Belated update

I know I've been promising pictures for weeks now, I've finally got some to share. A few steps between the last set of pictures and these haven't been taken so you will notice a fair amount of progress. I'm also going to be a bit hazy on what I have or haven't said, and in what order things were accomplished.

Let's start with the work I wasn't doing myself, the plumbing. The plumber finished roughing everything in, and the whole plumbing system is now up to code. He also set the tub in place, this was a huge boost for me. I know I said when I did the framing it was great to finally be putting things in rather than taking them out, but seeing the tub sitting in the bathroom was that same feeling times ten.

Although things have started to go in, I wasn't (and still not) completely finished tearing things out. I've filled yet another dumpster. I finished tearing out the lath boards in the office, so that room is now down to the studs. I also tore the plaster and lath off of one wall in the living/dining room. I originally wanted to keep the plaster but it was too cracked and opening the wall will make the electricians job much easier.

The rest of the demo came in the kitchen. I pulled all the sheet rock off of the exterior wall to make it easier for the electrician and also so I could insulate. When a took all of the cabinets out I found wood floors beneath, wood floor s that I thought with a refinish would be great. So I decided to tear out the old linoleum hoping to find wood floors in fairly good shape. Much to my disappointment I found yet another layer of a linoleum type flooring. It almost seemed more like rubber and while puling up on one corner I thought it might just come off in one big sheet. Boy was I wrong. It didn't, and it won't, whatever they used to glue it to the floor not only has staying power but left the beautiful wood floors looking like crap. The final bit of work I did in the kitchen was tearing off two layers of hideous wall paper.

This past weekend I started insulating the second floor, leaving some cavities open for the electrician. I think that brings it up to date.

I just got off the phone with the electrician who plans on starting next Monday. Because of this I think I may just take the weekend off. If I do anything it will probably just be some insulating, maybe I'll start on some of the tile work in the new bathroom too.

At any rate here's the latest pictures.

Another weekend, another dumpster

Well, it was another weekend of demo work at my house. It was mostly pulling off more plaster and lath from the walls of the master bedroom. It involved many, and I mean many, trips from the second floor out to the dumpster with a garbage can filled with plaster. These trips are reeking havoc on my poor back, I think a trip to a masseuse is in order. Most of the hauling of plaster was done on Friday, Saturday was all about tearing out the lath and scraping the popcorn texture off the ceiling. By the end of the day Saturday the master bedroom, master bath, and walking closet were all down to the studs. It was a wonderful feeling to be done with the demo in those two rooms, but a quick of the head towards the remaining two bedrooms wiped away that joy.

Sunday was a shorter day and I had a helper, my mother (my back was thankful). I had started to pull some of the plaster off of the bedroom that will end up being my office Saturday before I called it quits. So Sunday began with me hauling five garbage cans full of plaster out to the dumpster. Then the help arrived and she began pulling the rest of the plaster off the walls, while I started some demo on the hallway and down in the living room. A mere hour or two later the plaster was all off the walls in the office and had been hauled out to the dumpster. For our final job of the day we (by we I mean she) used the sledge hammer to knock out the cinder blocks that had been laid for the garage. I tossed them in the dumpster as she knock them loose, my back was happy the dumpster was only feet away. We also got rid of an enormous piece of concrete that I believe came from the basement way back when the contractor was pouring new footings for the support posts. No matter where it came from the damn thing was heavy and my arm got trapped beneath it as we lifted it into the dumpster. Had it stayed on my arm a few seconds later I'm pretty sure that tension I was feeling would have gone away and I'd have a broken arm.

The plumber was in again last week getting some more stuff roughed in. He managed to lock himself out of the house, something his wife (a colleague of mine) and I had a good laugh over. He's back in there this week, it sounds like he should be all done with his rough in by the end of the week.

No pictures right now, I haven't had the time to stop back and take any, but I promise some this weekend or early next week. Yes, I'll be back in there again this weekend, trying my hardest to fill up dumpster number five (I think, or is it six? no, pretty sure its five).

More progress

Spent another weekend in the house working and working. Here are some random blurbs on the progress.

The plumber started working on roughing in the master bath and new laundry. After some discussion with him it was decided that I needed to move one of the new walls I put up last time. Luckily I was able to save most of the first one and reuse it, this saved me some time and sweat.

I've now finished framing everything in, the master bath and walk-in closet are now clearly defined. The laundry and master bedroom's secondary closet are all there too. I even tore out an old section of framing and put in a new wall and the master bedroom is all framed in.

Money is starting to run low and its clear I'll be going over budget. My original plan was to have someone come in and blow insulation into all of the exterior walls and roll some insulation out in the attic. I wanted to do this to keep as much of the plaster walls in tact as possible. Because of budgetary reasons, and the fact some of that plaster is in worse shape than I originally thought, I've decided I'll be deviating from the original plan. So, the new plan is tear all the plaster off the exterior walls on the 2nd floor and insulate it myself, do the attic myself, and deal with the 1st floor when I do the siding (sometime in the next year or two).

