life as i know it...: November 2008

monday's get even longer...

My monday started pretty early... I had to get George's truck, and so I was at his house at 7:15am to switch out cars. I don't usually get up until 9am, and so that was early for me. Mandy's neighbor - Alfonso - offered to help me with replacing the rotten wall in the bathroom today... and he is a master.

This is what it looked like under the tub... old subfloor... i took it out.

We put up a temporary support to prevent the ceiling joists from sagging down, and then I ripped out the old wall (left the siding) and subfloor.

Then we replaced some rotten wood and put some 2x8's in place to sure up the old joists, raised the floor about an inch with a hydrolic jack to make it level, installed the new subfloor, and then put the wall into place. Now I need another full day to pull off all the siding and replace the osb on the outside.

And yes, this did take more then 30 min, but the wall itself went up in about 25min... it was everything else that took forever. done and done.

this should be on tv...

The Home and Garden channel should be in Nashville filming this little DIY project... Mandy's house. All the painting is completed, and as I feared from the beginning... the floors under the carpet are terrible. With a little research and thought I have come upon a new project: Hardwood Floors.

Here is the house from the street. Note the pile of wood to the left of the main door... that is the old hardwood floors from the living room. They were in un-salvageable shape, and instead of simply covering it with some cheap laminate or carpet I am going to install new hardwood in the livingroom, small hallway, and the bedrooms. Seems like a big task, but it is totally doable... and not to mention the fact that it will look incredible when it's finished.

Here is a shot of the floor in the living room. What you see is the underlayment they used 50+ years ago when the put the hardwood down. It will be taken up and hardwoods laid on the subfloor benieth... with some new insulating underlayment perhaps. Also... Mandy is becoming quite the master painter!

The other major project that must be completed before Mandy moves in is the bathroom. The photo on the left shows the bathroom before removing the cast iron tub... which weighs 300lbs. easily. George and myself took it out... it was fun. The back wall you see has a lot of rot from the window, and can move back and forth about 2 inches. To solve that problem Mandy's neighbor has offered his services... 8 2x4's and about 30 min will give us a new wall on Monday. Then I will be replacing some rotten plywood outside under the siding before moving back inside to install a new subfloor and then a new tub and some plumbing.

Where are the video camera's filiming the next DIY show? Lots of work is going into this, but it is going to be worth it. The house will look incredible once everything is done... no doubt. Thats all for now.

balloons can be fun...

Hallooween night was a pretty good time at the sixth ave... we had some candy, a few costumes, and we blew up 2000 balloons and put them all in the bowl. Everyone had a good time, and afterwards a few of us went to Pie in the Sky. The pizza was great, but the service sucked.