Cold Spaghetti

Here is project d’ jour… fixing the run-off problems in the front of the house.  The house next door is built approximately 18 inches higher than grade.  Pre-Katrina, we talked to an inspector who was going to recommend remediation for the builder/new home owner to mitigate the problem.  But then Katrina happened, the new owner moved, no one was there for a year, and the new homeowner hasn’t bothered to even hook up the downspouts in over a year — resulting in continued massive run-off problems to us and the neighbor on his other side (whose handicap ramp is significantly sinking off-level).  Paul built a ‘levee’ between our homes when the house was built, but the water still runs down the side of the house to the street.  It takes all the dirt from our plants in the front and is eroding the sidewalk, causing it to tip slowly towards the street.

So, given the circumstances, here is how we’re addressing it.  We’re working on improving the drainage in the front of the house.  Into the fall, we’ll do more along the side of the house, but we’re starting here first.

Paul laid concrete footers months ago and now is getting back to laying the bricks.  He power washed bricks (the ones we found waaay under the ground in the sides and back of the house) and built up a wall the same level as the sidewalk.  Within the bricks are channels for water to flow out.  He’s back filling with stones to facilitate drainage at the base.

The planter beds are also getting bricked in.  This will also help to control run-off (and run-away mulch and soil) as well as create a barrier to discourage dogs from peeing on my plants.

That’s Kate on her way to the market.  Note her special shopping bag.

You can sort of see the hole in the wall at the base here.  Paul is laying concrete here, hence why he’s moving so fast.

Here’s the hole from the front.  Notice the old N. & O. printed on the bricks?  They are over 100 years old.  There is some speculation that they rode down the Mississippi from St. Louis (someone said this to us a while back) … but we really don’t know.

Here’s the other side of the front bed.

Because Paul has been married to me for eight years, he understands that chances are, “someone” will have difficulty parallel parking and accidentally drive up on the bricks.  To prevent them from collapsing in when this happens, Paul smartly rigged a wall of concrete support behind the bricks.  Here is the wooden wall he built to retain the concrete for when he pours it.

Anyone notice how ridiculously close that expensive car is to an area where concrete and mortar are being mixed and sprayed?  We were very polite and thoughtful and put up barriers with enough space on each side so that no vehicles would be in the line of concrete splashes or mud being whipped up by the pressure washer.  But some people aren’t so smart (or considerate).  In fact, some would move the barriers we put up and park within the danger zone… and even on the curb!

Those Damn Tiles, indeed.

Paul and I are perfectionists; we know that our expectations can be a bit much.  With that in mind, when my Dad saw the tiles (thinking that possibly we were exaggerating the extent of the problems) he said, “Wow.  This is much worse than I thought.” Our lesson learned: never hire anyone you are not willing to micro-manage.  And, when at all possible, avoid hiring anyone for anything.

In the gallery below, click on images for short descriptions of the problems we found when we returned from Peru.  In short:

— The sides of the shower walls were not shimmed, which was necessary in order for them to straight.  (Paul would like me to add that he bought the shims and had a discussion about installing them.) Straight walls in a shower are important to facilitate the hanging of a shower door, something we eventually would like to install.  Instead of shimming the walls, he tiled straight down and then bent the tiles inward at the base of the walls.  You can see the curve easily as you look into the shower.

— The tiles on the leading edge of the tub deck weren’t mitered and stick out the entire depth of the tile.

— Poor cuts around the soap nook.

— Floor tiles were wrapped around the edge of the shower pan, rather than spaced appropriately and laid to cover the size of the pan.  We had two types of tile that would have fit perfectly, without the need for cuts.

— Walls of the shower end in different places.  One ends at the end of the threshold (which makes sense), the other ends midway through the threshold.

— The bench is bare wood on it’s underside.  It’s not sealed, not redbonded, not anything.  It would rot in a week if we used the shower!  Also, because the tile did not cover the full face of the bench, he simply rubbed grout down the rest of the backboard.  It’s visible looking at the bench even when standing.

We are working to fix the problems.

Click on the thumbnail to the see the full picture and caption.

Plumbing for master bath sink (wall mount). The black pipe to the left is the vent for the sink, tub, and shower. The shower plumbing will be in the same wall.
Looking up over the tub. Paul framed this out so that there would be room for the venting for the A/C and heater.

