baconbits

Running my dehumidifier nearly constantly to maintain 55% RH isn't the best way, me thinks. I had water seeping (running) down the wall during a really heavy rainfall a couple weeks back. DryLok or something of the sort could fix that. Digging up and tarring the block on the outside or some other method like that isn't in the cards right now. I don't have a sump pump either so using one of those systems won't work either. In any event, the plan (currently) is: Monitor and maintain a lower humidity level in the basement than before (trying to stay under 60% or so) DryLok (or equivalent) the walls for appearance and humidity sake Finish main floor renovation (less kitchen and bath for now). Floor refinishing is slated for week of July 4th. Replace exterior doors. Replace basement steps (rot starting at bottom due to water problems that spawned mold problem) That will probably take me through the end of summer, after which I will replace all 14 windows using my company bonus, tax refund, and money out of pocket sometime next spring.

The mold guys tossed it! I was pissed... my grandma left it when she moved out. It had a dial for changing the radio station but a digital display of the actual station. It was great for tunes while working down there or in the garage.

Welp, finished products of the mold remediation... a couple weeks (months?) after I promised them. Ain't that how home ownership goes? First picture is looking at the small, half bath on the left with the built-in cabinets with 300 layers of (most likely) lead based paint. Musty carpet on the floor along with debris from when I took down the drop ceiling and re-wired the entire basement with 12-2. That was a trip because it was knob and tube with 10-3 spliced in which then went down to 12-2 for some 15A outlets, one of which supplied a full size upright freezer. Second picture is about 120 degrees to the right of the first one showing a cellar and the other wall (left, behind the furnace) that makes up the mold room. Ceiling tiles stacked semi-nicely from when I took them down. Third is the extent of what I pulled off and somewhat cleaned up (disposed of) in there. Notice the crumbling slopes under the windows. Other end of the mold room with some more built-in cabinets. First day of the remediation company. That would have been looking at the brown built-in cabinets from the first picture with the half-bath to the left. Looking from the laundry area with the half-bath to the immediate left. Looking from the same area as the previous picture, done. Step stool and my handy 18v Dewalt (along with random dust) from drilling and routing new electrical for re-wiring the main floor bedrooms. The bathroom had some kind of tar put on the wall. That's the extent of the asbestos floor I have... roughly 14x25. The yellow romex hanging in the foreground is from the bathroom and is not live anymore, so don't fret. I'm going to re-paint the basement with some water proofing paint (at least the walls) and it'll probably stay like this for a while... going to either borrow or buy a couple sets of saw horses and set up all of my interior doors so I can repaint them in one go (at least one side at a time). Because the floor is probably going to stay for a while, I might move the work bench over there along with wood working stuff (miter saw and radial arm saw) because it's easier to sweep on the tiles than concrete... and have a lot of space for longer boards.

The first three pictures are of the room as I started. This is where I began re-wiring the main floor bedrooms with romex in an effort to ditch as much knob and tube as possible. Yes, the room is bubble gum pink with brown shag. Fourth is the light I rigged up after re-wiring so I could paint and work on the floor. I think the ceiling was still wet at this point. Next two pictures are the color I painted (medium grey) along with rolling up the carpet and carpet pad... I was really anxious to see the condition of the original 1940's hardwood underneath. I took these pictures a week or two ago before I put the crown molding up (this past weekend) so no pics of that thus far. End plan is to put up some stretched canvas prints (black and white of course) of Cleveland and turn it into my office/man cave. I'll eventually have a black/brushed nickel ceiling fan up there, black or dark grey couch, wall mounted TV and my current, black/brushed nickel computer desk. I can't wait. I tried to get a close up of the condition of the floor... it's fairly worn (dirty from pad crumbling) so I definitely need to re-finish the floors... no big deal. Plan is to sand to bare wood and just poly over it with no stain... considering the bolder colors I'm planning for the hallway and living room, the lighter floor (white oak) is going to look really nice and balance it out I think. Last picture was my girlfriend's handiwork this weekend. The bed was about half as far from the house as it is now... she cut out a lot of grass and re-shaped it along with transferring a bush from the back yard. I traded a couple beers to my neighbor for his extra patio pavers for a simple edging for the time being. My girlfriend has big plans for this area... I just hope she's up to the task of maintaining it because I don't like doing anything like that. Mowing and weed whacking, fertilizing, sure. Gardening, hell no.

Welp, here are the long-awaited moldy room pictures. I'll have to get some of the finished state. The first picture is the same view as the third one. The second one is just left of camera from those two. Front and right of camera are clay block walls with waterproofing paint where there were 3/4 x 1.5" furring strips nailed directly to them, where the 1/8" veneer paneling was then nailed to that. The glass block windows' base row of mortar crumbled away allowing a lot of water in, and thus mold. The third picture is about 12 feet of it, where the wall right of camera had another 30 or so. Just on the other side of the wall (second picture) was another 15 or so covered by cabinets and a half-bath. While tearing it out (before I realized I was over my head) I found some newspapers used as shims by the builders dated 1942. They were only about 1.5" wide so nothing I could really read other than realizing most of the context was about the war. Cool stuff though. I think I've posted the last two pictures... that's all the stuff the mold remediation company took out of the basement... 20 foot dumpster.

I usually belly flop when I go OTB... been a while since I took a tumble to the side (knock on wood) so I haven't worried about collar bone breaks.

I've Superman'd over the bar quite a few times... I guess I've been lucky thus far. If its anything more than rather tame XC, I definitely use flats. If you ride clips long enough, the clip out motion becomes second nature after a while, even when falling. Second nature doesn't mean you get it every time though...

