Saturday, 8. August 2009
These last few days have been spent dealing with the rest of the kitchen floor and finishing the pantry wall. Underneath where the refrigerator was, in front of the pantry door, the floor had buckled due to water damage caused by a mouse chewing through the water line to the ice maker about six years ago. Some water had seeped around the edges of the linoleum in the pantry at the time, causing water to get under the flooring. But I thought at the time that some judicious hole-drilling would minimize that problem, and by drilling holes, most if not all of that inter-floor-layer water would drain to the crawl space and out. Which, in fact, it did.
floor torn up, yuck
In and of itself, I wasn’t too worried about the buckling, either, since I thought it was just the linoleum flooring that had buckled, and knew over time it would eventually lay back down flat, especially with the heat of the refrigerator on top of it. Well, as I discovered, of course that didn’t happen. I cut into the 1980’s layer of linoleum, hoping I could just do some trimming of it to get it to lay flat then cover it up with the rest of the stick-on tiles I had from when I first covered the floor some eight years ago. Well, below the 1980’s layer is the 1970’s layer of linoleum, of which below that is a layer of thin plywood, sitting over the 1960’s layer of linoleum. (I swear every owner of this house has added a layer of flooring in the kitchen, myself included!) When the flood of water from the mouse-chewed water line seeped through those holes I drilled in an effort to avoid water spreading between the layers, desiring for it to just drain out, I inadvertently exposed that plywood to the water. It buckled. Bad. No quick cutting and splicing here, damn it. A few screws to “pull” it down to the subfloor won’t work, either.
By the way, the main reason I didn’t just pull the entire kitchen floor up when I recovered it eight years ago is simple: Linoleum flooring prior to the early 1980s contains asbestos. I already created a hazardous waste situation when I remodeled the bathroom nearly ten years ago. Back then, not knowing better, I actually pulled all five layers of flooring up in the bathroom, three layers of various linoleum, two subfloors, and a layer of 1950s Tri-Bond plastic tile (man did someone love that stuff … it was and still is all over this house!)… I’ll never forget the panic I caused my garbageman at the time when he saw a trash can full of asbestos-laden, broken-up, loosely piled ancient flooring in the can! (Never had a garbageman knock on my door, red-faced and hysterical, shouting at me, “What the hell are you doing!?!” Granted, he used a much stronger curse word than “hell”…) Somewhere around here I’ll have to dig up the warning letter I received from some government agency or another (can’t remember which) about proper handling of hazardous waste… never had a garbageman report me to authorities before, either. Don’t ask how much of that crap I may have breathed in at the time… I don’t know. Fortunately, it was a small bathroom, only 5×6 feet of flooring (five or six layers thick) was removed…
Anyway back to the kitchen floor. I did get lucky, as the buckling ended at the plywood layer. The 1960s and below layer weren’t buckled; I would only need to deal with this one area of buckled plywood. Unfortunately, there was no way to just screw the floor down where it was buckled, hoping to suck it down to the subfloor and level it out. This wasn’t something that I could just ignore, either, because every time I open the pantry door, it rubs the floor there and almost gets stuck. No way to add my layer of flooring and still open the door! Plus the pantry will be (is now) a high traffic area, so this particular buckle is noticeable, very noticeable.
Fortunately, I happen to own more power tools than most men. A fact that has both weirdly excited and deeply disturbed more than one
boyfriend over the years. Pulled out the handy-dandy RotoZip, cut just the plywood layer out, limiting myself to just the area that was buckled. Placed a few decking screws here and there to reduce the lesser buckling in the area, and went to grab the bucket of self-leveling cement that I know I have out in the Garage of Doom to fill in the hole I just created so the floor isn’t 1/4″ lower there.
Damn it, the stuff has dried rock-solid… that bucket’s been in the garage for at least six years!! It shouldn’t have dried out!
Grrr… let’s try some thinset mortar. If it’s good enough for ceramic tiles, it should be good enough to level out this hole… nope. It has dried solid, too, and it’s only 8 or 9 years old! Starting to regret the decision to try to get everything done using only stuff I already have on hand… *sigh*…
Well, I could use spackling paste… nah, that’s not a good idea 
Not only would it take a week or longer for a 1/4″ thick layer of
spackling paste to dry, it’ll crack and crumble under repeated foot traffic.
All done - beautiful!
