D-Day for the house was Drywall Day. Frank was bringing some friends who’ve hung a sheet or two to help get the dry wall hung in the laundry, 2 closets, and part of the downstairs bathroom.
The drywall was bought and stacked strategicaly throughout the house to avoid putting too much weight on any section of floor joist. Our friend Dan had helped Brad pick it up from Menards and then Dan and Frank helped Brad get it into the house on Thursday.
Friday consisted of checking everything over to be sure we were ready. We laid out utility knives and tape measures. Horses were brought in, and an area for food was staged.
Bright and early Saturday morning we got to the house. I made a pot of coffee and set out pastries. Brad did another once over of the tools. Frank arrived first around 7:30, and about 8 his brother-in-law and 2 friends arrived.
My main job was keeping them fed, and running any errands. About noon I brought pizzas and chicken. Everyone was happy to take a short break and sit down for a bottle of water or a can of diet Pepsi and something to eat.
I came back around 5 to check on the progress. The transformation was amazing. I even got to help with a few cuts.
Before – View from living roomBefore – Everything is so open.Before – View from new bathroom to West bedroom.Before – view from hall closet to West bedroom.Before – bathroom looking through laundry and closets. Linen closet on the far right edge.During – progress at lunch time. Living room looking toward old bathroomDuring – Part of the crew in the cutting room. (AKA living room)During – assessing hall closetDuring – inspecting work in hall closet, looking toward West bedroomAfter – view from living room into hall closetAfter – West bedroom looking toward former closet door and new closetAfter – former bathroom now West bedroom closetAfter – ceiling of bedroom closetAfter – view in bathroom into laundry and linen closetAfter – linen closet and laundryAfter – laundry and linen closetAfter – bathroom ceiling
It took Brad, Frank, Paul, John, and Joel all day to do the small area that consisted of the laundry, closets and bathroom ceiling. That in itself is probably why it took all day, there were so many cuts. It was very few sheets could go up whole. We were more than thankful for their help. If Brad and I had to do it alone, it probably would have taken us a month. We still have to go back and finish around the tub, but that will be cement board instead of drywall since we will be tiling around the tub.
We ended the day at a local Dive Bar, the Old Still Saloon, where we bought them supper and drinks.
Since we bought Lannon on the Hill we’ve had several self imposed deadlines. Being self imposed, if we didn’t meet them, we simply extended the timeline, which is why we are still in project phase 6 years later.
In July our friend Frank approached Brad that he had several friends who could come and help hang drywall. Brad needed to pick a date. Knowing there was a lot of stuff to do to be ready to close-up walls, Brad pushed the date out to the last weekend of September.
A major problem was the cast-iron pipe from the 2nd floor toilet. The plumber in 1955 apparently thought floor joists were overrated. Of the 8” joist 7” had been removed to make room for the elbow.
The weight of the pipe & toilet over the years had made the joist sag and was pulling the floorboards apart. Brandon put the skills he learned at NWTC to use and welded a support. With house jacks pushing the pipe back into place, the welded frame was bolted to the good joists on either side of the compromised one.
Brad finished the DWV lines (drain, waste, vent). He and Brandon ran the pex lines & finished them. Next would be electrical.
We discovered that when the family room addition was put on the original roof decking was left on when the new roof was put over the top. The obsolete roof decking was an obstacle to accessing the vent pipe. Brad needed to tie the vent pipes for the sink, toilet, and tub/shower in the relocated bathroom into the old cast-iron vent pipe. To do that, he needed to get to it and cut a hole in it and then place a special fitting to connect the 2.
Laying a cat walk over the joists, he and Brandon cut the obsolete roof decking and handed it down piece by piece. Brandon was able to squeeze himself far enough to bore a hole into the cast-iron, and then a saddle fitting was place on it to connect the new vent to the old.
To minimize how many walls had to be opened (and then repaired) wire was run from the breaker box in the basement up the walls to the small closet off the south bedroom, which simply had plywood over the studs. From this closet the wires were then run up into the attic and then disburst to the rooms on the second floor. Toward the edges of the attic it got pretty tight, and Brandon was a huge help, being younger and smaller.
