Todays job sucks

It was our goal to completely finish the house, or at least the inside before we moved in. That was a great idea but the realities f life and the failing systems in the old house requred us to modify that plan. Instead we are finishing each room and then moving in. Even so some things inevitably get left unfinished as we move through the house. I have made it my goal to take one item off this list each day. Its a good thing there are many small things unfinished for on some busy days it's all I can manage but as often as I can find the time I also work at the larger things.

Today's task was to finish of installing the built in vacuum. We wanted to wait until the last of the construction dust was gone and the painting of the walls was complete before we started the job. The task required I break out lots of tools that I haven't used in a while. I cut and glued pipe, made plenty of electrical connections and screwed on faceplates. I had to climb up in the attic space to find the ends of pipes and coiled wires long fogotten. Eventually I figured it all out. It's been twenty years since I hooked up the last vacuum but it like riding a bike I suppose - only I remember it being a whole lot easier the last time. :)

It is FINALLY time to retire our NOISY, heavy and DESPISED upright vacuum. It's a good day and one that is well worth the effort!

-grampa dan

The shortest way to the new house

With the tile finished in the kitchen and dining room today was moving day for the kitchen - at long last. We considered all options for the move but the thing was the doors in the old house were very narrow. To get the stove and fridge out we had to remove all of the handles and do some pretty heavy lifting, over counters, down stairways and then up a gravel driveway to the new house. Thankfully we also had a second option - a much shorter path to the new house. 

I loaded up the tools in the shop and then set to work. By removing one window in the old dining room and then cutting a door into the wall it was an easy twenty-five foot level push to the new house. It didn't take long with the right tools...

After suffering through many cold winters in the old house we discovered what we had long suspected. The old house had single pane windows and no insulation or vapor barrier. There were three layers of siding however as the house had been renovated at least that many times in the eighty years it had been there.

With the large new door in the side of the old house the move of the kitchen appliances, fixtures and supplies went smoothly.

-grampa dan

Over the hump

Back in the days I did very large historical murals there was a point on every wall where I wondered if I would ever get done. It generally happened about four or five days into a project. I called it hitting the wall. But if I continued to push hard and just trusted myself I would get through those nagging doubts and each time the mural tuned out fine. I know many other talented folks I painted with ran into that same crazy wall.

When I started doing large theme projects I found that very same wall - the point at which I began to doubt myself, wonder what I got myself into and also wondered how I would get out. But like in the mural days if I kept pushing and believing it always worked out in the end.

The house is no different or rather each stage of the house project is like that. We determined we would lay the tile ourselves in the new house. That translates to me being down on my knees for what seemed like forever, laying out, measuring, cutting, gluing and grouting. I've had some great help along the way from time to time but it has gone on for quite some time - which is to be expected for we took delivery of 2,700 tiles for the task.

Some areas go very quick, big areas with no pattern and little cutting. Small areas like closts and hallways are a different story. In the main living area, dining, living room, kitchen and hallways it is all laid diagonally and much of it has a diamond added in for good measure. I quickly found out why tile setters charge more for the complicated and fancy stuff. It simply takes a lot longer!

In the last week as I worked through these more complicated areas I hiot that proverbial wall once more. Doubts snuck in and I wondered if this crazy floor would ever get done. But I've been down that road hundreds of times. I knew exactly what to do... simply press on.

Yesterday I managed to finish cutting and laying the bulk of the tile in the pantry, dining room, and the longest hallway. Today I spent on my knees again trowelling and sponging the grout into all those many joints. When the tools were washed up I went back into the house to look things over. It felt good - REAL GOOD. The stack of unlaid tile is now downright small.

Two more rows of tile in the dining room will polish things off here as well.

Of that giant original stack of 2,700 tiles there remain less than 600 to go. We are now over the hump at last!

-grampa dan