Termite Inspection and Dining Room Progress

We had our annual termite inspection yeasterday and it went well. No activity, sprayed for other bugs (spiders, crickets, ants, etc) and it was all under $100! When we were under the house last fall we found evidence of previous termite damage in one area. It wasn't anything really bad as far as termite damage goes, but we were curious as to how long ago it had happened so when I made the appointment I asked them. They had no idea and said that there was no record of it in the account history so it had to be before the account became active. So the next obvious question was...What year would that have been? 1946! Our house has had continuous termite inspections since 1946 with no record of activity and the person I talked to said that it was one of their oldest accounts! He also said that since there is no record that it had to have happened before 1946 so it's really nothing to worry about. That makes me feel better.

The dining room is still slowly coming along. A lot of ceiling tiles have been removed from the house and most of the nails are out. Bought patching plaster today to fill the nail holes so I'll be starting on that soon. Hopefully next week. Still have to wait for James to sand the glue off the wall before I can really do anything with that wall. New deadline to have it all done is Christmas since I have to work Thanksgiving Day.

I'm Back!!

Yes, that's right...I've started up the blog again. It's been awhile, but the only thing thing that's happened around here was that I finally removed the coffee table from the middle of the living room to the garage. I haven't been lazy though. I started college! It's proving to be much harder this time around so all my free time has been spent studying my ass off. But a few days ago I realized that Thanksgiving is not that far away and for the first time ever I'm supposed to be having dinner here in a dining room that looks something like this right now...
This just isn't going to work for the first time my family sees our house. And this picture doesn't even show all the crap that's covering the table or the ceiling tiles that are still stacked 6 feet high or the paneling that's leaning against a wall because it still hasn't made it to it's final resting place in the burn pile.

Here's what I have to do before Thanksgiving:
Remove the rest of the paneling
Take the panels and the ceiling tiles out of the house
Figure out something to do about the curtains (they're pretty gross...they came with the house)
Sand the glue off the wall (otherwise known as removing the artwork seen in the picture)
Fill in about a thousand nail holes
Paint walls, ceiling, trim
Maybe figure out something to do about where the plaster is crumbling from where they removed the top trim pieces to put the drop ceiling in. I have no idea what to do though...any suggestions?

I really don't want to paint the trim, but it's going to be awhile before we have the time or money to strip, repair, stain, and poly the trim so paint is the only reasonable short term solution. We already have the paint so the cost will be $0...which is in our budget.

I'm thinking about gray walls...any input? Other suggestions? I'm clueless about paint but I'm loving gray walls with white trim.

Oh, and that's our new chandelier. I don't think I posted any pictures of it since it's been put up. We were trying for a look that fits our little Victorian farmhouse. I think it works. As I make progress I'll show more pictures...it really looks better than it does in the one. And I can't help the bulbs, we only use the long life fluorescent and they stick out the bottom. When they burn out I'm hoping to find the new ones that aren't as long.

Memorial Day Weekend

Sadly our extended Memorial Day weekend has come to an end. James went back to work today, and I go back tomorrow. (I worked Sat. & Sun. though). It was great to have nothing to do for a few days. James weekend wasn't as easy though. He installed a new Mohawk wood laminate floor in his parents living room. It looks really good, but he got a little frustrated with it a few times. I didn't take an pics because I didn't have my camera, but they are doing the hall this weekend so I might have some then. Yesterday and monday we were lazy though. I didn't know that my dad was a speaker at the Memorial Day services in Mt. Carmel or we would have gone to that. I didn't know until yesterday when my mom called to tell me that he was on the front page of the Daily Republican Register (the Mt. Carmel mewspaper). Yesteray we went to see my best friends new house. It was a great hour and a half drive with the top down (well, until the rain hit about a half hour from her house). Her house is actually an old house thats already (mostly) remodeled. Its really nice and it looks like the p.o.'s did a good job on the remodel. I did notice that her stairs had been relocated at some point, which confused her. There is a flue cover in the wall on the staircase. That means that there used to be a stove or fireplace of some kind there at some point. But the stairs have also obviously been where they are now for a really long time. And James pointed out that her bathrooms were most likely originally a porch because of the low sloping ceilings. They still have a little bit of painting to do but thats really all that needs to be done, and its really nice. Makes me wish our house was already done. Speaking of which, if I can get a day with no wind I'm finally going to drag all the paneling and the ceiling tiles outside to burn them. And then I can get started playing with plaster!

