The mountains we climb

In what will always go down as a bitter sweet day, this past Thursday at 7:29 pm, we celebrated the birth of Ava Rose, my niece. At the same time we morn the death of her twin brother Jack Taylor, who we were never given the chance to get to know. It is with great conflict that I write here about the new joy in all our lives, a joy tempered only by the loss of the unknown.

Life after home repair

It has been a while since either of us have actually written anything here. So here goes.

I have stopped working on the house full time and have started to figure out what it is I am going to do to bring in my portion of our income. On that front I officially started a company yesterday at the old Ohio Secretary of State. As soon as I get the certificate in the mail my company Rooty Hollow LLC will be official. Effectively, this means I can open a bank account and that if I get sued no one can go after our personal assets. I have to say it was super easy to do, fill out a 2 page form and pay $125 and I was off.

I'm going to focus on web design for the time being, it has started off well already. Though I still harbor dreams of buying investment property in the future.

As for the yard we ventured out in to the jungle that is our back yard and pulled up hundreds of small trees and weeds over the last week. Now we are trying to decide what to do next: a garden, a flower garden, a deck, a patio, a fire pit, etc...

We'll keep you posted

Photo from this weekend in Athens

New floors

So I have spent the last week installing and finishing news floors on the second floor. The pictures are kind of grainy, I think the camera battery was low, but you get the point. The first couple are of the floors before and during the installation. Then after and with the finish. We used a Red Oak hardwood tongue and groove flooring with a 3 layers of oil based varnish to finish. Laying the floors took about 4 1/2 days and the varnish another 3. It's a long process but I have to say this is already the best result for anything I have done in the house to date.

Clean F***ing Coal

I hate to get too edgy in this blog as I don't want to offend my friends and loved ones with my rants. With that preface here we go. An article in the NYTimes today really got under my skin. It seems our short sighted leaders have all found something they can pass in a bi-partisan fashion. These geniuses are going to pass a bill that provides the coal energy industry with the following , among other things:

" loan guarantees for six to 10 major coal-to-liquid plants, each likely to cost at least $3 billion; a tax credit of 51 cents for every gallon of coal-based fuel sold through 2020; automatic subsidies if oil prices drop below $40 a barrel; and permission for the Air Force to sign 25-year contracts for almost a billion gallons a year of coal-based jet fuel."

(for those of you who bash on welfare, that last little piece about the Air Force is worth (1,000,000,000 gallons / 42 gallons/barrel * $65/barrel) $1,547,619,050, how's that for corporate welfare?)

All this so the idiots running for president, including Obama, can say they made progress on securing America's oil independence. Do these guys have any idea what kind of damage coal mining does to our planet? Have they seen the creeks of southern Ohio or West Virginia running yellow? Hello, have they ever heard of Acid mine drainage? Have they seen what happens in WV when they remove the entire tops of a mountains to get at the coal seams?

Of course these the coal industry and the legislators are good and are going to get the support of environmentalists by saying that the emissions from liquid coal power plants is less and therefore they are better for the air we breath. Hello, it's not only about the burning of the coal, it's also about the extraction. Besides has anyone looked into the process of turning coal into liquid coal? What are the bi-products of that process?

Okay I'm done.
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Well I'm almost done. Anyone, of these yahoos who votes for this bill loses my support in the 2008 election!

Jim

We're in

Hey all. We moved in this weekend. As of Saturday we have our own house. The cats could not be happier, we didn't realize how uncomfortable they were in the attic. I am continuing to paint the 2nd floor, we are living on the first floor.

It looks like the paint and floors on the 2nd floor will be done next week. Then we will have a whole house.

Week 14 updates

Here are more photos, including the final back splash, the wood floor after being sanded and before the varnish and the final bathroom sink

Kitchen counters is here

Okay here is the final kitchen counter, we will install the back splash this week, hopefully.

Also the bathroom floor and sink (being built)

The Bathroom with tile

These are a couple of pictures of the bathroom with tile. The floor tile is not quite finished, but you get the idea. Oh and this is the final wall colour. These pictures were taken at night so the light is bad, and the pink window will one day match the wood window.

