The last two doors are in. That was "fun." Calculations for the height of the finished floor were a bit too low so both door frame assemblies had to be trimmed. That still wasn't enough for the door to the water closet so I had to take about 3/16" off the header with a planer.

At this point all of the tile is cut except for the three pieces at the entrance to the bathroom because I need the reducer for the transition to the hardwood in the bedroom before I know how big the pieces of tile should be. It will be here this afternoon so I can wrap up the last of the flooring and start thinking about what to move on to next. Probably the last of the drywall and all areas that need casing or baseboards so I can kick the compressor and all of that stuff out of here.

Quick update - Tile is in and grouted, but the excess dried too long in some places so there's that to deal with. The project is basically at a stop at the moment because over about the last two weeks Mrs. Fife's aunt went from dislocated shoulder they were having a really hard time resetting, to cancer, to bad cancer everywhere, to hospice. She's asleep due to massive amounts of morphine and will probably never wake up, but Mrs. Fife made it up to MD in time for her to still be coherent and for her to see the baby, which was basically her dying wish.

I'm still in CHS because the yard at the house with the roofing accident is a bit overgrown and the earliest the yard guy could make it over there was *three days* after their arbitrarily-set deadline, the timeline was not acceptable according to the a**hole who works for the city. It didn't matter that I also needed to go to MD, according to said a**hole in his words "the grass is more important." Nor does it matter that if things go according to plan with another city department, the house will no longer exist as of September 9th anyway and said grass will be crushed underneath heavy machinery tracks.

Still, I never got to say good bye.


tl;dr, project is on hold because I just don't care about it right now.

Wow, I have no words for the ******* at the city who thinks the yard in the collapsed house is more important than a dying relative.

I am so sorry. Prayers for each of you.

Thumbs down to government *******s abusing their power. Especially peons like this one.

Your house looks great. Very sorry about the loss of your relative.

So sorry for your loss Fife. Hang in there buddy...thoughts and prayers for you and your family!

Thanks, she passed last night btw. I can't attend the funeral because of meeting with the BAR in person at the site of the house we would like to raze and then the actual meeting later that day. Not sure about Mrs. Fife but my guess is she isn't going since she just got back from MD two days ago after being there nearly a week.

At home nothing that interesting is going on. The grout excess cleanup side project is still going on in the water closet. FWIW the best way I've found to remove dried on grout is to scrape off whatever you can first, then apply an acid solution and scrub with a brass BBQ grill brush. Wipe off with water and repeat if needed.

This weekend I'm shooting for (finally) moving the washer and dryer into the new laundry area. I need to drill the hole for the dryer vent and disconnect the old circuits / connect the new ones at the main panel. Before bringing them in I also need to delouse the washer and dryer since they've been in the garage for 5 years. No need to move spiders and dust in along with the appliances, and since they're 12 years now they could go for a deep cleaning and inspection of whatever belts may be in there anyway.

It's been a busy weekend at home but at least there's something to show for it - the washer and dryer are finally indoors where they belong. The last three places I lived had the laundry area inside and that's been high on the list of things we missed since moving here. It looks a lot tighter than it actually is - there is 3-4' of room between the W/D and wall in front of them. I removed a crazy amount of filth from both before lugging them in and still need to hit up the dryer handle with peroxide to make it white again. Even in a room with only hard surfaces the soundproofing works great. Only on occasion is anything at all be heard from the family room when doing laundry.



A few people have said I must be crazy to go to all this work to bring the W/D indoors or to consider putting it where it is. I've also heard the same about lowering the dining room floor back down to the original height Now I finally have pictures that should explain it all.

This is the old location for the W/D. Not good. It's unclear how much of it is poor installation and how much is really bad maintenance and repair of a water leak.





