Rude Mechanicals Press Blog

Hard to believe I didn’t want to save it, eh?

Tim gave me his invoice for the miles of re-wiring and many days of labor, and I’ve several quotes for removing the bats and keeping them out (guaranteed for three years by the fellow I’m hiring). So my electric is now mostly modern, and soon – when the colony awakens from its winter nap – I’ll be bat free.

I won’t, however, be able to afford any costly (or even cheap) renovations for at least a little while…so I decided to make an even bigger mess. I have a sledgehammer and a recip saw, and destruction is free (well, almost – I’ll have to spring for a new box of contractor bags).

I’ve been itching to remove the bar that’s taking up space in what will be my bench room and hand-tool area. Stunning though the bar is, I think I can find better use for that space. So Tim removed the mass of wiring and plugs from the upright that attached the bar to the joists overhead (wholly unnecessary – this thing weighs more than a full-sized oak workbench; it wasn’t going anywhere without a healthy dose of persuasion). I grabbed the recip saw and sliced the 2×4 in half.

I’ve been waiting to do that for eight months.

The rest was sledgehammer and crowbar. And now my arms hurt. I’m pretty sure this thing might have doubled as a fallout shelter; it certainly withstood a beating. Until it didn’t. (I might leave the odd little dry sink in the corner, though I’d build a proper base for it; maybe this will become my sharpening area.)

Built to dance atop? If so, I don’t want to know.

After hauling all the pieces out to my ever-growing trash heap, I turned my sights on the weird arch that leads from the laundry room into the soon-to-be-bench room. Under the bottom of each side is what I think is the original newel post for the house. Cut in half. Screwed and glued to the sides of the opening. Bastards.

I’ll try to get that out without causing further damage, in hopes of repairing and reusing it in the stair rebuild.

Why? It boggles the mind.

The arch was far more trouble to tear out than the bar – because on the backside is a run of ductwork that needs to remain intact. Plus, whomever installed it used 20 14d nails wherever one or two 4d nails would do. And there were lots of little pieces nailed in all kinds on interesting directions.

I got it, but not without a couple cups worth of dead bugs and bug parts falling on my head (sorry Lie-Nielsen…I don’t think I can wear that hat again). Yes, these were termite parts, and no, there are no active termites. I didn’t check for bats before buying, but I did check and treat for termites.

A pain in the posterior.

I ran out of energy for the newel posts; that’s a project for this weekend, along with cutting a riser (I already bought that wood) and finally moving forward on the stairs…now that the one damn wire that sidetracked me is gone.

Also, I could finish cleaning up the mess in the basement and get things situated so I can use my bench. But I’ll need to save up for that box of contractor bags first.

Getting there!

Hmmm…the living room really could use a chandelier. And it’s directly under the room in which I’m pulling floorboards anyway. Hmmmm…

This person is (or was) an ass.

My staircase project is spiraling out of control. After uncovering a live wire buried in plaster right where I need to secure the new landing and turn on the stairs, I had to make some exploratory cuts in the ceiling to trace the line (so I can abandon that no-longer necessary hall light). But that same circuit powers the first-floor hall light (the one I’m taking out), the two front rooms on my second floor, and my bedroom, which is in the middle of the house.

So with the ceiling already cut open and in need of eventual repair, well, why not run new grounded electric to the room that will be my study? (I’d prefer a dedicated line for my computer and its peripherals.) And if I’m doing that, might as well also fish a new line up for the other front room and my bedroom.

To trace those lines, I had to start taking up floorboards – not a big deal, because some hack made enough crappy cuts years ago that it was pretty easy (in most cases) to see where it had been removed before. And pre-cracked.

It seems that hack might have lived a lot longer ago than I thought; there’s still live knob and tube in the floors. Or the hack left the knob and tube and simply added some new wiring, because there is also some abandoned knob and tube, and a hydra-like collection of circa 1950s Romex. There are also a lot a cobwebs.

I hate the color red.

What fresh hell is this?

So, in order to most efficiently and inexpensively (for future projects) put the staircase back to rights, I first have to run new electric to three rooms (and I might as well add a plug in the second-floor hall while I’m at it).

While investigating the wiring path to my bedroom, I discovered that what I thought was a chase for the third floor HVAC vents is in fact only partially that; it’s about twice as wide as it needs to be…and I could, with things torn up anyway, pretty easily reroute that HVAC in a less obtrusive manner — might as well; the walls will already need patching.

So, to build a landing and two steps, I am running electric, pulling up floorboards (then putting them back, of course), moving ductwork and patching plaster. All on the floor above.

Redoing the bath ought to be easy by comparison…If I ever get to it. That will be a total gut job – it’s much easier to rebuild if first you can destroy.

Sigh.

That light (and exposed wire) will be disconnected.

On Facebook, I posted this question: “Best angle grinder for cutting thick plaster?” Thank you to those who answered that question. And thank you for the other advice. But – with the exception of a RotoZip – I already tried it. Or I am not going to, following expert, on-site advice.

