving, I went ahead and put up the outdoor lights. A good 10 or 15 years ago Cindy purchased some old style C9 outdoor lights in an after Christmas sale. I never felt like I had a good place to put them in the old house, but I broke them out and installed them in the new place. Very traditional. Indoors, we decided to put up a fresh Christmas tree in the living room. Having the tree up is really motivating us to move in and we hope to do so soon.

Christmas tree in the living room, (it's not as close to the fireplace as it looks) just need some furniture. Finished dining room on the right. Candle is the first official flame in the fireplace

Crown molding

Old molding removed. Gap exposed

Our goal is to complete three rooms before we move in, the living room, dining room, and "master" bedroom. Each present their own challenges. For the dining and living rooms, it was primarily the painting and molding. The molding along the floor was fine, natural wood work and in pretty good shape, Along the ceiling though, not so great. At some time in the past, the original ceiling was repaired with a second ceiling installed below leaving a nasty gap at the wall. This was solved by placing cove and quarter round molding over the gap. While this solved the problem of the gap, it didn't look all that nice so me and my big mouth mentioned that Crown molding was the way to go. One lesson that I have not learned in 30 years of marriage is that is often a good idea to keep such thoughts to myself. There was no getting around it, I was putting up Crown molding.

How do you get 16' lengths of molding home in a truck with a
 6' bed? Very carefully.

The first hurdle was getting the damn stuff home. Home Depot sells it in 16' lengths making transport difficult. Luckily, my brother-in-law Randy has generously loaned us his compact pickup which made the transport feasible, if not tricky. Good news is that his Ford Ranger has a club cab and pass thru window!

Equipment set up.

Showing the angle of the molding . We later removed that
section and went with a single length. 

A much larger hurdle was the actual installation of the molding. I've dabbled in molding from time to time and have a cheap miter box but this was well beyond my skill and tool set. One of the best things about being a volunteer firefighter is that you meet people with all kinds of skills. One I've met and known for years is John Kolly, a professional carpenter, retired after 30 years with New York State. John had the tools and skills needed.

Even so, the job turned out to be quite tricky. After carefully measuring the angles, we learned that we had to adjust the measured angles to account for the fact that the Crown molding "leans" away from the wall at about 30 degrees. This led to multiple experimental cuts to set up a guide set of inside and outside angles. Then, there was the odd open angle above the fire place which sits across one corner of the living room.

John at work

Calculating the amount of molding was tricky. Generally the rule is to measure the size of the rooms, and add 10% for slop. That's what I did and it would have worked, but we made a minor mistake with one piece, and the fact that we wanted the longest spans possible sent me back to Home Depot for one more length.

An added difficulty was the solid masonry walls on the exterior of the house. No wall board or lathe, just plaster over block. This made to difficult to drive nails into much of the base of the molding. Very glad John had an air powered nail gun.

Finished product.

I selected a pre-finished molding that did not require painting. A great choice as long as you want a semi-gloss white, which we did. It eliminated the messy, clumsy, and lengthy process of painting the molding, waiting it for it to dry. Not pleasant with nine 16' sections.

Then, when you think you are done, you're not. The entire thing, top and bottom, seams and nail holes, must be caulked. John again came through, more patient and careful than I. The manufacturer of the molding makes a caulk that perfectly matched the paint which again made it very easy.

Outside corner

Now that it's done both Cindy and I are thrilled. It's easily the best and most dramatic improvement to our home that we have accomplished so far. It really adds a touch of class and refinement. Unfortunately, I failed to learn my lesson and thought out loud about adding crown molding to some of the other rooms of the house. This will only be possible if John continues to answer his phone.

So my advice to other home owners? If you want to try this, go ahead. Just make sure you have a talented friend to help. Also, keep your thoughts to yourself unless you are sure you are ready to take it on.