We added storage above the washer and dryer and over the doorway into the bathroom from the laundry room.
Some detail on Paul’s roofing/framing in the new section.
More detail in roofing/framing. AND, the mechanisms to hang the panel door going into the study from the porch/family room. We’re going to hang the door that currently separates our bedroom and bathroom here as a panel door … and are on the hunt for old french doors. Saw one that we loved at The Bank… but it’s match was gone.
We have Air Conditioning!!! The new A/C is to the left (duh) and is for the back of the house. Paul did a great job building the platform. The crew that installed the compressor said that it was, bare none, the absolute best hook-up they had ever seen. This is the trend now that we are subbing out projects… everyone who comes to give an estimate about falls over at the quality of the work, are dumbfounded when Paul explains it was all him, and then offer him a job.
More details of the platform and hook-ups.
Finishing framing above the storage area in the laundry room.
Paul was really proud of this job — it just came together perfectly.
See the air vents? Paul is embarrassed that all the studs don’t line up and would want me to say that.

Some insulation protecting the gas line. See the box to the bottom left? That is where the swinging door will go — leading from our bathroom to under the washer/dryer. This is where Scout will have his own private litter box “room” (accessible from laundry room). Complete with an outlet for a nightlight. We’re not kidding.
Detail of drop ceiling above master bath.
Porch/study venting.
Blocking edges to prep for drywall hang.

Bathroom vanity cabinets ordered 2 1/2 weeks ago (3 week lead time).
Laundry cabinets ordered 1 1/2 weeks ago (2 week lead time).
Porcelain floor tiles ordered for bathroom and laundry (~7 day lead time).
Plumbing fixtures ordered 1 week ago (3-4 week lead time).
Insulation for extra walls (in renovation/new spaces only) blown in on Tuesday. This was pushed back from last Thursday since we weren’t ready.
Paul is working on pulling electric and Cat-5 wires and installing recessed light boxes and switches. Lots of walking around trying to figure out where we want switches and plugs.
Paul sawed out the back wall so that our closet opens within the bathroom. We’re drywalling over the existing closet opening. Big mess… our clothes hang on a makeshift rack in the front room area and the house has lathe dust from the work.
Hopefully, drywall at the end of the week?

Every Monday, Paul tells me he is besieged by friends who have desperately been searching the blog all weekend for updates on the addition. Where are the pictures? The news? THE ACTION? Either Paul has become the temple to Do-It-Yourself-ers, eager to believe that they, too, can build a house, OR these are people who know us really well and understand that with us, “home renovation” and “comedy” are synonymous.

My guess is that the last category is correct. Which is why no one reading this will be surprised when I say we’re having trouble with plumbing.

No, it’s not as bad as the time we left town for a few days and a valve burst and ran water so hard and so long that it soaked through the brick, making a dripping 8-by-10 foot wet shape on the side of the house (it was totally the image of the Virgin Mary, but we didn’t get the right press involved… damn). And it’s not as bad as the time we left town, again, and another valve burst and the water ran and ran so hard that it… (yes, that’s right, it happened to us TWICE). It was a bit touching though, watching the water-disaster clean up crew help empty out the basement. Two feet of water had filled, floated, and bloated the wood on dozens of pinball machines and video games. So grown men were literally choking back tears over concern that Q*bert or Funhouse wasn’t ever going to be playable again. (The electronics were fine, the wood was ruined.)

Then there was that time in Michigan when Paul was installing the washer and we heard a pipe clank and the sound of water pouring in the basement all over the pinball machines. (Those games have been through a lot.)

Then here in New Orleans, we burst the water supply pipe while installing the hallway bathroom sink at around 12:03am, the night before Paul was about to leave on a big business trip. Best part: all of our towels were wet in the washing machine. I ended up running for sheets and t-shirts to sop up the 2-inches of water off the floor. Good times.

So, why would we even think of doing plumbing ourselves? I have no idea. Granted, we DID build a damn fine bathroom in Michigan and Paul did all that plumbing. But apparently, his talents end with 1/2″ pipes. The 3/4″ pipes on old homes (like ours) do not apply. He’s had a rough week. Still, we can claim a victory:

We DO have laundry! Paul managed to get the water working and functional… and then we heard an explosive sound from under the house. Uh-ho. So the update: we have COLD water laundry working. Hot water will come later. But a plus: Paul’s beautifully organized and thoughtful design has made it so that we can turn off sections of the house’s water — so he can work on the plumbing in the back without impacting the front. Hooray for no longer having to shut down the whole house for hours and hours!

