The Hardy House Blog

ONE MORE DECORATING IDEA...

2010-03-21T11:08:00.004-04:00

Dave and I were in Lowe's a couple of weeks ago. We were just browsing (getting ideas) and were looking through the drapery hardware area. Now available are rods with like a cracked knob at the ends. It occurred to me that we have antique doorknobs that would work well with the same idea. We will be able to reuse a vintage item in a new way. We like that idea a lot. When we get closer to doing drapery hardware, I'll post our method here.

Travel around and get ideas.

MACKENZIE-CHILDS PRESENTS...

2010-03-21T10:56:00.008-04:00

If you live anywhere within a couple hours of the Finger Lakes area of New York State, you might want to get some decorating inspiration by taking a day trip to Aurora, New York and Mackenzie-Childs. I have provided a link here and also on the right. http://www.mackenzie-childs.com/

Dave and I have been to Mackenzie-Childs a couple of times, the last time in February. Now that we are closer to decorating it was great to go there for ideas. If you go you MUST tour the farmhouse where they have used their decorative items throughout. However, don't just look at the decorative pieces, but also look at the wall treatments, faux wood painting and staining techniques, flooring, etc. It's really quite a treat. If you go during the Spring or Summer, you will also love the grounds with all the flowers. It's beautiful. I have included a picture, above.

Once the upstairs bathroom is complete, finishing our stairs is the next priority. Dave and I have been considering different finishing options for the stairs. We definitely want newel posts but realize they are very, very expensive. We simplified the design and hope Dave can build them. We thought we would most likely make them from oak and finish them. The cost is high. When we went to Mackenzie-Childs we came up with another idea that was very, very cost effective and would be easy to do. And, we could use a less expensive species of wood, like poplar. I think on the third floor of the farmhouse at Mackenzie-Childs they have used a faux staining on a stair handrail. It was perfect. We've already done some faux staining on the doors so we are familiar with the process and we really liked the way it looked - very different. Our thought is we would do this faux staining on the handrail, the newels and the steps. We anticipate painting the barley twist spindles and the risers white. I have included a picture of the garden balls above and while we think we might want to do the butterfly one, I'm a little on the fence about it. We'll see as the time draws nearer.

The other idea we came up with at Mackenzie-Childs was to use garden balls for the decoration on the newel post. We knew we wanted to do something different on the bottom two newel posts. What we came up with was to use the Butterfly Garden Ball from M-C on each of the two newels. The colors on this ball include colors in our home.

DECORATING IDEAS

2010-03-21T10:43:00.002-04:00

We have started to get ideas for finishing our interior at Hardy House.

First, we still need to finish the upstairs bathroom. That is our very first priority. We have taken our measurements and Dave has begun laying out the cabinetry cutting layouts in his CAD software. We are going to have fairly simple cabinetry and probably use glass knobs, like Depression-era glass. If we don't find true vintage hardware, we will probably purchase reproduction. The cabinetry will be white with black marble counters. I'm undecided whether to use amethyst or green knobs but I think I am leaning toward green. I plan to put a white plantation shutter on the window. Check back to see what this will all look like.

MONEY TALKS

2010-03-21T10:38:00.003-04:00

Well - it has been a couple of months since I last blogged about Hardy House. Life is moving forward and we continue to work on stuff, it seems, that doesn't show.

What has happened is we have received our first check from New York State for several hundreds of dollars as a rebate for some of our energy enhancements. That is great news. We are, however, still waiting on the Federal government for the big check. All money is going toward paying the debt we incurred during our renovation. We have also received approximately $75 in cash from turning in the steel and cast iron that we removed from the house in the form of our old heating system, including our oil tank. Yes, you can recycle your oil tank but you need to have the oil emptied from it. We have a great recycling center about eight miles from us called Alpco Recycling. We received $.10 a pound for our metal. We are taking our last load to Alpco today.

HARDY HOUSE IS HOLDING TRUE

2010-01-02T13:05:00.003-05:00

I love Hardy House.
We are due for a winter storm today and tomorrow which should drop about a foot of snow on us. The wind has been howling and the snow blowing and not even a window is rattling at Hardy House. We are warm and snug and happy.

We truly live in Hardy House.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

2010-01-01T10:16:00.003-05:00

Happy New Year to everyone!

2010 should be a wonderful year. Hardy House will get work done as we can - with time and money. But we are in and all is well (except for Dave - he still has a cold which is very odd for him).

We attended a lovely party last night in a fabulously decorated large brick village home. Joan and Rick - thank you for a great time.

Today we will be going to Dick and Carol's for food, drink, friends, and football. It should be a wonderful time.

I don't normally make New Year's resolutions. Do you? I can tell you all that we will have two weddings taking place in our family in 2010. Jess and Jason and Kenny and Stephanie. We are looking forward to their official union this year.

Hardy House wishes all of you a happy and healthy 2010. Keep watching Hardy House as the work continues.

WHICH BRINGS US TO TODAY

2009-12-27T09:43:00.005-05:00

Dave and I both have colds.

Yesterday we hung a reading light in the den and put together a floor lamp for the den. They look very nice. We have been laying low and trying to recuperate. I think we were exhausted and the last year and a half are catching up with us. I slept for 10 hours last night. I think Dave slept even longer. It is nice to know we can take a little more time with things to be finished at Hardy House.

Dave is taking vacation through to the New Year. I am not. He is planning on finishing up some things - like getting the ironing center installed upstairs. He said anything else after that is gravy. He's tired.

THE MATTRESS SAGA

2009-12-27T09:34:00.002-05:00

Last Saturday night, December 19th, we opened the back of the house to the front of the house. We were determined to sleep upstairs if it was the last thing we ever did. We had been previously sleeping in our California King-sized bed in our family room which was also open to the kitchen. Yes, that's where we had been living for 1 1/2 years. We had had enough and weren't going to spend another night there if we could possibly help it.

When we first closed off the front of the house to the back we also purchased a new bed. Dave is tall. He has never been able to lay out straight in a bed and our bed was old. We always said we were going to buy a California King-sized bed when we redid the house. And we were true to our word. We bought the bed which comes with a mattress and a split box spring. The bed is great.

However...after we opened the house up we easily took the box springs up the stairs to our new bedroom. The mattress was another story entirely. It is massive.

About 5 PM on Saturday afternoon, Dave and I attempted the mattress. Earlier, my son had been over and he helped us move the couch to the den but he had left and told use he was going hunting. Dave and I were able to get the mattress wedged (with us wedged, as well) in the stairwell. We couldn't budge the darn thing any further. We just didn't have the strength we needed between the two of us. I had my cell phone in my pocket and called my son and left him a message as he didn't pick up (smart boy).

Then we let the mattress fall. And it landed. It landed right in the middle of the dining room floor and Dave said, "Well, I guess we may be sleeping there tonight." Now remember, company was coming.

I called my son again and asked that, if he could, spare us 15 minutes later in the evening. We were going to go out for a hamburger and then we would be back. While we were at dinner he called and we met him at home. He was exactly the strength we needed to get the mattress up the stairs. The stairwell light swung all over the place but it survived. We survived. We've been sleeping soundly since.

WE DID IT!

2009-12-27T09:27:00.002-05:00

The dining room table and chairs survived, as did some candlesticks and candles. The settee and an upholstered chair did not survive, but we tried to clean them vigorously. They have found themselves back in the barn for another day. The meals were planned and the house decorated for Christmas and the family came. And it was good.

Christmas Eve saw 13 people at Hardy House for dinner and celebration and the Hardy House was comfortable and worked as we had hoped. Our seating was not ideal but the open floor plan that we now have and the stairs both offered opportunities for mingling and additional seating and it worked as we had hoped. It was a success. People were eager to see our progress and we didn't disappoint.

But alas, I also forgot to tell you of the mattress saga. Next post...

BRINGING DOWN THE WALL

2009-12-27T09:08:00.004-05:00

This was probably one of the more exciting moments at Hardy House. Last Saturday night (December 19th) we cut through the wall to the front of Hardy House. We opened our home, finally. No more walking out the back door and around the house to get to the front of the house. One and one half years later and we did it. I can't believe it has been that long, nor can I believe we lived where and how we lived for that long. It is shocking to me. I honored the moment of the wall coming down with a picture. It shows Dave cutting through the wall and just a glimmer of light coming through the crack. The other picture shows Dave in the new part of the house as I'm standing in the old part of the house (pretty much where the shower is). I told Dave it felt as significant to me as the demolition of the Berlin Wall. Stupid, perhaps, but telling all the same.

I felt the house breath. But here we were, 6 days from Christmas, 5 days from Hardy House's first time entertaining, and we didn't even know if we had survivable furniture. I also still had to finish Christmas shopping, planning dinners, grocery shopping, and wrapping every single Christmas present. To say we were overwhelmed was another understatement. Dave had to work Monday-Wednesday, December 21-23, and I had to work December 21-22 and took Wednesday the 23rd as a vacation day. We had a few late nights.

LET THE SUN SHINE IN

2009-12-27T09:03:00.003-05:00

I am sitting at the dining room table (yes, the dining room table) as I write this. The sun is literally POURING in the windows. I am able to view the outside on the east, the north and the south. I love the morning light and it is beautiful. Yesterday it rained all day, melted all the snow, and was downright miserable. The sunshine is lovely at Hardy House today.

THE DOORS

2009-12-27T08:50:00.003-05:00

We never got the doors hung. It was the week before Christmas and a simple project, as most, turned into a difficult project. In a previous post I mentioned that the hinges were different on the doors. To get them set properly in the doors was going to require a lot of hand-chiseling or moving the doors out to the barn to use the router. We were exhausted and frustrated. It was decided that we would just deal with it and the doors would not be hung. If we were going to knock down the temporary wall and have Christmas we had to ratchet up our progress. This was difficult as we were already so tired. I told Dave that he would have to let his family know immediately if we were not going to be able to host Christmas Eve, as it was our turn. We were expecting 13 people for dinner in 6 days--and Christmas with another 7 for dinner. We still had a split house, no furniture (which we didn't even know if it had survived the barn), no cleaning, etc.

