Pipes and Wires

This view looking west from the kitchen shows the entry hall with the side door to the left, the stairs to the right and the full bath straight ahead.  Lots of pipes and wiring exposed!  The corner shower is visible against the back wall; the doors aren't installed on it yet.

Just after the HVAC guys finished up, the plumbers came and spent a few days running the pipes for our bathroom, kitchen, and laundry room.  In most new construction, the plumbing vent is run up straight through a wall and emerges from the roof.  Because of our timber framing, this was going to be problematic, so we got permission from the building inspector to place a vent on the side of the house.  The plumbers are going to run dirty water from the washer and the laundry tub into the existing septic system, while the kitchen and bathrooms will drain into the new septic system.

We found the old septic tank, finally......but not by choice!  One Saturday two weeks before Christmas, the downstairs toilet barely flushed.  I also discovered that the kitchen drain didn't work either; it wouldn't drain.  When I opened the outside Bilco doors to the basement I discovered a few inches of water on the floor and promptly panicked.  We had a major problem!!  Of course, these calamaties never happen on a week day.  Thankfully, the folks we rent our porta-potty from also pump out septic tanks, so a quick phone call put us on their rounds for the day.  I guess we weren't the only ones with a problem and we sure were thankful for the porta-potty until they arrived.

The ground was saturated, making it easy for Scott to take a metal probe and locate the tank.  Turns out it is about 5 feet from the northwest corner of the addition.  The septic guys discovered not only tree roots (very fine ones that had crept in under the concrete cover), but a whole bunch of sand in the bottom of the tank.  In retrospect, we should've had the tank inspected before we bought the house.  That way we would've known (a) where it was, and (b) if it needed to be cleaned out!  Live and learn.

The electrician:  After the plumbers left, our electician Dan began work.  Although I'd indicated the location of outlets and light fixtures on the floor plans, I decided to revisit my original thoughts and I'm glad I did.  I wanted to make sure I had plenty of outlets and I wound up adding quite a few, particularly in the kitchen and the laundry room.  I also added two light fixtures, knowing that the older I get the more light I need to do tasks, read the paper, etc.  The electrical panel is going in the laundry room where it will be easy to access if we trip something.  It would've been easier, from a wiring perspective, to have put it in the storage bedroom, but Scott & I agreed that if the power went out 20 years from now, the last thing we'd want at 80 years old is to navigate the stairs with a flashlight!!  The alarm for the septic mascerator tank pump is also going in the laundry room, where I can see/hear it if that pump stops working.

It's so rewarding to see it all taking shape.  We're now getting quotes on insulation and dry wall.  I'm hoping it will only be another few months before we're done.  Wishful thinking??

our new Unico heat/AC system

Grace Energy's installers have been here two weeks now, running the duct work, installing the air handlers, and putting the Unichiller, a heat pump made by Unico, in place.  It's been fascinating to watch them fit into often-tight spots (in the very short attic under the original house particularly) to get everything where it needs to be.  Placing the outlets is tricky...you don't want one over a bed, under an electric outlet, or in any other inconvient place.  For example, on the first floor you have to decide if you might ever want to place a piece of furniture later where the outlet is going today.  On the first floor, they drill holes in the flooring and insert 5" wide outlets (with a 2" wide hole in the center); on the second floor, the outlets are placed in the ceiling.

All of the outlets provided by Unico are a high-quality white plastic.  Now white works just fine on the second floor where the ceilings are painted white.  But white just doesn't make it against our antique pumpkin pine floor boards.  What to do??  I priced unfinished wood outlets on-line and they range from $37 to $78 each depending on the choice of wood.  That gets real pricey when you consider we have 18 floor outlets between the addition and the existing house.

I was told the outlets are paintable, so the guys gave me one to tinker with.  I've done false graining before, so I put down a base coat of yellow ochre (oil-based paint) and waited for it to dry.  Over that I used a  raw umber glaze, adding some streaks of Van Dyke brown and some Venetian Red since our pine floors have some red in them.  I worked these in with a dry brush, smudging and streaking as needed to create a wood-grain look.  This was done out in our workshop.  I'm really pleased with how it turned out and will be painting the rest once I'm sure the guys are done fussing with them.  I'll be able to match them more closely than the sample because I'll be painting them in place.

My false-grained cover looks a whole lot better than the white one against our pumpkin pine flooring!

This outlet is in the new kitchen and shows how the outlet tube is wrapped in insulation.  It will be pushed down into the crawl space and topped with an outlet cover.  The discs to the right are the holes cut out of the plywood on the first floor of the addition and the old floors in the existing house.  I guess they kept them in case we decide we need to move an outlet.

They can't finish until we move the existing kitchen into the addition because the new outlets need to go in places now covered by the refrigerator and the stove!

