This Old House #8: Rip Roarin Roofin.

Running out of time to get the roof done before the ins. cancels my policy, so here goes... Few before pics.



















And here's whats going back on it.


Spent the day ripping the old roof off.



But mad sure to stay hydrated...



Even had a little help.



Didn't even need to use a ladder. NEW that door would come in handy! Wife looked at me a little weird though as I walked through the house wearing the backpack blower. Maybe I should have had it running?



Got 'er all ripped off except for the edges under the piles of shingles. Waiting for the dumptruck to show up at this point.

The dumptruck. Well, this was exciting. Borrowed it from the teacher across the hall- let me use it free of charge for helping him bleed the brakes. Brakes are still marginal at best, and as I was pulling out of his yard he told me to go slow over any bumps or the front end will start to death wobble. Great. 11 miles to go...

Made it home fine though. Great old rig!



Got the roof all swept off, parked the truck under an eave, and thats it until Monday.



 
We picked a great day for doing this, no wind and lower temps made it nice work. We are replacing the old metal / shingle roof with all metal, black so it kinda matches the rest of the house which is shingled. Don't have the time or the money at the moment to do the carport with shingles to match the house, but it's in the back so we'll be the only ones who ever see it and it won't bother me that much.

Have the rest of the week to finish pushing the shingles in and strip whats under the piles.  Sounds like I have some help showing up Saturday to lift the metal sheets up on the roof and tack them in place.  

This Old House #7: Up to the HIGHEST heights!

Although no flying kites...

We had a slightly chilly night the other day- it got all the way down to mid '40's and had been "cold" all day, so I lit the stove. Burned some paper to see if it actually drew as it has a really short chimney, then threw a couple of small logs in there. Don't need to worry about draw- sounds like a vacuum cleaner its sucking so much air. Puts out a fair amount of heat. Will probably keep this corner of the upstairs nice and toasty but I don't think it'll warm the rest of it.




In other news, we got a "notice of cancellation" letter from our insurance policy. Was expected, but I was kind of hoping to be able to put off re-roofing the carport until next spring. Now I have 30 days.


I had a fellow come "inspect" and clean the chimney for me. Learned some new things and think I can handle the cleaning duties now. Well, as soon as I get a couple of ladders, anyways...

Heck of a view from up there.







The "main" chimney is pretty solid. Not very straight, but solid.





You can tell where its been extended some time in the past. One of my questions was weather or not we could convert one of the holes back to wood burning so we can put a woodstove in the dining room where the little gas stove is. Answer- most likely. I didn't want to peel this cover up and then have to worry about re-sealing it later, so we left it at that. There are definitely two separate holes at the base of the chimney, and there looks to be enough room for a split at the top. Interestingly, the LITTLE pipe is for the furnace, and the big pipe is for the little gas stove.





The other chimney is in pretty rough shape. Really just a loose stack of bricks...





Apparently didn't look too bad though, no build up of any kind and it draws great. Well, as long as there's no wind.

Another view from the back-



and the carport roof that needs to be redone.



It's a long ways up there!



Meeting a brick mason tomorrow to see what he would charge to raise the chimney 4 feet or so to get it over the peak of the roof. Might try doing it myself, never done any masonry before but I've got a neighbor that I think could point me in the right direction. So many things to do, so little time...

Also need to get with the rain gutter guy and see what he thinks about the spot above the light in the last picture. When it rains water drips off that edge and hits the roof of the carport. When it does, it splashes up quite a ways on the side of the house. There has been some water damage in this area in the past and I'm thinking the water is soaking into the bricks and getting behind the flashing on the carport roof.

This Old House #6: Excavating for Hidden Treasures.

Yesterdays project- excavating some of the ruins that occur when you move... We started moving stuff from the storage room over to the "library" room they had emptied out. Most of it was irrelevant junk not commonly needed that we probably should have just tossed. We moved maybe a load or two a month for several months, and then when we moved officially the room got stuffed full with everything we just wanted out of the way for a while.

I didn't take a proper before picture, so here are some half way through pics. Stupid chandelier lights make it really hard to get a good pic.



The whole center area was stacked up with totes, bathroom stuff, and clothes / blankets in garbage bags.





I relocated a bunch of the long term storage stuff into a closet, got the bathroom type stuff put up in the laundry room storage, and the board games moved to their new home in the built in cabinet downstairs. The rest of it got re-stacked and a little more organized.

There was a built in bookcase right here, so there wasnt any carpet. You can see more wood floor. I think the wood floor upstairs is going to be REALLY rough when we eventually rip up the carpets. Can feel all sorts of wonky things through the carpet.



And that brings us to our next Hidden Treasure.

This little stove was left behind. Aside from the little electric heater built into the bathroom ceiling, this is the only "permanent" heater upstairs.





It's a 112 Oak model, made by the Peninsular Stove Co.











Neat little stove that appears to be in great shape. No proof for sure but from what I could find on the internet it was probably built around 1920. Don't know that it'll put out much heat but we'll give it a try and see how well it works. Chimney may have some issues too, its a little to short apparently, and sometimes doesn't get the best draw.

Finished with the library for now.





Stove's all dug out and "useable".



Trying to decide what to do with these ginormous book shelves.



And here's a little sneak peak at a future Hidden Treasure report- The table was also left behind... Solid would and weighs a LOT.



Managed to get all this done Sat. morning, and still had time to get a couple of paying jobs done in the shop and have a wiener roast in the fire pit last night!

This Old House #5: Labour Day and Wood Floors.

Labour day and we be labourin. Here's the front room- our first project.  Some before pics:







The trim, while it looks really cool, is NOT actually a wood grain. It was all hand painted with a roller to look like wood grain. I like it a lot, but after some discussion it needs to go. The trim will be white to brighten in up a bit and add some contrast to the wood floors under the carpet. We'll keep the yellow for now. Spent the day sanding and painting. Still have to tape and paint all the little edges everywhere, but its starting to look good.



Peeled back some more of the carpet. We had pulled a little corner back and were excited by what we saw- floor looked to be in pretty good shape. Of course, you KNOW it couldn't be that simple... Right!?





Yeah, the wire there by the door... Not too impressed with that.

  Haven't talked with Mrs. Punch yet, but the carpet will probably get rolled back in place while we finish the painting in here and then redo the dining room. The floor is definitely salvageable, but its going to take some elbow grease. I think it would be best to get the dining room done and any other room downstairs that we plan on having as a wood floor, so we can rip all the carpet out at the same time and sand / seal / stain / whatever we decide on the floors all at once.

Suggestions?