Getting colder out

Well another month has slipped by, while we have made some progress there hasn't been a lot that seemed particularly blog worthy.  As November winds down it is getting colder out which over the past couple of weeks has focused attention back on the fact that we don't have a working furnace.

Last winter featured only a few weeks of the furnace working but laid the foundation to the opportunity to finally learn all about furnaces.  It started in December when we noticed that the furnace had quit working.  I began my troubleshooting by observing the behavior.  What I found was that if I shut the furnace off and then turned it on it would cycle through running a small fan in the exhaust then turn on the igniter followed by the gas turning on, the furnace lighting and then running for about a minute and a half.  It would then shut off, the cycle would repeat the same as before but this time it seemed to only run for 45 seconds.  After that it would shut down and not restart until the power was cycled to the furnace.   Did a little internet research and determined that it must be a bad flame sensor.

Note Flame Sensor circled in red

Some internet experts seemed to think that they could be cleaned, I tried that with no change.  I found a source locally for a new one and bought it for about $30 and installed.  No change.  Drat.  Some more internet research led me to take a look at the air filter which had not been changed in a long time.  It was completely blocked.  Oops, that was dumb.  Replaced filter and of course the furnace ran fine.  Oh well at least I have a new flame sensor.

That lasted for about three weeks before it quit again.  By now we were in the middle of January and it was getting really cold.  The "TV room" which was once upon a time the garage before being made into a room has baseboard electric heat.  I cranked the temp in that room up to 78 and left the door open to the rest of the house.  That seemed to keep things above freezing.

The new symptom was different.  The exhaust fan would run, no sign of life from the igniter but after a while I would hear the gas turn on for about 15 seconds before shutting down.  As before the furnace would cycle through this two times before shutting down for good.  Back to the internet maybe the igniter is bad.  Did see some things to look for.  Didn't really see any signs of cracks in the old one but I was desperate so I bought a new one and put that in.  I can't say that I was surprised  when it didn't make any difference.  Oh well at least I have a new one to go along with my new flame sensor.

This began what became hours of troubleshooting.  By now I had determined that my Amana furnace was from about 1997.  I found a factory service manual online.  After studying the manual and some troubleshooting I determined that the three leading candidates for the problem were:

1. Problem with the the draft sensor
2. Control module
3. Wiring problem

I started with the draft sensor.  I didn't have a manometer to test the draft in the exhaust created by the small fan but I tried cleaning the pilot tube that had a rubber line connected to the sensor.  I checked wiring, I measured lots of voltages but still wasn't sure what was going on.  Turns out that the furnace control logic is pretty simple but this furnace has had I believe 2 air conditioners installed, at least one humidifier and showed signs of a number of repairs.  Lots of wires, no idea what any of them did.  Eventually I found a replacement control module on Amazon.com that I bought for $100.  By now we were getting sub zero cold forecast and I was desperate.  I figured that the probability of this fixing it was about 10% at best.  By this time I had also found a way to get the furnace to run for one cycle!  All I had to do was recycle the power, wait until I heard the gas valve open and light it with a match!  Not recommended from a safety standpoint and certainly not real convenient but if I set the thermostat on 85 it would run for a long time and get the house quite hot before the inevitable occurred and it would shut off without being able to restart again.  This was enough to keep the pipes from freezing through the worst of winter and by March with temps going up I stuck the new uninstalled control module in a drawer and focused on moving from the estate executor trying to keep the house from self destructing to a homeowner trying to fix the place up.

By now it is mid November and it is starting to get cold.  Also we are working more indoors than we were during the warmer weather.  A furnace would be a good thing.  Ray was home in mid November for his birthday.  We looked at it briefly and determined that it was worth it to install the control module.  I didn't want to start until we had the service manual with us and had studied it.  So we went home and studied the manual, The wiring didn't look that bad.  Ray had to go back to Nashville the next day but he came back for the week of Thanksgiving.  Again we looked at the furnace and noted that there was some sort of large box labeled Elect-Tron directly in front of the control module.  Looked like it would have to come out.

