Back from the Dead

sorry again for the lack of activity! it's been a busy year for me at work and with the new (old) house. my role at work has evolved somewhat and now requires me to make 2-3 business trips a month -- which i hate and messes me up completely. the good news is that the house is coming along nicely and 9 months after moving in, things are finally rounding into shape.

no more tools strewn about here and there waiting for my 3 year old to injure himself. no more dust generating projects waiting to undo all the cleaning we've done.

since we moved in, here are some of the projects/catastrophes i've tackled or hired someone else to tackle (in no particular order):

- pipe burst in basement prior to us moving in and ran for somewhere between 2-4 days filling the basement with water (fun!)

- refinished the hardwood floors

- fixed the 50 year old boiler to get it running again so that more pipes wouldn't burst.

- replaced the old boiler with a new one high efficiency boiler and switched from oil to gas

- installed central air conditioning

- repainted interior

- repainted exterior

- rototilled entire backyard and seeded with grass

- built playset in backyard

- chopped down 6 trees

- insulated attic areas

- replaced a large portion of the roof (btw - i hired some guys from lancaster to do this, they were the most impressive contractors i saw. they showed up at 9 am in wedge haircuts and black wool pants with suspenders (on a 90 degree day), nodded hello and started climbing up ladders and tearing the roof apart. i didn't see them take any breaks. i didn't see them eat lunch. these guys took off two layers of asphalt shingles and one layer of cedar roof shingles, nailed down plywood on the rafters, and installed the new roof shingles and were done by 2 pm.

- replaced or fixed every plumbing fixture in the house. i am not kidding when i say that everything that carried water in the house was leaking when we bought it -- every sink, shower, tub, and faucet. the worst was the first week we owned the house. there is a new bathtub that the previous owner installed into a raised tile enclosure in the master bath. the first time we tried it, water poured into the room below like someone had installed a faucet on the ceiling. it turns out the previous owner had installed the tub, hand tightened the plumbing connections, and tiled the whole thing over. i had to chisel out a bunch of tiles just to get to the connections.

- ran plumbing to places that needed but didn't have any water -- new utility sink in basement and two outside faucets

- added heat to the kitchen and master bath (had no heat when we moved in)

- upgraded electric service to 200 amps

- replaced cellar door

- replaced some rotted basement windows with glass block

- installed radon system

- ran electric to stove area to install range hood

- propped up front porch and had a stone column that was collapsing torn down and rebuilt using the same stones

- refinished original sink in hall bathroom (need to do the same to the tub)

i'm sure i'm forgetting other stuff, but it's been a lot of fun and i've learned a lot. the good news is that i'm mostly done with the major projects so things should settle down a little for me -- freeing up some time to blog.