It Finally Stopped

About 7:00 this evening it finally quit raining. The total rainfall from Sunday until 4:00 this afternoon is 21.99 inches. I wonder if our downpours after 4:00 will make it two feet.

This is what it looked like at 4:44 this afternoon.



Now for a dry weekend.

It Has to Stop Sometime...Surely

I have never experienced anything like this. It just will not quit.

How many alerts can the National Weather Service issue?




Apparently at least one more since they just added Tornado Watch in the last few minutes!



We had decided that this evening we would try a Mexican restaurant that had received good reviews. Then the county was declared a disaster area so we dutifully stayed off the roads.

Thank goodness for delivery from Fat Tony's Italian Pub. We sampled three pizzas: the white one with sun-dried tomatoes, the Greek, and the Veggie. All received rave reviews. We gave the absolutely soaked delivery guy a generous tip.

It is so much nicer to be inside listening to the pouring rain.

And Still It Rains

After a brief respite this morning, the rains returned. My Sweetie and I did go for a walk and ran some errands before the torrential rain started up again.

Both tomorrow and Thursday's forecasts call for a 100% chance of "heavy rain". That could result in an accumulation equal to yesterday's record of 10.33 inches.

Remember that old saying about a red sky at night is a sailor's delight? I wonder what a orangish pink sunset means? And what about the mauve it became later?

Rain, Rain, and Yet, More Rain

As of 4:30 this afternoon, we have received 8.29 inches of rain which broke the record set in 1958. I think that the torrential downpours we have had since then will push the total for today to near 10 inches if not over.

If that isn't enough to deal with, this is the latest from the National Weather Service: (Please note that the caps are theirs not mine; I am not yelling...yet.)

.DAY ONE...TONIGHT.

THERE IS A SLIGHT RISK FOR SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS TONIGHT. THE MAIN THREAT WILL BE FROM DAMAGING WIND GUSTS AND POSSIBLY AN ISOLATED TORNADO. THE POTENTIAL SEVERE WEATHER IS THE RESULT OF A POTENT UPPER LEVEL LOW THAT WILL LIFT NORTHEAST ALONG THE APPALACHIAN MOUNTAINS TONIGHT AND TUESDAY. ITS ASSOCIATED SURFACE COLD FRONT WILL PUSH EAST INTO THE AREA BY EARLY TUESDAY.

.DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...TUESDAY THROUGH SUNDAY.

THERE IS THE THREAT OF FLOODING ACROSS THE REGION AS SEVERAL INCHES OF RAIN ARE EXPECTED TO FALL THROUGH THURSDAY ACROSS SATURATED GROUNDS. THERE IS AN INCREASING THREAT OF FLOODING ACROSS POOR DRAINAGE AREAS AND SMALL STREAMS WITH THE THREAT OF RIVER FLOODING PERSISTING THROUGH SUNDAY. COMPUTER MODELS ARE INDICATING IN EXCESS OF 6 ADDITIONAL INCHES TO FALL ACROSS A LARGE PORTION OF SOUTHEAST NORTH CAROLINA AND NORTHEAST SOUTH CAROLINA AS AN AREA OF LOW PRESSURE TRAVELS UP THE COAST AND TAPS INTO A DEEP PLUME OF TROPICAL MOISTURE.

It Was a Dark and Stormy Night

Literally.*

*Thanks to my Sweetie for coming up with tonight's post as he drove through blinding rain and darkness.

A Day of Doing Whatever We Wanted, Whenever We Wanted

My Sweetie is a gem. Yes, there are times when I don't quite feel like that but for the most part, he is indeed a gem.

This morning we were to depart around 8:00. Around is the operative word here because I can never seem to be ready to leave at the appointed hour. There is always just one more thing I need to do.

After falling to sleep around 1:00 AM, I woke coughing and choking (too much dust) around 6:30. But as those who know me well, I was determined to leave this morning. Around 7:30 my Sweetie walked into the living room, sat in his chair, and said, "I have a proposition." I delivered my well-worn but expected line: "That all men are created equal."

