Vacation - Day 1

Chris decided we needed to go camping.  So with bathroom remodel money in hand, we went camping.  We headed to Hickory Run State park in Pennsylvania.  It was about 8 hours away so we planned to leave early Wednesday morning.  Tuesday night as we were packing I went to put the car top carrier on the van.  Since the brackets are in the carrier and the carrier is locked I needed to find the key.  No key.  So I drilled out the rivets holding the lock in place.  Opened the carrier but I now had a new problem.  How am I gonna secure the carrier or hold it shut.  I drilled the lock holes a bit bigger and ran a chain through them, which I can put a regular lock on.  Problem solved.  That only ate up a couple of hours.  Most of our gear fit in the carrier so the interior was roomy enough to fit the dogs and two kids.

We brought books and movies for the kids and we made pretty good time.  Since the campsite had electric hookups we grabbed a box fan from the house.  (Great idea by the way) We arrived in the evening and had the tents setup (almost) before dark.

Sad Day

On Wednesday July 13^th my Dad passed away.  This is the link to the obituary the Funeral Home put up.

http://lynchfamilyfuneraldirectors.com/death_notice.aspx?Operation=preview&noticeid=2033

Getting older

I know I haven’t posted anything in awhile. I have a good excuse. I am old. I now understand why contractors hire 19 year old kids to do construction. I understand what needs to be done and I can do the work. It just seems to take longer to do it and a lot longer to recover. (Sorry, there was a double entendre in there.)

So I removed the ceiling and began the install of the whole house fan. The outside temps are in the 90’s so the attic temperature is in the low to mid 130’s. I told Chris we could build a sauna without the rocks if we pipe in attic air. The Whole house fan was an interesting install. Getting the boards cut just right to center the fan over the joist was tough. The temps made it difficult to measure as the sweat was getting in my eyes. I had gotten the fan housing in early so I could figure out where to place it. The metal was getting to hot to handle. This build needs to end so I can turn the fan on just to cool the attic.

I removed the copper waste lines and plan to replace them with PVC. The PVC is just a bit bigger and placing it has become a challenge.


I have a couple of photos of the progress. (Or lack thereof)

The whole house fan from the hallway.

Our new bathroom vent fan.

I believe it was starting to cool off.

The placement of the Attic fan and the gutted bathroom.

New Stuff

Christine found much of the replacement parts online. We were able to get great deals buying stuff this way rather than going to one of the big box stores. We could have driven to several different hardware stores and tried to find what we need but the internet saves gas.

Buying wall and floor tile was much harder than I would have thought. I see in guy, where Chris see’s in girl. This becomes an issue after 30 minutes in a tile store. After 30 minutes it all looks fine to me as long as we can leave. Lucky for me Christine pushed through and we ended up picking up a couple of samples that I think will look great in the end.

Since I will have the bathroom ceiling down we decided to add a whole house fan in the hall. This will help keep my AC use down. I would love to be able to extend my non-AC season.

If only I could extend the non-furnace season.

Demolition

We dove in ripping out the bathroom.

Jason and Sam helped out as well. Chris found a way to dispose of construction waste that was quick and easy. We bought a Bagster at Home Depot. You can fill it up to 3 cubic yards of stuff, or one 45 square foot bathroom.

We put the cabinets, toilet and sink on the curb. The trash grabber guys come buy pick stuff up and re-use, or sell for scrap, a lot of it. One weekend later the walls are gone and there is a giant hole in the floor.

During demolition we found that insulation was blown in the walls, but not all of them. We found old fixes and some old fixes that weren’t fixes. With everything exposed at least we can tear it apart and do it right. Other than a couple of rotten spots on the floor the wood underneath is in great shape. I cut out the rotten subfloor and I will replace it later. I need the access to remove the plumbing and replace all of it. Much of it is leaking or the joints have become loose.

More to come!

Even Abby wanted to help.

Chris in Motion

So after the excitement of the first day home for Chris started to pass she fell asleep. Each night the kids would marvel at how early she seemed to fall right asleep. I told them she was tired and also there was a time difference she was still working out. I was wrong. She was recharging for the next big thing.

I came home Thursday and found a large portion of the upstairs bathroom on our front porch. The remodel had begun.

More to follow.

Homecoming

Yeah! Chris is home early. She arrived Friday morning. After a quick trip home to drop off her stuff and change we were off to pick up the kids. Unknown to us the school had called channel 4. We arrived to a reporter and the public affairs guy from the Army Corps. When we went to pick up Jason, his teacher set up the class and Chris walked in to surprise him. Very cool. While we were in the hall they tried to interview the three of us but Jason wasn’t real comfortable on camera. He was giving short or one word answers. This doesn’t play well on TV so there was some neat editing. When we left to pick up Samantha the channel 4 guy followed us. Sam didn’t get the same elaborate set up but it worked out very well anyway. We ended up on the channel 4 news that evening at 6pm.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?=2HiTo2ycCk4v