Rain, Rain, Go Away!

After picking up some tile and selecting our kitchen appliances, we patiently await the skilled laborers to come bearing lumber. In the meantime, we had some more work we could do and only one day before our first dumpster was full and ready to be picked up.



This past Sunday was all Salt Wall Lane! On 7/31/11 we met with a couple of specialists starting at 9am (sleeping in is looked down upon up here). First we met a gas fireplace dealer/installer. He took measurements, helped us reiterate our feelings towards a Regency 36" model and gave us a quote for everything we needed to get it installed. Although a little rough around the edges, he was quite popular. Katie's mom recognized him when she walked in and come to find out, he had installed her gas fireplace a few years earlier. When we broached the topic of purchasing the unit on tax-free weekend, Aug. 13-14, he said he’d be out of town then and was not too interested in working with us to run the payment on that day. So the following day we thought we’d send him an email stating the job was his if we could work on paying over that weekend, but we soon discovered he didn't have an email address. Oh well! We might have to do it the old fashioned way...by phone. But saving $300 in taxes on a $3,500 gas fireplace might be well worth it.

Next up was the radon mitigation specialist. He was a quite a talker and Katie had questions! Our basement is set up to easily accommodate the suction-based system, including running an additional line from beneath the breezeway slab if need be. We will get a test done in the breezeway after the summer heat, as we only tested the basement in May. Our radon level there was 4.8 pCi/L. Anything over 4 pCi/L, the EPA recommends getting mitigated.

Beyond radon, this gent had some great suggestions for getting moisture out of our basement and some ideas on sealing it. First order of business was getting the masonite walls the previous owner installed out of there. These have really only served as sponges for moisture and odor the last three decades and it took me 4 hours to remove. Again, no bag of money. Just an old Roy Rogers poster behind one wall. This task left me not only filthy, but ready for some fresh air.

I ventured upstairs where our contractor/uncle was hard at work. He had set the electric on a separate 2x4 post, disassembled the front porch, staked out the new wrap-around farmer's porch and was working on tearing down the top 7' of the chimney (which the fireplace installer had offered to remove that same day for $750...no thanks!) With a few hacks of a sledge hammer, removing the flashing and pushing and pulling, down came this massive chunk of chimney with a street rattling thud!





Kel had one of her cousins come by to help. He and his friend Ryan took out all of the existing upstairs windows and sealed the holes with plastic. We're going to hold on to these double-hung windows and find a place to recycle some of them. They really are not that old compared to the rest of the house. Probably replaced within the last 10 years.

On Mon. we found out a storm front was rolling in and it was likely to rain the next three days. This left the framer to make the executive decision to hold off a week before "raising the roof" and throwing that baby in the dumpster. We were bummed, because we had been really looking forward to this stage. Not only will it be the fastest stage at an approx. 3 weeks of work, but it will show us what our house will look like permanently from the outside. I guess we can wait one week for good weather, but that's it!