Our New Old House

I’ve been so busy with other things that I forgot to write about replacing the storm windows.  We’ve decided to replace all the storm windows with high-efficiency storms and repair the interior sashes rather than replace them.  Someone from the Des Moines Rehabber’s Club recommended the Corn Belt Aluminum company so I got a quote from them and then took that quote and compared it to a quote put together at Lowe’s for what it would cost to install them ourselves.  Corn Belt with the installation and hauling away the old windows beat the Lowe’s quote hands down, and in my opinion had better windows. 

The total job is going to cost about $2800 to replace all 20 of our storm windows, including the porch, plus replace the old attic windows completely with new awning windows that actually vent all the way.  We’ve paid the $1400 advance payment and they’ve given us a 3-4 week lead time to manufacture the windows (here in Des Moines!) and schedule the work.  I’m so excited!  And I gotta say, it feels good to be going with a local company.  They’ve been completely professional and helpful all along the way, including letting us try out all the features of their windows in their showroom. 

 I’ll come back with more on this in a month or so when the work begins!

[tags]storm windows, windows, budget, Des Moines Rehabbers Club, future plans[/tags]

Alright, so I’m a bum and we didn’t go to the Union Park Neighborhood Association meeting Tuesday.  Just too much going on this week and Brandon and I needed a dinner and evening at home together. 

Part of what’s got us so busy this week is that we’re gathering quotes to replace our furnace and add A/C. We were planning to wait until the weather warmed up to replace our furnace.  No, I lie.  We were putting off replacing our furnace indefinitely.  But an ad we received in the mail for a local company reminded us that it’s the off season for purchasing a new furnace, so we’d probably get a better deal doing it sooner than later. 

We called the company in the ad, Leechman Heating and Cooling, a Service Master company, to come over and give us a “comfort assessment.”  He had a worksheet to fill out that asked about what’s comfortable about our house, what’s uncomfortable, and what we’re looking for as solutions.  He measured all the rooms, walked through the house recommending new supplies and changing around returns in most of the rooms, checked out our existing unit for us, and took all this information back with him to his company.  We scheduled a time for him to come back this week and discuss what he put together for us, so he came back last night. 

He came back with two options.  One with a heat pump, a 92% Amana Distinction furnace, a builder’s model humidifier, and added duct-work in our house is $7891.  The other with a 92% Amana Distinction furnace, a 14 SEER A/C and a builder’s model humidifier (plus additional duct-work) is $6824.00. 

 Both options include a really good warranty, and their own company’s service warranty is included with the installation.  Also, they provide a digital, programmable thermostat.

We’re getting two other quotes from two other smaller, more independent companies later this week/early next week. 

 One of the big questions I have for the other two people coming to look at our house is whether the additional duct-work and supplies/returns are really necessary or all that beneficial.  Another is about heat pumps vs. air conditioners. 

I’d welcome any advice, links, or wisdom from my readers on this topic (as always!)  Leave me a comment or email me at kelli@ournewoldhouse.com.

[tags]Amana, furnace, air conditioner, air conditioning, thermostat, budget, future plans, duct, heating, HVAC[/tags]

Day two and amazingly our team came back! Craig must be a glutton for punishment, because he stuck with us at the house from 9am to just after 5pm! I could barely keep up with him!

I started my day at 7:30, which was admittedly difficult after being at the house until just after midnight the night before. I got to the house at 8:15 and had a few moments to just stand in the middle of everything in the daylight and accept the challenge. I got to walk through the rooms and touch the walls that are now MY walls, and scuff the carpet padding on the floors that are now MY floors. I appreciated how the sunlight comes through the windows in the front bedroom, and further confirmed that that will be OUR bedroom.

I decided to go get some coffee to get me fueled for the work ahead of me, so I walked the three blocks to the little coffeeshop in the neighborhood. And guess who I met there! Mom and Craig were just finishing up their breakfast of waffles and eggs. Maybe that was Craig’s secret to his unstoppable energy! Gotta buy me some waffles!

They paid their check while my order was in for a couple of breakfast sandwiches for me and Brandon to eat at the house so they headed back to the house.