Did a little bit more troubleshooting and found that by now the furnace was 100% dead.  No exhaust fan, no blower, nothing.  Spent some time checking the thermostat, it appeared good as far as I could tell.  Took apart the switch to the furnace and measured the incoming voltage.  Nothing.  Checked the circuit breakers, only one that was off was the one intentionally off to the barn.  Turned it on, still nothing.  Great, I am thinking somehow we have managed to screw up the electrical wiring in the house.  I started following the wiring into the furnace and find an ancient box, On the side it has a handle to open or close the circuit.  Opened the box, exposed contacts for the switch and a blown fuse.  Of course this is the old screw in fuse that nobody uses anymore.  Turned out they still sell a few at Home Depot, bought the fuse and replaced.  Turned the furnace on and we are back to the original problems.  By now it is too late to tear into the furnace.

The next day while I was at work Ray and Gloria went over and Ray started trying to figure out how we were supposed to remove the Elect-Tron.  Eventually he removed the cover to it and look what he found:

All sorts of burned wiring, some of which has managed to coat much of the inside with smoke.  I guess this explains what finally caused the 75 year old fuse to blow.  By now I was on my way home from work and quickly diverted over to the see it first hand.  We took inventory of what wires needed to be replaced, the general gauge as well as the colors.  Back to Home Depot, buy some wire and supplies and head back.  Ray had a wiring diagram from the service manual that he had edited to show the colors of all of the factory wires.  We studied this mess and decided to determine what every wire in the furnace actually went to.  This process revealed a lot of wiring that went nowhere.  In many cases this was wiring for perhaps an old Thermostat or a long departed air conditioner.  Rather than remove this wiring apparently the the furnace techs just clipped them if necessary and left them in place.  After pulling these all out at least the mess was a bit cleaner.  By now it was too late to fix the wiring especially since that would have required a trip home to get the soldering equipment.  

The next day while I was at work Ray and Gloria took the Elect-Tron fully apart,  Replaced the control module and reinstalled the Elect-Tron complete with repaired wiring.  I got off work and caught up with them just as they were wrapping up.  Just in time for the moment of truth.  Flipped the switch to turn the furnace on and.... drum roll please .....

No change.  Then Ray asked did you ever reconnect the vacuum line?  Nope.  Hooked that up and tried again.  Exhaust fan comes on, a seeming eternity with nothing else and then what do I see but the igniter is starting to glow,  It gets bright red, the gas valve opens and with a satisfying whoosh the flames ignite into a series of pretty blue flames!  

We finally have a working furnace.  It may be almost 20 years old, it may not be a high efficiency model but it once again works.  Not only that but we now thoroughly understand the control circuits and know where every wire goes.  I would also go as far as to say that I believe that our workmanship was done to a much higher standard than at least some of the techs that have touched this furnace over the years.

Furnace all buttoned up, note the blue flames

A month latter

As I start to write this post I can't help but notice that it has been over a month since my last post!  I wish I could say that we have been so busy getting things done that I haven't had a chance to write but that is not the case.  We have been busy at times but not at the homestead.  We helped Ray move to Nashville, went to visit David, Rachel and the kids and generally took a very much needed break from this project.

Last weekend we did spend a good deal of time and got a lot accomplished.  We worked on a couple of projects.  I wanted to find out what I was up against with the final bit of wall by the dinette.  Gloria wanted a fire pit and Roger came to help take out the stumps from some bushes that we had cut down a while ago.  Here is the before picture:

 Note the Windows Sill that has rotted away

 After removing the Aluminum siding

 After tearing the original exterior off, Note the pine boards that comprise the inside wall

 Another shot after cleaning up a bit

 Hard to tell in this shot but the sill plate has rotted away and you can see into the basement

 Standing in the basement in the coal room (Dad's old workshop) looking up

 After I tore out the old stuff, note the electrical wiring to the outlet has been pulled down into the basement.  One thing I found interesting was the way the house was built.  The room to the right which had originally been a porch before being enclosed to make the playroom when we were kids has a concrete floor.  About half of the floor is over the basement with the remaining a concrete slab that as far as I can tell is sitting on the ground.  The dinette has a wooden floor.  From the outside it appeared that the slab from the porch extended across the dinette area.  What is actually there is a concrete lip approximately six inches wide.  You can see the floor joists which sit on top of the edge of the concrete block basement wall.  The sill plate has about an inch supported by the concrete with the remainder resting on the joists.  I had to shim the joists about 1/8 inch to get everything level. I am not sure how they dealt with that when the house was built.  It made installation easy because I just followed the original builders and nailed the sill to the joists rather than trying to fasten it to the concrete.

