Coolant leak! We got a coolant leak! Get those people out of there!

So the sink in one of my bathrooms has only dispensed hot water since I got the house. I had planned to delve into that minor problem at a later date, like maybe after the rest of the place was put back together.

Well apparently it couldn't wait, The Glove and I were in the laundry room cleaning some paint brushes when I discovered a small waterfall running down the wall below/adjacent to the bathroom in question.

After a few choice words I sprung into action. The water main was right there so I went ahead and turned that off, then I got a bucket under the waterfall and went upstairs and turned the water supplies to the sink in question off. Sure enough, without provocation the faucet itself had started hemorrhaging water onto the bathroom countertop. it then ran into the less-than-sealed edge of the countertop and down the wall. Some had even begun to collect in between the drywall and the paint, forming a goofy looking pouch of water on the wall.


Yes, I remembered to grab my camera as I thought to myself, "This is the meat and potatoes of a good blog entry!"

After all the water was contained or collecting in buckets I ran out to True Value Hardware just down the street, They had a pretty limited and expensive bathroom sink selection, so I bought some silicone caulk and headed to Menards where I found a large selection of cool bathroom sinks I couldn't afford and a couple decent ones that I could. I also picked up a box fan to expedite the drying of my walls.

I got back home and started dismantling the old faucet only to find dated hardware connections, I thought it'd be best to get some of that flex-hose I'm more familiar with.

I had family dinner plans up in Maplewood (Acapulco) so I stopped at the Home Depot on my way back home. Now, if you've been paying attention I don't even need to mention that I pulled off a trifecta of hardware stores on this single project. I don't really think it's a good thing, but I thought it was worth mentioning. And if you were wondering, Menards is the better store (something I've known since before being a homeowner, but has held true since).

Anyway, I got my flex-hose and assembled the new sink.

If that's moving up then I'm moving out.

I closed on N.Q.Xanadu 29 days ago but today is officially moving day for me.

I've tried to move what I could when I could from the Parkside throughout this past month and at the same time get whatever I could done at the house so I could actually live here. I'd give myself an A for Effort, but probably a C+ at best for being ready to move in.

The main-floor bedrooms are completely livable ('done' is a strong word) as is the basement. The rest of the house is still a construction zone though.

If I had another two-weeks I think I'd be a lot more prepared. The kitchen is very close to being re-assembled, which with clear out the living/dining room area again. Then I'll be able to tile around all of the cabinets and the entryway while I'm at it. Then I'll be able to get the carpet installed around all the new tile...and of course that whole room with have painted itself during that time as well...maybe another three-weeks would have been better.

Smells like paint in here

Ever wonder how well photoshopping different colors on pictures of your rooms works as a preview to how it's actually going to look? Well that's one of the many, or few, things you might learn in today's entry.

I've taken a small break (relative word) from the kitchen in anticipation of not quite finishing it before I move-in (also relative) anyway. Instead, what I can finish before I move in full-time is the bedrooms on the main level, since all they really need is fresh paint and an average amount of floor cleaning.

As nice as sleeping on the love-sac in the basement is, I'm looking forward to a real bed in a real bedroom.

Temporary Uncomfortable Bedroom

I'm not an interior decorator, I can barely dress myself to go somewhere nice. And unfortunately my girlfriend is in California for six-months. (In fact, that's half the reason this blog exists, to keep her updated) So I told her I needed some color ideas and she e-mailed me some pictures with colors she thought would work.

She liked the spots she circled on the moth and the blue/purple flowers

So being the photoshop hobbyist I am, I took some pictures of my rooms and virtually painted my walls and sent them back to Deborah so we could discuss.

Photoshopped

Then of course I went to the store after work a few days later and couldn't really remember the colors we had been discussing specifically, so I just picked out something that I thought looked good. For the Master Bedroom (pictured above) I used a reddish/brown called Ancient Copper or something like that and for the 2nd Bedroom/Office I went with a blue/green that I liked.

Master Bedroom Before and After

2nd Bedroom/Office Before and After

I had been planning on getting lots of help for my painting, but when I came right down to it I decided to do these two rooms myself. I still have plenty more to do though. I used painter's tape on pretty much everything except the ceiling because I didn't think it would work very well with the textured ceiling. Years of cutting edges poorly while painting at work came in handy as I slowly-carefully edged the ceiling with a 2" brush. I'm pretty happy with how it worked out, the ceilings are all still white.

