Scrapbook
photos from this week
The rot problem - Upstairs bathroom, north wall
Downstairs bathroom - had a bulge...
Then a cave in!
Bricks in the sink
at least I have a clean seat
One toilet removed from upstairs bathroom
Can we get a rebate for this?
Original cast iron piping
Little Miss Safety First!
Sample of the dodgy electrics
Week 2 - October 10th to 16th, 2006
Tuesday October 10thChicken Little, the Sky is Falling!
Home Depot here we come - bags of triple mix for the front garden, fluorescent bulbs so we can at least see to work and some switches.
We arrived at the house to find the upstairs bathroom had dropped some pieces (like bricks) through to the main floor bathroom sink.
Perhaps a rot problem?!
We knew about it of course. On Monday afternoon, Andreas was leaning over the toilet on 2nd floor & pulling drywall to see how nasty it was inside the north wall.
The toilet is crooked already because of the floor rot and the additional bit of weight made the tank leak over the top of it. I guess this was the 'straw that broke the camels back' because now there is a hole in the main floor bathroom ceiling where the bricks fell through! We rolled our eyes and left it as is for future photographs. Andreas messed with the electricity & I emptied the bags of dirt and finally planted to tulip bulbs, albeit in the dark. It's already dark at 7:30 pm now! We also moved all our 'stuff' into the middle room - after sweeping out from under the whole carpet (needles now removed). The middle room has now become Command Central - because it has light.
No visit for 2 days, needed to draw up floor plans on the computer at home.
Friday Night - October 13th
Crack Down on the Crack House Begins!
We are there and ready to start demo by 5:45pm. Andreas is fixated on figuring out why the front half of the house seems to not have any power whatsoever and I want to find out if the wall running east/west through the main floor can be eliminated.
So as Andreas futzes with wiring, I grab a hammer and crowbar (I LOVE the crowbar) and set to work making a hole in the front room near the ceiling. Whomever last 'fixed up' this house slapped drywall over the original plaster and lath so the walls are an extra inch thick.
After a bit of demo, we discover that you can actually fit the crowbar between the upright wall framing and the ceiling joists, so it certainly does not look like a load bearing wall.Wheee! That will certainly help in the more open-concept design that we are thinking of. Next we decide that that room is actually going to be the 'staging' area for all the garbage - we need to collect it somewhere until we rent a bin. Therefore, we may as well tear down the rest of the room, before it gets too full of construction waste. So I start with the west wall and before long the drywall over plaster/lathe becomes drywall over drywall...and we discover the archway that must have been between the front room and middle room, or living/dining. I also find ducting running through the south end of that west wall. Hmm..maybe not so open concept.
Saturday, October 14th
Can you say Demo?
Not early risers, we don't start until around 1:00pm. It hails.
As I tackle the demo of the upstairs bathroom, you know who gets his teeth into the electrical.
At some point, I find him in the basement following wires along the ceiling. In demo mode, I decide he can't possibly figure anything out without a large portion of the drywall coming down off the ceiling! Sure enough, inside are some concealed (not to code) junction boxes.
One in particular was very dodgy. It had wires sticking out of it (no cover) and they were overloaded and burned. The insulation was melted (yes, melted) back and revealed about 3 inches of green bare conductor. (In other words, corroded wire.)
We figured, or rather it was explained to me, that this bunch of wire was either overloaded or was a poor connection causing arcing or smoldering or as I like to say , a fire hazard.
As a result, that one junction was the cause of the lack of lights in the entire front house. Now, we have also determined that it actually supplies the power to all three floors of the front of the house - that is all lights and all plugs. No wonder it overheated. Like I said, dodgy.
Once fixed, voila! We can now see the horrid carpet in all it's glory in the front room!
I continued to demo the upstairs bathroom - finding a large section of cast iron pipe topping off the vent stack, and of course the flashing outside on the roof is incomplete. It's actually NOT as bad as we thought.
Sunday October 15th
Nice Neighbours!
We paid some attention to the house we actually live in - particularly the garden as it was pretty knarly. We had also been invited to some crackhouse neighbours, the one that is the 'leader' of the protesting crew!). The invitation actually came through another neighbour, and we were very appreciative of the invite. Off we went and boy, did we learn some things about that house!
I am not sure if I can keep it all straight, however here goes....Neighbours, if you are reading this, email me and correct what I have wrong!
Apparently it was a mortgage fraud situation; the tenants were paying rent but the owner had not paid the mortgage in many months.
The neighbours had gotten together and acted as a tag team to call the cops etc. And I think even when the bank took over after repo-ing from the owner, they did not want to get so involved in evicting the tenants. The neighbours called senior management at the bank and I guess eventually they acted.
It was difficult to evict the tenants since they have rights - but the kicker was the last gentleman who claimed he had a right to stay and needed a roof over his head was proving difficult to oust. Turns out he had a social assistance cheque being mailed to another address and he was picking the cheque up at that address. Therefore, he could be evicted from the crackhouse.
There are many more stories that I will write down but let me say I have to give them credit. They came together and chased the demons away!
We have been offered everything from tools to bathroom use, which is so nice!
Monday October 16th
~Garbage, Garbage, Go Awaaaaaay~
Garbage day is Tuesday so we popped over with Erin's dad, Pem , to load out all the garbage. Pem and Andreas had been at Erin's all day hanging her kitchen.
Pem donates the 'Jesus lights' to our renovation - purpose-built freestanding work light that was used when Erin was doing her reno. I christened them the 'Jesus lights' and you'll see why in the photos.
Worried about the city's garbage limit, we mentioned to a couple of neighbours that they may get extra bags this week. They were not worried, so I hauled out the 8 bags of garbage from the back room and Andreas took them to the houses.
He actually had a theory that the garbage should be up the street from us because down the street would be noticed by the garbage people. (it's a one-way street), Whatever. Off he went like one of Santa' s Little Elves depositing bags. It was also "Lawn and Leaf" collection day so same with the cedar tree parts.
We also left out the two bicycle frames and while doing so a guy rode by, stopped and asked if there were any good parts - we said hey, help yourself, but there wasn't. So he introduced himself as Paul, who works at the auto shop up the road but is a carpenter. (?) Seeing as we are barely demo-ing yet I said thanks but it would be a while until we needed a carpenter!
We also met the woman from across the street (her husband we met on possession day). We left her a microwave for her front lawn!
The story of how we bought the crack house
Common references in my scrapbook:
Andreas: god love him for putting up with me and my big ideas
Me: the other half of the loony toones who decided to buy the house.
dodgy: means sketchy, bad, worse, 'imagine that' and 'can you believe it?'
ch: crackhouse
front room: main floor a.k.a living room
middle room: main floor a.k.a dining room and Command Central