Running the electrical to the bedrooms, closets, and 2nd floor bathroom was simple compared to the family room. Everywhere was accessible through the attic except the family room. Brad cut an access panel in the family room ceiling. Cutting a hole in the family room wall we sent the wires from the attic down the wall shared between the bedroom and family room. Not needing to have the family room electrical completed for the drywall, we stopped here for the time being. More on the family room later..
This all sounds really simple. It was far from simple. We tried very hard not to open up more walls than needed. Brad bored 3/4″ holes in the top plate and sent wires down to the holes cut for the outlet boxes. We discovered blocking, which is not common practice in the US. This caused Brad to remember the slang term for the blocking, “bastards”, and we could understand why they got that name. To compensate for the bast – blocking, Brad invested in drill bits that were between 36 and 54 inches long. They had a ball that slipped on to help steady the drill bit in-between the joists. It worked, but not flawlessly. At times it would jam in the hard old growth wood. With many colorful adjectives, a lot of elbow grease, and strategically cut holes we finished the 2nd floor wiring.
Back to the open walls of the closets and new bathroom. We had a punch list taped to the wall listing what we needed to complete by the end of September, when the drywall crew would arrive.
The plumbing was finished, and Brad tested the pex connections to be sure they held water – thankfully there were no leaks! Electrical was run from the basement. Brad had me cut the holes for the boxes for outlets and switches with his oscillating tool and a diamond tipped blade. The original walls on the 1st floor are rock lathe (which looks like small sheets of drywall) covered in a full layer of plaster, which after 90 years is about the consistency of cement. The diamond tip cut through really easily – at first. Cut after cut it took a bit more to cut the holes. By the last hole there was almost nothing left to the diamond tip.
There were hiccups and setbacks. Brad ended up taking vacation days and half days to work through the list. We completed it with time for him to attempt to get working lights in that end of the house. A manufacturing deviation made installing the switches difficult at best. The lighting would need to be run from extension cords, but at least we were ready!
This project has been taking much longer than we originally envisioned. Its not that anything was in that bad of shape. There are certain things we want changed or updated. We have cats, and over the years we have learned that when working on a home improvement project we need to be able to seal it off from the cats, or completely pick-up and close-up the project when we walk away or who knows what they will find, do, or get into. So, we made the decision that we would not move-in until complete so we were not contending with cats and home improvement at the same time. In addition Brad and I are both working, volunteering, and living our lives.
Usually when I’ve taken a long hiatus from posting we’ve been doing some work and I just haven’t sat down to put a post together, or I am waiting for Brad to preview a post before publishing.
I was actually working on 2 posts at the same time, just not haven taken the time to complete them.
I was catching up on posts, and in reality we were moving along fairly well, and Brad had high hopes that we would be moved in before 2024 came to an end. We had some good news and some not so good news.
Good news – Alex paid an unexpected visit! He was in state and proposed to his girl-friend!!! He wanted to pop the question in Madison, where they met, and then wanted to tell the parents in person. Lauren is a wonderful young lady, and we are super happy that she will be part of the family.
Not so good news – I had been having some issues that come with being a woman in her early 50’s – lets just say not fun. Anyhow, I was going through the process of getting things checked out and figuring out what my options were for some relief. Running to appointments chewed up time, and Brad wanted to accompany me to support me. Mid-July I got THE call. Endometrial Cancer. The whirlwind of appointments started. I was referred to a gynecological oncologist, and she wanted a blood test and CT scan before she even saw me.
CT scan resulted in more appointments. First was a trip to the ER for contrast allergy. Then an nodule was seen on one of my adrenal glands, so a referral to endocrinology to rule out any issues before hysterectomy. A lab visit with a dozen blood tests, and a value below normal postponed surgery. A prescription supplement raised the value to where it belonged and surgery was back on. My time was devoted to getting as much done at work as possible before going on medical leave. I am the only one in the office at our church, so while the staff at our sister parish could help people, the work load had to be prepped or wait for my return.