Randomness

The iris's finally bloomed! Of course the time they finally bloomed is about the same time Cledus decided to tear them up. He had already completely cleared them out under then window. Oh, and ignore the cable coming out of the window...that's just until we get the antenna properly wired into the house. I hate it, but I just keep telling myself it's only temporary so its ok.
Remember the absolutely adorable puppies we had? Well, this is the only one that has not found a home yet. See how big she is? At 6 months old she is huge! And has a mouth on her...she found her "big dog voice" recently and barks at everything. She's absolutely sweet and lovable, and every bit of a puppy still. We are still trying to find her a new home though.
And this makes me sad. James has finally decided that he's tired of his truck and its now for sale. It was listed on Craigslist this past weekend. I love this truck. It might be one of the most loaded trucks I have ever seen (including Bose & remote start)I will give him some credit though...he's owned and driven it for 3 years now, which is a record for him. When we first started dating, and even well before that, he averaged at least 2 vehicles a year. Just because he gets bored with them and wants something different. He's now decided that he needs a diesel.

We are getting ready to enter the next phase of the dining room. I'm just not sure if the next step should be stripping or plaster repair. I'm not sure which would be better to do first. I'm thinking maybe plaster so I don't have to worry about ruining woodwork that has just been freshly restored.

A picture worth a thousand words...

...and not one of them are pretty, nice, or ladylike.

Whatdya think? Can we call it artwork?

And the walls came tumbling down...

Literally. A piece of paneling was hanging on by a nail somewhere and I got between it and the wall to see where. I found it. I went to reach in with the hammer to pull the nail, heard a creaking sound and pulled back just in time for the whole panel to go crashing to the floor! I think that coulda left a mark...each panel weighs a ton.
The room seems to have doubled overnight from taking down the ceiling and some of the paneling. I only got 1/2 a wall done and had to stop. I had not expected the weight of each piece to be so much, and with the problems I have with my neck and shoulder I can't physically do it. So James gets to have that fun.
This is where the top trim piece goes over the transom window. I about cried when I saw what was under the little piece of paneling. The wood in this picture is the actual door frame and the hand hewn lathe. And the plaster, of course.
Same thing from a different angle. I figured out that the plaster is true horse hair. I picked up a little piece that was laying up there and could see the hairs in it. From this angle you can kinda see that the lathe is hand hewn (notice the rough edge). The lathe and the frame are made of the same type of wood, but I have no idea what kind it is. Its a little dark with a reddish color to it.


When I was removing the nails from the now bare walls it looked like the plaster was crumbling around each nail I pulled out. Upon closer inspection, its not. What is crumbling is layer after layer of paint! I also figured out that the paint on the door frame is peeling too. Its like it never adhered to the paint under it.

Last night when James was hanging the chandelier I looked up and noticed a crack between the wall and the ceiling. I climbed up on the freezer to get a better look and realized it was drywall that was not hung right and there for didn't line up right. And I can see where the pass through's were at...they drywalled it, but didn't mud or paint it so I can tell where everything was. Oh, and I was told there was no drywall anywhere in this house. That its all plaster. Uh, no. That's not right. Last time I checked, plaster has never been made in sheets that you nail up. It'd be sweet if it was though!

More Dining Room Progress

The tiles are all out! I'm covered in itchy dust from them, and socks keeps eating the little pieces that crumbled and fell to the floor, but they are now out. I'm getting ready to take down the cross tee's but I can't take the actual framing down until James gets home and takes the light out.

The blue lines are chalk. I also found out that this is an Armstrong Intergrid suspension ceiling.


I got these yesterday at Gordman's for $3 each. I'm going to use them to cover 3 small holes in the wall in the laundry room.