He suggested that we not leave today and spend the day resting and paying attention to the furry members of our family. Yes, the building inspector and her trainee. All of us needed a quiet day with no one drilling, hammering, or digging a hole in our basement.

I organized the Renovation Notebook, scanned some pictures, fooled around with my latest toy (a turntable that digitizes all formats of vinyl and also cassette tapes), loaded a flash drive with especially selected tunes for when I am driving and my Sweetie is sleeping, washed the car, organized the freezer, finished cleaning out the fridge, and ran the sweeper. It all felt so good because it did not involve anything to do with the renovations.

So it is off to bed in hopes of leaving really, really early.

We'll see.

Electrical: Day Two

I doubt that OSHA would approve of the level of noise today.

It is impossible to explain what a large drill bit sounds like as it encounters 93-year-old wood. I escaped outdoors but the poor building inspector could not.



(Please note that we are continuing to recycle during the mayhem.)

The current location of the kitchen light switch is not optimal since it is located almost 6 feet from the dining room door.



But the new one? What a novel idea to put it right inside the door.



The old lady was a challenge for the electrician when he tried to install the can lights and exhaust fan over the stove. Let's see; 5 holes for 3 fixtures? Could have been worse. He is working with a ceiling that has the original lath and plaster from 1917 and drywall that was added in the 60s.



Ah, the sink side was easier. 3 holes? 3 fixtures.



We have been very pleased with all the trades that have worked in the house. They are such hard workers. The electrician and his helper left around 8:30. They swept the whole kitchen. I should have taken a picture of it when there was hardly any floor showing through the lath and plaster and chunks of drywall.

But now for a break from it all as we head south tomorrow.

Bulletin: Lise Passed the Bar on Her First Try!

We all are doing a happy dance!

My Sweetie and I are so proud of Lise. What she managed to accomplish over the past three years is nothing short of amazing. I really can't imagine how she did it with a family of 6 and a menagerie of pets.

We love you, Lise.

Security

Today we joined the households that have security systems.

I have lived in this house since July 4, 1986. In those years we have had two incidents.

In the late 1980s juvenile delinquents went down our street breaking into garages and cars. They broke into our garage and stole a AM-FM stereo radio that my late husband and I had just spent hours installing in our Yugo also known as "the roller skate" because it was like driving one. (It was a car that I figured we could fix with a rubber band, a paperclip, or duct tape. Who knew that someone would actually be able to sell a book about it. Yugo: Worst Car Ever?)

They also tried to remove the one he had installed in the Landcruiser but to no avail because it was soldered to the frame.

Then in August, 2009, two young men were unsuccessful in their attempt to break into the house because of my hyper-vigilance of checking to see that all windows were locked. They cut small slits into the screens to reach in to push the windows up. When that failed on two windows in the back of the house, they climbed to the second floor, damaging a gutter in the process. They tried to gain access through one of the French windows in the sunroom but were stymied by the interior storms that we leave up year round because of the old, ill-fitting windows.

The police blotter in the weekly rag lists the burglaries and attempted ones. There seems to be an increase of break-ins during the middle of the work day. The one last August was 10:00 in the morning. They ring the doorbell first. If no one answers, they try to enter through the back of the house. On a few occasions that they have encountered a homeowner, they run out of the house.

I figured with the kitchen and bathroom gutted it would be too tempting for those thieves who specialize in stealing copper plumbing from vacant houses. Now I won't worry about it while we are away.

The building inspector was not pleased with York the Security Guy walking around on the first floor. (Tho later she did deign to sniff his hand since he is also owned by two cats. Yesterday she growled at the electrician.)



Definitely does not approve.



Now he is walking that way.



Wait! He switched directions.



And her trainee was not amused.



You, you did this. When is it going to be just the four of us again?

Electrical and More Playing in the Dirt

Today it was all about trying to run wires through the 93-year-old lady. Who knew that electricians needed to be strong. Old wood is tough. Good thing that Brett the Electrician is strong.



