Old Stone House

This ‘guest post’ is actually a comment left by Russel – he was good enough to relay his experiences about refinishing his own claw foot tub. It seemed a shame to hide such excellent advice deep in the blog, so I’ve decided to promote it.  (Thanks Russel!)

Hi.

I think having any tub “re-porcelain-ed” is a mistake. If you can live with the pits and imperfections (and I bet you can) just leave it. We have 3 tubs in our 110 year old home. 2 of them have been refinished AT LEAST twice over the years. The refinishing coats have begun to crack—one of them severely. This has happened primarily around the drains but there are also large “splotches” on the tubs’ interior-bottoms where the finish has flaked.

Any professional is going to promise you some big “guarantee” but at the end of the day, you are really just spray painting the tub. No matter how heavy duty this coating may be, it is never going to be as strong and durable as the original baked finish. A coating will never make it “original” and is inviting new issues into the situation.

“We are now in the process of removing one of these tubs and sending it to the scrap heap; sadly, but even with a new coat, I fear the cracking and flaking will continue and honestly the thought of soaking in a re-finished (painted) tub kills the romance a little for me. (There is also severe rust where water has seeped under the finish coats). In it’s place, we are installing a tub removed from Frank Lloyd Wright’s Home & Studio. It is far from perfect—a major porcelain flake around the filler opening and etching in the bottom. Still, I consider this a vast improvement over the re-porcelain-ed tub.

You said you are getting a little staining now where the finish has been scrubbed away; In my last place, many years ago, I got this on my old claw-foot. I did a quick wash with Softscrub™ and then waxed and buffed with an electric buffer. This worked quite well and even added some new sheen.

To add to the missing foot debate: here in Chicago there are several salvage companies that have crates full of tub feet. One of the places, Jan’s, has crates stacked halfway to the ceiling and 3 times as wide. They are reasonably priced. If you can’t find a missing one, just buy 4 new ones—with the same mounts as the old ones of course.

Sorry so long-winded. I just have a thing for these old tubs and think it’s a shame to recoat them. It’s old. It’s going to have a few scars. If it must look new, it could always be re-fired… but I say live with the scars.

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…

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.

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…)

Long story short: We’re NOT moving.

After 8 weeks of valiantly trying to sell our house, we came to the conclusion that this was not meant to be, and pulled our house off the market. In the last few days we’ve had a number of very interested buyers come through the house – each prepared to make an offer – but ALL wanting to wait until after the holiday weekend.  In the meantime, our offer on the other house (Brant) had expired and we needed a firm offer on our house before we could make any deals. If all that wasn’t frustrating enough, our agent was suggesting that we should drop our price as contractors were prepared to make an offer on Brant (they were looking to flip the property!) and we needed to make our move NOW.  All the while, Brant had developed a bad mold problem in the basement. (more agony and joy…)