A House For All

When I first bought this place, it was a tragic wreck. But I didn't care.  I was actually considering stapling AstroTurf to the floor and walls, adopting ten dogs from the pound and turning it into a big playhouse with balls and sticks, plenty of good food and fun - lending credence to the term rough-housing. It was going to be a space devoted to dogs, guitars, and beer.

I started with one dog.  His name was Klezmer.  He was a wonderful companion for 7 years. He's gone on to doggie heaven.

I have a new dog now - Rou - and a cat named Spanky.  It's their house too.  Now I just have to show them how to get along.

Quick Update

My hero Greg has left town.  Going back to school after a short summer working on my house. He (we) got a lot done.  I owe him huge for his creative efforts.

Over the next few weeks I'll be mudding and texturing the new sheetrock we put up.  Slow process for me.  It requires a some finesse.

It's been a bittersweet few months.  I was hoping to have the place finished and in move-in-able condition by now.  But when Greg went to do the drawings and check out the overall condition of the place, he discovered a lot of structural problems that we just had to address.  We've gone backwards on the house, but I'm glad that the work we did is solid. At least I don't have to worry about that portion of the hovel falling down.

Now I'm alone again working on the place as best I can.

The newest drag on my psyche:  my dog and faithful companion of many years is dying of terminal bone cancer.

All I can do is put my head down and keep going.

Over and out ...

Da Beam

We had been planning and plotting how to get this 300 pound gorilla in the house and into place, then we decided it was overkill.  More beam than we needed, so Greg shaved off about 6 inches, reducing the weight by maybe 30%.  Then another friend happened by to ask a question about audio interfaces and offered to lend a hand with the beam.  So, we just did it!  Ahead of schedule!

After wrestling it into the house through a living room window and barely making it around a corner, we used props and ladders and furniture movers, etc., and pushed it up into place, one step at a time.  No rush.  Safety first. 

Bring on the snow.

Big News

The beam is up!  The beam is up!

A Week's Work

In producing the as-built drawings, we discovered the roof was being held up by momentum.  That is, there wasn't much real support holding the roof up, so it looks as though the roof is staying up because it already is up.  Since it's sagging and big snow events may happen in the future, I decided to put in new supports.  This means tearing out the old ceiling.  A big mess. It also means new structural support, not only for the ceiling but for the floor, because support must go all the way to the ground.

We took a trip to Reno to buy a truck load of lumber - over $600 dollars worth.  We also got a break by taking up a friend on an offer of a cheap glu lam beam he had sitting around in his yard. Weathered but still strong and very heavy, it was a lot of work for the three of us to get it into my truck. This will be the main support for the ceiling and the roof.  Getting it into place will be very interesting.

With so much wiring being exposed, I decided I needed to map out all the wiring.  With some help from Mike, I made an electrical plan that helps to illustrate where the receptacles and lights go back into the panel.

De-struct

Alone in the hovel today - tearing it apart.

Feeling a mixture of relief, anxious anticipation and revulsion.

I wish I had done this right away after I bought this place.  I would have known what this thing is really about.  But I was not in a position to do it at the time.  I was a full time student and reeling from some major changes in my life.

One of the hard things about this is undoing some work I've done over the years. 

Gotta go backwards to go forwards sometimes.

Some images from mapping process

The Plan

Now that Greg Willis is here to help me with this ... project, we have developed a plan.  The first step is to map out what is here and put it down on paper in the form of drawings.  This is often called "as-built" drawings.  Important to have these for communication purposes.  This will probably take another couple of days to finish up.

It means that Greg, because he is wiry and nimble, gets to crawl around in the attic spaces and in the below-the-floor spaces with a camera, notepad and measuring tape.

What I'm Afraid Of

When it comes to the hovel, I'm afraid of things I don't know and don't understand.  I have put off doing a thorough inspection of this house for years.  I guess I didn't want to know what is really going on under the floor and above the ceiling, partly because it is a huge mess and partly the feeling that I wouldn't understand what is going on anyway.  The stuff I've looked at so far just doesn't look good. What frightens me is the prospect of finding things that will require a huge amount of work and expense.

But now that I have some help and support, I'm ready to face this (not that it'll be any less painful).

The Next Stage

Finally, help is on the way and this means that the hovel is moving to the next stage!