More dining room pictures to come...James should have the light out and the chandelier up tonight. Then tomorrow I get to take out the frame and the paneling. And then comes the agonizing process of picking out paint. I hate picking paint...I want color, James wants off white, so I have to find something that makes us both happy.

At last...

Progress! The ceiling started coming down today!
I started doing this while James was outside playing with his new toys (an engine and an air compressor...he loves tax return time).
This is the top of the door between the dining room and living room. That is the lines from where the top trim piece was removed. And you can see it looks like the plaster was never painted under it, and that when it was removed the wall cracked. There is a crack in the same place above each door and window where the trim was removed. Obviously it didn't want to be removed.
This is our new chandelier. That's right...I won! James wanted a fan, I wanted a light. And I got it. Its not really what I wanted, but it works for now. It matches the house style and was in our price range ($35 at Menards).

A temporary solution

I was getting really tired of picking CD's up off the floor everytime we watched a movie (they were piled on the amp) so I did this...
I have had this bookcase since I was probably about 10 years old. It has always hung on the wall. Eventually, when the dining room is done, it will go back on the wall and hold pretty stuff again. For right now though I think its working well as media storage. And it got some of the candles off the end tables so now we may be able to actually use them again. James says its really ugly and wants to junk it or at least put it where it can't be seen. I told him absolutely not...even though he said please. As for the bookcase that was here, it found a new home...

Right around the corner in the dining room. For now an way. I really hate this bookcase. It looks cheap and doesn't look right any where I put it. But it has held up good...3 moves and still going strong. Not bad for $7.99 at K Mart, right? And yeah, that was the regular price. I bought it when I got my first apartment and never expected it to still be standing now (7 years later)

While this is working for now, I am looking into something more permanent to hold everything in one place. I just haven't found one yet that I like. And by hold everything in one place I mean this is only the over flow of stuff. There's more in the drawers of the entertainment stand and hidden on a rack in a corner. And I am also trying to find a new bookcase because this one isn't big enough. I have two boxes of books that just won't fit.

Short term ADD?

I am realizing that I am having some kind of home improvement ADD. I can't seem to finish one thing with out moving on to the next. Wednesday I got the front bedroom to a point where its about 75% cleaned up. All I have to do is finish 1 more box, clean the floor, and have James set up the bed. Well, I decided to do a load of laundry while taking a break before starting on that and ended up working on the laundry room! And then this weekend we are back to the dining room. I just can't seem to focus on one thing. Maybe because since I'm home all the time now I am realizing that there is so much more that needs to be done than I thought. Or maybe its because I'm being thrown off because I can't work on the dining room, which is the main priority right now. Hopefully Monday I'll be back on track with the dining room, and I won't have this problem any more. As long as James gets the ceiling done I can do everything else myself. And i have a new revised to-do list. Since I have found more things, I have decided to just start the list over.

Inside the Ceiling

Yesterday I posted a picture of the ceiling in the dining room and it didn't look too bad which gave me a lot of hope. Which quickly went away. After James got home yesterday he brought a ladder in and got up there to take a better look. He looked back down at me and said "How bout we just put the tiles back in place and act like there's nothing wrong?" That was not what I wanted to hear. So I got up on the ladder and this was the first thing that caught my eye...
The first words out of my mouth were not pretty or lady-like. Why did they do that? James said "come on lets just put the tiles back and act like its not there" Are you kidding me? And let the house burn down? I don't think so! The suspension part of the drop ceiling has made the entire ceiling look like this...
The cracks make huge squares in the ceiling. And where the screws are at there are nice holes where the plaster is crumbling around them. Great.
This is the whole space. You can kind of see the squares in the actual ceiling. I told James no band-aids, this ceiling is coming out. So thats the plan for the weekend. Since we're on a kind of tight budget I don't know when the actual ceiling will be repaired, or when the tops of the frames will be replaced (3 doors and 3 windows were all removed) but the drop will be removed and a new light fixture put in.

