Tuesday, December 30, 2008

...Resolved

After a failed attempt to snake out the drain line by a local plumber, combined with rising temperatures and predictions of rain I broke down and bought a proper sump pump (made in the USA by Wayne Water Systems, and containing a number of components manufactured at the factory I work at!). I bought it at 11:00 AM or so, but between needing a thread adapter and my busy schedule didn't get it hooked up until 7:00 PM. However it did the trick, and pulled the water level in the catch basin below the level of the basement...
Then, the very next day, I managed to get an appointment with Tressler's Plumbing. Rather than a drain snake they used a jet machine, which uses extremely high pressure water to blast through the obstruction. The entire process took less than five minutes, and pretty much as soon as they shut off the jetter the water level dropped like a rock!
Needless to say I am glad to have this problem resolved. The sump pump is probaly in that basin to stay, just in case...

Sunday, December 14, 2008

Black Water Blues...

Over the last few days my basement has been slowly flooding. It all started when I washed my uniforms, pushing something along the lines of 40 gallons of water down the drain. When I went downstairs that evening to hang up my uniforms I noticed a large puddle staring back at me in the southeast corner of the basement...
At first I decided to leave it alone, as I thought the kitchen/washer drain and the basement drain led to either a large dry well or the river. However over the next couple of days the water level rose, rather than falling. I decided to try plunging the drain, thinking that since I found a plunger in the basement when I bought the place that it might have been there for a reason...
This led to the next nasty surprise. When I worked the plunger, as expected, some nasty water came back up... However the level didn't fall. Instead the air began to reek, bringing my fears to light... This wasn't gray water (bathing water and/or wash water), it was black water (a kinder, gentler word for SEWAGE!!!)
This forced me to buy a cheap Chinese knockoff of one of the sump pumps that my factory makes parts for. Fortunately the pump did the trick, and within half an hour the water had dropped back down into the depression in the corner of the basement where the drain is located.
Even though that much is good news I am still left with the problem of why... Either my septic tank is backed up (a very real possibility considering the stupid behavior of the previous owners) or there's something bigger going on. I am going to have to do some investigation on this matter.

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Second Blog

Though in a way I feel that I'm betraying my anti-blog feelings I have created a second blog for my hobbies, interests and whatnot, titled "A Working Man's Journal." All future posts of mine not concerning home and bar improvements will be posted there instead of here.

Tuesday, November 4, 2008

Automotive Work

Well between factory work, volunteer railroad work, housework (both maintainance and domestic) and yardwork I finally found and took the time to perform some much needed repairs on my truck. After literally months of procrastinating I finally removed my old gas tank, which had succumbed to rust, and replaced it with a pristine one sold to me by my friend Bill's wife Jennifer (who is one of the biggest motorheads I've ever met!). Of course, as you probaly guessed, this turned into a much bigger and longer project than it should've been, but the new tank is now solidly mounted and ready to recieve fuel (which is blessedly a lot less expensive than it was!)
In addition to the fuel leak my transmission also leaks. This perticular leak is entirely my fault; it formed after dropping the pan to attempt to fix a problem which turned out to be nothing but a clogged vacuum line; OUTSIDE of the transmission I might add! For the moment I am going to try just re-torquing the bolts (which were loose again), as dropping the pan involvs dumping $25 worth of AT fluid, and is a VERY messy job! If this doesn't work (which frankly I am expecting it won't), I plan on dropping the pan and reinstalling it using red RTV silicone in lieu of "high tack" which I used last time to seal the gasket.
Of course the truck still needs new tires, but this can wait for a little while at least. Not only do I need the truck to haul coal and for my volunteer job, but I am also (understandably) anxious to drive a vehicle with over 250 horsepower again!

