Keep It Moving

We’re moving right along to the indoor work, so we temporarily have less floor in the little bedroom. It was… let’s just say… in bad shape. We’re planning to install cork in here eventually, so we’ll be filling in with plywood. Not surprisingly, it’s not level:

I insulated a bit along the exterior with “rotten cotton” to prevent the chance of fire spreading along the outermost floor joists from the kitchen below:

Rob got started on the plumbing changes necessary for the new radiator install that will be piped in the wall instead of connecting at the floor. Unfortunately when he installed the pex at the old radiator he did a really good job so it was a two wrench job un-do it:

By the way he’s our super-bright new alley lights. This picture is taken at night. Don’t blind yourself:

And here’s a glimpse of the bed frame we brought back from the Poconos this weekend. It used to be a rope bed but was modified- so finding a mattress that fits correctly (they’re all made so deep now) will be a challenge… We’re up for it once we have a place to set it up:

MoMoMonday

Its Monday, again. Rob’s working on the window, and I’m helping when needed / filling in with little projects and practical stuff like laundry. Exciting! So here’s a bit of what’s happening outside the little bedroom. Window details:

The window, chillin in the hall:

A bulge of loose plaster in the hall, where there is a cast iron stack pipe behind the wall. I was able to pull the plaster in with our fave plaster washers in the areas to the left & right of the stack:

But in the end realized the only way to really fix it was to pull out the plaster and put a drywall patch in. Hence the new hole. Sigh.

I also cooked and cleaned some hinges which we may use for the orange bedroom closet, or not. But either way they’re clean now:

Window update soon!

Out with the Semi Old!

It was finally time to rip out the old replacement vinyl window (and the rioted wood which was attached to it!

There unfortunately was not much left of the original wood lintels, so they also needed to be replaced.

Here the outer wythe lintel goes in.

And all done with new pressure treated lumber. I hope these last for the next 100 years!

Treasure Hunting

Although our house has yet to reveal the hidden stash of gold coins I suspect are lurking in one of these walls, it does occasionally reveal some other “treasures” of sorts. This archeological wall-dig gave us quite a few surprise treasures. One being….

Wallpaper from the 1800′s! Apparently they didn’t know Laura’s laundry softener method of removing wallpaper so they furred out the entire wall, then lathed and plastered right over it all. It’s a surprisingly contemporary design for being 100+ years old, a light green-grey with squiggly lines and little leaves. Only a little bit survived behind the wall but we may try to press and frame what’s left.

Next up, slate shims. So bizarre. Lots of skinny pieces of slate (the 3rd floor slate mansard roof was first added in the 1900 renovation) were used between the wood window header and brick above. Here’s just one piece, nail holes and all. The rest of the slate we left in place until we take out the window for safety’s sake.

Last but not least, curly scripted handwriting on the original plaster-on-brick wall. Unfortunately even after staring for 10 minutes I couldn’t make out the message. CSI technology could possibly help.

I think it says, “If you can read this you ripped out my plaster-on-lath wall. Seriously, what’s up with that?”

So that’s the treasure. Definitely buried in a vertical sort-of-way. And here’s the bare wall. Most of the bricks on the left of the window are actually in great shape – at least compared to the right hand side which looks like someone gnawed at it. We think perhaps the masons mixed in some exterior grade brick on that side? Also, check out that double header?

Demo-lition

And you thought we were done. We. Can’t. Stop. Flash back to Irene, small bedroom, window leaking, blah blah. So we’re up to more of the same. Taking this semi- intact looking exterior wall:

And ripping yet more plaster & lath off of it.  The plaster in this room is the worst shape in the entire house.  I have no idea how many times it was patched and yet it was cracked/ looking worse for the wear.  We like plaster and try to keep it where practical but this is in terrible shape and the brick beyond is in disrepair and there’s no other way to get at it.  All the wood was water damaged and we can sorta see into our neighbors cornice.  Eeks.

Despite my bum leg, I (slowly) managed to climb up the scaffolding.  I had to forgo my patented plaster-demo-kick and my doctor told me that balancing on one leg on scaffolding while using a crowbar is not really recommended, so I let Rob help a little bit

The demo revealed some scary Halloween worthy items such as the fact the entire window and framing is held in place by spider webs.

Afterwards, we tossed the demo bags into the clean* alley thru the window.  Those “contractor-grade” bags hold up well!

So that was a fun 2 hours.  Next up: masonry work, frame wall furring, spray foam insulation… but mostly focused on installing that window before the temps drop too much!  Why are we always installing windows in the dark/ cold?  Just a handful here:

http://madisonsquare.wordpress.com/2010/09/30/wednesday-window/

http://madisonsquare.wordpress.com/2009/11/22/5pm-sunday-our-first-new-window-is-in/

http://madisonsquare.wordpress.com/2009/11/25/half-bath-window-installed/

 

*Clean – we spent our extra day-light savings hour sweeping the alley, so yes this is CLEAN!

Return In The Hall

I won’t even try to out-do Rob’s previous post title. We need a return from the hall to the HVAC equipment in the little bedroom soffit. Here’s the rectangular cut lines, above the door, ready to go:

Skip the messy cutting and straight to the exciting test fit:

We found this antique grille at one of our favorite architectural salvage places, Olde Good Things in Scranton last year. A little scrape/clean/ paint and it’ll be ready to install.

Hall Ceiling What???

Speaking of rework…

Kelly took on the fun task of taking down a section of the hall ceiling… Yes this is a new ceiling but we need to get to the ductwork to extend it to the face of the new closet.

We used lots of glue so the ceiling was solid… you can see how much fun Kelly is having!

Crooked No More

We had a door with a very crooked head/ door:

So we took the trim off:

Then sawzalled and vacummed and hammered that thing back into place:

Eventually we’ll fix the door and replace the trim.