Rubble, Rubble, Toil & Trouble

The trouble lies with my camera. It is non-functioning, so I appologize for the lack of photo documentation. I'll have to see if I can borrow one from a friend tomorrow to document some of the work thus far.

As for the toiling; I've been toiling away making rubble. Lots of rubble.

It all started this morning when I picked up my building permit I should have had last night, then I headed over to the house. If you can imagine the reaction of a 4yr old girl when she gets a pony for her birthday, you can imagine the reaction when I saw the construction dumpster had already been placed in my driveway.

I ripped down all of the drywall for the extra walls in the living room and proceeded to knock out some of the studs. I now have an open staircase! I also removed all of the stairwell's drop ceiling and 70's paneling I could reach without a ladder. At 6' 1", there's not much left! So I understood why the PO's decided to go with the drop ceiling as soon as I pulled down the tiles and received a shower of paint chips. Most likely lead. Just love the stuff. The paneling was used to cover two make-shift access points to the tub plumbing and quite a few cracks. Just add it to the list...

Just so you know what I've learned so far,

DAY 1 LESSONS LEARNED THE HARD WAY:
1. Wear safety goggles. There's a reason for them. I found out that it is quite uncomfortable removing a 1/4" chunk of drywall that is stuck onto the pupil of your eye. Yep, that was an ouch moment. Well, other words came too...
2. Wear a dust mask when removing drywall. Try blowing your nose and finding the remains grey. That's just not natural.
3. Overestimate the size of your dumpster. I thought 6 yards would be plenty, but it's over half full already. Wow.
4. Wear your work gloves, even if it's 90 degrees in your house. I can't tell you how great blisters & calloused hands feel in the hot shower as you scrub chunks of drywall out of your hair.
5. Don't break your camera. Houseblog readers will become bored by your post without pictures. Sorry guys.

On the bright side, I met my neighbor to the West last night, and he was very nice. I got the thumbs-up right away when I said I was restoring the house back from a rental. He has stopped in a couple of times to offer to lend me tools if needed, and I gave him a little tour of the place.

The roofers came today and repaired the flashing around my chimney, so no more leakage. Yes! Best part: cost to me: $0, cost to the seller: $I don't care. I'm so glad thats done so I can repair the water damaged wall in the SW bedroom closet.

Also, a friend from work is coming over tonight after her shift to help pull up carpet with me. I'm going to see if she wants to help take out the cabinets in the extra kitchen too. Hopefully she'll be up for it, I don't want to have to take them down myself. Help is always good, lets just hope there's enough room in my little baby dumpster!

Scoping Out the Neighbor's Place

I think I'm going to try for 30 posts in 30 days, just like all of the other cool bloggers. Lets see if I can get that done. That will force me to keep on progressing, if nothing else!

While reading the newspaper yesterday, I noticed that the house directly behind mine would be having an open house this afternoon. I couldn't help myself. I popped by before work today to take a peek around and see what the condition of the house was. The house is probably the best maintained house in the neighborhood on the outside, and much to my amusement the inside followed suit. The whole house featured its original, unpainted oak woodwork. 6 panel doors, stained glass and beveled glass windows in almost every room, a beautiful staircase, hardwood floors throughout, clawfoot tub, amazing pocket doors, hardwood floors, butlers pantry, and the only original porch on that block. In case you haven't figured it out yet, that's the house in the photo. In the foyer there was a photo from the early 1900's of the house and I promptly scrambled to see if my house was visible in the background. Nope, just the neighbors to the West's back side. Booo! It made me wonder if I could find an old picture of my house anywhere. I'll have to check around sometime to see what I can find in the library's archives. Oh, if you're interested, 1903, 3bed, 2bath, $141,900. The pictures below are of the dining room, the stairwell, and the landing of the stairwell with the oval stained glass window.

Sure, it's a beautiful house, but it's all done. Now, where's the fun in that? I'll take mine crappy, please!!!

A coworker of mine lives just around the corner from my house in an apartment conversion of a 1899 victorian that would be great if restored. Well, she mentioned that because the building just sold she has to move out of her apartment. Too bad, she'd make a good neighbor, but maybe someone's restoring the house! I'll keep you posted if this happens, 'cause you know I'll be there to welcome them with some neighborly brownies, sledge hammer, and my 'flame thrower' (aka heat gun)!

Just waiting for closing still. Waiting, waiting, waiting...