The doors were put on hold, so to speak. They are standing up in the downstairs, unfinished bathroom. Dave made a temporary door from plywood and placed that over the basement stairs. A paint can is holding it closed.

So there you have it. The doors are another day. We tried.

MERRY CHRISTMAS, ONE AND ALL!

2009-12-27T08:44:00.004-05:00

Yeah - I know, Christmas has come and gone but what a whirlwind it was here at Hardy House. Let me tell you all about it.

But first, isn't this a cute pillow? My friend, Petra, gave it to me for Christmas a couple years ago. It sort of sums up Dave's and my philosophy on why we're doing what we're doing with Hardy House which is just because we want to and we find great enjoyment and fulfillment in working on our home. Plus we learn a lot. I suppose that's the ultimate understatement but we find it is true.

DOORS AGAIN...

2009-12-16T20:35:00.003-05:00

Here is another picture of the door to the basement. It still received another coat of shellac after we sanded this. Tonight I hope that we will hang this door, or the other, or both. I will keep you updated. All our hardware has arrived, but of course that presents more issues (and time). The hinges appear to be thicker and so the doors may need to be chiseled out a little more to accept them. Oh, woe is us. Christmas is coming whether we will be ready or not. More pics coming.

'TIS THE SEASON

2009-12-16T20:23:00.006-05:00

'Tis the season to be jolly! Fa la la la laaaa, la la la la!"

It is Christmas time, after all.

Here is a picture of the Hardy House Christmas tree. Yes, it looks a little quiet and forlorn and it is. The tree skirt is not on, the bottom is sparse and the angel is crooked. It also has few ornaments. There is a reason for this this season, if I may rhyme a bit...

We have a wonderful Christmas tree farm a couple miles from our house. Its name is Urtz's Christmas Trees. You can cut your own or they pre-cut daily. Dave and I have become accustomed to popping over there, picking a pre-cut, and back home with it in less than 20 minutes. I kid you not. Last Sunday we did just that, in the pouring rain. The trees last a very long time.

Next, we had to go through box upon box in the barn to find our Christmas decorations. We never planned things real well as we only planned to have things packed like this for 6 months tops. Guess again. A year and a half later we are hunting for decorations.

So what has happened is mice have nested in some of our boxes and have created havoc in our decorations. This gives me great sorrow as some items were family items that I cannot recover. But they are things and we will build upon old with newer.

What this means, however, is that our tree is a little sparse and not terribly pretty. All the same, it is the first tree in a rebuilt Hardy House and for that we are thankful.

You know what's really cool? With the new electrical, I plugged the tree lights into a particular outlet and now we can turn the tree lights off and on with the flick of a switch. We've never been able to do that before. We usually crawl around on the floor looking for the on/off switch. No more.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays from Hardy House to your House.

INTERIOR DOORS, PART 2

2009-12-13T12:08:00.003-05:00

Here's Dave, in process, working on the two interior doors.

He has had some fun playing around with the finish and application techniques. On the 15-light door he decided to do a little faux painting with the stain. We like the effect.

INTERIOR DOORS

2009-12-13T10:55:00.005-05:00

The doors are a lot of effort but we love the way they are turning out.

As in a previous post, we noted that we purchased four interior doors but to get the space opened up sooner, we decided to tackle finishing only the two most critical doors right now. Those doors belong at the top of the stairs (the 15-light door) and what I call, "The Harry Potter Under the Stairs Door," because of its diminished size.

We began the process for these doors out in the freezing barn by separating the doors from the frames and sanding everything. We also wet the bare wood down to raise the grain then sanded again.

Dave found a recipe for a finished look in the magazine, Fine Homebuilding. Here is a link to the Fine Homebuilding article (http://www.finehomebuilding.com/how-to/articles/custom-finish-for-inexpensive-interior-doors.aspx?nterms=61634&ac=ts&ra=fp). To read the entire article you need to become a member, or you could find an old issue. We have been following that process but have made a few modifications. I hope to post my own how-to article for the process we followed. I have a lot of pictures about that process. Today, we hope to finish the two doors and get them hung. These are the starter pictures. The point to following the process was to take unfinished doors from an inexpensive wood species (in our case, pine) and make them look like a much nicer wood and finish. This has worked. We just love the way the doors are finishing up. What were going to be painted pine doors now look like beautiful mahogany.

We bought inexpensive sawhorse holders and had to cut 2 x 4s to accomodate them so we could create a place to hold the doors in the house while we worked on them. Of course, that added a bit of time to the job--in the freezing barn. But all is well.

AND SOME MORE UPSTAIRS PICTURES

2009-12-13T10:51:00.002-05:00

A couple more shots. This small area with the wall sconces is actually about 15 feet long and will have built-in drawers along the entire length, under the eaves. The two sconces at the end will light up a make-up, dressing area. This is a really cool space and now that we can truly see it we can think of all kinds of other uses for it. We love this space. At the opposite end is another sconce and is also where the ironing center is going to be hung.

MORE UPSTAIRS PICTURES

2009-12-13T10:47:00.003-05:00

This is a picture of the storage area upstairs. This was wasted space behind the upstairs shower so we boxed in a portion of it and it will have a large drawer that slides out that we can put things in to store. Our granddaughter decided it was a perfect place to play in when she visited and she could walk right in without ducking. I can't wait for Hardy House to be done so the grandkids can play all over it.

SLEEPING ROOM AT HARDY HOUSE

2009-12-13T10:36:00.006-05:00

Here is a picture from upstairs in Hardy House. I know, the purple on the bedroom wall may seem a little garish but we are sort of looking at Craftsman, Aesthetic, Arts & Crafts decorating/styling and are hitting this room with it. I had purchased new Flokati rugs (I know, not of the same styling but I'm also looking for comfort) for next to the bed but last week I won at auction an almost 8 x 9 foot hooked rug that has a large floral design in it in purples, sages and ivories - same colors as in the house. We have taken it to the Oriental Rug Mart (see link) to have it cleaned. After we get it back we will try it in the bedroom. If it doesn't fit or look right, we will sell it. The rug would also look amazing hung on a wall.

This picture was taken from standing back near the dressing/drawer area at Hardy House and looking dead on into the bedroom. In pictures Hardy House looks very angular and I guess it is, but that's something we like about it.

Oh, yeah. The ceiling light in the bedroom will not be staying. We just couldn't decide what we want to do there so we put up an old light we had. It doesn't go with ANYTHING, but it works for the moment.

STAIR LIGHT, STAIR BRIGHT, TAKE 2

2009-12-13T09:44:00.002-05:00

I tried to add this picture to the previous post but for some reason I couldn't. So, here is the stairwell light that we modified a bit and it is hung in the stairwell and it is so pretty when it is turned on at night. It really fits the space beautifully and the style works great, too.

DOORS

2009-12-07T20:51:00.003-05:00

I am currently sitting on the stairs inside Hardy House. Dave and I have built two pair of saw horses tonight, have dampened down and lightly sanded two interior doors. We hope to have stain on them tonight.

Dave and I decided to only work on two of the four interior doors right now. We want to get IN this house and be somewhat ready for Christmas - which is a good idea as it is our turn for hosting Christmas Eve for Dave's family this year.

It is really cold tonight and the snow is flurrying. The barn is freezing and that's where we have been doing the preliminary work. We did the first run at sanding the doors yesterday and it was cold then, too. We are expecting our first winter storm in a couple of days.

I'll add more about the sawhorses - not a big deal and, of course, about the finish techniques we are using. The first door frame just came in the door so I'll be back with you soon.

NEW HARDWARE ON ITS WAY

2009-12-05T14:32:00.004-05:00

Because of purchasing the incorrect antique hardware we needed to purchase new hardware for the doors. We looked around on the Internet and also a couple of local places. One place we looked at locally was the Rochester store of Historic Houseparts. See their link on the right. We found some things we liked but felt we could do better at another Internet store, dollar-wise. And right now, every dollar needs to be evaluated and spent well.

We ended up buying from House of Antique Hardware. Their link is also listed here. I'll put up pictures when we receive them.

HANDLING IT

2009-12-05T14:16:00.004-05:00

The last couple of days, Dave and I have been trying to finalize the hardware for our interior doors. Did I tell you that the interior doors (4 of them) have all arrived in unfinished condition? They have come with hinges but Dave and I have always been a sucker for interesting hardware and things of that nature. We wanted something interesting. Of course we did. We also wanted interesting knobs/handles for our doors.

Last summer, Dave and I were in Cape Cod and we frequented numerous antique shops. We also went to New England Demolition and Salvage in New Bedford. We purchased several sets of solid brass door handles/levers. One I especially liked is wrought iron and brass. I believe they are very old and handmade.

This past summer I cleaned them all. I also cleaned up a box of porcelain and stoneware knobs that I have picked up in box lots at auctions for a couple of dollars. To clean them, I followed the recipe from This Old House magazine which said to place the hardware in a crockpot on low with one tablespoon of dish soap and let it go for at least several hours. I let it go quite a while - maybe 12 hours or so. This cleaning gets the grime off and also any paint that may be on it. The fixtures come out clean. I then rubbed them all with paste wax and buffed them up a little bit. Then I packed them away. Last night we pulled out the box and looked at the sets again.

We understood that we would need to purchase additional parts to make these sets work in our doors. What we didn't realize is that we really only have two sets that would work. We have some handles that are both right handed which will not work. Oh woe is us. But what we decided is:

1. We should have been smarter about our purchases.
2. We can still probably use the levers on cupboards, we think, anyway. Time will tell. But, we'll handle it.

