Naiveté

We began the weekend with high hopes. We both took Friday off, rented our tractor, put on our work clothes, and imagined just rocketing through the project. We thought it'd be hard work, but we'd be able to button everything up in a couple of days.

If you haven't already guessed, we were horribly, horribly wrong.

It's not like it turned into a nightmare; it was a beautiful weekend. The weather was amazing, albeit a bit hot for heavy manual labor at times, and we got to meet many of our neighbors. If you ever want to meet your neighbors but aren't sure how, just rent a piece of heavy machinery and dig up your driveway. You WILL meet people. Turns out we have some very nice neighbors.

Friday morning at about 9:30 Hertz delivered our tractor. About 10:00 the gravel arrived. Everyone was really nice and we were pretty excited to get underway.

The first order of business was to play with the tractor in the backyard. We attempted to flatten out the topography a bit. Turns out that the bulldozer blade part of the tractor was pretty dang difficult to use. We couldn't often get a clean scrape. We made some lovely sod burritos. I wasn't that great at using the blade, but my spouse was. Because the grass was so unruly, it would cling to itself as it rolled up and was exceedingly tough to separate. Lovely. Plus it was getting mighty dusty back there.

We also tackled the remnants of the evil pole. I got it dug out enough with the backhoe that Spouse could attack it with the sawzall. We cut it down below the surface and just buried it. Even after digging with the backhoe, it was still down there too deeply to dig up. It was easier just to bury it, and hopefully that won't mess things up later.

After a few hours of wrestling with that, our friend showed up with a jackhammer and an extra shovel. The shovel was a godsend, by the way, and the jackhammer was handy, too. He got to play with the backhoe portion of the tractor, liberating us of an old apple tree stump. Good times!

The remainder of the day we messed around in the yard, trying to get it flattened. We didn't really get too far- once we got to the pile in the back, things got wonky again. This is the pile we suspected was made of garbage, the one that had been housing the locust tree we cut down the weekend before. Sure enough, the pile was made of garbage. We found carpet, dishes, McDonalds containers, jars, cans, and all manner of nasty things. We also found a HUGE concrete base, like for another light pole. It was too heavy for the backhoe to pick up, so we used the backhoe to get it on its side, then we positioned the bulldozer blade and pushed the thing in with our legs. Yeargh. Don't know how we're going to move it again, without the aid of heavy equipment... Anyway, that pretty much took us the rest of the day. We called it quits sometime after 7:30pm. It was the first long day, and we were disheartened by how little we got done. This is what it looked like at the end of the day (and still looks like, actually):

The next day we woke up still full of hope. It obviously was going to take us longer, but we rented the tractor for another day. We worked on the catch basin in the right of way first thing, since where our drain entered the catch basin would determine the slope of the entire line. Spouse used the jackhammer to score the pavement, and we tried to dig it up with the backhoe. We coned off part of the lane of the road in front of our house, and the damn thing wouldn't budge. After an hour of messing with it, hacking at it with a pickaxe and the jackhammer, we finally got the pavement cleared away and began digging. I used the backhoe to dig the trench while Spouse rented a rotohammer and began to drill the hole in the side of the catch basin. It took a long, long time- much longer than expected. You can see a theme developing here. I'll let my spouse fill you in on the intricacies of the rotohammer experience. Anyway, we dug ALL day. All damn day. You can see us here in various stages of the dig.

As I continued to dig, Spouse began levelling the bottom of the trench to get the correct slope for the drain. That meant he got to do a lot of shovelling (I had removed more dirt than necessary in my trenching). Then we got out the drainpipe and started to lay it. We tried to use the tractor for the gravel delivery, but that didn't work so well. Spouse's gravel-shoveling technique tured out to be superior. By 8:30 that night, we still hadn't finished even digging the trench, and we couldn't afford to rent the tractor another day. Hope was completely gone. There was no way we were going to finish the drain over the weekend. We were sore, hot, and tired. We activated the floodlights on the tractor and kept digging even after dark, but eventually we were too tuckered out and had to stop.

The next morning we got up as early as we deemed the neighbors wouldn't call the cops on us for making noise and began working again. We shovelled gravel for a while, then I finished digging the trench when folks were awake enough they wouldn't be upset at the noise. We had finished digging the trench and even managed to do a few wheelbarrows full of gravel with the backhoe before the guy from Hertz picked it up. I was sorry to see it go- I think I got fairly good with the backhoe during my time with it. Plus it made things EASY. It was around 10am that we were once again tractor-less.

