Sheetrock, tornadoes and crazy schedules

It's been a long time since my last post.  Things in our world have been crazy the last two months.  After the April 27 tornadoes, P and I (mostly P) have been involved with Grace's Kitchen (www.graceskitchen.org) in serving meals to folks in Pleasant Grove and Cordova, AL. That has slowed down progress somewhat as our time has been split between serving meals and working on the house.  However, since my last post many good things have happened.  Sheetrock has been hung, finished, and painted (mostly).  It's amazing how much difference finishing the walls and ceilings makes.

Kitchen

The kitchen has come along way.  The walls and ceilings are mostly done (with the exception of some trim), the hardwood floors are installed, the cabinets are installed and the countertops are in!  This all seemed to happen so quickly.  The floors are engineered hardwood glued down on the concrete/tile subfloor.  This was my first experience with gluing hardwoods and it is a messy and slow process.  It came together well and it looks great.

I bought the cabinets online as ready-to-assemble (RTA) cabinets.  Basically, you get a major reduction in cost when you buy standard sized cabinets and assemble them yourself.  Much of traditional cabinet cost are in shipping/assembly/installation.  With the RTA cabinets, I was able to save enough money to get P's dream countertops.  The cabinets are espresso stained shaker-style and are surprisingly well constructed.  I did order a sample door before I bought the set to be sure we would be happy with the look.  We went with no upper cabinets as there is very little wall space for upper cabinets because of all the windows.  This made the installation easier.  We also modified the refrigerator cabinet to add a shelf for P's cookbooks. 

Since we started the project P has dreamed of Alabama white marble countertops.  I was very skeptical about marble based on all I read about it - expensive, stains easily, chips easily, etc.  P has always wanted marble and it is really good looking.  It also fits well with the age and style of the house.  I agreed to at least price it out and see how much it would cost.  We set a budget prior to looking and when we priced it out, it came out to almost exactly to what we'd budgeted.  P assures me that it will change color with use, but that is the charm and look that marble is supposed to have.  We'll see how it ages, but right now it looks great. 

Cover charge

When we bought the house, the floors in the living room and dining room were laminate hardwoods.  These were obviously not original and were beginning to buckle in several areas.  When we removed the laminate we found quarter inch plywood.  Under that was the original hardwoods, or should I say, what was left of the original hardwoods.  They had been completely destroyed by termites.  Ugh.  In fact, they were still feasting on them when we began to pull them up.  They had eaten the hardwoods, the subfloor and the floor supports that the subfloor was attached to. 

Laminate floor

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Subfloor destroyed by termites

 

 

Under the subfloor were 2x4s laid on end on the ground. The termites then made their way into the 2x4s, the subfloor and then the hardwoods. 

Channels in the dirt where 2x4s were laid.

We decided to remove all the wood that was touching ground and pour a new concrete slab in the living room and dining room.  This is the best way to prevent the termites from feasting on the new flooring.  I decided to pay a professional concrete finisher to handle this job.  It was nice to watch other people work...

New concrete slab just after pouring.

 We are going to put engineered hardwood floors on the concrete.  The new concrete and an active termite bond should help prevent these little creatures from causing more damage.

Filling the hole

In the former butler's pantry (now part of the new kitchen) there was a hole in the wall  We were told that the the hole was made by the former owner for a window air conditioner.  The old casement windows have openings that are too small for an A/C unit to fit, so they tore out a 2'x2' hole in the the 14" thick concrete wall.  When we bought the house the hole was covered with plywood on the inside and outside. 

We removed the plywood to do a permanent repair of the hole.  When we removed the plywood we found this:

We decided to fill it back in with concrete block.  The challenge was that the concrete block made in 1925 is sized different than today's typical 8" or 12" block.  We had to trim 8" block to fit the opening.  It took a little time and trial and error, but we ended up with a pretty good fix.  We're going to have to add a layer of brick to the inside to make up the difference in width, but it came out pretty well.  A nice layer of stucco on the outside will make it perfect.

P finds a mural

In preparing for new paint in the master bedroom, P began to chip away some peeling paint from above the fireplace.  She found some strange colors behind the peach/tan wall color.  She kept peeling and chipping away and look what she began to uncover....

It appears to be a tropical scene with palm trees and water.  Picture Panama City spring break 1986 airbrush tee shirt.  She has since uncovered a sailing ship and additional trees.  We have no idea when this mural was painted or by whom.  We are continuing to chip away to see what else we can find.  It looks like it may have been painted to be a window looking out onto the "beach."  We are hopeful that there might be a signature. 

Flat Roof? Seriously?

When we first saw her back in the Summer of 2010, one of the first things I noticed was that much of the roof was flat.  I have often wondered why in the world a flat roof was ever considered a good idea.  After this experience, I have concluded that it isn't.  The flat portion is about 20' x 20' and appeared to be in marginal shape.  I hoped that we could limp it along for a few years before replacement.  After observing during the first rain, that was clearly not an option.  So we waited for a extended dry (and warm) spell so we could remove and reroof.  Thankfully, February arrived with an extended warm and dry period.  Dad and I came up with a plan to add slope to the formerly flat roof.  Our plan required a complete removal of the old roof and decking.  That seemed easy.  We began removal on Monday morning.  We quickly found out that there were 6-7 layers of roofing!  We spent the next two days (planned for a couple of hours) removing the layers and the decking.  The decking, strangely, was made of cedar boards of various shapes and sizes.  It appeared to be made out of scrap wood from other projects.  The house does have three cedar closets, so perhaps they had some leftovers.  We then split the 20' length in half and installed a 2"x6" ridge board.  We then ripped 10' 2x6's at a taper, with the 51/2" (for those who may not know, a 2"x6" board is actually 11/2"x51/2") end at the ridge board and the tapered end at the roof edge.  This is to add some slope to the roof and prevent water from standing (standing water + old 7 layer roof = leaks).  We then decked the roof with plywood decking (not cedar), #30 tar paper, rolled asphalt roofing and lots of sticky black tar.  We chose to use white rolled asphalt roofing to help keep the attic cooler.  You can't see the flat part of the roof from anywhere on the ground, so the color didn't matter.  Six days after starting and 5,000 lbs of debris later, we have a new roof!  Two days after finishing we had some strong storms with 60+ mph winds.  I was a little concerned going back the next morning to see how the roof survived, but I was excited to see that the roof was still there and there were no signs of leaks!  Now we can move toward drywall...

Old roof

Old roof from hatch

Roof removal

Dad adding decking over new tapered roof rafters

Mom ripping out old decking

Trash or Treasure? Answer: Treasure

I put one of the Strobl tiles on Ebay just to see what would happen.  It sold for $20.50.  Not quite the $275.00 that I've seen, but I also didn't try hard.  There were several people watching the auction and I had quite a few inquiries.  When I get more time, I'm going to put a little more into research and see if I can do even better.  The good news is I have alot of them, so even at $20 a pop, it's not too bad!

$20.50 tile