The kitchen colour

Here's picture of the kitchen with it's final colour. The area that is still white will be covered by either the counter or the back splash

Slow but steady

We are steadily making progress on the bathroom. Last week we put up all the walls and floors. Today I finished the tile in the bath tub, pictures tomorrow, and will be putting the first coat of paint on the walls and ceiling tomorrow. If all goes well that will mean putting tile on the floor by Thursday and the toilet and sink in on Friday. It will definitely feel more like a house after that is done. The counter is arriving on Monday hence we would be able to move in then.

Week 4 (3 weeks ago)

This was our toilet for a few weeks. In other words, we drove to Bexley.




















This is the hole where you expect a bathtub.




















Things are starting to come together! Here's our new tub!




















Our new kitchen floor tile is going in. The big 15" tiles make the room look larger.





















We also have cabinets and most of our appliances. Today we picked out granite counters. They take a few weeks to order, so will be one of the last things installed in our kitchen.

OTENA

So, we have just moved into a neighborhood called "Olde Towne East." It's going through a bit of a renaissance, there is a huge mix of poverty with wealthy new neighbors. People who live there are very connected to each other and have been accused of being a bit nosy. People refer to it as "The Neighborhood" or OTENA (Olde Town East Neighborhood Association). There's even a listserv and regularly scheduled parties to check out your neighbors home improvements. Friend & neighbor Richard has designed a few tasteless, yet hilarious, logos for The Neighborhood. Enjoy!

It's ball time

Much to Jodi's chagrin Baseball season starts tomorrow.

The Red Sox's pitching is looking good and the hitting continues to be backed up by the best hitting duo in baseball, Manny and Papi. Of course the Bull Pen looks as weak as always and a few of the starters are rookies, so that could spell trouble. I would have to wager a guess that this is not another World Series year, though I think we will get a shot at the division title.

First game Kansas City, in Kansas City. Is that the Missouri or Kansas side of Kansas City? Either way we'll cream them.

Lessons for future re-models

Okay here are a couple of rules to live by when doing remodels. In no particular order

1.) Having contractors in house does not mean you get to work on your own projects while they are doing their thing. For each contractor you have in the house you will need to spend 10-15 minutes with them for each hour they are in your house. If you have 3 or more contractors in the house that amount of time will increase as you need to keep them from running into one another. Plan on doing paper work while they are all there, because you aren't going to get anything done yourself. Oh and don't forget to throughly inspect their work. The Cable guy's way of getting the cable in the house was to open the bulkhead doors and back door then lay the cable on the basement stairs.

2.) Do all your demolition, and I mean all, before you move forward. I have had to have the electricians out 3 times because I keep realizing I need to move another set of wires as I finish tearing down walls.

3.) Be flexible, old houses have quirks and wreak havoc on your plans

4.) When seeking opinions on major structural changes, ask lots of different types of people. I got advice from an architect, his contractor friends, a general contractor/home inspector, another architect and a series of friends. The most useful people have been the ones who have done what I want to do, in this case build a staircase. Also, read up on it before you start bringing people to show you what you need to know about. Though professionals have experience they won't always tell you what the do and don't know and have a habit of advising on things that are outside of their frame of reference.

5.) The people at the hardware store will become invaluable, get to know them well. Especially the old guys at the hardware store, they are a treasure trove of knowledge.

6.) Though they are good for saving money the staff at the big box stores don't know shit! Don't trust anything they say.

7.) Buy lumber from a real lumber yard. The discount stores sell cheap, warped, split lumber. It's will be worth the extra money.

Cabinets and Wonderboard

Well the Kitchen continues to make progress, as does everything else. The aforementioned walls have been primed. We have Cabinets up and tile down. The tile pictures will come later, though below are pictures of us laying something referred to as Wonderboard, no it does not fly and does not come dress in tights. Wonderboard is a flat board of concrete all dressed up in a mesh coating. Wonderboard adheres to the cement that hold the tiles to the floor, or wall.

The Cabinets look fabulous, an excellent find at Lowendicks in Newark (ph.740.323.3126). Below are pictures of their installation.

The bathroom is almost to the point where the finish work will begin, the toilet flange, the piece that connects the poop pipe and the toilet, will be installed tomorrow. From there I need to fill in the hole in the ceiling, where the old stairs were, re-drywall the ceiling and we are off and running.

I'm thinking of having Dealers Lumber mill wood flooring to match the first floor, it's 7/8" inch wide. It will be about twice as much as buying the normal hard wood floor, but it my be worth it for the looks.

