Thursday, February 24
I figured with the amount of money we are spending, I would start sharing some of our money saving tips. We have exactly 1 so far.
If you'd like to reduce your electric/gas bill by a power of ten like we did in 1 month (down from $600 to $60!), here is what you do:
1) Disconnect most of the power in your house. This will cause you to not be able to enter the attic because you can no longer turn on the lights and give the bats a "5 minute warning" before entering. The bats will then feel free to roam your completely dark house.... day or night.
2) Stop running the furnace, causing your pipes to freeze and burst. You were replacing those anyway, right? Well, 90% of them..... I'm sure those other 10% are fine and won't cost more than the money we are saving, right?
3) Have the gas completely disconnected so that no one accidentally blows anything up.
Who needs utilities anyway? As we can see from ripping up the walls, they were doing OK in 1886 with their gas lanterns. Hmmmm..... gas lanterns + O'Leary's cow...............
See, aren't we helpful?
Jessica
Thursday, February 24, 2011
Friday, February 18, 2011
If I could turn back time... If I could find a way...
February 18, 2011
Where is the flux capacitor when you need one? OK, I'm mixing my Doc Brown and Cher. This house. Sigh. That's all I have to say. Well, not really.
We've been busy the last few weeks celebrating my 30th birthday. Now, we had wanted to have a party at/be living in the house by then. Do you think that happened? Ah, to be 30 and living in my mom's basement.......
OK, enough of that. So, I mentioned a few weeks ago that there has been some more interesting construction that we found on the house. To recap, this thin little board seen below is holding up the 2nd floor..... all of the floor joists are resting on it:
Look at that board today:
Notice any more cracks?
This is the area in the dining room where the board exists
We still have some demolition to do (shocking, I know), but we figured we should wait until we can get in there this weekend to add supports so that this house doesn't come crumbling down. Hmmm.... would insurance cover that? Tempting..... Just kidding!! Anyway, the lack of electricity/heat/time/money and the excess of bats has added to the delay. To be continued until tomorrow (hopefully).
On that note, I became worried about this wall in the kitchen. It was a load bearing wall that has now had holes cut in it:
Given the wonderful things that we've found in the house, what percent chance do you think there is that this wall was properly reinforced?
Prior to my b-day week celebrations beginning and the concerns about the house falling down, Alok did make some progress on the apartment area. He's working on taking out non-essentials walls so that things can be more open. Here it is now:
There were walls here that made a separate hallway
piles of rubble
The now open area in the apartment (aka family room/bedroom to be... when we can move in in 1 zillion years)
Alok opened up this area here to the left as well. This was a closet and will now be part of the hallway that contained the basement stairs:
This is the hallway from the entrance point of view..... the closet did exist straight ahead..... This is hard to tell with these pictures.
That's all for now.
Jessica
Where is the flux capacitor when you need one? OK, I'm mixing my Doc Brown and Cher. This house. Sigh. That's all I have to say. Well, not really.
We've been busy the last few weeks celebrating my 30th birthday. Now, we had wanted to have a party at/be living in the house by then. Do you think that happened? Ah, to be 30 and living in my mom's basement.......
OK, enough of that. So, I mentioned a few weeks ago that there has been some more interesting construction that we found on the house. To recap, this thin little board seen below is holding up the 2nd floor..... all of the floor joists are resting on it:
Look at that board today:
Notice any more cracks?
This is the area in the dining room where the board exists
We still have some demolition to do (shocking, I know), but we figured we should wait until we can get in there this weekend to add supports so that this house doesn't come crumbling down. Hmmm.... would insurance cover that? Tempting..... Just kidding!! Anyway, the lack of electricity/heat/time/money and the excess of bats has added to the delay. To be continued until tomorrow (hopefully).
On that note, I became worried about this wall in the kitchen. It was a load bearing wall that has now had holes cut in it:
Given the wonderful things that we've found in the house, what percent chance do you think there is that this wall was properly reinforced?
Prior to my b-day week celebrations beginning and the concerns about the house falling down, Alok did make some progress on the apartment area. He's working on taking out non-essentials walls so that things can be more open. Here it is now:
There were walls here that made a separate hallway
piles of rubble
The now open area in the apartment (aka family room/bedroom to be... when we can move in in 1 zillion years)
Alok opened up this area here to the left as well. This was a closet and will now be part of the hallway that contained the basement stairs:
This is the hallway from the entrance point of view..... the closet did exist straight ahead..... This is hard to tell with these pictures.
That's all for now.
Jessica
Saturday, February 5, 2011
Baby it's cold outside....
February 5, 2011
And now that we've completely turned of the heat, it is very cold in the house. Alok has been sucking it up though and is working diligently, except for at night. He's been cutting things a bit short after the most recent "bat attack" where a bat allegedly flew at his head and chased him out of the house. We figure the bats think they have squatters rights and are taking over the property.
Alok started by sweeping off the lovely flat roof so that it didn't collapse under the massive snow pileup. Here is the outside of the house after "Snowtorious BIG 2011."
Hmmm...... good thing we paid for a dumpster that is now full of snow!
And here is the inside:
Taking a little lunch break.... this is the apartment. That closet door behind Alok (and the closet) are coming out and we are making the hallway that currently contains the basement stairs a more "grand" hallway. We are flipping the basement stairs so they come out at the opening on the right in the picture, which is the closet that previously contained the hidden staircase. The little hallway that the stairs currently led into will just be drywalled.
The is the place where we will flip the stairs
The basement stairs, and where they will begin
Gotta love "chicken" nuggets. The wall to the right of Alok in the pic (where the boards are sticking out) is coming down totally. There is no need for this little hallway that existed in the apartment, so we're opening it up more.
This apartment bathroom wall on the right also has to be rebuilt. If you touch it, it almost falls. It was obviously not original and it is thought that this bathroom area was part of the second kitchen.
Alok tearing down this wall in the apartment.
That's all for now.
Jessica
And now that we've completely turned of the heat, it is very cold in the house. Alok has been sucking it up though and is working diligently, except for at night. He's been cutting things a bit short after the most recent "bat attack" where a bat allegedly flew at his head and chased him out of the house. We figure the bats think they have squatters rights and are taking over the property.
Alok started by sweeping off the lovely flat roof so that it didn't collapse under the massive snow pileup. Here is the outside of the house after "Snowtorious BIG 2011."
Hmmm...... good thing we paid for a dumpster that is now full of snow!
And here is the inside:
Taking a little lunch break.... this is the apartment. That closet door behind Alok (and the closet) are coming out and we are making the hallway that currently contains the basement stairs a more "grand" hallway. We are flipping the basement stairs so they come out at the opening on the right in the picture, which is the closet that previously contained the hidden staircase. The little hallway that the stairs currently led into will just be drywalled.
The is the place where we will flip the stairs
The basement stairs, and where they will begin
Gotta love "chicken" nuggets. The wall to the right of Alok in the pic (where the boards are sticking out) is coming down totally. There is no need for this little hallway that existed in the apartment, so we're opening it up more.
This apartment bathroom wall on the right also has to be rebuilt. If you touch it, it almost falls. It was obviously not original and it is thought that this bathroom area was part of the second kitchen.
Alok tearing down this wall in the apartment.
That's all for now.
Jessica
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)