I had to have a regular physical and fit a routine mammogram in before surgery. Surgery went well, but healing was slow going. Cancer was contained to the lining of my uterus and had not spread, my oncologist said I am considered cured. I do have to have routine checks every 3 months. I also had to have 3 follow-ups after surgery to be sure everything was healing correctly.
Shortly after surgery the endocrinologist office called to schedule a follow-up. The nodule is stable and just needs monitoring. The issue is my parathyroid is secreting too much hormone. He ordered bone density scan to check that it wasn’t giving me osteoporosis yet. So far so good.
I also had a breast MRI to be sure everything is ok there – it is thankfully.
So after 6 months I finally got back to something, anything at the house. I finished taking up the old floor in the upstairs bathroom. Yes, I had proper PPE on not knowing what the floor was made of. It felt good, no longer dealing with anemia I had more energy that I have had for a long time.
We attended Lauren’s graduation with her Masters degree in spring. Shortly after our return we had a serious conversation about how long this had been taking. The focus had to be shifted from everything else to finishing so we could move in. We picked up the pace on work, but made time for the church picnic and a camping trip with Brad’s family.
In an effort to help us, our friend Frank had arranged for help hanging drywall, and set a date with Brad. We had a deadline that was not self-imposed, and the clock was ticking to finish everything that would be contained in those walls. More about this in the next post.
Our new goal is this year. We’ll see how things go. Hopefully life has settled down for a while.
If you haven’t noticed, this is not a speedy transformation. A good chunk of that is because we are doing what we can ourselves. Some stuff like the stone work, the basement floor, and the garage was just beyond our skill level or means. Part of the trade off of doing much of the work ourselves is either A – life is on hold for the projects – or B – projects get put on hold for life. We chose B. We both work, and while our sons are both adults, family time is important.
The point of this post is some of the life that happened while we took a hiatus from projects.
Our youngest (Brandon) had put in a year at UW Madison and discovered that the degree he was going for just wasn’t for him (this revelation came at the end of his freshman year). After some soul searching and brainstorming he wanted to give welding a try. At this point, he had 0 welding experience. He had gone to Summer Scholar’s at Michigan Tech and he had really liked working with metal. So he enrolled in Northeastern Wisconsin Technical College (NWTC) for welding. He moved back home and became a commuter student.
Brandon came to us asking if he could adopt a dog of his own. We had a senior Pomeranian/Pug mix (Sophie), and several cats. After talking responsibility and expenses we gave our blessing. After a bit of searching he took a chance and visited our county Human Society. They had recently received a “chihuahua” as a surrender. I went with Brandon, and who we met was no chihuahua. They brought a super loving boy whose legs looked far to short for his body, and head looked to big for his body. It was mutual love at first sight. The shelter required that all dogs and humans in the house had to meet the potential new dog before adoption could be finalized. This was a Friday, so all of us had to wait until Monday. Sophie was fine with this new dog (at 16 she was pretty chill) and Brad was fine with him. Kipp (the dog Brandon was attempting to adopt) was happy to see everyone! A call to our families vet, and Brandon was a proud pet parent.
Our oldest, Alex, was in his senior year at UW Madison. The company he had interned with over the summer kept him on as a remote intern when classes resumed. In September he had applied for a position that would be opening up the following spring, and was offered the job. He would be moving to Pennsylvania after graduation. The days of him being “only” 3 hours away were numbered. Brad and I took a weekend and went to Madison to spend time with Alex and his girl-friend Lauren.
Brad did fit in getting a load of lumber to start work on the new walls for the transformation of the former bathroom, 2 bedroom closets, and a bedroom into a bathroom, laundry room, hall closet, and walk-in bedroom closet. He would work on framing of the walls, and shimming studs where needed. More on that in another post.
In the midst of all this was 3 Fish Frys and a Brunch at our church that we volunteer with, before we knew it Easter was upon us, and given Brad’s role at church Holy Week was spent almost more at church than at home.
