Saturday, November 29, 2014

another furry assistant

Our dog deficit has now been corrected.



Meet Maugrim (named after the wolf in Narnia, which I think makes me the White Witch around here).  He's a giant woolly malamute, and should serve not only to alleviate my desire for a pony, but should also generate enough warmth that we can turn the thermostat down a few degrees.


We had looked into breed rescues, but no one would consider a household with cats and a smaller dog given mal's high prey drives and size.  The breeder we bought him from coordinates rehoming malamutes, and we had originally fallen in love with one of those dogs - but his owners then decided to keep him.  That left us pretty broken up, and when I saw the breeder had a litter, well, getting a puppy became inevitable.

Maybe obtaining a puppy from such a locale was a poor decision.
 Once I catch up on sleep I promise I'll update you all on house stuff, maybe I'll even throw in something festive for good measure.

Thursday, November 20, 2014

schoolhouse odds and ends

I'm neck deep in stripping woodwork, and since I have nothing revolutionary to add as far as the process goes, I haven't felt much like blogging.  Luckily, as much as I feel like I've dropped the ball productivity wise, our carpenter had a few days to help us out.  On the agenda was installing the water table on the schoolhouse, slating the belltower, and modifying the sills and jambs on the schoolhouse windows.





The water table was made out of 10 x 1 1/2 Azek trim.  We chose the Azek since it will be resting on the concrete piers, pressed up against the 3x14 antique warehouse beams we used as our sill.  This way the sill won't be absorbing any water that could compromise the building.  To build the water table we cut three inches off at 10 degrees, then ran the other edge of the three inch piece through again at 10 degrees (then glued them up together). We went a few steps further, treating the sills and studs with tim-bor, a borate preservative that will protect against rot, carpenter ants and termites, and flashing both the top and bottom of the Azek.  The flashing was a bit of a wasted effort however, since it was only after the fact that I learned you can't use aluminum against concrete (or treated lumber), as it will corrode.  This is where it pays to do your research, as even our carpenter was unaware...

I can forgive the flashing snafu when this was all that was left of the Azek
Only available in very expensive 20 foot lengths, I didn't want to buy a fifth board

On a happier note, the slates on the cupola were almost entirely ones that had been culled from rebuilding our roof.  They had various issues including the beginnings of rot, chips and cracks - but the area is small and steep enough that the rotted slates should still have decades of life, and the chipped sections could be cut off.  This way I don't feel any guilt about using our good slates that we're saving for the front of the kitchen roof.  It looks great, although I can't tell you why I didn't take a picture of the finished roof.


Monday, November 10, 2014

let there be heat

No posts last week, I know.  But I was too busy finishing up what I needed to for our radiators to go back in.  Then, I sort of got sucked into just lounging about in the warmth.  Having heat is just so very decadent....

In our defense, it had gotten pretty damn chilly around here...


We pulled these two radiators about a month ago under the pretense of accessing the floors and trim.  Having them out of the way also meant that we could reinforce the floors underneath them and caulk all the gaps, as they had begun to weaken and deteriorate with the water moving through the walls before we bought the house.  Thankfully, the wood, though black from the water, didn't need replacement.  Even though it doesn't look the greatest, it'll never be seen again now that the rads are back.

terrible before pic, but you get the idea
that's brick on the right where the plaster had failed



Since our plumbing company (Chuba for the locals) had given us a quote we couldn't refuse, we let them do the heavy lifting (the radiators are 4 feet long and 2 1/2 feet tall).  Price-wise, removing and re-installing two radiators as well as installing a new pressure relief valve on the boiler ran us two hundred dollars.  Although we could have done it ourselves, for that price I was happy to hand over the money.  We put some plywood down to reinforce our rotten porch so the radiators didn't fall though, and decided to paint them while we were at it (they looked terrible, peeling silver on one side and substantial surface rust on the other (sooo much water in this house!))....  They got pressure washed, the worst spots wire brushed, and painted with many, many coats of Rustoleum's antique brass spray paint.  I even remembered to tape off the threading and bleeders.


And now they're in, the boiler's working, and I can worry about finishing up the woodwork.


I'd like to pretend I don't have any more deadlines, but there's only one reason Luke would be this cute...



I think he may have overheard that we're getting a puppy come Thanksgiving....