Let's Mow the Lawn!

We bought a weed-whacker. Time to attack the jungle! The whacker is gas powered and was just able to cut the mass of grass and weeds. My spouse did all the whacking. I just watched and took pictures! Actually, I do quite a bit of work from home and that's what I was doing.

Here are a couple of pictures of the yard before the whacking.

Here is my spouse whacking the jungle down!

Here she is taking a deserved water break. She's so dirty!

Here are some shots of the tamed jungle.

My spouse was not so interested in preserving the beauty of the flowers that graced the yard, but she did make me a stunning bouquet from the felled flowers!

Flies and Framers

For some strange reason, big fat flies like to hang out on the fence between the front lot and our lot. Lots of them. My spouse thinks it might be the port-a-potty (Honey Bucket brand). I think it's just a temperature thing.


I called PSE (the electric company) and LNI (the Washington State Safety Agency) on Friday. I told them that I saw something that I considered unsafe in my neighborhood. I said that a house was being framed under a live electrical wire and that the framers were just draping the wire over the house they were building. They didn't seem that interested.

However, LNI and PSE showed up on Monday and shut down the work on the house. The representatives were shocked by what they saw. The framers had to go home halfway through the day on Monday and didn't work at all on Tuesday. PSE was calling Potelco (their contractor) to speed along the process of moving the electrical line from overhead to underground. The PSE reps couldn't get a hold of the engineer on the project to get a full story. They couldn't get Potelco to give them any answers either.

I figured that the site would be shut down until the line was moved, but the framers showed up this morning (Wednesday). Can't keep the flies away.

The front lot owner called me and asked if I knew when the line was being moved. I said I didn't know. I was ready if the front lot owner accused me of ratting him out. First off, I asked LNI to not mention that I (the neighbor) was the whistle blower. They have a policy of asking whether or not you want to be identified. Second, I could claim, and rightly so, that I was just asking PSE/LNI whether or not I could be sued if someone got hurt by the electrical line while working on the front lot (since the front lot owner once threatened to sue me for exactly that). In fact, I did ask that question and was told that I could be sued for anything but that it very unlikely that charge would result in a decision against me. However, the subject never came up.

I think I'll call LNI again this morning.

Cabinet Hardware

We recently picked up some cabinet hardware. We had spent some time a while ago touching lots of different knobs and pulls and had settled on a style of knob and a style of pull that we both liked regarding feel and look. We hadn't quite yet decided on size. After doing some 3D modeling of the hardware on our proposed cabinets we felt very excited about the 1 1/2" knob and the 6" pull and went out and got some.

My spouse could not wait to try them out. She even took them to work for show and tell. Everybody in her office fondled the hardware and gave their hearty approval. Here are a couple of pictures of the knobs and a pull in context.

My spouse swapped out the crappy old knobs and a pull for the new ones just to get a "feel" for things. They really look and feel great! Can't wait to do the kitchen! The finish is oil-rubbed bronze. It's a really dark finish that will wear with use eventually showing a bronze color where it gets touched the most.

Photos of Destruction!!!

Firday night's entertainment... get the attic space cleaned up!


Rolling up the carpet Saturday morning because the mess will be easier to clean up.


And the demolition begins! Here we are in the living room pulling off paneling. Each wall was different. Some walls had two layers of wood paneling; some walls had one layer of drywall and one of wood paneling; some walls one layer of dywall and two layers of paneling; and one wall had a layer of brick veneer, one layer of dywall and one layer of wood paneling. We may have gained 10 square feet or more in floor space during the demo!

Here are a couple of photos of the different wallpaper patterns that we found.


There was some pencil writing under the brick-work that said Dave+Carole in a heart.


We also found an old paper hornet/wasp nest!


The big beam in the middle of the room is being supported by a 2x4 on either end and supports the roof trusses.


The ceiling was made of 1/4" thick drywall. No wonder the ceiling was wavy!


We found some old signs of rats, too.


We vacuumed up as much of the mess as we could with our new wet-dry shop-vac.



On Monday we took down the pole in the back yard. First, we tied it off so it was less likely to fall on the house. We started with the reciprocating saw but didn't make much progress. I burned up a blade right away so we tried the jackhammer. My brother-in-law's roommate and I traded shifts on the jack-o-fun-ride-hammer.








The pole had way too much concrete around it so we used the saw again. After two more blades, the pole came down.


My spouse found a bee that had been caught my a spider the same color as the yellow poppies!


Many thanks to the brother-in-law and his roommate! Together we managed to lower our standard of living even more! Seriously though, the demo was so much easier with these two slamming holes in stuff.