Clipless here when out on the trails... I swap out to platforms when I ride around town or go to Ray's indoor park.

I use RunKepeer.

I assumed you sliced your hand with whatever you were cutting the cable with, not catching a falling bike. Either way, here's to a speedy recovery.

I bought cable/line cutters meant for bike stuff... sure it cost a fortune because it's from Park, but damn does it work well.

I'd prefer to weld a bung on versus tapping 1/8" aluminum, but that's just me. Generally, in soft metals, you want 1.5x the diameter for thread depth - 1/4" fitting needs a 3/8" deep threads - to help prevent stripping.

I have a feeling the bung there is for their testing purposes and won't be there for production units.

No worries. A couple people (not on here) have said my stories have scared them away from owning houses. I'll never understand renting but that's just me. I'm hoping to have a shower like that once I add a bathroom to the upstairs bedroom turning it into a master suite. The bathroom on the main floor will retain the tub... although I might put a new one in. Now I'm getting ahead of myself. I still need new entry doors and 14 windows. The main floor is empty aside from the kitchen and the bathroom... pretty much living out of the bedroom upstairs which is making this easier. Once the two main floor bedrooms and living room are done, we'll move back downstairs and I can start on the upstairs. Or do the windows first. I haven't decided.

I bought my grandma's house and she moved into a condo. It's been largely untouched since the late 80s aside from paint to her "tastes" or lack thereof. I got for about 25% under market value so I've got no problem fixing it up. Sure, it takes away from car parts fun money but I'll get most (if not more) of my money out of a house versus a car where you almost always take a loss unless it's something like a McLaren. I also enjoy working on stuff like this. I worked for a family friend doing home remodeling over a summer break one year in college. It was one of the most rewarding things to stand back at the end of a day and think "I did that with my bare hands." Now I get to do it in my own house.

I'm a fan of this style with a full height glass door. http://stylusa.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/decorations-accessories-bathroom-minimalist-34-glass-shower-stall-for-small-bathroom-design-ideas-inspiring-bathroom-shower-stall-design-for-modern-bathroom-ideas.jpg As far as what I did today: I finished up some drywall touch up stuff from replacing all the outlet and switch boxes and finished wiring up new 20a outlets, switches, and simple light fixtures. Next is to remove the trim in two rooms, sand the walls (paint buildup from top of trim), and paint. Stuff should go faster now that I have light in these rooms... had only day light while working on re-wiring. After painting is done, I'm pulling up the carpet in two bedrooms, a connecting hallway, and the living room and refinishing the floors. Then I'm installing new base board trim and quarter round in the rooms and hallway, crown moulding in the bedrooms, and ceiling fans. Lots of work but hoping it's done before mid summer... living in the extremely rough, roughed in attic bedroom in the summer SUCKS from a heat standpoint. I'd love to be on the main floor before too long to make the summer bearable. Then I'm going to replace the entry doors. Then remodel the entire upstairs attic and almost straight copy what my neighbor did (his house from a structural standpoint is a carbon copy of mine built at the same time in the 40s)... I figure it should take less time though because he has a wife and 2 young kids and it's just my girlfriend and me.

Nah, I'd do a stall shower in the other.

Keep a tub just in case a family with young kids wants to move in. After that, stall shower is what I'd do. A friend of mine has a 2 year old and their only bathroom has a stall shower. It's not easy.

He meant "can."

Technically I needed a permit too but you need permits for virtually everything. I'm not paying $150 for a permit to replace a $300 water heater.

I guess I could start posting some pictures. I'm hesitant though because it's going to be a work in progress for a while... Anyway, this was last weekend. We're going to re-do the entire front yard landscaping (at least the beds by the house) which started with digging/cutting out the evergreens on the right side. That was a real treat, let me tell you, because they were there when the previous owners moved in 20 years ago. I'll get the mold room before/after pictures off my phone after I grab a bite to eat... you guys will want to be sitting down for those.

That happened 2 weeks after I closed on my house. Not a big deal to replace, right? Gas line, cold and hot water connections, flue... Yeah, 2 day project for me. Didn't get started until 6pm and by the time I had everything disconnected and ready to slot the new tank into place, I realized I couldn't re-use the old flue pipes and the new, braided supply lines I bought were too long... just in time for Lowe's (10 minute drive) to close in 3 minutes.

I'd be putting down about 300 square feet. The room would be about 12x24... I could do 14 but I think there's some building code out that says you need to leave at least 2 feet between any framed basement walls and the furnace. Makes sense to me.

Red and black checker board pattern. Bingo. I measured and sure as isht, they're 9x9. No kidding. I think you can pull them up as a residential homeowner... you just have to take it all to a landfill that accepts asbestos. Masks are about 20 bucks, spray bottle for water to minimize dust, contractor bags, duct tape and time... It wouldn't be that much of a problem if my floor didn't have a slight slope to it due to a crack in the concrete. If I want to put down NatureStone or self leveling concrete and ceramic tile, the VAT tiles have to come up. I could get that DriCore stuff from Lowe's/HomeDepot but then I'd have to level that and then cover that with something else on top of losing ~2" of ceiling height while having a step into the room. Going to worry about finishing the electrical stuff and painting the main floor for now. One project at a time... one project at a time...

I threw out a whole bunch of stuff with the trash last week... I was amazed at how quickly pickers took it off my tree lawn. I'll have some mold pictures for you guys later today... the company I had come in did a fantastic job. Found I have asbestos tiles in my basement... no worries though as they are not friable so no inhalation worries. Not sure how to cover them though and removing them (professional) is cost-prohibitive.