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

My Workshop: Metalworking Tools

I am currently outfitting my shop with various tools as they find their way to me. Although I have been working on my collections of mechanic's and carpentry tools for awhile I thought I'd share the latest additions to my new metalworking tool collection. About two weeks ago now I was given the anvil by my grandmother, and over the next week built the small, temporary forge next to it.
The anvil is (comparatively) small, probaly in the neighborhood of 100 pounds, and though in rough shape appears to be of good quality. The bad news is that the main face is swaybacked (probaly from both use and abuse), and I am in the process of re-grinding it with a belt sander. It is extremely slow going but that is actually good news: The face of the anvil is made of high-carbon tool steel and is EXTREMELY hard; so hard that a file won't scratch it!
I built the forge pictured out of nine firebricks and four standard bricks, as well as the exhaust blower from my old furnace. It works okay, expecially considering it's construction. It's biggest problem is that, with very limited airflow control, it tends to ignite in it's entrety (rather than a small fire just above the air hole). This makes adding additional coal difficult, as it requires dumping coal directly into a fire. The only other problem is an expected one: The smoke. I am converting the blower from my parents' old dryer to vent the smoke, but that will probaly take awhile yet.
Obviously this workstation is temporary; the anvil is mounted FAR too high for me to use it properly, and the shaking caused by pounding the workpiece against it tends to cause the forge to move in a rather disconcerting fasion. I plan to build a angle-iron frame for the forge and make it freestanding, and mount the anvil to an appropriate-length of as heavy a log as I can both aquire and transport.
That's all for now, I'll post again next time I have something noteworthy. More likely than not that'll be the next Aquarium Center update; I am currently waiting on posting as I build a new light fixture for it...

Sunday, September 28, 2008

Aquarium Center update: Live Rock

In less than a week I managed to get the saltwater tank filled, the density stabalized and the water fully oxygenated. As I planned on Friday I purchased a 3.5 lb. piece of live rock from Sea 2 Sea, and I have to say that it is probaly one of the best pieces of live rock that I've ever seen, let alone bought!
The image posted is of the most "active" portion of the rock. I posted the image at full resolution to show the detail of what's going on, click to view the full-sized image. ALL of those small knobby protrusions are live hard coral polyps, and the two "spiny" purple areas on the far left protrusion are also hard corals! The two small patches look substansially different, and may be different species, I won't know for sure until they open up to feed. Needless to say I think I got a good deal: Despite the high cost of this kind of live rock ($9.50 a pound!) I know I got the best bang for my buck that I could've possibly hoped for.
As of right now I am very low on funding, and won't be adding anything (save for maintainence supplies), however once I have some spare cash I want to add more of this rock, and more likely than not an emerald crab (which will deal with any algae growth before it can get out of hand, like it did last time).
Obviously this is my house log, not my aquarium log. Depending on how this project goes it may be worth considering starting a seperate board for this...

Monday, September 22, 2008

Aquarium Center

Finally I have solved my aquarium dilemma, with this! Pictured here is half of the wire shelf "server rack" that formally was in my wiring closet (the server is still, somewhat uncomfortably, on the other half), holding my two 20 gallon aquariums. Despite it's flimsy appearance wire shelving is amazingly strong; the full 4-shelf unit is rated to safely hold 1,200 pounds! Obviously these two tanks won't weigh anywhere near the 600 pound limit of the half-unit.

The lower, and somewhat poorly lit, tank is where the goldfish are headed. Though I have said in the past that I consider a 55 gallon the minimum aquarium for goldfish the fish that I have now are comparatively small, and I currently only have two left (sadly the koi and two of the goldfish died shortly after their move). I'll have to get used to the lighting, I generally use dual-bulb shoplights equipped with "grow lamp" bulbs for a 55 gallon aquarium.
The top tank is for an aspect of aquaculture that, though I left in disgust, I have come to sorely miss: Saltwater "reef" aquariums. I have learned from the mistakes I made last time, and by using the smaller aquarium I can build a very nice micro-reef for a fraction of the cost of stocking a 55 gallon tank. The project is less expensive in every aspect: First I plan on filling the tank with Culligan water, to eliminate the problems I had last time using municipal water. Second, it will require less salt to achieve the proper density. Third, between the smaller size and shallower tank it will require substansially less lighting for proper coral growth than a 55 (which is close to 3 times as tall). And finally since it's a smaller tank I am far less likely to get carried away trying to stock it. As I already own all the equipment (save for a heater, which is VERY cheap) and supplies I can start slowly, with an initial investment of under $30 for a couple of pounds of "live rock" and a few hermit crabs to keep the tank's "cycle" going. The other good part about this is what I plan on populating the tank with is amongst the least expensive offerings of most saltwater shops" Shrimp, miniature crabs and snails. The corals that I want are NOT cheap, however, but there is no rush to get them: The longer I let the tank sit before adding them the better they will do.
As you can probaly see I lined the back of the to-be reef aquarium with aluminum foil. There are several reasons for this: First it hides the electrical cords. Second it blocks a lot of the natural sunlight from the window from entering the tank (though the natural sunlight is a cheap source of light, between the window, the glass, 16+ miles of air and the water most of the more beneficial frequencies have been filtered out; which tends to lead to undesirable algae growth). Third it reflects a lot of light back into the tank, and fourth I expect the uneven texture to help give the small tank some additional visual depth...
Also as you can see, despite the lack of inhabitants, Chessie already thinks this is the greatest thing ever... Are you really surprised? I'm sure not...

