House Week 35 & 36: Trimming the Windows and Entry Doors

Now that there is a bit of paint over the interior walls and ceiling in the east side of the house it is starting to feel more and more like a real house.  One addition i decided it was time to get moving on was some trimmings around the windows to help finish off their look and really bring the house back to the 20’s.  I found a fantastic Wood Worker, John Kraft (who does not have a website, so message me for his contact info if you are looking for an amazing carpenter).  We were put in touch though Belmont Hardware when i decided that chiseling out the front door to enlarge the mortise area was a bit beyond my skill-set, a realization that occurred in the form of dreams where i put a giant hole in the front door and spent the next two months looking for one that was the same size.

After getting through getting locks onto the doors we discussed a couple of options for casements around the doors and windows and decided to go with a relatively flat look that has a small bead of wood along the header intersection to help break up the to portion of openings and give them a bit of grace.  Aren’t they fantastic?!?!?!?!

  

    

Most of the windows are complete along with all of the exterior doors.  The interior doors will follow in a few months once the floor is in place to ensure the casings are flush with the floor with the exception of the bathroom door which has been hung to give everyone a bit of privacy within my still totally a construction zone home.

My very first Housewarming gift!

This is totally my kind of neighborhood. There is a bbq down the way with bicycles locked up to every pole on the street and I was just given an amazingly tasty loaf of Banana bread...my favorite!!! It is super nice to feel this house thing really is all worth it.

House Week 34: It’s a dusty job, but someone’s gotta do it … Dusting the walls to prep for paint

Now that the drywall is up, mudded, and sanded it’s time for me to get to work clearing out all of this drywall dust from the walls and ceiling so i can get the drywall sealed with primer and move onto the fun real decorating portion of the home owning.  You would think that this would be a super fast thing to do, but drywall dust is a tricky little buggar.  The dust is super fine and it seems to evade all types of cleaning cloths.  The project was begun using plain old terry cloths rags and a ladder which drained not just my patience but also all of my energy.  It is super annoying to rub in circles on the ceiling removing drywall dust at the speed for a square foot every 20 minutes.  So i turned to the all shortcut knowing internet to assist me in speeding things up…there had to be a better way.

The better way was found deeply rooted in a message board post about cleaning up drywall to prep for paint where someone mentioned Swiffer dusting cloths.  Normally i would have shied away from such and un-eco friendly method, but the terry cloth rags were so full of dust i wasn’t going to be able to wash them either so it seemed like a worth while trade to give the Swiffer cloths a try so out came a box i have had for many years to give it a try.  The results were an entire ceiling in 20 minutes.  It was a very nice change!!!  After depleting the box i ventured out in search of more of these magical drywall dust removers to finish the work and returned endowed with 15 boxes (running out would have been annoying).

The rest of the house went smoothly and i have decided sticks with rags on the end rock!  All of the walls and ceilings are dust free and in only four evenings after work, not bad.  Unfortunately the “tower of towels” was thrown away before the documentation ceremony could occur so i leave you to imagine what a nearly two foot tall stack of dust laden Swiffer cloths stacked in a slightly leaning tower looks like.

Helping out in the NeverNever

Sometimes the ads in the BART stations have an instantaneous giggle producing effect on me...enter the fairy assistance ad. Getting a couple dollars off for checking in somewhere or status on a scoreboard is cool, but assisting fairies in modding their bodies is much more intriguing. I wonder if there is a chart to track the fairy morphing progress? Or if I could pick the fairies to assist or meet them and determine the wing type and shape. I think I may need new wings myself ; )

House Week 33: I have to install how many switches???

Now this may only be a 1200 sq foot home, but i think it has enough electrical plugs, switch, and lights for a 4 floor hospital!  Luckily it’s super easy to install new duplex outlets, so there it begins.

I managed to race through the standard duplex outlet plugs installing all 35 in less than a day.  It basically entailed stripping half and inch off of each of the wires, bending them into a slight loop, pulling the loop over the screw on the outlet, tightening the screw and attaching to the wall…with more screws!  Piece of cake!  Then it was onto the GFCI (Ground Fault Circuit Interrupters).  These are the fancy ones that trip at the switch when they are overloaded.  In 2010 these were required anywhere with “water”, so the bathroom and kitchen counters all required these special plugs.  The special plugs were very special in price (1500% more than standard plugs), but extremely easy to install as they had the screws to attach the wires to like the standard outlets, but you can also wire them by inserting the stripped wire into the back of the outlet and setting the screw.  No need to try to keep the little buggar in place and following orders.  As there were three in the bathroom and four in the kitchen this rounded out a morning while waiting for my latest building inspection, sign off for power!!!

From the plugs i moved onto the switches.  I found some fantastic push button switches with an inlay of mother of pearl at Rejuvenation (where all my gorgeous lights are coming from).  Very similar to what the house would have had when it was built in 1920 they were also a critical style detail for me.  They sell all of the basic “types” of switches in picture below right to left.:

• Single Pole – These are singularly responsible for turning things on and off and have a single mother of pearl inlay on a button
• 3-Way – These share the responsibility with another switch somewhere else to turn on/off the light(s), these have mother of peal inlays in the top and bottom buttons as both are live
• Dimmer – These come in both single pole and 3-way versions, unique here these have a “button” for the top portion of the switch and a turn knob in the bottom to control the brightness of the light, there are even different wattages 300 or 600!

I have most of the switches in, but a few will have to wait until my final inspection as there are building codes about what kinds of switches you need in laundry rooms and bathrooms, which is lame.  Oh well, lame doesn’t mean i don’t h ave to do it…so off to find occupancy light switches i go!  Here are a few receptacles attachment pictures.

     

House Week 31 & 32: No love lost in saying goodbye to an old friend … the portable toilet has been removed from my front yard!!!

Over the holidays both us and the tile guys worked towards a single goal of finishing in the floor in the bathroom.  So what’s so important about the floor you ask?  Well the floor needed to be finished to set the toilet, which has been in my living room for 7 months, but more importantly once there is a toilet the portable toilet in my front yard would get to go away!!!

Not surprising the motivation was right and i’m happy to say the toilet was set before the new year.  The Shower walls and floors are completely done and beautiful.  I’m so impressed at how well everything is coming together.  Well here are the pretty pictures…  Someday i may even get a bathroom door ; )