Oh and a picture of the fireplaces Jodi has been pealing the plaster off of this week.

walls, walls and more about walls

Remember that brick wall that was being filled in. Well the drywall went up today. It feels nice to see something coming together as opposed to being torn down.

The photo on the bottom is the result of my friend Jeff re-building my cabinets, he took the drawer on the left out. Another thing being finished, with everything torn apart it was beginning to look like the demo was never going to end.

Oh, and it looks like we are going to be able to put a window above our back door, a little surprise discovery under all the plaster. There is a word for that type of window, but it is escaping me right now.

Mexico 2007

In what has become annual trek for us, me and some of my friends, and some of their friends, headed to Baja Mexico last week (from the 8th to the 12th of March). All in all 13 men camping on the coast due east of Ruben De Jarmillio (South of Ensinada). The camp ground overlooks a wave known as freighters (aka shipwrecks, not the one in Cabo San Lucas), generally a mushy long right that wraps around an old shipwreck into a small bay. From there we surfed in San Quentin (Beach Breaks), Roberts Lefts and Quatro Casas . The best surf of the week was at Quatro Casas a mushy head high day.

















much of the gang warming by the fire, drinking liquid grain refreshments of course

















Though behind ours the Mexican space program has to get its start some where

















Mike Davis, "The Doctor", walking the line at the Tiajuana border. He is trying to sell that spiffy Mexican blanket.

















A shot of freighters

Me, My new board and its shaper Tyler Anderson sole proprietor of Monarch Surfboards. BTW the board rode great I highly recommend Tyler's craftsmanship

















"Phat" Matt riding in the back of Seth's truck. Matt, like me, is east of the Mississippi spending most of the year in North Carolina

















More beer
















The planner and all around instigator of the trip, all props to Doug for this idea. P.S. if you are in Santa Barbara and need to buy beach wear, surf gear, or skate decks go to Doug's shop Surf Country in Goleta.

More photos of the house

Good luck! We'll see you in about 6 weeks! Really, Jim's mom has been a trooper - she's been over almost every day. She's the demolition mama!



























Our lovely kitchen almost as we found it - only the frame has been taken off the back window. There isn't much room for cabinets because of the 2 low windows, back door, basement door, door to the dining room and door to the hall.




















Kitchen with the old cabinets removed.




















Here's a shot of the back window being bricked in. This will allow us to have cabinets on the back wall.





















Here's a shot of the bathroom after we started construction. It's very small and PINK.




















Believe it or not, this is the bathroom now, but facing the hall. The part on the left is just above the bathtub, which will soon be tiled. Check out the beautiful wood doors and built in linen closet.




















Jim has started pulling up floor boards and insulation in the attic for the new stairs. The old ones were next to the bathroom and ran straight into the wall. Yes, you heard me right, the bottom of the narrow stairs ended at the wall. Now we have the option to finish the 400 square foot attic.

I'm Dead sexy

With spring lines already out, I thought I would throw in my contribution. Only the highest quality plaster dust coated green sweatshirt, accented here with with a simple gray and blue chemical mask. Hair done with plaster bits, wood chips compliments of 1224 Madison Salon.

Big Week

This has been a huge week. We closed on the house on Wednesday, last Monday Gavin met with my lawyer to propose an alimony settlement, and Jim has narrowed down the job market.

I'll post photos from the house as soon as we get more organized. We got started ripping up floors and walls about an hour after we closed. We are planning some pretty major construction, under the contracting firm of James Taylor enterprises. We are moving/closing a window in the kitchen, knocking out the bathroom wall to expand the room, building new stairs to the attic...

Jim has all of the contractors timed out in order of what needs done so it all falls into place. It's moving along really well - the kitchen floors and bathroom floors are almost totally ripped up, all fixtures and counters are out except the range hood, the bathroom wall is half down, we are starting on the wall where the stairs will go, and Jim has started prepping for the new stairs to go in. All within a couple days! I've never been so sore!

On the alimony thing, Gavin proposed to my lawyer that he make a lump sum payment instead of monthly installments. It's less than the full amount he owes me, but after the change in tax status and interest, etc, it ends up being almost the same amount. He's supposed to give a cashiers check to my lawyer today. Jim thinks it's still a fantasy to get any $ from Gavin, so I hope he's proved wrong.

On the job thing - Jim has like 4 job offers. Most of them are kind of open - "come work for me" and we'll figure out the details later type-things. He's sorting through everything from mortgage banker to manual labor/maybe business partner.