What a weekend!
Let's see....here's what has transpired these past few days:
Friday:
Friday I closed on my house and bought a refrigerator (which will be delivered just after I move in August). Friday night I spent the night in said house on the futon I brought with me. Before I went to sleep, I had a rough outline of what I was going to do the next day with or to said house to get it ready to move in. Primarily this involved an extensive list of stuff to clean. I debated whether or not I wanted to paint a couple of rooms before I moved in my belongings. Tried to vacuum the house, only to discover the vacuum malfunctioned and tried to set itself on fire. Went out to dinner at a restaurant with actual waiters to have a celebratory dinner. It was yummy.
Got rained on several times throughout the day on Friday and found that the water from the driveway of the house runs up the sidewalk toward the front door. It appears to be trapped by the grass/lawn which is a bit higher than the sidewalk. I may have to look into purchasing a drawbridge to go with my transient moat. If I get a drawbridge, I'll definitely have to get a troll and maybe a dragon too.
Ate cherry tomatoes while standing in my garden.
Saturday:
Saturday began at 0300 with a lovely, loud thunderstorm and a hard rain. And the sound of water dripping onto the bathroom ceiling. First order of business: a shopping expedition to Lowe's. Definitely wanted to purchase the replacement flashing for the plumbing vent pipes since that's probably where the water was leaking into the ceiling. I also needed a ladder to get to the roof and attic and some caulk just in case the rain didn't stop and I wanted to try fixing the leak from the inside. Then I decided to paint the hallway (due to the unpainted patches in the drywall from nail holes) and the master bedroom (due to stained areas on the wall).
I got out of Lowe's with a bill under $500, but almost half of that was my new ladder. It's one of the transmogrifiable step ladder/extension ladder things. As a step ladder it's tall enough for me to tape off the edge of the ceiling for painting and to get into the attic. As an extension ladder, I can reach up to 22 feet when it's fully extended. Just opened up, it's plenty high enough to get me onto the roof. Pretty cool, if you ask me.
So I used the ladder to climb up into the attic. this was not my favorite thing to do. I have an extreme fear of falling. I have, in fact, been accused of levitation so as to avoid falling. When I stepped off a rafter and put my foot on the insulation at Mitch's house I left a lovely footprint in said insulation, but I did NOT crack the plaster underneath in the ceiling. Several years earlier Mitch had done a similar thing in a slightly different location and popped a lovely section of plaster out of the ceiling. He's still trying to figure out how I managed to not crack the plaster. I can't explain it either, but lightning-fast reflexes and a bit of levitation could just be the answer.
The attic is the home of my furnace. It is filled with blown insulation, which resembles pillow stuffing. This insulation is full of little tunnels, about the diameter of a mouse. Although I did not see any live mice (and only one dead one), I had a hard time not picturing the mice running through the tunnels or riding on little sleds through them. It really reminded me of an amusement park ride. Mousecapades? Mouse Mountain?
Someone installed lights in the attic, complete with a switch, which was handy. I made my way to the end of the attic, found the area where the water was coming in and found SUNLIGHT. This is not a good sign in one's attic, at least not when you haven't got a skylight or window installed. I moved the insulation a little away from the damaged drywall to try and assess how big the damaged area was, but I was a bit afraid I'd find a mouse nest, so I didn't move things too much. I did find that I could not get the tube of caulk anywhere near the spot I needed to fix and wouldn't be able to even get to the other vent pipes.
So, time to assault the roof. I really didn't feel up to this. I kind of hoped that the rain would continue so I wouldn't have to go up there, but that would have just meant more water damage. I really hate the idea of falling. Did I mention that? There isn't really any non-scary way to get from a ladder onto a roof surface and I really don't like the whole pitched roof idea. I keep waiting for my feet to lose their grip and to slide off the whole roof. It always looks so easy on "This Old House". Asphalt shingles lose their little gritty bits, which make you think you're going to fall off too. But I managed to not fall getting onto the roof. Got up to the top and was standing there when my next door neighbor came out their front door. I'm sure she thinks I'm nuts. Haven't been in the house 24 hours and already I'm fixing to jump off the roof. :o)
The biggest vent pipe had a HUGE crack in the flashing boot. I tried to be neat about putting a bead of silicone caulk around it, but I'm afraid that I ended up slathering it on by the end. The crack was just too large for a neat bead. I did try to stay neat for the rest of the top. The flashing on the other two pipes was also cracked, but not as badly. I will have to figure out where those pipes are in relation to ceilings in the downstairs and see if I need to replace more drywall. BUt not when the weather is 96 degrees and the attic is an oven.