New framing in place, outlet reinstalled and rewired

 Wall insulated

 And covered with sheathing.  This picture was taken Sunday afternoon, I had to leave to go to church.  Later in the week Gloria and I took care of calking and covering with Tyvak home wrap.

While my focus was entirely on dealing with my last chunk of rotten wall Gloria and Roger were hard at work cleaning up the patio and building a fire pit.  It turned out really great.  I regret not taking some before pictures but in general the patio could have been described as not as bad as it once was but still pretty much covered with vegetation with lots of stumps and tree roots sticking out. Here are a couple of pictures of it afterwards:

This turned out to be the only picture I took of the fire pit.  I certainly attempted to take a number of others as it turned out quite nice but I guess my cell phone decided not to save the.

All in all a pretty productive two days.  I need to figure out how to replace the window sill and some of the wood around the windows.  I am sure that a professional would have just ripped them out and replaced with new, better windows but I want to preserve as much of the look and feel of the house as I can and these windows are pretty memorable to me.  

And as Paul Harvey would say now for the rest of the story.  By Saturday night it was getting dark, we started a fire in the new fire pit, the sun was setting, it was beautiful.  We continue to maintain the Saturday night tradition that we started with Dad back in 1992 of getting Nicks Chili for dinner pretty much every week.  As my siblings can attest this was an extension of the tradition we had growing up where Dad cooked dinner most Saturdays which was pretty much always hot dogs.  Mom cooked dinner the rest of the week but Saturday night was time for Dad's hot dogs which were stuffed with cheese and broiled.  Anyway we decided to celebrate the fire by eating Chili and Chili dogs on the patio around the fire.  Gloria left to get the food while Roger and I cleaned up a bit.  Boy did she find a mess when she got back.  

It started when i decided to put some more wood on the fire.  I removed the top grate using the proper tool and set it next to the fire.  I added a little wood and then went to pick up some more sticks.  It is never hard to find sticks around this place but it has been particularly easy of late after the trim trimming job was done last summer.  There are still limbs and sticks everywhere because we didn't pay them to haul them away.  The removal efforts got off to a pretty good start until the chain saws got stolen which had pretty much stalled that effort.  Anyway I went to find some good sticks, along the way I stepped on a log which rolled.  With my typical grace and style I managed to fall down.  I hit on my left side skinning my arm, shoulder and leg and smashed the side of my head on another log laying in the grass.  Not good.  Fortunately although everything went black when i hit I was not knocked out.  Getting up is never easy with my worn out knees but this was particularly tough since I was basically laying on a bunch of logs.  Roger rushed over and helped by moving logs and sticks away so that I had some room to get up.  Needless to say I was hurting pretty bad.  I went and sat down.  I asked Roger to put the lid back on the fire pit.  He went over and without thinking started to pick it up.  I can't really blame him, it was dark, he didn't take it off and the tool provided was laying in the grass in the dark.  This instantly burned his fingers pretty badly.  At first he was afraid that the black marks were burnt skin but they at least proved to be just soot from the lid.  He had second degree burns on the middle two fingers on his right hand.  So Gloria came back to find that both of us had managed to get pretty hurt in the 45 minutes we were left unattended.

On Monday Gloria and Roger (who was fortunately on fall break) went over and picked up a lot of sticks.  That night Roger and I used the tractor to haul most of them away other than the ones that need me to find a new chain saw.  Here are a couple of pictures:

While we were moving sticks we saw something very strange in the side yard.  It appeared to be a hunk of either paper or foam.  After closer inspection we determined that it was some sort of fungus.  I have never seen anything even a little bit like it.  Bright white with almost square edges:

Will this Wall project ever end?

The past two weekends saw continued progress on completing the wall.  The pace as slowed greatly as the urgency of the situation has lessened.  When there was no wall and some slime bag decided to help themselves to my tools it was critical that we get the room enclosed both for security as well as to keep rain water and critters out.  Once the windows were installed it was basically sealed.  Granted a two legged tool stealing critter could have gotten in with nothing more than a pocket knife but they would have had to figure out where the door opening was behind the house wrap.