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

First Firing

Yesterday I finally got my stove approved by Frost Insurance. Of course I tried to light it that evening, which failed miserably. So today once I got home I immediately cleared out the center of the firebox, placed a scrap of tar paper on the grates and piled charcoal on top of it. Once that was burning strongly I slowly added anthracite, and now, three hours later...

This picture doesn't do the fire justice, it's a lot more spectacular in person. Just as spectacular is the heat from this tiny stove: I get the feeling that it could go even higher, yet even with two fans pulling air into the house, and both living room windows open it is HOT in here! Needless to say I think it'll do the trick this winter.

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Coal stove is complete!

Today I received a package from Rural Energy Products, which contained the correct door kit for my stove! So obviously pretty much as soon as I got home I installed it, and finally mounted the insurance-mandated wall protector...

The Harman Magnafire Mk. 1 is now complete, all that's needed now is the coal!

Hopefully this weekend it'll be cool enough out to light it for the first time, providing of course I get the go-ahead from the insurance company.

Of course, according to the National Weather Service, tonight would be the best night until late this weekend to do so (predicted low of 41 degrees). Oh well, if I can get approved by the weekend I'll probaly burn a small fire just to test it out... Hey, do you blame me?

Sunday, September 7, 2008

Roof leaks...

Well it looks like I need to finish what I started...

Apparently we (finally) got a decent rain last night, and out of curiousity I went into the bar to see if it had leaked at all... Unfortunately it had. Oddly enough, the leaks were pretty much at the exact point where I had stopped tarring the shingles on my last pass....
Though there is little that will be damaged by the minor leaks it doesn't help with the decay situation. Now that it's starting to cool down I am running out of excuses: I need to get back up there and finish tarring and nailing the roll shingles. Until last night the sheeting had almost completely dried, and though the cool-down helps with the work involved it doesn't help drive out the water that got in.

Friday, September 5, 2008

The Bar: Planning

Well I think it's high time that I share my plans for the bar. Unfortunately I don't have pictures to share as of yet (the last set I took still had large quantities of celing debris on the floor; I have since then cleaned the place out and held two game parties there).
As of right now I have repaired the roof (a relative term), cleaned out the Bar and Dining rooms, installed electric lights in the Bar, Dining, Kitchen and Wash rooms, hooked up a stereo in the Bar room (an absolute MUST for any proper bar!) and partially repaired all of the doors to the building.
First of all is the Bar room. This room needs the following renovations: First and foremost, I need to either replace or at least properly board up the broken window facing US 24 and the Maumee river. I desperately want to replace this window, but I doubt that I'll be able to afford to do so before this coming Spring. Next I want to install the last light fixture that this room will recieve (right now it has two lampholders, which is plenty, but I want more light!). Unfortunately this requires tearing down one of the three remaining celing panels in this room, which was subjected to some of the worst water damage that this building saw... This will be a very messy project which I am not at all looking forward to.
In addition to those repairs I plan on building a bar in place of where the old one was located. I am planning on building a frame out of 2x4 stock, boxing it in with Luan plywood and topping it with a material that's both decorative and durable. I'd like to use Marble, but the price will likely be prohibitive...

On a side note, I am not sure yet what I'm going to do about heating in that building. I plan on using either wood or coal fired equipment, and only using it when the building is in use. Exactly what I do will depend greatly on what I can get of course. I'd like to get an old "hybrid" stove (which is basically a coal stove with a secondary air inlet, which allows it to burn wood with reasonable efficiency. Unfortunately, due to EPA regulations on wood-fired appliances such stoves are no longer made...). If such a stove is unavailable I will probaly eventually get a solid fuel forced-air furnace.