Ahh hah! The Garage of Doom does contain a solution – silicon caulking!! Fortunately, I’ve got tubes of the stuff – I stocked up a few years ago when some home improvement store or another went out of business, got it for like 50 cents a tube! (Pack Rat Alert!) Of courses I can’t find the dang caulking gun, I own three of them (don’t ask) and can’t find a single one… but no worries. It’s not like I’m needing this to be a nice, fine, line. I just tore open the tube and used a putty knife to spread it out, reminding myself it doesn’t need to be perfect, just needs to be good. (I may not have inherited my mother’s neatness, but I sure did inherit her perfectionism! *grins*) Caulking is flexible and waterproof, so it’ll do the trick perfectly. Some bleach on the patches of mold (fortunately, dried and dead mold) that I exposed, and let it all dry overnight.
Well, actually, as it turns out, it took about three days for the silicon to completely set and dry.
After the silicon dried, I put down the rest of the stick-on floor tile, actually have enough left over that I could retile the floor in the pantry.
I think I’ll stew on that for a while… if I cover the pantry floor, there will be NO extra tiles left for future repairs, should any be needed. I think I’ll leave it as a future owner option to use that spare tile for the pantry or not.
The kitchen is almost done. I just need to clean up the mess I made doing all this work, clean the ceiling, move the table and chairs in, and it’s all done and ready to go. Probably hang some sort of picture on the wall above the table, it’s kinda stark looking there. It is so decluttered, it actually ECHOs in here!
wall and floor repaired and covered, ready for table
Posted in Life, Selling the House by Laura -
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Friday, 7. August 2009
Before...ugh...
About eight years ago, I moved the refridgerator from next to the oven over to what I call the pantry wall. The so-called pantry is actually a small area under the attic stairs, you can barely see the door behind the fridge. I never used it as a pantry, didn’t like the fridge next to the oven (I like to have some counterspace next to a stove for me to clutter up), and needed a place for the microwave and shelving for cookbooks. That’s all fine and dandy for me… but it looks, um, well, crowded, to say the least, and makes the kitchen look about four feet smaller than it really is.
So I pulled out the cabinet I’d previously installed, moved the fridge yesterday, and discovered yet more broken, fugly green plastic tile to clean, repair, patch, and cover with the silver stuff. Although you can’t really see it in this picture, the wall had been previously painted in several areas three different colors – I could never decide which color I liked best. I’m going to repurpose this cabinet as a dresser in the bedroom later on.
tile damage repaired, wall has first coat of paint
So I patched the holes in the tile and the wall, and put the first coat of paint on the wall. This is my first experience using those new “Low VOC” paints, the ones that are supposedly more “environmentally friendly” because they have “low volatile organic compounds” in them.
First thing I noticed, is definetly a good thing: No smell. I mean like no smell at all. If anything, there is a slight odor best
described as “fresh,” if that makes any sense. I was able to paint the first coat on two walls without having to leave the room at all!
Usually I can only paint about half a wall at a time, and take about an hour or so break between painting sessions, thanks to allergies and asthma. Hrm, wonder if that’s why I never seem to finish any of my painting projects!
The next thing I noticed is not a good thing: Coverage sucks. Oh my, this stuff goes on like really thin. It pours out of the can
with the same viscosity, the same thickness, that I’m used to with any standard latex paint. But once you start brushing it or rolling it on
the wall, it’s THIN. Goes on like water – it doesn’t drip (at least no more than latex paint does anyway) – it’s just really, really thin
coverage. Just about everything that I am used to a single layer of paint covering up (stains, other paint, small hairline cracks) is
showing right through. I’m going to have to do two coats, for sure.
But I like the stuff
Made a pantry out of the tiny under-the-stairs closet
Meanwhile, I added a project that wasn’t on my original list: Make the so-called pantry an actual, usable, pantry. Would look good to see “walk-in pantry” on the house-for-sale flyers, after all I repurposed some of the shelving I used for books in the back room, I cleaned all the dust, and fashioned a cover out of some scrap wood to cover up the bathroom waterpipe access that is on the lower right wall of the pantry.
I discovered when I moved the fridge yesterday that the shut-off for the ice maker water line is broke, so I’ve got a trip to Home Depot for tomorow to get something to cap it off. Meanwhile, I just kinked the line so it wouldn’t flood the kitchen.
