Monthly Archives: December 2013

Making Things is Rewarding

This entry was posted in Just Life on by .

I was up on the roof of my house yesterday cleaning the gutters before the big storm that didn’t really happen. It got pretty icy and cold, but nothing like they were predicting. Anyway, when I was up on the roof, I was looking at a cupola type thing I build a few years ago when I was roofing my house. The cupola was there, originally with the house from 1963. My grand parents had a hunting dog weather vane. I took that down and put on a high wheeler. Anyway, the roof of the cupola is the cool part. It is cooper, with standing seams. I hand bent the copper over my kitchen counter and then pounded the seams flat. I hooked the whole thing down with cooper nails, not willing to try to do the seams on the roof and attach it the correct way. When I finished, I soldered the nails, so no chance of rain linking in.

Anyway, the whole project didn’t cost much, but I have a lot of pride in it. I like looking up there everyday I leave the driveway, seeing which way the wind is coming from, to help decide which way to ride. Working with your hands has a lot of rewards.

I’ve been driving down to Lawrence to help a friend with some projects. I though I was going to remove a bathtub and make it a walk-in shower. But that project got out of hand. She wanted one of the walls torn down and the bathroom made bigger. I had tiled the floors a few years ago and put in radiant floor heating, so I wasn’t that thrilled with the thought of ripping that up and starting over. So, I opted for project two, which was tearing down a wall by the front door to open up the living area.

The house was built probably in the 50’s and is a hodgepodge of construction techniques. It has been renovated and upgraded so many times that it is almost a science experiment. There is electrical running in the wall, so it has to be rerouted to another wall. The attic has 4 different types of insulation. With three of them being caustic. I put on a version of a hazmat suit to go up there. It works pretty well, but my arms are still itching from the stuff falling down on me during the demolition process. I’m trying to get it done before I take off to Chicago for Christmas. We’ll see. Okay, it is icy and cruddy out, so I’m just going to try to get a lot done over there today and maybe it won’t seem like such a rush.

My cupola. It is gonna take 20-40 years from the copper to turn green.

My cupola. It is gonna take 20-40 years from the copper to turn green.

Dark entrance way.

Dark entrance way.

Wall removed.

Wall removed.

Wires sort of moved.

Wires sort of moved.

Wiring mess. It is pretty dry rotted.

Wiring mess. It is pretty dry rotted.

Ready to go up.

Ready to go up.

In a Hurry

This entry was posted in Racing on by .

I’m kind of out of time already and the day has hardly started. I was in Lawrence until after 2 am and am heading back now. Yesterday went super slow on the remodeling front. I rewired an electrical box, having moved it, but one three-way switch didn’t work right. I spend a couple hours trying to fix it, then called my brother Kris. I can’t really proceed with the drywall, etc., without getting the electricity working right. Long story short, someone had rewired the other end of the three-way, at a box in the hallway, and they had just put one wire on the wrong side of a switch. So, I spent the majority of the day being hung up with a problem that was solved by a 2 minute fix. Shit.

Anyway, I put up the drywall. It is always a challenge making it flush with existing wall. The walls and ceilings here are a 1/2 layer of drywall, covered with plaster. The drywall has holes in it that allowed the plaster to impregnate it. Kind of cool, I haven’t seen it before.

I used plaster of Paris to fill in the big gaps. Mam, is that strange stuff. I have no idea why the name seems so familiar. I think, maybe, we played with it in kindergarten. Anyway, it has a working time of nothing. Like 5 minutes. Perfect for my situation, but you don’t want to mix much up at a time. I put on some rubber gloves to try to make a little sculpture with some extra, but it hardened up too fast In finally just made a ball, about the size of a grapefruit. It got super hot. Lots of chemical reaction there.

There is a winter storm watch here and it is supposed to snow 7 inches later. I hate waiting for drywall compound to dry. So, I’m going to head over there now, put a thick layer on and see if I can accelerate the process. I’ll post something more interesting than this, which most likely only entertains me, later.

From this.....

From this…..

To this.

To this.

This is where I'm at now.

This is where I’m at now.