In short: I need to rerun a lot of electric to replace wires currently buried in plaster (in no conduit) on exterior walls – real, old, adamantine plaster over brick. I had two electrician friends over. I had an expert plaster guy over – a guy who does lots of work on old plaster, not drywall. We’re all on the same page.

Instead of hammer drilling multiple channels into the plaster and brick to run electric and conduit to meet current NEC code, we’re going to abandon the existing wire (and hall sconce, because it’s no longer necessary) and fish new wire from the panel up through the interstitial spaces in an interior wall, then come across the ceiling to pop up to the second floor for plugs on an exterior wall. There, I’ll have to remove the baseboard and drill out a small amount of brick to bury conduit; but the plug location is already cut into the baseboard (dammit), so I suppose I’ll put new outlets in the same spot. One less plaster repair, I guess.

I’ll also run new Romex to two interior walls on the second floor at the same time (at the moment, they’re on the same circuit; they won’t be). But that’s not quite as much trouble.

Up that partial wall on the left, and across the ceiling…

So, I have to take down enough plaster and lathe on the ceiling to get at the necessary joists (to which I’ll attach the new Romex) across the width of the hall – and to remove the old gas line that’s poking out. (I might relocate the chandelier to there – that must have been a fixture location 100 years ago.)

I have tried an oscillating multi-tool with a carbide grout blade. I have tried scoring, scoring deeper…then deeper still, then “chiseling” with a sharpened flathead screwdriver between those lines. I have tried cutting it with a drywall knife … well, no. I skittered the knife across the plaster for 10 minutes. I swear I heard the plaster laughing. Or maybe that was the birds/bats/squirrels scuttling in the chimney…hard to tell.

With the new electric run, I’ll be able to finish the stairs. And, I’ll have properly grounded outlets in what will be the study – so I’ll be ready to build bookshelves and a computer desk there, instead of having to hang out in my ersatz study, where my computer currently shares space with the litter boxes. (It’s the former second-floor kitchen – the only room upstairs with grounded plugs.)

The future location of two bookshelves and a desk, once I install a couple grounded plugs. And redo the bathroom.

The plaster guy, after taking a look at the exposed edge of plaster (at the top of the stairs where I took out the 1950s-added floor in the open well), and hearing what I’ve already tried, recommended an angle grinder. He specifically said to not use a recip saw, unless I was prepared for a far larger plaster repair bill. And yes, there will be dust. There are also dust bunnies, and cat-hair tumbleweeds in my house. I’ll be fine.

When I’m done, he’ll come back and put the ceiling to rights, and patch the walls where necessary. His expert help will allow me to more quickly move on to the next task: tearing out the existing bath. My destruction skills are quite advanced.

So anyway…I’m going to buy an angle grinder. I’m leaning toward a DeWalt. The Makita is alluring, but more spendy.

And yes, that’s the short version.

Before (with the swinging door already removed).

Last weekend I had three chapters to edit for Christopher Schwarz, a book editing project, some other freelance work and a house to clean. But my last red pen died; rather than go buy more, I instead destroyed more of my house.

Like the wall in the entrance hall I tore down a few months ago, this one was put up in the 1950s I assume, given the similar materials and inability of the installer to sink nails (and too many of them) in a straight line.

This wall created a narrow (31″) hallway from the kitchen to a full bath, and it walled off the bathroom door from the dining room (which was likely used as a bedroom when the house was a two family). But despite a swinging door in the wall and short route, it was decidedly less trouble to go through the front hall and into the dining through the front. Thanks to settling (or perhaps never being plumb) that door swung easily in only one direction.

No original trim was destroyed in the building of this hall. A miracle.

A few hours and a fair amount of dust later (yes, I wore a respirator), I had most of the gypsum down and was delighted to have uncovered the still-there original trim behind the stud (whew). Everything is now in a pile under the wide overhang on my garage. It will likely stay there until spring.

Cool.

I did find one nifty thing – used as a shim was an entire yardstick promoting a Sherwin-Williams paint store in my neighborhood (that address is now an H&R Block storefront). Note the phone number. So I used my moulding bar to carefully remove the yardstick in one piece. I’m not sure what to do with it…use it? (I don’t really need it.) Hang it above my workbench? (Cracker Barrel decor). I don’t know – but I couldn’t throw it out.

Oops on that ceiling. The top plate was screwed in, not nailed. Screws don’t pull out quite at cleanly.

With that wall down, it becomes more obvious that either the door to the kitchen is also not original, or that it was blocked in and made shorter and narrower at some point…but why? My best guess is that what is now the bathroom was a butler’s pantry that connected the kitchen and dining room (there are still a couple intact butler’s pantries in houses in my ‘hood of the same vintage and basic design). You can see in the bathroom wall that a doorway to the kitchen has been filled in.

While it’s now much more convenient to get between the kitchen and dining rooms (good thing, given that I’ve 13 dinner guests on Thursday), I’m not terribly comfortable having a bathroom right off the dining room. That’s weird. And unappetizing (any guests reading this, please use the upstairs WC).

But I haven’t time to decide on a solution right now (other than simply closing the door). I bought more red pens, and must now put them to use.