This old House

“Probably some kids walking around the build-site before your house was put up.”

“Ruby, that actually sounds familiar to me.”

“If you think of where you might have heard it, Treebait, let me know. I told my dad about it. He surmises that some laborer who was building this house back in 1912 just wrote a little ditty about his finger.


Here's a pic:

”

“Here is a progression of the work done in the basement. The pictures were all taken from roughly the same vantage point.


I don't have an initial picture of the basement when the boiler was still in place.



In this picture, the boiler has been removed already:





Next, the walls were painted over the weekend the TTers were here. Also, the chimney was removed by my pastor and guys from my church:





Now the temporary supports were built and the main wood beams and columns have been removed. You can see the 10" steel I-beam on the floor ready to be lifted into place.





Here, the steel beam has been lifted into place. There will no longer be a need for columns, so I have a 26-foot span of open floor. Eventually, we will be able to finish the basement.
”

“Nothing on the second part but a google search of "The world is round and has no end" leads to this rather interesting page: http://digital-log.hfg-karlsruhe.de/combinatoria/archives/000200.html

and YouTube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rp2iyK1Mh7Y


Curiouser and curiouser...”

“that's coincidence”

“V, I saw that stuff on nomadic lies. Weird!!!!!!!!!!!!”

“Great pics ruby, your basement looks way larger than it did when I first saw it. Glad to hear that it going so well.....”

“I'm finally doing something other than knocking out walls in the early stages of my whole house renovation. This weekend, while on the other side of state, we built a laminate beam of 8 12ft 2 x 6's. Why was it built 175 miles from where it will be used? Because that's where the planer and the labor pool (muscle) is. This coming Friday we will jury rig my trailer and haul it home. Then comes the problem, getting the durn thing up.

This seems like an opportune time to ask advice. The labor pool for getting this behemoth into place are two men, 63and 37 years respectively. I think you can see the problem. Is there a contraption that can be rented that will make installing the beam a little easier and safer? We've brainstormed this with a twelve pack and have come up with some "pretty good" ideas, but none that we are convinced is the ticket. Help.”

“OK...I am so so dense...I thought you said you were on the other side of NC...don't ask!

UUUmmmm that contraption sounds scarey!”

“many rental shops have portable handcrank mini-fork lifts. They go about 12ft high and are very stable and easy to operate. Not terribly difficult to move the lift but it'd be work.

*edit



http://www.handtrucks.com/material-lifts/hand-crank-winch-lifts/geniegl8materiallift.cfm#navbar=a
last edited: 2/17/08 3:35:08 PM”

“Thanks, Birch. That's what I was looking for. Getting it up the hill with the snow will be as much fun as carrying the beam. We will get it done, though.”

“no prob nimble, I wish I could be there to help. By help I mean drink your beer and laugh as you guys struggle...good luck.”

“Were you here, would you have been willing to dial 911 when the beam ended up on our heads?”

“yes”

“Here's a new one.

I'm thinking of not putting in a tongue and groove floor, but just regular old fashioned pine planks like when I was a kid. Why? Well, money for one, but also this is just an old farmhouse and there's something about not making a silk purse out of a pigs ass that appeals to me. I can get 'em at a thousand different local mills for around $1.00 to $1.25 sq ft. I might lightly stain them, but doubt that I'd do any finishing. What do y'all think?”

“Plank floors are a royal pain in the butt. DO at least seal the wood or it will look terrible from the stains that are inevitable...”

“Depending on the quality of the planing and shaping at the mill you can get into a lot of sanding in place to get a smooth floor. (Rented floor sander and a lot of time and elbow grease) Splinters under the fingernails were WWII torture. I would venture a guess that one under a toe nail from a uneven floor joint would be just as bad. Kiln dried is a must or there is a good chance of warping. I am assuming you are on joists above dirt...What are the conditions under the house. Damp is bad if you want wood floors.
I had dogs on a pine floor and it was soft enough that their nails left indentations.”

“Remodeling an old house is an awesome undertaking. It is very educational and rewarding. The one I worked on had a lot of character when we got done. Actually, I do not think you ever get done, you finally just settle and give up :)

Good Luck and have fun with the project.”

“It's an old farmhouse built in 1930. Everything will be redone, inside and out. The basement is amazingly dry. I just constructed a laminate beam that will enable me to knock out a wall and create some nice space. I'm expanding the downstairs bathroom and adding a tile shower, plus I'm going to put in an upstairs bath and add a dormer. I'll also knock out a load bearing wall upstairs and double the size of one of the dinky bedrooms. I'm not the handiest of people, but I can generally read directions and have some pretty good advisors. Got nuthin much else to do, especially in the winter:)”

“I have pine floors. They scratch easily but I wasn't about ready to get rid of 100 year old wood. The lines in the woods are amazing. I know my folks' old Victorian place, they actually used a boat sealer (can't remember the name but can find out) to seal the floors 30 years ago. It's like glass, complete with the summer moths that are embeded in some of the corners.”