Plumbing and chimney work

New water heater

When we first bought the house there were three items that needed immediate attention. They were the chimney (flue), the electrical outlets, and the plumbing. While I'm probably wrong, I feel more comfortable, and less likely to make a major mistake working on the electrical issues than the plumbing. For that reason, we chose to pay a plumber to work on the house. For starters, the water heater was is such bad shape that no one, not even the inspector, felt safe turning it on. So for the first couple weeks of ownership, we had no hot water, making it  tougher for Cindy to clean. The previous water heater had been incorrectly installed (we're finding a lot of "incorrect" stuff in the house) resulting in additional work for the plumber. First, the venting was inadequate and poorly installed. Also, city code requires copper piping for about two feet above the heater to avoid heat from the vent from damaging the the plastic pipe that was in place.

Half bath leak in wall

 Another major issue was the burst pipes in the half bath. The very cold winter and lack of heat in the addition where the bathroom is located led to burst pipes. Of course, the location of the breaks couldn't be worse and the plumber struggled mightily to get to the breaks. He has succeeded and we are able to use the half bath (after a good scrubbing by cleaner-in-charge Cindy.

Still have more plumbing work to do, which I may tackle on my own. For some reason, the previous owner removed the attachment to the washer next to the utility sink. They also just cut the hoses to the washer (what!?). So, I need to add a T to the pipes to the sink, shut offs, and spigots to get the washer working. Side job will be to remove and clean the dryer vent. God knows what's clogged in there.

Unfortunately, we have low water pressure in the house and the culprit is most likely the galvanized pipe that leads in from the street. The have a tendency to corrode and clog over time leading to low pressure. Replacing that pipe will be a job in the future by a professional.

The chimney was another high priority item. We could not turn the heat on because the flue for the furnace and water has completely collapsed. Also, due to moisture backing up from the clogged flue, the vent pipe to the heater had a hole the size of my fist. I had gotten an estimate from a chimney guy before closing and I called him almost immediately after closing. The delay in closing resulted in him getting completely booked. Oh boy. No heat for a while. After understanding our plight, he stopped by one afternoon and had the the flue cleaned out in about a half an hour, and temporary tape on the vent pipe. He'll be back soon to put a liner in the flue, put a rain cap and varmint protector on the chimney, and unclog the damper over the fireplace. Within an hour of him leaving, I ran to Walmart to buy filters and had the furnace on. It was nice to have heat but the furnace is kind of noisy. Prevailing opinion from the plumber (who repaired the vent pipe) is that the protective paper on the floors covering the cold air return, and the high quality filter I bought is starving the furnace of air and causing a vibration. I hope so. Next time I'll buy cheap filters.

Blog update: Good news is stuff is happening more quickly that I can write. Several tasks have been completed but I have not written about include new lighting, crown molding, and even a major move job. I may complete a second blog before the end of the week to try and catch up.

Painting and other tedious tasks

Shortly after this photo was taken, my father-in-law came out of the closet. 

Our plan is to get three rooms in finished condition before we move into our new home. Those rooms are the Living Room, Dining, Room, and our "Master" Bedroom. Luckily, these three rooms probably require the least amount of work, but all needed to be completely re-painted. Painting is something I do well enough, and Cindy has never attempted, so the bulk of this task has fallen on me, with the tremendous help from father-in-law Gene. He has taken on the unenviable task of painting the closets in the vestibule, all three bedrooms, and the linen closet in the upstairs hallway. Painting closets is a real pain, especially for a bigger guy like me, because there is so little room to move and you constantly have to worry about bumping into a freshly painted wall, Something Gene did several times according to his pants and sweatshirt.

Various sample colors on the wall. More were added later. 

We had a hard time deciding which colors to chose for the dining room and living room, eventually going through several color samples, about ten I think. However, first things first and whenever you are painting a room, the ceiling comes first. I prefer the Glidden paint that goes on pink and dries white. Very useful when painting white on white, especially with a second coat and you can't tell where the hell you already painted. Unfortunately, after three coats in the bedroom, I realized I had a problem. Water stains from an old leak in the roof continued to bleed through my paint. Several people recommended Kilz but when I asked the paint expert Home Depot, he recommended Bin. The stuff is very watery, dries quickly, and will ruin any brush you use with it. When painting the ceiling, it runs down your hand and arm, and drips everywhere. It's NOT a water based latex and is damn near impossible to get off your skin. BUT, it works! Three coats of ceiling paint left stains, one light coat of this stuff covered it right up. According to the label, it will cover anything! I believe it.

