wood

wood

sinks

sinks

for anyone who has ever dreamt of being Indiana Jones.. or a chimney sweep

Today I had to go into the attic. I hate the attic. I have to find out why the ceiling of the round room keeps leaking. We spent a week taking off "popcorn" a spiky textured plaster applied to walls that was really a la mode in the 80's. We had to heat up the textured compound with a blow torch and scrape it off, then the entire room had to be replastered by hand because it is in the round and had lots of curves. Now there is this leak in this beautifully plastered room. The attic is only 4 1/2 feet high at its highest point. There you can be on all fours, but i have to crawl the entire length of my house on my stomach to get to the leak, where the attic is only 28 inches high. Its dusty. Its gross. I keep getting splinters in my forearms and my knees hurt. There are leaks everywhere. You can see the black water stains on the beams, which is a bad bad sign.

Over Counters

Last week the counter top installers at Pyramid granite came by. This was very exciting because once the counter is in we can hook up the appliances and 3rd floor will be done! I am using Carerra Marble -the ubiquitous grey and white kind - in the U.S. standard thickness 1 ¼” .


Marble makes for a rather high maintenance counter-top. Marble is a softer stone, prone to scuffs and chips. Being porous, marble stains and can be etched by acidic substances and foods. So marble must be coated with a sealant periodically.
Granite is the best choice if you are looking for a full stone slab. Granite is extremely hard and impervious to the elements. It doesn’t chip or stain, you can chop on it, lay white-hot pans on it, spatter it with oil and acid, and stomp on it in spikey heals, Granite won’t show the wear and tear. Take a sharp knife and try scratching the surface of a granite counter top with the pointy tip, you will dull your knife before you see a scratch in the granite.


But this is a small kitchen in an old house and granite looks too modern. Marble, the traditional surface for pastry tables, makes everything feel a little older. And a little wear and tear will hopefully accentuate its timelessness. Also the marble I got was half the price of the cheapest granite. I can cover the entire marble countertop with tempered glass as a chopping surface, and the whole affair will still cost less than using granite.

radiators on the ceiling

During demolition we tore down the ugly drop-ceiling in the basement that had been installed in the 1970's when the basement functioned as a mental health clinic. This revealed something I have never seen anywhere: old cast iron radiators bolted to the ceiling provide all the heat for the basement, counter intuitive since heat rises. This may have been done to keep the radiators higher than the boiler so you do not have to drain them every week.


Back laundry room cleaned up. This will become a kitchen.


Back storage area cleaned up. This will become a bathroom

libri coerceo

My dad lives in a sea of books. There are books everywhere. Walls of them line the halls, pile up in the kitchen, on the dining room table and up the staircase. Some rooms are so filled with books that you can't get inside.


While moving thousands and thousands of books to clear space for construction, I have come across some true gems. Here are a few of my favorites:





(not included is the classic “I’m Ok, You’re Ok” which I have lost somewhere in the house and can’t find)

..more books

I love the specificity of locale in the "How To" titles: How to train a dog.. "in your house OR apartment", addressing the changing lifestyles of pet owners in 1950. And if having a vegetable garden is not challenging enough, you can now grow midget vegetables in your tiny tiny home!

dust everywhere

Today we are sanding the walls of the 3rd floor hall, the biggest wall along the stairs measures 22ft high. Plaster makes lots and lots of very fine dust that gets into absolutely everything. So its looks like its snowing inside. There are two types of plaster wet and dry, and each person will tell you something different about which is better to use. Easy sand is a white powder and you have to mix it. It comes in three grades 20 45 90, they are all supposedly the same consistency and strength these numbers describe the amount of time it takes the plaster to dry.
Also sheetrock and drywall are going up in the basement, its so fun when drywall finally goes up because it makes everything look like its getting done so much quicker. There is a tiny light at the end of the tunnel.

the beginning

We started renovating on Monday december 8th 2008. It took myself and two other people two days to move all of the stuff out of the big room in the basement. This is a picture of the big room in the basement on Tuesday December 9th 2008 once all the furniture had been moved out.



This is a picture of the same room a few hours later. Same day.

Vaseline has many uses

Even when I wear a mask the fine spray from the paint machine gets everywhere. The best way to avoid this is to put Vaseline all over your face before you start painting. That way you won't get it on your eyelashes and nose like this.

My very own Never Ending Story.

Meet theNeverEndngStory.. What started out as a quick fix-up of an old old house two years ago has grown into a rambling endless renovation..