Another view of the new pantry
The floor under where the fridge and cabinet was is a problem… I do have plenty of spare stick-on floor tile, but the floor’s buckled from a prior water leak… I’ll have to tackle that tomorow. Great…
Regardless, quite a lot of progress done today.
Posted in Life, Selling the House by Laura -
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Tuesday, 4. August 2009
Now that I decided to try to sell my house, I really have my work cut out for me. I mean really. I’ve lived here for ten years, which means I have ten years of clutter to get rid of, ten years of accumulated minor repairs and cleaning and long-delayed painting to do, ten years of projects started but never finished to complete.
It’s a huge project, especially if I am to get this house listed within 4 weeks, which is the timeline I’ve given myself. I want to list it before labor day.
I’ve never actually sold a house before, but I’ve seen enough shows on HGTV to know I need to make the house look as good as possible, and to maximize my sales price, I need to get as much actual work done as possible.
To make it even more challenging, as if selling a house isn’t a challenge enough, I have zero money to spend and pretty much have to do all the work alone, by myself, while also working as many extra hours as I can to get as much money together as I can to either pay the past-due mortgage payments, or put aside to move once the house is sold. Or foreclosed upon. I will use some of the money from the yard sales towards necessary items for repairing and repainting the house, I figure at best, I’ll have about $300 to spend. So a tight budget both time-wise and financially.
On the plus side, it’s good exercise Anyway, after doing a really hard look around my house, leaving the rose-colored glasses in the trash, here’s my list of things to do to get the house ready to sell. Be afraid, be very afraid *grins*
In the kitchen:
- Repair broken wall tile – it’s “Tri-Bond” plastic tile that was installed in 1958. It’s cracked, broken, missing, and just plain grungy. I can’t replace it all – I looked into that ten years ago, and it would require pretty much gutting the walls. The plastic tile was mortared directly onto the sheetrock with this rubber stuff, anytime you attempt to remove it, the sheetrock comes off with it. done.
- Finish recovering the kitchen floor (started 8 years ago) done.
- Replace several out-of-code electrical outlets. The house was wired for electricity in 1928, quite a few of the existing outlets and light switches are the original ones installed in 1928, made from “BakeLite” plastic. Very nifty, very unsafe. Fortunately, most of knob-and-tube wiring was replaced in 1956 (don’t ask why they didn’t replace the outlets and switches at the same time), I replaced the remaining 1928 wiring in the house about nine years ago.
- Install a GFCI
- Rearrange appliances done.
- Remove shelves, patch walls, repaint done.
- Declutter and clean done.
- Replace the shelf lining on every cabinet shelf (it’s Con-Tact paper installed approximately mid 1960s).
- Replace the door handle on back door done.
- Clean the ceiling – since I don’t have a proper exhuast fan, dust-laden steam has accumulated on the ceiling.
- Figure seven days of work.
- Added and done: Put shelves up in pantry to make it a proper pantry.
In the living room:
- Get rid of futon that is acting as a couch – it’s just too big, looks sloppy done.
- Rearrange furniture done.
- Patch walls, repaint three walls and the ceiling done.
- Remove the almost-room-sized carpet remnant (it’s fugly, to say the least, but works for me) done.
- Clean and oil the gorgeous 100 year old solid oak flooring that is under that fugly carpet done.
- Get rid of the big dresser I have the TV on, repurpose smaller wood shelving as a TV stand. Will look better, take up less space
- Remove shelves behind front door currently housing my DVDs done.
- Fix front door, it is starting to fall off the hinges (it is original door!)
- Finish the front window replacement – replaced the window five years ago, but never finished putting the molding up around it nor did I finish staining, varnishing and painting it.
- Rehang the doorbell
- Rehang the smoke detector
- General cleaning done.
- Figure two days actually took 8 days.
In the office/small bedroom:
The house is considered a three bedroom house, however, I converted the small front-facing bedroom to an office. Since I already decluttered in here just before I decided to sell the house, there’s not too much to do, fortunately.
- Pull the carpet out – carpet in here was installed in 1984, and it’s threadbare, to say the least.
- Oil the gorgeous solid oak hardwood floors laying beneath that threadbare carpeting
- Rehang the original door
- Stain the built-in shelves
- General cleaning.
- Not going to repaint the office, instead, I will offer whoever buys the house the option of my leaving this room as an office (the desk and far wall shelves are all built-in, the desk is just plain gorgeous if I don’t say so myself, considering I built it myself!) or converting it back to a bedroom. If the potential buyers want it converted back to a bedroom, I will remove all the built-ins, patch everything, and repaint, before closing.
