Easter Hardwood Resurrection

Yeah...like we're religious. Not. But there is something to the whole spring solstice, renewal, ressurection, rebirth theme. And it has to do with hardwood floors. Oh....how they make me happy.

Most of the carpeting in the house is now gone. All that remains is the new carpet up in the attic, and some old carpet in the 1st floor office. We'll tackle the office carpet at some later point, because it could be a can of worms (linoleum that potentially contains asbestos).

Here is a picture of the nasty living room carpet.



Here's the same section with the carpet gone and Ted mopping up.



And guess what? Swanky double border with diamonds in some corners.



And lots of pet stains....former owners had dogs. Getting all the hardwood floors on the 1st floor refinished is definitely on our radar. Hopefully the majority of the stains will come out. Will pray to the home improvement gods.



The change is so drastic. Even with the floors in rough shape, it's worlds better than the wall to wall carpet. So much brighter in here. And one less trigger for my allergy and athsma issues.

Parging Pictures

Because various folks have asked what parging is....I dedicate this post to you!

Before we bought the house, we noticed that the basement walls were crumbling in various places. After discussing this with the home inspector and researching on the internet, we decided that parging was the answer. Parging is pretty much like brick repointing.

So, first you have a wall that looks something like this:



Then it gets cleaned out really good, making a nice dusty mess. After cleaning, a cement mixture gets squished into all the cracks/gaps and it looks like this:



And then after that dries really good, it gets iced like a cake with another layer of cement mixture and voila -- nice, non-crumbly basement walls:



It's almost done...and we can't wait to get the basement cleaned up and more functional. The parging will really help the basement be less dusty.

As always -- hurray Frank!!

Because Melanie insists.....

Because Melanie insists I update the houseblog..here's we're were at.

I keep shaking my head in amazement that we have almost all the important repairs/upgrades done. When I think back to early November...when I was constantly upset about how impossible this bomb of a house seemed.....just can't believe how it's all improved. I'm finally falling in love with this old place!

Currently, Frank is parging the basement. He's been knocking out the crumbling cement, cleaning up the rubblestone foundation, and re-cementing up the walls. It looks to be a little more than 1/2 done. It's so nice and smooth. Looking forward to making this a more usable space once the dust settles. Literally!

We're slowly setting up the upstairs library and Art kitchen. Been madly combing multiple Craiglists for Billy boocases and storage shelving for both rooms. Been even more madly trashpicking all neighborhoods of Collingswood and Haddon Heights. The more storage units and bookcases we aquire, the more we can unpack.

We're also slowly working on clearing out the rear 1st floor bedroom in preparation for rug removal. This room will also get a paint job, a ceiling fan installed, and a bit of ceiling repair. One day, this room will be used as a music teaching/therapy studio.

Also on the upcoming projects list are:

Fix up the front 1st floor bedroom as the guest room
Vent fan installation in downstairs bathroom
Blown insulation in ceiling/attic of 1st floor porch enclosure
Blown insulation in ceiling/attic of rear kitchen addition
Living room rug removal
Reflooring of the front 1st floor office and front porch enclosue.
Exterior Caulking
Painting exterior window trim
Dig up a vegetable patch in the back yard (sunlight willing)
Plant flowers in all the termite treated flower beds.
Rehab trash picked furniture
Get rid of all traces of pink
And so much more.....

Update

Since the last post Phase 1 of insulating has been completed.

Parging of the basement walls has begun.

And the heater has stopped blowing warm air.

And on it goes...

Attic Before and After

Talk about a crazy week. Ev got sick on Friday with the dreaded stomach virus last Friday. She was sick pretty much all weekend and was slow to recover. By the time she did, both Ted and I got it and we're just starting to feel normal again.

But, the carpet guys came on Tuesday and finished off the attic studio. It looks fantastic! Even though I had second thoughts against the horros of wall to wall carpeting, we wound up agreeing on a tight loop carpet for this room for a few reasons. First, this room is currently unheated by the central gas system, so carpet really helps the toes feel warmer. And Ted wanted extra sound absorbtion as he'll have the drums set back up. Our neighbors should appreciate that!

This room and the roof above it went through some major ripping up and repairs. The roof was ripped down the rafters and replaced, The floor was ripped up in places for electrical rewiring and bathroom vent fan installation, insulation either had to be fixed or added, 3 light fixtures were installed....and I think that's it.

Here are the before pictures:





And here are the after pictures:

Freezing Cold Bathroom Update

I've been monitoring the early morning temperature in the freezing cold bathroom for over a month. On cold days, the temperature has been averaging 40 degrees. Last night got pretty cold and I was so happy to see the temperature come in at 50 degrees!

There's also a noticeable difference in the living room area, part of which is built over the crawl space, and part of which adjoins the freezing cold bathroom and office.

Being properly insulated makes such a difference!

Progress....progress...

Good news to report.....even though I didn't exactly get all of the place cleaned up during this past week.

#1 piece of good news -- We set up the library in the extra 2nd floor bedroom. Love seeing our book collection again -- it's been packed away in storage for so long......

#2 piece of good news -- Frank is here today working on phase #2 of insulating. Phase #1 was last week up in the attic and boy is there a noticeable difference in temperature up there. Today he's addressing the crawl space under the freezing cold bathroom. I will be interested to see if the temperature rises above 40 degrees on the next freezing cold day. I am just amazed that pipes haven't burst under that bathroom! He'll also be addressing the crawl space under the kitchen addition during this phase. Phase #3 will hopefully entail blowing the attics above the front porch enclosure and read kitchen addition. We're losing lots of heat through these attics.

#3 piece of good news -- The carpet is being installed up in the attic tommorow. It's totally cheap stuff from Home Depot, but we also choose it for it's tight loop and subsequent sound absorbing qualities. Very important for a loud, rockin' music studio. Can't wait to get the drums set up again -- it's been at least 2 years since we've consistently had them up.

#4 piece of good news -- Once the carpeting is installed, we can move most of the music equipment out of the 2nd floor kitchen and Evelyn can reclaim this room as her "Crazy Ev Art Studio"...or something like that.

It feels so good to have this house in a more liveable state. Even with the unsightly pink color still prevelant in so many places. Even with the 1st floor in grave need of an interior decorator. I'm actually starting to like it more!!