View in the kitchen:

Looking at the east wall

Looking into the house from the backyard

The house is torn apart. They are making great progress. But as I look around, I see little things that I feel like I should work on while the house is torn apart. One of those things was the second floor window bay, which was a small bedroom, but that is now becoming our living room.

This bay is settled in all sorts of weird ways. The left window ledge is an inch higher than the right. There was a piece of moulding covering the space below the windows that was partially stripped at one point and then painted. If I had countless hours, I might have stripped it again and then re-installed.

For a professional, here are the steps they’d probably take:
1. Strip everything out.
2. Pack insulation in.
3. Carefully install furring strips to nail drywall onto.
4. Cut drywall once; screw in.

Here are my steps:
1. Strip everything out; this I can do as well as anyone.
2. Pack insulation in. Foam board (R-10) sealed with great stuff around the edges with fluffy R-13 behind it. (Q: Does R-10+R-13=R23?)
3. Try and install directly onto old nailers. FAIL.
4. Curse for awhile.
5. Feel brilliant for remembering that I could probably install new wood to nail onto.
6. Scavenge in the basement for old wood.
7. Cut wrong lengths.
8. Go back and cut again. Saw is in basement.
9. Nail into old wood. Remember fact that if you pre-drill holes in thin wood the wood won’t crack. Curse for awhile.
10. Measure drywall. Incorrectly. (Q: how do you account for slope when cutting drywall, i.e., 26.5″ on one side and 26.875 on the other but without a constant slope?)
11. Curse for awhile.
12. Install drywall. Run screw all the way in. Remember that you have a drill attachment for that.
13. Curse for awhile.
14. Install all three pieces of drywall. Hope that job isn’t too laughable.

Probably took six hours in all, spread over three days. I’m betting a pro does it in two hours (if only to let the great stuff dry) and uses one sheet of drywall.

Like most skills:
1. You do it better when you do it all the time.
2. There’s a discrete body of knowledge (working with wood and drywall in old houses) that’s accrued through experience. This knowledge cannot be expressed on the internet.
3. I have the education, the patience, time, and the desire to do a B/B+ job; if graded for time, it’s probably an F.

Photos:
After stripping, first insulation install:

Second layer of installation:

Final job:

Taping and mudding manana.

10202012

You read on all of these financial sites that you should regularly call and see what they can do for you in terms of the rate you are being charged. This is supposedly true for both entertainment utilities — cable and such — as well as premiums for various insurance. Saturday night my family is out and I’m trying to avoid grading papers so I decide it’s the perfect time to check on my car insurance. No matter what happens with Progressive, my rates seem to continue to go up. I get older and my driving record remains good and my premiums increase. In the past when I’ve called, they’ve told me that insurance keeps going up.

I call GEICO and within five minutes I’ve cut my premium (six months, paying it all up front) from $1250 to $450. I cannot understand how this is possible. I was so shocked I asked the agent to go line by line through the policy; apparently it’s possible. My question is how long were the Progressive folks sitting in an office thrilled that they’d screwed my family over because I was too lazy to call and see if they’d reduce my premiums.

Electric roughed into the kitchen:

We had serious adventures with the electric. The first electrician cut all of the knob and tube, which left a massive job for the second electrician. One of the remaining problems is below (a cracked power line that runs from PECO into our house):

On the bottom photograph you can see where someone used to electric tape to deal with these cracks.

I want to buy something.

There are very few stores left and I’m usually confronted with salespeople who may or may not be trustworthy. It’s hard to believe their motivation would be anything except trying to sell you something, particularly with big ticket items where it would be unlikely you’d ever return.

The internet has a wealth of information. As the years go by, filtering good information from bad is nearly impossible. (See Louis CK on customer reviews on Amazon). Unless it’s a small site clearly run by careful amateurs — see most of the model train sites — I’d hesitate to accept any information as legitimate. And…a couple of opinions aren’t evidence.

I’m at the point where I’m totally dependent on Consumer Reports. If their testing and/or methods are called into question, I’ll be doomed.

View from Dining Room

View from mud room

A good week’s work: tear the roof off the mf’er, post wall, rebuild, wedge under existing bay!