In a nutshell... the dryer vent is both over 25' long and made from flex duct. The washer supply and drain plumbing speaks for itself. Immediately to the left is the water heater, conveniently located at the exact opposite end of the house from everything that uses hot water. Also when they raised the floor in 1979 they created a small crawlspace with zero air circulation, so even without water leaking down there and rotting a bit of the framing it's already a mold factory. And of course if plumbing or other repairs were to be needed again the dining room hardwood would have to be cut out. edit: also forgot the obvious lack of fireproof material between the garage and living space with the big gaping hole so that'll be another no-no.

Lowering the floor is a whole other project and the water heater has to be out of the garage before that can happen so that's a next year thing anyway. Based on what I've seen when I peeked in the hole the original floor is a lovely shade of yellow vinyl tile and from the other side I saw 1970s linoleum so I'm not really sure what was going on in there in the past.

For this week I'm trying to get drywall work in the water closet wrapped up, trim out and paint that room so the toilet can go in and I'll be done with that area and only the main bathroom will still have work left to do.

Congrats on the washer/dryer inside. I don't know what I would do if I had to do it outside. Honestly never had to.

Sucks on the gov't issue and the passing. At least she got to see the next generation. Take comfort in that (and tell your wife). It helps in the future.

~egon

Thanks!

The hearing for knocking the place down is on Thursday. It all seems to be going ok but there is one person from the block association who seems strongly against it because I had the nerve to apply for demo with the board of architecture prior to seeking permission from him first. This is not required in any way whatsoever. It's at the point where it's so bad that the engineer can't evaluate it to determine whether repair is even a viable option without spending 10s of thousands first to make it safe enough for entry. This is very much a safety issue, not an elective demo and I'm not too worried at this point about it being declined after the board sees it in person on the morning before the meeting.

Still a royal PITA though.

I've been busy sanding drywall (and sanding and sanding...) in the water closet most of the day. It's too small to use the power sander tool so I'm at it by hand. Almost done though, with white footprints all over the place to show for it.

It's been a week so I guess it's about time for another update.

Thanks to Mrs. Fife we have the closet figured out and picked up nearly all of it when we were in Charlotte. Unfortunately the pieces we couldn't pick up are the frames and they'll get here the last week of september, so for now we have a lot of shelves, drawers, bins and other stuff hanging around the house in a nice neat stack of flat pack boxes.

The stupid water closet is done and for a change I'm satisfied with how the drywall came out. Now the challenge is to figure out how to install the closet flange and toilet. There are a couple of tabs that attach to the floor that it is fastened to instead of the toilet bolting to the closet flange so that'll be a bit of fun to figure out. I'll probably mess with that and baseboards tomorrow and the toilet plumbing this weekend.

The only other big progress is that almost all of the doors are finished. There are three sides still raw wood and four sides that need the final satin coat. Still need to do hardware and change out the bright brass hinges they came with (and 2014's batch) for stainless.

I've run into a lot of trouble finding a cabinetmaker. The one I used last time was sold by the owner to another company who then went under. Others I've talked to are booked through the end of the year. I have considered ordering something online but haven't been able to find anything good. I've found close, but don't want something that has a countertop or sinks included. Tomorrow I starting hitting up local places on Houzz I guess.

We have a toilet in the master bathroom for the first time this year, but it's not usable quite yet because the plumbing underneath the house isn't connected. The installation wasn't that bad - most of the problems were due to the fact that the floor has tile.

I didn't want to use a spacer for the closet flange so instead it's attached directly to the porcelain tile floor. That meant drilling six holes to put in anchors, then using stainless steel screws to install it. I used a carbide glass/tile bit which took absolutely forever. Lots of drilling for 5 seconds, putting the drill bit in water to cool it, then more drilling. It's a great way to kill a Sunday afternoon.

Since this is a skirted toilet the next step was to install the mounting blocks (it does not bolt to the closet flange). Time for four more precisely located 5/16" holes in the tile. Not going anywhere for a while? Otherwise from there it was pretty straightforward except for the part where the seat must be installed before the toilet is mounted because you can't reach the underside of the bolts afterwords unless your hands are really small. Mrs. Fife got to help out here.

