And again...the 4 hour project that consumes the weekend

I'm not really sure why I thought our home would be any different than the rest of all of you who have taken upon themselves the renovation / restoration of an old house...I guess because I'm so much of an optimist. 

This weekend's plan was to simply put in a storm door on the back door to stop water from coming in.

***side note - from previous post - for those unaware or unsure what DH stands for it means: Darling Husband - although some of the possibilities that have been brought to my attention could be put in to play at various times - just wanna keep those options available.

So, back to the storm door.  We decide - hey, let's look under the vinyl where the water looks like it has been coming in under the door and see what it looks like.  I take the trusty knife and cut along the lines of the vinyl to peel back a section - oh goody!!! We have water damage - surprised? - no.

 

Let's cut this first section and see what it looks like under there. What? more gray, damaged wood that seems weak? No way!

Alright - let's go again....dang! This is ridiculous - how does it ruin all these layers and still had not just caved in - how did the inspector not pick up on this - hmmmmmmm

OK - well - this has to go too and so there it is - the ground! Woot! Woot! Total replacement! How exciting!!!

At this point, Chuck decides we need to stabilize the corner - so let's put in a 4x4 under the corner to help support the corner - due to the fact that the board it's on is also rotted.

Off to the lumber yard - but I stayed home since we had no way to lock up the house because there is now a hole and no door at all.

Okay - so what shall I do while the DH is headed back to the lumber yard?  Well - peeling paint and wall paper is always fun....or I could see what is located under the broken hardwood in the "gold room"...yep - let's go with that!

I must say that scraper with all the different sides has come in tremendously handy!  It just does so much.  So I dig into the floor where it is broken and I find dirt.  Why is this floor packed with dirt? Hmmmmm. There's  no bugs of any kind here - unlike the storm door / floor replacement project - I guess I forgot to mention that - when we pulled up the threshold it was like New York City on New Years - but the people were replaced with .................... ants!!!!!  Back to the dirt - it's just dry dirt.  Thinking back to the previous weekend - termites - termites we learned from our friends at Journagens - live in the dirt - perhaps they like to move their preferred home ground into where they find their food source - being wood. I don't know - unlike my normal self - I have not researched until I'm blurry eyed about termites - I will though, fear not!  But, I'm now thinking termites - but maybe since there are not any now - maybe this was an old problem - let's hope!!! I vacuumed out all the door and dug into the other space of the broken floor board and cleaned it all out as well - I think they did more damage here! Dang termites!!!!!

Let's see what else -

There was that silver bar thing under the radiator that we tried to get out the other day - but, the vacuum is entertaining me quite a bit as well and how else can I use the vacuum AND the scraper - ohhhhhhhh - the wall where the bathroom and "gold room" connect - there's lots of stuff there.  I dug out some dart pieces, a marble, some Legos - okay this space is now cleaned and removed of unneeded items / toys.  Okay - let's take a look at the silver bar thing.  Well - the vacuum isn't of any help - nor the scraper.  Tried moving the silver bar under the radiator - not enough clearance - various positions - still not going - finally - not really sure of the exact twist but it was FREE! Alright - so all these finds have now been relocated to the fireplace / mantel area. 



Still no DH - where are you Chucky???  Oh - wow - there's those mirrors all in a row in the "gold room" - so what do you think might have been the purpose?  Unfortunately I did forget to take pictures of before - I may have to put them back up to take one! LOL  The tool of choice - a pry bar!  Tools are soooooo fun! 1st one - down! 2nd - down!  Third - down!  4-6 nails per mirror. Fourth - I knew this was going too well - they managed to actually get these nails into some wood - after prying and prying - finally it gave - the glass that is! However, it all stayed in tack (not sure on the spelling of this - so this will do for now) - so no broken glass to clean up! I'm not going to be superstitious about this - things haven't gone in a positive direction anyway.  And now for the 2 mirrors on the back of the solid wood door - seriously - who does this????? By the way - there were NO hidden holes behind the mirrors - that's what we were expecting being that the mirrors were kinda in an awkward place and so many of them - we expected a gaping hole! Yeah - no big hole here!  So the door ones - yeah - not very easy - but they are all down - sans pliers - who needs pliers?  Well - my mom - but we managed without them.  Just a helpful hint: when the DH comes back from an extended trip to the lumber yard - don't bug him about pliers for a project that isn't on the list to be completed for years. Just saying...

 

Okay - so back to the gaping hole in the floor. Board replaced - check (this is the one I helped screw in with a power tool, I might add!!)

4x4 in place. Check! Now to add some further support for the replacement floor, check, and so on and so on - BTW - sprayed for the ants prior to all this - spraying took place as soon as we found them!  Die suckers, die!!!! 

 

 

 

The floor is all back in place - it's getting late - so let's just put in the new threshold, check the measurements again for the storm door, put the door back on, put some tar paper up against it (supposed to rain), and call it a night. Check! But wait - there's more!  The door is too big for the current jam.  Okay - again - communication between the DH and DW(darling wire) has gone awry.  I thought he thought the door was too small - either way we need to go to the Big Box L - but the DD(darling daughter) says it closes in 25 minutes and we're 15 minutes away. SO - that gives us 10 minutes - we're going.  We made it and by golly - it doesn't close for an hour and 25 minutes - woohoo!!!! Chuck says - brick molding will work - what? I don't get it - explain - alright - sorry DH but your ability to explain needs some work - but I know we can do this!!!  Also we looked at their example of the storm door because the directions - well - lacking - simply lacking.  I took pics and studied it closely - knowing all to well - I will not remember when we get back - but I'm studying the dang thing!

to be continued....