The beginning of the Bathroom renovations.

 When I bought this house, I knew I was going to have to redo the bathroom if I ever wanted to turn around and sell it again. There were 7 shades of green, no actual shower, the vanity was a $100 Home Depot Bulk Buy that had long since seen it's day, and it had no ventilation. 

Let's refresh our memories.

Avacado green tub with Seafoam walls? No fan?
Check, Check.

Home Depot Vanity with 2 wall sconces plugged into an outlet on the other side of the wall?
Check.

Heating vent that comes through the floor in the dining room, only to pop through the wall of the bathroom into the toilet?
Check.

Door that swings open and smacks into the toilet every time?
Check.

I've been doing little things here and there. Updated 85% of the plumbing. Fixed the electrical in the wall and installed a new vanity light and outlet. Replaced the vanity and the faucet. Did the wax ring on the toilet. Jerry-rigged a shower.

But it is time that this bathroom is overhauled. I want to be able to enjoy it.

I looked high and lo for a contractor to help. Most wanted to push their idea of what should be done on me. The time I wasted listening to ideas that would have left this bathroom uglier makes me cringe. When I told one guy I wanted a pocket door (to fix the whole door-swinging-into-the-can problem) he told me that I actually didn't.
He did not get the job.

I finally contacted a guy, (who will remain nameless for now,) who's come and actually listened to me. He's taken the concrete needs (structural and roof repair), paired it with the interior desires (pocket door, unobtrusive ventilation, modernized tub/shower), let me dictate the elements that I want to reuse (trim and door), and come up with a solid plan. If all goes well, he'll start in September.
Until them, I get to do some of the prep work - refinish the recycled elements, and demo what I can.

Which of course, I've already started and will tell you all about in the next post!

I wish upon a well (cover)

I took some time off last week (more on that later) but one unexpected project that I completed was reroofing my well cover. I'd like to rebuild it into a platform sort of structure that I could but a little wooden wishing well planter on, but that's not necessary right now.

Right now I just wanted it to look nicer than it did. A neighbor was giving away a partial box of pre-primed cedar shakes, so no time like the present!

Warning: there is a picture of one of my outdoor friends (the snakes) below.
I'm not actually all good with snakes, but they lived here first and they eat a lot of bugs. We've reached sort of an agreement - if I don't step on them or rake their faces, they won't startle me and they can stay. Now that I know where to keep an eye out for them, it's a little better.

The old well cover. It was pretty much shot, most of the nails were very rusty. The top cover should have been rebuilt, but not at current lumber prices. It can wait a little while.

This is what's under the cover. The boards at the bottom cover up a dry well - at the bottom of the dry well is the actual wellhead for the house. In the upper left hand cover of the base, you can see a squiggle friend I just disturbed.

Yes you. Please go find somewhere else to be.

Please? I have work to do and I don't want to squash you.

She eventually wiggled herself off into the box (not the direction I wanted her to go), and then wedged herself under the inner cover. I had intended to take a look down the hole while I was in there, but decided to leave her alone instead.

There are no progress pictures; despite what the weather apps said, it started to drizzle about halfway through, so I was hustling to beat the rain.

Newly shingled cover. It's not perfect, but I've never shingled anything before. Plus, it's a well cover, not a living structure (for anyone but the snake) so it's fine.

Ta Da! Looks a little nicer from the road (if anyone even notices. I notice though, so it pleases me.)

Someday I'll reroof the house. (I'll need to sooner than later.)
Until then, the big news is progress on the bathroom! More on that next time.

I think they're dead, Jim.

One upside to all the crazy hot weather we've had is that the worms in the bags should be well and truly dead. So that's nice.

44.5*C = 112.1*F.
My old meat thermometer is stuck on C.

I've flipped and flopped the bags over enough to get a nice consistent roast. 

Part of this week's chores is to move the sacks for dead worm dirt down to the front yard (to fix ruts from the worm delivery,) and by the road to encourage grass to grow. Maybe if it's not 90* one of these days.

And then there was help!

 Last weekend, Ian was able to come out for a couple of days for my birthday. It's not much "fun" but he was able to help me get a few things done that I needed a set of skilled hands to help with.

Finally! The railing up to the second floor is installed! And it's solid and not pulling down the wall! That was quite the task - some of the bolts are right into nice solid studs - some have fancy molly bolts holding it on to the plaster and lathe. I need to hit the heads of those with some matte black touchup paint, which I ordered from the guy who made the railing. (The little jar he had sent with the railing had dried out.)

Finally!

The next day he helped me hang the shed quilt. I've designed it in such a way that I can lift of and replace the quilt with seasonally appropriate themes. This tickles me greatly. Of course the price of plywood is astronomical right now, so I'll hold off on a new one for a while.

I took this picture a while ago - the rose has filled in since.

