Madeline woke me up around 5am and we all decided to get up around 6:22. She of course then decided to nap at 10am when I was full of the energy.
So I tried a new approach to bamboo removal. I took a pair of loppers over to the house and individually cut each piece of bamboo. At the beginning it went really fast and I was quite accurate, however, about an hour in to the process, I noticed it was taking much, much longer. I then started moving bamboo to the pile until Harris called me home for lunch.
We're estimating there is about three more hours of bamboo cutting to be done. Then there will probably be 5-10 hours of junk picking, raking, recycling glass, and hauling stuff to the curb.
There are several trees that I was able to see today up close. Once the bamboo is gone, the yard is going to be beautiful.
Sunday, October 24, 2010
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
Monday, October 18, 2010
Cops & Robbers
The house has not been broken into...yet.
Sure, it's going to happen at some point and Harris will freak and I will down play it. This weekend we got our first taste of shenanigans. We walk by the house every day, sometimes multiple times, just to say hi. On our Sunday walk for Madeline Nap 1 we noticed new items in the yard. Seems someone thought we needed a subwoofer, tweeters, two stereos (one missing its face plate), a huge car jack on wheels, and an assortment of taillights.
We called Durham's finest to see if they wanted to pick up the stuff since we were pretty sure it was stolen. When the officer arrived he asked why we thought it was stolen then insisted that we could make some money if we could just flip the house. Got to get that flip.
After the officer left- without any of the goods (he suggested we just throw it away) I went and spoke to the guy who lives two doors down, giving him my phone number in case anything untoward happens again.
Sure, it's going to happen at some point and Harris will freak and I will down play it. This weekend we got our first taste of shenanigans. We walk by the house every day, sometimes multiple times, just to say hi. On our Sunday walk for Madeline Nap 1 we noticed new items in the yard. Seems someone thought we needed a subwoofer, tweeters, two stereos (one missing its face plate), a huge car jack on wheels, and an assortment of taillights.
We called Durham's finest to see if they wanted to pick up the stuff since we were pretty sure it was stolen. When the officer arrived he asked why we thought it was stolen then insisted that we could make some money if we could just flip the house. Got to get that flip.
After the officer left- without any of the goods (he suggested we just throw it away) I went and spoke to the guy who lives two doors down, giving him my phone number in case anything untoward happens again.
Friday, October 15, 2010
splitting hairs
Ok friends. The time has come. We need a new word. Natalie has been saying "deconstruction," and frankly, I don't like it. However, "demolition" doesn't work either. See, the Internet God that is Wikipedia sez that deconstruction is "the selective dismantelement of building components, specifically for re-use, recycling, and waste management." Demolition, as we all know, is smashing the fuck out of things. What we're doing is somewhere in between, as we clearly don't intend to "re-use" any of this crap. Maybe "de-slumlordification?" "de-wtf-ification?" I dunno. I await your suggestions with bated breath.
Lizzy's showing her...
Studs!
Only in one or two rooms though.
What began as an attempt to determine the scale of demolition that would be needed has actually turned in to a bit of deconstruction. We began in the back bedroom that we learned was an addition. Here we were looking for where the house used to end and to see what shape the chimney was in.
The two layers of paneling covering the drywall on the chimney were making us wonder if we were going to find multiple layers everywhere.
Nope.
Who needs insulation???? Or actual siding and sheathing...
If you step back from the fun of dismantling a room and notice the rat nests and holes and mold it can be depressing. However, we only had two hours, so instead of focusing on human misery we just picked at drywall.
The kitchen is currently located in the hallway. Don't ask. At some point, in order to avoid having to buy a custom door, they just sort of used some scraps to make the doorway small enough to accommodate a standard Home Depot hollow core door.
I convinced Harris that I just wanted to get one piece of drywall off, well then there was this annoying scrap, and couldn't we just get it down to? There's a kids book with the same theme...
Right now we are guessing that there was a nice big doorway here. We've got more deconstruction so that we can determine if it was a pocket, standard, or french door.
We also pulled the paneling off of the fireplace. Yes, there was paneling on the fireplace. It's really not in great shape, but I am hoping that once we get the ceiling back to proper height we'll be pleasantly surprised.
You can also see some of the remaining lathe here, but no plaster. The removal of the lathe and plaster by the previous owner was quite haphazard. In some rooms there are only studs yet in other rooms there are random lathe pieces just...hanging out...
Right now we are planning on removing the rest of the paneling and drywall, getting a dumpster, and then getting estimates for the restore. We have about 40% of the walls back to studs, none of the ceilings done, and we're ignoring that the house has indoor plumbing for a minute.
Only in one or two rooms though.
What began as an attempt to determine the scale of demolition that would be needed has actually turned in to a bit of deconstruction. We began in the back bedroom that we learned was an addition. Here we were looking for where the house used to end and to see what shape the chimney was in.
The two layers of paneling covering the drywall on the chimney were making us wonder if we were going to find multiple layers everywhere.
Nope.
Who needs insulation???? Or actual siding and sheathing...
If you step back from the fun of dismantling a room and notice the rat nests and holes and mold it can be depressing. However, we only had two hours, so instead of focusing on human misery we just picked at drywall.
The kitchen is currently located in the hallway. Don't ask. At some point, in order to avoid having to buy a custom door, they just sort of used some scraps to make the doorway small enough to accommodate a standard Home Depot hollow core door.
I convinced Harris that I just wanted to get one piece of drywall off, well then there was this annoying scrap, and couldn't we just get it down to? There's a kids book with the same theme...
Right now we are guessing that there was a nice big doorway here. We've got more deconstruction so that we can determine if it was a pocket, standard, or french door.
We also pulled the paneling off of the fireplace. Yes, there was paneling on the fireplace. It's really not in great shape, but I am hoping that once we get the ceiling back to proper height we'll be pleasantly surprised.
You can also see some of the remaining lathe here, but no plaster. The removal of the lathe and plaster by the previous owner was quite haphazard. In some rooms there are only studs yet in other rooms there are random lathe pieces just...hanging out...
Right now we are planning on removing the rest of the paneling and drywall, getting a dumpster, and then getting estimates for the restore. We have about 40% of the walls back to studs, none of the ceilings done, and we're ignoring that the house has indoor plumbing for a minute.
Thursday, October 14, 2010
Do beers count toward costs?
Harris and I worked on the house last night and should be posting video tonight.
A question - should we include the cost of the Fullsteam Chocolate Stout in the costs of the house? We would have most likely still enjoyed them if we had not been working on Lizzy, but they were espeically tasty after two hours of nasty demolition.
Back bedroom is officially stripped to the studs...if you don't count the ceiling. Front room is wall stud revieled as well. The kitchen/hallway is beginning to appear from behind bad drywall.
A question - should we include the cost of the Fullsteam Chocolate Stout in the costs of the house? We would have most likely still enjoyed them if we had not been working on Lizzy, but they were espeically tasty after two hours of nasty demolition.
Back bedroom is officially stripped to the studs...if you don't count the ceiling. Front room is wall stud revieled as well. The kitchen/hallway is beginning to appear from behind bad drywall.
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