Bubblegum Bandit October 1, 2006 Share Bubblegum Bandit Member October 1, 2006 Many of you know, those that don't now you will, that I moved from Denver to Ohio conviently around the time of FragFest 06. My wife and I purchased a nice brick cape cod in Cuyahoga Falls and settled in. It rains around these parts, and quite hard I might add, and one day while at work I got a call from my wife. By the sound of rushing water in the background, I thought she had driven up to Niagra Falls without me. Not so...it rains quite hard in Ohio, and during one such rain we discovered that our house had quite a leak(amazingly enough the people who sold us the house were unaware there was a leak!!!). I sped home from work to try and figure out what to do. An aside: My wife and I picked this house in particular because of its charm. We had planned on SAVING our money and fixing it up room by room in the FUTURE. Other notes worth mentioning, we had discovered the house had lead base paint in the past. Not good when you want to do some demo..... On with the show... Anyhow, here's a picture with a technical graphic to show you where the leak came from: As I was speeding home I talked to Mr. Duke. We concokted came up with a plan. I would send my wife and daughter to his house for the night and he would head over after work to help me tackle the demo to figure out where this water was coming from. We set our plan into action. After we booted sent my wife and kid gleefully off to Duke's, we donned our protective gear (Tyvek suits and respirators) and went to work. We worked well into the night and this was all we had to show for it. As unimpressive as that might seem, there's more. We couldn't figure out where the leak had come from. We said our golly gees and settled in for a nights rest. <announcer>Mr. and Mrs. Bandit would have to wait until the next big rain before they could figure out where the water was coming in. </announcer> And we did. The next big rain we discovered that the water was leaking down between the floorboards. Kinda strange, that would indicate that the water was leaking into the nursery first. I ran up to the nursery and discovered water pouring in over the window seal, down the wall and through the floor!!! I flung out the shutters to see what was the matter. Water was pouring over the gutter (the one I had just cleaned mind you), rolling down the window, getting caught behind the storm windows and flooding the window seal. Someone forgot to drill weap holes in the storm window sashes....grrrrr. I drilled a few holes and the leak subsided. I also took a trip up to the gutter again the next day to see why it was running over. The gutters were squeeky clean, however the downspout was not. Its clean now. So....should we end it here, you've read this much we might as well move on. <announcer>What ever will you do with that gaping hole in your kitchen ceiling</announcer> Well, we decided we would button it up and all would be well. Maybe not. We decided we would remodel a bit. Not much, just paint and trim mostly and patch the hole in the ceiling. Well, we can't stand for that alone, so here's where we are so far. These old houses are not insulated and this one hasn't had its electrical wiring updated. So, more demo commenced, followed by wiring and insulating: And well, while we're at it, we might as well replace those leaky windows in the kitchen as well. Man what a huge difference. I still have one left to do: The window to the left of the counter will stay because we want to take it out and put a door there next summer. Speaking of countertops, we might as well change those out as well. The fake butcher block laminate just wasn't cutting it, plus it was peeling up in places. While we had that out we decided the jennair range that was all the rage in the 90s where you could switch out cook tops etc wasn't cutting it, so we went out and bought my wife a Christmas present this weekend, it will be here Wednesday. All day Friday I hung drywall (what I always want to take vacation from work to do): Yesterday and today were spent working on the new countertops: The edges will be banded with 3/4 oak with a chamfer(sp?) on the top corner. The backsplash will follow suite but be 3/4 x 4 or 6(we haven't decided yet) and stained to match the cabinets. We have a new sink and faucet on order scheduled to be here next week and my wife is in the process of picking out new drawer pulls. You can also see in the pictures that we put up a new light fixture and updated the wiring. Made the overhead light a 3-way switch so you can turn it off or on no matter which way you enter/leave the kitchen and updated the wiring so at least 2 circuits in the house are grounded. New flooring will go in as well. Oh yeah, and its has to be done by the weekend Oct 15th.....EEEEKKKKKK!!!!! Stay tuned for the next installment of "This 50 year old house!" I'm your host Bubblegum Bandit signing off. