Time to replace it.
The threshold feels a bit weak.
Oh - that's why.
Door has been removed and the rough opening revealed.
Of course, a couple pieces of trim cracked and broke when I removed them.
Showing posts with label Home Repair. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Home Repair. Show all posts
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
The Back Door - Removal
The back door has been a leaky, creaky, rotting piece of junk since we bought the house. You'd turn the knob, put your shoulder into the door and jiggle the handle just right and you'd get it to open. The diagonal stays you see on the door are really the only thing holding it together.
Time to replace it.
The threshold feels a bit weak.
Oh - that's why.
Door has been removed and the rough opening revealed.
Of course, a couple pieces of trim cracked and broke when I removed them.
Time to replace it.
The threshold feels a bit weak.
Oh - that's why.
Door has been removed and the rough opening revealed.
Of course, a couple pieces of trim cracked and broke when I removed them.
Sunday, February 21, 2010
Attic Electrical - Just adding a switch....
We have a foreign exchange student coming to stay with us for two weeks late in March (around J's B-Day) and we plan to have her stay in the extra room upstairs. Until now, the only light in this room was a pull chain in the center of the room. Well, when it's dark, it's kinda hard to find so we decided to put in a switch at the bottom of the stairs. Nice 3-way switch so you can turn on the light from the top and bottom of the stairs. Easy, right...?
Well not so much when your house is 87 years old with knob and tube wiring. If you don't know much about knob and tube consider yourself lucky, as it's pretty scary stuff. This particular circuit just happens to run up the south wall all the way to the peak of the attic, across the entire house and down the the outlet under the window. Along the way it somehow picks up the ceiling lights/fans in D's room, the bathroom, the hall, our room and the living room. We're not done yet... it also has the two outlets on the mantle (where our stereo is plugged in) and the only two outlets upstairs - well, that's a bit much - OY!
The logical starting point is the 2 foot wide section in the center of the ceiling. This was a real treat. Taking off the panels and exposing 50+ year old insulation. Yuck. BTW you should never, absolutely ever, insulate over knob and tube wiring.
I think J was getting a bit nervous when she saw the ceiling panels removed. One leg of the knob and tube wiring went to the left of the window and the other to the right so I decided that I had to expose the end wall too. Quite a mess!
What's left of an outlet that really didn't work anyway. See what I mean - scary....
D wanted to help during the reconstruction phase. She helped install trim, wire up the outlets and the dimmer switch and helped clean up a bit. She learned some basic home wiring and safety to boot!
Well not so much when your house is 87 years old with knob and tube wiring. If you don't know much about knob and tube consider yourself lucky, as it's pretty scary stuff. This particular circuit just happens to run up the south wall all the way to the peak of the attic, across the entire house and down the the outlet under the window. Along the way it somehow picks up the ceiling lights/fans in D's room, the bathroom, the hall, our room and the living room. We're not done yet... it also has the two outlets on the mantle (where our stereo is plugged in) and the only two outlets upstairs - well, that's a bit much - OY!
The logical starting point is the 2 foot wide section in the center of the ceiling. This was a real treat. Taking off the panels and exposing 50+ year old insulation. Yuck. BTW you should never, absolutely ever, insulate over knob and tube wiring.
I think J was getting a bit nervous when she saw the ceiling panels removed. One leg of the knob and tube wiring went to the left of the window and the other to the right so I decided that I had to expose the end wall too. Quite a mess!
What's left of an outlet that really didn't work anyway. See what I mean - scary....
D wanted to help during the reconstruction phase. She helped install trim, wire up the outlets and the dimmer switch and helped clean up a bit. She learned some basic home wiring and safety to boot!
Saturday, November 28, 2009
Laundry Chute
My daughter's closet floor has a big hole in it. This is, of course, the laundry chute accessed from the hallway with a flip down door.
I built a box around the door and hole in the floor. she can use this box as a shelf inside her closet.
I have not replaced the broken latch yet. I jammed a screw into the latch so we can open it.
I built a box around the door and hole in the floor. she can use this box as a shelf inside her closet.
I have not replaced the broken latch yet. I jammed a screw into the latch so we can open it.
Insulation
OK - I'm back.... We decided to insulate our house. Between the federal stimulus (30% or up to $1500) and the state winterization program (~$500) it really wasn't that much moolah to knock it out.
I had the insulation company remove siding top and bottom to blow in the insulation instead of blasting 3" holes all over the house.
Siding removed in order to access the sheathing underneath and drill holes for blowing in insulation.
They drilled holes in the sheathing - this is plugged after insulation is blown in then the siding replaced. We only had one piece of siding completely shatter and they replaced it without any bother at all. You can see that there is no insulation inside this wall. Effectively, this wall had an R-value of about 4 maybe 5. After blowing in R15 insulation, we should be much warmer this winter.
There were, of course, a couple spots near the chimney that they couldn't get the siding off so I authorized the plug treatment here. I'll seal & bondo the plugs so they aren't visible after painting. We were lazy and missed the last couple weekends where outside temperatures were above 70 degrees - we'll paint in the spring....
Magellan Insulation Inc. did the work. They were fast and efficient. Little mishaps here and there didn't really amount to much. They didn't know that my upstairs windows are pocket windows and they drilled into the cavity where the window goes when open. We also had a board under the kitchen sink fall off and the cabinet was filled with insulation.
The attic did have about 4-6 inches of insulation most of which was at or below the level of the rafters. Upgrading to R38 insulation (18" above rafters) is like snuggling under your favorite blanket.
The last thing to do is to take a thermal imaging camera around on a really cold day in January. This will identify cavities that were missed. I can then decide whether it's worth it to go back and fill them or not.
I had the insulation company remove siding top and bottom to blow in the insulation instead of blasting 3" holes all over the house.
Siding removed in order to access the sheathing underneath and drill holes for blowing in insulation.
They drilled holes in the sheathing - this is plugged after insulation is blown in then the siding replaced. We only had one piece of siding completely shatter and they replaced it without any bother at all. You can see that there is no insulation inside this wall. Effectively, this wall had an R-value of about 4 maybe 5. After blowing in R15 insulation, we should be much warmer this winter.
There were, of course, a couple spots near the chimney that they couldn't get the siding off so I authorized the plug treatment here. I'll seal & bondo the plugs so they aren't visible after painting. We were lazy and missed the last couple weekends where outside temperatures were above 70 degrees - we'll paint in the spring....
Magellan Insulation Inc. did the work. They were fast and efficient. Little mishaps here and there didn't really amount to much. They didn't know that my upstairs windows are pocket windows and they drilled into the cavity where the window goes when open. We also had a board under the kitchen sink fall off and the cabinet was filled with insulation.
The attic did have about 4-6 inches of insulation most of which was at or below the level of the rafters. Upgrading to R38 insulation (18" above rafters) is like snuggling under your favorite blanket.
The last thing to do is to take a thermal imaging camera around on a really cold day in January. This will identify cavities that were missed. I can then decide whether it's worth it to go back and fill them or not.
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