I kept hearing Mike the Electrician's Helper saying, "There's something in the wall here," as he struggled to push the fish tape through a small hole in the plaster. (Info for non-handy folk: a fish tape is more like a skinny metal measuring tape rather than transparent or masking tape.) Using electrical tape (yes, yet another kind of tape), he had secured the new cable to the end of the fish tape but wasn't getting it past some unseen obstruction in the closed wall. Eventually, he was successful as attested to by the electrical cable protruding out of an electrical box attached to the wall.

We now have wiring run to almost all the boxes for switches, outlets, and lighting fixtures in the kitchen and half bath.

The wiring in the north wall of the kitchen:



That's how they keep track of which cable is for which fixture. What did they use before markers? Masking tape? Can't read it? Double click on the photo.



While they toiled in the kitchen, my Sweetie and I rescued vinca minor aka Myrtle or Periwinkle and an azalea from the concrete crew who will be returning next week to do the final installment of the driveway. The vinca was easy; the azalea not so much.

In its 20 years it had grown to a spread of 4'x 6'. Fortunately, azaleas are shallow rooted so it was only heavy enough to make me question my sanity. Move the azalea? No problem. We'll just dig that puppy up and take it to the back yard and put it in its new home.

Instead picture two mature adults utilizing two-by-fours for a ramp, two shovels as levers, and the trusty garden cart and a lot of problem solving. But we persevered and it is moved. Now it had better not die.

If this post makes no sense, I claim exhaustion.

HVAC

Today Dave the HVAC Guy and his young assistant roughed-in all the plumbing necessary for the new toe-kick heaters in the kitchen. These will be connected to our hot water heating system. They also capped off the old, large-diameter cast iron pipes that fed the original radiator in the second floor bathroom.

Dave installed another pump on the boiler for the kitchen registers which will be on a different zone than the rest of the house. If the registers work as efficiently and effectively as he said, we will be warm in the kitchen without using a small electric heater for the first time since 1986.

I was talking to Dave the HVAC Guy about how I wish all of the tradesmen had the same name so I wouldn't call someone by the wrong name. He laughed and said, "But we both do have the same name." So Dave and Dave will return after the cabinets are in to hook up the toe kick registers. Supposedly the elusive electrician will put in an appearance tomorrow. Wonder what his name will be?

We had another tree service give us an estimate. We had been pleased with both the work and the price of this one. We were shocked to see that his estimate was almost $1000 more than the one from last week. It is also time to take down the 100-year-old silver maple that is becoming a hazard to both our house and our neighbor's whose property the tree is on. Usually the grow-fast-and-die-young silver maples don't get a big as this one. The sad part is that this was the home of our raccoon family that gave us such enjoyment this summer. We were hoping that she would return to have another family next year. As my Sweetie put it, "Raccoons or the house?"

We also continued filling in next to driveway. It always amazes me how soil just seems to disappear when you shovel it into a hole.

Tomorrow we hope to move the azalea out of harm's way when the concrete guys return to do the rest of the driveway. Thunderstorms are predicted but I will believe it when I hear the thunder.

Tomorrow Brought a Variety of Experiences

When no trades showed up this morning, my Sweetie called Mike the Contractor to find out what was scheduled for today. No one! Until the phone rang a few minutes later. Mike wanted his flooring contractor to look at the existing floor to double check him on species and size.

John the Flooring Guy arrived a few minutes later. Indeed Mike was right about it being a combination of various cuts of pine. John pointed out the heart pine that was quartersawn. It is a beautiful wood. Our floor is a combination of various pine, not all quartersawn.

After lunch it was time to put the top down and head to Edelman's Plumbing to finalize the selection of fixtures.

This number caught my eye. Why is the question that comes to mind.



Instead we selected a rectangular drop-in sink in pure white to go with the Dartmouth commode.







Over the weekend we decided that we should replace the commode on the third floor while we had a plumber in the house so Whitney will grace the third floor bath. It will complement the claw-foot tub nicely.