More dining room

I forgot...the walls look great underneath too!
And I got most of the carpet out last week.
That is water damage. A lot of it. I have no idea what its from, and I guess it doesn't really matter since its already done. The wood is still in great shape over all. Nice and solid, no creaking. We didn't want to sand the floor since its already been done once, but I think we may have to. I'm not sure how stain will go over that with out sanding. And there is still some of that nasty carpet left. I am unable to move furniture or lift anything heavy, so I cut the carpet out in small strips around the furniture.

Well, since I can't do anything else in there today, I'm going to work on the bedroom and get caught up on laundry. Since I'm not working I am slowly tearing the house apart room by room. Cleaning, decluttering, organizing...all that fun stuff. Actually its not fun at all, but it is nice to have the house neat. Unfortunately I have this problem that I hate housework, so it usually doesn't get done unless I have a reason. Don't get me wrong, I do the basics, but anything more usually just doesn't get done. So there were piles of clutter covered in dust, but not any more. I have the kitchen, dining room, living room, and bathroom done so far.

No Dining Room Today

The panel removal has come to a screeching halt for today because of this
That is the corner of the drop ceiling. You can see that the paneling goes into the ceiling. The problem here is that we we not going to remove that yet. I couldn't figure out why the panel wouldn't come off the wall so I had to get a step ladder and get up there and see (I can't look up long enough to tell what the problem was). When I saw this a long stream of dirty words followed. The dogs went running . It was so bad. The good news is this...
I held the camera up and took the picture blind, but it came out good. This is the actual ceiling. the reason we were not going to remove the drop yet was because we weren't sure how it looked up there. I'd say it looks pretty good from here. Granted, it is a small part but it gives me hope. So until I find out if James wants to go ahead and remove the drop ceiling, no panels will be coming down. Which makes me sad. I'm ready to get it done!

Change in plans

A quick update...while I have been torturing myself with paint colors, James said no paint. Instead we are going through with finishing the dining room first. Tearing down the paneling, drop ceiling, finally finishing the floor, all that fun stuff. And that is what I'm off to do now...I'll probably update once I find out whats under that paneling.


And mom...if you still want the paneling you need to tell me soon because we can only store it for so long. I hope to have it all down by the end of the week. If you don't want it or wait too long it'll make a nice fire :)

Interior Stain vs. Deck Stain

I came up with a crazy idea last week...using deck stain and seal indoors. I think this would be great, but I guess I'm the only one because I can't find anything about it anywhere. I would just do it, but safety wise I'm just not sure. Here's why we are considering it

Water resistant...it rains and snows here and wet shoes in the house are common. I also spill things and we have a puppy (meaning sometimes he has accidents)

Fade resistant....This room has 3 large windows and 3 doorways, which means a lot of sun

Scratch/scuff resistant...Things get dropped, our pets drag their toys (and the puppy drags his metal food bowl for the fun of it), they also have nails that have pretty much stripped our living room floor already from running though the house, and this room is really high traffic since its the center of the house

Mold resistant...I can't figure out how to fix it yet, but we have a mold issue. Its the biggest problem in the kitchen (if a dish gets left overnight its got mold by morning), but we'll be eating in this room and I'm really worried about it. Plus a previous renter had a big problem with it on floors and walls (we'll probably be using bathroom/kitchen paint on the walls in all rooms because of it)

But the interior stain I looked at says its scratch and fade resistant, I'm just not sure how good it really is. I got samples to try it out before we go all the way.

I got plenty of time to think about it though. I've been in a lot of pain here lately so all work has come to a screeching halt. The carpet has been laid back over the floor (not held down, just there) to protect the floor until I'm feeling better again. It sucks, but I can't really do anything about it.