I took a weekend with Lauren’s mom and took a trip to Madison and did graduation photos with our Badgers. We had to hit the memorable spots, and they both managed to get into Abe Lincoln’s lap despite the ladder not being present yet.
Before we knew it, it was Mother’s Day weekend – aka graduation weekend. Brad DID NOT want to navigate Madison traffic on graduation/move out weekend. We got a hotel room downtown within walking distance of Camp Randall Stadium. Alex had graduated High School with the smallest graduation class in a century, he was now part of the largest graduating class to date at UW Madison. There were nearly 8,000 graduates (bachelors, masters, and doctorates combined). Looking out at the field from the stands was like playing Where’s Waldo when EVERYONE is dressed like Waldo.
Brandon’s graduation was relatively local, but we knew it had the potential to be a late night. We stopped off at our friends & sitters (Dan & Barb) to drop Sophie and Kipp off so we would not have to watch the clock. By the time graduation and going out for a treat was over it was late. We called Dan & Barb, should we leave them for the night and come back in the morning. Something wasn’t right, we should bring them home.
Sophie had been diagnosed with Congestive Heart Failure just over a year ago, and we had been treating her with medication to keep it in check. She had been having syncope (fainting) episodes again, which was concerning. (The medication had stopped the syncope.) A blowing fan did wonders for her to aid in controlling the syncope. She was 17 now, in addition to the CHF she had had high lipid levels for years, and was going on 3 years with no gall bladder.
I had taken her to the vet the week before due to diarrhea that I assumed was from worms or some parasite. She was always eating what she found on the ground outside – yuck! It hadn’t gotten any better and the color was way off. The vet fit her in the next day (Thursday). She had gained 2 pounds in less than a week. This time she got in to see her regular vet who knew her history. He took her back for an ultrasound, and returned with devastating news. Her little heart just couldn’t keep up, and she was filling with fluid. He looked at me and said “its time”. My boss, Fr. Carmen, and friend, Barb had gone with me, we all guessed it wasn’t going to be good. I had never wanted it to come to this. I didn’t feel it was my place to make that decision, but his words didn’t ask for a decision, only surrender to the reality of the situation. My mind reeled. I had gone to work with Sophie, I couldn’t just come home without her! I asked if I had time for Brad and the boys to say good-bye. He had an opening that afternoon.
Divine intervention, Alex was home for a short week for Brandon’s graduation and to pack in-between his own graduation and moving. I called Brad, he told he receptionist he was leaving and came straight home. We spent tearful precious hour and a half with her. She even got something she hadn’t had for years – PEANUT BUTTER. We went together, and Fr. Carmen met us at the vet. While she was OUR dog, Brad and the boys knew she was mine more than anyone’s. In my arms she fell asleep and crossed the Rainbow Bridge.
Brad’s dad threw a graduation/summer birthdays party at his house while Alex and Lauren were still in the area. Two weeks later we were on the road first to Madison to finish packing up Alex’s stuff & then to Pennsylvania. Brandon didn’t help with the move due to starting a full time job welding. We came home & celebrated our anniversary. Brad helped me in the kitchen with a project I had started and was in over my head, and before we knew it our church picnic was here and family camping was right behind. We then celebrated Brandon’s 21st birthday. September rolled around and the big push at Brad’s work to get stuff done over summer break (even though he’s not at a school district) was finally over.
Brad checked in with the concrete guy and the window guy to see if we would be on their schedule before the snow flew (it was time to start thinking about that again). It did not look that way. So back to the projects at hand.
We took a trip to Pennsylvania to celebrate Alex’s birthday with him, and soon Thanksgiving was upon us and before we knew it, so was Christmas. With the new year came planning for Fish Fries again. We fit some work in, but life was again taking over.
We hoped that 2024 would be the year, but more about that in the next post.
Last post we took the plaster down from the bedroom and closet. Now we move on to the original bathroom.
To recap our plans: The original 1st floor layout of the bedrooms and bathroom has 2 bedrooms with a bathroom inbetween. The bedrooms and bathroom comprised the entire North side of the 1st floor. The only room remaining the same in our plans is the West bedroom.