\

After spending more hours than I had hoped shopping, I was more than ready to play in the dirt. Getting out my trusty cart and shovel, I began filling in the ditch by the driveway. I decided to use the poor soil next to the garage to begin building it up. Imagine my surprise when I saw these morning glory seedlings.



Mother Nature cannot be denied even if a skip loader crushes everything it comes in contact with.

Finally, A Partial Day of Rest

Besides keeping the concrete wet and trying to bring some control to the first floor, my Sweetie and I had a restful day.

We even managed to go for a walk; it seems as if it is the first one since the renovations began. It felt good to stretch muscles that had not been used to demo, pack and move items.

To bed early to prepare for what tomorrow may bring.

Concrete and Greenery

This morning Ray, Ron, and Teddy cut the concrete and sealed it. The former is a heinous job as evidenced by the photos and video.

Note that they did not wear masks, safety goggles, nor hearing protection.








Ron showed me what his fingernails (or what is left of them) looked like after working with concrete for 28 years.



We had an appointment at a nursery so there will be no pictorial account of spraying the driveway with sealer.

When John the Tree Guy was here to look at five of our trees, he recommended that we visit Brotzman Nursery because they specialize in witch hazel, a plant I remember from my childhood. There are hundreds of cultivars now. Besides yellow, there are reds and oranges. Some bloom in December!

Since Brotzman's is a wholesaler, we expected to meet the owner, be given a catalog, and sent on our way. For two hours we rode with him in his serviceable pick-up and saw quite a bit of his 80 acres (the same size as the farm I grew up on).

Tim, who wrote a forward to the Bible on witch hazels published by the Royal Horticultural Society, is both personable and has a vast knowledge of plants. He pointed out two redbuds that were developed by North Carolina State University, Ruby Falls and Merlot. I am lusting after both of them.

He also took us to his home to show us what 40-year-old witch hazels look like. We saw the original Lavender Twist. Recently Tim sent one of his employees to his house to clean up the yard before a group of tourists arrived. The employee was a little over-zealous. When Tim saw that he had trimmed a lot of the twisted branches out of the original lavender twist, he could have killed him.

We asked for a recommendation for lunch and were not disappointed by Compadres. In fact, we thought it was the best Mexican we had in a long time. My quesadilla was made with the lightest, flakiest tortilla and was filled with chicken. And the sopapillas? Yummy!

And it was a gorgeous day to ride with the top down.

Driveway

Today we had another sign of progress toward having at least one project finished. The driveway was poured from the garage to the back edge of the house. Even though Mike the Contractor objected to my saying it was gorgeous, it is really the most attractive concrete job I have seen. Judge for yourself.

It is labor intensive.



To protect the finished concrete, plywood is used as a shield.



When I returned from getting my hair cut, the other half was poured. Now to wait until it sets up just enough to enable them to stamp it. Wait too long and it won't work.



Teddy using the "skin" to create texture where the mats won't fit.



Isn't it gorgeous?



When I went to get wood for a fire tonight, I was astounded to see that the morning glories we had to rip out on Sunday were blooming.

Garage: Day Four

Today we had positive signs of making the garage whole again. The floor was poured! Oh, happy day!

All is ready for cement.


Where is that truck?


Sure beats a wheelbarrow.


But it is still back-breaking work.


The final touch done with a smile.


Videos of the process:

Garage: Day Three and Plumbing: Day One

No more worries about the garage falling down since the lally column was put in today. As Mike the Contractor was making it plumb, he kept staring at it and the back wall. Finally, he came over to us and said, "Look at the column and then look at the wall."

Oh my goodness, that wall is leaning to the right. I would rather it leaned to the left.

I don't think that this is the approved use of a wheelbarrow but it was handy when Mike the Contractor needed to check the level of the beam.



The forms were laid for the garage floor and the driveway to the back edge of the house. Then the gravel bed was laid with wire mesh on top. Tomorrow the garage floor will be poured. Finally, something will be almost finished. John the Carpenter still needs to replace the rotted sills and sister the wall studs so they actually support the wall.

