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

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.

Major Progress...Sergeant Success

Okay...since last we met...
We got the meter moved over and the "pigtail" drop from the power pole connected.  Woohoo!  Shortly after that, Jim V and I got the power connected over from the new breaker box to the old so that we still had power to work with.  Of course we didn't just patch it over; we made important improvements to the system to make it safer as well.  Oldest fuse box-- gone.  Old meters--history.  Questionable connections-- reconnected.  I also started pre-wiring the basement.

This weekend, I have been busting my tail to get other things done.  Finished decking the floor in the "new" bathroom.  Put electricity into it, too.  Hung a solid door that needed lots of work.  Got a lot of cleaning done, and made a lot of progress on straightening up the main floor.  I'm trying to get it ready for Kathy to teach yoga there soon.  Kathy got into the act as well.  She took the shop-vac upstairs and started getting that in shape, too.

Everything is moving forward.  One weird and troubling thing... the walls were sweating so bad there were puddles on the floor.  This humidity coupled with the thermal mass of the thick brick walls makes for a lot of condensation.  Going to have to deal with that, too.

Next week, Thanksgiving week, will be a holiday for me all week.  Going to bust a gut to get lots done, while learning my lines for "Nevermore" (see http://notonys.blogspot.com). Going to be a busy life for a while.

It just floored me!

     Today I finally made some real headway on the floor of what will become the handicapped accessible restroom.  I was having trouble largely due to the fact that, as with much of this building, nothing is regularly spaced.  The slots for the floor joists vary as much as 4 inches from one to the other.  Even their lengths vary as much as 2 inches.  But, regardless, I have one-third of the decking down now.  When the decking is done, I'll lay the hardi-backer down, then the flooring.

     On an even more positive note, the inspector passed the new breaker box and meter assembly.  By the end of business Wednesday we should have the meter moved from the old, rather dangerous box, to the new, and a new power drop from the pole connected.  Then the wiring can start.  We will start with the upstairs- the living quarters.  Once that is done, we'll do the main floor.  Of course is has to be commercial code, whereas the upstairs is residential code.  Once all that is done, the basement will get the electrical make-over (also commercial code since it is connected to the floor above).

     One sad thing to report:  Some #@%&$# bag shot our male hawk. We have, sorry, had a pair hunting the area of the creek that runs along the property. I found the male in the yard Saturday... dead with a gunshot to the body. There can be no reason and no excuse. And since red tailed hawks mate for life, the female is now a widow. No more baby hawks.  I'll call the game warden Monday.

Broke in hearted

I've had about all I can take.  We were broken into yet again.  This time, two man-sized people broke in via a 100 year old window.  When they entered the main basement area the alarm started blaring so they kicked open the 130 year old door and left...with the lawnmower, the weed whacker, the hand grinder/cutter, and a gas can.  They also broke the exterior light in the yard just for fun.  Financially, this will set us back on our schedule by quite a bit.  I have reinforced the basement doors and windows.  I will be putting in a camera system. and the Police are going to do a walk around at night.  I guess I need to get the back gates up and locked.

Game of Porcelain Thrones

Success!  We now have two toilets in what will be the "Ladies Room".  The permanent lavatory should go in tomorrow with the dividers shortly thereafter.  This is a major milestone on the way to habitable.  The vinyl tile floors were hell on my knees and back (even with knee pads), but it was worth it.  Once the sink/lavatory is in, I can start bringing the water and drains upstairs and over to the "Gents Room".  If I had to, I could stay there now.  I wouldn't like to, really, but I could if I had to.

Somebody tried to break in last Sunday, but were foiled not by the alarm system, but by a well constructed door and the steel bar cages on the basement windows.  Take that!

Here is a sequence of pictures of the restroom construction:

Potty mouth

Much is happening:  got the fencing all done, of course; began scraping the paint off the ceiling (harder than it sounds);removed a lot of "stuff" to another location; removed the floor of the NW first floor room; and...trumpets please... am now ready to put in the first toilets!  By this time tomorrow I expect to be able to answer the call of nature without crossing the street to Kroger's or hiding behind a tree.  It's a big step.  I've also decided that instead of separating the restroom into two independent restrooms, I'm going to make the NE corner the Ladies' room and the NW corner the Gents'.  Each will be wheelchair accessible (that's the plan anyway).  In between all this I put up a new mailbox post on Brazos to replace the one that was rotted.

On a completely separate note:  Someone once again tried to break into the Manor Sunday night.  They kicked in one of the panels on the basement door, but the resulting opening was too small to get in.  They also tried to get in by way of an alley window.  Ha!  The steel cages on those windows foiled that attempt rather nicely.  Had they gotten in, the alarm would have quickly sounded anyway, but that would have gotten me out of bed, schlepping down to the building to meet the police.  I fixed the door.  I'll be installing my cameras.  As soon as I can afford to, I will put the bars on the rest of the basement windows, too.  Take that!

Countdown to construction... 3...2...1...

Five more days until I can get started as the general contractor, plumber, electrician, carpenter, landscaper, decorator, and day laborer on the Nickel Church Project. We've come to start calling it "the Manor" so that people don't think I'm actually going to use it as a church. My plan is to commit to 30 hours per week as a minimum in order to get things moving. However, it's summer in Texas which means HOT. HOTTER! HOTTEST!! Afternoon tempuratures around here run from 97 degrees F (36.1 C) now to about 103 degrees F (39.5 C) by August. Early starts and a siesta in the afternoon. We mzungu can't take too much heat 'til we adjust halfway through the summer. Probably won't post anything else here until I've started again.

Windows 2011

No, not a new computer platform. We're getting bids on new windows for the "manor". We've recently made some design changes that I think will be for the best. Can't wait till this summer so I can really get to work.

Things look good down there all trimmed and clean. Hope to be ready enough for a party on July 4. Plumbing will be a priority! I was just thinking: If we could get plumbing working, we could conceivably move into the Grand Hall and finish the upstairs as we go. It's worth discussing. Hmmmmm....