Now we just need to talk to the consultant guy. Once he comes, maybe we can actually start putting things together again. We're crossing our fingers we can move everything we want to move and not bring the house crashing down on our heads.

Destruction!!!

We had an extremely tiring weekend. But it was the good kind of tired, the kind when your muscles twitch and you can barely hold your head up, when you have a smile on your face and a deep sense of accomplishment in your heart. At least that's what I think. Throw in a sore wrist and multiple bruises and you have a sense of how I felt come Monday evening.

My brother and his roommate came out for the long weekend to help us begin our demolition of the living/dining room. In preparation, my spouse and I went up into the attic space at about 6pm and didn't come down again until 10pm. We got out the rest of the boards on the old log roof and shoveled the insulation out so that we could tear out the ceiling when the boys arrived. It took a while, but it didn't take as long as we thought it would. We got the topside of the ceiling nice and clean. The boys showed up around 11:30, and we all pretty much hit the hay, since it had been a long drive for them.

Saturday we ran a few errands, including a Home Depot stop to get some better safety gear for the fellas. We have full-on respirators and whatnot, but we wanted some better stuff than just a plain ol' dust mask for the guys. We got the fancy fiberglass dust masks with the valve in the front, goggles for all, and a few other little things. Saturday afternoon we cut the carpet, rolled it up, disconnected the pellet stove, and moved the stove into the carport. Bye-bye, heat. We had a play to go to on Saturday night, so we sent the boys to a movie. We all fell asleep fairly early that night, too.

Sunday was the big day. We ripped out the wood paneling (we had done some of this on Saturday, too, but the majority of it was done on Sunday), ripped out the wood BEHIND the wood paneling (the stuff with wallpaper on it), and drywall where applicable. We also took out the brick behind the pellet stove, which had drywall behind it, and then the wood slats behind that. We found a newspaper from 1939, which was really cool, but other than that it was just tiring and messy. But the boys were GOOD at ripping stuff out. They could do it pretty much with their bare hands. One of the benefits of having very tall, very strong young people destroy your house, I guess.

Then the ceiling came down. This is where the tall guys really came in handy. Once everything was stripped down to the studs, we realized that those big beams that ran across the room didn't actually go ALL the way across the room. No, they're supported by 2x4s. Great. And they're really only supporting the old log roof in the ceiling. Very interesting. Some of the studs need to be replaced, and it's all sort of strange. We're having someone come to consult with us either this week or next. We need to know what we can move, and what moving things will entail. If the log roof isn't supporting anything, it would be great to get rid of it.

Monday we slept in, watched some anime, and ate lunch before tackling the pole in the backyard. This is the 20 foot light pole in our backyard that served some unknown purpose at one point in time. Now it's just rusty and strange. We borrowed a jackhammer from a friend and let the boys have at it. My spouse and the roommate hammered at the base while my brother tugged on the rope that was supposed to guide the pole's fall away from the house. After a couple of hours later and about 18 inches into the dirt, it just wasn't panning out. So we got out the sawzall and just cut the sucker down. Took a few minutes, and my brother just pulled it down. It was pretty amazing. So now the pole is out as well. Mostly- there are still a few feet sticking above ground. But you can hardly see it through the jungle of our backyard.

And that was the weekend. We pulled up the carpet pad yesterday and mopped the floor so we don't track crap all over the rest of the house, and now we just wait to hear what the consultant says. Depending on his feedback, we might need to get structural engineers involved. Hopefully we can just go ahead, get a permit, and do some structural work. Once that's done, we'll do the wiring, close up the walls, and put down hardwood floors. And one room will be done, with only 7 to go!

My spouse will post a series of pictures illustrating the grand events as soon as he can. Hooray!

Finally, the Electrical Trench Comes and Goes

The ground work contractor who did the water line showed up on Thursday (5/25/06) to dig the electrical trench. The trench ended up messing up the driveway a bit, but we were able to put conduit in for not only electrical, but for phone and cable as well.

Here are pictures of the trench at the house.

Here's a picture down the driveway.

Here's a photo of the trench from the driveway to the pole. Now we need to get the utility easement recorded. (You can see the new water line exposed in this picture!)

Here are the conduits on either end of the driveway. The yellow rope coming out of the 2" conduit is the pull-string for the cable. The phone wire has already been run through the conduit.

And here is the trench all filled in, except of the work pit where the conduit needs to be exposed.

In the end, we paid half of the cost for the conduit and trenching labor. The front lot owner is paying the other half plus the hook-up fee ($725) for moving the overhead to underground. I suppose I could have fought more, but then the contractor wouldn't have been paid. In addition, this chapter is just about over and that's such a relief.