Thaw, more Snow, and plumbing – Weekend Update MLK weekend

Oh 3 day weekends, please start visiting us more often!  I love a three day weekend.  Stefan and I were talking and it seems we have a habit of working really hard on Saturday and by Sunday the combination of the physical tiredness of Saturday and the mental/emotional tiredness of the week takes over and we are pooped.  The 3 day weekend gives us a Sunday to recuperate and a Monday to plow through more work.  It’s glorious.

This weekend we ran into a bunch of snafus but we got a lot done and are well on our way towards getting things done in the 2nd floor bathroom.

First order of business was to drop off the scrap metal I had loaded into the back of the truck last weekend.  Wow.  That was an adventure.  We went into Everett and there is a whole row of places.  I had a place I had looked up online and they were all the way at the end.  They were very nice and were willing to explain everything we needed to do.  First we waited in line to be weighed.  Then we were told to go to the sorting station since we had mixed metals.  We unloaded and sorted everything.  There were so many interesting people there.  It was quite the experience.  Everyone was very nice.  I’ve found that at places like this where I feel like a yuppy in a local’s environment, I just throw on my country girl accent and remember to make eye contact and smile.  I may be a city girl now but I was raised a southerner and good manners go a long way with all types of people.  The rough scrap yard guys are willing to help and answer questions if you go out of your way to show your respect for them.    I just ignore their stares and make sure I smile and say thank you.  We came out about $120 ahead and it only took about half an hour.  We took one fairly large piece of copper pipe.  It was $95 just for that one piece.  We have probably 4 times that much still at the house.  This was kind of just a trial run but now we know how it works we’ll load up the truck and do a multi-hundred dollar run.

After that adventure, we went to Home Depot and picked up this extension ladder for $99.

Roofing contractor was planning to use roofing brackets to hold the extension ladder. After more thinking and some playing on the roof, we decided to try another approach. Putting holes in our brand new roof just didn’t sit too well.

You can see here why it was so hard to get too. We had to go just about 8 feet above the top of the roof-line.

To get there, we just used a 6 foot step-ladder. We tied it to a piece of scrap wood that we clamped through the Green Windows just to keep it from sliding out from under Stefan while he drilled the holes.

We got the first one done on Saturday afternoon. It took a mid-project Home Depot run to get a hole saw the right size but we managed one. It started to get dark so we put up shop and worked on an “indoor” project that evening. We were going strong until nearly 11 o’clock. But, we got the water supply done in the bathroom. Pex-tastic, we will see if can finish the project completely. We got help from the First 4 Plumbing on plumbing issues at home.

We even labeled the manifold.

It felt so good to get something checked off the list.

Sunday was windy so we elected not to do any roof-ladder work. Frankly speaking, I wish I hired a professional service to do this roof job, as it turned out to be very time-consuming. I heard guys from roof repair West Palm Beach are great at roof repair, so next time I need something like that, I would probably contact them. Instead, we worked on planning out Electric. We picked out and ordered this lighting fixture for the bathroom:

We also picked out these lights for the vanity:

Since it was a 3 day weekend, we took some time to walk downtown for a late lunch/early dinner. It was great to see the sun and have some date-time.

Sunday we finished up the other two venting heads. These are for the bath fan exhausts. There are 3 in total. One for the first floor bath, one for the half bath on the second floor, and one for the master bath.

We had planned on drilling a bunch of holes for running electric but as Stefan was cutting the last exhaust hole, the right angle drill died a heart-wrenching death. We stripped the gears and it made this pitiful jingley sound as the gear teeth floated around the case. So, that put an end to our weekend of work. We decided to get in the car and make a third and final weekend trip to HD but we walked outside and…it was snowing! Forecast of 4-8″!! We only got a dusting but still, HD in a blizzard isn’t something I’m dying to do again so we called the weekend done and relaxed and watched TV instead.

My sister is coming out next weekend so we’ll have an extra set of hands. Here we come dry-wall ready bathroom!!!

Stay Warm!

Sarah

P.S. Highs are in the teens for the next couple days. Brrrr.

January 12 & 13: Plumbing and Shopping

This weekend was a relaxing recuperating weekend. Work has been busy for both Stefan and myself and by the time the weekend rolls around, we just want to sleep in and watch James Bond movies. We finally got around to getting library cards so I’m working my way through the Game of Thrones series. I’m about a quarter of the way through the second book. They are really good but long and a bit dense. I’d say the HBO series does a pretty good job of telling the story but there is more symbolism and mystery in the books that doesn’t come through in the TV show.

Saturday, I did some wiring and got Stefan to drill a bunch of holes in the basement for me. That is tiring work. You think,
“hey, it’s a power tool…can’t be that hard” but you’d be wrong. drilling 5/8 inch holes through 3 inches of old-growth hardwood is a lot of work. You have to stick your head between the rafters in the ceiling of the basement with all the dust and dirt and drill this hole above your head. I’m glad I was able to get Stefan to do it for me!

After the holes are drilled, just string some wires. Nothing too exciting.

We also worked on a good bit of PVC. We planned out how we are going to lay out the 3rd floor bathroom and get the second floor sink venting done up to the ceiling. We need to work out some final jogs to get it up into the chimney cavity but that should be relatively easy. If you need an emergency plumber in Gloucester, call Plumbing Heroes.

