Demolition & Discovery
As usual, I intended to get a whole lot of certain things done this weekend, and as usual, I did get some things done, but as usual, the overlap of those two lists is pretty sketchy.
Things destroyed this weekend:
The basement ceiling. I cut a small hole in the basement ceiling to see where the wires to one of my offensive knob & tube outlets were going. Sure enough, I saw them come out of a joist and go up through the floor into the wall cavity. So I got out my sawzall and tore the rest of the ceiling down.
Ceiling on the floor
Damn knob & tube wiring
The porch light. I thought replacing the porch light wiring would be pretty easy, since the switch is right inside the door and the porch light is right outside the door. You can probably guess how that turned out. I removed the old switch box, too, but to get at the wiring for that porch light, I am gonna have to get in the ceiling somehow.
Once the porch light switch
The upstairs floor. Deciding to just work through my frustration at not understanding the wiring layout of the porch light, I decided to get into the ceiling from above. Sure enough, the wires are in there. I think I'm going to get an electrician in to walk me through doing this circuit and hopefully get off the leash after that. I'm not confident enough to execute on it. Doing all this prep work off the clock will save me money, though.
I did actually cut a hole in the wall of one of the master bedroom closets hoping there would be some crawlspace on the other side of the house. I was greeted by insulation.
Hole in the floor
The failing loft in the garage. There was a loft of incredibly poor design built over the garage door that had begun to sag so low in the center that it was impossible to actually open the door. (There is a side door, too, which is how I got in.) I found an old ladder in the garage and pulled the loft down. It didn't take too much work; the thing was well on its way to the ground already. The hardest part was lugging the half-sheets of plywood out of the way by myself. Now all I have to do is clear out some space in there and I'll be able to park my car under a roof.
Onto the "discovery" portion of our show:
As I was pulling down the ceiling, things began falling to the floor: remnants of what was definitely a stash. An empty pack of cigarettes, a lighter with a bikini girl on it, a bag of Drum tobacco, a couple of Penthouse subscription cards, and some drawings, marginally discernible as naked women.
Ah, the teenage years
Earlier today, I set about making an electrical map of the house. I made simple drawings of each room with notes on where each wiring drop was. Basically, every outlet, light switch, light fixture, thermostat, appliance, etc, etc. I want to index the circuit breaker, both so I know which switch kills what when I need to turn things off, and to wrap my head around the circuit layout of the house.
I crawled behind the furnace, looking for hidden outlets, and found some storage shelving that had not been emptied. The previous homeowner's bank statements from 1991-1993, a mailbox apparently belonging to a houseboat of theirs, an old Polaroid Land camera, a bunch of spice racks (with intact spice jars), a pasta rolling machine, a globe, and a ton of other stuff.
Houseboat mailbox
Polaroid Land camera
Scale model of our earth
And finally, the bad side of what the previous owners left. I was rooting around in the upstairs crawlspace, trying to trace wiring drops. They had thrown tons of junk in there. I found a baby picture and a matte for it, pieces of tubing, shopping bags, a desk lamp, toys, you name it. An unraveled roll of toilet paper, mercifully clean. I threw it all out of the crawlspace -- yet more stuff for the dump.
It Came From The Crawlspace
So, it was pretty annoying to clean out that junk, but that paled in comparison to finding that they had thrown a potted plant in there, upside down, and it had spilled dirt and fertilizer all over the insulation.
Dirt + Fiberglass = Awesome
How the hell am I going to clean that up?
I've been baking a lot of bread on the weekends. It is the ideal thing to do while working on the house, since it's the sort of thing you fuss with for 5 minutes and then leave alone for 3 hours. My lunches will be flush with sandwiches for the foreseeable future.
Hot & Fresh
Join us next weekend, when Katie visits and I accomplish absolutely nothing on the house.
Things destroyed this weekend:
The basement ceiling. I cut a small hole in the basement ceiling to see where the wires to one of my offensive knob & tube outlets were going. Sure enough, I saw them come out of a joist and go up through the floor into the wall cavity. So I got out my sawzall and tore the rest of the ceiling down.
Ceiling on the floor
Damn knob & tube wiring
The porch light. I thought replacing the porch light wiring would be pretty easy, since the switch is right inside the door and the porch light is right outside the door. You can probably guess how that turned out. I removed the old switch box, too, but to get at the wiring for that porch light, I am gonna have to get in the ceiling somehow.
Once the porch light switch
The upstairs floor. Deciding to just work through my frustration at not understanding the wiring layout of the porch light, I decided to get into the ceiling from above. Sure enough, the wires are in there. I think I'm going to get an electrician in to walk me through doing this circuit and hopefully get off the leash after that. I'm not confident enough to execute on it. Doing all this prep work off the clock will save me money, though.
I did actually cut a hole in the wall of one of the master bedroom closets hoping there would be some crawlspace on the other side of the house. I was greeted by insulation.
Hole in the floor
The failing loft in the garage. There was a loft of incredibly poor design built over the garage door that had begun to sag so low in the center that it was impossible to actually open the door. (There is a side door, too, which is how I got in.) I found an old ladder in the garage and pulled the loft down. It didn't take too much work; the thing was well on its way to the ground already. The hardest part was lugging the half-sheets of plywood out of the way by myself. Now all I have to do is clear out some space in there and I'll be able to park my car under a roof.
Onto the "discovery" portion of our show:
As I was pulling down the ceiling, things began falling to the floor: remnants of what was definitely a stash. An empty pack of cigarettes, a lighter with a bikini girl on it, a bag of Drum tobacco, a couple of Penthouse subscription cards, and some drawings, marginally discernible as naked women.
Ah, the teenage years
Earlier today, I set about making an electrical map of the house. I made simple drawings of each room with notes on where each wiring drop was. Basically, every outlet, light switch, light fixture, thermostat, appliance, etc, etc. I want to index the circuit breaker, both so I know which switch kills what when I need to turn things off, and to wrap my head around the circuit layout of the house.
I crawled behind the furnace, looking for hidden outlets, and found some storage shelving that had not been emptied. The previous homeowner's bank statements from 1991-1993, a mailbox apparently belonging to a houseboat of theirs, an old Polaroid Land camera, a bunch of spice racks (with intact spice jars), a pasta rolling machine, a globe, and a ton of other stuff.
Houseboat mailbox
Polaroid Land camera
Scale model of our earth
And finally, the bad side of what the previous owners left. I was rooting around in the upstairs crawlspace, trying to trace wiring drops. They had thrown tons of junk in there. I found a baby picture and a matte for it, pieces of tubing, shopping bags, a desk lamp, toys, you name it. An unraveled roll of toilet paper, mercifully clean. I threw it all out of the crawlspace -- yet more stuff for the dump.
It Came From The Crawlspace
So, it was pretty annoying to clean out that junk, but that paled in comparison to finding that they had thrown a potted plant in there, upside down, and it had spilled dirt and fertilizer all over the insulation.
Dirt + Fiberglass = Awesome
How the hell am I going to clean that up?
I've been baking a lot of bread on the weekends. It is the ideal thing to do while working on the house, since it's the sort of thing you fuss with for 5 minutes and then leave alone for 3 hours. My lunches will be flush with sandwiches for the foreseeable future.
Hot & Fresh
Join us next weekend, when Katie visits and I accomplish absolutely nothing on the house.
posted by Ficus at 9:02 PM
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