News article

News article


"Of course, being a carpenter, I try to maximize the size with the minimum amount of wood," Tabor said. "When I build things, I have a tendency to overbuild them, so they're extremely strong."

Amen. I wished that the stupid PO did the same instead of his afro-engineering.

Terry the Plumber

Originally, I was planning to connect the bathtub's pump and drain then see if the tub leaks since we were ready to tile; it would be a bitch and half to remove the tile if the tub leaks. Might as well do it now. Dad asked me "so if it worked, how will you drain the tub?" Good point. So I added to the list to do. While under the house, I was measuring and seeing how to connect the tub to the existing plumbing. I sat under the house for an hour and looked around and thought to myself "shit, might as well do this right."

So this weekend, I performed a hysterectomy. That's what happened this weekend at the Clark House. I removed all the existing 1st floor plumbing and started from scratch. I don't have pictures now, but will upload them later. The PO (previous owner) converted a breakfast room into the piece of shit bathroom that we formerly have today. The stupid asshole had no idea what he was doing because he was rigging and connecting pipes. It is hard to describe what he did but here's a list:

1) Venting the pipes INTO the house instead venting outside!
2) Had TWO poo lines instead of ONE main trunk!
3) Ran a mixture of galvanized, copper, and CPVC pipe.

One poo line was a 3" and ONLY ran the former toilet while the other line was a 2" and ran the kitchen sink, vanity, tub, AND washer. I believed that he had never heard of a "p trap" that would prevent the smell of sewage waste to permeate through the house. I believed that's why there are two lines.

I combined everyone into one main poo line with all having a p trap except for the toilet. Here how the events unfolded.

Saturday:
Took my parents to the airport at 5:30 in the morning. They were 5 mins late of getting onto the plane. I picked them back up from the airport and slept in until noon. I went to the supply store to see how much thinset I would need because I thought I was going to tile the bathroom since the insulation is up and the floor is basically done. I got to the house and FINISHED INSULATING the entire wall! Then headed to Lowes to pickup a TON of plumbing (100 bucks worth). Fortunately while at Lowes, they were having a sale on prehung doors!!! I picked up one for the bathroom and headed back to clark house. Did some prepping for Sunday and returned home so I can take my parents back to the airport early Sunday morning.

Sunday:
Repeated the same steps as of Saturday except I started work at 10 AM. I had a ton of plumbing and was ready to work. I removed the existing plumbing and did measurements of what I needed to cut and glue. It was a bitch and a half moving out of the crawlspace and into the basement to make cuts. I wish that the crawlspace entrace was a bit wider and taller so I could've moved the mitre under the house. The main 3" poo pipe was such a bitch and a half to do. It was sooo heavy. I just measured and made cuts for the rest of the day. The sisters came over to make sure I didn't die underneath the house. They spent the rest of the afternoon cleaning and playing with the dogs. I spent my time dying underneath the house.

After cutting and preassembling the pipes, I started to glue them all together. It was around 6PM when I started gluing things together. I only had an hour and a half to get it glued before nightfall when everything in the crawlspace is pitch-black. Like always, I ran into snags such as when I had preassembled the pipes, I pushed onto them way too hard so it took forever to knock the pipes loose so I could glue them together! Also, the primer and glue have a high content of acetone so I got high and lost a ton of brain cells. Kyle finally showed up (Trey, as always, was a shadetree) and assisted me in gluing the pipes together. I messed up on assembling two pipes, but it's too early to tell at this stage. Kyle assembled the rest of the pipes while I took a break. The last 4 long sections was a bitch to assemble because it is all TIGHT. There's no wiggle room and error since once the glue hardens, it's over (2 mins).

Unfortunately, I didn't connect the vent pipes to the vent because it was 1AM and I was dead tired. I tested the plumbing (sink and washer) and so far - no leaks. Next week, I will test the tub and hope there are no leaks. Also, I will hook up the tub's plumbing to the pump and it all come together.

I will upload pics tonight since I walked out of the house without my camera and a care in the world. I am still sore and tired from last night. At least I'm not itchy.

Itchy and Scratchy

So this evening I was inspired to get some shit done at the house. No one was home so it was just me and the dogs. I was deciding in either doing the floor, putting in the plumbing, or doing the insulation. Since it was getting dark, doing the floor was out of the question. Kyle wasn't going to come this evening so that's out. That leaves - insulation!

Last Sunday when I was fixing one of the tenant's houses, I decided to take 6 sheets of drywall (heavy as hell) and 4 batches of insulation. Might as well do it now before doing the floor and part of the wall.

I started with sections of the wall that didn't have any lathe. I kind of fucked up on cutting the end part (a bit short) but it'll do. After completing it, I slowly started to take down the lathe. It'll be a bitch to put it back up, but I'll let Kyle or Trey handle it (shit, it might be just me at this rate). I did this all shirtless and about 10% of the time, I forgot to put on my mask. I was coughing here and there but worrying I will get some sort of cancer (after researching on google - 3% odds).