FIRST SNOW AT HARDY HOUSE

2009-12-05T14:12:00.002-05:00

December 1, 2009
It had to happen eventually and happen it did. December 1st we awoke to snow. It actually has come a little late this year. We typically have our first snow in October or November. I took these pictures when I left for work about 6:45 AM. It is definately a comfort knowing we have dependable heat that we don't have to fuss with.

LIGHTING AT HARDY HOUSE

2009-12-05T14:02:00.004-05:00

November 29, 2009
In one of the previous DOOR pictures you can see the front of Hardy House now sporting a porch light and an electrical outlet. Hardy House, to our knowledge, has never had a porch light. This excites us. :)

I have also included another picture here of the dining room that gives some idea as to other lighting we have in the house. In a previous blog I talked about the Nora lights. You can see some in this picture. They are the little white lights in the ceiling that light up the walls. We purchased museum quality bulbs at varying light spans. We also have one of these in the short hallway and in the stairwell.

The ceiling light in the dining room is another auction find. We had it over the dining room table before this remodel and we like it well enough to not spend the money now to change it. It has been reinstalled here (though the ceiling plate is not screwed down yet in this picture). We paid $25 for it at auction and Dave rewired it. I think that was three years ago. Works. great.

MORE ON THE DOOR...3

2009-12-05T13:58:00.002-05:00

And some more door pics.

MORE ON THE DOOR...2

2009-12-05T13:56:00.002-05:00

More door pics.

WELCOME TO OUR CASTLE - ALMOST

2009-12-05T13:46:00.004-05:00

November 29, 2009
A long day...
We were notified that our new front door had come in so on Saturday, November 28, Dave and I drove to Rochester, Lyell Ave., to be exact, to pick up our new front door at Rochester Colonial Windows and Doors.

We actually ordered our door from the company's showroom in Henrietta but pickup was at their Rochester location. We had often heard good things about Rochester Colonial and also that they pretty much could build you what you wanted. That appealed to us. What did not appeal to us was the gentleman who first met with us when we entered the showroom to look for a door.

We thought we wanted a wooden finished door, perhaps oak. We were not positive and really didn't know prices. When we met with this salesman, he immediately said the wood doors were "very expensive." We practically had to beg for him to tell us anything about them and for any pricing. FINALLY, he told us that a wooden door would start at $3,000-$4,000. Well, he was right, a wooden door was out of our price range, though he didn't come right out and say it. We must have looked like country bumpkins who couldn't afford anything. We just thought he was kind of rude. Not to mention, he kept forgetting things that we said we did want when we decided on the fiberglass door that we did purchase. We were not impressed. The door, including hardware, was $900, a far cry from $3,000 but to us, expensive all the same.

The saving grace for this company as far as we are concerned is that we truly like our front door and are happy with it and when we picked up the door at the showroom and manufacturing facility in Rochester, the help couldn't have been kinder and more considerate. They have redeemed their image in our minds but they might want to have a chat with the salesman in Henrietta. I have provided a link to the Rochester Colonial Web site.

The next day was Sunday and we spent the entire day installing this door but the effort was worth it, we think.

STAIR LIGHT, STAIR BRIGHT

2009-12-05T13:09:00.005-05:00

November 27, 2009
One of the things Dave and I hoped to do throughout this project was to reuse, recycle, and repair whatever we could within reason. Sometimes we just couldn't do it because of cost but we gave it a try anyway.

Something that Dave and I enjoy doing together is going to auctions. I am a dealer in vintage linens, quilts, and some other antiques. My little booth is called Come-by-Chance Antiques and I maintain a booth at The Brick House Antique Center (see the link to the right). Dave is interested in antique farm implements, lanterns and tools, and we both seem to have an interest in architectural elements and lighting.

The hanging light you see in this picture came from The Brick House Antique Center. It was an old oil or kerosene lamp that, we believe, had been converted or modified at least once and maybe more. Dave rewired it. We had been looking for an interesting light to hang in our stairwell and we thought this would do the trick. The hardest part was that it really needed to be hung from a chain and the chain from a hook. We needed a ceiling fixture that could look appealing and have a hook on it. We looked around and couldn't find anything that would do what we needed. Dave and Jay, our electrician, tried to come up with some solutions and then the light bulb, so to speak, went off in Dave's brain.

In the back part of our home their was a ceiling fixture that we removed when we moved in. We simply left the cover plate over the hole. Aha! that cover plate was exactly what we needed, hook and all. The only problem with it was that it was shiny brass. Our light fixture was silver, or pewter. Off to Lowe's we went.

We found new wire that blended beautifully with the old silver color and we then purchased a can of silver paint by Rustoleum. The paint was awesome. Rustoleum makes a new spray paint that works on any surface. That's what I used and I sprayed the cover. It worked the nuts and matched the light fixture perfectly. I'll get another picture on here so you can see the finished product. We love the new/old fixture. What is old is new again, or so it is said.

HRV - READY OR NOT!

2009-12-05T13:03:00.006-05:00

November 20, 2009
We opted to have Geotherm install an HRV or Heat Recovery Ventilator. Hardy House is now fairly super insulated and we have a great hvac system. Because Hardy House is so tight, air will basically not move. With an HRV unit the air is circulated and fresh air is brought in. This makes for a healthier home.

GEOTHERMAL UNIT - LAST PICS

2009-12-05T13:00:00.003-05:00

November 19, 2009
The last of the pictures I took of the geothermal unit the day it was hooked up are shown here.

MORE GEOTHERMAL UNIT PICS - Take 2

2009-12-05T12:56:00.002-05:00

Here are more pictures. I know this must be terribly exciting for you...
BTW - the water tanks are used as holding tanks here. The water is not being heated by electricity and stored.

THE GEOTHERMAL UNIT AT HARDY HOUSE

2009-12-05T12:53:00.002-05:00

November 19, 2009

Back at the ranch...just kidding...

Here are some pictures of the geothermal unit that has been installed at Hardy House. These pictures were taken during the hookup and finish installation of the unit.

DUCT, DUCT, GOOSE

2009-12-05T12:36:00.002-05:00

November 19, 2009

Okay - no goose, but wow! do we have duct work. You may wonder at my excitement, but for someone who has always lived in old homes where the heat could be temperamental, the duct work dusty, and the heat uneven, shiny new duct work is truly something to get excited about.

Geotherm used a couple of guys to do the duct work and I have lost the name of their company but I can tell you they were a father and son and their first names are Gene (dad) and Kevin (son). We enjoyed working with them and feel they did a super job. You can see Kevin in one of the pictures.

Enjoy the pictures of our new duct work. And then keep reading and viewing for more on electrical and the geothermal unit in the basement.

DIG DAY AT HARDY HOUSE - MORE PICS

2009-12-05T12:30:00.003-05:00

I think these are the last of the Dig Day pictures that I have. These guys worked hard and they worked all day in the wet and cold. They started at 7:00 AM and finished about 7:30 PM.

MORE DIG DAY PICTURES

2009-12-05T12:27:00.001-05:00

Here are some additional pictures from Dig Day at Hardy House.

DIG DAY AT HARDY HOUSE

2009-12-05T11:59:00.003-05:00

November 19, 2009

What's a Dig Day?

Finally, the corn in our cornfield was harvested and Jesse Cook and his crew from Geotherm Inc. were able to start installing the tubing in the field which was then hooked into all the equipment in our basement. Heavy equipment was brought in and the dig began. Check out all the pictures--there are quite a few. Here's the dig on our geothermal system at Hardy House...

Equipment:

High efficiency geothermal heat pump, model Climatemaster Tranquility 27 (TT)-049.
Ground loop heat exchanger which included about 2500 feet of pipe.
Ground loop circulation pump kit.
Thermostat controller.
Fittings and electrical hookup.
Hot water desuperheater for supplemental hot water.
Heat recovery ventilator (HRV).

Our installation included:
All labor for the ground loop assembly, excavation for the trenches for the looping (6-8 feet deep), and all duct work, grills, etc.

Outcome
We've been very happy with Jesse Cook, Geotherm, Inc., and all the involved crews who were a nice bunch, respectful, knowledgeable and pleasant to be around.

The man who ran the heavy equipment was a real pro. He was very, very careful with our trees and anything else we asked for. In these pictures you'll see where there are some branches that he's working into the pit. That tree has been heavily damaged over the years and we expect it will be taken down in the next few years so we understood that it might get more damage during the Dig. Jesse's crew offered to take it down then but Dave opted to wait. Another tree, a sourgum, that my son gave me for Mother's Day last year is planted not far from this tree and it is hoped it will be a replacement for the damaged one. It is a young tree and we asked that they tread carefully around it. The equipment worked around this little tree and not a branch was touched. Also, the Digger agreed to push off all our topsoil from the field before digging and then he pushed it all back again after filling the trenches. This should preserve the soil for farming next year. This was important to us and the crew honored our wishes. We thank them.

Here's Jesse's contact information:

Jesse Cook, President
Geotherm Inc.
335 Kavanaugh Rd.
Honeoye Falls, NY 14472
(585) 305-2574

UNDER OUR FEET, A SQUISHY TREAT

2009-12-05T08:34:00.004-05:00

November 8:
We needed rugs and we needed them fairly quickly. The guys (Gene and Kevin) were coming to finish the duct work and we needed to know where to put them and we needed to make sure the rugs we did get were not going to cover the grates.

I found a store that I love and if you're in the area (or not) I suggest you check out The Oriental Rug Mart (see link to the right) in Victor, across from Eastview Mall and behind K-Mart (not associated with K-Mart).

