Sunday, November 30, 2014

Just Scraping By

I may not have posted much here lately, but I have not been idle.  No no, not in the least.  I cleaned and cleaned out the main floor and held a Hallowe'en party at the Manor on, of all nights, Hallowe'en.  We had food.  We had fun.  We had guests galore.  One picture included here.
Us in period-appropriate costume

Since then I have been scraping paint off of the 12 foot ceiling in said main hall.  It's been a tough job.  At times I have hired a couple of guys to work on it, but I always end up having to go back and redo their work, so I'm doing it myself.

I've also cleaned and organized the basement and nearly finished the required framing upstairs.  To top it all off we had a few close friends over Thanksgiving evening for "leftovers around the fire".  No pictures were taken as we were just relaxing and didn't care to.  Will keep anybody who cares posted.  Later.

Thursday, October 16, 2014

I was Framed!

Not a long post tonight.  Having trouble sleeping, but just as I began typing, I started getting drowsy.

Life has been a speed bump in the road to complete the Nickel Manor.  Health, work, family, financial reality all have had their feet on the brakes.  But we're moving again.

The now hoisted and nailed bathroom wall.


I have finished framing in the kitchen, and I have nearly finished the the two upstairs bathrooms' framing.  I am to have some help on the plumbing (which I never finished), and then I shall tackle the wiring.  Sometime before the end of time (or December 31) I will hopefully get moving on the kitchen cabinets with Mike R's help.  There will be an ending, Bonarotti! (movie quote, so sue me)

Wednesday, March 19, 2014

Getting the lead out.

Okay, so the title of this one is a little tricky.  Think lead, pronounced  /led/, the metal.  Then go to its Latin name plumbum from which we get the elemental symbol Pb for it.  Finally morph that into the modern word for the pipes that carry water and waste around our homes and you have it: Plumbing!

So I've been working on the plumbing of the Manor, trying to get it roughly to where it needs to be before finishing.  As I got to the point of putting in the drainpipe for upstairs, I found something surprising and problematic.  In the space between ceiling and floor, running next to the joists, I found the original ceramic drainpipe still in place.  This is, however, when we bought the place, that was not being used as an upstairs drain.  It was sealed off and "alternative plumbing solutions" were employed.  (For that read rubber hoses run behind the walls.)  The problem this creates is that I must now remove this ceramic pipe to make room for the new drains.  That means cutting away a large section of the ceiling to get to it.  My back can't handle that these days.  And that means I have to hire someone, which in turn means less moolah for other things.

Bummer!

On the good side, Kathy and I got the big pile of rubble cleaned up and hauled off.  It was all the broken brick pieces, concrete shards, chunks of plaster, and just plain rocks that had been piled up in the back yard of the Manor for nearly a year.  Of course it kept growing during that year.  The area looks sooo much better.  Step by step-- inch by inch-- task by task--- we approach our goal.

Thursday, February 6, 2014

Baby it's cold out there.

Okay, so I've been pretty lax about working down at the Manor for a bit.  It gets really cold in there!  Freezy fingers get smashed and slashed and gashed pretty easily.  Boy's gotta be careful.

Once I got my propane heater back from the "Grinch's Lair" (Jeremy Janz, Sonia Martinez, and Ian Warmke), I am able to work pretty well.  I've done some down there, but it's hard to find the time.  So much to do- so little time.  There are three upstairs windows I need to rebuild, one ground level window to finish rebuilding, and most of the basement windows to redo.  After that, rehang the garage/basement "barn door" and work on sealing it.  Those are the next things on the agenda.

After that, plumbing to the upstairs.  It shouldn't be too hard to rough it in since we will have a  "wet wall".  (Am I over-using quotation marks today?)  I want to get this done before spring break in March.  I am NOT on track for a July move-in so I must get myself in gear.

Wednesday, January 15, 2014

...in sickness, and in health...

You must have noticed- no blog entries here for a while.  That's because I was sick for nearly a month.  It was one thing leading to the next.  As a result, I have done almost nothing on the building.  It's a pain, believe me.  Better things coming.  Be sure of that.