I was 60% done with taking down the lathe then I started to get all ITCHY! It was driving me crazy! I was sweating and itching all over! I went and put on a t-shirt and things felt better but I was still scratching!

I didn't have my camera tonight but will take pics. I only have section left to put up the insulation, but I have to put the lathe back up.

Shit, I am all scratchy. I even took a shower! Gawd, this will be a shitty night.

We built this city....

Like all things in my life, my sister ruins anything financial. I have a mental list that she screws up on where I would try to make money. This is one of them. I gave Kyle very easy HW in sanding the ceiling. Come Friday evening, I was dead wrong. I got there and look up at the ceiling and was wondering wtf happened. I started working on it and an hour later, Kyle comes home and my sister in tow. She seriously doesn't understand I am trying to save at least $300 on my mortgage payments. Quietly I continue sanding and wishing that she would stop meddling in my task. BTW, the total area to sand and mud is about 2.5 square feet (72in x 5 in).
Kyle came around and helped out and finished his part. My sister, made dinner but needs to get bent. One day, whenever mom and dad stops her freeloading, it will all make sense.

Now back to the house. Saturday, I was expecting to do a 1 man show but a friend came to help out - Broderick! Unfortunately, there wasnt much to do because I was planning to do the plumbing (buying pipes) and get the tub installed. Before leaving to do some shopping Broderick assisted me in cutting out the vent.

It's back!

I went shopping for 2 hours (at Lowes!) and came back with the supplies. Dad came around and we argued for about 10-15 mins about pipe fittings. Then we started the grueling work of installing the tub. It took a while to get the tub in because I had to drill many holes in order to get the plumbing down to the crawlspace.

Trey came around and I had asked him to install the drain for the tub. I went to home depot this time to buy another fitting for the tub! GAWD so much gas. So here's the result of the work:

Jason came over and installed the last part of the felt:

Before securing the tub in, I added the air switch to the tub. The hole saw was larger than the plug, but luckily not too big!

Broderick left and I took some measurements. I came to find out the backerboard is 3 ft x 5 ft. The walls I measured was 34 inches wide! I was like "I should've made it 36 inches so I didn't have to cut the stupid thing!" Well instead of cutting the backboard, I added 2x4's to the edge to provide it the full 36". Also, the tile I bought was 18x18 so.... 18+18 = 36! Perfect. I warned jason and trey to wait for the air pump to be at full capacity before shooting the nails. Well.. on the last nail.. it jammed. Thank God Robert was home. He disassembled the gun and removed the nail head and we were back to work.

Everyone had left and what I did for the rest of the evening was measuring the floor and tub. I was planning to get the backerboard installed for the tub and part of the floor. I got a phone call from one of my tenants and they said something was wrong with house. Bitch... more work and more money. They promise to get me back rent when their check comes in. Let's hope so.

Sunday
No one was home. It was me and the dogs. I decided to take it upon myself to hang the backerboard before going to fix some damn shit at one of the other houses. I had to rehang the backerboard 3 times in different configurations because the backerboard wouldn't align properly with the framing. Let me tell you, it's a bitch to hang it. Each board weighs almost 30 lbs spread over 15 square feet. Bitch.

While hanging the boards, I got knocked back. I will illustrate:

I was hanging backerboard on one side of the tub. It was stuck and I was like "good." I walked to the other side to readjust the other wall. Everything sticked. I was going to screw in the wall but noticed I left the drill on the other side of the tub. So I walked to the other side and the next thing I knew, boom. Hits me on the top of my head. The edge part just totally sucks. Here are pics of the tub with the backerboard:

That is slammin awesome!!!!

You know what else is awesome. I got my mortgage readjusted and have 60 more days to get the bathroom done. I expect it two more weeks and we're set. I need to clean the dining room too. It got messy while doing the renovations. Here's what it looks like now.

Total ass.

By the way, you can see why the dining room gets shit on.

The bathroom is right next to dining room. sad.

An open view

So this past weekend, I decided to restore/install two windows into the bathroom. I only have 10 more days until this room has to look like a bathroom for appraisal purposes. It looks like I will be taking two days off work next week- whatever. If I can save $300 a month for my mortgage payment, I'll be happy. Here's the 411.

Last weekend would've been perfect to install the windows -70's and sunshine. Well the meteorologist predicted that it was going to rain - like hell it did. So i wasted TWO perfectly good days to install windows. This weekend, it had to be done. What's also a negative point, the explorer brakes are basically gone. It had rained ALL WEEK long. Dad said "i'll get to it when it stops raining." Yup, 5 days in a row... continuous pouring. So I used mom's "prestine" minivan to transport my wares.