Finished paint Living Room

Good news is that the dining room and living room are done. I bought the Behr Marquee paint for the LR  which was guaranteed to cover in one coat and indeed it did so. They couldn't mix the color we wanted for  DR in the Marquee so we ended up with Behr Ultra Premium which did not live up to it's name and required two coats.

Finished paint Dining Room (LR in background)

Looking at the two photos it doesn't look like there is much difference in the two rooms, when there actually is. The DR is much brighter and in the second (bottom) photo you can more easily see the difference.

The Master Bedroom is still a work in progress. The final coat of ceiling paint is on after the Bin primer, but we still haven't decided on a color for the walls. Other problem upstairs in the sacrilegious painting of the woodwork. I HATE it when people do this. it never looks good and now requires tedious repainting of all wood trim (baseboards, windows, doorways). No going back now though and it has to be done.

Cindy remains very busy. She's been unpacking kitchen and pantry items and organizing draws and shelves. We both have taken time to put down shelf paper and liner, which is another rather tedious task. Also, she has scrubbed clean both bathrooms and the kitchen. While remodeling all three is likely somewhere down the road, they need to be ready the way they are and both were beyond dirty (remember, there were college students in this place most recently). Brother-in-law Randy lent us his pickup truck and Cindy and I used it to move most of our basement stuff to the new house including my tools and most of Cindy's cleaning chemicals (Yikes! - should have had HAZMAT labels for that).

Coming up soon, reports on plumbing issues, upstairs floor resurfacing, and on the crown molding installation. AAiiiiiEEEE!!!!!

Beating the bushes (non - political)

Before.

After.

Chainsaw expert at work, 

In general I expect this blog to run in chronological order but I am going to skip over a few previous, on-going jobs to jump to something that just happened and created several comments on my Facebook page, that being the clearing of the overgrown shrubs from the property. The pictures are dramatic to be sure, and it was a high priority item for Cindy and I, but it was amazing to us how many positive comments we got on the work. Facebook friends and our new neighbors loved the improvement. Several of them stopped by to voice their approval, some rolled down car windows to shout out encouragement, and others gave a thumbs up as they drove by.

For starters, I couldn't have done it without the help of Bob Kocenko, Cindy's cousin. I asked him for help and he showed up Saturday with three chains saws, his monster dump truck, and a professional grade wood chipper. Also along with Bob was a helper who was an artist with the chain saws, managing to fell those huge cedars that we're intertwined with cable, phone, and electrical service lines, I did a lot of standing around at first, then began to drag the logs and branches over to Bob who was running the wood chipper. Cindy ran out for Down's Ave Tavern sausages, Brozetti's Pizza, and liquid refreshments. Around 1 PM, we were done, at least for the cutting and chipping. Bob would be back on Monday to pick up the leftover debris, and large logs. The original plan was to pull the trees out with the roots but after a survey we learned that the gas line was almost certainly intermingled with some of the bushes. Also, the roots of the large cedars extended under the porch and Bob was afraid that uprooting them could damage the house. So, at some point in the future we'll get a stump grinder to work on the leftovers.

Chipper and monster truck. Father-in-Law supervising. 

Monday came and Bob returned with his mini backhoe and dump truck and managed to pull out a few of the smaller bushes and pick up the remainders.

The operation sure brought out the neighborhood. Directly across the street Karen owns a two family she inherited from her father, that she meticulously maintains with her fiance Jerry. She is thrilled with the progress and happy to learn we will be living in the house, not renting it. She gave me a brief history of the neighborhood, Two houses up the street is the Park House Bed and Breakfast. Owner Pamela is also thrilled and said that she and her husband considered buying the house, but decided they had enough work to do in their retirement business. She invited us over to see her place after we move in. The next day, the owner of the two family next door, Will, also said he had been monitoring the house and was considering buying it if it sat much longer. He seems pleased that the house is being revealed and repaired.