First step was to address the fascia by the roof.  This had previously been covered by aluminum siding as well as the gutters.  With all of that removed we were back to the original wood siding.  This is actually cedar and in surprisingly good condition.  Other than the fact that many layers of probably lead based paint was pealing off.  Went to PPG paints (Formerly Porter Paints) to get a good primer and some paint.  The man that helped me asked what I was painting,  I gave a quick general description. He again asked what it was made out of, I told him wood.  He asked what type of wood so I told him that it was cedar.  He said that is very important to know when picking out a primer.  He said that because of the way cedar takes the paint it really needs to be an oil based primer.  Who knew?  Turns out that the primer and paint were on sale with the end of the labor day sale.  The top coat didn't need to be oil based.  Anyway after scrapping and painting I came to two conclusions:  It looks a lot better and there is no way I can be climbing ladders all day to paint!  My knees and feet were killing me.

Next step was to install the door.  We knew we had a problem here.  The height of the header is 81", pretty much any pre-hung door needs 82".  The door that I had torn out was only about 7 or 8 years old.  It had been installed when a tree fell on the house sparking a small electrical fire back when Dad was living there.  I hired a contrasctor to repair a hold in the roof, replace the gutters and put a new roof on, the existing door was in terrible shape so I had them install a new door while they were at it.

When the wall was demolished earlier this summer I had tried to save the door but by the time I got it out the door frame was ruined and so I pitched it.  I knew that they had modified the door to remove the bottom of the frame and to instead rely on a threshold that was attached to the concrete floor.

Ray and I picked went to Home Depot and picked out our door.  Ray got a cart and we loaded it up and took it home.  Once back at the job site we took it out of the box.  First step was to remove a brick mold around the edges as that would only make a bad situation much worse in terms of height.  We then removed the bottom of the door frame.  We had bought a new threshold and were trying to determine exactly where to cut the frame to shorten it.  It wasn't until I was trying to see how much of the threshold we would have to trim that it dawned on me that this door was not 36 inches wide.

So after weeks of trying to figure out what door to get I had managed to pick one that lacked in the single most important dimension and then proceeded to ruin it before figuring that out. DOH!

That was pretty much it for that day.  A $230 door that we can't use and can't return.

On Sunday it was back to Home Depot to rebuy the door, this time carefully selecting the correct width.  We disassembled the door as before, cut about 3/4 of an inch of the bottom and then tried to install it.  The process involved trying to get it level and plumb and then install shims behind the frame to nail through.  We had a pretty big gap to deal with and in the end we had the door in place but it wouldn't close properly because somehow everything had gotten out of kilter.

Monday was labor day which meant another day to tackle the wall,  This time we cut some 3/8" plywood strips that I was able to place between the frame of the door and the studs.  This narrowed the gap we were dealing with and ended up with a door that actually fits pretty well!  We had found a lock set that we installed to at least have a door knob that would lock.

Ray had to get going to head back to Nashville, I really appreciate all of his help but I know that going forward he is going to be plenty busy with his new job and getting moved to Nashville.  During the week I did manage to get over to work at least a couple of evenings.  I installed the threshold and put a strip of flashing tape along the bottom of the sill plate where it meets the concrete.  This should help channel water away from the sill plate.  It is not the final solution, I still need to get some sort of metal flashing installed but this would at least help in the mean time.

The following weekend I started looking in more detail at the wiring inside.  I think I pretty much know how I am going to deal with that.  Gloria, Roger and I were able to get the gutters back up.  They are not really installed perfectly but at least they are up and hopefully will send the rainwater way from the house and the wall.

View prior to gutter install

This should be my final wall post for a while.  There is still a bit to do but now it is mostly a bunch of smaller items such as:

• wiring
• insulating
• installing drywall on the inside
• some more flashing
• put siding on it.

Putting siding on would seem like the next step but there is a bigger problem located on the left side of the picture above.  I am pretty sure that the wall to the dinette off of the kitchen is pretty rotten as well.  It isn't as bad as the playroom wall was but the window sill under the two windows is completely gone, and there is evidence in the basement that there are bigger problems below the windows.

So I will probably take a few weeks off to catch up on little stuff and other issues at the homestead prior to my next wall adventure!

