Salvage Warehouse Finds

Great luck today at Houston's Historic Salvage Warehouse!

An apron-front kitchen sink for $125, with faucet and disposal attached

...which I had some trouble getting out of the car:

 

A bathroom mirror for $99

A toilet for $30

A matching pedestal sink and some cool vents salvaged from a wine cellar

A zebra planter for the garden

Isn't it just too cute?!

Hiding in the Tree Stump

Found this little dude hiding in a tree stump in my front yard. It wasn't until after I'd taken the photo and looked back at it that I saw his girlfriend hiding in the shadows behind him! *squeals*

Kitchen Hardwoods: Day 2 of Goo Scraping

Here's how it goes:

1. Wet the floor

2. Let it soak in for 5 minutes

3. Pick up that magical bent handle scraper and a dustpan

4. Start scraping goo 

5. Attempt not to jab the floor

6. Dammit, you jabbed the floor.

7. Push goo off of sludgepan.

8. Take a breather from the respirator. Don't bother removing it over the kitchen sink. The sweat that pours out will just prep another area for goo scraping. 

9. Sharpen scraper.

10. Ice right hand, which is crippled from holding the scraper. Note to self: see orthopedic hand specialist about the trigger finger this has triggered

11. Repeat previous 10 steps 174,956 times for 4.5 months

Got the area cleared out and most of the sheet linoleum up last night:

A close-up shot of the felt and adhesive that will have to be scraped off:

Sanding sounded like a great option at first, until I learned that the adhesive will just melt and goo up the sanding pads. No wonder the hardwoods guys wanted to have nothing to do with this.

Tuscan Tan circa 1964

The saga of the kitchen floors continues. This layer is sheet linoleum with a green felt backing. The pattern was called Tuscan Tan, circa 1964.

Kitchen Hardwoods: The Goo and the Bad

So here's where it's at:

Bit-by-bit I'm lifting up the sheet linoleum. The green stuff is felt that's adhered to the floor with adhesive. Since I don't have a circular saw yet, I'm improvising with a reciprocating saw to cut the plywood from around the base cabinets.

*sigh* 
Someday the hardwoods will be stunning.
That day is just not today.

Kitchen Hardwoods: Crumbling Linoleum

Here's a shot of the crumbling sheet linoleum that needs to be removed from the kitchen floor:

Clearly there was some water damage here. I sure hope it's not coming from the shower on the other side of the wall.

edit: indeed it was coming from the shower :(

Peace in the bedroom

Got the bedroom set up. Nevermind the patches on the wall or the mismatched laminates (over vinyl, over plywood, over hardwoods).  At least there is peace in this room of the house tonight. Merry Christmas indeed!

Nevermind the splotches on the wall. I'll deal with those later.

A home for the beer

I finally have a refrigerator to keep the beer cold!

For the past month and a half I've been living out of an ice chest, so this comes as a welcome Christmas present.

Snagged it at this little appliance store on Canal Street called El Chiripazo for $650.

Piles o' Leaves

Hmmm. Those are some pretty big leaf piles.
{and there's a lot more where that came from. you should see the pile in the back!}

Hallway Hardwoods

Today I uncovered the hallway hardwoods:

Well, what was left of them anyway. A giant spot is missing where the old house heater used to be. That will be expensive to fix. Southern Longleaf Pine isn't cheap or easy to find...

Kitchen Hardwoods: Asbestos

Looks like there used to be asbestos excelon tile in the kitchen. Only a few spot traces were left though. Someone already did the dirty work. Santa was good to me this year.

The flush machine

You know it's time to replace the toilet handle when...

1 Second too Late

Just as I thought to myself, you know, you should stop and put gloves on...
...the glass broke.

So there I was at nearly midnight, bleeding everywhere and thinking, damn, this injury is really going to hamper demolition this week.

Some bright one had the genius idea to glue down non-tempered glass shelves next to the bathroom sink, right in the area where you step out of the shower onto a super slipper floor.

On the bright side, at least it was my thumb and not my neck.