When I got back, Craig was already setting up the saw horses we borrowed from Mom’s house. He put me to work (Yes, HE put ME to work.) pulling nails from the paneling Brandon and I had finished taking off the night before. Between the two of us we pulled all the nails and stacked the paneling in two piles, one that was small enough to fit in his burning bin on his rural property, and one that would need to be cut.

Brandon was still in bed back at Mom’s house and I found out later when he did arrive that the tetanus shot he’d gotten the day before made him kind of sick overnight. He was feverish and needed a little more rest, but he felt fine when he arrived around noon.

By the time Brandon arrived, Craig and I had all the paneling cut and stacked in Craig’s truck. I couldn’t believe it!

Here’s our pile of garbage before cutting down the paneling:

Here’s all the paneling in the back of Craig’s truck:

Here’s a photo that illustrates exactly how I feel about paneling:

When we were done with that, Brandon arrived, very well rested, just in time for lunch! Grandma had set up food for us down the street. We visited with Grandpa and ate yummy tostadas, fideo, and Mexican rice. It was tempting to stay there in the air conditioning, but Craig was getting restless to get back to work (I know! Right?) so we trooped back down the street.

When we arrived back, Craig gathered an armful of brooms, shovels, and buckets, and burrowed down into the basement. We wouldn’t see him emerge until nearly 5:00 later that evening.

Meanwhile, Brandon and I made a long overdue trip to the hardware store. We placed an order for a fridge and a dishwasher. They’ll be delivered on Monday afternoon. Here’s a list of what else we bought:

• new latch for the front storm door
• screen guard for front storm door
• floor lamp for the living room
• 5″ random orbital sander
• razor blade utility scrapers
• scouring pads
• rubber gloves
• compact flourescent lightbulbs
• portable radio

When we got back, Craig was away hauling buckets of dirt and debris that he scooped out of our basement. Mom has a decorative pond in her back yard that she’s been wanting to fill in, so that’s where the dirt went.

While Brandon figured out how to get the last two stubborn pieces of paneling out from over the bookshelves…

I started tackling the weird carpet padding that was left behind in the living room, dining room, and hallway. The carpeting had been laid in the late sixties or early seventies. It was a professional job, but the padding underneath has the inconvenient quality of becoming some kind of rock hard material that has adhered to the hardwood. Craig has a lifesaving tool that pulls staples, so I started pulling staples so I could start figuring out the safest way to remove this crumbly, chalky stuff without damaging the hardwood underneath.
Here’s the padding after I pulled off the cloth-like fiber layer:

There’s a crud-covered staple on the end of that tool that I’m about to pull out (gently!).

This stuff is NOT going to go quietly.

But the sander seems to be taking care of it. I’m going to put a coarser pad on next time, but this will be a good way to get rid of this crazy stuff.

I know, the mask and goggles work better when they’re on my FACE, but I was just demonstrating for this photo. I was fully protected for the actual work. I promise.

We have a plan for this afternoon to just keep plugging away at it to try to make it mostly livable. I took a little break to dream about how warm and comfortable our living room will be when it’s done.

See you next time with even more updates!

[tags]carpet, future plans, paneling, photos, power tools[/tags]

Since we’re going to be so busy the rest of this summer working on our new old house, Brandon and I made it a point to go up to Clear Lake this weekend and work on our other house. We did some outdoor jobs that we’ve been putting off too long. Brandon mowed the grass while I went to the hardware store (more about that later), and when I got back he had borrowed a neighbor’s tree trimmer (sawblade on the end of a LONG pole) and was cutting away the branches that were brushing the roof. I changed my clothes and got on the roof to help. He gave me the lopping shears and I snipped off everything I could reach. Then he handed me a big broom and I swept the whole roof. Our neighbors on two sides have really dirty trees that drop two sets of leaves every year, PLUS these little peppercorn-like seeds that act just like ball bearings under your feet when you’re trying to walk around on the roof. Yeah, I was taking my life into my hands, no doubt about it. But after I got the roof swept off I put on my rubber-coated gloves and cleaned out the three inch layer of mosquito-infested compost that had built up in our gutters over the course of the summer. Amazingly, I escaped with only one mosquito bite on my whole body, and it’s on the knuckle of my right pointer finger. All in all it was a very productive and exhausting day, but we did get to go swimming so that made it all feel a little like a vacation.