Installing Windows

After endless hours of google study on "How to install Windows" and the previously fun trying to buy them at Home Depot it was finally time to get started.  Ray and I headed over to the house on Sunday afternoon.  We started on the first window which involved cutting the house wrap, folding it back around the studs.

We then started putting strips of flashing tape around the edges and across the sill frame.  We started at the bottom of the windows and worked our way up doing the top of the windows last.  The idea being that as water runs down all of the pieces overlap from top to bottom, similar to what is done with siding.  

The next step was to put a bead of calking around the edges and then put the window in place.  We would then square the window up using a level and some shims.  Once we were happy with the placement of the window it then got nailed around the edges.  No pictures of this process as we had our hands full at the time!

After taking a short break we got started on the second window.  One thing we had spent a lot of time trying to figure out was how to have two windows side by side that look OK.  What we finally came up with was to put a single stud between the two windows and then to overlap the nailing strips.  This worked out quite well.  The nailing strips are very flexible,  with three sides already nailed the overlap on the last one did not seem to create any problems.  It did require that we drill our own holes since the nailing holes didn't line up.  One of our first observations when we started the second window was that we could have saved some time by doing both at the same time.  

About the time we finished the first window I got a call from Home Depot, They were on their way with the two windows that we had problems getting the day before!  I was quite impressed that they actually delivered them for free on a Sunday.  We moved a lot faster on the second window;  Our first took almost 2 hours, the second was just under an hour.  By then it was time to head home.  Here are a few pictures of our work:

Outside view

Inside view

Two down, four to go

On Monday Ray was still in town and I was able to take the afternoon off work so we headed back over.  We did the next set in a about an hour and 10 minutes, we were getting faster!.  We then started on the last set, we were a window installing team!  Both of us working non-stop, no talking, no time spent determining what is next.  The result; the last set installing in 50 minutes. 

All we need now is a door!

Wall work and Daniel

Needless to say the loss of the circular saw and many other tools has been a set back.  None the less when bad stuff happens there comes a time to move on, since on the scale of bad things that could happen this was still pretty minor it didn't take too long to move on.  After consulting with Bill i picked up a new circular saw.  It is certainly an upgrade over the old one but the blade that came with it was as you might expect a piece of junk.  I will need to pick up a new blade but for now this one worked well enough.

Gloria and I got to work on the sheathing during the week.  Ray came home and also helped.  It didn't take too long to get it done.  Here are a few photos:

Gloria pounding a few nails

Our results after one evening

A job well done!

I guess I forgot to take any pictures after the subsequent days but you get the idea.
Note:  the rest of this post recounts my frustration with buying stuff at Home Depot, no house content

This past weekend Ray and I got to work on the windows.  I already had two of the windows that we bought when we got the initial load of wood.  We wanted to see them and figure out how we would mount them before starting on the framing.  The entire design of the wall was based upon the one size of windows that Home Depot stocks that would fit the space.  Turns out you can get just about any size window you might ever want as long as you don't mind waiting 4-6 weeks for your order to come in.  The big box stores do stock a handful of sizes including ours.  The online inventory showed that they had 9 in stock before we started the project so it shouldn't be any more difficult than heading to Home Depot and getting them right?  Wrong!  It turns out to not be quite so easy.  We quickly found one window that was readily accessible and loaded it on our cart.  We searched around for it's 8 buddies and finally spotted 3 of them up on a shelf 10 ft. off the ground.  Time to find some help.  I spotted the guy that works in the window area.  He was struggling to load a huge patio door set onto a cart.  I helped him get that loaded and then asked for help with the windows.  He was grateful for the help and promised to help me out after he took the patio door to the front for a customer pick up.  After about 10-15 minutes he did in fact reappear.  He had to track down a helper and then climb a huge rolling ladder to get the window down for us.  When we got the windows home we noticed that the one that was up on the shelf said "Hold for Mike" on it.

Fast forward a long time, we finally have a wall up with sheathing ready for windows.  Ray said I think we should do what Mike did and order these for pickup.  Good idea.  Ray checked the online system, they still have 7 in stock.  We order 4 more, should be ready by 2:30.  We work on some other stuff.  Gloria gets a call on the home phone from Home Depot saying that there was a problem and they only had two windows.  We head over to Home Depot to get our windows and more supplies.  First stop the "Pro Desk" where our windows that have already been charged to my debit card are supposed to be waiting.  No sign of the windows, but I do find a man behind the counter.  I ask him about my windows but he informs me that he Pro Desk was closed (despite it being manned) you need to go check with customer service.  Great, trod across the store to customer service remembering why I hate going to both Lowes and Home Depot.  My knees seem to only be good for a few hours of standing per day.  Every trip to one of those places seems to take over an hour which is an hour that I won't have latter in the day to work on things without unbearable pain.