Enclosed (finally) and ready for Ole Man Winter

The frame was raised July 25th and now, some four months later (Nov. 30th), the addition is enclosed and totally weatherproof.  The cedar siding, its beaded edge planed board-by-board by my carpenter extraordinaire-husband Scott, is finished on both the addition and that part of the original house that was disturbed when the addition was framed.  The cedar shake roof was the first thing we did after the frame went up, for obvious reasons.  The windows are in, as are the front and back doors.  Scott made the doors--nothing in this house (except for building materials like nails, caulk, plywood, etc.) is from either of the "big box" home improvement stores--and the doors are both hung on their antique, wrought iron strap hinges.  The standing seam metal roof over what-will-be the screened porch is in place and the gutters (most of them) are up.  In short, the addition is ready for winter.

The back of the addition has a lot going on, with the bay window, the larger porch (which will be screened in next spring) and a smaller open porch that shelters the basement entry and the back door in the ca. 1975 addition.

The landscaper has begun extending the gravel driveway and will leave me plenty of room to plant (an herb garden? boxwood?) in front of the addition.  Once the new clapboard ages to match that on the main block, the brown gutters will disappear.

Before we can get the framing approved by the building inspector, we need to have the plumber, HVAC folks, and the electrician do their work.  The plumber, who is out west deer hunting, will start in a few weeks.  He came by last week to look over the job and decided he wanted to personally help with the lay-out.  I like to hear that.  One of the few things we thought we would buy from a "big box" store was a corner shower for the bathroom.  I looked them over on-line and picked out the one I thought would be the best for us.  I mentioned our choice to the plumber and he let me know that a local plumbing supply store carried a better-quality brand that could be purchased (through him, at a discount) for about the same price. We checked out his suggestion, liked it a whole lot more, and purchased it through him.  It was about the same price as he said it would be.

The HVAC folks--Grace Energy in Rio Grande--started yesterday.  They're putting in a Unico high-velocity air system with a Unichiller to supply both heat and air conditioning.  They were very happy to see deep crawlspaces and a small (but dry) basement that give them plenty of room in which to work.  We will be so happy to disconnect the electric baseboard heaters when the time comes!

The Joy of Stripping (doors that is)

A house not far from here, one-half of it built about the same time (ca. 1790) as ours, was torn down 10 years ago with the promise to local officials of better things to come.  Of course, the vacant lot is still vacant and the promise to build something new on it was just as vacant.  The older half of the house was built in the early 1700s and I'm really wishing I'd seen both halves before the bulldozer arrived.

A friend of ours had either bought or rescued some paneling and several raised panel doors from the ca. 1790 half.  He put them in storage, thinking he'd use them one day.  Learning of our addition, he agreed to sell us three of the doors and we were thrilled.  They fit perfectly; one for the bathroom, one for the laundry room, and the shortest for the coat closet under the stairs.  All three were coated with multiple layers of paint, the most recent a nice, colonial blue latex that did not complement our color scheme at all.

I'd stripped all of the doors in the main house so I knew I was in for a long, laborious process with these three.  With the weather still hitting the 60s, and chillier stuff coming any day, I decided to start now and get as much done as I could.

The blue came off easily.  So did a flesh-colored coat followed by a white coat underneath.  Below the white was a faux-grained layer that probably dated to the mid-1800s when the wood-look became popular.  As I scraped that off, I was astounded to find a polychrome scheme that sures looks original underneath.  The photo doesn't do it justice.  The raised panels are a lovely yellow ochre, highlighted by a frame of barn red.  The largest raised panels are decorated with a stylized tree/leaf pattern done in the barn red.  The frame around the panels appears to be a lovely off-white.  The smaller raised panels have a random barn red pattern, somewhat swirled.  All three doors have the same decoration and color scheme.

I had planned to paint the doors a nice historic off-white, all over.  But seeing the design, I know now that I have to recreate it, at least on two of the doors.

I should point out that I used the smelly, harsh chemical stripper since I was working outside.  I've used the SoyGel stripper with great success, but decided to use the quicker stuff because I was working with plenty of fresh air.  I have half of a gallon of SoyGel (which is very expensive, but very eco-friendly and very effective) left from our restoration a few years back, and I'm saving that for the wainscot I need to strip in the dining room later this winter.

Honey, could you make me something that looks like this?

Our progress is steady, but slow.  With just me painting and Scott doing everything else (with some intermittent help from his son, Scotty, who is as good a carpenter as his father!), we have started to embrace the idea that the addition will be done in the spring.  We originally thought maybe Christmas.  Sure, we could hire several carpenters and have it knocked out in a few weeks, but the cost goes up exponentially and with Scott retired, what's the point?  It's not like we don't have a kitchen or a bathroom.  Really, we're just missing the laundry room, and I can survive the laundromat indefinitely.

The weather has not cooperated with the outside painting....way too much rain, or the threat of rain, or it's humid and hot, so I've been working on several pieces of cabinetry that Scott made for the addition.  Carpenter that he is, he loves the challenge of making anything out of wood.  All I have to do is find a picture of a piece of furniture I adore and ask him, "Honey, could you make me something that looks like this?"  I am so lucky that he is so talented.

We found a pair of old raised panel shutters in the workshop when we bought the house, so Scott used them--and some old wood in his stockpile--to make a jelly cupboard for the kitchen.  But it's not just any jelly cupboard.  Open the doors and there are three shelves (one designated for my cookbooks) along with 4 drawers to keep batteries, rubber bands, coupons, tissues, and paperwork out of sight.  I decided to paint the cupboard with milk paint (Salem Red) and then give it a crackle finish.  I'll finish up with a raw umber glaze to fill in the cracks and give it an antiqued look.   Right now, it's been coated with the crackle glaze and is ready for the final coat of milk paint.