My trip to the hardware store had two purposes: to buy some things we actually need, and to scope out prices and plan for future projects.

Here’s the stuff I put on my list to buy:

• latex gloves
• a gallon of kilz
• a couple new brushes (since the foam ones I used last time have since bit the dust)
• a face mask
• furnace filter
• protective eye goggles

I got all those things.

More importantly, I did some planning for future projects. Here’s what I came up with:

We want to remove the countertop sink in the bathroom and replace it with a pedestal. I found a really lovely one for about $60. Faucets tend to cost between $40 and $60, so I’ll budget for $60. That doesn’t include any additional plumbing hardware we’ll need to connect it with, so I guess I’ll add $30 for that and come up with a total sink replacement budget of $150.

We need to buy a refrigerator. Menards had a 10 cubic foot self defrosting fridge/freezer for $309. We were hoping to spend no more than $400 for a fridge, so that’s probably what we’ll go with. I had hoped to buy an Energy Star appliance, for the tax break, but they only had one at Menards and it was around $600. This one only uses 386 kwh per year, though, so it’s not like it’s an energy hog.

We can borrow most of the power tools we’ll need from friends and family, but we wanted to see what it would cost to buy them anyway, because it’s always nice to have your own tools.

I found two circular saws that I liked and that were in my price range. One was a Tool Shop brand. It was $23.66, a nice compact size, and had all the standard features. I found a Skil one at Sears, though, and it felt more balanced in my hand. It costs $39.99. They had a Craftsman saw at Sears that I picked up but it just felt awful. All the weight was in the back and it felt really bottom-heavy. It was also $39.99 on sale.

The Skil reciprocating saw was $54.99 on sale, but the Masterforce, which comes with an actual hard case rather than a canvas carrying bag was $64.00 regular price, so I’d probably go with the Masterforce. Everything about them other than that was the same, except I like the pivot foot on the Masterforce better.

I wanted to see what a chainsaw would cost, so I looked at the 14″ ones, both gas and electric. I was really surprised by the difference in price between the gas and electric. Gas was $109 and electric was only $34.99. The electric one at Sears was $59.99. I don’t actually plan on buying one very soon. We already have an offer from my mom’s boyfriend to use his next week.

The big project I’m going to work on planning for is the retaining walls and planters to fix our erosion problem on the side of the house. I still haven’t measured for how big these retaining walls are going to be, but I got prices per unit for all the supplies we’ll need, so once I have measured we can figure out how much it will cost. Here’s a list of supplies I will need for the project (and the prices I gathered today):

• Paver base (50 lb. bag – $2.38)
• Pea gravel (50 lb. bag – $2.39)
• Retaining wall bricks (88 cents each)
• Top soil (40 lb. bag – $1.14)
• Flagstones ($1.44 each)

So, the plan as I see it in my head, having never done this before, is this:

1. Measure the area to build the walls
2. Add up how much of the supplies I’ll need
3. Buy the supplies I’ll need, plus extras
4. Put the first layer of bricks together so they fit properly
5. Mark the final layout where the walls will go
6. Dig a swath for the base layer of bricks
7. Pour paver base into the swath and tamp it down
8. Build the brick wall
9. Put a layer of pea gravel inside the planting area
10. Put a layer of top soil inside the planting area
11. Put some plastic edging strips at each end of the pathway between the two planting beds
12. Level the ground and put down paver base
13. Lay flagstones to make a path
14. Pour pea gravel around the flagstones and up to the walls to fill in the rest of the space
15. Plant hostas and other shade loving plants in the planter beds

At least that’s the plan as it appears to me in my current state of being under the influence of a valerian root sleeping pill. We’ll see how coherent all this looks to me in the morning.

[tags]budget, Clear Lake house, future plans, gutters, power tools, retaining wall, trees, yardwork[/tags]