Arrive at customer service there seems to be a pretty short line.  There are two ladies working, one is sitting down talking to a customer on the phone the other is handing the guy at the front of the line some money.  Good deal, only one more customer and whoever is on the phone between me and finding out what the deal is with my windows.  Well not so fast.  Turns out the lady on the phone is apparently dealing with a rather unhappy and talkative customer.  The lady in front of me has an entire shopping cart full of stuff that she is returning.  I quickly find that it gets better.  This isn't one purchase but several, many of them internet purchases.  Each order has to be dealt with separately.  Each item needs a reason why it is being returned.  The reasons could have been summed up by "because I don't want it"  but instead a full explanation was provided, "the light fixture just didn't work in my kitchen".  Finally as the lady was down to her last of what turned out to be five different orders of stuff the lady on the phone finishes up.  Things are looking up which is good because by now there are about five more people behind me.  The phone lady apparently doesn't deal with customers in person so she picked up her phone and called for reinforcements to the service desk.

A skinny young kid with "Daniel" written in marker across the front of his apron shows up.  He asks who is next, I step up and explain the situation.  He thinks about it for a minute and asks

"So what do you want to do?"

"I want my two windows and I want to know what is going on with the other two."

He then asks my name and pecks away at his computer for a little bit.  He finds the order, still seems uncertain what to do next.  He then informs me that they should be at location "PR".  Great. I ask:

 "Where is that?"

"Humm, I don't know"

Noticing that I don't seem to happy with that explanation he asks a co-worker "What does location PR mean?"  They inform him that means "Pro Desk"  He then turns to me as if I didn't already hear this news flash at the same time he did and tells me

"They are over at the Pro Desk!"

  I can imagine that at this point he is thinking "problem solved"  I tell him that I have already been there and that they do not appear to be there.  Some more nervous pecking away at the computer followed by some more consultation with a co-worker who tells him to have someone go get them up there where they are supposed to be.

OK, so we have a plan on the two windows that are in stock.  What about the other two.

"Yeah I don't know about that, maybe check back in a few days and see if they come in?"

I don't feel like that is really a plan.  I have already checked the Home Depot inventory and know that in addition to the 5 windows that the web site is now confident that this store has there are only two other "nearby" stores that have these windows.  Crawfordsville show 2 in stock and Hamilton OH has 3.  After explaining that i need a better answer he checks some more and determines that they should be able to order them.  At this point i have no confidence that this is going to work.  I tell him that since Home Depot has already charged me for them maybe the best thing to do is get them removed from the order, get my card refunded and I can try to find them somewhere else.  His response was

 "That certainly sounds plausible but I don't know how to do that".

By now I can't help but notice that the five people behind me are all gone and everyone at the service desk seems to be working on helping Daniel  The  lady that sits in a chair and is probably the manager offers to check with Crawfordsville and verify that they have the two windows.  If they do she will have them shipped to the store tomorrow and have someone deliver hem to my job site.  Great thinks are looking up.  Daniel then completes something on his computer terminal and asks me to sign the key pad acknowledging that I picked up my order.  Before I can act out of desperation to get out of Home Depot, Ray looks at the fine print I am supposed to sign and notes that nowhere on this does it say I am only getting some of my order.  Daniel assures me that is what his computer shows.  Eventually he turns his monitor to let me see it.

I ask if I will get a receipt that shows this and he says yes.  I sign and a couple of papers print out.  He hands me the first and tells me it is for the entire order as it shows me buying and paying for 4 windows.  He then shows me the second paper which does in fact show that I am picking up two of them today.  Perfect.  I start to take the papers but then Daniel tells me I need to give him back the one that shows me only getting two windows because that is their copy.  Some more discussion with Daniel who tells me that it is impossible to print out a second one.  I notice that there is a copier right behind him.

"Can you just put it in the copier and make me a copy?"

