update...

electrical:
yesterday we wired the new electrical circuits for the basement lights and kitchen outlets and appliances. we are doing all of the wiring ourselves, except we will need an electrician to upgrade the service from 100Amps to 200Amps (to accommodate the new heating and air conditioning units).

permit:
we did not get a plot plan at our mortgage closing, so we found an engineer who will get us a plot plan this week so that we can finalize our permit app for the new dormer. the town idiot said that a mortgage plot plan would be adequate--i hope that he does not change his mind! a mortgage plot plan is only $150 and isnt as accurate as an instrument surveyed plot plan that costs $1000. (cant wait to get this behind us).

our contractor thinks that he might be able to get the work done in 1 to 1-1/2 weeks, which would be great.

hvac:
permit or not, we are planning to remove the brick chimney this saturday so that the hvac contractor can begin next week (he will use the space left over from the chimney removal to run his ductwork vertically through the house)

plumbing:
we learned during the last flip that in massachusetts, homeowners are not allowed to install a faucet let alone drainpipes, vents, 2nd bathrooms... so we are yet again in the position to find a reliable and inexpensive plumber. plumber #1 told us that we had to replace everything... everything had to come out...every pipe, vent, stack...everything! and that would cost $11K. plumber #2 did not tell us that we had to replace everything--but we are still waiting for his quote.

1992 Camry:
is in the shop getting a new radiator and driver side door latch/lock/handle...i will no longer have to enter through the passager side!

so, if we comply with the town zoning bylaws, then we cannot build a full shed dormer over the 2nd floor...we will have to leave a notch of space at the corner. how ridiculous is this?!


i understand that the town peeps have a job to do, but the fact that they do not have the authority to approve something so benign is frustrating. in order to build in that little notch of space, we would have to go through a 3 month zoning board of appeals approval process (which we simply cannot do) and you know, if we did go before the ZBA, that it would surely be approved. so i guess all we can do is roll with it and try make the best of it. ugh

Eternal Sunshine of the Idiotic Mind

CENSURED!!!

but Back by Popular Demand!

Eternal Sunshine of the Idiodic Mind
a new play by FIX…based on a very real day in our very real life

Cast of characters:
Kristen- female, homeowner; expects too much kindness from her fellow humans, is disappointed often
[casting: Julie Louis-Dreyfus]


Scott- male, homeowner; even tempered, trusting, just wants to do the right thing
[casting: Tom Hanks, circa Splash]


Mary- female, town worker; caring and understanding- hates her job
[casting: Kathy Bates]


Town Idiot- male, mildly chauvinistic moron, works in town government, skilled in dodging questions, has all of the power
[casting: Chris Eliot]


Background: Scott and Kristen have recently found out that their building permit application to build a full shed dormer on their existing dwelling has been rejected

Location: Stale town building department office, ½ hour before closing on a Friday evening.

Act I/ Scene I
Mary- (recognizing scott) oh hello, I have your rejection right here
Kristen- we are here with some design options that will hopefully be approved…but first we have a few questions— why exactly were we rejected?
Mary- (frowning) mmm hmm. You have a corner lot, which means that the side is actually a front- so the minimum setback from that side/front is 30’, not 10’ as it would be if it were a real side. The 30’ setback lands in the middle of your house.
Scott- (thinking this whole thing is f&*@ing retarded) but, we just want to build on the existing house, we are not building outside the existing footprint.
Mary- (with extreme sincere empathy) it doesn’t matter.
Kristen- (sassily) the entire neighborhood is filled with houses on corner lots that are breaking all of the rules
Mary- they had to go to ZBA [zoning board of appeals] to get approval
Kristen- (hesitating…but determined) um, our neighbor across the street has a corner lot and in 2005 (Kristen pulls out documents to show Mary) they put a full 2nd story addition on their house and they did not need a variance and they are definitely in the 30’ setback
Mary- (with total blind faith) they had to have a variance (mary pulls the records for 17 Jean)Mary- (with surprise, mumbling softly) oh, they didn’t have a variance, hmmpfh.(the background office noise suddenly stops, an awkward silence befalls the space)-fade out-

Act I/Scene II
Scott, Kristen and Mary are at the front desk talking while the town idiot is floating in the background pretending to be busy but is really trying to overhear the conversation. He does not go unnoticed.

Mary- (to town idiot) oy, these are the people with the corner lot that were rejected
Town Idiot- (showing no emotion) your plot plan is not to scale
Kristen- yes it is
Town Idiot- no it isn’t
Kristen- yes it is (the vein in her forehead starts to pulsate)
Town Idiot-(takes out the scale and proceeds to try to measure the plot plan using the wrong scale) I’ve been playing with this all day…it doesn’t work
Kristen- (thinking to herself, ‘all day?’) the scale is 1/16…look (takes scale away from Town Idiot) you have to use the 1/8th scale and …
Town Idiot- (interrupting) it’s not to scale. I can pass your deck application, but not the dormer. you need a new plot plan.
Scott- (questions how he can pass the deck without a new plot plan but says nothing)
Kristen- er, so what if we changed the dormer so that it wasn’t a full shed (shows idiot the new drawings).
Town Idiot- sure…you can do that. But you need a new plot plan. You should check your mortgage paperwork, you should have had a plot plan when you bought the house.
Kristen- (remembering that they specifically opted not to get the plot plan at the time of the closing) no, we didn’t.
Scott- (confirming) no, we didn’t
Town Idiot- that is what everybody says…just check your paperwork.
Kristen- no, we didn’t have the plot plan because we opted not to…
Town Idiot- (interrupting) I am sure that you have one
Kristen- (defeated) so, what if we check and we don’t have one
Town Idiot-then I would be surprised.
(awkward pause while Kristen and Scott exchange hopeless looks)
Kristen- but still, say we check and we don’t have one…
Town Idiot- then you need a new plot plan.