These three pictures show you the rugs we purchased and we love them. Of course, I love textiles anyway, but let me tell you what I loved about this shop:

1. Selection - it's huge.
2. They have every variety of oriental rug you can think of and some others as well.
3. Knowledgeable. They know their stuff and they love what they do. I urge you to talk to them about what they love and ask them about each rug. You won't be disappointed.
4. Repair. They can repair oriental rugs and they have expert staff. They can even prepare your rug for hanging if that is how you want to use your rug. Trust me, the rugs are worthy of hanging on your wall.
5. Cleaning. They can clean your rugs for you.
6. They have a take-home policy. I was able to bring the rugs home that I was interested in, lay them down and try them out. I only brought back the ones I did not want.
7. Pricing - quite reasonable.

FOR YOUR VIEWING AND LISTENING PLEASURE

2009-12-05T08:08:00.004-05:00

November 8:
Welcome to the den, or the away room as Susan Susanka states in her book, THE NOT SO BIG HOUSE (see link to the right). The other idea that Susanka believes in, and one which we wholeheartedly embrace, is that of building quality as opposed to quantity (or size).

Our den is our multi-purpose room. Yup. It's smallish but that's okay, too. It will be cozy and that was our aim. Though this room is painted in Vanilla Custard at the moment, it will change. The top part of the walls will be a dark green glaze. The bottom of the walls are going to be cherry paneling. The rough beam you see at the ceiling don't look like much but they are actually very, very wide beams that support the second floor bath which had a bit of a bounce to it. Those beams will be boxed in, in cherry, and cross beams will be added for a coffered ceiling.

Our television bit the dust about a month ago. It was over 20 years old. We are currently using a very small portable television until we have saved enough money to purchase a wide-screen television for the den. Dave ran wires for speakers that will be placed in the ceiling at either end of the couch that will be in this room. The boxes for the speakers have been built and are insulated. The holes still must be cut in the ceiling to expose them. For now, we wait.

This room will also have floor to ceiling cherry bookcases built on the front wall, hopefully with built-in seating under the windows. That has not been designed but that is the plan.

Another purpose for this room is that it will be the guest bedroom. A number of times a year Dave's mom comes for a visit and my brother also comes to stay when he is here on business or just to visit. We thought we had a lovely chair/pull-out bed/cot picked out at Stickley, but of course money is an issue at the moment but when we measured we also found that the size was not going to work very well. We have not ruled out this furniture but we might just purchase a high-quality inflatable mattress for this purpose at about a tenth of the price.

Our den, we hoped, would also house our home office which has been completely wired for the area just as you walk in the doors to the room, on the left. Because of seating limitations, we are also rethinking this, as technology has changed. We are now wireless and can work anywhere. Additionally, I will have a very functional desk in our bedroom. So having a desk area there may change. We also plan to incorporate a small desk area in the kitchen when we remodel that. Check back to the Hardy House Blog to find out what we do.

IT'S STARTING TO LOOK LIKE HOME

2009-12-05T07:59:00.003-05:00

November 8:
We have gotten some of the painting done in this picture. The first picture is looking south in our dining room. The color of the walls is called Vanilla Custard but we think it looks more like a lemon or butter yellow now that it's on the walls. That's okay as we like it just the same. It really does change color as the exterior light plays around the house. It sometimes takes on a shade of the palest green, it seems. The white boxes in the corners just have a thin coat of primer on them. They will be hidden behind cabinetry on that end of the wall. The boxes hide duct work.

Vanilla Custard is the paint color we are using for most of the house. The exceptions are one wall in the bedroom, the den, and the bathrooms.

The lights hanging down will be centered over some buffet space that has yet to be built. That is finish work which I expect we will be working at for a long time.

LIKE OUR HOUSE - I, TOO, AM AGING

2009-12-05T07:06:00.003-05:00

It's hard to admit it, but I am aging. Along with that aging comes changes. Mine is in the form of menopause. Friends, this event in my life is being greeted with a fight.

Fairly suddenly over the last few months I have grown weary, I suffer from frequent insomnia, I am severely cranky and downright miserable. You will probably read into that that if I am that miserable, so must be Dave. Well, it's true. I have been pretty unbearable to live with. I attributed it to the house not being done. October and November proved to be extremely difficult times for Dave and I. But alas, as Dave and I do, we have worked it all out.

How? I have found some herbal remedies that have worked for me and I am now sleeping soundly and my crankiness has about disappeared. Life is going just great now and of course, it doesn't hurt that Hardy House is coming down the stretch into final phases.

My thoughts to you, dear followers, is that if you plan a major remodel or a rebuild or a new build, or anything along those lines, either wait until after menopause, do it before you get to menopause, or see a doctor to make the unpredictability of your behavior a little calmer. Good luck.

Now, back to Hardy House and all our progress. I hope you like what we've been doing.

Come in and welcome to our home...

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

2009-11-22T16:46:00.002-05:00

Okay - so Hardy House is not hosting Thanksgiving this year. It is a sore spot but one that has been dealt with. Luckily, my parents are hosting the festivities this year with everyone helping. I am blessed and during this stressful time getting Hardy House together, I have to remember that.

I have just downloaded about 50 pictures. A lot has been going on at Hardy House and I can't wait to tell you all about it.

This weekend I have been painting - yes, painting, my friends. I have spent about 10 hours doing so, which may not seem like a lot but if you have leaves to rake, laundry to do, grocery shopping and the like, 10 hours is plenty, I can assure you.

I do hope to get back to you before Thanksgiving, but if not, be thankful for your life, for your health, and for your family. In my opinion, not much else matters. God bless.

I LIKE THE FLOORS

2009-10-28T17:52:00.002-04:00

It didn't take me long. I was just over at that side of the house and I already like the floors. It was just such a shock yesterday from beat up floors to perfection. These new floors are really pretty and the color is very similar to what we have upstairs. Okay - I'm happy. Yippity Doooh Dah!

It's rainy today and a little dark over there as it's getting later. I'm not sure the flash worked on some of these pictures but here they are anyway.

CHERRY CINNAMON

2009-10-27T18:34:00.002-04:00

Sounds good, doesn't it?

Yippity Doooh Dah! Our downstairs floor has been installed. In fact, it was just completed about 15 minutes ago.

Why cherry cinnamon? That's the floor wood species and finish. Cherry with a cinnamon finish. I'll get pictures as soon as I can as it is very dark in that part of the house right now.

Okay - now for the reality check. I'm not sure I like it. Well, I really do like it but I need to get used to it. I've never had a new floor. And the wood is all the same size width. It is so PERFECT. I'm just not used to that but I'm SURE it will be okay once I get used to it.

We ordered the floor through Lowe's and they also subcontract to installers. They swore by the quality of their subcontractors and we went with it. We worked with Zack Buksic from The Viking Floors and were very happy with his work and his professionalism. Here's Zack's info:

Name: Zack Buksic
Company: The Viking Floors, Inc.
Address: 1424 Buffalo Rd., Suite 4, Rochester, NY 14624
Email: zack@thevikingfloors.com
Phone: (585) 328-4995
Fax: (585) 328-0850
Website: www.thevikingfloors.com

THE HANDY PAINT PAIL

2009-10-25T17:52:00.003-04:00

I have found a product I love. It is red, which is one of my favorite colors, so already it has my heart. And - it's American made.

The Handy Paint Pail was found at The Home Depot. I hemmed and hawed about whether I should buy it (it was quite inexpensive, btw), but I did wonder if I was just buying into a gimmick because it had a handle and a magnet (when did they become gimmicks, I ask you?) I decided I didn't care. I had recently painted the shed and had so many cramps in my hand and my thumb actually went numb from holding the brush and a can (or plastic tub) that I threw financial security to the wind - I purchased The Handy Paint Pail.

Today, I used it. I love it.

What's so good about The Handy Paint Pail? Let me tell you -

1. It is small but holds a lot.
2. It is lightweight.
3. It is red.
4. It has a magnet. Why is this good? It holds onto your brush instead of your brush sinking up to its wooden neck in paint. It keeps your brush from swishing around and making a mess as you climb up and down ladders. It keeps your hands clean.
5. It cleans up easy.

It is wonderful. It is red. It is American made. I love The Handy Paint Pail.

Even Dave said, "Hey! That's pretty cool. I might want to use that." No way

Here's their Web site http://www.handypaintpail.com/.

WE ARE GIDDY WITH EXCITEMENT

2009-10-25T17:46:00.002-04:00

Yes! We are GIDDY! (Especially Dave.)

We have started painting our interior! Okay - does primer count as painting? Well we have started. As of this minute, the downstairs ceilings are primed, (except for the den), the downstairs bathroom is primed, the "Harry Potter Under the Stairs" area is primed, the hall is primed, and the dining room is ALMOST done being primed. The den is still not primed but maybe I can get to that tomorrow night - we'll see.

It looks wonderful. We are tired.

BAR BAR REBAR

2009-10-25T13:11:00.002-04:00

The wall we are building to close in the exterior door will be built with cinder blocks. To assure the base layer will not move, we have inserted rebar into the footing to help anchor the blocks. Once the Quickcrete sets up good, we will place a layer of mortar for the base blocks and place them over the rebar into the mortar.

QUICKCRETE

2009-10-25T13:07:00.002-04:00

Yesterday we bought six bags of Quickcrete. It sets up fast. That is what we used for our new footing.

Check out the cement mixer. Dave and I love auctions. Dave has basically outfitted a good portion of his shop from auctions. He has saved thousands of dollars. This particular little charmer is a mixer that he entered into a bidding war with another man. Dave paid $70 for it, which he says may have been high. But when you have two people bidding against each other, that's the way it goes. This baby was buried in the back of the barn. This morning Dave had to dig up some overgrown grass to get the back barn door open so he could get it out. It worked beautifully.

WILL IT EVER BE DONE?

2009-10-25T13:04:00.002-04:00

Our basement, that is. Today, Dave and I are making a footing at the bottom of the exterior stairs (or where they used to be). See previous blog about the rubble.