Returned the card to its family

I can't remember if I have posted about this before or not, but our house was an estate sale. The previous owners were Leo and Cecelia Yochum. We bought the house from their children. One of their daughters and her husband lives 2 houses down from us and said if we ever have any questions, to ask and they would try to help. I took the playing card over there a couple of days ago (we thought it would be best to return it to the family...we figured it would mean more for them to have it than it would be for us to put it in a scrap book) and I had a great chat with them. I learned a lot about our house, and they are so nice. I told them we are restoring the dining room and found the card under the carpet and linoleum and they said it had to have been there for many years. The room was redone in the 60's. Her husband said that he remembers installing the drop ceiling and paneling and it was done to help with heating. They also said that the room had always been used as a living room, never a dining room, but it was meant to be a dining room. Before they renovated, the wall that is shared with the kitchen had cabinets that opened through on both sides (you could open the cabinets in both rooms and see through) They are going to try to find a picture of it so we might be able to replicate it again. I hope they can, or maybe we can figure it out when we remove the paneling from that wall. I would love to have that again. I learned a ton about our house, so much that I won't post it all at one time because it would be way too long. But it'll be coming. I also showed them the blog in case they are ever curious about something we're doing.

And a special note to the family...if you ever see any dates or anything that are wrong please feel free to leave a comment so I can correct it. Or you can comment on anything else. We are trying to keep things as acurate as possible, but mistakes do happen.

Thank God the House Didn't Burn!!

Is this that remodeling curse? You try to fix one thing and the whole room goes to hell? I think that's what happened here. All we wanted to do was refinish the floor and wait on everything else for a little bit...but nothing is really that easy is it?

I wanted to do was take a pic of the plaster and the outlet. I got down on the floor and noticed water. A lot of it. (This is from after I pulled off the paneling and a ton of paint) This is the up close picture. The picture does not do it justice. There is water dripping from the A/C unit...and that made the paneling soft, the plaster gooey, the paint bubble, and a puddle on the floor.
And we are lucky...the water was dripping on this outlet. You can't really tell, but the plastic over the wires is wet, along with the wall all around it. I think I may have saved our house from burning down! I originally wanted to take a picture of this because we discovered that the wiring was ran after the carpet was laid (see the gap?). There was a "premium tackless" strip under the outlet that was actually nailed directly under it.

Now I am really p.o.'d because I had to peel the paint off the baseboard and window sill because it had water trapped under it and I'm freaked out about mold. And the paneling had to go too. So now I have this really bad spot in the dining room. We hadn't planned on doing any stripping or removing the paneling just yet, due to a lack of money. And the fact that while it's not our taste, it didn't look that bad. We may just temporarily fix it for now. After the water dries.

For the record...this a/c unit was installed properly and was working great until sometime tonight. It was all dry this afternoon. (I know it was because we were looking at the previous water damage and talking about how we think it was from a window unit, and it was dry at that time) I don't know what happened to it...I'll let my hubby figure that out when he gets home from work.

I decided to post more about the dining room. Just a little heads up...a lot of this work won't be done for a while. I've seen a lot of people on here say they're on a "dime" budget, well were on a penny budget.
This is not the dining room. This is a corner in the living room. Every room has these spindles. Every single corner in every room has them. Except the dining room. In the PO's remudling they removed all of these from that room. I'm just glad they stopped there and didn't do the whole house.

This is one of 3 windows. Its the worst, by far. The paneling is buckling and it looks like there's water damage, but the plaster underneath (what I can see of it) appears to be in great shape. The previous owners chose to staple cardboard over plastic to insulate the windows. We ripped out the plastic to put the AC in. That little unit is all that we have for the entire house.
Does any one know what this is? I have no idea. It looks like it has a phone line running to it, but it doesn't look like any phone jack I've ever seen. We gotta find out what it is before removing it. And if it has a historical significance I don't want to remove it...although I would really just like to know what it is.

At some point the transom window and door were removed to the kitchen. And the tacky paneling was put up. And the drop ceiling with fluorescent lighting...very 70's vibe in here.
I feel sad about this. This is the only damaged door in the whole house. I guess one out of 10 isn't so bad. It looks like some one kicked through it. It was probably the same person that put the cracks in the formica walls in the bathroom, and the blood on the floor, and the Southern Comfort bottle in the back of the kitchen cabinet...I think its starting to come together. And I'm betting its from the short time period when this house was rented out, because the Yochums are so sweet I just don't see any one in that family doing any of that.