Before Shed Quilt though, he helped me right the clothes line post. The ledge is so close to the surface here that the further post really wasn't sunk as deep as it should have been. We dug out a roughly 3x3' square around it and back-filled a square pad with 480lbs of cement around it to give it a bigger foot. That sucker isn't going anywhere now. I just tested it with my noggin last night mowing the law, and in a contest of post vs head, the post won, so I think it's as solid as it's going to be.

I'm still here!

 I'm still here, puttering away at the house. I haven't forgotten the blog, but Blogger was being a real pain in the neck uploading photos. 

I have a few posts ready to go as soon as I can fix them!

Let's pause and talk about invasives.

"Why do you get so upset about invasive plants, Sarah? What's the big deal, it's just a plant.
It's not taking over *my* yard."

All of these plants started off in someone's garden with the best of intentions:

Black Locust, Norway Maple, Chinese Wisteria, Oriental Bittersweet, Privet, Rose of Multiflora, Wintercreeper, Burning Bush, Amur Honeysuckle, Japanese Barberry, Garlic Mustard, Greater Celandine, Creeping Jenny, Creeping Charlie, Purple Deadnettle, Hairy Bittercress.

I have every single one of them on my property. I'm sure there's more I haven't identified. It's an invasive wasteland that isn't the right forage for birds. Isn't the right habitat for butterflies and bugs.

It isn't right.

 

You know what struggles to stay on my property? Jack-in-the-Pulpit. False Solomon's Seal. Pretty little Cranesbill (wild geranium). Canada mayflower.

Even the grapevine was struggling against the bittersweet and wisteria until I got proactive.

The berries of the honeysuckle and bittersweet aren't nutritionally right for birds. Garlic Mustard and Norway Maple change the chemical composition of the soil so that nothing else wants to grow where they are. Bittersweet and Wisteria kill trees.

Everything else bullies out something that ought to be there.

 

I've spent weeks over the past few years cleaning up other people's pretty disaster. Cutting, pulling; in some cases poisoning.

I contributed to the spread myself, before I knew. Now I know and I see it everywhere.

This is why I've become so passionate about invasives and the damage they do, and why I'm holding my breath right now, because you see, I have worms.

 

Asian Jumping Worms, to be precise.

 

Last Saturday I got a good head of steam up and went to move the last of the 6 yards of dirt out of my driveway that I had ordered back in March. 

3.5 yards was already in the front flowerbed. 

1 was already spread down by the side of the road in an attempt to get anything but weeds to grow. 

.5 had been used to patch holes around my yard. 

That left about a yard to move.

I approached the pile, gloves on and wheelbarrow ready, when I noticed a lot of worms gathered around the edge. Usually if earthworms are in the way of my chore I pitch them out into the lawn so either the birds eat them or they escape down into the turf. I picked up a worm with gloved hand and went to lob it into the grass when it *Flipped Out.*

Not a typical worm, "hey, leave me alone as I slinky my way back to the dirt" move. This was a full bodied, full fledged spastic flail.
Oh.

Oh dear.

Back in the winter I'd read an article about a new invasive worm, the "Asian Jumping Worm". Popular for fish bait (because of their movement) and vermiculture (because they are voracious) they had escaped captivity and were starting to run amok in forests in the southern states. They love moist leaf litter and reduce the leafy ground cover in a crazy short amount of time, displacing other worms and salamanders, and generally being really bad neighbors.

 

And now I thought I had one freaking out in my hand.

I Googled. I found a contact at UMass who studies the buggers. I shot video of my suspect worm, (harder than you think), and sent it to her. I pulled out as many worms as I could find and put them in a soup can. I waited.

She emailed me back and said that yes, it looked like a suspect worm, and could she come take a sample? She was welcome to all the worms she wanted as far as I was concerned. 

Yesterday she and her assistant arrived. She flipped some of the worms out of my can and verified that it did indeed look like a young jumping worm. She took my can of worms, told me to cover what I could with black plastic to kill them with heat and just keep an eye on the rest. Send her pictures if anything looked suspicious.

So this weekend I'm going to bag up and plastic over what I can. I'm going to dig a shallow trench between the flower bed and the woods, and see if I can fill it with sharp gravel. (Yes, I'm going to build a moat around my worms.) There's no way plastic will work there because it's too shady.

I was at war with the invasive plants. 

Now I'm at war with the worms.

All the little projects

 I haven't been up to a ton that has to do directly with the house. I put in a few new garden beds, plugged a bunch of logs with grey oyster mushroom plugs (but I need more logs for the rest of the plugs), and painted a barn quilt for my shed. I did move about 3 yards of dirt into the lower flower bed that I'm trying to grass over, and while I've tossed some seed down on it, it's going to need more dirt to really kill everything under it. Despite the cardboard sandwich that I used to kill the back flowerbed, the day lilies are still finding a way through. Every few days I go out and cut them out.

