Cold Sores

I had a cold.  And my hips were oddly, painfully sore.  It made bending difficult, along with going up and down stairs, or really everything.  We figured out the culprit:

It always comes back to that mailbox.  That pounding action was too much for my hips; I need to ease into this line of work.  I can't be mad, those neon green handles make everything better.  Except for my hips.

It's okay, we have internet!  And TV!  And NCSI!  

And a really cool rotary phone that we swiped from parents for testing purposes.  Or forever. 

The stairs are going down.  Thanks Google for instructions on how to remove newel posts.  They were very tricky indeed, especially if you want to save them for reuse.

But wait, there's more!  

Our work takes many angles and many positions.

And now there's less.  The OSB subloor is strangely incomplete.  Thanks for your fine craftsmanship and pride in your work.

The view is creepy from the basement.

We cut up the rest of the particleboard!  Look at those perfectly straight lines!

This closet was a bit ridiculous for removing staples so that the saw can do its thing unhindered.   Then he didn't even go in there with the saw!  

We finished the gutter work.  Hurray!  Just in time for Christmas and Santa?  I'm not sure how that's related, something about not wanting Santa to see our junky gutters?

The previous owners were supposedly master gardeners, but everything is growing out of control and making it difficult to actually reach the house, so we cut it down!

We're super strong.  I lifted these trunks with my bare hands!  Inside two layers of gloves... 

I'm thinking that gutter is no longer draining the water away from the house...  We trimmed that sucker!

There was an odd pile of dirt in the middle of that grass.  I wonder what it means.

In case you didn't know, downspouts only come in 10' sections.  This is the only hack saw we have.  It was short and slow.  Sometimes it is the size that matters.

The mismatched gutter colors really brings out Milly's beauty.

We had to use some elbow grease.  Har har har.

And some real Michigan ingenuity to level these gutters.  It'll have to do until spring/summer.

Speaking of ingenuity, some driveway markers were inserted into the ground!  We were so smart that we placed half of them into the ground with our body weight before we grabbed a tool to hammer them down.  The tool we grabbed was that hack saw from the gutters.  Super smart.

We're really tired.  That garbage is just going to have to clear itself.  Do it!  Do it now!

Task: Gutters and Floor
Monday: REST DAY
Tuesday: 7.5 hours waiting around for AT&T, moulding removal, staple removal
Wednesday: REST DAY.  Felt like I was dying
Thursday: 3 hours cutting the particleboard and removing the built-in with carpet underneath
Friday: 3 hours banisters and newel posts removal, finished cutting the particleboard
Saturday: 4 hours of gutters, along with a smidge of destruction of Mother Nature
Sunday: 3.5 hours removing the particleboard from the first floor.  Huzzah!
Total Hours: 21 hours
Total To Date: 52.5 hours

Invaders

They do exist!  Unfortunately.  I'm becoming progressively more grossed out.

Hopefully not for long.  These babies come in a pack of 12.  Instructions say place at least 10 in the kitchen and 2 in the bathroom.  Seems like overkill, but we've spotted and dispatched six roaches already so the entire box was used.

They're also really hard to separate!  It took about 5 minutes of sawing and freaking out because my fingers were touching the chemically holes before we had 12 distinct traps.  They have been deployed and hopefully our roach problems will be no more.  On a side note, I didn't think roaches existed in rural areas...

Now for some heavy duty sawdust work.  Here's DH cutting up the drop cloth for the vents.

At first we carefully cut 3" pieces, but quickly realized that we could go BIGGER!  Bigger is always better?  Our new strategy is to cut long strips between nails.  There's a ton of sawdust in the air from ripping apart particleboard.

Glamour shot with a broom!  It's a woman's job to sweep, amirte?  Kidding!  I cut up most of the particleboard in the living room with the circular saw today while DH removed the boards.  First time using a power tool and it was super fun.  I may never let him touch the tools again while I'm around...

All of the particleboard layer was removed from the living room except for these pieces...

Just like the built-in bookshelf, the particleboard goes underneath the fake bricks.  I'm not Mr. Handyman, but isn't it bad to grout (and mortar) over flaky particleboard?  Methinks that must come out too!

Speaking of things coming out, we removed the rest of the moulding in the house!   Sometimes there is only one nail in the baseboard.  Sometimes there are six.

That escalated quickly.

