Old Stone House

Things have been very quiet here for the last few months.

All is well – the summer was a whirlwind of activity and holiday and it feels like we spent more away then home. We sacrificed a lot last summer when we entertained moving and vowed that this summer we would do a better job of enjoying the warm weather.

It was worth it…

However, with fall winds come the itch to return to the house and we have a number of maintenance issues that need to be dealt with (not to mention our wish list) I believe we will be focusing on making the house more energy efficient – and if some cosmetics get upgraded in the process so be it!

In the meantime I wanted to extend an invitation to those users who are on twitter to join in on the conversation @oldstonehouse. I’ve been using Twitter for 2+ years and have found it a very useful service.  Likewise, those interested in the day-to-day story at oldstonehouse can get a glimpse of what happens between blog posts.

Tweet me…

A few weeks ago we happened upon a pair of old lights at one of our regular antique haunts. They’re in fairly good condition, needing only a good scrubbing and a wiring upgrade. We always are on the lookout for old lights such as these, but we rarely find any for a decent price – $30. (They typically sell for $100+)

So here’s a question: should we repaint them?

The finish on the lights is rough and needs to be re-done. We had intended on replacing two of those ugly dome lights in the bedrooms with these new lights, so we’ve considered painting the lights white.

I can imagine the future owners of our house cursing our name for painting such ‘treasures’ – much in the same way we curse the former owners for doing the same!

Last weekend our water heater sprang a leak. Not a big leak, but a leak none the less. The water heater was a rental so we phoned the utility company. They dispatched a local representative who came out to the house in a matter of hours, assessed the problem, and informed us that they would replace the unit – scheduling an appointment for the next morning. The rep. was good enough to note that the venting on old water heater would no longer meet code for a new unit, and it would need to be replaced. He explained that ‘his guys’ would replace the venting – and charge me dearly for it – or I could replace it myself. I told him I would do it myself, and thanked him for the heads-up.

I visited the DIY store that same day and purchased some lengths of 636 pipe and assorted fittings, and spent the rest of the afternoon ripping out the old vent and replacing it with the new.

The next day came and went and no one arrived at the house. I phoned the utility company and they explained that they had no record of a service appointment having been made. They apologized for the confusion, and immediately booked an appointment for the following afternoon.

That next day I stayed home from work and waited for the repair person to arrive. They never did. I again phoned the utility company and asked for an explanation. According to their notes the repair person arrived at our door at the scheduled time and attempted to phone us, but did not receive and answer. They subsequently canceled the appointment. (Admittedly, there was a ‘unknown caller’ record on our phone)

I was a little more than irate that they hadn’t bother to knock, and made it clear that I was unhappy. The utility rep on the other side of the phone was gracious and understanding (I later apologized to them) and booked another appointment for me the following morning at 7:00 a.m. – with explicit instructions to knock.

The next morning the repairmen arrived on time and followed me to the basement. They immediately praised the new venting, explaining it was ‘perfect’ and thanking me for making their job much easier. No sooner had they patted me on the back when the the one gentleman asked what type of glue I used?

I handed then the container of the 636 glue and he immediately told me I had used the wrong glue. He explained that the glue I used was intended for transitioning between two different types of pipe (PVC / CPVC / ABS pipe) but that same glue could not be used to join ‘like’ pipes. He went on to explain that as a licensed gas fitter he couldn’t hook up the new water heater to ‘this’ venting…

We agreed that I would replace the venting (again) that evening and he would arrive (again) the next morning.  I purchased all new pipe and fittings ripped out all of the ‘new’ venting and replaced it with ‘newer’ venting.

The repair team arrived on my doorstep the next morning and finally replaced the water heater. It took them 42 minutes… They thanked me for my efforts, apologized for the delays, and assured me that for all the effort I had still saved a good deal of money having replaced the venting myself – despite the fact I had done it twice.

I’m hoping I’ll get 10 years of service out of this water heater before I ever have to do this again…

Anyone with an old house knows that storage space is always at a premium, thus it’s advantageous to maximize  storage capacity whenever you can.  Such is the case with our pantry…

When we first moved in to this house we remodeled the kitchen, but we didn’t bother to change the pantry – we were overjoyed to have such a ‘luxurious’ room!  However, over the past few years we’ve learned to hate the pantry. First, the door was an apparent salvage project – framed and hung poorly – light escaping from three of the four sides when closed. As for the light, it was constantly being left on. Despite best conservation efforts, the pantry light would be forgotten and stay lit for days…

These complaints are mere trifles compared to the real problem – wire rack shelving.

Wire rack shelving may be suitable for some rooms, but a pantry is not one of them.  We discovered that if you spill sugar on the top shelf it will happily cascade down each of the shelves. So too will corn syrup. Cook books need to be stacked on their backs otherwise the slip through the wires (bending all of the pages) and inevitably tip the corn syrup and sugar. Finally, the shelves are floating – which means if you happen to snag the end of one one your sweater as you walk by, the shelf will come right off the wall and shower your feet with tinned tomatoes, crackers, corn syrup and sugar.