For the Dining room I had it suggested to me by my friend Nick that I should build a few resteraunt-style booths around the outside wall. The interesting part about his suggestion, however, was to make the booth tables wider than typical restearaunt booths, so each booth could accomidate two PCs with LCD-panel displays (I plan on hosting LAN parties out there once it's ready). The Dining room also needs some floor work, largely to deal with a now nonexistant drain that was very poorly plugged, and poses a significant trip hazard. Not sure what I'm going to do about this yet.
The Kitchen room will be what the name suggests, a kitchen. It doesn't need to be a full-service kitchen, it'll be more of a fridge-and-stove room. I plan on putting a "boxwood" stove in that room, both for heating and because such stoves have a proper cook top with removable burner plates.
As for the Washroom I am unsure as to what my plans are. I'd like to put a basin sink in there, but I can just see myself using the thing as a parts washer... This is all well and good right now, since I don't have a finished floor or paint in the building, but down the road...

Other than that there are only a handful of projects. I need to run conduit and wire for electrical service to the Bar and Dining rooms (more on this later), repair the roof over the breezeway between the Bar and the Shop, clean out and restore the Men's room to service and repair the doors properly. I will keep you all up to date as I get these projects done, and hopefully I'll have pictures soon...

Sunday, August 24, 2008

New Chimney!


At last! I am amazed at how quickly this went; what you see took me less than four hours to complete! Needless to say I am more than a little tired now, but it was well worth it.

The whole assembly, inside and out, still needs some work. The chimney is not plumb yet, and I am short one locking band, and really should have a roof guy kit installed. Inside the stove pipe is not yet straight, and doesn't fit up quite as tightly as I'd like... But the good news is, despite being just as hot (if not hotter) outside than in the chimney ALREADY is pulling a stable draft!

It shouldn't be any trouble to have these problems resolved by the time my door kit comes in, at which point I'll be ready for Frost Insurance to approve it.

Once it's approved it'll be ready for the first firing. This will have to be done with all of the windows open, as the paint on both the stove and the stovepipe needs to be cured, which produces noxious smoke. Fortunately fall is coming soon, which means plenty of cool evenings when a fire would be pleasant but not nessasary by any means...

Notice the shakes behind the chimney. Yes I did that myself. My work isn't quite as neat as my father's, but between the fact that it's largely hidden by the chimney and the fact that they're installed over an existing weathertight surface I think they'll do nicely.

As I stated before I am rather tired, so I think it's time for me to chill out. After I work out the detals of the chimney I just have to build and fill a coal bunker and I'll be ready for winter!

Sunday, August 17, 2008

Coal Stove


After driving my truck over 140 miles to Van Wert and back I now am the owner of a Harman Magnafire Mk. 1 coal stove. This stove is designed to burn anthracite (hard) coal, and according to the manufacturer only needs to be tended two or three times a day!

The really exciting part is how much money this will save me in the long run: Last year, despite not living here, I burned up over $1200 worth of LP gas! It is noteworthy that I did have an old, inefficient furnace at the time and there were two large holes in the walls. Yet my house has no insulation to speak of... With LP gas prices approaching the $4 per gallon mark I don't care to think how much it would cost to keep the house at a comfortable temperature now that I'm living here.
Hard coal is currently approx. $170 per ton. One ton of coal is the equivelant of about 300 gallons of propane. And, at $4 per gallon, that's $1200 worth of propane! That's a BIG price difference!

Obviously the stove is still incomplete; I was given the wrong door kit, and will be recieving a new one soon. Once I recieve that and complete the chimney I'll be ready for winter! For more information on the Magnafire Mk. 1 stove please click here.

Sunday, July 20, 2008

New Roof (again?)


Except this time it's on the bar. After spending a good portion of my economic stimulius check and eight hours working on top of a partially rotted roof (and a week recovering from the subsequent sunburn) the new roof is up... It is still not complete, but the good news is that it does not leak AT ALL anymore! This is rather amazing considering that before it would rain just as hard (if not harder) inside the building than outside.

The roof is not yet complete, I still have to finish tarring and bottom-nailing the shingle rolls. In addition there are a few portions of the sheeting that are fairly well rotten and need to be reinforced from underneath, as well as a couple of beams. But the good news is now that it no longer leaks I can actually get started on getting the building into usable condition!

Sunday, July 13, 2008

Bar project has begun!