Dave dug out the previous footer as it was very thin. We are now building a wall to close up that entrance and wanted a traditional strong footing for it to sit on. Therefore, the old came out and today the new went in.

AUTUMN AT HARDY HOUSE

2009-10-25T13:01:00.002-04:00

It's autumn at Hardy House. These pictures, I'm afraid, do not do justice to the brilliant beauty that was our maple trees this morning.

EMMA THE WONDER DOG

2009-10-25T12:58:00.002-04:00

Emma the Wonder Dog! Eats apples (and everything else) making her the strong dog that she is.

Emma loves autumn at Hardy House. One of her favorite things is to eat apples. She doesn't care if they're rotten or buggy. She chows down.

While Emma is eating apples, Betsy is making applesauce and helping Dave.

What About the Paint?

2009-10-24T23:00:00.003-04:00

When we purchased all those samples of paints from The Home Depot, we also later purchased a sheet of drywall. We sectioned the drywall into 16 blocks after we primed it. We then painted each square one of the colors we bought. The idea was we would then cut them apart and move them around the rooms in the house to see how they looked in different light. Well, we didn't really get that far.

We DID pick out the colors we wanted from those we painted on the drywall. But a few nights ago, my daughter's future mother-in-law said she had a postcard from Sherwin-Williams for 25% off all paint and 15% of all paint supplies. Saving a couple hundred dollars sounded great to us so today we went to Sherwin-Williams with our Behr paint chips from The Home Depot and Sherwin-Williams matched the colors. We purchased all the primer we needed and all the paint and supplies. We saved approximately $250 overall. We bough Sherwin-Williams's top-of-the line paint, Duration. It is very low VOC and that pleases us. We hope to start priming tomorrow.

More on the Floor

2009-10-24T22:58:00.001-04:00

Yesterday our hardwood floor was delivered to "acclimate" to the house before it is installed on Tuesday. I can't wait.

One of the things we did was painted the floor with Kilz paint to keep down any old paint that might have lead in it. Other than that, though, we are ready for the floor.

And a Little More Rubble...

2009-10-24T22:56:00.002-04:00

Here are a couple more pictures of the rubble. What a mess.

Betsy and Dave Rubble

2009-10-24T22:36:00.002-04:00

That's right. Not Barney Rubble, but Betsy Rubble.

We have two exterior entrances to the basement. You know - those old bulkhead doors over stairs? Well, we have two of those and only decided to keep one. The doors on both are rotted and leaking (and those will be repaired at some point).

The stairs on the south side of the house are where the pipes are coming in for our geothermal system. In our wisdom, we decided we needed to remove the stairs and also start taking down some of the cisterns in the basement, dig a trench, etc.

The last two weekends, Dave rented a jackhammer and a concrete saw (electric and gas - two different ones). What a job that was! I hope you enjoy the pictures.

Dave took out the rubble and and I got to clean it up...

More Floor

2009-10-24T22:34:00.002-04:00

A couple weeks ago we also went back to The Carpet Spectrum to order the flooring for the downstairs bathroom. We decided against hardwood as we felt that bath would get a lot of use from visitors and grandchildren.

We picked an Armstrong flooring. It was really funny because we picked the exact same flooring we had picked out months ago. We did look at several others but kept coming back to this one. It has golds in it, among other colors and it has a leaf pattern. It's neat. It's unusual. It has come in but we haven't picked it up yet.

What Else We've Been Doing

2009-10-24T22:18:00.003-04:00

A few weeks ago, Dave and I went on a shopping expedition. We left at about 8:30 AM and returned about 7:30 PM. But, my oh my, did we get a lot done!

First of all, we went to Lowe's and there we picked out our hardwood floor for the entire downstairs of Hardy House. What did we pick? We picked Bruce Hardwood's Kenandell (I think that's it). It is maple with a cinnamon finish. Next we went to Tuthill Lighting to pick up our last three light fixtures. After Tuthill we went to Rochester Colonial Windows and Doors and ordered a new front door. Let me tell you about that...

When we went to Rochester Colonial we went with the idea that we might like to purchase a solid wood, stained door. Well, the salesman would hardly even talk to us about it. We were very surprised but perhaps we looked very, very poor - which we are but he didn't know that. We practically had to yank it out of this guy why we didn't want a wood door. He just said they are substantially more expensive than the fiberglass doors. FINALLY, he told us they started at $3,000-4,000. And, that's without hardware. Okay. He convinced us we really were too poor to afford one of those.

We ended up buying a fiberglass door. It is 2/3 glass and a raised panel lower third. It will be factory primed and painted in white. We have yet to take delivery of it.

After Rochester Colonial we went to The Home Depot. We spent a significant amount of time there. At The Home Depot we ordered four interior doors. They were ALL special order doors so we had to sit with a salesman and work out the details (which side the hole is on for the door knob, which side the hinges are on, which kind of metal finish you want, etc.) because of desires and sizes. It is amazing the differences in costs!

We ordered a pretty standard four panel pine door for the downstairs bathroom. Then we had to have a special door made for the "Harry Potter Under the Stairs" door. That's what I call the door to the basement. It's not a full size door. It will match, somewhat, the bathroom door as they are very near each other.

Upstairs we needed two doors. One door is at the top of the stairs (to keep pets downstairs) and the other door just opposite that one is for the upstairs bathroom. Once again, we want to keep as much light as possible upstairs and since there are windows opposite each other (in the bath and stairwell) I wanted to have glass in the doors. Of course that would not be very private in a bathroom so what we decided to do was have a 15-lite door at the top of the stairs with clear glass and the same door at the bathroom but with glass that is called "frit" glass. It offers privacy but also light. We wanted to get either oak or some other nice wood for these doors as we wanted to stain them. But, the cost was prohibitive. So we opted for pine and we are going to paint them.

Today we picked up three of the doors at The Home Depot. The "Harry Potter" door is not ready yet. The doors look great and I suppose we could stain them if we wanted to. The jury is still out on that one.

The next thing we did at The Home Depot is we took our color book with the schemes that we thought we wanted in the house and purchased 16 different paint samples. It's awesome. For less than $4 a sample you can have them mix any color paint you want. Sure it costs a little but it was a great way to see the colors.

It was a long day but we got a lot accomplished.

A Look at Fall from Hardy House

2009-10-24T22:14:00.002-04:00

I just thought I would post this picture to give you an idea, again, of why we are doing this. We love the change of seasons and out here at Hardy House you really see the weather. I think I took this picture at least a week ago. I would say we are just past peak foliage now. I was headed on a quick jaunt around the barn with my camera and, well, it was a really nice day. :)

And a Few More Pics

2009-10-24T22:09:00.003-04:00

Here are a few more pictures of the newly hung drywall.

Excitement at Hardy House

2009-10-24T22:02:00.003-04:00

The week after Labor Day was very exciting for us at Hardy House. That was the week the drywall was delivered. It came in through the upstairs window and through the front door. I, personally, was very, very happy.

Our friendly contractor, Jerry Knibbs, told us the drywall would take about 2 1/2 weeks to complete. By golly, I was so excited I asked friends over for dinner, scheduled for October 7. Well, I had to cancel those plans. We went into a rainy and cold snap and the drywall just wouldn't dry. The "guys" finally called the drywall finished two days ago--almost 5 weeks from start to finish. The pictures here were taken at different times during the hanging of the drywall. I'll put up more later now that it's finished.

Floor Patching

2009-10-24T21:42:00.003-04:00

As said before, we were able to salvage the floors upstairs but not downstairs. We decided to go with hardwood floors downstairs but before that could be done we knew we needed to get the floors fairly level.

Some of our floors literally had holes in them. Those mostly were from where the old vents had been. We needed to fill those and figured the best way to do that was to use inexpensive hardboard as it wasn't very thick. It worked like a charm. We had 3 or 4 of these holes to fill.

Still in the Bathroom

2009-10-24T21:26:00.003-04:00

This first picture is of the backside of a marble toilet base. Why? You say? Well, because we have wood floors in the bathroom we want to make sure that any moisture from the toilet (though we hope there won't ever be any) and any accidental misses (we also hope there won't be any of those, but you know how grandchildren can be...) will not damage the floor. You can pick up these marble bases in some home or hardware stores but we found Lowe's does NOT carry them. Our HEP dealer in Newark did, however. We purchased two of them - one for upstairs and one for down. In this first picture we are carefully cutting off the plastic covering from the bottom only. We wanted to keep the plastic on the top to further protect it until the bathroom is complete.

The second picture shows Dave starting to apply construction adhesive. NOTE: we already placed the base on the floor and measured it then measured the corners with painter's tape so that after we applied the adhesive we would know exactly where to place the base again.

The third picture shows the base after Dave applied more adhesive. Do you think he got enough on there? LOL. That base isn't going anywhere...

Whata Shower!

2009-10-24T21:15:00.002-04:00

Okay - well it's ALMOST a shower. At least the base is installed.

The other picture is looking from the dressing area through the studs into the bathroom. It gives you an idea of the plumbing and the wiring that was put in.

Goop, Press, and Place

2009-10-24T21:05:00.003-04:00

Looks like a large spider web, doesn't it?

We took the base back out because we had to add adhesive to the bottom of the base before we permanently placed it. That dark stuff is the construction adhesive. Once that was applied, we flipped the base back over and put in place. If you install a shower base, don't be surprised if you have to use shims to make sure it is placed perfectly.

Set, Measure, Place

2009-10-24T20:57:00.003-04:00

Yup. That's the shower base. I tell you, this shower has required so much work and it's still not all in. I sure do hope it's worth it!

Here we have temporarily placed the base on the plywood base we installed (and in which we cut the hole).