- Figure two days of work
The Bathroom:
I started to remodel the bathroom almost immediately after I bought the house ten years ago. As is, obviously, normal for me, it’s a project that was never finished. It is, fortunately, almost done.
- Finish hanging the remaining two rows of ceramic tile on the wall
- Finish patching where the new wonderboard and the ceiling meet
- Grout tile
- Grout marble floor
- Paint walls, ceiling
- Hang remaining molding
- Stain the bifold doors
- Install locks on bifold doors
- Stain threshhold
- Hang medicine cabinet
- Hang towel rack
- Buy and hang mirror
- Install the new wall light that I bought a decade ago but never installed
- GFC was installed by electrician but has never worked properly. Need to get it fixed.
- Declutter and general cleaning
- Figure three days of work
The Master Bedroom
- Rearrange furniture done.
- Get rid of ugly, falling-apart dresser, repurpose the white cabinets I pulled from the kitchen as a dresser not doing.
- General cleaning and decluttering done.
- Repaint entire room
- Check the CO detector – it’s ten years old, probably should replace
- Install smoke detector
- Pretty it up, so it looks more like a bedroom and less like a place I read books and watch TV
- Sew new curtains.
- Figure just one day
The Utility Room:
- Remove the broken linoleum flooring, it’s all loose and chipped. Then just paint the concrete floor that will be exposed once the linoleum has been removed done.
- Clean the walls, if that doesn’t do the trick, repaint the room. Total hassle, hope it is not necessary done. Cleaning alone worked.
- Replace the lock on the back door
- General cleaning and decluttering done.
The Back Room
- Get rid of the piece-meal carpeting that is back there. There is a bunch of various shapes and colors of carpet scraps on the floor, all mismatched and loose. done.
- TSP the floor, paint the floor (it’s concrete) done.
- Patch all the screw holes from the dozens of bookshelves I used to have hung there back when I used the room as a bookstore. Huge project done.
- Clean, declutter done.
- Paint walls, ceiling done.
- Clean windows
- Replace glass in small window (broken)
- Clean the thermal curtains, consider just removing them for showing house. done.
- Figure two days took 8 days! Ack!.
- Added: Fix doggie door so it will latch securely
- Added: Fix the HUGE crack in the floor that I discovered when I removed the carpeting. done.
- Added: Recaulk all the windows done.
- Added: Repair/replace south windowsill that has dry-rot. done.
- Added: Repair broken wall panel below south window. done.
Upstairs:
Upstairs is a large attic that was converted to a large room in 1956, then remodeled/finished in 1978. I actually have barely used the room at all during the ten years I’ve lived here… it’s been kinda the junk room, and occasional spare bedroom for drunk friends needing a place to crash However, it was occupied by the ex-boyfriend’s 16-year-old son three summers ago, and he did a real number on the room. We let him put a small window air conditioning unit in the window so he could stay cool … well, he tilted the back of the unit “up” so that the cold air would hit him on the floor… he broke the 40-year-old cast-iron bedframe at one point, so the mattress was laying directly on the floor because I refused to buy a new bedframe. Well, when he moved the AC unit, all the condensation started pouring down the wall and floor, instead of out the back of the unit and outside as the unit was designed. This resulted in some serious water damage – I had to pull out an entire section of wall, floor, and carpeting that still needs to be replaced.
- Finish replacing wall sheetrock
- Finish replacing carpeting and padding
- Repaint as needed
- Replace broken glass in window that he broke done.
- Replace window screens that he knocked out
- Replace insulation in the wall where it was water damaged (soaking wet insulation was removed at time of incident)
- Replace ceiling light fixture that he broke
- Replace smoke detector, it no longer works
- Tighten the handrail on the stairs, it’s become somewhat loose
- Cleaning and decluttering, as needed
- Figure five days
The Basement:
The basement is more of a root cellar than a proper basement, it’s small, only about 8′x8′, enough room for furnace, water heater, and some storage. When the house was built in 1904 or 1910 (not entirely sure, both numbers show on various paperwork) the original foundation was done by rough pouring concrete using dirt berms as a “mold” instead of plywood framing as we do now, which means the interior-facing surface is rough and uneven, with up to a one inch difference in depth. In 1958, the owners at the time had the house lifted and the foundation replaced, and they refaced the interior of that one wall by simply mortaring on another layer of cement, about 3/4″ thick. No adhesive used, no lathe, nothing. Over time, that refacing has flaked off, re-exposing the original interior of the wall. The exterior side of the foundation has never been sealed, which was never a problem as we really don’t get much rain here… never a problem until this summer. We’ve had a ridiculous amount of rain this year, the foundation has been seeping water through it into the basement. Not a major problem, as structurally it’s still sound, but it means I have work to do.
