photos from this week
Creepy Halloween House
Under New Management
Weirdos
Squirrel Snax
Demo begins in the upstairs kitchen
Keys, please (in the duct)
Left over from Halloween? No, Foreman Al blowing leaves from between us and the neighbour to the north
Lucky for me, no plumber's crack ;)
Treasure hunting!
Week 5 - October 31st to November 6th, 2006
Tuesday October 31st
We collected everything and zoomed over to the crack house about 4:30. We put out our 'tombstones' and pumpkin accessories, a load of candles and my favourite - the Under New Management sign.
We propped up the old front door on the porch for a good effect, and nailed a spray painted 'CONDEMNED' sign onto the front window plywood.
Neighbours started coming over. It is such a nice bunch of people! They all seemed pretty happy with our decor and we even met some new ones who have read this site! It was mentioned to me that the house had been a rooming house for some 9 years so no one ever did anything for Halloween.
Friends came over, Sarah and Foreman Al - Al brought the scary music that we played out the upstairs window. We turned off the lights near the front of the house, and just had one candle burning on the stairs so when you open the door it was all dark and spooky. It worked out really well and we even scared a couple of kids.
Four more friends also came over as well who had not yet seen the crack house, so I gave a tour. A bit of wine and pizza later, all the trick or treaters had dried up so we cleaned up the yard & went home. A successful evening!
The rest of the week we did not hit the house, although Andreas did take down the condemned sign as he was worried someone might think it was real!
Saturday November 4, 2006
Lucky for us Sarah and Foreman Al were available and brought along shop vac and leaf blower. Al even had a full set of blue overalls, and once the white hat went on, he looked like the Orkin Man.
So the day started about 10:30 am with a project team meeting on the front porch. It was decided that 'the boys' would work on the duct clean out, then the leaves. 'The girls' would start tearing down the upstairs kitchen, at the back of the house.
Upstairs, we started by trying to remove the baseboards. And trying, and trying. Eventually, with both of us cranking on it with our crowbars, and then jumping on it, we managed to tear of one 10 foot section. Everyone says "oh you should save those", and to a certain extent, I agree. If every room had matching baseboards, I would be happy to. Unfortunately the baseboards don't even match in the SAME room!
Next we started plaster smashing, as the men went around to the ducting. Al manages to dig out a jailor-size ring of keys...gee, I wonder where they were collected from?
We work hard and break lots but who can resist the big bag of chili made by yours truly, chef lianne?
Sarah and I then went on to the slant of the ceiling and the high ceiling. Being ever cautious of electrical and other obstacles, I still managed to swing my hammer directly into the fluorescent light, which was on, and it exploded rather fantastically. All hail the safety goggles!
Behind another baseboard we find a magazine cover "True Story", dated January 1945. It has the most hilarious Camels advertisement on the back. 'One girl, one boy, one cigarette.' Practically a Harlequin!
Then we hear exclamations from down the stairs and go down to show our magazine cover, only to find Foreman 'Orkin Man' Al knee deep in a pile of dirty old clothes that he is pulling out of the air return ducting. Here we go again! Yes, indeed, another fancy pair of women's underpants, among other things. Using the wonder technology of the digital camera, I take a couple of shots facing into the duct so that we can actually see what more there is to come. It actually filled 2 garbage bags in the end. We have a good laugh and then it is back to work!
Sarah and I make very good progress upstairs, so much so that we had to open all the windows to get a flow of air - it was incredibly dusty!
The guys actually got the fan going on the furnace so we were able to go around and feel the air coming out of the vents in most of the rooms in the house.
Al and Andreas also used the leaf blower/mulcher combo to wipe clean the front lawn and even in between us and our neighbour to the north.
Of course, the day would not be complete with out a needle...Al found one between the houses.
Last but not least, towards the end of the day, I was taking off the window trim and was so excited to discover old newspapers crumpled up and jammed in - presumably for insulation. Although they crumble with the slightest touch, I did manage to read the date of November 1924. That dates the house to 82 years old... not a bad age to get a face lift!
Sunday November 5th
Andreas and I went back, in the afternoon on Sunday. I was working a bit slower, I must admit but we did manage to take down all the cupboards and counters remaining in the upstairs kitchen. This included shutting off the water to the sink...Andreas managed that but I think it leaked for a few hours. Haing a bit of trouble unscrewing the drain, Andreas asked for my help to hold while he twisted, which worked well until my thumb went through the pipe. After that he just took it off with a hacksaw; it was very, very thin copper.We think the cupboards were there for close to ten years and did not want to move easily! In fact, they were built around the lone remaining radiator - which to this day baffles me because the house appears to have had forced air heating for at least 25 years!
Under one cupboard was a shredded pile of newspapers, very nest like but long vacated by whatever critter had made it home. Andreas chopped up some of the cupboards and countertop, at my suggestion, and we moved it down to the main floor kitchen. where the stove used to be. Now at least I have a place to put the coffeemaker and kettle somewhat near the only working outlet!
Andreas kept pulling lath in the upstairs kitchen but I moved on to the plaster in the bathroom. After taking off some baseboards on the west wall, I found evidence of a vent and low and behold, the old metal ducting was still there. I managed to only clear out a small section of plaster before the electrical was going to need The Andreas Touch.
So I moved down to the main floor, front room where there still remained some plaster and window trim. Behind that window trim, I found papers from 1920! The house gets older. So now I have surmised that the main large section was probably built in 1920 and the back 2-storey smaller section was added in 1924. Since I am a history expert and all.
Once I found that, I was done for the weekend so I dragged Andreas out of there.
Andreas has also been very good at going over every Monday night to put out the garbage. We cannot miss that opportunity as it is only once every 2 weeks for garbage here in Toronto.
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
stolen goods room: this is at the front of the house in the basement - the police told us that is where the previous tenants stored their stuff