Our pantry became a catch-all-garbage room.

The frustration became unbearable.

Last week we finally renovated it.

Several hours were spent rebuilding the door and installing a door switch for the light. (Open the door the light turns on; close the door the light turns off.) As for the shelving, I had a notion of what I wanted to build, but rather then draft a plan we decided to let ’supplies and time’ determine the final design.

A trip to the DIY centre revealed that 12″ laminated pine shelving was the best value (not the cheapest option, but we refused to use press-board). We purchaed 80 board-feet of shelving and a dozen 1×2 pine straps. Total cost: $230.00.

We winged the entire design; referencing cereal boxes, buckets and vases to help determine shelf height. No fancy finishes here, just plain wood shelves. Truth be told, the original vision had been to paint the shelves and try to give the room a more ‘finished’ look, but having the contents of the pantry spread about the house was more then we could bear;  we decided to keep it simple.

And hey, it’s a pantry for goodness sake!

Inspiration can sometimes come from the most unlikely sources. We decided to spend a lazy Saturday afternoon cleaning up our Christmas ephemera, and as per usual, we took it as an opportunity to do some puttering. Nothing major, a little bit of putty here, a touch of paint there – those ‘touch-ups’ that help keep the house maintained.

One such chore was to clean out the closet under the stairs. We keep a good deal of seasonal stuff – decorations, old coats etc in this closet, but have never really liked it. The closet is in the centre of the house and therefore always inconvenient to use – you simply don’t step in from inside and hang up your coat. Second, the closet appears to be an afterthought in the house – not one of the original features, as the door is cheap and the trim isn’t a perfect match. As well the door opens into our dining room, for a grand door-total of four doors and one passageway. Needless to say, we’ve never really liked it.

I was in the back of the closet when I took notice of the rails supporting the shelves. There, hidden away from sight was an original piece of trim. (we are missing a good deal of trim on some of our doors, a result of generations of renovations) it was actually an exciting find as now we had a template for later milling and matching.

We started talking about the trim and pondered why the closet had never been converted into a ‘water closet like so many of the surrounding homes. This spurred many other thoughts, and when we had finished talking we had decided to: tear out out existing main-floor bathroom and relocate it under the stairs; convert the existing bathroom into a proper laundry/ mud room; reconfigure the pantry.

In truth, these are modest changes – and although a little challenging, we are fortunate that the renovations we have made over the last 4 years – particularly the upgrades to the plumbing and electrical – will make this much easier then in might have been.

Feels good to have a project. It’s been a while since we last tore the house apart. We were starting to get bored!

I’ve decided it is time to clean up this website – no, I’m not drastically changing the design. I’m happy enough with the way things look and I’m not going to spend the effort making huge changes when they’re not necessary. Will I update the site? You betcha – This design is going to be 3+ years old soon and I’m tired of it – as well as I’m pretty sure I can improve on it – just like me house.

Anyway, I upgraded the blogging platform, cleaned out some useless plugins and reviewed my unpublished drafts and links list. The link-list has been very poorly maintained. As I use Google reader for all my blog subscriptions, and upload posts to this blog via platforms such as ScribeFire – I rarely visit my own blog – and thus I lost track of the state of my links list.

Sadly, there are some sites that have disappeared from existence. One example is www.nightmareonelmst.net. I thought this blog was beautifully designed and enjoyed the writing – but alas – it has been cyber-squatted and is no more. Likewise, there are a handful of sites that are suffering from neglect; sites that haven’t been updated in 2+ years. Looking over these sites final posts I realize now that I was ‘hooked’ – interested in the next stages of each authors project – only to never read another update. No farewell, no ceremony, just inactivity. Heartbreak!

It’s understandable why websites fade. They are work. They offer little return. They are another responsibility added to the daily routine.

In an effort to update this site, I’m using a little bit of web-foo to include my google reader information, manage my blogroll and highlight posts I like. I’m pretty sure that once I’ve digested these changes I begin the process of overhauling the site and freshening it’s look.

On a side note: Have I overlooked your blog? Should I enrich my life with your musings? Please, suggest your blog or a friend’s. I’m always looking for a new site.

If you are a regular follower of this blog, you’ll know that we have had a number of issues with ice dams over the last few winters. Our first year in the house we didn’t have and problems, but since then we have had ‘water in the kitchen’ event every winter.

At first we thought the water was the result on backed-up gutters. But judicious cleaning ruled that out. We considered that the terrible soffits might have something to do with our wet walls, but that theory was disproved after replacing all the soffits (reinstating walls etc.) on the ugly addition.

It wasn’t until I ventured onto the roof in the dead of winter with a shovel and crowbar that I discovered a 6″-8″ slab of ice atop the roof…

Now, the reason for the ice is simple. The roof is not insulated properly, has a shallow pitch, and does not breath. Heat is trapped in the roof rafters (cathedral ceiling inside) which melts snow, refreezes as ice. The ice – a glacier at this point – rams its way up under the shingles, melts, and ruins out lives.

