What I did at my house today...

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Gothichome
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Re: What I did at my house today...

Post by Gothichome »

Willa, that poor kitchen floor has had a hard life, but I know you can bring it back. Looks like you had at least two linoleum rugs over the years.

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Willa
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Re: What I did at my house today...

Post by Willa »

Gothichome wrote:Willa, that poor kitchen floor has had a hard life, but I know you can bring it back. Looks like you had at least two linoleum rugs over the years.


The perimeter was definitely shellacked. There is scrap of carpet linoleum on the threshold of the former basement doorway (previously drywalled over as the kitchen would have had FIVE doorways in a 130 square foot room with a large window = where can anything go ?).

The layer of flooring below was 1950's or 60's Armstrong sheet flooring - sort of a green cracked ice pattern with blobs of gold glitter. Fancy ! But not good enough to be salvageable. It feels like the centre of the floor had been waxed. Oddly, the kitchen floor seems to have been a hardwood v.s. the softer pine or fir floors in the rest of the house ?

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Willa
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Re: What I did at my house today...

Post by Willa »

Gothichome:

p.s. When things are in less disarray I will take pics that include the plinth blocks you sourced for me. They worked perfectly with the casing for the powder room. The carpenter said they were defintely much harder than the pine casings - that was the only grumble.

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Willa
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Re: What I did at my house today...

Post by Willa »

Lily left the valley wrote:It's much, much worse than I realized.

Fortunately, the one who did is super. Reasonable rates, efficient, and I learned a lot from him today. We feel so lucky, because I was at at the point of just calling down the local list, since the two highest rated via the web weren't returning my call.

Oh, and one nice bonus, the plumber said that despite the work that needs to be done, we still got the house for a good price. That was nice of him to say.

Speaking of water, good news is that despite the heavy rain storm that just came through, I can already see where some of the regrading work I've done is making a difference compared to before. There's still a lot I should be finishing, but so far...it's much better than it was with much less rain prior. :dance:



The plumbing stuff feels grim (plus $$$$$) but an experienced and wise plumber who does the job right is a good investment.

Yay for the grading improvements helping. It's such a simple fix - though a labour intensive one.

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Corsetière
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Re: What I did at my house today...

Post by Corsetière »

Gothichome wrote:Corcetiere, what prompted you to take the lead abatement class, try to sort out fact from fiction?


There's an order to abate the lead on my property and I need to know the best and quickest way is to handle it properly. I think when time permits, I will create a post here with some screen shots from my textbook so others can benefit. A very important thing I learned is that the textbook says you should not even attempt to strip paint with a heat gun unless you are using a "Powered Air Purifying Respirator (PAPR)". I friend of mine used a half face respirator and had a blood test with high lead levels - which is significant because she was planning to get pregnant in the near future.

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Corsetière
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Re: What I did at my house today...

Post by Corsetière »

Willa wrote:
Corsetière wrote:Well, I just completed a week long course in lead abatement, and learned quite a bit. For instance, I had no idea that they sometimes added lead to shellac as well. One of the men in my class was also attending because he had an abatement order on the property as well and they tested his non painted woodwork which came back positive for lead content. lol! Isn't that a fun fact! :roll:


Congratulations on completing the course !


Thank you! It was grueling!

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Ireland House
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Re: What I did at my house today...

Post by Ireland House »

Last week we officially finished the total re-piping of the hot water. It starts with a 7 section manifold, so all baths etc. get equal water pressure for boiler. We can finally take two showers at once! With 5 people that is so cool you cannot imagine. Only had to put a few tiny holes in plaster to feed a camera or wire pulling rods. Pex and sharkbites are a wonderful thing. Couldn't imagine having to pull down all those walls for hard piping. But.....................

Last night we found where that funky smell in the entryway originated. We opened a coat closet that had been stuffed with boxes and pretty much forgotten. (Guess too many closets can be a bad thing) Mold everywhere! Pretty good drip from cold water line from upstairs main bath. Tracked it down to the pipe that runs from the sink to the tub. Under the floor. Under my original 1" cut tile floor. Through the 7-8 inches of concrete on which said tile floor is laid. Can I cry now? My brother in law is bringing his thermal camera tonight so we can track which joist spaces have the pipes. Praying we can temporarily run Pex to fix the leak and make it pretty when we renovate that bath at some future date. The hot water currently runs through cpvc behind the wall radiator, so they are hoping to do something similar once they get fresh water lines upstairs.
Today is my happily ever after.

Texas_Ranger
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Re: What I did at my house today...

Post by Texas_Ranger »

Re: lead paint: there's a US source that claims lead paint was banned in Austria-Hungary in 1910. Recently I found some documentation from 1925 that clearly mentions lead white as the pigment to be used for several white paints. Guess I should change my attitude about sanding and stripping...

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Manalto
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Re: What I did at my house today...

Post by Manalto »

Not at my house, but for my house - I needed to get a little smarter about window restoration, so I took a ride up to the Mohawk Trail to see what I could find. Lo and behold, I stumbled upon (after a short but picturesque detour to Florida) a clean, well-organized establishment, whose proprietor was welcoming and willing to give this total novice some sorely-needed instruction in the art of window restoration. What an honor and a treat to spend a short while at Heartwood, learning how window restoration is done by the expert. I left more prepared and eager to take on my project and, I hope, just a bit smarter.

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awomanwithahammer
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Re: What I did at my house today...

Post by awomanwithahammer »

Manalto wrote:Not at my house, but for my house - I needed to get a little smarter about window restoration, so I took a ride up to the Mohawk Trail to see what I could find. Lo and behold, I stumbled upon (after a short but picturesque detour to Florida) a clean, well-organized establishment, whose proprietor was welcoming and willing to give this total novice some sorely-needed instruction in the art of window restoration. What an honor and a treat to spend a short while at Heartwood, learning how window restoration is done by the expert. I left more prepared and eager to take on my project and, I hope, just a bit smarter.

Oh, how I wish I could get some hands-on instruction there! Second-hand will have to do, though.

Wouldn't it be fun to do an old house circuit, stopping off at all the houses we read so much about and know almost as well as we know our own! TexasRanger, yours might be a little more out of the way, but it sure would be great!
Bonnie

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