You could see the gears turning,  eventually he does seem to recognize that this is a plausible solution to our joint problem because I am sure he was looking forward to seeing me leave almost as much as I was.  Armed with the paperwork and assurances from chair lady that they would find me two more windows Ray and hiked back over to the Pro Desk where the windows in fact had magically appeared, loaded them up in the Burb and headed out.  By then it was late, my knees and back were killing me and we didn't get any further than unloading our two windows and calling it a day after of course retelling the story of Daniel to Gloria who was already over at the homestead.

Bring me the Circular Saw

After a few days off helping Ray get ready for his trip to Turkey and then having David and the kids in for the weekend it was time to get back to work on the new wall.  I went over on Sunday for a few hours and got the wall positioned, anchored it to the floor and nailed it to header.  

Monday it stormed so no activity.

Tuesday I got off work a little bit earlier than usual.  Gloria and I headed over to begin sheathing the wall.  I added a couple of anchors to the wall and then started setting up a piece of plywood that needed to be cut.  I asked Gloria to go in the kitchen and get the circular saw.  She came out after a bit and said it wasn't in there.

Huh?  I was sure I put it in there after we used it last.  I go in, check the kitchen, check the TV room, go check the playroom, Did I leave it under the carport?  Nope,  What the heck?  Back into the house, wait a second wasn't the new chain saw sitting right there.  Suddenly the realization hits, somebody must have stolen it.

This lead to the beginning of a mental inventory of what was here before vs. what is here now.  Over the next hours and then days the list begins to build:

• Circular saw
• Brand new Stihl Farm Boss chainsaw
• Old barely running chainsaw
• Brand new Echo Lithium Ion Weed whacker.
• 30 year old, worn out echo gas Weed whacker
• Air Compressor
• Brush Cutter
• My Nikon DSLR (Yes the one I bought off ebay to replace the original one that was stolen from our current house)
• My old Baritone from high school
• and the list goes on

Probably well over $1,000, maybe $2,000 worth of stuff, and no the vacant house insurance doesn't cover any of it. There were a few lucky breaks, for some reason they missed my new hammer drill, they left the air hose for the compressor and more importantly my Air Cat Impact wrench that cost more than the compressor.  When they stole the Baritone, the left behind an old bugle.  It probably isn't worth much of anything but to me it was priceless as it was my Mom's bugle.  I can remember her playing it a few times, she was really good.  

Gloria called the police the next day to file a report, they sent an officer out who was very helpful. He  helped identify several possible ways that they could have gotten in.  Still don't really know, there was no sign of anything being forced open.  She went on the war path for the rest of the week trying to improve the security and removing anything of value.  

As I look back, it stinks that the stuff got stolen but like anything it could have been much worse.  For the more than two years the house sat empty with no insurance at all I feared this would happen and be a lot worse.  It isn't uncommon for thieves to tear out all the copper pipe and wiring in a house.  It still isn't as disturbing as the time we were robbed at our home while we were sleeping.  On that one Roger was up doing homework, heard noises, came down stairs and came face to face with a couple of guys who were unhooking the TV.  They acted like they had a gun and ran, thankfully I doubt that they really did.   We learned from that experience and made some changes.  We are learning from this wake up call as well.

That's about it for now, no pictures cause my stuff is gone.

The Wall

After tearing the old wall down it was time to begin building the new wall.  We spent most of the week after demolition trying to figure out exactly how we would build it.  Since this was originally a porch the wall construction is a bit different than traditional home construction. I talked to Bill on the design, he ended up drawing up a design for us.  Unfortunately it was based upon my memory of the measurements so it took a few iterations to get he actual dimensions.  Even the final drawing was off by an inch here and here.

We headed out on a Friday to pick up a pile of 2x6s and some Anderson 200 series windows.  Bright and early on Saturday morning Ray and I began our first framing exercise.  It was a long frustrating day;.We found additional rotten wood that needed to be torn out, Every time we tore out another board our dimensions for the new wall changed.  There was also a lot time spent trying to figure out exactly how this is was going to work.  We began building our masterpiece.  The first thing we learned was that  we couldn't make a straight cut with the circular saw to save our lives.  We seemed to bend as many nails as we pounded in.  Also had to redo about half of our studs   By the end of the day we had one small section created:

Seems fitting that my finger is in the picture of the disaster!

