Our New Old House

We had a very productive, very awesome morning with the two people we asked to give us quotes today.

First the electrician came and he was super professional, friendly, and really knew how to deal with our house. In fact, by the time I got in to work he had already emailed me a fully itemized quote, with everything we talked about on site, AND his total price for everything is exactly what we were hoping to budget for initially, right around $5,000. Of course, we have a little extra money available should unexpected things come up, but he seemed really confident in how smoothly this job would go. We will probably get a third electrical quote, just for good measure, but this guy has all but won the bid already.

The chimney sweeps came next at 9:30. There were two people, the person who owns the business and her assistant of seven years, who is also fully certified. They did their inspection and then we sat in the air conditioned living room to discuss our options. This company offered two solutions: 1.) insert a stainless steel liner through the chimney and get it working as a traditional fireplace, or 2.) install a wood burning stove insert with a lined chimney pipe for increased energy efficiency. There would only be a difference of a couple hundred dollars between the two choices, so after hearing all about the stove insert and how it works and all the options we have with it (it does have the option to look like a regular fireplace if you want that ambiance) we’re leaning toward that. Either way, the work will cost just under $4000, which is GREAT for our budget.

After everybody else left, Brandon and I went outside to measure for building our retaining wall planting beds on the south side of the house. I had forgotten my tape measure, but we found a yard stick inside left by the previous owner, so while Brandon walked the area measuring with the yard stick, I wrote down the measurements on a diagram. I’m going to take that information tonight and start drawing a (mostly) to scale diagram of how these will be laid out so we can plan for how much it’s going to cost.

It was so much fun going through everything with Brandon. He’s really caught the enthusiasm to get started now too.

(Excited squeal and happy dance!!!)

[tags]budget, chimney, contractors, electricity, fireplace, landscaping, retaining wall[/tags]

This week has felt really busy but I can’t for the life of me figure out what the hell I did besides work. I have been putting in a few hours of overtime this week to make up some of the scratch I overspent last weekend up at the lake.

Last night, however, I did go to the library and do a few searches in their catalog to get a feel for where info on my house and neighborhood might be. My house sits in sort of a black hole between neighborhoods, as far as historical information goes. It’s not technically close enough to Union Park to claim the Union Park neighborhood. It’s too far north to count as Capitol Park. The plat it’s on is part of the “Union Addition” but that’s pretty meaningless to me at this point. The houses in the area are very middle class, built between 1905 and 1945. I found a few books on general Des Moines history, but one book I found right before closing is exactly what I want to read. It’s called Historical Residential Architecture in Des Moines, 1905-1940. SCORE!!! Unfortunately, it’s in the closed stacks of the library so I can’t take it home with me and pore over it repeatedly. I’ll just have to be content to visit it in the library and take notes and copies of relevant information. But the book is so great because it focuses specifically on two house types: bungalows and four-squares. I’ll be sure to share the exciting bits!

Brandon and I have a plan for the first few days of ownership. Here’s how it goes, sing along if you know the words:

Friday, Aug. 17 we close escrow and take ownership. We immediately begin clawing at the walls and floors like frantic badgers, ripping out carpet, pulling down paneling, and generally causing mayhem and destruction.

Saturday, Aug. 18 we borrow someone’s pickup truck and haul away the heap of trash we will build on Friday. (More about waste removal in a minute.)

Sunday, Aug. 19 we do additional cleanup on the place and make bundles to put out on the curb for garbage pick up.

Monday, Aug. 20 my grandma will hire the cleaning ladies to wipe everything down and give it their best on the kitchen and bathroom.

Tuesday, Aug. 21 we’ll start the tiny bit of moving in that we’re going to do: a bed and a dresser. We’re basically going to just live in the front bedroom, since that room needs the least amount of work and we need the rest of the house clear to give space to work on the woodwork and walls and everything.

And so on and so on.

So, about the waste removal thing:

When we bought my grandparents’ house in Clear Lake it was left to us to clean out all of the stuff Grandma and Grandpa didn’t need to take with them to their assisted living apartment. This amounted to 25 years’ worth of accumulated odds and ends saved fastiduously by my depression-era grandparents. We had like, five garage sales and for whatever was left that we couldn’t sell or donate somewhere, we called the local garbage company and they brought us a dumpster to fill up. It was a nice industrial sized thing that they let us keep for about a week. I think it was like $30 for the dumpster delivery and pickup, and $15 to dump it if it was under a certain weight. So like $50 max when all was said and done.