The bathroom was dismantled in logical order. Water lines turned off and removed from the sink and toilet, vanity removed then the toilet. We shoved a bunch of towels into the waste lines (sticking out for easy removal of course) to keep the sewer gases from coming into the house.
The toilet and sink were easy. They could be lifted and just carried out. Thankfully they both fit through the doorway. The bathroom had a 24″ door, narrower than usual. The challenge would be the tub. Several things would not make moving the tub easy. First, and most obvious is the size. The only way it would fit through the doorway would be to turn it on its side, since it is 32″ and the door was 24″, it is wider than the door. Knocking on it, we were very confident it was cast iron coasted with porcelain – heavy. Best guess on weight (looking at what the same size weighs) would be 350 pounds. Even with the toilet and vanity removed, this is not a luxuriously large room to maneuver this beast around in. Lastly, the largest obstacle to the removal of the tub would be how it was installed.
This is an alcove tub. When installing the tub is set into place on the studded walls, and then the drywall (or plaster & rock lath) is installed, and goes over the top of a small lip on the top of the tub. This helps keep water from going behind the tub (a total nightmare I don’t want to imagine). The drywall or plaster & rock lath also goes infront of the tub, tucking it in nice and tight. This is all great to insure waterproofing, terrible for figuring out how to remove the tub.
The shower doors and tile had been removed earlier, so we no longer had to worry about that. We had contemplated reusing the tub in the new bathroom, there was one problem. In the layout of the new bathroom, this tub had the faucets on the wrong end. I’m sure at least one person besides me is asking, does which end the faucets are on really matter? I learned, yes. Keep in mind this is a stone house, and the basement is also stone. Then there is the space where the timbers of the frame for the interior of the house rest on the fieldstone foundation. This is a classic spot for pipes to freeze in the winter especially if the wind is blowing in the right direction. We are up on top of a hill, with not a whole lot to stop the wind. Brad wanted the faucets on the interior of the new alcove to protect the pipes from freezing. Having had to thaw pipes growing up because of a similar scenario if we put them on the outside wall, I could see his logic and agreed, we would not be reusing this tub.
Our oldest was home for Christmas break and was helping Brad brainstorm on how to move the tub. Brad had a thought. Confirmed that we were quite sure it was cast iron, and he was certain that we would not be reusing it. He went and got the sledge hammer, and with a good swing cracked the tub. A few more swings (and ear protection) the tub left the house in pieces. Was this a waste, perhaps. It was not a vintage claw foot tub or anything noteworthy. We try our best to reuse when we can, and donate to Goodwill, St. Vincent de Paul, and the ReStore when we can. In all practicality, this was the only way (without more work than it was worth) to remove the tub.
Once that was out – I first made Brad put a board over where the drain line had been. Last thing we needed was someone taking the fast route to the basement. Then we removed the plaster and rock lath from most of the walls. Brad used a oscillating tool (not reciprocating, that’s the Sawzall) with different attachments to cleanly cut the “lovely” plaster and rock lath where we were saving the plaster.
Then it was LOTS of clean-up. We removed the plaster & rock lath in large chunks whenever possible. Still the amount of plaster dust was staggering. As we’ve done throughout this project, safety glasses and dust masks were worn. We switched to full blown respirators if we really questioned something, and ear protection when appropriate.
We took up the vinyl flooring to find another layer of vinyl (yay – not). Took up vinyl layer #2 to find tar paper. Pulling up the carpet from the hall just a little bit, our hopes were confirmed, hardwood in the hall, and most certainly in the living room.
Looking at what we had done, we stood in a wide expanse. There was so much we had done, and so very much more to do. That will have to wait for another post.
The house has 4 bedrooms, 2 modest bedrooms downstairs, and 2 much larger bedrooms upstairs. While we want to have room for our sons to come visit, we didn’t really need 4 bedrooms as empty nesters. At the time that the house was built in the 1930’s having indoor plumbing in the rural areas was a luxury in itself. To be honest the bathroom was small, smaller than we would like.
