99 problems and a roof is one

The morning after the ugly sweater party, Bryce was busy replacing the door knob and I was cleaning up the kitchen when, after drying off the wet countertop for the second time, noticed this.


See it? Above the door to the living room? Ok, here's a close up.


Yep, there was a crack in the ceiling and it was dripping water. Now, I have to admit to noticing this crack in the past but assumed it was just that, a crack in the plaster ceiling, nothing new around here. Well, on this particular morning that crack was bulging, wet and dripping so upon further inspection it appeared we had a leak in our drywall ceiling (the surfaces in the house range from plaster to drywall to paneling to unidentified). We knew when we bought the house that the roof would need to be replaced within the next few years and it was raining heavily outside however, we're on the first floor of a two story house and right under the bathroom. The toilet to be exact. We crossed our fingers that it was a roof problem, water running down a pipe thru the second floor to the first, and not a plumbing problem as the prospect of tearing up the newish travertine floor upstairs was not one I wanted to outright accept. We waited a few weeks to try to determine a correlation between the leak and either the rain or a flush pattern but the ceiling actually never dripped again.

We decided at that point to do some detective work and since we were hoping for a roof leak, started in the attic. Bryce stuck his head up there first, clearly ignoring the 'do not stand on the top of the ladder' warning on the ladder.


The attic is small and the floor of it is covered in blown in insulation, ducting and who knows what so you really can't get into it further than the waist. We could however see this from the attic opening.


There was very clearly (at least at some point) water running down the old chimney which is near the leak in question. We went outside to get an idea of the layout of all the items that punch thru the roof that may be allowing water to run down them and to the ceiling of the first floor....turns out there were a few. No idea what the two smaller ones are but the largest of the three pipes is the vent for the upstairs toilet waste water. That would align it directly above the leak. Hm....


Now we have discovered a definite roof problem but the location of the leak made it more likely to be a pipe problem. We figured we'd need to patch up the water damaged drywall in the ceiling anyway so we might as well bite the bullet and see what was in there.


First we found mold which was a given, but luckily very concentrated in that one spot. But next we found this


a cracked 4" cast iron vent pipe (the likes of which has never been seen in our plumber's 25 years of experience we later learned). What you can't see in this photo is that there is also a golf ball sized hole in the side of the pipe a few inches above the ceiling and if you looked directly up at the pipe, daylight. So now we had two confirmed roof leaks and a busted pipe.

a place for everything

This is a project I might not have included except that it was modified recently so I thought to throw in a post about it. I actually originally completed this one about a year or so ago.

I have a lot of jewelry....like a lot. I actually can't remember what I did with it before I put this all together but I imagine it was in a drawer or bin of some sort. Being one to enjoy a little organization, this set up would obviously not do, so I came up with an easy fix.

We have ample storage space in a floor to ceiling built in cabinet in our upstairs bathroom you can see here


I had a similar set up for storage in college and used push pins in the inside of the door to house my (much smaller at the time) jewelry collection. I took inventory of the jewelry I wanted to display and figured out the layout on the back of the door, taking into account any shelving so the door would still be able to close. I used wooden dowels, a scrap of chicken wire and Command's small wire hooks and ended up with this


Starting from the top: a bar for rings and pendants, wire mesh for earrings and brooches, two bars for beaded bracelets, four bars for bangles and nine hooks for necklaces of various lengths. The wooden bars lift off the hooks on each end for access to items in the middle. There are still a few things that don't fit and are in a drawer along with any nicer jewelry but it's so nice having everything easily accessible and relatively tangle free (not to mention it's a nice pop of color to look at every morning). I find myself wearing a lot of items I'd otherwise forget about now that everything is on display.

I tried to be careful about placement in relation to the shelving but once all the items were loaded on the door didn't quite close. I ignored the issue rather than putting anything back in a drawer but the other day I finally got around to fixing it.


It only took a little bit of pressure to get the drawer to close so Bryce installed a simple cabinet magnet and it works like a charm.


Now the door stays closed when not in use. Funny how you realize how much something actually bothered you once it's fixed. Thanks babe!


These are the hooks I used and the rest of the project was made of scrap materials I already had.


Total project cost, about $10.

keyless

A few weeks ago, conveniently during our annual ugly Christmas sweater party, the doorknob to our back door decided to just stop working. Somehow twisting the knob no longer did anything rendering the door inoperable while our house was completely full of guests. I can't say I shed many tears though as this gave me the perfect opportunity to replace it with the keyless version I'd been wanting.

I don't have a great before photo (shocker right?) but here's a nice one of the door taken while we were painting the outside of the house.