We had our first inspection today. Mike the Contractor arrived at our house a bit upset since he could not reach the inspector who was scheduled to sign off on the driveway in order to pour concrete tomorrow. After going to city hall, he told us that an inspector would be here at 11:00AM. Sure enough a man in a tie appeared in our back yard. As we were walking toward him, I heard Gary telling him that it is the exact same footprint as the old drive. Apparently, the inspector thought that we were enlarging it to be more like a patio. So we reassure the man from the building department that this is the same size as the asphalt one.

Sign of relief as he signs off on it. We are good to go tomorrow for the pour.

Meanwhile in the house, two plumbers made great progress on running all new supply lines and drains in the kitchen, the half bath, and the second floor bath. What a noisy, smelly job.

So between the noise of the compactor outside and the noise of cutting pipe inside the cats hid under a bed for most of the day. But now they are both sound asleep curled up next to me. Home renovation is tiring.

Garage and Porch: Day Two

One step forward and two back sums up today.

The carpenter braced the garage this morning. Whew! No more worries that it will collapse.



For awhile it looked as if we were going to have to demolish the front porch and forego the screw piles. I was so disappointed.

As we knew, our sewer and water lines run under the porch. After all that is why the porch is sagging. In 1999 when we had, what I not so fondly call, " the ditch from hell", the crew did not properly support the porch wall while they excavated under it to replace the sewer pipe.

Because of the way the footer and wall were rebuilt and the location of the lines, the screw piles were not a viable method to raise the porch to move the sidewall back into position.

Ken and Ed, the two ditch diggers, opined that they would have moved the lines instead of digging up the old ones. Of course, if it had been done that way, the porch would never have dropped the way it did.

So my Sweetie said, "We should move the sewer line. Then you guys can dig without worrying about the old lines and Jim can use the screw piles." Jim, the boss, looked a bit stunned.

So that is what is going to happen tomorrow morning. But only after we move all the stuff that is in the way in the basement. Yes, the very same stuff we moved there about a week ago to set up a rudimentary kitchen. We will empty the 7-foot armoire that holds our dishes, small appliances, cooking supplies, and foodstuff.

Plus we need to relocate two four-drawer filing cabinets that we felt certain would not hinder any tradesman.

After tomorrow we will have chaos on every floor except the third. There can be no problems on that floor or I will go to Tahiti where impatiens grow like weeds.

Garage and Porch: Day One

My, what a busy day. We had a total of nine tradesmen at our house: a concrete crew, a screw pile crew, a plumber, and Mike the Contractor. And the first visit from a city building inspector (the real one not my furry friend).

There are so many stories from today but I am too tired to relate all of them.

I fortunately did not witness this one. My Sweetie was standing in the garage with Ray and Gary when the skip loader dislodged a chunk of concrete near the support post in the center of the garage. The column moved an inch sideways which caused it to snap. My Sweetie, being a bright man, left the garage in an expeditious manner while one of the crew got two 2x4s from the truck to use as shoring. My Sweetie gave them a 4x4 landscape timber we had from another project. As of this writing the garage is still standing.








Meanwhile two guys were digging next to the front porch to ascertain if there was a footer or not. (The third man is the boss.) So far, so good. Complicating their work are the sewer and water lines that run next to the porch.







Hey, they left the key in it. Shall we take it for a spin?



And at the end of the day, Mother Nature asserted herself into the follies of man.

It Was Dirty Work But Someone Wanted to Do It

Why is it that everyone thinks I am crazy because I like to do home improvement? Demo? Bring it on.

Today my Sweetie and I had to take everything out of the garage in preparation for the concrete guys to begin working early tomorrow. And I do mean early! I will probably still be asleep when they arrive but will probably be awake soon after.

After we had emptied the garage, I just happened to look up at the ceiling. There were still pieces of masonite that had probably been there for almost 70 years. They just had to go.