As I said from the beginning, while we want to preserve the character of the house, we also plan to do some updates. This is one of the updates. After lots of thinking, talking, planning, and drawing it out several different ways, we decided to enlarge the first floor bathroom.
Originally there was an East bedroom and a West bedroom each with small closets, and a bathroom in-between. What we decided to do was move the bathroom to the East bedroom, move the laundry upstairs to roughly where the East bedroom closet is/was (the current hook-ups are in the basement), take out the 2 1/2’X2 1/2′ closet in the West bedroom, turn the former bathroom and West bedroom closet into a hall closet and a walk-in closet for the West bedroom.
It sounds like a lot – and it is. There is wall moving involved. The East bedroom closet is not deep enough for our washer and dryer. The idea is to put louvered doors on so when not in use the laundry isn’t seen. I’m getting ahead of myself.
The first thing we did was to assess how the plumbing and heating got upstairs since we were changing the wall that the heat duct ran through. To do this we had to take down the ceiling. Well – not the whole ceiling. Those staple up recycled paper ceiling tiles were in this room. We suspected that the toilet in the 2nd floor bath had leaked or sweated due to a water spot on the ceiling. So the first order of business was to take those ceiling tiles down. That was a me job. I have one word for what I found – GROSS.
It appeared to be a combination of mold and mouse poop. Anyone worried about black mold – don’t. It will be removed (and yes I wore a P95 dust mask, goggles, and gloves). The solid plaster ceiling I left intact. We will be patching with drywall and plaster to make the ceiling whole again, that step is a long, long way off.
Next I removed what I thought was drywall and plaster where the door for the laundry and linen closet will go. I have been educated that this was not drywall (even though it looks like drywall). In the 1930’s “drywall” was a new innovation replacing plaster and lath, the name however was rocklath and it came in 16″ X 32″ sheets. I discovered that in addition to 3/8″ “drywall”, they put 3/8″ plaster on top – ugh! Brad said putting plaster on top of the rocklath was a common practice in the 1930’s. In the corners I found another innovation of the time and a royal pain to remove – wire mesh lath. As far as good building material I can’t disagree, but to remove it is a pain.
The trim was removed on any walls we would be working on. I was careful to leave intact the walls that we weren’t doing anything to. There is not need to make more work or expense for ourselves.
Once this room was prepped, it was time to turn to the bathroom and prepare that for gutting, that will be another post.
Oh my! I can’t believe it’s been over a year since I posted an update. Life has been busy, the projects have not progressed the way we had hoped, and life has just gotten in the way.
The last post I had was bringing the new furnace down stairs and removing the beast and the propane furnace that had fed into it. If you haven’t read the other posts, you read that right. The modern heating system that we bought the house with was a downflow furnace up on a stand being fed into an old coal burning furnace that was acting as a huge, super inefficient plenum.
The Beast
Brad had his work cut out for him! The beast being a gravity furnace a.k.a. octopus furnace had ALL the ducts running back to the furnace and coming out the top like the legs of a octopus. Modern heating systems use trunk lines (think trunk like a tree) with branches (think trees again) coming off to supply to the rooms/areas. This meant that he had to take almost all the ducting down. He left up anything running up the walls, and the cold air returns that are just sheet metal covering joist bays.
Originally we thought (I thought) we could re-use the duct work. After taking it down and seeing inside we opted to put in new, and I wholeheartedly agreed. The ducts are 85+ years old, and for the first few decades were connected to a coal burning furnace. To say they were gross was an understatement. It was not worth our time or energy to clean the inside of all the ducting we would need – plus we had gotten some at a price we couldn’t argue with.