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stutters October 1, 2006 Share stutters GC Alumni October 1, 2006 was all of that really necessary? i'm not married, but it seems to me it would be easier to say: "hey honey, i'm sending you off to mrs. dukes so that gramps (duke) and i can head out, get some deep fried saurkraut balls, and come back for a night of drunken debauchery. bye!" nah, i guess it was necessary. can't wait for the next episode! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrDuke October 2, 2006 Share MrDuke Member October 2, 2006 Sure wish you would pick up the pace, sandbagger. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sgt. Slaughterâ„¢-TopBrass October 2, 2006 Share Sgt. Slaughterâ„¢-TopBrass Member October 2, 2006 I can still show up with a bobcat to lend a hand in demolition remodeling. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Warpig October 2, 2006 Share Warpig Member October 2, 2006 well atleast the wife has a good exscuse to not cook now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mini_Me October 2, 2006 Share Mini_Me GC Founder October 2, 2006 looking good! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brew October 2, 2006 Share Brew Member October 2, 2006 nice post! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
duma October 2, 2006 Share duma Member October 2, 2006 Okay, so if I want to get some help in fixing my house, I have to move to Cleveland. Uhg... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EbilDustBunny October 2, 2006 Share EbilDustBunny GC Alumni October 2, 2006 .... I'm still waiting for him to pull me out of a hat. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ConGregation October 2, 2006 Share ConGregation Member October 2, 2006 I love it when you do these, Bub. Except for the fact that I still have projects still unfinished that I was working on when you ran those 'basement' and 'backyard patio' episodes. I may be slow but at least I don't achieve a very high quality. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pavid October 2, 2006 Share pavid Member October 2, 2006 It could have been worse. Looking forward to more of This 50 Year-old House starring Bub with guest appearances by Mr. Duke. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
benjester October 2, 2006 Share benjester Member October 2, 2006 So let me get this straight... Your wife and daughter have been held up at Duke's this whole time??? LOL Looks real good. can't wait for the next installment. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bubblegum Bandit October 2, 2006 Author Share Bubblegum Bandit Member October 2, 2006 No, they only had to be out of the house while demo was being done. Then I had to clean profusely before they could come back. Lead dust very bad to inhale, much less for kids and pregnant wives to inhale. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dingy October 2, 2006 Share Dingy Member October 2, 2006 The joys of (old) home owenership. And I thought my problems that I keep finding from the HVAC contractors were big. Great job. Hope you didn't work Duke too hard Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bubblegum Bandit October 2, 2006 Author Share Bubblegum Bandit Member October 2, 2006 LOL, Duke was really only involved in the first round of Demo. I'm very grateful though for his willingness to drop everything and come to the house and help. As well as for his family's hospitality. I need to thank Fatty as well for several runs to Home Depot with me to help load and unload drywall and wood. The last run we did was unnerving. 4x8 sheets of substrate hanging out the back of your Explorer in pouring down rain could spell disaster, but we got it to the house with no problem. While I'm at it, I'd like to thank the coalition, God, my wife and children for this GC Daytime Emmy award. Without all of them, I'd just be a guy telling himself a story..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrDuke October 2, 2006 Share MrDuke Member October 2, 2006 Oh brother... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pavid October 2, 2006 Share pavid Member October 2, 2006 Yikes!! Bub's been sniffing paint again and now he's delusional. Duke, quick, whip up a concoction to set him strainght. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrDuke October 2, 2006 Share MrDuke Member October 2, 2006 A liiiiiiiiitle bit of Evacubowel... a little more Ex-lax... oh, and some Uri-Stat just to give him a surprise in the middle of the night! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Max67 October 2, 2006 Share Max67 Member October 2, 2006 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dingy October 5, 2006 Share Dingy Member October 5, 2006 A liiiiiiiiitle bit of Evacubowel... a little more Ex-lax... oh, and some Uri-Stat just to give him a surprise in the middle of the night! Oh man. That is just cruel. ROFL, but cruel. Just about as good as grinding up exlax and dropping it into the coffeemaker. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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