Next we leveled the base. Once we felt we had it leveled we also needed to make sure the water would drain down the drain as it was supposed to. Hence, the picture of Dave dumping water in the base. NOTE: remember to either have someone hold a bucket below or make sure there is a bucket below to catch the water. Everything with our shower base seemed to be

set properly.

Then we had to remove it.

Shower Power

2009-10-24T20:46:00.002-04:00

In September Dave and I were able to install the shower base in the upstairs bathroom. As usual, we couldn't just put the dang thing in. Nope. We also had to reinforce (box in) the area where the plumbing was going to be (the ceiling of the den). Then we had to cut a round hole for the shower drain and hoped to you know who, that the hole wasn't going to hit the boxed area. Well, we pretty much DID hit the boxed in area but only just. We were luck.

The first picture is looking up at the den ceiling where the hole was being cut. The second picture shows Dave cutting the hole. We hat the Ryobi jigsaw. The blade kept moving. It was my Christmas give to him a couple of years ago and I was jobless. So I went cheaper and now we are paying for it in other ways. He'll get a new one eventually...

Staining

2009-10-24T20:33:00.002-04:00

After we sanded the backsplash for the vanity and after I practiced the staining (see the stained sample) I stained the routed piece.

When I stained the sample, I stained the entire piece and then wiped a third of it at 5 minute intervals (5, 10, 15 minutes) to see what the difference was. I have to admit that there appeared to be little difference.

When I stained the backsplash, I left the stain on for 15 minutes then wiped it off. I also purchased a wipe on poly. I don't feel that this particular product gives me the sheen or the surface I am looking for so I will be putting a brush-on poly on it. We also plan to be a couple of coats (or more) of poly on the top of the dresser to help maintain the surface if it gets wet, which it no doubt will.

Dresser/Vanity Part I

2009-10-24T20:22:00.002-04:00

Because we haven't completed the vanity project yet, I will need to blog about it in a couple of different parts.

We do want to clean up the dresser but don't plan to refinish it. At least that's the current plan. Dave purchased a wood cleaner from the local home store. I don't recall the exact name of it at this time but it is made by Minwax. I haven't used it yet but when I do, I'll let you know what it is and how it worked.

One of the things that we need on this dresser is a backsplash that can be mounted to the dresser and also the wall. Of course, we want it to match the dresser. So, our first step was to purchase a piece of oak from The Home Depot. We also purchased a golden oak stain (from Minwax) at the same time. The piece of oak we purchased was longer than the dresser so we cut a piece from it. That cut off piece was what I used to practice the stain. If you want to stain something, the longer you leave the stain on without wiping it off, the darker the color will be. I tried to get a match to the dresser.

Before I stained the extra piece of oak, Dave and I cut the oak piece (the longer one) to the appropriate length to span the back of the dresser. We then used the router to rout the piece to give it a little more character. I then used the orbital sander and just hand sanding to get the piece nice and smooth. See the pictures.

Reuse and Redefine

2009-10-24T20:15:00.004-04:00

Reusing and redefining has sort of been the mantra of Hardy House as much as possible. In keeping with that, Dave and I purchased an old antique dresser for about $175 at our local antique shop, Brick House Antique Center (see link). We plan to use it as our vanity in the downstairs bathroom at Hardy House.

If you want to make a vanity out of antique dresser, look for a dresser that can be easily modified beneath the top of the dresser. The dresser we bought was pretty simply made. We plan to just shorten the depth of the top drawers. If you can't do that, at least save the drawer fronts to give the appearance there are drawers there. The bottom drawers on our dresser will be used to store towels and toiletries.

Catchin' Up at Hardy House...

2009-10-24T20:13:00.001-04:00

A lot has been happening at Hardy House -

It's time to try and catch up, so gather 'round, and take a peek and see what we've been up to.

THINKING OUTSIDE OF THE BOX

2009-09-05T10:49:00.002-04:00

Dave wanted to enclose the ducts, I guess for different reasons. In the dining room we have ducts in two corners. We are going to be building cupboards around these ducts anyway, but by enclosing them within those cupboards, it will prevent anything I put in the cupboards from falling down in back of the ducts.

Dave was able to use plywood he had already on hand, so that was a plus. He built two half boxes from the plywood to fit around the ducts. They were easy enough to build but attaching them proved to have some issues as there weren't studs everywhere to attach them.

Dave purchased some inexpensive plates which he could bend. See the picture. The perforations made them easy to bend in right angles. He bent the plates over a 2x4 and then used a right angle/square to even them up a bit. He next attached the bent plates to the half boxes he built and then nailed them to studs. It worked great. My picture of the two boxes, installed, didn't come out. I will have to take another.

MYSTIC MASTIC

2009-09-05T10:46:00.002-04:00

Here's a charming little picture of Dave applying Mastic to the duct seals. Mastic is easy to use. Apply it by hand with a vinyl glove.

COAX and CAT6

2009-09-05T10:41:00.002-04:00

We are to the point where we need to get some extra wiring in. We are installing COAX for TV and CAT6 for phone and computer networking. We have wireless but we don't know the future so we're trying to cover our bases in case we need a backup. This picture shows the COAX for the TV hanging down in the den. That wire is going upstairs for the little TV we plan to have in the dressing area. The gray stick-looking things on the floor are extra pieces of the pipe insulation (see earlier post).

A LITTLE HERE, A LITTLE THERE

2009-09-05T10:21:00.004-04:00

We are now at the nitty gritty so we are doing a little bit of work here and a little bit of work there.

Case in point, I insulated the water pipes. We used 1/2" and 3/4" gray pipe insulation. We used these sizes because those are the sizes of our water pipes. The insulation is a gray foam, extremely light weight and easy to use. The pipe insulation is split and has a peel-off area that, when removed, reveals the sticky edges where the insulation closes around the pipe. In this picture, the gray verticle stripes are where I insulated the pipes.

Did I say this was easy to use? It also cuts like a dream with a utility knife. :)

Just in front of the pipes are two verticle pieces of wood that were installed for blocking. This area is in the den and is for support when we hang a television on the wall. We also installed blocking for toilet paper rolls and towel pars and where we think we might use handrails in the future.

APPROVED, APPROVED, APPROVED

2009-09-05T10:18:00.003-04:00

Before I forget to say it, all our inspections have been approved with flying colors. So far we have had inspections for framing, rough plumbing, rough electric, and a heating and insulation inspection.

Speaking of inspections, our building permit from the town actually expired at the end of August. Yes folks, it had been hanging in the front window for one year. I renewed the permit this week ($25.00) and the only thing left on it is FINAL INSPECTION. Yipee!!!!!! The new permit hangs proudly in our front window.

NICHES

2009-09-04T16:31:00.003-04:00

Last weekend Dave and I built a couple of niches or book shelves to take advantage of some wasted space in the hall/closet area on the second floor. They came out good.

Here is a picture of one of the niches. There is an identical one across the hall from this one. Dave, of course, built a jig to drill the holes along each side of each niche for adjustable shelving. I did all the sanding and helped with construction and gluing up. We also added a strip along the front of the shelf to make it a little more finished. Eventually we will have molding around the box. If you add something like this niche, make sure you allow for the drywall to be added around it. That's why the box looks like it is sticking out. It is sticking out so that it can accomodate drywall. Our boxes will be painted. (The shelf is just propped in the box in this picture.)

BRINGING IN THE BIG GUNS

2009-09-04T16:25:00.002-04:00

Whoosh!

It seems it happened that fast. Mike Jag (Jag Construction, Rochester, NY) had his crew in lickety split to spray in the foam insulation. All exterior walls and the roof space were done. It took a little less than two days. We were very pleased with the outcome and the crew. Here are some pics of the finished product.

PINK, PINK, PINK

2009-09-04T16:17:00.002-04:00

Before the foam insulation was applied, we needed to have something for it to adhere to in the event we removed the siding from the exterior of the house. We could have used a cardboard but we instead chose pink, fan-fold insulation with an R-value of about 1. Again, with the house the way it was built, no two bays were the same as each other or even the same in one straight vertical shot. Therefore we needed to measure and cut every piece. The only easy thing was that we had a pretty good system of Dave measuring and cutting (utility knife works well) and I applied the sheets. This was again easy because the nails were exposed from the exterior siding (facing inward) and I could just pop the insulation on the walls (between the stud interiors) and the nail points secured the fan-fold. Here are a bunch of pics.

BTW - fan-fold is relatively inexpensive and also works well to protect your floors, especially if you are just working in a small area. It worked like a dream.

BTW2 - to cut the fan fold, we set up an old card table with an old piece of door slung across it. It made a great cutting board and was easily moved around the house.

BTW3 - we only did this insulation to exterior walls and did not do the ceiling.

LIGHTING PICS

2009-09-04T16:09:00.004-04:00

Here are some lighting pics.

One of the things I did before we insulated was to take a picture of every single place there was a wire, duct, or any kind of plumbing. That way, we'll have a reference if we ever need to know where something is located behind a wall or underneath the insulation.

Okay - not many pics of the electrical. What I do have here are pics of the fans - one in each bathroom. Dave ordered them up and they will be super quiet. The other picture is of some of the eyeball lights we are putting in the house (Nora Lighting). They are adjustable spots lights of a sort to light up artwork and such things. They have a very big area they can light and their profile is small (4"). We have 6 in the house all together.

When you do your lighting, walk through every single room and figure out how you are going to use it and how it will be lighted and then you will figure out where to put switches, dimmers, and things like that.

We opted to only include dimmers in the dining room for right now as they are expensive when you start adding them to all your lights, though that is a goal.

PLUMB DIDLEY UMB

2009-09-04T16:06:00.002-04:00

As previously posted, our rough plumbing was completed and passed inspection just fine. I've added some pics.