After conversing with a couple of plumbers, Paul actually thinks he can fix the current problems. Of course I believe him. Really, I do. How can you not believe in a guy whose butt is that cute? Still, with so much left to do and time running out, we may hire a plumber friend to finish the hot water and finish the final hook-ups for the tub. I think Paul is still vested in doing the shower plumbing installation himself… stay tuned.

In the mean time… Paul built the deck for the tub (below). That’s the tub in the background.

Here’s the tub story… we went to a local plumbing supplier a few weeks ago to check out the showroom and get a few manufacturer catalogs. Loads of online research of installation guides and rough-ins follows. We made some basic choices, compiled questions, and made an appointment with the guy identified as ‘the one who knows showers the best’ since we needed to order the shower valves and trim right away. Hal was great; we hit it off with him right away, he instantly understood our level of understanding of the products and was able to help us without a blink. We got to talking in between our walking around and questions and ended up telling him our story of how we decided to stay in New Orleans and the things that we have done since committing to be a part of the city’s rebirth. At one point, I got a little choked up talking about when we realized how we couldn’t leave this place, and apologized — only to look up and see that he was reacting the same way. It was a little New Orleans’ moment… followed by another. He himself was a born-and-raised New Orleanian and was so thrilled by our enthusiasm for the city that he went into action wanting to help us. He worked out a great discount for all our products (cheaper than Lowe’s). Then, as we were showing him the tub we were thinking of getting, recalled that the warehouse across the street may have had one outside, a return, and maybe we could get it as much as half off? He called his boss. 10 minutes later, we’re in the back of the outdoor warehouse storage area looking at tubs. The initial bare-bones air tub (still a $1700 tub) was too beat up for us to really want to spring for… but right around the corner? A brand-new tub by the same manufacturer. Back to the showroom to check out the details… it’s an Amma model, a very, very, very nice tub. It was BRAND NEW… it was returned to the warehouse the morning before (contractor mis-measured). We bought it on the spot, delivered to or front room the next day for a quarter of the discounted sale price. The icing on the cake was that Hal kept saying that he wished he could do MORE, which was amazing since he had done so much for us already just by being so helpful and friendly. We feel certain that our Karma was all used up that day, explaining why the plumbing went so wrong the following weekend.
Another view of the tub deck. That knee-wall separates the tub deck from the toilet area. The shower is in the far upper area of the picture. The tub faucet will mount in the front.
Another view of the tub deck.
Here is the back of the washer/dryer. Paul built a platform for them to sit on so that there is no bending when we do laundry (exciting!) Also, Scout’s liter box will go underneath… we’ll put a little swinging access door between the two studs furthest to the left.
On Tuesday, we ordered a vanity for the bathroom… it will arrive in about 2 1/2 weeks. The question is whether we can get insulation and drywall in before it arrives… We hope to order tile next week.

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*Never buy a house with polybutylene piping (no, we didn’t qualify for the lawsuit because the valves burst, not the pipe).

We met my Mom in Gulfport this morning and were back before noon. Paul instantly got to work on the house. (I worked on healing.)

Paul got the electrical lines ready for the A/Cs. Part of the renovation includes putting the units on the roof, on a platform Paul will build. You can see the wires he ran below. It was difficult to determine exactly what to run, as A/C installation information is difficult to find — the pros want you to hire them to do everything. Paul settled on 2-circuits with each one handling 40 amps, bumping it up from 30 amps in case we get a bigger unit. The big wire on the left is going up to the roof for the A/Cs… the wire on the right is for a smoke detector.

This is our future shower! It will be huge — 4×4. We’re going to do thermostatic valves and overhead European shower head (we’ve done this before and consider both a must). We are thinking of putting in some jets (we have incredible water capacity because each side of the double had their own 80-gallon tanks which were kept when the home was combined) — we’re not particularly interested in using jets often (think of the water waste — ugh!) but are thinking that it may be an extra touch to pay off later. I admit: it would certainly feel good on my back about now.
This is the shower bed. Rather than making a mud bed, Paul found this model online. It’s made to be solid and not have the leak problems of the mud bed… it’s ready to be laid and tiled over. It’s huge — 4×4.
The roof. Hopefully, he’ll get to do the second coat in the next week or so. You can see the work he did today here… trimmed out roof, vents, and A/C electrical boxes and supports with the hardie trim pieces. The electrical lines are done and ready!
More trim. The Hardieplank boards will be delivered tomorrow. Maybe he’ll start hanging this week? We have to decide on a paint color for the house, too. We are thinking of going ahead and painting the hardie and then re-doing the rest of the house piece by piece as we re-do the walls. So we may have a backwards New Orleans’ paint job… the BACK of the house will be redone instead of the front! We are thinking of a very very pale grey blue with white trim and dark dark dark blue black shutters. We’re between two white houses so we like the idea of a little color.

