Materials used to build this house.

It's always fun to work on old houses, it's never "the usual" renovation. There just always seems to be something waiting under or behind what you are working on that will suprise you. 10% good, 90% are like "what in the bleepity bleep were they thinking back in 19#$ when they built this place?"

For instance the drywall that was used in my house came in 2ft by 3ft sheets. It either came like that or the person had a really small car and had to cut the 4x8 sheets down to a better size for his VW or whatever small car existed in 1940 when this house was built. (Yes, I know that the bug was not out in 1940 but you get my point right?)

Nails. I know that there is a current crunch out there in the world in regards to metals available for building materials. Steel is at a premium. I think that I might be able to solve the crunch here in the Raleigh market if I were to start a smelter in my back yard under that gigantic oak. The nails that were used for this place are more like tent stakes used to hold down a circus tent. We ran into them first while working on the kitchen. The second nail we didn't come across while working in the kitchen, square nails. These bad boys were used for the tongue and groove flooring that was under the old school lenoleum. What fun these are.

So tomorrow I will either finish with ripping up the subfloor or I will be starting a new blog that details my new homemade smelting operation that will solve the local steel crunch.

Extreme Home Makeover visits Raleigh NC Part II

Sandy and I just made our final trip down to the EHMH and it is pretty amazing. While they were still carrying furniture and you can hear the sounds of saws and hammers in the workzone, it was ready to go. Here are a couple of pictures, left from wednesday night, right from monday night.

Help! DIY'ers...You make the call!

And even if you are just an armchair, laptop DIY'er who doesn't know squat about hammers, nails, screws, caulk, dust, dirt, or the pains of 1940's remodels, you might still be able to help.

The old kitchenette that we are turning into a master bathroom has old old old beadboard. The issue is that it runs horizontal...not vertically. Our first thought was to take it all down, cut it, spin it and nail it back up. Our thought now is to leave it up half of it, from the floor 1/2 up the wall, and then do new drywall and chair-rail in the rest of the room.

1. Do we take it all down and do all of that work?

2. Leave 1/2 and move on?

3. Do the entire room in new drywall?

Here is the room in question. Please leave comments

Extreme Home Makeover visits Raleigh NC

Pretty neat story. Last Thursday it all broke out among town. A couple that works very hard for the community and one of the local churches (1 of 5000 or so in this town) here in Raleigh NC had been selected for a makeover. When we visited on Saturday night they were still leveling the dirt. Tonight, Monday, they were painting, roofing, adding stone....just amazing stuff.

It really is a neat show, and even more amazing that it is a full-tilt, real construction area with hundreds of people all over working to get it done. I wasn't really excited about all of the waste that be thrown-out that was perfectly usable, but it's not my jobsite. I will try to post a finished product photo sometime next week after they move that bus!

good ideas, new camera, and a good dust mask

Good Ideas- second floor remodel+driveway right below+ chunks of old drywall+ blue tarp from harbor freight (yeah Bill I said Harbor Freakin Freight) = see below

We were able to make 2 trips to the dump with one more coming early in the AM. I really can't believe that the Raleigh area dump doesn't cost me anything to visit. In Seattle it was a minimum of $12 per visit. I like not paying, but I know that it isn't the best for the community resources.

Today I was able to rip out some more drywall, insulation, and put together a plan for what we are going to do with all of our kayaking /backpacking/camping gear. The sollution was found in some space hidden behind some 1940's construction. After taking out some drywall and insulation, it should work out great.

We have recently upgrade our digital camera. I really love this thing. I have a long way to go before I am shooting like a pro, but it really is nice to end the work day with some artsy fartsy photos. This old house had BX cable all through out. That stuff reminds me of spiderman or some super hero. (link http://www.flickr.com/photos/43737467@N00/ ) I am still trying to get Flickr to work on beta blogger.

I love DEMOLITION!

There is just something about demolition. Maybe it is the fear of what you are about to do really can't be undone without some investment of time and material. Maybe it is the curiosity side of me that wants to see how this house was constructed. But then again maybe it is just the fact that I love to use powertools and that I really like to destroy things. It's really all three, but the destruction that is associated with discovery is most enjoyable.

Today Sandy and I started on the demolition part of the remodel. One wall was in the way and it lasted all of about 10 minutes. The majority of today's time was spent trying to salvage old bead-board that covers the old kitchenette from floor to light fixture. We decided that we will leave the original bead board 1/2 up the wall, with some new drywall coming for the rest of the room.

No fist fights broke out and the turkey tasted great!

Well the big turkey day has come and gone. With 13 people total in the house, it all worked out great. We had a couple of friends in from Oregon and California, with the remainder of folks coming from West Virginia and South Carolina. It was really nice to have the house so full, with so many people eating and drinking while carrying on so many conversations. The best part was the fact that we had 3 or more cooks going in the kitchen while some of the rest of us hung out in the dining room, but were still able to talk and socialize with those in the kitchen.

No Wall=Good Idea!

Everyone that stayed seem to have a good time, I know that everyone ate way too much and possibly made too many trips to the cooler of ice cold beverages that was on the back porch.

Now that is all done and the crowds have come and gone, we are going to start breaking down plans for the master bedroom and bathroom for the second floor. What this means is building a new wall, hanging some doors, installing sun tube sky lights, redoing the drywall, and creating a master bathroom in an old kitchenette. Now this is going to be way too much fun. My goal is to be totally done in 4 months. YEP! 4 Months. I really don't want this to drag on into the summer kayaking season.

I guess it's time to start digging out all of the tools that I just put away in the depths of the basement. It's time to fire up the XRP drills, plug in the recip saws, find a new pair of work shorts, and get busy with a new project. Till then.....

Grout! Grout! Let it all out!

Everything grout. I applied the sealant to the bar tops (looks great) and then Sandy worked the grout onto the backsplash. It really is fun to complete a project. Just some caulk, some sealant on the backsplash, and a little bit of paint and the kitchen will be 100% done. March 18th to November ?? Not bad....could have been better, but not bad. We really have learned a lot on this one project.

• How to take down a load bearing wall
• How to refinish a wood floor.
• How to do plumbing
• How to do tile
• How to do concrete countertops
• How to use caulk to hide things.
• How to salvage old trim.
• How to wire can lights.
• That HD nor Lowe's Have everything.

Now we are working hard to make sure that everyone that is coming up or down to our house has a good time and a full belly. We have Plenty of places to put em, now we just need to make enough food to make them all happy. With 9 other people coming for turkey day, we have a lot to figure out. Sandy started testing some recipes tonight ( I love taste tasting unless it involves green vegetables) Here are some pictures from todays work.

Live from Raleigh....it's Saturday Night!

Your guest host---Fosters Flooring----

John and Al came and finished up today with the final coats of Bona poly and the stuff looks Great! I guess they wrapped up today around 4 ish and now the fans are running while we are camped out upstairs. We will let it all dry for another 24 hours or so before we even think about putting our stuff back in. Till then it's Mtn Biking, shopping, and maybe just maybe a tackle on the basement shop area!

Some of you might be getting tired of seeing lame ol pictures of floors. So below are a couple taken from around our block today. Since we can't be just sitting here waiting for Poly to dry, we have been taking some nice walks See below

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The Rose Garden at the end of our street>

I just love progress

Sealant on......the rest to come tomorrow!