SHED - BEFORE AND AFTER

2009-09-04T15:54:00.005-04:00

I found the pictures. Here's the shed before and after. Dave and I cut down all the overgrown shrubs and trees out back of the shed. I would like to make a patio area out there over the next year or two. The shed is in kind of rough shape but I wanted to get it scraped and painted, at least. It's really pleasant out back of the shed. Maybe next year it will get done. We also thought we might get the roof replaced on the shed this fall but I'm not sure we'll get to it.

AFTER A JOB WELL DONE

2009-09-04T15:54:00.003-04:00

Even though this post is a bit out of sync, I thought I would include it. Here's a picture of Dave and Jay Harding about 5:30 on a Friday afternoon, having a beer after a long and busy day doing electrical work.

Ignore the shed in the background. That was MY summer project. I scraped and painted it. If I can find a picture, I'll put that up. Emma, our awesome Yellow Lab, is in the foreground. She loves to participate in everything.

DRYWALL

2009-09-04T15:24:00.003-04:00

Yup. The time is near. Dave contacted Jerry Knibbs a few days ago and told him we would be ready for his crew this coming week. Due to another very large roofing job, though, Jerry's crew can't make it until the end of the following week.

Today is the beginning of a holiday weekend (3 days) and Dave took the day off today. We are building boxes around the corner duct work in the dining room and working on other various things.

Our geothermal unit was also delivered the other day. It's larger than I thought and is currently sitting on a pallet on the basement floor. It will eventually be hung from the ceiling.

MARGARET HAS LEFT THE BUILDING

2009-09-04T15:22:00.003-04:00

We believe Margaret has left the building. I'm almost sorry. Almost. I wish her well.

However...a garter snake took her place but Dave evicted her quickly.

MARGARET

2009-08-31T19:07:00.002-04:00

Margaret - it's a lovely name, is it not?

A few posts back I told you about our resident basement snake. Please see the prior post for a picture of this lovely creature. (Honestly, I shiver when the topic of snakes comes up.)

However, our resident snake still resides in the basement. We have not been able to capture her and every now and then, Dave forgets when he is in the basement and whoa! There is our little striped snakey.

Because of my distaste for any kind of creature that slithers, I have decided to face my fear head on. I have decided that if this snake was going to become part of our life for a while, I should try to learn to live with it. How so, you say?

I gave her a name. Her name is Margaret. A very unassuming, lovely, kind and gentle name. (Did you notice I also gave her a gender, female, of course, for the gentle gender.) I know this sounds terribly foolish, but since I have named our resident, Margaret, she has lost some of her fierceness for me and Dave and I now discuss her presence and call her by her name.

"Yes, dear, Margaret is still in the basement."

"Yes dear, I found more indication of Margaret in the basement."

"No dear, I have not yet found any little Margarets in the basement."

"No dear, I don't believe Margaret can climb stairs."

I am getting so that I am interested in the life of Margaret. Is she getting enough to eat? Will she become an albino snake if she never sees sunlight again? I find I worry about her like I would a small child.

OH! CAN YOU SEE THE LIGHT?

2009-08-31T19:04:00.002-04:00

Yeah - that's right - the light at the end of the tunnel. It really is almost there.

I see my last post was August 1 and today is August 31. I am bookending the month. So much to say...

Our Internet has been snarky the past couple of months so I have had very little access. This weekend things seem to have changed (for an unknown reason) and I have had consistent access. I apologize for my lack of writing.

I have tons of pictures and will sort through them and get some up on the blog.

IT'S COMING TOGETHER

2009-08-01T08:43:00.005-04:00

I thought I would update this post with some pictures.

The bottom picture is a picture of Jay Harding of Harding Electric.

The top is a picture of Gene and his son.

Jay Harding of Harding Electric in Palmyra came out to see us this week and he is working on pulling together the electrical receptacles we need and want.

This morning, Dave and I will be going to Brighton to pick up our lighting fixtures from Tuthill Lighting on Monroe Avenue. Can't wait. One fixture has not come in yet and Bruce at Tuthill is working through the manufacturer to figure out the problem. I don't know which fixture is not here but I'll learn that later.

The sun is shining today. Yipee! We have had an awful lot of rain.

As part of our geothermal system going in, a man named Gene will be coming on Monday to cut holes in the house for the duct work.

I left Gerry Knibbs a message that we hope to be ready for drywall at the end of August. I haven't heard back from him yet on his availability.

I don't know if I mentioned before that our rough plumbing was finished about three weeks ago and passed inspection with no problems.

Yup. It's finally starting to all come together. I'm planning family dinners again for starting in January, after the holidays. Where will the holidays be this year? Our house, of course. :)

LETTING THE LIGHT SHINE INSIDE

2009-07-25T16:29:00.002-04:00

Tomorrow, Jay Harding (Harding Electric) will be stopping by. We told him that we have finalized our electrical plan. We have realized that if we ever want to move in our space, we must hire some people to do work we know we could do ourselves - if we had time. So we are continuing to scrape together what money we can and hiring what we can.

Our plan for the interior is that Dave will lay all the fixture boxes because we are very, very specific of where we want them and not just on the nearest available stud. the outlets we are not as concerned about. We hope that Jay will give us a quote on doing the outlets, the switches, etc., and pulling all the wires. We are hoping that we can line him up for about two weeks from now. We shall see how everything goes.

We like working with Jay and he has done work for us before.

LET THE LIGHT SHINE IN 3

2009-07-25T16:25:00.002-04:00

In trying to save money we have tried to do as much as we can ourselves. To save some money on the electrical work we contacted our friendly local electrician, Jay Harding of Harding Electric (585) 329-1784, in Palmyra. He came out and talked with Dave about what Dave could do and purchase and what he, Jay, could get at a better cost.

Jay told Dave what to buy and also told him that the electrical box should come off the damp outer stone wall. Jay suggested Dave build a frame to hold the new electrical box on, just forward of the wall. Dave liked the idea and got to work. Jay came back and rewired everything, put up the new box and also removed the barn from the house, which was something we had wanted done since we bought the place. Cost: $500.

LET THE LIGHT SHINE IN 2

2009-07-25T16:22:00.002-04:00

These first of these pictures shows some of the debris that I had to clean off from the top of the stone foundation and around the sill. Corn cobs and all. The next picture shows the remnants of the shelves loaded up to take to the recycling/landfill center.

LET THE LIGHT SHINE IN

2009-07-25T16:06:00.004-04:00

This remodeling project has taken eons longer than I ever thought it would. Part of the reason is for stuff like the stove (see earlier post) and things like moving the electrical box.

The bottom picture shows what we started with. The old electrical box is to the left and then this big old set of shelves had to be taken down (my job) and all the wires overhead moved. The picture on top shows the wall after I removed the shelves.

THE BIG GULP

2009-07-25T15:54:00.002-04:00

Well, we had been hoping to foot the bill for everything with savings. We decided to take the big gulp and obtain a loan to get the heating and cooling system that we think is best. That is, we are going geothermal.

Again, we talked to several contractors at the Rochester Home show. We contacted three of the contractors we talked to. One never called me back. The other two were Geotherm, Inc. (Jesse Cook) (www.geothermhvac.com) and Energywise Partners, LLC (David Neale) (www.evanhee.com). We received comparable quotes from both companies and were happy with both people.

We ended up going with Jesse Cook for just a couple of reasons. One of the reasons was that he wanted to put in more piping for the water to flow through and the other was that he also wanted to hang the heat pump from the basement rafters instead of on the basement floor. Dave also felt Jesse was a little on the perfectionist side, a lot like himself. Dave liked that.

We took Jesse's quote to the bank and received a loan for the work. Jesse is also going to supply the duct work and the whole house heat exchanger. Of course these last two things were not figured into our loan so we are scraping together more money.

The duct guy that Jesse uses will be in next week to make the holes where the ducts will go. He expects to be at the house about four hours. That's cool. He will come in later to install the ducts.

Just the geothermal system will be $20,000 plus. Gulp.

As stated everywhere in this blog, we are in this house for the rest of our lives, and God willing, we will have long healthy lives. So, with that said, we are also looking at our lives as we age and retire and want to keep our monthly expenses as low as possible. We should be able to heat our home for about $400 a year with this system.

TO SPRAY OR NOT TO SPRAY

2009-07-25T15:48:00.003-04:00

Our insulation change was decided after attending the Rochester Home Show this past winter. We talked with several contractors but liked Mike Jag of Jag Construction (www.jagconstruction.com). Jag offers spray foam insulation and we liked what we heard. It is more expensive but the trade offs seem to be worth it. It will take only a few days to completely insulate our house and the insulating properties will be spectacular. Plus, Mike gave us a 10% show discount and there are tax advantages as well that made this a wise choice. We expect the insulation will be coming in within the next month.

Another point I got snitty about with Dave was that I felt like we are going to have to triple insulate the walls and this irritates me. First, we will be adding pink fan-fold insulation to the bare outer walls between the studs. This is for the foam insulation to adhere to. Next, the spray foam goes in (3"). Then, we have been told by another energy solution person (see later post) that we need to make sure there is no way for convection to occur in the walls, which will cause moisture. Therefore, we will be adding bat insulation on top of the foam. I'm irritated because it will be a three-step process now and also because it will cost us even more money. But, I don't think there is any choice. We move forward.

HOW WE GONNA HEAT THIS PLACE

2009-07-25T15:44:00.003-04:00

Our heating issue is a saga in itself.

Dave thought we would be using bat insulation. Because our studs are a weird size we felt we needed to build out every single one of them. This has added an enormous amount of work for us.

Dave also thought that he would hire this company in Pennsylvania to create a duct design for us. We did that and he gave us a great design and designed it within our constraints. The name of the company is Comfy House and they did a good job. This work cost us under $500 but we thought it was well worth it.

The problem is, we changed our minds - on the the insulation and on how we were going to heat and cool the house. They aren't kidding when they say changes cost money. Read on.