Brad’s brother and sister-in-law have a cabin that they had some major renovations to, and in the process the HVAC contractor took out all their existing duct work (which was less than 20 years old, and only used part time) and replaced it with new-new. We could understand the contractor’s logic. Being paid by the hour it was more cost effective to replace the duct-work than to take the time to piecemeal the good used stuff into the new system. Jeff and Meghan put it with a bunch of other materials that they have acquired in an old barn, and asked if we were interested. We took what we could, figuring, what the heck, we might be able to use it, and we wouldn’t be out anything if we couldn’t. We were able to use quite a bit! We did have to buy some new, but it helped cut down of the cost of the project.
Brad was hoping to have our friend & HVAC guy, Greg, assist him initial start-up procedure and adjustment, but Greg had a family emergency that left him stretched thin to the point of snapping. Thankfully he didn’t snap, and he and his family had a tremendous amount of support from friends, family, and faith family through their emergency and by the Grace of God life is mostly back to normal. The last thing we were going to do in the midst of the emergency was stretch Greg any thinner, so Brad checked and double checked his work. When ready, it would have to go on without a formal inspection.
It was a bit later than desired (and colder than desired) but the furnace went on-line December 18, 2022. Yes, technically it was still Fall on the calendar, but the temperatures outside said it was winter. It was pretty exciting to have heat again!
System ran all Winter and early Spring with no issues. Just to play it safe, (and for Brad’s peace of mind) we did have Greg come and inspect the system when life settled down for him and he had a bit of time. He said Brad did a great job, SURPRISE (not really – I knew that already). He did recommend that we change the registers on the cold air returns in the kitchen and living room, to ones with a larger spacing between the fins, add a cold air return to the West bedroom, if possible add one to the North bedroom upstairs – and have them cleaned.
Changing the registers will be an easy fix. We’ll see what we can do for cleaning the cold air return ducts, and if necessary call in a service. Adding a vent to the West bedroom will be a bit of work, but do-able. Then there is the North bedroom, that one is a different story. We did a lot of looking and thinking about the relationship of walls. Our only 2 real options are bad and worse. That bedroom is going to be ours, and typically we keep the door open. With that room we are going to have to rely on natural air flow going down the steps, putting a cold air return in that room is just not feasible. For anyone concerned about the door being closed on the stairwell & blocking the flow (spoiler alert) we plan to remove the stairwell door completely.
We have nearly reached the end of the heating story. There is one more chapter to tell – with rerouting several heat ducts, adding one to our future walk-in closet, and the cold air return to the West bedroom. As of now, the biggest part is over, and what’s left is minor details in comparison.
If you think way back to Baby It’s Cold Outside, you will remember that we bought the house with 2 furnaces in it. A “newer” propane furnace and a big gravity (octopus) furnace I have named “the beast” that acted as a plenum for the propane furnace. Honestly it was a very convoluted set-up. We discovered that not all the burners were working on the propane furnace (the source of the propane smell we detected only outside) and with the help of our HVAC friend Greg managed to make it limp through 3 winters.
We bought a new furnace, then life got in the way, and it sat, then it got to be fall and we knew that there was no way we would get it in before winter (hence the making the old propane furnace limp along).
This past spring we got a proverbial kick in the butt. Brad was out doing some work this past spring. It was a chilly day, so he turned up the thermostat – and nothing. The old propane furnace said “no more”. Instead of calling Greg out and fixing it again, we took it as a sign – it was time to get our butts in gear and get that new furnace installed.
Before we could do anything else, the arms of the octopus furnace had to be disconnected. We had no idea how much dust the duct-work would hold. Separating the propane furnace from the beast revealed a ton of dust. The last thing Brad wanted was all that crap in his lungs.
Assessing the beastYuck!
Brad also didn’t want to get in his car full of dust or have to strip down to his skivvies to change, so Brad suited up in a pair of coveralls and a respirator since it is designed for better filtration and longer wear than just a face-mask.
Brad suited up with ugly duct-work above.
Wearing a respirator and coveralls he made sure to disassemble the duct-work while the weather was cooler as it gets hot – fast. Once the duct-work was removed, there was the beast to deal with.
The beast has a cast-iron heat exchange. With a flight of stairs to deal with there was only 1 way it was coming out. In pieces. Brad took a sledge hammer and broke the cast-iron into manageable pieces hauling it and the sheet-metal up the steps.