New beds - I had intended to box them in until I saw the price of lumber.
The far right are the recycled boxes from last year, all nicely leveled.

I attempted to replace my leaky outside water faucet. After mangling it pretty good, I had to call in a plumber. It wasn't cheap, but when the fix leaked, they came right back and fixed it right.

The reason I get in dirt (loam). Some of my dirt is on the left. Purchased dirt is on the right.

Filled in lower bed. The lawn was a lot softer than I thought, but since I'll have to get more in for the fall, I don't know if there's a point to fixing the lawn.

I've been making the windows for Ian's shop. This is the 4th window, and the last of it's size. Now for 4 more, slightly smaller.

Mushroom logs, all plugged and thinking about life behind the shed. I have to remember to water them.

I decided I wanted some art for the side of the shed that faces the road. I had a 4' piece of left over 1/4" ply in the basement.

TaDa! Shed quilt.

I think I'm going to mount it with a French Cleat. That way I can remove it in case of weather, or swap it out seasonally. :)

Spring!

Spring is springing!

With a solid week of nice weather, everything is starting to wake up, and I realize an avalanche of work is about to hit me. I'm trying to get a jump on it. Last Friday Dad came down and swapped chippers with me, which should make short work of a lot of saplings I have around. He also took down a bunch of damaged trees up behind the house so I can so of tidy up back there.

I wonder if I can inoculate this with mushrooms?
We might find out, though I hear oak is best.

Then the raking started.

Saturday was the front of the house, trying to get to the telephone pole.

Hauled away a bunch of bittersweet, wisteria, dead lilacs, and grape.

This view has not been seen of my house in decades, I'm willing to bet.

Saturday was the leach field. The forward mound was all multiflora rose, which I was Very Tempted to light on fire right where it was. The shrubby mess behind it is Grape, Bittersweet, and privet overlaying a mock orange.

Cleaned up as far as I could push myself.

You notice that dark spot in the middle? That is a huge mound of dirt that the woodchuck dug out of the leach field. It was still frozen, so I'll give it some time and rake it out. Without the protective overgrowth, I don't think he'll want to live here anymore.

Monday afternoon I raked the front yard, and Tuesday afternoon I raked the side yard. My daffies are pushing up, as are the other bulbs I stuck in all over the place.

Yesterday, I started a new project. It was supposed to be easy. "Just replace a few washers," the internet said. "The leaking will stop."
Well.
I broke the handle off my outdoor water spigot in the process of trying to get the part off to replace the washer. So now I'm left with a water stump.

Before - Unsuspecting but leaky spigot.

During - shielding the siding from the coat of PB Blaster I gave it to loosen things up.

After - the stump. At this point, I'm thinking, "Since the packing is shot, and now I've broken the handle, let's just replace the whole dang thing."
Do you think I could get this to come off the threads too the pipe into the house? Nope. Not at all. Would not budge. So there it sits.

This weekend will probably be Adventures! In! Plumbing! We'll see if I can get it done. There will also be more yard work, and maybe if I'm feeling super spritely (and the weather holds out) I might strip a door. Both of the doors to the office still need to be done.

What to do, what to do?

 I woke up this morning and had no idea what to do with myself. The weather is crappy, and I just didin't have a game plan.

What better time to update the blog?

I haven't been doing much over the last month - between the weather and the winter slow-times, I'm just not feeling it. I do have a few things to report though.

The first is my Adventures in Plumbing. "But Sarah?" you ask, "You just had most of the plumbing dealt with in the crawl space under the bathroom?" Righty-o. I did. The one part I didn't have them replace (because it wasn't causing any problems), was the waste line for the toilet. Over the last month or so I'd noticed that the grout lines around the toilet were getting crusty and tuning a rusty color, (it's supposed to be light grey.) A quick consultation with Ian lead me to suspect that the wax ring was shot. One Saturday a few weekends ago, after talking to a coworker who's done this a number of times, I buckled down and replaced it.

First, I removed all the water.
It's a good thing I've gotten good at syphoning water out of the fish tank - that skill came in handy here.
There was a curious amount of debris in the bottom of the tank. I'll be interested to see how fast it builds up now that the whole house is on a filter due to the radon tank.

Oh dear.

This isn't good. But I had been told not to expect to reuse the bolts anyway. I had new ones on hand.
You can see the discolored grout here pretty well.

Yup, that's a problem. A smelly problem. Anyone who's ever had the pleasure of experiencing Girl Scout camp latrines knows the aroma.

