Month: August 2008

late nights

this weekend we rented scaffolding, the parts were delivered and mathew put them together. i helped a little (but most of my weekend was spent stripping paint off trim.)

(left) mathew removing siding. (right) the view i had for most of the weekend.

mathew working on the third level of the scaffolding.

(left) what it looks like to stand on the second level. (right) mathew replacing siding after installing barrier paper.

after we removed the old (crappy) window.

preparing the opening for the new window.

(left) more barrier paper. (right) the new window!

(left) installing and squaring the new window. i helped with measuring and squaring. that took a while and the sun was rapidly going down. (right) success!

on saturday we got a phone message from our friend mae, wanting to drop by around 9pm that night. we didn’t hear the message until after we’d finished working and were too exhausted and hungry… after 9 we’d finally had dinner and were thinking about sleep, when mae’s sisters, stef and nancy dropped by to see if we were home and to give the green light to the rest of the group to show up. we felt bad about sending them away but we were too exhausted to stay up or really socialize. and stef brought this lovely gift! the gee sisters are always so thoughtful and generous.

as time keeps rushing by, we’ve made the decision to only work on the house on weekends and socialize on week nights. it’s been a year since we started working on this house and my 84 year old grandmother is still living alone.

short weekend

because of family visits on saturday AND sunday, we had less time to work on the house, but still managed to get stuff accomplished. we only lost about 8 hours.

remember all those holes mathew made in the walls? we rented a machine and installed the blow-in cellulose insulation. sorry no photos, i was downstairs in the garage while mathew was upstairs in the living room with my dad. my brother jason helped me loading up the agitator/blower (sorry, there ARE photos but they’re on jason’s camera…)

later after my family left, mathew and i switched places so i installed the insulation in the second entry while mathew filled the machine. (left) a photo i took of myself. it’s a very cool machine we rented, we had it in the garage but controlled it with a remote. and it was even powerful enough to blow insulation up to the attic, 2 flights up.

on sunday mathew’s dad, daniel came over for brunch. then we went downstairs to see if the wood in the entry was worth saving.

(left) it was! (right) the edger and a sandpaper disc they call “pizza.”

(left) filling a few more holes with insulation. (right) patching the holes and large gaps with plaster.

and because he just needed make a little more progress, mathew pulled down all the damaged plaster in the hall built-in cabinet. now it’s really ugly! he’s thinking there might have been a light-well here in the past, it would explain why there was water damage in the middle of the house.

a gift from bob

a gift from mathew’s co-worker, bob. mathew has it proudly displayed as you walk downstairs to the garage. my only question is “why did he leave the shrink wrap on it?” lazy? trying to make a statement?

the beginning of pretty

on saturday after i applied fiberglass mesh tape to the cracks in the walls, mathew applied a skim-coat, painted the wall with pink “plaster-weld” and then we got to work with plastering the first wall.

(left) mathew burnishing the wall after 2 layers of plaster were applied. (right) on sunday i started with some paint stripping.

and then it was time for plaster on the second wall, this batch was a good consistency and mathew was quite happy with how it turned out. while mathew was burnishing i cut out some “recycled” gypboard to fill in some of the spaces where i’d removed old loose plaster.

(left) i did the best with what i had. adding the gypboard cuts down on the amount of plaster we’ll need to layer in to fill those spaces. (right) mathew starting on the built-in cabinet in the hall, removing even more of that weird paneling the previous owners liked to use all over the house. behind it the plaster was really ugly and water damaged.

this is how those two walls look as the plaster is drying.

more of the same

mathew figured out the leak: an incorrect installation of exterior siding. on sunday we covered the wall openings with gypboard.

(left) the original plaster wall! (right) installing gypboard.

mathew drilling holes in the 2nd hallway for blow-in cellulose insulation. the holes go between each stud. once those top holes are drilled he drops a string and plumb inside to find where horizontal pieces might block the insulation, then he drills more holes below that.

we decided to strip the old paint and plaster skim coat off this third wall. pounds/gallons and years of paint were removed. then we stripped the 2 layers of wallpaper. the exposed plaster walls are quite beautiful in a rustic way, they look like walls in old buildings in europe.

saturday activities

mathew inspecting the ceiling and drilling holes for blow-in insulation we’ll install next weekend.

my cousin larry was back to paint the closet door he sanded last weekend. he ran a marathon in the city the next morning.

mathew installing batt-insulation above the doors to keep out drafts. i spent the day stripping paint then stripping wall paper.

i finally got a good look at the old wallpaper. mathew removing wallpaper.