The Texas Inn building, circa 1900, had been added onto (very badly added onto.) Ben and his friends pulled down the lean-to shed addition. Here are the highlights: (photos by Andy)






Ben, swinging a heavy hammer, hitting rotten wood, whilst his friends Josh and Nick watch.















Most of the side wall down. Surprisingly, the roof stayed up!
















Ben with his heavy steel hammer again, attempting to break/knock down a support post. Amazingly, it stayed up!
















Josh working on the same section with a chain saw! That should do it!

















Hmmm... Still standing!
















Finally! After a lot of cutting with the chain saw, a single cement block too it down!

















Looks better already! Since this photo was taken, Ben and his friends Bill, and Caleb put a new "roll roof" on the bar building.

Tuesday, July 1, 2008

Chessie!


Ben's newest addition! For more photos of Chessie, click here.

Monday, June 9, 2008

All done but the shouting!

Finally, some before and after shots:



One of the bedrooms "Before"









Same bedroom, "After"













Living room "Before"
















Living room "After"

















Kitchen "Before"



















Kitchen "After"























Bath room "Before"















Bath room "After" nearly complete. Dennis added a "foot" to the tub and the shower curtain is now up as well. There is also a shade on the window and toilet paper and towel holders.

The bath room was obviously the biggest and most impressive project and was done last.











We're looking forward to having you visit to see our "masterpiece!" There is still a lot to do to the outside but that will be done gradually. We still need to re-do the porch, fix the lower deck, flash and trim around the windows, work on flower beds, etc.....

Ah, the joys of home ownership!





Monday, June 2, 2008

Finally! An Update!!

Follow this link for a slide show of Ben's living room floor project!


Thursday, May 1, 2008

The end is near!

Ben's house is nearly done! Hurrah! Yesterday the appraiser came. She was the one who looked at the house pre-redo. She said Ben has really increased his equity. We think that means it passed inspection to get a real mortgage!

Sorry we are so far behind in our photo updates. We've been busy!

Friday, April 4, 2008

Bedroom painting


Andy painting in one of the bedrooms.








Bedroom after painting.

Thursday, March 6, 2008

Hurrah!

The living room and sun room are painted! No photos yet though. In fact we're behind in our photos. Perhaps tomorrow! We have photos of the new bedroom floors as well.

Monday, January 28, 2008

One more thing...

(**as always, click on the photos to view them full sized**)
This is the living room with the window boarded up because the previous owner rather purposefully broke it out. Also the bit to the right of that is where an old stove pipe went out and had been rather badly and improperly filled in. Ben plans to put in a solid fuel burning stove and will run new stove pipe through there. The neighbor is a "dry waller" and will fix the wall and ceiling properly and replaster those areas.


This is the new window in the living room. It's surprising how much brighter the room is with glass in the window frame instead of wood! Our roofer, Phil Cordes also put the window in. He will "flash-out" the outside when the weather isn't quite so cold.

Sunday, January 27, 2008

Finally! An update!


Ben has made it so Denny and I can contribute to his blog.
Click on the photos to view them full sized and in their gross and dirty glory.


This is the kitchen as we found it sans the garbage on the floor.




Bathroom, obviously as we found it. It has currently been gutted except for the tub and toilet. After cleaning (which was a daunting task we won't talk about) the toilet is nearly new and works perfectly. Bought a new seat though.






Sun porch in it's current condition. There is no mop board and the door is not trimmed out. There is also no pile of mail and personal papers that was there when we first visited!

Notice everything including the outside porch is BLUE!






Living room sans filth covered carpet, various trash, and overturned sofa.










A closeup of the beautiful glazed tile that we found under the filth in the kitchen and sun porch! The grout lines are uneven and there is grout and various other stuff stuck to them but after scrubbing they will do quite nicely.





Those are all of the before photos worth posting. We will put more photos up soon as things progress.

We have primed and painted the two bedrooms and painted the wood trim in those rooms as well. They are ready for the wood laminate floors now! Except for register covers, new lights, and new outlets those two rooms will be done! The kitchen is primed and it's ceiling painted. The walls need paint which Dennis hopes to do tomorrow. The cabinets and wood trim all need painted as well. Then the kitchen will be nearly done! It's getting sort of exciting to see the changes in the little house. The biggest challenges will be the living room and the bath which is the ultimate challenge! In a couple of weeks we are getting a new furnace installed. That should really help the gas bills.

That's it for this update. Watch for more soon! ~Sue