The new washer, dryer, tub, toilet, and sink all arrived in the last week or two, and tile for the master bath has been ordered. The tile should arrive sometime later this week. Hopefully I'll have the master bath and laundry completed in the next week or two. The master bedroom should be insulated and sheet rocked at that time as well. I'll then be able to gut the remaining two bedrooms and upper hallway, get all that insulated and sheet rocked.

Here's some pictures of all the framing and the start of the plumbing work. Look for more later this week/early next week.

Walls go up

This past weekend was the first time I actually added something to the house. I successfully (sort of) framed in some walls.

I have no idea if they're to code, I know they're not as good as if a professional had done them, but they're in and now the plumber can get in do his rough-ins. The electrician will follow, and shortly after him the insulation guys will go through. Than I can get the drywall up, floors tiled, and before I know it the second floor will be nearing completion.

This was a bit of an adventure trying to get these things built and up. Saturday afternoon mother and I went to the hardware store bought lumber, a box of nails, and set off to piece together a wall or two. We cut some pieces and started to nail them to the floors and wall, at which time I realized we were going about it all wrong. So we tore them up and started anew. This time we cut the pieces and started to assemble them so that we would just have to lift and secure the whole segment of wall. A much better, and probably more correct approach.

We cut the pieces with no issues, but trying to nail those pieces together was more trouble than it was worth. We tried with all our might to hammer those damn nails in but some just didn't want to go. After much cursing and sweat we finally got one section assembled and up. This only took, oh, three hours?! That was enough for one day.

Sunday I went back and bought more lumber and was determined to purchase a nail gun. Nail guns aren't exactly cheap, so I went the more economically viable route and rented one. I got to the house, started cutting lumber and nailing like a mad man and in the matter of an hour I had completed more by myself than what my mother and I had accomplished the day before. Its settled, nail guns are great!

I went back and finished Monday morning. Here's some pictures of the end result.

Dumpster #3 filled

After another long break I spent another weekend in the house tearing it apart. After the second dumpster got filled I made mention of how it felt like I had accomplished so little. This was very frustrating, and made me question whether this house would ever be finished. Well, now after the third dumpster has been filled I finally feel like I'm making progress.

I had my plumber come by last week to, a) refresh his memory, and b) let me know what I needed to do to get it ready for him. He told me to finish gutting whatever I planned on gutting and to frame in what will become the master bath as well as the future laundry area.

So I set out last weekend to finish the demo I had left and to get the framing up. I finished half of it, thanks to a helping hand from my mother. I finished tearing up the master bedroom, what will be the walk through closet and master bathroom, as well as the kitchen. All that is left with the kitchen is tearing up the linoleum floor and tearing off the wallpaper.

I also purchased lumber to start the framing and got a start on cutting some of the pieces. As promised I let my mother play with the power tools, so she was really the one to start cutting the lumber.

I think the cutting of lumber is what gave me the feeling that something was actually being accomplished. Up to this point I've done nothing but tear stuff out, yes my contractor has made some repairs, yes I had a new furnace put in, but I personally hadn't done anything more than demo. After this last round I felt like the project has turned a corner and that its finally heading towards the finish.

To further this feeling, I sat down yesterday and ordered the tub, sink, and toilet for the new bathroom, as well as the new washer and dryer.

So here's some pictures of the progress that was made. More to follow soon.

Finally!

I finally got in and did some more work on the place. I had a dumpster delivered last Friday and I spent the weekend filling the thing up. I spent a couple of hours on Saturday and five or six yesterday over at the house. It felt good filling up the dumpster, it felt good working on the house after not touching it for quite some time. It felt like I accomplished something, oh wait, I didn't. What's that Sean? You worked on the house for seven hours, filled up an entire dumpster, and accomplished nothing? Correct. Ok, well maybe nothing is a little harsh, but I got kind of depressed after cleaning up yesterday and looking around at what I really had accomplished. The dumpster got filled with a lot of stuff that had been laying around for the last month, paneling I had already ripped off the walls, the remnants from my old deck, the stairs, posts, and scrap from the work my contractor did. All of that took up a good 3/4 of the dumpster, and most of my time Saturday was spent putting it all in the dumpster (thanks for the help mother). Sunday was spent tearing the plaster off of walls in what will eventually be my master bathroom, it was long tedious work. Many trips were made hauling the plaster out to the dumpster. It was slow going because the weight of the plaster meant taking more trips with smaller loads, I've got to figure out a better system. As you can see from the pictures (click here) it doesn't appear that much was accomplished, and it wasn't, but I guess that's just how some days go.

I also came to the realization that so far I've filled two dumpsters and I've got at least two more to go before everything is cleared out. Not cool.

How will I ever finish?