Cut to stupefied look on Kristen + Scott’s faces-fade out-

Act I/Scene III
Mary- (to town idiot)- they have questioned 17 Jean Street…they didn’t have a variance and built a 2nd story addition
Town Idiot- (to Kristen + Scott), well, you would have to bring in those plans so I could review them and make a determination
Kristen- (vein in forehead pops- opens mouth to say something but nothing comes out)
Scott- (without missing a beat, inserts his forefinger into Kristen’s spurting vein)
Mary- (to town idiot with obvious disdain) I have it all right here
Town Idiot- (disgruntled, and without a word he takes the plans and his scale and proceeds to measure the setbacks even though it is clearly marked that the house is only 22’ from the side/front property line- confirming the alleged infraction of the bylaws, yet the permit was issued without incident)5 minutes later…(town idiot takes the plans and walks away, he enters the office of the building inspector…and soon returns to the front desk)
Town Idiot- (to Scott and Kristen) yeah, this should never have been approved.(long -awkward -pause)
Kristen- (vein in neck now pulsating…trying to figure out how not to offend the idiot) ummmmmm soooooooo
Town Idiot- (to himself, but loud enough so that the homeowners could hear) oh yes, here, this was approved by the prior administration
Town Idiot- (to scott with heightened enthusiasm and feigning cooperation) so I can approve your deck…but…you have to change the plan…
Scott- uh, what?
Kristen-(thinking of the newly framed deck at 29 Jean, the vein in her neck pops- her face grows pale)
Scott- (transfers his pinky into the vein in Kristen's forehead, fans his hand and applies his thumb to the spurting hole in her neck)
Town Idiot- (to scott, trying hard not to look at Kristen) you see, your span is just at the very end of the allowable span for that lumber and you should either shorten the span or add support. You don’t want the deck to be bouncy?

Cut to stunned look on Kristen + Scott’s faces-curtain-

Act II/Scene I
Location: Kristen + Scott’s apartment, Scott is in his office, Kristen in her’s- both on the internet furiously trying to find answers

Scott- (yells to Kristen) that idiot was appointed to his current position in 2003! HE WAS THE ONE WHO APPROVED THE PERMIT FOR 17 JEAN!
Kristen- (eyes roll backward as her head falls forward and hits the computer keyboard…as her body convulses, the following characters ironically appear on the screen: F & * K)

Act II/Scene II
Location: Back at the office of the Town Idiot

(town idiot is sitting at his desk, scale in hand, homeowner's plot plan in front of him)
Town Idiot: hmmmph, would you look at that...it IS to scale!
-fade to black--THE END-

the walls that surrounded the stair have been completely stripped...and we have framed the sides of the stairs that will support the railing and balusters.


here is a montage from the dining room, looking towards the kitchen and living room beyond


the oil tank removal guy stopped by yesterday, emptied our oil tank, removed it and our boiler...it took him and his helper about 3 hours. they had pulled their truck around back and used it to tow the boiler and tank out of the basement through the bulkhead. all that, and before he left he paid us $170!

this is where the future laundry and mechanical rooms will be- that brick chimney will be removed.


we are in the middle of removing the walls around this basement stair--it will be open like the stair to the 2nd floor. this room and the room beyond will be finished, plastered, and carpeted adding to valuable living space.

gas conversion

so, we are expecting nstar to install the new gas line this friday.

we have this old oil tank that we need to get rid and it is almost full. after we contacted a couple of places that would charge us for removing the oil and the tank, i saw that someone else had posted their heating oil on craigslist. we figured that maybe we could at least sell the oil, even if we had to pay to have the tank removed.

to my surprise, i got a couple of responses from people who will pay us $1.25/gal for the oil (currently worth $2.75/gal +), and remove the tank free of charge. and for $100 they will remove the old boiler that we still havent figured out if we can lift!

i love craigslist!

well, we finished the "wrap" section of the deck frame...where it connects the deck to the side entrance.

you will earn back virtually your entire investment in kitchens and decks--the deck adds living space, is easy to install, and i dont think we will ever hesitate to install one on a flip.

another view

it looks tiny, but the deck is 12' x 16'--i think its a decent size.