Cleaned up as well as I could. That little putty knife was sacrificed in the process, as well as a wad of steel wool. If I had known the flange was in such shape as I found it, I would have had the plumbers do that at the same time as the rest of the plumbing. It works, but it's not ideal. A lot of it has rusted, and I"m not sure what the state of the subfloor is around the front there. But I just needed a functional toilet. If/when the bathroom gets redone, it will be a area highlighted as "special concern".

New clean wax ring! Shiny new bolts!

And the throne, back in it's rightful place.

 

I'm ever so glad that a while back Ian had helped me replace the supply line in - the old one would have certainly disintegrated during this project. Toilet installation, while heavy, and a little smelly, proved not to be rocket science. I think it's done the trick so far, but it's hard to tell because that grout discoloration appears permanent. I'll keep an eye on it.

After that, I decided to use up the rest of the lime mortar I had in the basement to repoint the basement walls. I had used what I needed to repoint the chimney down there, so this was left over. it was getting chunky since it had been in the basement for a while, and there was no time like the present. I figured to continue on the front wall where I had started with the repair of the coal chute. I went back to find a picture of where I left that, but couldn't find anything but in-progress pictures from the outside.

Mixing the mortar by hand. Not efficient, but was all I could do. Appropriate lime mortar sourced from LimeWorks. This is NOT portland cement. Portland is too strong for this - you want the mortar to fail before the rocks do. If you've ever seen where the bricks have crumbled out of a wall, leaving behind the mortar skeleton, that's where Portland was probably used inappropriately. It will do the same thing to certain rocks.

Smooshing the mortar and water together. Eventually you get a feel for what's too wet/too dry. It's a lot like making a pie crust. I erred on the side of a smidge too wet, but it all got on the wall.

Here it is, smooshed between the rocks. 2.5 bags of mortar got me this far. It's not a beautiful pointing job with fancy ribbon work. It's literally fancy mud, smooshed into the cracks by hand. I only used the trowel to mix it.
It's going to take a lot more to do the whole basement.

All this repointing became a lot more important because I had been in the process of cleaning the basement when I discovered I had a guest.

I had the shelves all pulled apart to clean and organize.
I had no idea just how many cans of paint I owned before I did thiis. It's a lot.

I went to hang a crowbar off a nail, when my cave(wo)man brain registered DANGER WILL ROBINSON PAY ATTENTION TO THAT THING RIGHT NOW.
The undignified noises and interpretive dance that occurred was, in a word, *magnificent*.

Here's the rub - I had crap *everywhere* but on the shelves.
And Sampson The Surprise Ceiling Snake, (seen right above the bend in the white radon pipe) had no intention of slithering off into his wall while I had the heat on.
A civil accord was reached.
He would stay Right Where He Was and promised not to jump out of the joists, and I would hurridly and carefully work around him.

Yes, most of the pictures are from the far side of the shelves. I got it done, told him he had to stay downstairs, and beat a retreat to the relative safety of upstairs.

I know that snakes have been in this basement before. I found the shed skins when I was doing the initial cleanup the spring after buying the place. But I thought that was because the basement had gone unused for so long. I didn't think they would want to hang around (har har) when there was coming and going. I was very mistaken. Now I know to look, and Sampson is chilling (rather, warming), on his electrical wire hammock pretty regularly.
I have no problem with Sampson being an outside friend. I would strongly prefer that be where he stays. This year, the sills and likely some water issues will be dealt with, then more mortar, and he'll have to find different accommodations for next winter.

The only other ting I've been up to is making leaded lights for Ian's shop. He put up a Dutch inspired building on his property in NY to house his shop. I offered to make the lights if he would buy the materials. It's been a few years since I did this, and getting started was rough. (There's always a fear of screwing it up). I eventually did the first prototype, relearned more than a few things along the way, and it's ready for him to try out. 

The first cut of anything is the hardest.
In this case it can cut you back, so preparation and safety are key.

Making progress.
(At this point I didn't know Sampson was likely hanging out just around the corner.)

Dry fit.

Soldered. Man, my soldering skills are *terrible*. I put the saddle wires on at this point before cementing. It is unclear from the diagrams and pictures that I can find if these should be wires or lead tabs, but wire is what's readily available to me. Working around the poky wires was a pain in the neck, but I think that the oils in the cement, (it's essentially glazing putty,) would make it impossible to solder them on afterwards.

Cemented and ready to go off to it's new Dutch casement home. I'm not starting on any more until I know this one absolutely fits. (He needs three more this same size and shape.)

That's what I've been up to. I still don't know what I can do with the rest of my day today. I'm going to go wander through my spreadsheet and see if anything jumps out at me. But not Sampson. He doesn't jump. He stays right in his corner of the basement.

I like to envision Sampson with a little party hat on.
They say any creature with a silly hat on is more approachable.
I don't know who "They" are, and I don't know if it's working for me, but here's Sampson in a party hat for us.