That meant the rest of the day was devoted to us doing even more physical labor! Sunday was NOT for resting. There was gravel-shovelling in spades to be done, and we did it. We laid the rest of the pipe, put in the gravel, laid the landscaping fabric, and filled the trench with dirt from the right of way all the way to the end of the house. Then we got to rake the driveway somewhat level and put up flagging and string lines to make sure nobody drove over our drain. (Even with the driveway clearly marked and resembling a landing strip, I still suspect I may drive over it one foggy morning on my way to work.) This was, in part, because of the butt-munch on the front lot and the disrespect his contractors have for our driveway. The rest of the reason was that we'd no sooner buried the drain at the beginning of the driveway when some yahoo in a huge truck pulled a u-turn and drove right over it. Seriously, it had only been 15 minutes since we'd finished that section.

But, by Sunday night, we had finished the drain in our driveway and could once again park our trucks there. A neighbor of ours had been out of town, and he let us use his driveway for our trucks while he was gone (he's a super-nice fella and we're very lucky to have him as a neighbor). We parked and despaired, for we still have the entire stretch of drain at the corner and the side of our house to level, lay pipe, gravel, fabric, and fill in.

On Monday, Labor Day, we couldn't bring ourselves to do any more work. We were utterly exhausted. So we put aside the yard stuff for a day and did the usual frenzy of laundry, grocery shopping, and errand-running that we'd put off all weekend. Oy. We couldn't have worked on the yard even if we'd really wanted to- we were so sore we could barely move. Still are, but we're perservering after our day's rest. We still have so much to do in clearing the yard, not to mention that half of the garbage pile is still there, but we'll take it one step at a time. We have until the weekend of the 16th to finish everything up and rent our dumpster. That'll take us through the end of the month, and in October, a year after we first saw the house and bought it, we'll begin to work on the first interior improvement (yay, ceiling, windows, walls, and, best of all, heat!).

It was definitely a weekend of labor. Thank goodness it was a four-day weekend. We just keep telling ourselves that we'll love it when we're done, and next summer instead of digging ditches we can lie on our lovely lawn and look at the stars.

Permits and Drawings

We submitted drawings for our living room remodel permit on Wednesday. The structural engineer had finished the calculations on Monday which allowed the drawings to be finished. If anyone is interested, here are copies of the drawings that were submitted.

We submitted for a ROW (Right-of-Way) permit on Thursday (today). This Friday we are renting a tractor-creature with front loader and back-hoe attachments to bulldoze the back yeard and dig a trench for a French-drain and drain line that will connect into a catch basin at the end of our driveway in the ROW (thus the permit). The ROW inspector actually came out this morning and looked at the catch basin and told us how to connect into it. He said to core-drill a hole as high in the catch basin wall as I felt comfortable with, stick my 4 inch pipe in, and then patch the hole with a quick setting concrete. Guess where we spent our evening. Answer: picking up supplies.

The French-drain will hopefully catch a lot of the water that lands in our back yard and direct it to the street and away from our house. We will also connect some of our down spouts into the French-drain. Unfortunately, we won’t know if this tactic works until this winter. But there’s no reason for it not to.

Pieces of Pole

A quick post about the big light pole. Turns out, we found a good use for it. We cut it up into five to six foot pieces and laid it along the inside of our driveway. It will be a good way to minimize traffic. The front lot guys drive up our driveway and then into the back of front lot. While they could still do this, the big pole pieces may make them think twice. Being passive-aggressive can be fun!

The Rest of the Story

On Monday night, we went out to measure the depth of the catch basin at the end of our driveway. We are going to try to connect a drainage line to it to help direct some of the many gallons of water that will descend upon on us this winter.

While we were out at the street, an older couple (not that old) stopped and said, “Hi.” We all exchanged names and a few other pleasantries (talked about remodeling and plumbing). We asked if they knew the old man who lived in our house before we moved in (we were talking abut old-timers in the neighborhood). The woman (of the couple) has lived in the neighborhood for over thirty years (close to forty). She said the remembered him and his family and that our house held fond memories for her. She said that the family that lived there before us had had a child with special needs and that the father had built a train set in the yard (front and back) for his child to ride about on. In fact, lots of the kids in the neighborhood took rides on that train.

WOW!

This new fact explains the light pole in the middle of the back yard and the latch on the outside of the second bedroom (so you can lock the door from the outside). It may also explain why hardly any of the windows in the house open.

We were astonished to learn about the real nature of the train. We said our “good nights” and went to our respective homes (they live just up the street).