A straight shot, but still a long way to go with the beast.A sledge hammer made short work of the beast.One of the contractors offered to give the sledge hammer a little help with a cut from a heavy duty saw.Ready for the scrap yard.After 75 to 80 years it is little wonder that you can still see where it sat.
Then there was the old propane furnace. Brandon helped Brad carry that up and out – a much simpler job. While they were at it they hauled the old electric water heater out too. Under the water heater blanket we found that it had scorching from something not good electrical at one point. To prep the area for the new furnace they got everything out of the “cubby”
Blocks for the new furnace to provide ventilation underneath. Looks very different.
Brad expand a hole between the utility area and room with the newly cemented floor for a trunk line. We had the mason out to finish some stuff up (more on that later). Brad had him seal up the spot where the direct vent went out through the wall with the future root cellar to the window.
To the future root cellarRoot cellar side of same wall
Being an octopus furnace there was a line to every register which created a network of duct-work in the ceiling. Since we were redoing the heating, we decided (Brad advised) to put in a trunk-line and run the ducts from there. This should result in a lot less pipes running in the ceiling.
Brad and Brandon moved the new furnace into place and phase 2 of heat ends in late summer with fall and winter seeming far off (even though we know it will be here before we know it).
One of the biggest problems we have been encountering on our to-do list is time. Life seems to constantly be getting in the way. This past winter we did make some progress.
When our sons were home over winter break they tore our the carpet in the family room.
Indoor/outdoor carpet is gone!
Over a few days I ripped down the drywall and plaster on the walls of the closet of the bedroom that is destined to be the new bathroom.
Future main bath and laundry
With the price of building materials, we did some soul searching and budget crunching and settled that the upstairs bathroom will have to stay as is (to a degree). We’ll install a new sink and evaluate the toilet, paint the walls, and lay a new floor. The walls will remain where they are and so will the door, and there will be no shower.
There’s been some big changes, but that will be another post.
Before I get started I want to clarify that we love trees. They provide shade in the summer, reduce heating costs, look beautiful, provide food, make oxygen, etc. What’s not to love?
With all that said – we needed to get rid of some trees. When we bought Quarterline the owner had been living there alone as a widow for 11 years. Her kids would come help with yard work, but they had their own homes too, and taking care of mom’s yard most likely came down to mow the lawn, rake the leaves, and “we’ll get to the rest of it another day”.
Here’s what we slated to say good-bye to.
The tree on the far left was one of the painfully obvious ones.
As cool and fairy-like as this looked, the tree was actively dying – and huge.
This poor tree on the right had huge leafless sections, and major roots were unavoidably cut when we went to underground electrical.
And it already had a huge split in it.
The evergreen on the far right is growing into the oak at the end of the driveway – and it reduces visibility when leaving the driveway.
Here you can see it a little better.
Finally there was the evergreen growing up against the guest house and the dwarf apple tree that had seen its better days. I don’t have a picture of it, but one of the major branches that was left of the apple tree had broken in a wind storm and had become a mid-winter snack for the rabbits.
A friend of ours and his dad used to be in the tree cutting business and still have the equipment. He was on break from his regular construction job and had some time to come take them down. Winter is perfect, the ground is froze so hard that the big trucks won’t leave ruts!
Coming home from work, I came across this sight, it’s just starting to tip.
After
It looks so different! The tree with the big split would have been just to the right. of the guest house.
It looks so natural without the big evergreen behind the oak tree!
Just in front of the evergreens in the back is what is left of the dying tree with the fairy mushrooms. Andy and his dad took down a big branch that hung over the house from the tree in front of it.
Still some clean-up left to do, but overall it is a huge improvement. Andy and his dad did a great job. In spring the pole that the yard light was on will be coming out and we’ll assess what needs to be trimmed from the giant apple tree.
We sent Andy & Richie home with the good wood. Once the weather turns warm we’ll have to stock up on marshmallows and hot dogs to work on getting rid of the brush.
Lannon on the Hill 