Windows

Old Window on Front Porch

Over the last few days, the original windows have been returned to the house, in nearly pristine condition.

Some seven months ago, the original windows on the old house were carefully removed and carted off to a workshop to be painstakingly restored to their former glory. Included in the rehabilitation was the removal of untold layers of paint, replacement of broken panes with old wavy glass, cleanup of the slides and replacement of the worn-down pin system that holds the windows open.

The pin system itself speaks to the age of the house, and is one of the clues we have been following to validate the approximate year of construction (itself the subject of an upcoming post). Only one window has a weight and pulley system, which was "later technology" according to our window contractor. All the others simply have a spring-loaded pin which holds the window open in 2-3 preset locations.

Spray Foam Insulation in Stairwell

Also, this week marked the completion of the weather insulation of the interior of both the new and old portions of the house. The interesting part of this was in dealing with the old house, which readers may recall was essentially heart pine siding nailed directly to the balloon framing, without the benefit of sheathing or vapor barrier.

To address this, we had a layer of spray foam insulation adhered to the inside of the joist cavities to create a vapor and thermal seal, with batt insulation filling the rest. For the first time in months, we can no longer see through the siding out into the yard. From the outside, the spray foam seeped through all the holes in the siding, which will be cut, sanded and finish painted when the project completes.

Inspection

New Electrical Panels

Pretty Much Every System

On Friday we passed a major milestone, getting an approval from the building inspector on all of the structural remediation we have done, along with electrical, plumbing and HVAC. The inspection itself lasted over 2 hours, but all of the investment in doing the work the right way has paid off. It is interesting to see brand new electrical work snaking through ancient timbers, and the electrician has done a good job keeping the wiring well-organized.

While the inspection was successful, there are still a number of structural elements to complete. For example, in the picture on the left you can still see a temporary post supporting the quad-sistered engineered beams. That will be removed after the permanent post goes in place. Also in the left-hand picture, you can see pieces of every system in the house - HVAC (silver duct), gas line (yellow), plumbing (copper pipes), electrical (tan wiring), along with the reinforced beams supporting the old house. The gray conduit is for video cables, since this picture is inside the media room. In the bathrooms, all of the shower pans are in, the shower valves are installed and we are making very good progress.

Roof Nearly Completed

The outside of the house is now looking like a house, with the roofing shingle work having been completed just today. We still need to have the two porches attached to the new addition, but that work has been slowed by the back-order state of the bricks we need for the piers. At the moment, the brick delay has not pushed back the overall timeline, but that could change if we can't get more bricks in the next couple of weeks.

Don't Tread On Me

Unfortunately, while we are happy with the decision to take down the near-dead ornamental trees in the back yard, opening up the existing English Ivy area to sunshine, coupled with the ideal growing conditions this spring and summer, has turned the backyard into one of the most daunting thickets of poison ivy we have ever seen. The fence line along the sidewalk has become a urushiol torture chamber, forcing passersby to detour along the curb. We knew we needed to act after we received a call from a neighbor worried about our girls playing in the backyard. As such, we have hired a landscape company to come and napalm spray all of the English and poison ivy until it is dead in preparation for a rehabilitation of the yard this fall. Virtually no corner of the property is without it.

Still Need to Fix This

Up next is insulating the new and old parts of the house. As we covered in a previous post, the siding in the old house is nailed directly to the balloon-framed timbers, without the benefit of modern wall sheathing or vapor barrier. Worse, the siding itself has numerous places where you can see through it to the outside, as shown in the picture at left. To address this, we are installing a layer of spray foam insulation on the inside of all of the siding to seal out moisture and prevent massive heat exchange. To keep costs down we are doing a relatively thin layer to be doubled up with batt insulation to the depth of the studs.

In addition, there are no sub-floors in the old house, so we are having our insulation subcontractor install Rockwool in the joist cavities between the floors, such that conversations can't be held between the floors as if they weren't there. Insulation should take a week, along with two inspections, and then we will be ready for drywall.

Finally, in an exciting development, we were able to easily take up the newer oak flooring covering the original yellow pine in the dining room area. The flooring contractor test-sanded a 2-foot-square area and put a coat of tung oil on it, to promising results. It appears for now that we will be able to bring back the original yellow pine flooring in the entirety of the first floor of the old house. As you can see from the picture below, at one point the floor was painted or stained around the perimeter, which we expect to come out with a good sanding.

Old Dining Room Floor