“Rosey, please find out.”

“Perhaps it's spar varnish. High gloss and very durable.”

“Spar varnish for sure, but be careful. When a floor coated with that stuff gets wet, it's very slick.”

“I grew up in a house with plain plank floors - we just painted them brown or grey where the rugs/lenoleum didn't cover them”

“Yeah, HOI, there's brown, gray and even black on these floors. I'm trying to avoid that look if possible:) I'll likely drive over to Red Oak Lumber and talk to Steve in a little while. I've thought about cutting and milling my own lumber, but don't want to wait a year for it to dry. I may do that with some decorative beams and posts.”

“Yup. Confirmed it. Spar finish.

Is it hard to obtain?”

“Shouldn't be difficult to find.”

“Just got an estimate for refinishing my pine floors upstairs. Good price at $1.75 sq ft. Sanded and 2 coats poly. Gotta do it soon so we can build the nursery.”

“You should get at least 3 coats of oil based and 4 or 5 of water based poly.”

“thats a lot of poly.”

“Spar varnish should be not a big deal to get. You should be able to find it at the local hardware/paint store. If not, check boating stores. There is always the internet too.”

“I ordered the lumber for my flooring yesterday. No tongue and groove, but it is pine with an "overlap" edge. Rather than go with all the spar and poly finishes, I may try danish oil, a nice matte finish. Anyone know anything about it?”

“Nope.
Is it made from real Danes?”

“Do real Danes eat quiche?”

“synthetic”

“We installed the 12 ft beam this past weekend. It was made of 8 2 x 6's laminated together. I rented a sheet rock "lifter" to get it up to about he last 6 inches. From that point it was muscle (not mine). The operation went remarkably easy. I put three coast of natural colored danish oil on it and thus far two coats of satin poly, with one more to go. We also built the exterior wall for the expanded bathroom, at least until we ran out of 2 x 4's. It's intersting how you can sort of see what to do next once a portion of the project is done.

I also decided to add a 2 window dormer on the back (north) side of the house to match that on the front. This will allow me to add a full bath up stairs.

The downstairs walls, dining room and l/r will be knotty pine wainscoting with sheet rock on top.”

“Nimble...do you have photos of the transformation?”

“Dang, you've been busy! Glad the beam didn't fall on anyone and I hope the beer was good. =)”

“In the past couple of days we've sheetrocked, taped and mudded the "den" (it seems I have to call that room something), got it wired and outlets are in place. We also got the subfloor down and are awaiting the flooring, which should be ready tomorrow. The project will slow as I apply danish oil to the individual planks, prior to putting them in place. Why? Because I have a cat and don't want footprints on everything:) I may change my mind about how I do this.

We also framed in the door for the expanded downstairs bathroom, but can't do anything on that until we create a bathroom upstairs, which can't be done until we make a big dormer on the north end of the house...which is entirely weather dependant. It may be awhile...

I forgot, we also framed in a large window in the den. This will overlook a huge white oak, down the steep slope, past the trout stream and beyond. I really need to get one window that opens so I could actually hunt from my recliner whilst seated in the den:)

We selected tile and wall colors for the kitchen, dining room and den while at Home Depot. Thank God my daughter is an artist:) She's going to make me some personalized small tiles to go in the bathroom. I think a marijuana leaf would be nice. The idea of eventually selling it to a retired Fed brings a smile to my face:)

That's it for now. I'll try to figure out how to do the picture thing and get some stuff posted. This is too big an undertaking to even describe all that's being done. Everything, basically, but we're just approaching it one little step at a time.”

“Sheet rocking and mudding was complete in the living room. This weekend we applied the texture and painted the walls and ceilings. We got two coats of paint on the walls and ceiling at the rate of about two beers per person, so it was really pretty quick. Today I rip the carpet out of what will be the dining room and start prepping those walls for texture. Once the dining room is painted out, we can start laying the floor.”

“The subfloor is installed in the dining area, save for screwing it down. Cooler though, was winning $1000 at the casino and immediately buying tile for the kitchen and bathroom and upgrading the living room and dining area floor from pine to black ash. I just returned from the mill with 330 sq ft of t & g, end matched, microbeveled black ash. The grain is absolutely stunning and I'm really committed to not screwing it up, lol. Pray for me.”

“The MacNaughton House that I posted earlier in this thread is going to be receiving a preservation award.”

“Cool.”

“Nice job zac!

Did anyone see the latest "This Old House" online?

My community is ranked in the best categories for: Families with Kids, First-Time Homebuyers, Art Lovers, Queen Anne's & the Midwest - link

Check to see if your town is in there!”

“Is that why you never leave to come up here?”

“lol - that and all the black flies buzzin' around UP there!”