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.