we also finished demolishing the wall between the kitchen/dining room, and installing the beam to span the new opening

we finished framing the deck platform...those vertical "posts" are just temporary supports until we can get the footings poured and the permanent posts installed. we can't pour the footings until the holes are inspected...and we cannot call for an inspection yet, because we technically havent received our permit (we should have it thursday) they take so long in this town, it only took 3 days to process our permit in natick!


we are almost ready to install the beam between the kitchen and new dining room. we have installed a 'temporary wall' to support the ceiling framing while we remove the old wall framing, and install the beam in its place.

the ceiling was sagging 3/4" out of level so we had to raise the ceiling framing by forcing taller studs into position in the temp wall. we could hear the ceiling framing creak a bit as it was raised into position, but we got it level!

still no word from the town about our permit...

but we started to frame the deck anyway--nothing "permanent", per se...we got the perimeter boards in and they are being held up with temporary supports. apparently, you first frame the platform, then pour the concrete footings to ensure that everything is aligned.


the deck will wrap the side of the house


we framed out the corner of the kitchen...there will be full height pantry cabinets along the wall to the right, and that brick chimney will be removed.


we bought a new table saw!


this is what the hardwood floors in the back bedroom on the first floor look like...in addition to the black adhesive everywhere (there must have been linoleum or vinyl tile over the hardwood), the termites have decimated some of the boards. the floors are beyond repair, we will be laying some plywood and installing carpet in this room.

i forgot to post the photos from the 2nd floor demo!
if you check out the plan, you will see that we are incorporating a small landing at the top of the stair...so we tore out some of the wall that encloses the stair (allieviating the cramped feeling that you get when you climb the stairs):


the south wall of the upstairs bedrooms is going to get a new full shed dormer, and the ceiling will be raised another foot or so (depending on how much space is needed for the new air ducts that will be installed in the ceiling)


there will also be a new full bathroom that will be installed on the 2nd floor. it will be located at the top of the stair (to the right in this photo)


we will also be installing a new direct vent furnace so that we can remove the brick chimney (all the way down to the basement). this will give us the perfect space to run the new forced air ductwork that will supply the 2nd floor.

asbestos lab results are in

we have been told to assume that 9" x 9" vinyl floor tiles installed in mid-century homes contain asbestos. we decided that we wanted to be sure, so we sent a couple of floor tile samples to a local testing agency ($25/test @ HUB Testing Lab in Waltham). it turns out that the floor tile in the basement and the 1st layer of floor tile in the kitchen contain "chrysotile" which is a common form of asbestos.

this information is helpful because we now know that we have to install a layer of plywood over the basement floor tile before we can lay a carpet. otherwise the tile can crack and the asbestos-laden dust can make its way up through the fibers of the carpet and into the air. this form of "encapsulation" is an acceptable means of dealing with asbestos---the other very costly solution is to have it professionally removed and abated.

the kitchen floor will get a layer of cementitious backer board over the vinyl tiles anyway, since we need a strong underlayment for the slate tiles that we will be installing.

we are waiting for the town to approve our permit application--but in the meantime we are trying to do what we can to move forward.

today we dug the holes for the deck foundation (and when i say we, i mean scott)


the holes have to be 4' deep in order for the bottom of the concrete foundation piers to be below the frost line..here is a photo of the cardboard sono tube that serves as the concrete formwork


this is a great tool...it is a solid steel bar with a blade-like end-- it is used to break up the rocks that you encounter when digging 4' deep holes


the previous owners were apparently not too concerned about the termites that were making a meal of the hardwood floors in the first floor back bedroom. it was easy to locate their point of entry--the earth and mulch was placed right up against the wood sills of the basement windows, giving the buggers easy access to the delicious maple floor (you could actually follow the termite "tubes" just inside the basement windows).


you can see that the termites destroyed the wood sill...we installed these window wells to keep the soil a safe distance away from the windows. we will later add some gravel to the bottom of the 12" deep wells.

we also needed to trace and map out every electrical circuit and device since the electrical panel was not labelled. we will need to figure out if an electrical service upgrade will be necessary (it is currently a 100 amp service).

the bathroom is stripped and ready...




we are converting from oil to gas (which is free from NStar when there is a gas line within 100 feet of your house), and we are switching from baseboard heat to forced hot air with air conditioning. so today we "bled" the water from the baseboard system (we spilled a little...) and we started to remove the copper water supplies.

this is the original 1952 cast iron boiler and probably weighs about 700 lbs...we still have to figure out how to get this monster out of the basement!



here is a small fraction of the amount of pipes that we will be removing from the house...good news is that we can bring them to a local salvage company that will pay us for the material.

'droppings' ceiling

today we removed the dropped ceiling in the basement...every time we pulled down a tile, we were inundated with mouse droppings. blecht!

the official mouse carcass count to date is 3: 2 fresh, and 1 barely recognizable... eeee!

demolition

we are tearing out the wall between the two front rooms and opening up the stair...it has already made such a difference:




we also started the demolition of the kitchen wall:

treasure

we have found all sorts of things inside the walls...

...and we're off!

we have started demolishing walls-we tore out the kitchen and bathroom... i have forgotten how much i love doing this!

no pix today--(i left the camera at the house)--i will upload some tomorrow!