COLOR MY WORLD

2009-07-25T15:34:00.002-04:00

Again I had the panicky thought of what if I screw this up? My clean piece of paper (home) and I'll pick the wrong colors.

After meeting with Bruce (see previous post) I realized that he was looking for what kinds of colors we planned on using in the house. I thought I had been thinking of pale yellow and maybe a little blue but I wasn't sure and didn't want a French kind of style. I have never felt comfortable with color but I seem to usually be able to put things together fairly well. But now...I just didn't know.

I went to Border's and found a book that I love. It's called THE COLOR SCHEME BIBLE by Anna Starmer. It has saved me. This is how it works:

The book is in sections by color. For example "Pinks." Then each page in that section has a description of the colors and what they are drawn from. But the best part is it gives a base color (like for walls), say Cranberry, and then gives you suggestions for complementary colors. For Cranberry it gives you dusky pink, soft stone, sage green and black. It also tells you where you might use these other colors (on the walls, furnishings, fabrics, etc.).

Dave and I agreed on a scheme for most of the house. We are going with an ivory with complementary colors of pebble, fern, green leaf, and orchid. The den, which is mostly Dave's creation is going to be in forest, celery, soft fern, and dark forest.

Again, by picking our color scheme we can move on to other things with this focus in our minds.

WHAT"S BEEN GOIN' ON...

2009-07-25T15:04:00.002-04:00

We're not just letting the corn grow (though it is and has tasseled out almost overnight).

One of the things that was overwhelming me the most was the lighting options. I literally searched thousands and thousands of lights online. One of my problems is that I'm a little indecisive. The other problem is is that I like many things and many styles. I have a hard time focusing. I was all over the place.

I was scared. I equated this fear to looking at a blank piece of paper and being expected to write something exceptional. My new home was a blank piece of paper. I didn't want to screw it up.

Dave and I get along really well. If you don't you should NEVER undertake a project like this. It will certainly be the death of your relationship. I kid you not. But, just because Dave and I get along really well does not mean we don't get upset with each other and our predicament. Yes, friends, we are in a predicament.

Even though the lights are the last thing you hang, you have to know pretty early on where you are going to hang those lights and where you want outlets and switches. An electrician can't do his work if he doesn't know where to do it. Long before you know what style or paint you might choose, you may have to figure out what style of lights you want. Woe is you who doesn't have a clue. I didn't have a clue.

So Dave and I had a battle. He was home on a Friday as a vacation day and he was meeting with a contractor. I took a half day of vacation and was thrilled to come home and work along side Dave. Instead we argued. I left in a huff. It was over lighting and how we were having such a problem deciding what to do. I became rather childish (okay, I admit it). I took the car and left and said I would be home later. I let the car take me where it would.

The car got to the end of the road and said, "Turn left and go to the lighting store in Newark. Turn right and go to Tuthill Lighting in Brighton." The car went right.

I drove to Brighton, about 35-40 minutes away in the Rochester area. I had seen their Web site (www.tuthilllighting.com). I walked in the front door and was greeted by Bruce Bellwood, owner. His family has owned and operated this store on Monroe Avenue since 1924. I figured they were a good bet. It's one of the best decisions I made.

Though the showroom was not terribly large, I felt they could do anything. I know they could by their Web site. Bruce immediately simplified my problems. He said you need to think of only three things in each room, not what style or what fixture.

Think:
1. Ambient lighting - lighting the general area of the room (ceiling, perimeter, etc.)
2. Task lighting. Where in the room will you need to have light to do things like knitting, sewing, reading, etc.
3. Accent lighting. Mood lighting, anyone?

Bruce said that once you figure out that stuff, the rest is easy. It makes you focus which I needed desperately.

Bruce gave me several lighting catalogs that I could borrow. He also said that as a service they can take our floor plan and digital pictures and load them on their large-monitor computer (which was sitting on top of a large table in the showroom with chairs all around). Then he could walk through each room and we could all make decision together.

I asked the inevitable because money is pretty tight right now. "How much does this service cost?" Bruce's reply was, "Nothing. I make money on my products." I was sold.

When I got home, Dave met me with a smile. Bruce and lifted a huge weight from my shoulders. I hoped Dave would agree that we should use Bruce and Tuthill Lighting. He wholeheartedly agreed and even called Bruce the next day to set up an appointment to meet with him.

What Bruce needed -
1. A floor plan.
2. Digital pictures (even with the house in studs).
3. A text file or document that explained what we liked and disliked, what our thoughts were on color schemes and why we had made some decisions we had. This was not as hard as you might think because we had already figured all that out before we started this project.

I was able to email everything to Bruce by that Sunday. Our appointment was that Wednesday. It was quite fun. We sat at the table and there was all the information I sent Bruce up on that large monitor. He walked through our house with us as we talked about each room and how we would use the rooms. He made suggestions and got us thinking about things.

The next step
What Bruce asked us to do before our next appointment was to walk through every room and pretend we were living there and go through the motions of turning lights on and off, figure out any mood lighting, and how people move through the house, including the entrance, stairs, baths, halls, etc.

This was not an easy task. I believe it took Dave and I three hours to do this but it was well worth the effort. We realized we needed fewer lights than we thought which saves us money. We realized that in a couple places we still aren't sure of the style and so we are using light fixtures we already have until we can be sure.

At our next appointment with Bruce we got to go through lights and decide which ones we wanted to order. This was the fun part. Again, we sat at the table and looked through all different lights on the Tuthill Lighting Web site. We were able to refine our choices and placed and order for several fixtures. Even Bruce was excited about some of our choices. We left a down payment of half the total and are excited about our choices.

NOTE: You may believe that picking lights this way would be expensive but we compared prices and felt the prices were very comparable AND we got this great added services. We also got some very interesting fixtures that we will be proud to have in our home.

NOTE2: One of the other things Bruce suggested and we feel was a good thing was to put dimmers on everything except lights in cupboards and closets. It really does make sense and it saves quite a bit of energy.

FROM SNAKES TO SNAKING WIRE

2009-07-25T14:44:00.004-04:00

I'm up from the basement again. I just helped Dave snake about 40 feet of stove wire from one part of the basement (near the cistern) to the electrical box. Why stove wire, you say?

About two weeks ago our existing stove shocked (electrocuted?) me - up both arms. Scared the daylights out of me. A few weeks before that it had also zapped me but not as bad. Dave was feeling sorry because he knew there was probably a short in the stove. About the stove - it was 1970s-era, avocado green. A Tappan. It had had a good life. We were hoping to be able to use it until we redid our kitchen in Phase 2 of the Hardy House saga. Well, we had to do something.

We THINK we want to do wall ovens and a stove top when we redo the kitchen. The last thing we wanted to do right now was put money into something we didn't feel we would be using in the future. What to do? We went to Lowe's (they seem to be getting a lot of our money these days). We purchased the most inexpensive stove/range we could find. It is a Whirlpool and cost about $350.00 as it was 10% off from $398. We took it home with us where it sat in the barn until last week when we moved it in the kitchen. Dave spent all last Saturday working on getting the stove hooked up when I know he would have rather been working on the house. Of course, I told him if he wanted to ever eat again, I was going to have to have a stove. (I have now been without a stove for about 4 to 5 weeks our of 7.)

NOTE: Whenever you do a major remodel, it helps to have an outdoor grill and frozen meals made up in the freezer that you can microwave. Or, you can just go out to dinner a lot.

Anyway, Dave hooked up the stove and guess what? The new stove was live. Hmmmm. You know what that means, right? The wall wire was bad. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm quite happy we became aware of that so we could fix it before we had a fire. See the picture? Not pretty. The aluminum was just breaking off. Dave thinks that as he was working on the house and moving the wire he was braking it on the inside.

So the stove circuit went off again. Dave went to Lowe's who was out of stove wire and was told, "Sir, we can have it for you in about two weeks." No - Dave wants to eat. He also checked The Home Depot. He felt they were too expensive. The cost of the wire was between $1.50 and 1.90 a foot at these two stores. This morning we went to Colacino Electric (another fine Wayne County store) in Newark and we were able to purchase the wire for under $1.00 a foot. We were happy about that.

So maybe today I will again have a stove.

CHIPMUNKS AND SNAKES! OH MY!

2009-07-25T14:08:00.002-04:00

Not only are we being visited by chipmunks this year, but we have seen three snakes which is about 2-3 more than last year. We have had rather damp weather and I don't know if that is part of the problem.

This picture is of a milk snake (at least I think that's what it is). It's pictured in a bucket so it looks bigger than it was. The snake was not in the house but we think the mother may be living somewhere in the basement.

A couple of nights ago, Dave was working in the basement, dismantling the old furnace ducts and he comes into the house where we are living and says, "I knew it! I knew something was going to freak me out eventually!"

As Dave was removing one of the ducts from the furnace his eye caught some discoloration in the corner of the basement next to him. Only it moved. He thinks it was the mother of the snake in the picture. He estimated its length at about two feet.

I was asked for assistance in trying to find it. I was not an eager participant, let me tell you. But being the good wife, I, not too quickly, ventured to the snake pit. We never found her. We are hoping she found her way back outside.

We don't kill snakes we find. We let them be unless, of course, they are sharing our living quarters or seem lost. Dave scoops them up and takes them to the edge of our property and lets them go.

CHIPMUNKS CAN'T SWIM

2009-07-25T14:00:00.003-04:00

Yuck! We continue to have some issues with our cistern (yes, it still exists) and it holding water - not much - a few inches maybe. I just returned from holding the flashlight so that Dave could use the leaf rake to scoop two dead chipmunks from the water. I assume they got in through the sill and dropped into the water, drowning quickly. I hope so for their sake. I cannot believe we used to use this water, even though it was only for a very short time. I am so disgusted. At this moment, Dave is burying the little critters at the edge of the cornfield.