Up and Running with Scissors

As usual there is a long delay between posts.  Well, one gets busy.  Since our last eventful entry, much has occurred.  Living Arts Yoga (Kathy) is now teaching yoga in the Manor's main hall!  Woohoo!  This gives Kathy more space to spread out and more opportunities for classes.  Results so far are mixed insomuch as her attendance has not increased much, but I'm sure that will come as we get the word out.  She can be read at here and on Facebook here.  We also have a sign out front for Living Arts Yoga.

We have A/C in both upstairs and street level (Main Hall) which helps tremendously when she has classes or when we get a rental.  We had the one "friend rental" for the ladies group, and we have a wedding reception coming up in October. Hoping to get the improvements done well before that time comes.  Even so, things are pretty good for groups to meet in the great hall.

Upstairs is coming along much more slowly, but we need to get moved in there.  We're not ready.  Much still to do upstairs.  I think I need to call a moratorium on rentals after October until we get moved in.  Need to focus my energy there.  It's hard though as money has pretty much run out for now.  So I can do things that require labor or materials that I already have.  Big purchases are not happening for a while. Next week I will detail more of the improvements we have made and add pictures, after we get the new internet up and running. [That's why no pictures today]

Bye for now.

House Away from Hot House

As stated, the A/C in or residence on Brazos St went blooey-- I think that's the technical term, yeah-- so it was getting pretty hot in the old homestead.  First it was a minor problem, but it was just the precursor to a total collapse of the system.  We don't understand...it was only 24 years old...what's the deal?

Anyway, while we're getting money together and an appointment with super busy A/C guys, we decide to camp out in the Manor.  We put up an air mattress, brought clothes and toiletries, and temporary kitchen stuff.  Kathy had her new tub.  Ooooh!  Aaaaahhhh!  and I had my new shower.  Yay.  The a/c there worked fine.  Things were okay.  We were there for 5 days.  I liked it.

The new system on Brazos is smaller, more efficient, and more effective than its predecessor. Good job.

I'm going to use some of the parts from the old unit to make an attic vent for the Manor.  All will be well.

In My Defence...

[Yeah, I know, "defense".  Bad puns are my life.]

So the fence got done with the exception of the gate opener which I am leaving for the future when time is less hectic.  We, Kathy and I, have painted floor of the Main Hall- two coats, thank you very much.  It was actually a real ordeal just getting the paint.  Who knew floor paint was so hard to get?!

We've started (finally) painting the kitchen cabinets (another paint based ordeal)  When that's done I'll sand the floors and we may move on in and do the rest at our "leisure", as if either of us have any of that.

The flood set us back on time and money.  Then the HVAC system at our current home died a horrible yet painless death.  $$$$$  {see next post for more on that}  Kathy's car had to have an engine transplant; it's engine froze up...on the highway...in the middle of nowhere...on the way to Dallas.  The GEM (electric car) was in the shop in Tyler. The Prius in the shop in Dallas.  Charley's Scion in the shop in Denton.  Three vehicles- three counties- $$$$$$$  But I digress.  The estimate from the contractor to fix the basement was $60k if they do it all.  Nearly $15k just for materials. *heavy sigh* 

Did I mention I'm a retired teacher?  in a small town? in Texas?

We have just enough liquidity to install the HVAC in the Hall.  I'll do the prep work myself and save a few bucks. By the end of next week, we'll be cool with that. I'm also installing a shower in the restroom. Yoga classes can then begin.  We have a rental in two weeks. +$  Hectic time.

Drive Gate Picture

Just a quick posting of a couple of pictures of the drive through gate and the wall repointing in progress.

Brute Force and Ignorance Ironwerks (Ogre Myers)

Finshed, hung gate

Vernon and Kathy repointing (after some instruction)

Water water every-stinkin-where...!

Floods suck!
On the night of April 29-30, 2016, we experienced a flood.  7 1/2 inches of rain in less than an hour overwhelmed all drainage strategies and the water rose.  I saw cars floating around like ducks on a pond.  The water ended up about 4 feet deep in the basement.  It was devastating, but not so devastating as the loss of life across town. A grandmother and her four grandchildren were drowned in her home, and another man was drowned trying to save someone else.  For us, it was just stuff.
I was so tired already and was up most of the night with the flood.  Still dealing with the damage and other effects.  My security cameras didn't stop recording until the water reached the mid level plugs so we got video of the water coming in.  Downloaded the video, edited by speeding up the frame-rate, and posted it to YouTube as "Nickel Flood Video".  Below is the link.

https://youtu.be/DNa9RMGYTgU

We lost tools, materials, and a big tree.  There was lots of damage including some pretty tough structural stuff.  Then the community came together.  A couple of hundred people showed up to Old Town and in Westwood to help with clean-up.  Without help, none of us would be dug out even yet.
We'll be a while getting back to where we were, and longer than expected to get moved in. We'll be fine.

Flooded basement

Vehicles stacked up by the water

Community comes together

Better late than never...I guess

yes...yes...I know-  It's been 10 months since I posted anything here.  Mea culpa.  Been a little busy lazy about writing.  That said, I have not been lazy about the work.

Updates:

• I retired from teaching over New Year's Day, so now I can devote more time to the work.
• We have also now hosted 3 weddings at the Manor (and I presided over a 4th offsite).
• HVAC is installed upstairs with a "zoned unit" so that individual areas can be controlled separately. 
• The kitchen cabinets are built and installed; they just need sanding and painting.  The appliances are there, just not installed yet.
• The Guest Bath/ Kathy's bath is done. (see pics below)
• The shower in the Master Bath is built, although the rest of the bathroom is not.
• I have cut a roof access point in the upstairs hall with a cupola on the roof to cool the attic.
• For now, a large window unit is cooling the Main Hall pretty well.
• The Main Hall is also scraped and painted and has turned out nicely. 
• We found that the old baptistry was still there, lined with copper sheets.  Removed the copper for sale and readied the area for other things.
• I'm going to start my Accessible Restroom in June.  I'll also be adding a shower to the existing restroom.  Things are looking up.
• The drive gate is hung in the back ready for the opener next week.  The rest of that fence area will be done then, too.
• I have built the basic retaining wall for leveling the garden area, with the facade to come later.
• Brick mortar has been repointed on the lower north wall helping to seal off the basement from seepage.

However...
A couple of week ago, we had a huge flood.  The whole of Old Town was flooded, and we got about 4 1/2 feet of water in the basement and back yard.  Cars floating by, etc.  Everything had to come out of the basement.  Much was ruined.  Much more was damaged but reclaimable.  There was some structural damage that will set us back quite a bit of time and $$$$, but that's life.  (No flood insurance.)
We'll just keep on keeping on.  I will attach some pics below to illustrate our progress and maybe have to spill some over to another post.

 Main Hall

Guest bath

Master shower (the window is reflection)

retaining wall part 1