Friday, March 30, 2012

Sorry...I have been busy!

I know that it has been some time since I updated the blog. For those of you who have driven by...I am sure that you can see there is some progress. Although the majority of the roof is completed, there are a couple of flat areas that needed either a rubber roof or metal. I went with metal on the back of the house. It looks great and will last for the next 50 years. Because the pocket gutters on the back of the house...as well as the roof (which was tin) was rusted through completely, I chose to frame out the entire roof...including the gutter area, sheet it, paper it, and then metal roof it. I will add some non-intrusive guttering later on.

We are trying to finish up the master bedroom as well. The new ceiling goes in today and yesterday, I knocked out the front east window (which is located in the dressing room area) to make way for a french door so as to access the roof area of the front porch. This area will eventually get tiled and a new railing installed all around.

Here are a couple photos of the back roof.


Monday, March 19, 2012

Good weather = outside work!

Good morning! Due to all of the great weather we had these past few days, I was able to get a lot out exterior work accomplished. I have attached some photos of the work being done on the soffits, the rotunda, and the corbels. I have worked my way back to the back corner of the house and will continue to work my way around. Not all of the fascia and soffits need to be replaced but for those areas that do, I am installing new structural supports. This is really slow work being done on top of a ladder while balancing the nail gun and the replacement wood parts. But...it will get done.

One final note. Elle and I picked out some paint colors this weekend. As of now...we will be painting the main part of the house a dark granit gray with the shutters to be painted a charcoal gray with some red accents. The columns and windows will be repainted white and the door will be a brick red. I already painted the 9th street chimney the two gray colors. Please look at it and give me your honest opinion on the colors. I need to know before I paint the whole damn house...ya know what I mean?







Saturday, March 17, 2012

Who Wants to Help Cut a Tree Down????

Good morning, everyone! Yes...it is 5:15 am on a saturday morning and in lieu of sleep, I am doing dishes, laundry, making breakfast for Julian while he watches cartoons, and updating the blog. Actually, we have been up since 3:30. Oh well....I am getting things done around the house before I head over to the State Street house to work ALL day long!

For those of you who have been driving by recently, you will see that we have been doing a lot of work on the rotunda. I had to almost completely reframe the interior of the rotunda but it is definitely stronger than what it was. I removed some of the fascia, soffit, and corbels yesterday on the rotunda...completely rotted. I am starting to wonder if I should have just torn the whole thing down and started over. Will continue to install new wood to support all of the replacement soffit and fascia.

We have also been moving forward on the plumbing as well. Wow! It is amazing what standing water in verticle pipes will do over 60 years. Rust!!!! So...for the health of my family and my sanity...we are replacing every single pipe in the basement. I never realize how many pipes were in this house until I had to replace all of them. Holy Sh*#!

Now...to explain the title of this post...I am looking for volunteers who have knowledge and experience on how to cut down a tree. A big tree. And it is right next to our house. Luckily...it is leaning away from the house but it is a really big tree. I have cut down trees before but not this big. And...I don't really want to spend thousands of dollars to do it. So...for any of you out there who have the skill and the time to help me get this job done...I would greatly appreciate it. I am not even quite sure what kind of tree it is but you are welcome to the wood if you want it. By the way...did I mention that it is a really big tree?

Monday, March 12, 2012

Rotunda roof is almost done.

I spent the better part of Saturday removing the old tin roof on the rotunda and rebuilding a slanted roof in its place. I had previously removed all of the decorative spindles and railing as they were mostly rotted. The roof had leaked quite a bit...mainly due to the fact that the old roof was flat...which is a big no-no. Flats roofs invite standing water and standing water rotts almost anything. In its place we secured the rotunda with new joist extensions extending out from the attic. We replaced any necessary floor boards and then secured strips of wood at an angle to allow water to flow AWAY from the house roof. We then re-sheeted it and it looks great. Yes...I will be replacing the decorative railing at some point. Here are the before and after pics.









Friday, March 9, 2012

The Roof is done!!!

Believe it or not...the three of us knocked out 99% of the roof in two days! Jeff and Michael of Ashton Contracting even convinced me to keep going until 7:30pm on Wednesday (yes...in the dark...way, way up on the roof) to complete it. I am glad we did because the roof looks fantastic! We buttoned up the flat parts with plastic until warmer weather so that I can install some rubber roofing...but the biggest part is done! Thanks to Jeff and Michael for the hard work!




Now...for those of you who can see that the color of the shingles is a mix of red, gray, and black...can you guess what color I am going to paint the house?

Wednesday, March 7, 2012

Half Way There! (The roof, I mean)

Good morning, all! For those of you who don't know, the high wind and rainfall we received last week tore some of the felt paper off of the roof and a lot of water got inside. Luckily...I went over there just in case and found water pouring in from just about everywhere. I got it cleaned up and spent the remainder of the day putting new felt paper on the 9th street side of the roof.

Thank you to Dave and Sandy Lahr who saw me toiling on the roof in between the rain showers and brought me some delicious cookies and single malt scotch! Now that is what I call a good neighbor! And it wasn't the cheap stuff, either!




Anyway...here are some photos of the 9th street side of the roof. Yes...it is all shingled and we are going to do the other side today. My mason also showed up later in the afternoon and we are redoing the chimneys as well. Don't want any bricks falling down on my new roof. Thanks to Michael and Jeff for helping me get that done yesterday. I love being outside and doing the work on my house but I sure as hell would not want to do roofing for a living. That is some seriously hard work. This is my second (and last) roof that I have removed and re-shingled. I am really looking forward to getting this all completed.