What I didn't know, is that for some reason, hardware manufacturers everywhere decided they would not make this in black. Wish I had known that before installing a black mailbox, doorbells, light fixtures, address numbers and painted the front door hardware black. I debated buying whatever color was cheapest and spray painting it black to match but at $120 for the doorknob it wasn't worth risking. We ended up buying this one, which was simply the darkest oil rubbed bronze we could find and of course no one but me would notice the discrepancy (and well, now anyone who reads this). We installed a new deadbolt to match as well as a new knob on the door to the garage which is just across the carport from this.

and here's my shiny new latch with keypad (paint touch up on this door is on the spring to do list)


The next challenge though was that the holes for our deadbolt and knob were too close together for the battery pack casing on the inside.  Bryce was able to figure out how to install that part upside down although the batteries inside needed help from a little tape to hold them in place.

walking on broken glass

Most of the windows in the house were installed by the previous owners and were a single hung type that opened for easy access when cleaning.


On one particularly blustery day, the clips that hold the bottom sash of the window upright when not being cleaned sheared off. The bottom sash crashed open, hitting the bottom window sill and spraying glass across the entire master bedroom. Luckily it was the summer time and since the window was typically open, we weren't under any tight time constraints to replace it which gave us time to game plan. The bottom sash was trashed and we really didn't want to have a completely new window installed since that might mean altering, and potentially damaging, the window trim for installation and needing to repaint. A bright light went off when we realized there was the exact window in the storage area of the garage and a fairly painless switch later we had a complete window in the bedroom and a half glass, half plastic with duct tape window in the garage. I'm embarrassed to say we just kinda left it that way for a while...a long while. Like a year.

Here you can see our DIY window in the background


We kinda forgot about it until a few weeks ago when we were well into winter and figured it was about time to have it replaced. It wasn't the most exciting way to spend $250 but it's nice to have it done. Spending money to fix things is never as fun as spending money on a new project. We used City Glass (no website, 208.263.0511) who were very easy to work with and did a great job on the install.


We'll be calling them again in due time as there are two broken panes (have been since we bought the house) in the original garage windows we eventually want to have fixed.

making way

This past spring of '10 we finally decided it was about time to do something about this

by which I mean the lack of a driveway to the carport we had created 2 years prior. This photo was taken during the weeks of house painting and fence building, the real before photos were lost in a tragic hard drive accident along with the during and after.  Let's just say the grass in this area didn't still look that good when we started this project.

We wanted to use eco-pavers as an earth (and eye) friendly alternative to poured concrete. These allow rainwater, which could contain car oils and rubber residue, to seep into and be filtered naturally by the ground and grass rather than creating additional polluted runoff into the storm water system.


Unfortunately at $8 a piece for a 1.5 sq ft block these were absolutely not in the budget for our 500 square foot project. We were definitely set against using concrete so we settled on a gravel alternative. Wanting to avoid the typical large gray driveway gravel we thought we'd try a pea gravel in shades of brown and tan. Fortunately we did some research and figured out that the reason people use larger sized gravel in driveways is because a car tire will simply displace smaller pieces. So off we went to Idaho Stone where they helped us create a mix of the smaller sized pieces we wanted aesthetically with larger sized pieces for function in a clay colored blend.

We dug down by hand about 6" and used a heavy duty landscape fabric to cover the entire area. The installation was very easy and will prevent the gravel from sinking into the dirt as well as prevent weeds. We edged the outline of the new driveway with pavers installed on their sides to contain the gravel and create a border for the grass.

Finished photos to come this spring; at the moment it looks a bit like this

kegerator raider

We had planned on replacing the mix and match kitchen appliances since buying the house and with the project list dwindling decided to tackle those next.  My top priority was the slowly dying dishwasher which turns out, worked just fine (what didn't was my super earth friendly biodegradable dish soap.  Sorry earth, I really hate water spots on my glasses!).  We were able to sell it for a few bucks and replaced it with a new stainless steel model. (Never did quite learn that 'take before photos' lesson did we?)




Bryce's top priority was to replace the refrigerator and you'll see why. We upgraded to a nice freezer on bottom stainless steel model which although I love the look of, don't recommend due to the very limited and inefficient freezer space.


but instead of selling or donating the old one, it moved out into the garage and became a kegerator for Bryce's new brewing hobby (this kid's got motives people). I was glad we kept it though when we decided to start purchasing fractions of farm animals for meat that wouldn't fit in the new freezer.


We made a shelf out of scrap plywood and 2x4s that sits on existing shelf supports inside. The standard shelves that were removed wouldn't hold the amount of weight we would be putting in there as the kegerator can now fit 1 standard half barrel and 1 6th barrel keg along with the Co2 canister (shown here with 2 6th barrels). The shelf left room below for Bryce's 'beer cellar'. Most people age wine....we age both.


the outside; we still need to add a drain tube for the drip pan, for now that blue bucket is doing the job


Bryce wanted to use leftover chalkboard paint on the kegerator to label the rotating selection but I got out of that task by showing him dry erase markers would work just as well. On the left is a custom tap I made for the home brewed IPA and on the right, the dry erase marker labeled 2* Below by New Belgium.


The stove, hood and microwave are still all white while we keep an eye out for any good deals.

and here's a pic of Bryce using his newly built workbench to assemble the co2 system

workin' on the work....bench

The immediate 'after' photos of the newly built, clean and organized workbench were lost in the tragic hard drive death of 2010 so these 'a bit after' photos will have to do (please excuse the clutter and muddy winter garage floor, we live in North Idaho, we can't help it).