Managed to get off the roof without falling. Also took down the ladder without dropping it on me or anything of importance (or anything breakable). I went back into the attic and found that the sunlight was now blocked. I'll take that as evidence that the leak is stopped for now. The drywall repair will wait for later. Right now there is an area approximately 2 inches in diameter which is completely destroyed, but the ceiling surface is being held together by the textured stuff sprayed on the ceiling. I suspect that if a mouse so much as trod on that area that it would cave in, scaring the crap out of both mouse and me, I'm sure. I probably ought to put something across that section of drywall in the attic so as to prevent just such a thing from happening. I don't care to give the mouse colony in the attic access to my bathroom or other human living quarters.
While I remembered to bring cleaning supplies with me to Jackson, I failed to bring any TOOLS other than the car toolbox, which doesn't have things like a hammer or pliers, but does contain useful car things like jumper cables. So I couldn't remove the metal dryer vent pipe and replace it with a vent pipe that has a COVER to prevent rodents, snakes, birds and fairies from entering. I also couldn't find anything I thought would be suitable for filling the hole in the masonry around the vent pipe. Right now critters the size of a small skunk or possum can get underneath my house. That's not a good thing, esp not when they die in there after we re-enact "A Cask of Amontillado" by Edgar Allen Poe. But I can fix that next week.
Taped off and painted the entire hallway and the bits of the laundry room which will show above the washer and dryer. Cleaned part of the kitchen and master bathroom. Used leftover paint to put an initial coat of paint on the stained parts of the master bedroom wall, just to see if one coat would cover it.
Sunday:
Found that the dark marks on the master bedroom wall bled through the paint. Decided to buy some Killz to fix that. Removed the tape from the areas I painted Saturday. Finished cleaning the master bathroom. Taped the master bedroom. Discovered that Killz is horrible stuff to work with. It's nearly impossible to stir up by hand (at least on a gallon can). Should have perhaps only bought a quart, but I was planning to paint the entire bedroom with it until I started messing with it. It spattered badly all over me when I used the roller. Of course, being oil-based, this is rather a mess to clean up too. I got the brush I used cleaned up pretty well and my hands too, but didn't even bother trying to clean up the roller.
Painted the pantry (mostly done by hand due to shelf brackets that couldn't be removed). Painted the vanity area of the master bathroom, mostly by hand due to the roller not fitting into most of the space. Parts of it will need to be touched up. Cleaned out the bathroom cabinets. Weeded the garden. Ate more cherry tomatoes. Discovered that the dark marks on the wall in the master bedroom may have bled through the Killz too. Or I may have been being sloppy with my painting and didn't get good coverage, but I don't think that's the case. Hopefully it will be ok with the actual paint over it. The area that got painted, then had Killz applied looked ok, so perhaps the reverse procedure will yield an acceptable result as well. Decided to paint the yellow bedroom a different shade of yellow, but I already have the paint for that in Champaign.
Had a minor panic attack when I didn't think I was getting enough done. I really needed to clean out some of the kitchen cabinets, but I didn't bring a step stool to reach teh top shelves and I didn't want to deal with the mouse poo in the lower cabinets. So I got something to eat (I wasn't hungry but hadn't eaten in over 8 hours) and went to bed.
Monday:
Was feeling less overwhelmed after a reasonable night's sleep. Cleaned up the hallway bathroom, except for wiping out the vanity cabinet. Tidied up the cleaning stuff, cleaned my room, washed the pantry shelving. Took out the trash. Drove back to C-U.
Got a phone call this afternoon from the Allied Van Lines driver telling me he'd be here in an hour to pick up the motorcycles. A day early. Good thing I got back to C-U before 5pm. :o) Kevin, the driver, got everything documented and loaded the bikes with out any trouble. I felt a little sorry for the guy as it was so hot and he was just dripping with sweat by the end of the exercise. I was surprised that he got the semi around the corner from Webber onto Green St, but he only had to back up a tiny bit just once. And he pulled the rest of the way clear. W00t! One less thing to worry about.
Now I just have to pack up everything I own.... Not really looking forward to that, but that's just too bad. Today I didn't get much packing done, but I'm pretty wiped from the past three days of cleaning, painting and driving. Tomorrow the packing will begin in earnest. Right after I take my car in for service and finish up my last day at CPD.