Inside the Bedroom Closet

There was a piece of drywall screwed into the bedroom closet wall that has been patched, so naturally I was curious what was behind it, primarily because I wanted to know if the guest bedroom and master bedroom closets were connected together at some point in the past.

Turns out they were not, since the shiplap was intact behind the drywall. That raises the mystery of why someone cut away just this piece of drywall. They must have had a reason...right???

Also curious is the peephole between the 2 closets. Perhaps it was once for a wire? One would hope!

The oops that went to the oh!

When removing some glass shelves from the bathroom, my hammer accidentally went through the wall. This explains why that doorway felt oddly too narrow.

Reciprocating Saw

Picked up a Makita Compact Reciprocating Saw! This thing is awesome for demolition! In the background you can see the mess of the kitchen floor that I've gotta deal with, hrrrumph

Bathroom Beadboard Primed

Got the beadboard sanded down and primed. Here was a photo while that was in progress:

and then once it was complete:

I finished removing the wallpaper from that little section of the wall over the sink too:

Well, maybe it's more than just a little spot:

Here's a close-up of the damage to the wall that removing that awful wallpaper caused:

Must-haves

Methinks I'm going to need a leafblower...

{and then the rest of the leaves fell}

DEFINITELY going to need a leafblower.

Sleeping Porch: Exposing 3 Hidden Windows

WOW!!! I uncovered the 3 windows on the left, which were covered up by plywood!

Panorama shot

Roach Feces in the Hallway Light Switch

So gross.

Here, take a closer look, just for shits and grins.

Yea, no. Unacceptable.

The Secret Stash in the Bathroom Ceiling

So one night, while Renee and I were tearing out the remainder of the drop ceiling in the bathroom, I stumbled upon a dirty magazine that a previous occupant had stashed in the ceiling above the storage shelves by the toilet. 

That moment, when you can't help but burst out laughing so hard that every muscle in your stomach hurts. Renee responded to my laughter, "That's got to be good, what did you find up there??!"

If a picture says a 1,000 words, then this one tells quite the story:

I particularly am amused by the comic book style one

...and then I found 6 more of them! Dated all the way back to 1993!

Of course, we couldn't resist taking a break. So there we were, standing on ladders with our shoulders hunched over the drop ceiling, reading excerpts from old novelas eroticas out loud to each other in obnoxiously sexy voices.

Yea, these are the days that make life worth living.

Old houses sure are full of surprises.

Home in Candlelight

Chilling out for the evening. Nevermind the disrepair in the kitchen.

looking into the dining room from the hallway. The kitchen is on the right, showing layer #2 of flooring. I did not know then that there were 7 more layers to go....

Panaramic view from the hallway looking into the kitchen (left) and the dining room (right)

Surround shot of the living room

Looking into the dining room from the hallway

Looking into the mirror in the hallway

Temporary measures

I primed the drywall as a temporary comfort until I'm ready to remove it and install concrete backerboard with a subway tile face. But for now, at least the bathroom feel somewhat ok. (not really)

Still need to remove the rest of the drop ceiling....

Roaches. The little german ones.

The inspectors mentioned finding roach feces, but the gravity of the problem hadn't fully sunk in. It seemed like every time that I turned the lights on there were roaches...the little tiny ones. Then, one night I was cleaning out one of the kitchen cupboards when I stepped away for just a moment only to return and find a mama roach on the cabinet door. Frantic to find where the thing came from I grabbed my 700 lumen LED bike light and started searching the cupboard for signs of a roach hiding place. and that's when I shined the light in the cabinet door hinges...

When the light shined on them, they stuck their whiskers out:

This is the photo from the first time I spotted the roaches. UN-believable.

Dead roaches sliding down the cabinet after I sprayed the cabinet hinges.
This happened on every hinge I sprayed.

Sleeping Porch: Hardwoods Uncovered

Looks like there's southern longleaf pine floors in the sleeping porch too!

Bathroom Drop Ceiling Demo Phase I

I started demo'ing that awful drop ceiling in the bathroom today:

and then it rained roach feces...

Time for a shower.