- Call Mark – a structural engineer friend – and have him inspect the foundation, double-check that the water issue this summer hasn’t caused any structural issues (I’m sure it hasn’t, but having a proper structural inspection won’t hurt, and he’ll do it for a home-cooked meal!) done. Good news, house is structurally sound!
- Seal the exterior of the foundation all around the house
- Added: Knock out old, loose mortar in cracks from improper/badly done repair job done probably in the 1950s and remortar the foundation cracks.
- Remove the remaining sections of the interior mortar refacing, then reface it properly
- Fix broken window
- Replace the window well (clean it out too, as it is leaf-cluttered)
- Patch hole in heat duct leading to master bedroom done.
- Rehang the duct leading to the office/bedroom that has fallen can’t be fixed
.
- Consider painting the floor, or the walls, with sealant (ask Mark about this also)
- Fix crack in stairwell (not a structural issue, as it’s just stucco) done.
- Replace the one wooden step that has cracked (but still sound, just looks bad) done.
- Declutter and clean
- Figure four days
The Garage of Doom:
- Get rid of all the crap left behind by the ex-boyfriend that is still in there done!!!!
- Get rid of all my own junk that has accumulated mostly done.
- Get garage door realligned so it closes properly
- Fix garage door lock
- Figure one day, plus one or two yard sales just for the stuff in here ended up having eight weekend’s worth of yard sales.
The Potter’s Shed:
- Fix two broken windows
- Fix door so it closes properly
- Clean and declutter
- Figure one day
- Added: Repaint around the windows and along the ground, as paint has chipped away due to weather damage.
The Exterior:
- High-pressure wash the exterior, clean the windows
- Install gutters. I have no gutters. Got quote of $680 for gutters – OUCH! Need to price materials and talk someone into helping me hang the gutters myself. Got Mark to help me, have it half done.
- Fix the one steel siding panel on the front porch that has fallen
- Finish the exterior molding of the front window that I replaced
- Mow, rake, clean up done, but thanks to storms, needs to be raked again!
- The privacy fence is falling down. I don’t have the money to fix it properly, but need to look into some sort of repairing. Front fence done, still need to do south yard fence.
- Figure four days
Well, not too intimidating… I am lucky that I’m such a pack-rat, I have most of the materials and tools already that I need to get this all done. And when I’m being honest with myself, I realize this is all stuff that I would need to do anyway should I continue to live here – or frankly, should have already done!
How the hell I’m going to get it all done by myself with no money in four weeks … but I’ll get it done. Somehow.
Posted in Life, Selling the House by Laura -
More articles about Remodeling the House
Saturday, 13. September 2008
As one can see from my prior very-long-winded post about the so-called housing bill, I’m more than a little interested in the how the mortgage industry in our country operates. My own personal experience, which I’ll share now, perhaps will help not only illustrate just how screwed up the industry is, but also, how even the smartest of persons can end up with a mortgage nightmare. Maybe it will save a few of you some grief in your own lives.
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Posted in Life, Musings, Outrage by Laura -
Sunday, 27. July 2008
I don’t know about you, but I was so excited to hear that today, Congress passed a bill providing real help for homeowners facing forclosure and serious measures targeting the housing crisis. I knew better than to be excited, because I went through the same thing with last year’s FHA mortgage assistance excitement, just to be seriously crushed when I found out I didn’t qualify, because my loan had it’s first adjustment more than 3 years earlier.
So I read everything I could on today’s “landmark legislation” with both excited hope and a jaundiced eye: Maybe this time, *I* could get some help.
I will warn you right now is a VERY long “I’m on a soapbox!” rant….
First off, this “unprecedented” bill is “regarded as the most significant housing legislation in decades.” That’s a lot to say, considering it’s only going to cost us taxpayers SEVERAL HUNDRED BILLION DOLLARS. But hey, if it helps stop people from losing their homes, I’m all for it.
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Posted in Outrage, Politics by Laura -