Of course I didn't get any pictures with the ceiling cut/edged, but as you can see on the lower one, I'm amazing.

The next big painting project will probably be the living/dining room. My mom came up with a two-tone idea that I like and Deborah came up with another color that I actually like quite a bit, French Blue.

Idea for living/dining room (Deb's inspiration top/photoshopped bottom)

And finally, here's a random picture of my huge garage filled with an even huge-er mess.

And here's some before and after videos of my painting projects even though the pictures did a pretty good job...cause I like videos.

The Sub-Floor is Screwed...Literally.

I finally got another night to work on the house the other night. Happy to say the first layer of sub-floor is installed. The piece of plywood that I cut to fit around the wall and then under the wall by the stairs fit better than I ever expected.

How about a round of applause for the nice cut!

Two tubes of PL-200 construction adhesive and a million screws later those babies were solid.

New floor already getting filthy

The Glove came over and helped me finish tearing out the kitchen wall, but became timid when I pulled out the circular saw to make the edge where the old will meet the new.

Didn't destroy plumbingDidn't destroy electrical/kill self
Of course it worked brilliantly and I neither electrocuted myself, ruined my plumbing, or destroyed the circular saw. I call it a success. The wall is ready for it's new addition, just need to cut the new piece down a little and make some holes for plumbing/electric.

If this weekend is at all productive I should have a kitchen sink again early next week! Which is nice because maybe I'll stop drinking so much pop. My fridge right now has eight things of pop, three big bags of cookies (from both my mom and Deb Stigen), some brats, and two bottles of mustard for some reason. I don't even like mustard.
Remember the terrible grease stains on the wall/cabinets/ceiling/EVERYWHERE above where the stove was?
Well I spent about a half-hour scrubbing it with degreaser tonight and this was the best I could do.
I guess I need some stronger stuff.

Kitchen Floor Dismantling: Complete?

So I've begun putting new flooring in, that means I'm half-done, right?...yeah. Unfortunately it probably doesn't even mean I'm done tearing out old stuff.

It's been quite an experience so far though. Thoroughly educational. I know it may not seem like it with the sheer professionalism of the work being done, but I have absolutely no experience with floors, walls, subfloors, joists, kitchens, etc.

I have plenty of basic remodeling and plumbing experience from working winters on the boats. The big difference is that the boats are all made of steel, steel floors, steel overheads, steel bulkheads (or walls), you get the idea. So boy was I confused when I ripped up the floor in the kitchen and found all this wood. What on earth were they thinking, no wonder the old dishwasher did so much damage.

Proof for some of you that Karl still exists

Anyway, with a little help from my friends the wood finish-floor is entirely removed, as well as the entire middle layer of flooring which was 5/8" particle board. The finish floor came up much easier with the prybar than with just a hammer like I demonstrated in a video in a previous entry...

Particle board on top half, plywood sub-floor under garbage cans

I took up the middle layer because I plan on tiling the kitchen at the end of this project and I've been told I need this other stuff instead. Once it was all up the water stained sub-floor really stood out.

See

Obviously, that hole was going to have to get bigger. With the help of Lil' Davey, some precision skill-sawing by yours truly, and some sweet dual-prybar action, we made it happen.

Out of necessity, the floor project has also become, to a lesser extent, the wall project.Yes, Lil' Davey does all the work while I just take pictures

Soon we had a pretty respectable looking hole. I decided taking whole pieces of the sub-floor out was probably the smart move, rather than trying to custom fit a partial piece onto half of a joist...See, I'm not a carpenter.

Whole piece of plywood will fit on left side of hole

I still will have to cut down a second sheet to fit around the right side/wall/top of stairs.

Watch your step!

As of right now I've laid the full sheet in, just so people have something to walk on, but it's not glued and screwed yet.
The old sub-floor ran right under the wall, I removed it as best I can, but I just don't think there's any getting it out from under that wall. I don't dare even try really. It was tricky enough just trying to cut it out around the wall.

This is a particularly nasty angle, it's really not so bad.

I did manage to get it up at the seam that was under the faux-brick wall along the staircase, leaving some hard to get to nails for me to remove.

Hard-to-get-to nails wedged between wall and joist

After imagining some tools I didn't have to get the nails out, I considered what I did have. A flathead screwdriver to bend the nail, and a masterful use of all three nail-removing parts of the prybar did the job (without breaking a single nail somehow).