And I did indeed get dirty. You can't tell but I am smiling behind my mask. Also I am showing my Sweetie how I can touch the electrical cord with the crowbar and operate the garage door. Hmmm, that is so not to code.



Here is a guided tour of the garage and all its blemishes.

How Cool Is This?

This morning a nice, short, gray-haired man backed his large truck past our dining room bump-out that makes the driveway very narrow. Did I mention that there is an enormous tree on the other side?

Then he raised the bed which consisted primarily of two rails. He got out of the cab and walked over to look into the dumpster with a quizzical look on his face. When I asked if something was wrong, he replied, "I was told that it was a roofing job." Nope, how about a kitchen, a half bath, and a full bath?

He said, "There isn't any household garbage in there, is there?"

"Absolutely not. John told us about the 20 tires."

"Yep, they get picky about what is in there. Tho you could put a body in there and they wouldn't notice."

He gave me a strange look when I said, "We unfortunately didn't have one."

I thought the process of getting the dumpster on the truck bed was cool.

Bathroom Floor Is No More

It wasn't nearly as bad as everyone thought.

John the Carpenter was pleasantly surprised that the mud floor did not have a layer of mesh between two of concrete. So it took about half the time he had planned. It's good to finish early on Friday.

Drew the College Guy had the worst of it. He was the one to carry five-gallon bucket after bucket down the stairs, through the kitchen, down the veranda stairs, and then heave them into the dumpster.

Let me digress for a moment. Dumpsters are magical. Kitchens and bathrooms disappear into them and then they go away - tomorrow we hope. The new car is being held captive in the garage. My choice. I didn't want it to sit out under the trees. Birds show no respect for its pristine condition.

But back to the jackhammer. My Sweetie and I were meeting with Pat, the landscape architect recommended by a neighbor. So for two hours, we three walked around our double lot. The jackhammer was far enough away that it wasn't even annoying.

So with no agony on our part, the floor was almost all gone. This is all that is left of the hexagonal tile and concrete.




After Pat left, my Sweetie and I continued to clean out the garage. Who puts all that stuff in there? And why? With the cautionary tale from John about the call he received from the recycling station wanting to charge him $25.00 a tire for the 20 that were dumped into one at a job site, we were very selective in the items we tossed in from the garage cleanup. Pieces of wood, yes; household garbage, no.

Besides being magical, dumpsters are also therapeutic. Flinging pieces of a broken window into ours was so satisfying. My Sweetie was very happy when I agreed to toss an old particle board bookcase that we used in the garage to hold all manner of gardening potions.

Now we have the house to ourselves for two days. The cats are smiling again.

The Bathroom Is Gutted

Today it was the bathroom on the second floor that fell to power tools and good ole muscle power.

I hated this bathroom when Richard and I looked at the house in 1986. Not only did it have pink fixtures; they were three different shades of pink. I kid you not. Then there was this wallpaper. Who knew that you could make a Southwest-themed wallpaper with Scottie dogs? Oh, wait. Are those ponies?



As a stop-gap measure I bought this flowered wallpaper out of the remainder barrel. Oh, dear. Not so temporary after all since I think that we put that up in 1993.



The digital photos do not accurately portray the particle board (tho obviously custom) vanity with its brown laminate top and constantly falling off backsplash.




This photo shows the lovely new window we put in. A previous owner had covered over the window but left the triple track on the outside with a window blind taped to it. From the exterior it looked as if we never raised the blind. Instead of looking out a window, we looked at a large mirror with a fluorescent light. It gives me the willies just writing that. It was a happy day when the third floor bathroom leaked overnight ruining some of the ceiling in the second floor bath. I tore that ceiling out with a song in my heart. And since I had the reciprocating saw in my hand, I cut into the wall to free the window.












Why didn't we renovate sooner? Inertia? Perhaps the fact that I rarely used that bathroom may have contributed to the delay. Out of sight, out of mind?

Tomorrow brings the loudest demo: jackhammering out the hexagonal tile which was set in 3"to 6" of mud. Grab the ear protection or be out of the house.