Cindy and I are thrilled with the look of our house without the bushes and very grateful for the help from Bob, his helper, and Cindy's dad Gene in this important step forward.

This is it.

This is it, buried behind the bushes.

So we bought a house! By we I mean Cindy and I and by house I mean a place for her and I to live. Alone. Those close to us know that we have rented half of a two family home for over 20 years. That's not something I'm ashamed of, but also not information I've trumpeted so more casual friends and followers may find that surprising. Our rental arrangement was quite affordable and very comfortable for many years, but the situation deteriorated more recently and we had to move on. That story might be the subject of a full post some future day.

We have been casually searching for homes, with help from my realtor sister Karen, for many years. As our current housing situation deteriorated, the search became more intense. Our search was generally concentrated on the west side of the city of Binghamton. We have lived in that neighborhood since 1990 and grown to appreciate it, warts and all. Cindy is a "city" girl, enjoying having everything close by and prefers taking the bus to work when the snow flies. For me, I like the older homes and architecture that they provide.

SO...the house we bought is a fixer upper, built in 1915. I expect much of this blog will be stories and pictures of my struggles (with Cindy) as a weekend carpenter/plumber/electrician/landscaper to restore the home to it's full potential and glory.

Fireplace

It's not an exceptionally large home, around 1500 sq ft. 3 bedrooms, 1 1/2 baths, but with a separate two car garage that has a large second floor. Other features of note include a magnificent fireplace in the large living room, a bonus room on both floors, and a triple lot.

When we spotted the house it had been on the market for over 500 days. The owner had not occupied the home for almost 10 years. It had been most recently rented to college students and the wear and tear of this is very evident in parts of the house. Good news is that the beautiful hardwood floors on the first floor had just been re-done after a burst pipe in the first floor bath damaged them. Also, a brand new roof with warranty covers the house and garage.

Window cleaning operations with Cindy.

While we've been waiting to paperwork to clear and close on the home, the owner allowed us prepossession access to the home. This has allowed us to clean and do some minor prep work. I've covered the first floor hardwood with heavy weight paper to protect them from our cleaning, and the painting I will soon be starting. We have been removing the storm windows and cleaning off years of dirt and, well, tape. Someone that lived here before LOVED taping things to the windows, but wasn't real big on removing the tape.

Vine growth on house from last year. It was much more
extensive after another year's growth. 

Another big operation has been the removal of vines and weeds that have been choking the house. I forgot to take a picture of the extensive growth of grape vines on the south side of the house, but a real estate photo from the web shows the vines from at least a year back. The best method I've found so far to remove the vines is to simply rip them down by hand. Unfortunately, this leaves little spots on whatever surface the vine was on, along with small sticks. I plan to experiment with a spackling spatula to see if I can scrape off some of the leftover debris.

Attic debris

Halfway through the cleaning, but still have work to do. 

Another major task has been to clean up the attic.It had not been touched since before the roof was done. The roofer had apparently laid down a large tarp to catch the debris, which worked perfectly but was still in place with lots of dust and wood. Also, previous owner/renter items were still in the attic. There were piles of clothes, boxes, Christmas decorations, wardrobe bags, among the debris. Several bed frames and head boards were also part of the leftover attic treasures. I spent a considerable amount of time removing huge, head puncturing nails from the rafters. Like almost any attic, previous generations has used nails and brackets to hang things from the attic rafters. Like the tape on the windows, no one, until perhaps I arrived, had ever bothered to remove these hangers even though their original purpose had long passed. The next day, Cindy and I figured out how to remove the attic windows to give them their first good cleaning in decades, At some point I will need to remove them again, then re-caulk and paint them. The old dried caulk was falling out as we cleaned the windows.

Well I think that's enough for my first blog post. I hope to generate comments and suggestions from my followers as we forge ahead. I think this will also serve as a useful history of the house, and what we've done to restore it, for any future owners. If you see a bald guy covered with dirt, paint, grease, sweat and a worried look on his face having a much deserved beer at Sharkey's, that will be me. If I'm with a lovely lady, that would be Cindy.