Allan

re-moving BR1 window

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The insulation of the first floor has begun. 

beginning rockwoll insulation

From the looks of the framing, there used to be a west-facing 30″ x 60″ window in bedroom 1 (front bedroom).

original and new window area

They framed it in and paved over it with rock-dash stucco during the stucco craze.  In its stead, they added a south-facing window.  I’m not sure if the front porch was built before or after, but this new window opened onto the porch (a.k.a. sun room).  So, if in the middle of the night you wish to get some fresh air, you can’t, unless you wander outside and open the screen door window.  No other window in that porch opens.

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dump run gone wrong

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“The trailer’s a bit heavy,” I said.
“I think it’ll be fine,” HFT said.
“Looks heavy to me,” D said. 

 

We didn’t make it more than 5 blocks when a tire blew.  We stopped along 13 St N, hazard and overhead lights blinking.  I put out my safety triangle 10 paces behind the rig.  Luckily, I decided to bring the spare trailer tire this day.  Yay!  Except…

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electrical and structural supplies

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More work must be done to raise the 2nd floor back to its rightful elevation.  The load-bearing partition between the living room and laundry / bathroom is, by my measurements, two 2 1/8 inches too short.  The floor dips that much from over 28 inch span across the hallway.  The installers of this wall didn’t really care enough to make it the same height as the other interior partitions.  So, it has to be removed and another put in its place. 

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panel, furring, plaster, lathe, brick removal

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Today was pretty much devoted to pulling panelling, furring strips, plaster, lathe, and bricks from the walls.  The exterior walls all had bricks inside.  These are not structural but, rather, meant as a heat sink, barrier from wind, fire block, and insulation.  We have better quality insulation that acts as a fire block (like Rockwool) available now.

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east wall rim joist support footing concrete hole

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That’s a long title, isn’t it? 

The rim joist on the east wall of the original 4-square house has cracked.  When?  Hard to say.  Why?  Easy.  Too much pressure was put on it many years ago from a support column in the first floor.  Raising square-corner butt joint joists were raised up just recently, but the split widened as there was nothing under that portion of it to support it, where the 1st floor support column is. 

So today we dug a new area for a new footing.  I did the digging and hauling of 20L buckets to the stairs, D from next door hauled the buckets to HFT, and HFT hauled the wheel-barrow to the back.  “Are we nearing the end?” I’d hear every now and then.  “Almost!” I would shout. 

 

So then what?  Fill it with concrete.  We mixed one US gallon hot water from the SRV on the water heater, four shovels of cement (blasted 40kg bags! (danged 88 lbs.)), eight shovels of sand, and four shovels of gravel (mixed with sand).  Very scientificy, I know – especially as we had to add a little more of this or a little more of that.  We got about 3.5″ of concrete.  More tomorrow, if the weather holds out. 

 

The after-hours cleanup was also fun. 

leaky outside tap

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In mixing concrete for the side patio, we hooked the hose up on west the side of the house.  It looks like it was put in in the 1950s.  The faucet leaks continually when turned on.  Since the main floor kitchen sink is now against an exterior wall, I think we should put in a new frost-free hose bib there.  It only makes sense to put it there as it would be more central to the rest of the property (grass, shrubs, potential garden). 

stairway to below, rotten beams

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My left knee is sore.  Bounding up and down the dirt ‘steps’ to the basement is a chore.  One cannot simply walk upstairs to the main floor with a bucket of dirt as there are no real steps. 

So FHT and I build some stringers.  The first one has cracks in it but seems to be stable. 

With the second one, on the other hand, steps actually broke off in my hand.  Splits in the wood made it impossible to keep stable steps in place, let alone have them bear weight.  HFT suggested we add supports to the side of the stringer rather than abandoning the stringer altogether.  (No pic yet.  I’ll post later.) 

In the mean time, we unloaded the remaining gravel into the sidewalk hole, wrapped up the cement bags, and worked below on another support beam.  (Pics later.) 

The support beam was a challenge.  It simply refused to go into place.  It eventually did.  We need that beam there to cut out and replace the rotten one along the edge of the house. 

Next:  dig more dirt out to fit in the stringers.  More knee-breaking work.