1959 American Standard vs. 2016 TOTO - tanks are just a bit smaller now. The green one is salvage that will be installed in our hall bathroom next year when we take that room back from a bad 2000s remodel to something that looks like it was installed in 1959 when the house was built.


It looks absolutely tiny in this room.

This afternoon I'm finishing the trim, doing the drain plumbing under the house and hanging a couple of pictures on the wall so the water closet will be done. With this room coming online and the closet stuff arriving next week that will make two out of three areas that are done with only the main part of the bathroom remaining to do.

One of the things we're considering is using a vanity in white/high gloss from IKEA. It will be a 12 week minimum for something to be made and it would be nice to speed that up a bit since this project has been taking a while. It's hard to believe that the last bathroom that I did took just over three months compared to this project but that was purely a cosmetic remodel. No plumbing, moving things, electrical, drywall, framing, other rooms or any of that.

How did you deal with the mold in this area? We have some mold in the house and need to have a company come out to clean it up, but have no idea on who to call. We could tackle it but just dont have the time.

Fungus in the joists - if it was bad (wood was weakened) the entire joist was removed and replaced. If it was not compromised I sistered in additional lumber. Since this is the southwest portion of the house it was warmer and drier so I did less joist replacement here.

Otherwise, areas behind the shower where the lack of waterproofing enabled moisture intrusion I just removed contaminated materials such as insulation, bleached the joists and moved on with life. No big deal, really.

How is the tear down of the rental coming? It's ridiculous that so many unaffiliated people care what you do with the place.

quote:

---

How is the tear down of the rental coming? It's ridiculous that so many unaffiliated people care what you do with the place.

---

Even after winning over the neighborhood, getting letters of support from people nearby, and a neighbor showing up in person, denied by the board of architecture. Seriously, I knew things were not looking good since up before me was someone who needed to remove a couple of what I would describe as pole barns, but they weren't even that large. Sheds made from phone poles that aren't visible from any public viewing angle, but someone stood up to give a passionate speech about how these crappy old sheds dating from the 1920s that don't even really have walls (also empty for 20 years now) are part of the rich history of the area and how they should be preserved. This swayed the board and they ended up having to disassemble and provide pictures of both of them, and somehow reuse materials in whatever they were building next.

So of course when it comes to removing a house that has no business even standing up any more, that's a bridge too far for them. This group does not represent the interests of actual people or those nearby but their own fantasy world. I'm working an offer on it right now, good riddance once it's gone. People long for the good old days but to be honest the only thing done better on this place and those like it was the trim work. Absolutely everything else you could think of from design, materials, and even workmanship is inferior.

At home I would be done with the water closet but the shutoff valve I grabbed the other day must have been intended for hard lines only because the hose from the toilet will not thread in. That's what I get for not comparing what's in the box with the others with what's written on the box. Otherwise I'm hoping to finish trimming it out this evening and having an island of "done" in the sea of construction.

So if something were to happen to the house, like a fire, due to deterioration from the roof collapse, would you then be able to tear it down?

I get the preserving history and such, but letting it fester only invites disorder. Look at Detroit; they are bulldozing old houses that are beyond repair that are old and/or 'historic'.

~egon

quote:

---

So if something were to happen to the house, like a fire, due to deterioration from the roof collapse, would you then be able to tear it down?

I get the preserving history and such, but letting it fester only invites disorder. Look at Detroit; they are bulldozing old houses that are beyond repair that are old and/or 'historic'.

~egon

---

To be honest, it depends. If it burned the entire thing down or a hurricane destroyed it there's nothing left to tear down bring on the bulldozer. On the other hand... I've seen a house have a major second story fire and the city not allow it to be torn down, but that one is from the 1850s and built in a style that only exists here so it may not be a valid comparison. It supposedly sat vacant and halfway boarded up for 25 years.

I think to a degree it comes down to local corruption. Why allow a person who owns something derelict or badly damage to remove it and build something else when by denying their request they are left with only the option to sell at a discount to a developer? I heard this from a couple of friends who are builders and believe it 100%.