Friday:
Friday I closed on my house and bought a refrigerator (which will be delivered just after I move in August). Friday night I spent the night in said house on the futon I brought with me. Before I went to sleep, I had a rough outline of what I was going to do the next day with or to said house to get it ready to move in. Primarily this involved an extensive list of stuff to clean. I debated whether or not I wanted to paint a couple of rooms before I moved in my belongings. Tried to vacuum the house, only to discover the vacuum malfunctioned and tried to set itself on fire. Went out to dinner at a restaurant with actual waiters to have a celebratory dinner. It was yummy.
Got rained on several times throughout the day on Friday and found that the water from the driveway of the house runs up the sidewalk toward the front door. It appears to be trapped by the grass/lawn which is a bit higher than the sidewalk. I may have to look into purchasing a drawbridge to go with my transient moat. If I get a drawbridge, I'll definitely have to get a troll and maybe a dragon too.
Ate cherry tomatoes while standing in my garden.
Saturday:
Saturday began at 0300 with a lovely, loud thunderstorm and a hard rain. And the sound of water dripping onto the bathroom ceiling. First order of business: a shopping expedition to Lowe's. Definitely wanted to purchase the replacement flashing for the plumbing vent pipes since that's probably where the water was leaking into the ceiling. I also needed a ladder to get to the roof and attic and some caulk just in case the rain didn't stop and I wanted to try fixing the leak from the inside. Then I decided to paint the hallway (due to the unpainted patches in the drywall from nail holes) and the master bedroom (due to stained areas on the wall).
I got out of Lowe's with a bill under $500, but almost half of that was my new ladder. It's one of the transmogrifiable step ladder/extension ladder things. As a step ladder it's tall enough for me to tape off the edge of the ceiling for painting and to get into the attic. As an extension ladder, I can reach up to 22 feet when it's fully extended. Just opened up, it's plenty high enough to get me onto the roof. Pretty cool, if you ask me.
So I used the ladder to climb up into the attic. this was not my favorite thing to do. I have an extreme fear of falling. I have, in fact, been accused of levitation so as to avoid falling. When I stepped off a rafter and put my foot on the insulation at Mitch's house I left a lovely footprint in said insulation, but I did NOT crack the plaster underneath in the ceiling. Several years earlier Mitch had done a similar thing in a slightly different location and popped a lovely section of plaster out of the ceiling. He's still trying to figure out how I managed to not crack the plaster. I can't explain it either, but lightning-fast reflexes and a bit of levitation could just be the answer.
The attic is the home of my furnace. It is filled with blown insulation, which resembles pillow stuffing. This insulation is full of little tunnels, about the diameter of a mouse. Although I did not see any live mice (and only one dead one), I had a hard time not picturing the mice running through the tunnels or riding on little sleds through them. It really reminded me of an amusement park ride. Mousecapades? Mouse Mountain?
Someone installed lights in the attic, complete with a switch, which was handy. I made my way to the end of the attic, found the area where the water was coming in and found SUNLIGHT. This is not a good sign in one's attic, at least not when you haven't got a skylight or window installed. I moved the insulation a little away from the damaged drywall to try and assess how big the damaged area was, but I was a bit afraid I'd find a mouse nest, so I didn't move things too much. I did find that I could not get the tube of caulk anywhere near the spot I needed to fix and wouldn't be able to even get to the other vent pipes.
So, time to assault the roof. I really didn't feel up to this. I kind of hoped that the rain would continue so I wouldn't have to go up there, but that would have just meant more water damage. I really hate the idea of falling. Did I mention that? There isn't really any non-scary way to get from a ladder onto a roof surface and I really don't like the whole pitched roof idea. I keep waiting for my feet to lose their grip and to slide off the whole roof. It always looks so easy on "This Old House". Asphalt shingles lose their little gritty bits, which make you think you're going to fall off too. But I managed to not fall getting onto the roof. Got up to the top and was standing there when my next door neighbor came out their front door. I'm sure she thinks I'm nuts. Haven't been in the house 24 hours and already I'm fixing to jump off the roof. :o)
The biggest vent pipe had a HUGE crack in the flashing boot. I tried to be neat about putting a bead of silicone caulk around it, but I'm afraid that I ended up slathering it on by the end. The crack was just too large for a neat bead. I did try to stay neat for the rest of the top. The flashing on the other two pipes was also cracked, but not as badly. I will have to figure out where those pipes are in relation to ceilings in the downstairs and see if I need to replace more drywall. BUt not when the weather is 96 degrees and the attic is an oven.
