Thursday, December 15, 2005

Oh sweet heaven, there is a salvage yard!

Posted by Peter at Thursday, December 15, 2005 2 comments
Today I started looking online for a salvage yard in my area. I had read on other house bloggers sites that they got some goodies at their local salvage yard, but I was unaware of one in my area. I posted a message on my local historics website to see if anyone knew of a salvage in town, but no one knew of any. So I started searching and found a site for a wrecking company. On one of their pages they wrote that while wrecking homes and buildings they would come across a piece of architecture that seemed worth saving. So they put all this "junk" into a yard and let people come rummage and buy what they find. So after work Lita and I drove to the salvage yard. We were amazed at all the things we found. They had clawfoot tubs, sinks, toilets, doors, windows and even urinals, also they had this elephant too (kind of weird), but it was great like a kid in a candy store, better yet a kid at Willie Wonka's Chocolate Factory. It was great, the only downfall that they closed at 5 PM, which is about the time we got there. Good thing they were nice and let us look around for a little. But this place must be a hidden treasure that no one knows about, well know one in my historic area at least (I bet all the antique stores know about it though). Anyways the bad part is that they only open from Monday through Friday 8 - 5, which is working hours for me. So it looks like I will have to take a short day or a day off. I never understand why some business' open and close while we are at work. Just like a bank, they close at 5, right when I get off of work. When they hell do you think I can cash my check! Anyways I'm happy that I found this place and I know I will be visiting them a lot more. Looks like I can get my sinks for the bathrooms and kitchen there. Sweeeeeeeeet!

Sunday, December 11, 2005

Lita's treasures

Posted by Peter at Sunday, December 11, 2005 1 comments
Well, every now and then on a weekend, we will both go out to all the antique stores around the city to see if we can find anything useful in the house. Afew weeks ago we went into one store and Lita was enamored by this pinkish wingback chair. The owner said it was made in the 1930's or 40's, I don't remember exactly what he said, but it was sold right after she saw it.
Also yesterday we went back to the store and saw 2 more, one that had the same color but was much older and a white patterned one. Those two she bought as well, she said she wanted to put a chair in each room we have. Well at least the cats love it.



Also when we were there we bought an old round table with a leaf insert, made in the 1930's, for pretty cheap. It still needs to be refinished, but that should be nice for a dining table.





And then last but not least a console table with a tv, radio and phonograph in it. This table is pretty neat and everything works on it. The store owner said it was made in the 70's by RCA. I doubt the tv will be used much, but it looks like a great conversation piece and should fit in the dining room nicely.









These are very nice interesting things, but every antique store I go to never have the little things I'm looking for like, pocket door locks and handles, or clawfoot feet, or just glass door knobs. I'm guessing ebay will be the best way to go.

Wednesday, December 07, 2005

Rust stains galore!

Posted by Peter at Wednesday, December 07, 2005 2 comments
Apart from the millions of projects I have started, one that I am seriously trying to finish is the exterior of the house. The bad part is that I have rust stains from the nails in the clapboard. I'll give you the backstory of my problem. Back long ago when when this house wasn't owned by asians a man and a woman owned this house. They tried to buy, fix and sell the house quickly to make a profit. Oh what a grand plan that was, except for the fact that they wanted to fix the house the cheapest way possible. So what do they do to the exterior you ask? Well they decided to rip off the original siding and replace it with a new one. They only did part of the house, but they part they did do they nailed the boards with ungalvanized nails. Now fast forward to now and I have rust stains on my siding. Instead of taking the route of applying to my historic council and waiting and waiting to replace all the nails. I was wondering if there was something I could do, like maybe countersink the nails and apply something to the nail heads then prime over it? Is there such a product out there that can eliminate the rust stains? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Another thing the the PO did to PO me!