First, a reminder of the garage as it looked when we first moved in. This is looking toward the front; here you can see the side door and part of the garage door


with the new garage door, light fixtures and wired for sound (why a garage needs 4 speakers and a sub I do not know but this one has it)


looking toward the back as it had been since moving in


and now with new electrical service, wiring, lighting, insulation, drywall, attic ladder, epoxy floor, Behr 'rain storm' (aka Seahawk blue) racing stripe, ceiling mounted extension cord reel, custom designed and built work bench and one very happy man

I like organizing so at this point in the project I was reenergized (being done with the mud and tape portion of drywalling helped too). To design the workbench, I first took inventory of the larger items it would need to house. The right side was designed specifically to fit the table saw, the shelf underneath was positioned so the massive wet/dry vacuum would fit and the top shelf so that the speakers could sit on top. We installed simple plug-in undermount cabinet lights for some task lighting and a ladder hook under the table top that holds the extra air hose. The width of the workbench was determined by simply taking up the entire width of the garage that was not taken up by the air compressor and tool chest shown in the photo above.


The attic ladder was one of the first things we did in order to get some stuff out of the way when starting the project. It was a huge pain to install but was definitely worth while. Before the drywall was installed on the ceiling, we took the opportunity of having the rafters open to slide 4'x8' sheets of plywood into the attic which now serves as a flooring for the storage above. The best part, somehow we ended up installing the ladder in a position that allows it to be open even when a car is in the garage, completely by chance.


The rest of our stuff was stored in the aptly named storage room, which is off to the side of the garage and runs about half of its length. I don't know why there are really no before photos but this room was covered in shoddily built shelving. We gutted it and treated it to all the upgrades as the garage. It is now one of the most utilized areas of the house as they weren't built with much storage capacity in 1908. Here you can see into it from the garage


and upon closer inspection


looking toward the left; this door leads to an outside covered storage area toward the front of the garage


Like I said I'm a huge fan of organization and this was a tough one to tackle. The clear bins were an easy choice but expensive when added up and I wanted to limit how much money was spent on just a storage room. We did reuse one item left by the previous owners; a storage cabinet with a latch, perfect for all those toxic items we didn't want easily accessible to the cats or knocking over.

We bought some mop and broom type holder racks for the garage area which also worked well in the storage room for the skis...all five pairs of them. This is what happens when you marry a skier.

And lastly, a memento left in the floor 'L.R.T 1957'


and a little word of encouragement, signed by our friend Big Air Matt Gillis

caved

The molding project was something we both wanted to do so after I chose the downstairs bathroom, it was back to Bryce's turn to pick a project (and rest assured it was as completely practical and necessary as his first).

Here I actually have to cheat a little on the chronology and skip backwards a bit.  The garage was a mess when we bought the house. The walls were completely covered in shoddily built shelves and nails for hanging....I have no idea but lots of whatever it was.  There were old pieces of furniture hung to the walls acting as storage, many of which I believe we actually demolished before moving in so we'd have a place to work and store some stuff.  The garage was built in the 50's when the house was moved to its current location so it's a bit newer than the house itself. The previous owners later added a storage room onto the side of it which was another rare good move for them.

Some before photos, taken after some shelving was already removed. It appears we've also already torn out the handrail and fencing that used to be across the carport as it's in this photo too.


entrance to the storage area is in the middle of this photo.


In the Spring of 2007 we emptied it out, scrubbed the floor clean and put down an epoxy coating. We have some 'in-progress' photos but not a clear 'after' photo.


Fast forward to the winter of 2009. The downstairs bathroom had been completed a few months prior and if you remember the pile of drywall from that post you'll know where this is going. We rented a U-haul to pick up the few pieces of drywall we needed for the bathroom and, since this project was next on the list, decided to go ahead and buy enough to finish out the garage while we had the rental truck. I think that was quite a plan Bryce schemed.

We cleared out the garage once again, insulated, ran speaker cable, drywalled, painted, and built a work bench. We had a new garage door and opener installed by Sandpoint Garage Doors (208.263.6040) and the entire garage rewired with a new dedicated panel (which also actually led to replacing the panel inside the house as well to support it...of course). There's not a clear set of in progress photos since each wall of the garage was on a different schedule. We still had a lot stored in there so we did a few steps to one wall, moved everything, then did the next wall.

installing some insulation


drywalling


we rented a lift to do the ceiling



the old garage door, the rails had been taken down to drywall the ceiling


new door opener installed, walls mudded


The mudding definitely slowed the project down a bit as the temperatures weren't high enough to dry it efficiently. We ended up purchasing an industrial type heater to help get the job done.  For anyone wondering, the green board was simply left over from the bathroom projects so we decided to use it up; we don't plan on housing any water activities in here.

Here you can see the attic ladder whose installation was actually the hardest part of the project


We painted the walls and ceiling Behr 'decorator white' and added a racing stripe of Behr 'rain storm'.  We used a matching blue stain on the plywood floor of the storage area.  Garage almost complete, just a work bench left to build. 


new garage door