Scott also made a hanging cabinet for the kitchen with glass doors using old pine that was recycled from a 100-year bridge being replaced.  Its design is based on an early 19th-century piece we saw in an on-line auction catalogue and fell in love with (but knew we couldn't afford!)  The heart pine is beautiful and I knew instantly that this piece would NOT be painted.  I also knew I didn't want a traditional brushed-on varnish finish either.  After much research and poking around online I found the Sam Maloof finishes offered by Rockler.  They're pricey, but are applied by hand and contain a mix of linseed oil, tung oil, and varnish.  With rave customer reviews (five out of five stars), I decided to try it. 

Four coats are recommended and it does take time. A lot of time.  You have to wipe it on generously with a rag, then wipe as much off as you possibly can, changing rags frequently.  This might seem counter-productive, but after four coats, the piece has a patina that is gorgeous.  It's then followed up with one or two coats of a tung oil + carnuba wax mixture (applied/wiped off the same way), also by Maloof.  Everyone who sees the piece raves about the finish.  Definitely time well spent.

I've been finishing this up-side down, so I turned the photo upside down so you can see what it will look like hanging up.

Last, but not least....Scott used the same recycled heart pine to make a "dry sink" base cabinet for the bathroom.  We bought a hammered copper vessel bowl and a copper faucet/fixture to go on top.  Again, the design is based on an antique dry sink we saw in a country decorating book.  I've stained the piece and have one coat of traditional, polyurethane varnish on it thinking that its use in the bathroom warrants a waterproof finish.

Money tree update:  The dollar bill fell off the tree a few days ago.  Scott found it on the lawn, still tied with what looks like the cellophane opener from a pack of cigarettes.  It's tattered, bleached from the summer sun, and has a bite out of it, probably from a squirrel who thought it might be edible.

I've done some thinking about this money tree.  True, we didn't hit the lottery, win the Acme sweepstakes, inherit a windfall, or buy/sell the right stock.  But we haven't gone over our budget (yet) and that's pretty remarkable.  Some things have cost less, others more, but right now it's pretty much a wash.  So maybe the money tree was more about hanging on to what we have, than spending what we don't have.  I'm good with that.  Should I tie it back up?

We Have Windows!

The addition is finally starting to look like part of the house and not just some plywood-covered box with openings!  Scott and his son Scotty put the windows in today and I'm so pleased with how they look.  I painted the 6-light single sash, all five of them, for the upper 1/2 story.  They're the same barn red (Benjamin Moore--Cottage Red) that we used on the main block.  The first story has 4 windows of double-hung sash and I could only paint one in its entirety before it was hung; the other 3 are about 75% painted (you'll see in the photograph).  We have a box bay window that still needs to be installed (and painted) but that has to wait for a few weeks until Scott moves a porch roof sheltering a back door on the main block that is blocking its location.

The windows are all wood, double hung sash with thermopane glass (separate panes) for energy conservation.  We may also put storm/screen windows up, too.  We're still trying to decide.



The entry hall is narrow, so Scott decided to have the door and window share the same stud.  This is also typical of early heavy timber frame houses in southeastern England, a location from where many of Cape May County's settlers came!

 I've also started finishing some of the cabinets that Scott has made for the kitchen and full bath.  I'll post photos of them in a week or two.

Hurricane and Earthquake

I haven't written since the earthquake and hurricane arrived the same week in August.  That week I was in Atlanta, helping my daughter move into her first apartment as she prepared to start her first job after college graduation in May.  Scott called me the day we arrived in Atlanta to say there'd been an earthquake.  No damage to the addition or the house, thankfully, and we didn't feel it in Atlanta.

Then, when we were shopping in IKEA for furniture (that's another story in itself) Thursday afternoon, he called to tell me they were ordering a mandatory evacuation of Cape May County by 9 a.m. Friday morning.  My heart sank.  I was 14 hours away (by car) and could do absolutely nothing from Atlanta.  We have 2 cats and a dog; our dog was at the kennel while I was away, but the kennel was just 1/2 hour north of us.  I thought of all the things I would take if I'd been home, like my computer (I work at home and my work life is on that darn thing), my family photos that date back to the late 1800s, etc.  I felt better once my daughter and I got back to the hotel and I could watch the Weather channel--they predicted that the hurricane would be a category 2 heading into a category 1 by the time it reached us.  This house, which is more than 200 years old, has seen lots of hurricanes of that category and has (obviously) survived them all.  Its heavy timber frame made of oak is so much more strong than construction today, and the addition is timber framed as well.

Scott, and many of our friends, decided to ride out the storm.  I'm sure if it was predicted to be category 4 or 5 he would have left.  He covered the addition window and door openings with plywood, also the windows on the northeast side of the main house.  He took the screens out and put the storm windows in.  It took him two full days to get everything just so, and whatever he did worked because the worst we had were some downed branches to clean up.