FWIW the board of architecture made sense when it was founded 85 years ago, but at the time they were dealing with colonial-era buildings at risk. Places George Washington stayed at, where historic events happened and houses that date back to the early 1700s. This is the lower peninsula. But like so many other governmental agencies the scope creeps and now even a ranch built in 1966 anywhere on the peninsula falls under their authority.

They've been fighting razing and redeveloping this beauty which sits vacant and stripped with something smaller for two years now. Historic Charleston and the BAR no longer serve any real purpose IMO.

Another week, another few % closer to completion. The water closet is done aside from painting the trim and installing a TP holder. It's nice to have at least a small area that isn't under construction.



The electrical work for the vanity lights is done, 1/4 turn shutoff valves installed, drywall up and the vanity is installed. It took a lot of work because IKEA vanities are shallower than normal and our sinks are huge, so they also had to be trimmed to fit. To make up for the missing depth I installed lumber on the walls and hung the cabinets on that. I would have had to do something anyway since the attach points for the cabinets were nowhere near any studs. I'd starting to look a lot like a bathroom in here.



Today we're picking up the closet frames and will be hard at work putting them all together. Once that's done another room will be complete and I'll move on to the shower. It'll be a busy weekend.

Looking good.

You've taken the lead on the progress front.

Looking good!

Closet update - it's all done but the baseboards and the small shelf above the W/D to hold laundry supplies. One of us has already been busy moving things into it. It's a huge improvement from the three small, crappy bars that we had before. Altogether it took about 8 hours of assembling without any real help, plus however long it will take to move all the cardboard boxes to the recycle bin and stuff them in.

Awesome closet!

Thanks! Our last place had two good ones that added up to about this much (non-adjustable) storage space so it's nice to be back where we were before.

Mrs. Fife is looking forward to trimming the rest of it out but there are bigger priorities right now. Today I'm going to put in the mudbed for the shower floor. Positioning a linear drain is something I haven't done before but after spending an hour watching videos and reading the instructions a few times I'm ready to go. I'll try and go into details in the next post to make everything clear.

Things are looking good for getting Kerdi in this week, at least as much of the stuff as I have on hand, and to start putting up tile on the walls.

Looks awesome Fife. Really like the shelving! BTW, where did you get it from?

Gary79Ag said:

---

Looks awesome Fife. Really like the shelving! BTW, where did you get it from?

---

IKEA - it's all the PAX system. About $1,500 including tax.

Are you going to trim the bottom and add molding up top?

aezmvp said:

---

Are you going to trim the bottom and add molding up top?

---

Baseboards, yes. I'm out of the stock I normally use and need to get more. At the top I'm not so sure. It's a few inches so it's semi-useful space. Smaller/flatter Christmas presents might fit up there. Yesterday I was thinking, if I do anything with it I'll make a "T" out of wood with a string on the part that sticks out. Pull the string to push out everything up there.

The Fife said:

---

aezmvp said:

---

Are you going to trim the bottom and add molding up top?

---

Baseboards, yes. I'm out of the stock I normally use and need to get more. At the top I'm not so sure. It's a few inches so it's semi-useful space. Smaller/flatter Christmas presents might fit up there. Yesterday I was thinking, if I do anything with it I'll make a "T" out of wood with a string on the part that sticks out. Pull the string to push out everything up there.

---

My other thought might be to run about half the way with a trim and use LED's to provide extra light. More of a design thing than any useful space, but I'm not sure what other storage you need out of that.

Something like that.

That might work too, and I do have a huge thing for LED lighting.

Unrelated to this house, but people might remember another historic one we own downtown here. Sale of that place closed today. I'm amazed the buyers didn't want to hold off on closing until after Matthew passes but that's none of my concern. If anything interesting happens here I'll try and take a picture of whatever is left of the place.

IT'S RAINING SIDEWAYS!

The Fife said:

---

IT'S RAINING SIDEWAYS!

---

This post is useless without video!