Footnote: my spouse and I forgot to measure the depth of the catch basin.

Yard work and play

Last weekend, we did some yard work. My spouse cut down a tree (a locust tree of some sort, with thorns on the young growth) and I did some weed-eating (I helped a little with the tree).

The reason for the tree cutting was that it propagates itself throughout the yard creating little thorny thickets where we someday would like to have a lawn. We even thought it was dead last winter! A lot of the lower branches were dead, and it was growing out of a big pile (of god knows what).

We decided it might be best to tie off the tree so that it didn’t fall directly towards the house. Call us funny, but falling trees make us nervous. I climbed up and tried a rope as high in the tree as I could.

Then I tied the rope to one of the cedars on the other side of the yard. My spouse then proceeded to use the chainsaw. She had her safety glasses on and earplugs in. She remarked later that she didn't think she'd ever use her Forest Service experience again (meaning: use a chainsaw)! Little did she know!

We both saw it try to fall the other direction! Since we were both watching, we successfully redirected it (she pushed on the tree, I pulled on the rope).

With the tree on the ground, she proceeded to cut it up into smaller pieces.

Before and After

Our neighbor has been asking us to tame the weeds that grow on the border between his property (driveway) and our property (driveway). We didn’t get around to it, so he did it. He said he didn’t mind, but we think he did (a little, at least). He only did two-thirds of the driveway since he didn’t want to kick up rocks into our trucks. He and his family were out of town this last weekend. I wanted to show him that we take our neighborly weeds seriously and did some weed-eating. I did the rest of the driveway as well as the south end of the yard (where the drain field is).

While weed-eating, I found mole-signs (small mounds of freshly dug dirt). I dug into one and found a hole. We have a mole (or some other kind of varmint). Don’t know what to do about it. May have to poison or scare it away somehow. We suspect it will eat whatever vegetable garden we plant next year.

We also found a huge wasp/hornet nest under one of our eaves. These are different from the ones trying to live in our walls. We think we’ve gotten rid of those (poison) since there are no more wasp/bee-creatures flying around in our breakfast nook. We are thinking about ways to transport the nest over to the “friendly” front lot house folks. We’re sure that wasp-nests make great house warming gifts.

Windows have been Purchased!

After so much designing, drawing, shopping, and deciding, we finally ordered the windows and door for the living room! We ordered 2 gliding windows (a 6'W x 4'H and a 5'W x 4'H) and sliding door (5'W x 6'8"H) on Saturday evening. We would have ordered them a week ago, but get wanted a custom grid (also called a grille) for the simulated divided light look. The factory had to respond via fax and that took a week. In the end, the grid design that we wanted can't be made at the thickness we want (we want a 1 1/8" mullion, not a 3/4" mullion) so we are not getting grids (at least not internal grids and not right now). What we decided on was to just buy the windows with out grids and then we can continue to mock up grids after we install them. When we finally do decided on a grid design (which we kind of already have) we can order them for installation on the exterior and/or interior of the windows or even make them ourselves. In the end, we like the DIY solution the most (of course)!

Engineering

We've been calling structural engineers for the last week. They all said they are quite a few weeks out. They also don't seem too interested in our small potatoes job. An engineer finally called us back (he actually lives nearby and works in Bothell) and said he could help us. We said that we have some drawings for him to review, but he said he'd rather just come over since the beam was exposed. He came over on Friday morning on his way to work and said that the beam would be no problem. In fact, he'd do the calculations this weekend and give us a stamp on Monday. Wow! We should be able to submit for our permit by the end of this week!

Called around for GluLam beams (to replace the existing beam) and prices aren't as bad as we thought they could be (between 9 and 12 dollars per foot depending on size). It's starting to get exciting!

I call knobs

I have been obsessing over doorknobs.

This is what happens when I'm stalled out on stuff to do on the house while Spouse finishes his drawings. I look for stuff for our house online and fantasize about when it will be done. This is sort of counterproductive, since it's going to be a long time before we can actually use any of the stuff I'm looking at. However, it also means that when it comes time to buy our sinks, fixtures, etc., I'm totally ready.

So, as I mentioned before, one of the things I've been in thought about has been doorknobs. See, I don't really like modern doorknobs. Some are okay, but some are TOO round, while others aren't round enough. It wasn't until we visited my folks' house in July that I realized what I loved: the doorknobs of my childhood home.