Since I’m new to Des Moines I decided to call around to see what rubbish haulers charge for their services around here. The first place I called quoted me $270. The second place said $390. I began contemplating buying a 30 cent book of matches and just setting fire to the looming pile of garbage.

Then I had an epiphany. Well, I wish it was that dramatic. It was more that I just saw the answer staring me in the face after having looked at it for weeks and weeks. As I pulled my mom’s garbage can up from the curb, I realized I was probably calling the wrong people about getting my garbage hauled away. I needed to be calling the Metro Waste Authority. Or rather, I needed to Google them. Anyway, I found out that they sell $5 stickers that you can attach to bundles of carpet and other oversized items that don’t fit in the regular garbage cans. So that’s certainly an option for us. ALSO, the landfill east of town accepts pick-up truck loads of garbage for like $16-30. So that’s what we’re going to do.

Now, tonight I have plans with two coworkers of mine, my uncle, my uncle’s pick-up truck, and a brand new dolly that my husband is going to buy after work today. My small collection of friends, relatives, and tools are going to move the washer and dryer from my other uncle’s new house to my new old house. I’ll report later on whether my plan actually functioned as it was intended.

Next Tuesday we go another round with the contractors, this time getting a quote from a big name electrician and another chimney inspection for a second opinion.

[tags]carpet, chimney, contractors, dryer, electricity, fireplace, garbage, landfill, neighborhood history, paneling, washing machine[/tags]

I got to the house right at 8am and George, the electrician was already there. But my realtor wasn’t, so I called his cell and left him a message. I had a feeling this might happen. With his newborn son waking every few hours to eat, he and his wife haven’t been getting any sleep at all. The electricians were very patient and I finally got ahold of him and he said he’d be there in half an hour, he’d completely forgotten with all the craziness of having a new baby.

So they waited and we talked about everything about the house that I know and they gave me ideas about what the work will involve and everything. Once the realtor showed up and let us in they got to look around at everything. Here’s an overview of our discussion:

These older houses often have something called fireshield inside the walls behind the plaster and lathe. That means the walls are not hollow, in fact you have to drill through that stuff to fish wires through it. He’s not certain ours are like that, but it’s something they were putting in the construction of these old houses.

He measured the house to be about 1000 square feet, 1200 if you count the attic (which, incidentally, was exactly what I guessed!). And he’ll use that number to estimate how much wiring will be needed.

We talked about what it would take to put wiring up to the ceiling and run wiring for the existing ceiling lights. Because those all have knob and tube, they have to run it all through the ceiling, they can’t just fish it up through because there’s not a big enough hole for modern wire to go through. They’d have to cut notches in the joists to put the wire through. Regardless, we’re looking at ceiling patches and probably re-doing the texturing on the ceiling in the long run. If the crown molding is wood, the best solution may be to take that down so it can stay in one piece, strip the paint and texturing off it while it’s down, and once we fix up the ceiling, put it back.

The may be able to access the bedroom lights and the kitchen light through the attic crawl space, though.

The meter will have to be outside, probably right under the bathroom window. The circuit box will probably still be in its present location.

He agreed we should wire for 200 amps to prepare for a garage. I asked him about how to wire the kitchen and he said the garbage disposal and dishwasher go on one circuit, the countertops go on one, the fridge and stove go on one, and the lights may be on one with the lights of another room. That seemed to make good sense to me.

He wasn’t able to give me a firm bid today, but he’s going to get that to me tomorrow or the next day. He did generally ballpark it for me at around $7000, but I really want to wait to see what his actual bid is before I go with that number.

I learned a lot from Dan the fireplace inspector. He showed me all the specific problems with the fireplace and chimney. He had a diagram of the insides of the whole system and showed me how it all works. He recommended this kind of flue damper since ours is totally rusted out and it isn’t the best design for that to begin with.

I did get a firm bid from him with stuff specifically itemized. His bid was $5000 exactly for the whole job to make it a working fireplace. It takes about a week to get the whole chimney done and ready to use.