 Everything about it seemed cockeyed.  Despite our best efforts to square everything before nailing it was as crooked as a dog's hind leg.  We were pretty demoralized at that point.


Sunday morning back on the phone with Bill getting our design updated once again.  Also consulting on how we were supposed to build this thing.  He gave us a loAt of advise, The real game changer was when he explained how to cut with the circular saw by using a quick square next to it.  Here is the youtube he sent: Using a speed square with a circular saw

Ray and I arrived around noon on Sunday, made a few test cuts with the saw.  The results were nothing short of amazing.  Time to measure and cut was reduced to less than half, cuts were straight and exactly the correct length.  After reviewing our day 1 effort we knew it was time to tear that one down and start over.  We began rebuilding the first section.  Things went much better.  In a few hours we had it done.  After getting started on the next section we realized that we were out of 2x6's due to the waste from the first day.  I decided to go get some more supplies while Ray worked on getting what we had already cut ready for assembly.  We I returned I find Ray and Gloria working together to frame as much of the next section as there was wood for.  Ray told me "Mom is the X-factor in the operation".  Before long it was time to wrap up and go to church.  Ray had a change of clothes already over at the house and was able to get cleaned up.  I was too filthy to even consider it so Ray and Gloria headed to St. Monica while I headed home for a quick shower and change of clothes.  I then headed downtown for the second week in a row to catch the "Last Chance" mass at St; Johns.

Monday I took off as another vacation day so that we could finish the framing.  By the time we quit we had it looking pretty good.  We were getting better at the framing, Our big challenge then was trying to get the walls in place under the header from the original porch.  We used our jacks to raise things up a tiny bit and then beat it into place with Ray's large dead blow hammer.  At the end of the day we had it basically in place:

Ray measuring that in fact the door opening is exactly 38 inches.

Time to head home after a long sweaty day in sweltering August heat!

We managed to get back over one evening to get it in it's final location, anchor it and begin sheathing.  We spent at least an hour getting everything just right to we were plumb in every direction the window sill framing was level etc.  By the time we finished this we realized that somehow we had managed to get it just right but sticking out almost 1/2 inch too far.  We began working to correct but after a short time I was having back spasms and Ray had a headache and it was starting to rain.  Quitting time,  This was hard because I knew that this was Ray's last day to help as he needed to get ready to travel to Turkey with his new job.

And the Walls come tumbling down

One problem that has existed for a while now is the decay of the "playroom".  When the house was originally built there was a screened in porch on the back of the house.  At some point in the 60's my Mom and Dad had the porch enclosed to create a room.  This is where all of our toys went as well as the TV!  Needless to say we spent a lot of time out there when we were little.  The room had a gas space heater as it was not part of the ducting for the furnace. Here is a picture of the back of the house:

Over the years the room transitioned into more of a junk room.  The space heater quit working decades ago.  About five years ago we had the washer and dryer moved from the basement to this room.  For quite a while it has had a bad odor about it.  I noticed that the baseboard along the wall was mostly gone leaving a trail of black mold behind.  I started by tearing the paneling off to reveal what sort of problems we might have.  Here is what I found:

As you may notice the sill plate is completely gone as are the bottom 4 inches of the studs.  I don't think I ever made a video of it but with a light pressure of the foot it was pretty easy to move the wall out by six inches or more!

I got one quote to replace the wall, it was going to cost at least $8500 , Ouch!  With Ray egging me on the decision was made that we can do this our selves.  How hard could it be?

This past week end with Ray's help I tore down the wall.  Here are a few pictures of the job:

So whats next?  Good question.  I was so exhausted after Saturday that I couldn't work on it at all on Sunday.  Gloria did go through and get a lot of cleaning done.  Looks like we will build a new wall late this week or over the weekend.  Our plan is to have three sets of double hung windows similar to the remaining windows seen above on the left.  The small wall that is still standing is the dinette area of the kitchen and is original to the house.  At some point I plan to pull the aluminum siding off of it to see how much rot we have there.  The root cause of this mess is fairly obvious.  Notice the concrete slab which forms the floor.  The wall was located such that it had about a 1/2 inch ledge on the outside which allowed rainwater to seep under the siding and to work it's magic over time.  Water and Wood, not Good!