Here's the thing- they're the trashy knobs of the turn of the last century. They're in old houses by the ton, and they've been abused. As such, it's hard to find them. I've been looking for a month and a half. They don't make reproduction ones, not that I've found. I've scoured auction sites, antique sites, etc. to no avail. When I have found them, they've been bid on so agressively that I haven't been able to win them.

That's when I found it- a set of ten. TEN! It was just knobs and spindles, but they were ALL what I wanted. Usually it's just one I wanted with a few porcelain or glass ones I don't want. And it was a "buy it now" auction. So, I bought them, and today they arrived. I love them. They're in great condition, and the ones that need to be cleaned can be cleaned (we'll clean them all anyway).

Now I'll shut up and let you look at the beautiful knobs. They're more than we'll ever need. I am knob rich. Mwa ha.

More about Water

Now we have new line running all the way to the house. In fact, there is no old steel pipe that feeds the cold water in the kitchen. And as was mentioned before, the water pressure is now fantastic in the kitchen! Our standard of living just went up, if only by a little bit.

The picture above shows the new line next to the old one. We roto-hammered a new hole for the new pipe (1" poly-200psi). The old pipe was removed along with the hose bib that was connected to it. We put a valve at the splice for shut-off convenience.

Here are pictures of the hole/trench being bedded with sand (for code) and the valve box for accessing the shut-off valve.

Here is a picture of the galvanized fitting assembly that I had to remove (Hooray for the Sawzall!) from under the house. We tried to take it apart, but it was fused solid. Even the plastic fitting that was connecting the old poly line to the galvanized "T" was fused. The thing just tore apart as I tried to unscrew it, thus the need for new fittings. The brass compression fittings are lifesavers (they connect the new brass nipples to the old galvanized pipe). Otherwise I would have had to either use a tap and die to put new threads on the old galvanized pipe or run all new pipe (which will happen one day, just not right now).

Here are a couple of pictures of the new brass assembly. The one showing the crawlspace of the house is deceiving. The amount of space under the house is a lot less that the picture seems to show.

One final picture, here I am all suited up under the carport (where the crawl space entry is). I wear a painter's pull-over when I go under the house (and, of course a head lamp). Not shown is the head sock I wear, too. There is a lot of crap under there: old cat poop, a dead cat, broken light bulbs, dirt, a corn cob, an old broken (whiskey?) bottle, spiders, tinfoil, abandoned plumbing and electrical lines, etc.

Gotta take a leak

Take it out, that is.

We got a pretty large water bill this month, which alarmed us. After a bit of scouting, we found a place between our house and the monstrosity on the front lot where the soil was quite wet. Ugh.

After a bit of digging, we found it. It was where our water line comes into the house. It was an old galvanized fitting, and it was in full-blown sprinkler mode, a la a cartoon. Lovely. My spouse first dug it up on Wednesday, as I was shoveling gravel and filling some of the monster potholes in our driveway. Thursday we dug it up fully and he hammered a new hole in the foundation of our house to pass the line through. Friday we assembled everything, and Saturday we finally got it to stop leaking. Today we filled back in the hole, complete with a nifty valve box so we can shut the water off to the house without having to actually go out to the meter and do it. That way we can have water at our hose bib, but still cut it off to our house. We also cleaned out some of the parts leading to our kitchen sink - they were almost totally gunked closed, which was gross. Now, however, we have full water pressure on our cold water. Hooray!

Anyway, here are some pictures of the leaking and the digging. I'm sure we'll get more pics and details posted as the week goes on.

Evidence!

So, we had to put aside making the drawings of the house this weekend in order to battle a leak. More on that later.

What's important in this post is that we found evidence of the train set! We were scouting around outside and found a piece of track. A friend of mine suggested we be on the lookout for train stuff- the resale value on that can be pretty good. Unfortunately, I heard from my coworker that it wasn't actually a nice train set. As you can see by looking at the track, she was correct. Definitely not salvagable. At least it cements in our minds that the light pole really WAS for the train set and not as a beacom for aliens. Who the heck really knows what was going on in the guy's head.

Light pole mystery - solved?

So, my spouse is still working on the drawings. Figuring out U factors, permits, and all that rot. Thank goodness someone knows about that sort of thing. I suspect I'm wearing out my welcome with the folks at work, taking advantage of their homebuilding experience as I am.

Anyway, one of the women whose company I enjoy at work is actually quite familiar with our dear, sweet rat hole. Her parents lived just down the street- still do. So she drives past on occasion when she visits them on the weekend. She remembers trick-or-treating at our house back when the old fella owned it. She remembers chasing their dog when it escaped. It's a really neat and interesting way to hear about the history of the house and the family that lived here.