The fix is actually quite simple. Tear off the roof.

I did the estimates this summer, and the total repair cost (materials) would be less then $800. This includes re-sheeting some areas, adding proper venting, ice-shield, and new shingles. Without a doubt, this would remedy the problem, but wasn’t a solution that we had time/money/weather to implement this summer. So, we’ve decided on the only other possible solution – gutter wires.

For those of you in more southerly climates who are unfamiliar with the practice of electrifying eaves-troughs, the basic premise is that you install thermal wiring (much like an electric blanket) on the roof which melts the ice and snow. The trick is to install the wires in such a way as to help the melt water to escape, rather then created melted pockets.

As you can see in the photos, the valley has been tarred, re-tarred and tarred again in the past (not by me) in an effort to stop water from penetrating the house. I know this to be a problem zone, so I installed a generous compliment of wires to keep the valley clean. I also installed the wires along the gutter in a rather tight pattern. I don’t want to give the ice any opportunity to wreak havoc.

Sunlight was dwindling when I shot these images so the installation is incomplete. I also didn’t bother to include and image showing how the wires travel inside the down pipe. I installed 120′ of thermal wire for a 16′ wide area of roof. Likely overkill. I don’t care.

On a side note – notice the broom. I swept the roof clean before starting work. 1 hour later, you can see the accumulation of leaves. Needless to say, we clean our gutters often.

2008 has been the bastion for economic uncertainty. One year ago people were recording record house sale profits and the economy ‘appeared’ to be steaming along without issue. However as well all know, economic times were not a good as once thought and now North America is gripped by financial instability.

People are losing their houses, their savings, and their hope…

…so does anybody want to talk about poverty?

One year ago, Blog Action Day focused on the planet, and housebloggers from around the world talked about their green choices, recycling strategies and money saving tips. Green is/was fashionable; it feels good and is ‘easy’.

But what of poverty?

In a time when people are feeling the economic pinch, who really wants to talk about the ‘less fortunate’ when we already tend to consider ourselves the ‘less fortunate’? We housebloggers are lucky – we have houses, and therefore jobs. That doesn’t mean that we don’t have struggles, and it doesn’t mean that our every day crisis’ don’t create more stress then we can bare. What it does mean that we accepting our financial realities unashamed, applauding/encouraging each other to make positive changes in our lives.

Let’s face it, there is a good portion of the population that has been completely insulated from the economy – a class of worker that only has themselves to blame for any personal financial debacles. But the recent tide changes have meant that more and more people are becoming vulnerable to market instability and the vast majority of people centralize many of their decisions based on raw economics.

So what can we do?

In our household, we do what we can – which may not be much – but it counts for something.

We give to the Foodbank. We shop in bulk, clip coupons, purchase sale items and do our best to stretch out dollar. We also try to foster a giving spirit while we shop. We consider how much we just ’saved’, and try to split the difference in donations. (It’s easy to grab a few extra tins of ‘whatever’ for the food bank – try!). If you can save money while helping someone less fortunate, consider the situation a clear win-win.

We have also been doing our best to de-clutter intelligently. Critically assessing the things we need and the things we don’t, and doing out best to make sure that anything we deem redundant doesn’t wind up in a landfill and given an opportunity to enrich someone else’s life. Sure, it may be our cast-off door, coffee maker etc., but for someone else these items may represent a ‘deal’ that saved them enough money to get buy, or a small luxury that made them feel whole. Never underestimate the ‘value’ of anything that still has use.

We frequent second-hand stores. We have found a staggering number of deals at consignment shops, charities etc., that we would have otherwise never looked for. The fact that purchasing ‘previously enjoyed’ keeps good items out of a landfill, while allowing sale proceed to help others is again a win-win.

Are we changing the world? No. Are we making a big difference – probably not. Are we getting a warm-fuzzy feeling despite our minimal efforts? Yes.

So what’s the point?

The point is that much like ‘green’ choices, individual actions mean little – but those decisions/acts add up to a lot when combined with all the efforts of countless others. If everyone changing one light bulb from an incandescent to a CFL can add up to millions of dollars in savings nation-wide, how could we change the face of poverty if we all gave one tin of food, one dollar to charity or volunteered a few hours of our time.

We live in a time where it’s almost a nescessity to obsess on ourselves and maintain our best interests – on October 15th, let’s try to steal one moment away from ourselves and think of others…

A long time ago my father taught me that one of the best ‘toolboxes’ is an old drywall compound bucket. My father had a bucket for plumbing, an electrical bucket, a drywalling bucket, and the general use bucket. Simple, sturdy, and free. (more agony and joy…)

I can’t believe it’s been two months since my last post! Where has the time gone?

I’m happy to report that nothing extraordinary has happened since my last writing – and I’m grateful for that! It would seem that our little experiment with the housing market did us a world of good – allowing us to prioritize our needs, be thankful for what we have, and avoid possible economic disaster. (more agony and joy…)