Managed to get off the roof without falling. Also took down the ladder without dropping it on me or anything of importance (or anything breakable). I went back into the attic and found that the sunlight was now blocked. I'll take that as evidence that the leak is stopped for now. The drywall repair will wait for later. Right now there is an area approximately 2 inches in diameter which is completely destroyed, but the ceiling surface is being held together by the textured stuff sprayed on the ceiling. I suspect that if a mouse so much as trod on that area that it would cave in, scaring the crap out of both mouse and me, I'm sure. I probably ought to put something across that section of drywall in the attic so as to prevent just such a thing from happening. I don't care to give the mouse colony in the attic access to my bathroom or other human living quarters.
While I remembered to bring cleaning supplies with me to Jackson, I failed to bring any TOOLS other than the car toolbox, which doesn't have things like a hammer or pliers, but does contain useful car things like jumper cables. So I couldn't remove the metal dryer vent pipe and replace it with a vent pipe that has a COVER to prevent rodents, snakes, birds and fairies from entering. I also couldn't find anything I thought would be suitable for filling the hole in the masonry around the vent pipe. Right now critters the size of a small skunk or possum can get underneath my house. That's not a good thing, esp not when they die in there after we re-enact "A Cask of Amontillado" by Edgar Allen Poe. But I can fix that next week.
Taped off and painted the entire hallway and the bits of the laundry room which will show above the washer and dryer. Cleaned part of the kitchen and master bathroom. Used leftover paint to put an initial coat of paint on the stained parts of the master bedroom wall, just to see if one coat would cover it.
Sunday:
Found that the dark marks on the master bedroom wall bled through the paint. Decided to buy some Killz to fix that. Removed the tape from the areas I painted Saturday. Finished cleaning the master bathroom. Taped the master bedroom. Discovered that Killz is horrible stuff to work with. It's nearly impossible to stir up by hand (at least on a gallon can). Should have perhaps only bought a quart, but I was planning to paint the entire bedroom with it until I started messing with it. It spattered badly all over me when I used the roller. Of course, being oil-based, this is rather a mess to clean up too. I got the brush I used cleaned up pretty well and my hands too, but didn't even bother trying to clean up the roller.
Painted the pantry (mostly done by hand due to shelf brackets that couldn't be removed). Painted the vanity area of the master bathroom, mostly by hand due to the roller not fitting into most of the space. Parts of it will need to be touched up. Cleaned out the bathroom cabinets. Weeded the garden. Ate more cherry tomatoes. Discovered that the dark marks on the wall in the master bedroom may have bled through the Killz too. Or I may have been being sloppy with my painting and didn't get good coverage, but I don't think that's the case. Hopefully it will be ok with the actual paint over it. The area that got painted, then had Killz applied looked ok, so perhaps the reverse procedure will yield an acceptable result as well. Decided to paint the yellow bedroom a different shade of yellow, but I already have the paint for that in Champaign.
Had a minor panic attack when I didn't think I was getting enough done. I really needed to clean out some of the kitchen cabinets, but I didn't bring a step stool to reach teh top shelves and I didn't want to deal with the mouse poo in the lower cabinets. So I got something to eat (I wasn't hungry but hadn't eaten in over 8 hours) and went to bed.
Monday:
Was feeling less overwhelmed after a reasonable night's sleep. Cleaned up the hallway bathroom, except for wiping out the vanity cabinet. Tidied up the cleaning stuff, cleaned my room, washed the pantry shelving. Took out the trash. Drove back to C-U.
Got a phone call this afternoon from the Allied Van Lines driver telling me he'd be here in an hour to pick up the motorcycles. A day early. Good thing I got back to C-U before 5pm. :o) Kevin, the driver, got everything documented and loaded the bikes with out any trouble. I felt a little sorry for the guy as it was so hot and he was just dripping with sweat by the end of the exercise. I was surprised that he got the semi around the corner from Webber onto Green St, but he only had to back up a tiny bit just once. And he pulled the rest of the way clear. W00t! One less thing to worry about.
Now I just have to pack up everything I own.... Not really looking forward to that, but that's just too bad. Today I didn't get much packing done, but I'm pretty wiped from the past three days of cleaning, painting and driving. Tomorrow the packing will begin in earnest. Right after I take my car in for service and finish up my last day at CPD.
Comments
:-)!
Gooooooooooooo, Mary!! Blueberries *ROCK*!
:-)