And here's the glorious pile of moulding and baseboard.  Okay, so when I said we removed the rest of the moulding, I didn't mean from around the windows.  Or around the doors.  Or in the bathroom where it's painted pink and wallpapered.  We'll get there, don't worry!

It was nice moving the garbage out of the house and into the... garage.  Getting a dumpster, it's on our to-do list!

Also on our list is to fix our mailbox.  It was a hit and run!  I'm thinking it was the energy company.  DH wished that our mailbox was metal instead of soft plastic.  Something along the lines of "IF WE BURN, YOU BURN WITH US TOO."

Too much?  

Don't worry, wood samples make everyone feel better. We received Natural Grade (NOFMA Common #1 and #2) white oak, walnut, and rift/quarter sawn red oak.

We sanded.  I'm not sure why we sanded by hand instead of using a power tool. It was hard work to get those milling streaks out!

These are the two finishes that we're considering: Rubio Monocoat Oil Plus 2C-A (the accelerant) in White 5% and Pure.  Only one coat is needed and it smells delicious!  Apparently I love the smell of linseed oil.  Best of all, no VOCs!

It takes a lot of buffing to get the wood to shine...  It's hard to get all the white streaks out...    We were tired from the sanding already, so minimal time was spent on this part, which probably accounts for the streaking below.

Here's the samples in the natural light at Milly.  That's a definite no to the 5% White on the left.  It probably works best with select grade wood that doesn't have all the nooks and crannies of these natural grade samples.  No one but me liked the red oak, pfft.

On a positive note, we're 90% sure we'll have internet at Milly.  That's what the AT&T technician told us and I like to believe everything that people tell me!  Maybe something wasn't configured right, a signal wasn't turned on, puppies were lost, who knows?  Apparently AT&T isn't sure either, but we "should" be getting pair bonding to bring internet to the house - two magical loops of internet awesomeness are better than one!

Task: Destruction
Wednesday: Played around with wood... samples...  Can we even count that?
Thursday: 3 hours of ripping out the particleboard.
Friday: 5 hours of removing 95% of the moulding and actually moving them into the garage.
Total Hours: 8 hours
Total To Date: 21.5 hours

Apart From You

Current status at Milly: No Internet.  The AT&T guy came out but was unable to install due to a weak signal.  He submitted a ticket for another technician to diagnose the lines to the house from the hub to ensure there were no damaged wires.  That technician left us a door hanger with the following box checked:

• I am very sorry to inform you that our network will not support AT&T Advanced TV/U-verse at your home/business.  Please call 1-800-288-2020 if you have any additional questions.

This is a problem since my husband and I work from home.  It is also irritating since the previous owners mentioned that it was a big shebang when AT&T began offering their services in the area and we double checked with the company to ensure that we would be able to access internet.

Reality is miles apart from advertising.  Disappointed! 

We are exploring other options.

On the renovation front, we discovered that the MDF sub-floor top layer is actually particleboard. 

Particleboard is created by combining resin and sawdust.  MDF (medium density fiberboard) is created from wood fibers.  Therefore, BOO. 

That's the dust/sand from the carpet padding rubbing and breaking down over the years.  Say it with me - no carpet!

Removing moulding!  We are undecided whether to keep or replace the moulding.  There are issues, such as...

Water, rot, and possible mold.  We are also undecided whether or not to tear up the drywall under the north-facing windows to check for mold since we discovered mold in the northern side of attic during the inspection.  There are a lot of undecisions being made.

We are using power tools!  Well, only DH has so far in order to test the removal of the particleboard.  Also, a circular saw through particleboard kicks up mucho dust.

Although it is glued down, it's glued down shittily! Yay for crappy construction work!  ... 

One 3" section down, 498039284932 more to go.

The front and garage door had hardwood floor, and underneath that hardwood floor was lauan, a substance similar to plywood, not as strong, but it makes up for that by....

Being extremely annoying to pry up since it splinters through the different layers. We had to take turns, it was that hard!

Task: Moulding and Floors
Sunday: 4 hours vacuuming, hardwood floor removal, particleboard test cut.
Monday: 2 hours moulding removal, lauan removal
Tuesday: 3 hours sobbing in the AT&T guy's arms, complete lauan removal, and complete moulding removal from first floor.
Total Hours: 9 hours
Total to Date: 13.5 hours