For those cold winter nights when your spouse makes you sleep in the garage

One of the curious things about our house is presence of radiators in the garage. They are along the wall, just under the windows. Our garage is detached from the house, so it's not as though the garage needs to be heated.

Ah, the joys of a time of cheaper gas.

The one that got away

I've mentioned this house before. This is the one that we probably would have purchased if the listing agent hadn't been impossible to reach and totally non-responsive. It also had an awful listing photograph:



This was the only photograph in the listing, and is displayed here at full resolution.

It appears to have been relisted listed by a different agent, after quite a few months off the market.

It's really an attractive house, for the right person, although I believe that the asking price is too high. I think, right now, something around $20-30K would be reasonable, with the seller paying the back taxes and city assessments. There are numerous small code violations that need to be fixed, and there is a leak in the roof in one spot due to a gutter that doesn't have a downspout. The big issue is that the property was not properly secured and the copper plumbing has been ripped out everywhere it could be reached with a bolt cutter.

The lot is more than twice the size of what one might expect for a duplex like this - .4 acres. If we had purchased it, I'd convert it into a single family home. I'd take the opportunity created by the lack of plumbing to have all the mechanicals replaced. One could buy this house and have the mechanical work done very comfortably in a 15 year mortgage, with money left over for other rehab work in the house as well. When one considers the size of the house, the yard, the location, and that you'd essentially have a very livable shell with great mechanicals for $100,000, it suddenly looks like a good value.

What bank would be willing to finance such a project, with the economy as it is? I discussed this with my lender, Third Federal Savings & Loan, who said that there should be no problem getting a loan to purchase and rehab this house, so long as the house would appraise for the total value once the work was complete. The rate would be the same as their published rates for a standard mortgage (currently 4.8% on a 15 year or 5.05% on a 30 year). They'd require that an outside contractor would do the work. Other than this, they saw no problem with my plan.

It's a great house for someone with a bit of vision.

Water, water everywhere

This fireplace is in our master bedroom, directly above the fireplace in the living room. It's been raining on and off for the past couple days, and with the rain, a rather interesting occurance:

Water is dripping down the marble crosspiece. It is somehow coming down behind the wood trim of the mantle, presumably due to bad flashing somewhere along the way. Sigh. We're going to keep a roofer busy for a while. I'm not sure which one, but one of them...

Cheap Oriental rugs?

I've been searching several local Craigslists and some auction houses in the area for an Oriental rug for the dining room. Nothing too fancy, just something large (9x12 - 10x13ish) and in a reasonable color palette. In our price range, I was expecting something with plenty of wear. This didn't seem a real issue to me - I want this rug to use, not as an investment.

For some reason, I hadn't seriously looked at eBay. I checked it from time to time to see if there were any rugs nearby that looked good, but never found anything. I must have assumed that shipping would be very expensive. Imagine my surprise when I noticed a rug within my budget that met my criteria, was ending soon, and had the "free shipping" icon next to it. I assumed that the price would be bid up in the last couple minutes. I left the tab open and was surprised to see, later, that the price it reached was quite reasonable and still in budget.

Pleased with my discovery, I investigated further. I found many rugs that would do quite nicely in our dining room in the $150-300 range, shipped. Here are a few:
A 9x12 rug for $180
A 10x13 rug for $220
Another 10x13 rug for $160

As the price goes up, the designs become more appealing. I also observed that rugs that had been patched in one spot but were otherwise quite nice at quite low prices - sometimes less than $100. Perhaps they would not be right for the dining room, but for a room where part of the rug might be covered by a piece of furniture, these could be a good value.

Unfortunately, this purchase will have to wait for a while. Due to the recent damage to our roof, we're holding off on major purchases until we have a reasonable estimate or two.

Not lazy, efficient

We just got the estimate for fixing the ceiling in the library from our general contractor. $300-400. I'm starting to think that I'll do it myself, especially as the amount of work that our roof seems like it will require mounts up - but that's a story for another entry. It's a chunk of money that the house probably needs more in other places.

The challenging part of the repair is the crown moulding, which is plaster. I'd have to cut a straight line near the edge of the crown moulding, cut out the existing plaster and fiberboard, and put in new drywall. Messy but relatively inexpensive. $30 worth of materials - $40 at the most, knowing how I go through mud.

I'm starting to think about a much easier alternative, thus the title of this entry. Perhaps I could just paint over the water stains with Killz and then repaint. What are a few unsightly bulges in the ceiling, anyway? No one (except me) complained when they were smaller.

My real fear, I think, is that I'll tear out the ceiling and be forced to deal with the plumbing for the bathrooms, which sit above the library. While it would be quite handy to have access to them, I fear all the things that might be wrong - and if the ceiling is going to be open, they should be dealt with now.

There is a problem that many of my projects run into while they are in my head, in the planning stage of the game. We plan to be in this house for at least the next 27 years (not that I'm counting down the years until retirement, but I doubt I'll ever find a better place to work, so there's no real reason to move until then), and probably the next 60 years. Thus, I look at things here long term. If I can do something once and do it right, I want to do it that way. I don't want to take the cheap short cut.

It seems, in my head, that every project leads to another project. Fixing the roof requires insulating the attic which requires rewiring the attic... does it never end?

I see dead slates!

When I woke up on Sunday morning and looked out onto the breezeway, on my way downstairs to get the newspaper, this is what I saw. Note the broken slates and the couple hundred pound chunk of ice. Also note the chunk of wood broken off of the porch railing - however, that is minor, in comparison to the roof.



When I went out to get the newspaper, I saw that the gutter on the breezeway had suffered some significant damage, too. Doh!



The worst part, however, is underneath this dormer.



Here's a detail from one side.



And from the other. Note the row of slate hooks. Note all the copper, almost pristine, indicating a relatively recent repair. Clearly we need to address the root cause of this ice damage, namely, the large pieces of ice falling off the house, or this will continue to be a problem for the forseeable future.

---

Update:
Dennis M. Crookshanks will be over this afternoon to evaluate what we can do short term to prevent leaks as well as to look at the house and determine what need to be done long term. Here's hoping...

Ack! Water leak!

I've been trying to snake out the sinks in the two second floor bathrooms. Since they both back up to the same wall, it is difficult, becuase the snake is inclined to go into the drainpipe for the other sink rather than down the drain. I had to take apart the trap, of course, because it is impossible to get the snake down the drain.



Anyway, it seems that I managed to jostle the tank of the beautiful original toilet sitting next to the sink, or so the coming events would tend to indicate. On Thursday, feeling absolutely awful and realizing I really needed sleep so that I might get better, I called in sick. Around 1 in the afternoon, A. noticed that there was water dripping through the library ceiling! I ran around, trying to catch the water, protect the contents of the library, and shut off the pipes.

The secondary shut off valve for the second floor bathrooms was so old as to not be terribly functional - when I shut it off, it started spraying water all over the place in the basement. This does not portend well for the other shut off valves down there. Anyway, I was finally able to trace the leak to the toilet shown above - water was leaking from the tank, dripping onto the floor.

When the plumber and general contractor came, they found that the mounting bolts for the toilet on the floor and wall had completely rusted away. They can get the parts, so it's just a matter of waiting for that to happen. Meh.

Now I'm just looking for a way to fix the damaged finish of the floor in the library. It looks all gray from the water. First, of course, we will try to wash the floor - I hope a certain amount of this is just plaster dust.

I'm torn between really really needing another good day of rest and starting to tackle the ceiling in the library.