You can see the one piece of PVC that’s covered in purple. That was last weekends accident. Nearly an entire bottle of purple PVC primer spilled on the floor. It stains everything and even made Stefan’s shoes fall apart. Nasty stuff. A great way to stain things purple though. I got some on my dryer in the basement and I’ve considered painting my dryer purple. If only it didn’t smell so bad!

On Sunday, we did a little PVC, a little Electric, and a lot of thinking. We’ve picked out the doors for the bathrooms. The 3rd floor bathroom will just use one of the 10s of doors we have lying around. The Master bath will have little french doors. We are going to buy bifold doors and change the hardware.

At $36 each, they’ll be great little doors. They’re in-stock at Home Depot so we’ll pick those up next time we are there with the truck.

The other big piece of thinking we did was figuring out how to get the bathroom vents installed.

If you look at the back of the house, you can see the two narrow windows. The left one is in the bathroom. The bath vents will pop out of the house above the window just to the left of the window. Because of the porch roof, getting up there is a pain. We measured and tried all sorts of combinations and what we came up with was roof brackets and a short extension ladder from the porch roof up to the appropriate location. We’re planning on picking up the ladder next weekend.

It’s also in stock at the ol HD. We are going to need a 40 foot ladder or at least a 32 foot ladder soon for the 3rd floor bathroom vent. We still aren’t sure how to get that home. I’m thinking we’ll probably rent a big truck from HD or rent a UHaul or something. We looked at ladder racks for the truck too.

In addition to some decisions, we did a little shopping. We broke a door handle spindle so we ordered some replacements from House of Antique Hardware. While we were on the website, we found some amazing light fixtures.

I’m loving this for the bathroom. I’d love a matching 2-light sconce but they didn’t have one 🙁 I’m thinking perhaps a real simple light would blend.

This one is awesome for the kitchen above the sink. I’m loving it!

I was surprised by the selection and the prices at House of Antique Hardware. I highly recommend and they aren’t even a sponsor though I wish they were. I’d love to offer some of their awesome products to my readers.

That’s about all that happened this weekend.

I hope you are all having a great January. This past week was January thaw week. It was marvelous. It’s supposed to get cold again and snow or rain on Wednesday 🙁 I’m hoping for one more pretty snow so I can take a bunch of pictures and then an early Spring. I’m hoping the ground is thawed by mid march so we can get the front yard dug and a new water main put in. I want to get landscaping in before it gets too hot!

Next weekend is MLK weekend! Whooo 3 day weekend.

New Years Weekend

Stefan had New Years Eve and New Years Day off of work so he had a long, 4 day weekend to work on stuff.   In addition, we are at the finishing stage on a bunch of projects.  It’s been great to start checking things off the list.

Saturday we finished up the plumbing for the laundry and  layed down the final last bit of floor in the bathroom.  We also designed the plumbing drain for the bathroom sinks as well as the gas piping for the laundry.  We went out for a Home Depot run just as it was starting to snow.

This was the snow situation when we left the house:

About 45 minutes later when we walked out of Home Depot, The snow looked like this:

It took us another 40 minutes or so to get home in that weather and then we made a roast chicken.  It’s on our new year’s resolution list to cook more and this was a fun date-night project in true Wolpert style.  Home Depot and Dinner.

Next time, smaller chicken.  It took FOR-EV-ER to cook.  It also had to be rotated in the oven several times causing entirely too many flip the bird jokes.

Sunday morning we woke up to 6-8 inches of snow.

Stefan busted out the snowblower.  I’ve never seen one in action.  It’s super cool!

We also tried to take Vector out to play in the snow.  He was terrified but he did love playing in the leaves under the deck.  We had a hard time getting him out.  He also escaped out the front door to the porch while we were shoveling but he left only a few tentative footprints in the snow before apparently getting scared and running back inside.  Silly Kitty.

By the time the driveway sidewalk, porch, and deck were snowblowed, shoveled and salted we were pretty beat.  We did manage  to get 99% of the way done with the gas pipe and dry-fit the sink drains.  We needed one more little piece until Stefan could pressure test the gas connections so we went to Home Depot yet again.  We also went to Target and hit up the 70% off Christmas sales while we were there.  Lots of extension cords, timers, flood lights, etc.  We cleaned up!  I’ve got Christmas cards for next year and some wrapping paper.  I found this years pinecone ornament (my new collection) and I’m good to go.  The box stores are generally pretty picked over in this area so I didn’t get any garland for the porch or any lights.  I’m probably just going to have to pay full price.  Even then, you really have to get to the Home Depot or Target early to get lights.  For whatever reason they were picked over by Thanksgiving.  I’m glad we were able to have a Christmas Decor research year or I would never have known!

Monday I had to work 🙁  Stefan went to a friend’s house for brunch and did a bunch of computer research work.
Monday night we went to a party with some friends and Tuesday we did some more work on the plumbing and gas.  The bathroom is really starting to shape up!

As soon as we get the bathroom vent fan picked out, we can install the duct-work in the exterior wall and we will be ready for round one of insulation.  A bit more plumbing and electric in the bathroom and we will be ready for drywall.  We are getting close! AND as an added bonus, MLK day is in just a couple weeks giving another power 3-day weekend.   Depending on how the contractor’s timing works out, we may be drywalled by early Feb and done with the master bath by the end of March.  I can’t wait!

I hope you all had a wonderful new year. When we woke up on January 1 we were greeted with this beauty:

My lemon tree finally bloomed! Now I just need a second bloom so I can get to pollinating the blooms! Another couple months and we’ll have lemons!

Happy New Year!

Sarah