Another clawfoot tub

Posted by Peter at Wednesday, December 07, 2005 4 comments
Well yesterday was a great day for us, we got another clawfoot tub (well with out the claw feet, basically just the tub I guess). Anyways this is how it went: we met a neighbor that lived a few streets down from us. He was a nice guy and basically just introduced himself and wanted to take a look around. So we showed him all the work we haven't down and all the work I have tried to start. It was kind of embarrassing with all the mess everywhere, especially the one cat poop on the ground, RIGHT NEXT TO THE CAT LITTER! Anyways I told him how I needed to go to H Depot to get some wood, so he asked if it was alright to tag along and get some wood for him self as well. I had no problem with this so we went and bought it and took it to his house. Now this guy a huge house and it was actually one of the houses I saw before we bought our itty bitty house, but the problem with that house was that it was too much work for us. I'm glad that someone had the giblets to tackle this house. On to the story... after we got the wood to his house he showed us all the work he had done to it. I'll tell you, he has done a lot more than us. But after that he offered us the clawfoot tub that he had. I guess he didn't need it anymore after some hoodlums broke into his house and stole the feet. That is also a funny story, he told us that one day someone broke in and only took the feet to the tub, nothing else, just the feet. Is there some kind of premium to these feet? They must have been made of gold or something. Anyways we hauled that monster of a tub and brought it back home. Now we have 2 tubs that aren't in use and now I need to find feet for the second one. But oh well, I don't have to worry about looking for a second bathtub anymore. I was wondering how much it costs to refinish a clawfoot tub? Or if it's possible to do it oneself? Anyways I'm happy. I'm glad I have a big black dog in the house, keeps people from stealing my feet.

Saturday, December 03, 2005

Hodge podge of house work

Posted by Peter at Saturday, December 03, 2005 2 comments
Today I did some random work on the house. In my earlier posts I pulled up the living room carpet and the old linoleum underneath as well. But I was still left with the tar like substance still in the floor.


After much scraping and sweating I finally cleaned off a good 3 foot square area.


I swear I will never ever ever use linoleum in any house I ever buy again.

Another project I started was using Peel Away on my staircase. Peel Away seemed to work real well here. Of course it was only 2 layers of paint.




This was the Peel Away on my window case. The before is the white paint above and the after is the yellow paint below. For some reason every single paint stripper I have used can not penetrate through this layer of paint. I'm not sure if this is milk paint or something else, but it doesn't react to any paint stripper I know. All I know is that the only way I have gotten it off is by scraping it by hand and it just flakes off little by little. If anyone thinks they know what this is, please leave me a message. Even better, if you know how to take this off message me NOW!



Tomorrow it looks like I will be doing more of the same. I can never concentrate on doing one thing.

Oh just in case anyone is a big college football fan, this is where I am going tomorrow.
Go Noles!!!!!

Friday, December 02, 2005

Laundry updates

Posted by Peter at Friday, December 02, 2005 1 comments
Well this week we decided to do something about the future laundry room we don't have. After the kitchen demolition, we were left with a big empty space and a water heater on the left side of the wall just sitting there. For some reason the PO thought it would be great to put the water heater next to the cabinets in the kitchen, WRONG!!! it was in the way and a total waste of space. So after the destruction of the kitchen we needed a new home for the water heater. After much contemplating, we thought it would fit in nicely right under the stairs where the PO , with their bright thinking, had put a toilet. Since the pipes were already there we got Lee ,next door neighbor, to install the water heater. But with the space under the stairs being a relatively decent sized space, we had a great idea to put a washer and dryer hookup in there as well. The space is about 3 - 4 feet wide and maybe 6 feet deep, since the stairs are about the ceiling is angled from the floor up. So with the water heater taking up a little part of the space, we can actually stick a stackable washer and dryer in there as well, killing 2 birds with one stone. So as we speak today the hookups are in, but I still need to finish the walls since there are huge gaping holes in the walls, but other than that we can now buy a washer and dryer and not have to pay $10 every week to wash clothes. Now I just need to find a washer and dryer.
 

Restoration on 7th