So, I guess it was last week, she sat down next to me at the weekly office-wide meeting we have. She asked how the house was going, etc., and during the course of our conversation, she asked me if I'd seen any trains. I was pretty confused. Well, it turns out the old fella had set up a huge train set in the backyard. I haven't seen any remnants of it, although it WOULD explain all the bizarre garbage piles in the backyard.

I came home that night and told my husband about it, and as I spoke a light went on in his eyes. He started talking about the light pole. Again, I was confused. I thought we were talking about trains? We still were, sort of. It's his hypothesis that the light pole was used to 1) provide power to the train set via the electrical outlets in the base, and 2) provide light for the entire endeavor.

I dunno, it makes sense to me. It's about the only thing that makes sense. And not really a whole lot of sense, but enough i can believe it. It's still weird, but it's not totally crazy.

Of course, we'll probably never really know what the light pole was for, but it's nice to finally have a theory.

Wasps and Tape

After taping the hole in the siding, the wasps had no where to go.

Then they chewed threw the tape. Wow! They're so dedicated!

Attack of the Bee-Creatures

Whew, it's been a while!! Things have been busy here, but not with house stuff. My spouse is making some progress with the drawings, though. He hates every second of it, but it'll be worth it in the end. I know what it's like to have to force yourself to do something you hate!

Anyway, while the drawings are still underway, things have been interesting in our nook. The other night, we noticed bees going in and out. Okay, I didn't notice it first, but it was pretty easy to see when it was pointed out. Bee creatures (wasps of some sort, I'm sure) apparently are making their home in a crack in our old siding. I'm sure they're doing all sorts of damage. Good thing we'll be tearing that all out when we redo the kitchen, anyway... . But I digress. Saturday night, he put duct tape over the hole. While they slept, we sealed them inside.

The next day, our nook was full of bee creatures. This explains, I suppose, the large number of bee creature corpses I'd been finding in the nook over the past week or so. But these particular bee creatures were alive. I spent a good portion of my day catching them and putting them outside. It's hard for me to kill bugs. That's just the way I am. So, I saved many a bee creature. Bee creatures and I get along pretty well, actually. I don't know why, but they're rarely aggressive toward me, even when I'm swiping a glass at them. *shrug*

So, today we have fewer bee creatures in the nook. That's because they've found a new way in and out. We've taped that up as well, and have had a half-dozen more creatures trapped inside. Oy. Hopefully if we keep taping them up, they'll move out and move on, otherwise we'll probably have to bomb.

Next week: Attacking the lawn! I plan to finish my weed-whacking job and intend to find out whether or not our lawnmower functions. If it runs, we'll see if I can actually CUT any of the grass. The backyard is so bumpy with buried garbage I doubt I'll be very successful. Oh well.

Quick Update

So, we haven't made any progress over the past couple of weeks. The 4th of July pretty much interrupted us, not that we were on a streak, anyway. And this week we're dog-sitting, so it's hard to get stuff done, too, especially when it's such a cute dog. *sigh*

That doesn't mean we're giving it a shot, though. This week and next my spouse will work on the architectural drawings we need to submit to a structural engineer, and then we can get this show on the road again. It's hard for me to believe it's almost the middle of July, and that it'll probably be close to the middle of August before we can really start to WORK on the house again.

In the meantime, we dug up some of the plants out of my parents' back yard. We'll see if they survive to be planted next year, after the yard is bulldozed. Speaking of yards, I think I'll crank up the lawnmower and see if it works. Even if it does, I'm not sure it'll mow well with all the mounds of garbage back there, but I'll give it a shot.

And now we're underground...

The nice folks from PSE finally got off their asses and got the contractor out to convert the overhead electrical connection to underground last Thursday. It took them about 2 plus hours to do the work from the time they showed up to the time they left, but we were without power for only about 1/2 hour.

Now that the line is gone, the front lot is clear and we don't have to really deal with the creep anymore. Although, I did tell him that the framers are leaving a lot of trash around. He promptly cleaned up the area. Nice.

After the underground line was run, it's now our responsibility to fill in the trench. Since my spouse dug the trench and weed-whacked, I did the filling.

One more thing... my spouse found raspberry bushes amongst all the 4 foot grasses and weeds. And a few raspberries were ripe! She had raspberries in her backyard growing up so she was really excited! I was pretty excited too because I like raspberries! There aren't a lot, but it's a start. Yeah for raspberries!