The tree service gave me a $400 bid to clean up all the trees close to the house and wires, clean off our roof, and haul away the cut debris. I told him I’d take care of the brush in the back and along the alley myself. I need a good excuse to buy a chainsaw anyway, and I know Brandon will LOVE that.

So that’s what we’re looking at right now. I did finally get everything done and then switched off the circuits and locked up the house. It took me just over half an hour to ride downtown, find a place to lock my bike, and get to work.

There’s just so much work that needs doing. I just want to get started already!

[tags]chimney, contractors, electricity, fireplace, trees[/tags]

And so it begins. The process of gathering estimates, collecting bids for work, and figuring out exactly how much this beast is going to cost is already starting to get overwhelming, and it’s only the first day! I wish I hadn’t left my super-organized binder at home. But I’ve gotten a LOT done today. Here’s a re-cap:

I got a phone call from my cousin Ryan, our realtor, at 7:30. I was brushing my teeth. We agreed to meet up at the house around 8:15 or 8:30 to meet the home inspector. Bill was already there poking his fingers in water spiggots and shining lights under the cupboards. I could tell right away that Bill knew what he was doing, so I followed him around and listened to his observations and recommendations. It was like he was a doctor checking all the vital signs of a very large animal. I learned a lot!

Steve, the contractor we’d also asked to come over arrived soon after and he followed me around the inside and outside of the house and took notes on what kinds of work we’d like him to do for us.

We didn’t get an electrician to come along like we’d hoped, but Bill and Steve made some general recommendations of what to ask for when the electrician does get to go through the property.

When I finally made it in to work, I found it really hard to shift gears from house-type work to actual work work. I wanted to jump right to the next step, scheduling more estimates and organizing my notes. I did get to spend a little time on that from work.

One of the big expenses we’ve expected from the start was the fireplace and chimney. As far as we know, it’s supposed to be a working fireplace. However, the part of the chimney that’s exposed outside is literally falling down. There are bricks sitting on top of the roof and gaping holes where they once fit into the chimney. Since I’ve never lived in a house that had a fireplace, I really don’t know what it’s going to take to just make basic repairs and then bring it up to code so it can be a working fireplace. So I called a family-owned chimney service called Chimney Crickets. (Great name!) I talked to a guy there for quite a while and he discussed three possibilities with me:

1. Restore it to being a traditional working fireplace
2. Retrofit it with a metal insert stove and run a stove pipe up the chimney
3. Seal off the chimney and give up on it being a working fireplace

For option one, the chimney needs to be sound (and if it’s not it may need to be rebuilt), it needs a clay lining, which it probably doesn’t have since it was built before 1927, and it needs a weather cap on the top.

For option two, we’d still have to fix the mortar at the top of the chimney and possibly rebuild the whole chimney if it’s too badly damaged.

For option three, well, we brick it up. I guess. I don’t want option three.

Regardless of which option we end up choosing, the thing needs a thorough inspection, so I’ve scheduled that for 8am Tuesday morning. Cost: $65. Then he’ll know for sure how much it’ll cost.

Since I’m already going to come in late to work that day, I also scheduled another electrician to meet me at the house that morning and give me an estimate. Bottom line, the whole house needs re-wired. Completely. We figured out that as it’s currently wired, we’re getting about 40 amps of service to the house. Considering that most houses these days use about 100 amps just for basic appliances, and 60 amps is considered pretty out of date and hokey, that’s pretty bad.

We’ve always expected that our biggest expenses will be the electricity, the chimney, and the kitchen. Those are the three big things I’m going to try to cover in the loan we’re getting with the mortgage. Everything else can either wait, or we can do ourselves. But I’m going to have to be figuring out how much all that other stuff is going to cost as well, so I’ve got some serious planning and window shopping to do.

Besides all that stuff today, I faxed the inspection report to my insurance agent and said a little prayer that he’ll deem the property insurable.

I have an evening ahead of me full of planning, making lists, and talking things over with Brandon. I anticipate it will feel very satisfying to see it all down on paper in my big notebook. And I know I will fall asleep absolutely exhausted today, from the sheer energy of thought I have exerted today.

[tags]chimney, contractors, electricity, fireplace[/tags]