The plan is to remove the drop ceiling, paneling, and plastic on the windows. Strip all the paint off the woodwork, fix the damaged panel in the door, and I've already started on the carpet (see last post). If the plaster is in good shape we're going to keep it. If not, we're going to drywall. And reglaze the windows. The panes rattle like crazy so I think if we do this we might not need the plastic anymore. But like I said, we really don't have much of a budget so it's going to be a long work in progress. Unless we win the lottery. I just don't see that happening though!

Vacuum not working? Rip out the carpet!

OMG...what have I done?! OK so earlier tonight I vacuumed the dining room. Its the only room in our house that has carpet and we keep saying we're going to pull it out. Well the vacuum got really hot and wasn't sucking anything up so I checked it out and found enough fur to make an animal. That's nasty. Really, really nasty. I love our pets, but eeeewwwww! So I started tearing up the carpet. I called James first to make sure he wouldn't freak out about it. 2 hours later I'm now regretting it.
I found this under the nasty black stuff under the underpadding. Its the 9 of spades. Mrs. Yochum, the previous owner, loved cards. So much that its even mentioned in her obituary. I have had several people tell me that they played cards with her here. This is the only thing we have found in the house so far that has belonged to the Yochums. I think its kinda cool.

This was the start of the destruction of the carpet. That is the carpet, Mohawk underpadding, some nasty black stuff (whats there is all that I've found of it) and the bare floor. It looks like they stripped the floor before putting carpet over it. And if you look close you can see the floor is laid a different direction than the next room. The dining room and kitchen are laid this way and the other rooms are the other direction. I have no idea why.
See the beautiful unfinished hardwood? You gotta look around the adorable little dog. I did a little Redneck DIY...the tools I used were a Craftsman grill scraper, a pair of side cuts, hammer, carpet knife, and a Tupperware canister to hold the nails and staples. Not ideal, but got got it done. Now I have to wait for James to get home because I can't move any of the furniture. Not taking any chance of re-injuring myself. Oh...the cute little dog is our Shih-Tzu Socks. He was a wedding gift from a friend.

That's all I got for now...more to come though. By the way, does any one know what kind of wood that is? I have no idea. But I like that its already sanded...saves us a lot of money!

Renovation To-Do List

Here is a list of all the things I want to do to our house. Pending Knox County's decision on the tracks (see rant...I really don't want to explain again or I might cry) Anyway...here it is my top 20:

1. Pull carpet out of bathroom Done

2. Renovate bathroom...trade formica walls for drywall, tile, trade stand up shower for tub, etc.

3. Renovate kitchen, well kinda... I really don't want to gut it. Tear out linoleum, refinish floor, find a way to make the stove fit that not in front of a floor to ceiling window, and refinish cabinets...may have to be gutted after all

4.Renovate dining room...remove drop ceiling, cheap paneling, carpet, redo shotty electric, remove florescent light.

5. Redo plaster support wall in living room...plaster is in such bad shape I accidently hit it with my elbow and it crumbled, so now there's a small hole

6. Find replacment hardware for transom window in door to 2nd bedroom

7. Find the original attic opening...we think its in the dining room ceiling Done...Discovered there is no other opening, just the small square that doesn't fit the style of our house

8. Replace storm doors in front

9. Fix the original door bell...you push a button and it actually rings a bell on the other side how cool is that!

10. Refinish all floors

11. Move washer and dryer to basement Decided against because I can't open the trap door

12. Renovate the backporch which is now a laundry room and our main entry to the house, and is in such bad shape you could see outside in a couple of places (fixed that with a can of spray foam)

13. Fix morter in the brick foundation

14. Figure out why the front bedroom is so drafty...and fix it

15. Repair the back side of the barn, and the sides

16. Level the backyard where laterals were replaced (got first load of dirt) Added 3 more loads

17. Regravel the driveway (got a load of rock already)

19. Build an armoir style closet in 2nd bedroom that matches the one in Master bedroom

20. LEARN TO STOP PROCRASTINATING!!! My husband just call it being lazy!

By the way, I'm still working on pics...I haven't been able to find my memory card reader since I moved here and I need to get a new card so I don't download all 200 pics I have on my camera everytime I add a new pic. About ready to steal DH camera because our computer will read his card but not mine (damn smart media) and he hardly ever takes any pictures.