On Saturday, Kyle and I traveled to Southaven, MS to purchase the windows. Why Southaven? Mississippi's 7% sales tax compared to TN's POS 10% sales tax. I bought enough shit at reasonable prices to say it was worth the drive. Unfortunately, I had to shop at HomeDepot instead of Lowe's because HD had the windows at dirt cheap prices! Who knew? Well the associate that helped Kyle and I pick our window was a tranny. Let me say this first, I have nothing against them; it was just odd(it's 2009 for christ sake's people. Your 14 yr old daughter is a whore on myspace). Shim was very nice to both of us. We purchased our viynl windows and traveled back to the Clark house.

Kyle had to go to work when we got back so what I did was prepared the old windows to be removed the next day. I took the saw-saw and cut around the edges to get rid of the nails. There was still some daylight so I decided to take out the bottom-right-window for shit and giggles.

It came out real easy after using the wonderbar and prying away lots of trim which were covered in gallons of old lead paint. I didn't go further on the windows since it was nightfall. While I was at the HomeDepot, I bought the super-expanded great stuff and applied the stuff between the cracks in the wall. After taking care of that mess, I continued to sand and mud the ceiling.

Great Stuff placed in the cracks behind the lathe.

More sandin' and muddin'

Sunday. After some thinking while mudding, I should've bought wood windows instead of viynl because it was practically "framed." while the Viynl wasn't. So I drove back and picked up my wooden windows. When I got back to the house, I sta tearing down the windows. I started messing with the nonboarded up window. It was now the point of no return.

Boarded up window was next.


Definately, no point of return.

Removing the interior frame of the window was a bitch and a half. The previous douchebag that boarded up the window reinforced it with 12, 3" nails. It totally sucked trying to pry the shit off the window.

The best next door neighbor finally came home and offer to help me get the windows put up.

Howdy neighbor!

Finally, Trey called and said he was coming over. I had no idea where Kyle was. Kyle was probably abducted by aliens and was being anally probed. It was about 12:45 or so. Trey said he was brining a friend over (Jason) to help out. I am so glad he did.

Robert, Jason, Trey and I worked on reframing the window. We had to cut the window because the stupid windows, as usual, were not squared OR at equal lengths. Hell, if I had kept with the viynl windows, we would be set (damn). So here are some pics:

Here's the end result:

Last but not least- the window screens!

So here it is:
Before

After:

eugh.

Dust everywhere. You can tell this house lasted through the Great Depression because at least 80% of the dirt from the plains states somehow made it into the upstairs rooms.

Good indication that some spring cleaning needs to be done: my white breathing mask ends up BLACK when I sweep the hallway.

-Action!

(sorry if the grammar is more horrible than usual. i am scatterbrained today since I have a lot of crap going on during the day)

So I have until march 26, to get the room looking more like a bathroom because I am refinancing the house and the appraisal people will come and look around and write their fancy dollar signs on a sheet of paper. Damn.... I have to spend more money to make this room look sooo sexy.

Oh hellz yeah. After spending $200 on the electrician and apprx $120 on wire/canned lighting, I present to you

Lights in the ceiling and a new ceiling!! Let's review the old pics of the ceiling:

Look at that ceiling! It's like someone just pooped up there... somehow.

This one, man it looked like I took a HUGE SLAM and BAM - right through the ceiling!

Anyways, I have made a diagram of the lighting configuration:

So one light switch controls 3 lights while the other controls the light over the tub. The other two switches are for the vanity light and poo fan.

I was on a roll this weekend getting shit done. I started to do the plumbing and was like "hell, let's start with the vanity until I seal the tub leak. " So I started drilling. Everything is going well. Then the drill jerked back. I wrestled with the drill and look down the hole. I saw a 2x8 joist that holds up the small section of the floor. shit. just gravy shit. I went online and researched my options. I came with 4-

1) go under the basement cut part of the joist out and brace it
2) build a wall/ move the wall
3) instead of pipes coming from the wall, it will come from the floor
4) change the configuration of the vanity and tub

Like a chance in hell I will resort to #4. I was debating on #1. Option 1 was too much work and too much coordination to get this shit done. #3 was going to look weird coming from the ground up, and drilling through the vanity. So it was #2- build a wall.




Shit, it looks good. What's even great - all I need is two backerboards. It fits nicely and seamless. I know the faucet is ugly, but this is temporary.


So this is what my electrician did.
1) Rewired this section of the house
2) Brought wire up to code
3) Added more breakers to my subpanel
4) Added new wiring for my bathtub and heater
5) Added new outlets
6) Taught me a lot of shit

Pics are below

And the dog just chillin on the stairs.

Sister wearing my work clothes:

Btw, here's a movie to sum up the progress.