I still haven't touched the place. I planned on getting a dumpster delivered yesterday so I could spent yesterday, today, and tomorrow finishing up all the demo work that needs to be done prior the plumber and electrician doing their thing. SO MUCH FOR THAT! I got super busy with work, picked up a few new clients, and just couldn't get away.

All was not lost though. I did have a new furnace installed on Wednesday, and had a couple of insulation guys come by to do some bids on insulating the exterior walls.

Well maybe next week I'll be able to accomplish something.

This week

Its still slow going, I keep doing small things but nothing much has changed since my last post. My contractor did get in last week and put in the basement stairs, they look great.

I started taking out the kitchen cabinets. I held off on doing this because I wanted to try and find someone who may want to salvage them, it was my futile attempt at being "green". I found a guy who came out he ended up only taking a portion of the kitchen cabinets, along with the cabinets in the pantry. He didn't take as much as I was hoping but I was at least able to recycle some of it. The rest will be torn out later this week. We also took down the cabinets in the bathroom, he was hoping to take them but once we got them out and downstairs he decided against it.

I'll be getting another dumpster later in the week so I can finish all of the demo work. Once I've done this the plumbing and electrical work can be taken care of.

Click here for a couple of pictures.

slowly making progress

Not much happening around the house the last few days. Most of the work being performed by my contractor, Adam Dady of Dady Construction, is done. All thats left for him to do is put in basement stairs, should be done this week sometime. Haven't done much more as far as demo work goes either. Had an electrician come by yesterday, he gave me some motivation I've been lacking the last few weeks. He also gave me a bit of direction, I think I was spinning my tires a bit trying to figure out my next move. Here's a link to some more of the demo thats been completed as well as the work Adam has completed.

And by the way the lovely rat has been dealt with. A special thanks to my mother for holding the bag as I removed the critter from the toilet.

Surprise!!

The other day I met my contractor at the house to check on progress. As we're talking he lets me know about a "development". Someone (not sure if it was him or one of his guys) went up to the bathroom, lifted the seat and found themselves staring at a rat. A rat?!?!?!?! YES! A RAT! The house had been winterized so the pipes wouldn't freeze, I'm not sure if the little fella climbed up and couldn't get out of the bowl and died, maybe got stuck on the pipes and floated up as the water filled the system, who really knows? Who really cares? All I needed to know was that the rat was there and now I have to get him out.

Work started

I'm still trying to play catch up here. I did a second round of demo work but don't have pictures as of yet, but will be posted as soon as I can get over there. So things are bit out of order here but I guess it really makes no difference.

My contractor started in on the work I've asked him to handle. As I mentioned I'd like to do as much on my own but there are things that need to be handled by someone who knows what they're doing.

One of the support posts had rotted out at the bottom and needed to be replaced. The city was also requiring plinth blocks be put under all the remaining posts. Since he was going to be messing around with them anyway I decided to have him go ahead and replace all the posts. Because of this new footings needed to be poured for all the posts. The pictures I have in this link are of the progress they made on day one of work.

Demo Work Round 1

Once I closed on the home I wanted to go in and start swinging the sledge hammer. I made a smart decision and took a week to think through a plan of attack. Once I finally got in and started ripping things out I made some fabulous discoveries. The picture on the top left is what happens when the idiots that thought it would be a good idea to put fake wood paneling up not only nailed it, but also glued it, to the plaster walls. Thanks for that. Now I'm stuck with walls that need to be replastered or torn out and drywalled. The second discovery came to light after I pulled up the cat piss stained carpets and pads (which by the way were still moist). The picture on the top right is of the burnt wood floors. I don't know what caused it but its there and I now get to replace some flooring. Yaaaaay costs.

Click here for the link to pictures of demo work rd. 1.

More to follow tomorrow.

"Before"

As promised here are the "before" pictures. Its the house as I saw it the first time, and as it was when I closed. The things that really attracted me to the house were the wonderful seventies fake wood paneling, and carefully chosen green carpeting. Ok, so maybe not. It really was the stain glass window, leaded glass window, the banister going upstairs (I know the picture isn't the greatest), and the wood floors. Click here to see the album.

I'll post pictures from after the first round of demo work next.

So much for keeping up to date

Here I am a  month after closing, weeks after starting work on my place, and I have yet to post anything. I know the followers won't be many, I know that no one even knew of this blogs existence until now, but here goes nothing. 
I recently closed on a category 2 vacant home in the lovely city of St. Paul. You may be asking yourself, "what exactly is a category 2 vacant home?". The long and short of it is that its a condemned home. There's a number of different ways homes reach the category 2 stage, if you really want to know more please contact me but I don't want to bore those who have no interest. I'm not really sure what prompted my home reaching this prestigious level of recognition. I do know that the moment I walked into it I fell in love with it. I saw past its ugly blemishes and saw what could be. 
I've got "before" pictures I'd like to share but there are too many to just post here. I think I'll be putting up a link to a Flickr page, it may be easiest route for now. For now I've added a picture of the house from the street.