I'm working quite a bit this week but I've still set some pretty ambitious goals for the house. I'm moving in full-time at the end of July whether the house is ready for me or not. So I hope to be ready to paint and tile by next week. Which means I have to finish the sub-floor, get the tile under-layer installed, replace the section of the wall in the kitchen, get the rest of the wallpaper stripped off the bathroom walls, and spackle/sand the rest of the living/dining room...I'm not very encouraged having typed all that out...but with that being said, if you're any good at any of those things and would like to help, give me a call.

The second piece of the new sub-floor

Here's a random video of David steeeruggling with the prybar on a thin piece of drywall, eventually getting a very mediocre piece broken off...Maybe it just makes me laugh because I've spent so much time in that room lately:

Parkside

Mr. Original Beard and I have lived in our Apartment, The Parkside 205, for about two and a half years. Even with a discount, it's a little on the pricey side, but it's less than a mile from work and it's absolutely beautiful.

It was designed by Cass "I designed the Minnesota State Capitol" Gilbert and built in 1886. Featuring 14-ft. exposed-wood ceilings and enormous arched-windows overlooking Mears park.
Our two-bed two-bath unit sits on top of a couple small office-spaces and next to/under, for a large portion of our time here, vacant units. No noisy or annoyed neighbors to worry about for the most part.
Why would I ever move from here into a rotten-floored, smelly old house?

There's really only one answer for that...it's just time.

I'm spending the night back at the Parkside for the first time in about a week and apparently we did get some new neighbors above us, and they do like really loud music at 2 in the morning, holy jeeze. They seem to be playing their alt-rock 90's playlist, it's borderline right-up-my-alley, but they seem to also be A.D.D. cause they can't let a single song play through it's entirety.

N.Q.Xanadu (the house) is on it's own this weekend while this guy crashes here at the Parkside so I can work my doubles this weekend to pay for all this stuff that's going on. I did Prune some trees in the backyard this morning before work, in case anyone is wondering what they're missing at the homestead. Exciting stuff.

I'm going to try and organize all the pictures I've been taking to make updating this blog a little easier on me, I keep kicking myself for missing photo opportunities of all the exciting stuff, like tree-pruning and cabinet lifting. What a video those could've made!

Seriously though, that is pretty much the premise of this blog, so get over it.

Peace out.

Here's a random picture of me pretending to spin the paddlewheel at work like I'm on The Price Is Right:

It's...it's...it's gonna be great...

I've been meaning to make a new entry for a few days, but I was pretty busy, then exhausted, then I stopped getting internet for a while. In fact I'm still not sure I have it well enough to upload many pictures for this entry. I'll have to end up getting my own service here sooner or later.

We've done so much in the past 5 days that I think to try and fit it all in one entry would kind of spoil it. I've tried to keep a good photo journal and I'll have to spread it out by project
or something in the coming days and weeks. But I've had a couple days off and lots of help and I'm really pleased with the progress we've made.

I finally got my hands on the Padelford work truck today. I picked it up at around 11am and seriously ran around town with full loads until 7pm tonight. On top of that, I still have a huge list of truck-needed items to pick up in the next couple weeks.

First I stopped by my apartment and grabbed a few small pieces of furniture, came home and unloaded. I went to Menards again and got some sheets of plywood and 2x4's for my new kitchen sub-floor, as well as various measuring marking and cutting tools. Also picked up some spackling and sanding tools for all the walls that need to be painted (ALL the walls).

Went back dropped the stuff off and headed right back out to a friend's house to pick up some free furniture and stuff that I'll detail in my 'Look at all this free stuff I got' blog entry.

Dropped off again and ran down the street and grabbed a free mower from a buddy who also just bought a house right by mine. Came back and mowed the lawn for the first time, which was desperately needed.

Then went down to my Dad's house and picked up some tree-trimming tools and back up to the apartment building and loaded two refrigerators and delivered one to the house and the other up to Oakdale before returning the work truck at about 7.

I'm pretty happy with the day's accomplishments, without even really setting foot in the house.


So that's what I did today. I work the rest of the week(end) so maybe I'll have time to catch this blog up with all the work that's been done over the last week and get some of those pictures up.

In the meantime, here's a picture of Lil' Davey in the kichen...from the basement.