The old laundry area, as seen from the kids’ bedroom (that’s the door in their room on the left) — as it was last weekend. The window is the current “Beetlejuice” window now hanging without a wall around it.
No floor left… just the old 25-foot cypress floor joists. Paul cut them out and is saving them. We’re hoping to expose part of our outbuilding and use these in an exposed ceiling. They are really phenomenal.
The corner of the house before renovations started. Remember when Paul had to jack up the corner of the house? You can see the sill he put in and the block on the left where he raised the house. This also shows how the walls are not sitting on anything. At this point, you could shake them and get significant horizontal movement… sort of alarming.
Floors and walls are gone. This is where we were as of the end of last weekend.

Paul starts to put in the new floor joists.




He’s got all the floor joists done now and several of the floor boards in. With everything going on, we haven’t taken pictures of it yet.

Our neighbor Weezie was interested in the original nails — handmade — from the original house construction. So Paul has been careful to preserve a few. Apparently, they can break easily so keeping them intact takes a little bit of care. Here are what some look like:
That 50 coin? We have no idea what it is. We’re hoping someone might know? It was inside the original wall. It’s not quite wood, but it’s not plastic either. I’m hoping that it’s identity is more interesting than that of a poker chip. (We’re still waiting to find the vault of confederate money.) It has sort of a purple color to it and the lettering it sort of golden. Anyone have any ideas?

The right is the back wall of our bedrooms. The left wall is the new room Paul recently built on the back of the house. The middle…? Once upon a time it was kitchens, then bathrooms, then laundry rooms and bathrooms. In the future, we hope it is one nice bathroom and one nice laundry room. Although Paul is suggesting we just put up walls and make an indoor racquetball court.

The Beetlejuice Window. (It’s an original window, we think it used to be in our Master bedroom. It’s safe in it’s current hanging spot as we decide what to do with it.)Exterior view.

More details on the step-by-step flooring removal and new floor joists. Too tired and overwhelmed at the moment to contemplate it.

The back, current state.
See the dark green and white tiles? One of the many levels of flooring. Everything has to come out. Even those big huge floor joists. Everything. It all has to be gutted — soon this will be just earth and roof, with the main house and the new room on either side holding the sides of the roof up. Since this room is off the kids’ room and our room, the bedrooms are really, really cold.

Click on the picture for a better view. Paul removed all electrics… finding two live wires in the wall. He capped off the gas line (number 4 — little black tube.) He cut the sewer line (number 7). And is getting ready to remove the floor on the other side of the house and do much of this all over again.

The pulled wire.
Debris — just from one side of the floor. It’s amazing how much debris comes out of a house!

We’re home. It’s dusty. Very dusty. Big dirt from the demo came through the walls into the bedrooms… we planned on me returning early this morning to bring the kids right to school so that I could have a few hours to clean before the kids were in the house. (Thank goodness for the IRB- related downtime.)

We are down to one tiny tiny bathroom in the front of the house. Stuff is packed everywhere. Other stuff is in the new section, covered in dust. The washer and dryer (complete with a dent from a falling beam) are still in the gutted section — Paul was reluctant to take these away without being ready to hook them up in the new section. They won’t stay in the new section, he’s just putting together a temporary location.

The next few months of renovation/construction are going to be the worst.

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In the midst of the afternoon cleaning, we were visited by a the-end-is-near type storm. There were a few moments where we paused to listen if we were hearing a tornado, but the real excitement came from the leaks in the new ceiling. From all three skylights. The good news is that Paul investigated and feels that the wind was pushing the layers up and water under (it’s still only the first layer up there) and feels confident that it will be fine… but he’s still checking with the expert guy at the local supplier warehouse tomorrow.

Paul is doing well from the weekend warrior marathon… despite stepping on two nails which went through his shoe and deep into his foot.

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In other more topical news, this completely inappropriate bit of fun had me in stitches.