Ramblings from the road

We took a day trip today and are now driving back.  Bored so I thought I would write a quick post... Over the past few days we have made significant progress on the plumbing in project. We came so close to finishing but disaster struck.  My PEX crimper tool broke when I was working on the last four connections. I was very disappointed.  My tool is a multi head tool that fits 4 PEX sizes and was purchased from Menards for 89.  Unfortunately the closest Menards is 45 minutes away but I did stop into a store today during our travels and they swapped it.
I am hoping to sneak over to the house soon and finish it all up!

PEX Tubing - New Tech in an Old House

After spending some time working on the kid's room , I finally got around to working on the kitchen again.  Over the weekend I pulled down all the old copper pipe that supplied water to the various 2nd floor bathroom fixtures.  It all has to be re-done so that the plumbing fits up in the original ceiling.  Now that the waste lines are basically done, it was time to work on the supply lines. Before I could cut it all down, I had to turn off the water and sweat some caps on the 3/4" trunk lines that come up from the basement.  This allowed me to immediately turn the water back on to the rest of the house.  I decided that I wanted to try my hand at PEX.  I figured the PEX tubing would be easier to install than copper.  I would be cheaper too.  Also, it should be more reliable than PVC.  I also liked the idea of being able to bend it around corners so that it requires fewer connections/fittings. The biggest downside with PEX is that it requires an upfront investment in tools.  For about $100 I bought a crimp tool, go/no-go gauge and tubing cutter. Not terrible I guess, but certainly more than a $10 hacksaw and $7 in PVC primer/glue.  Dad and I spent a couple hours in the home center picking out all the tools and tube and fittings for our project.

PEX manifold with 3/4" inlet and 1/2" outlets. One for hot water and one for cold.

The above manifolds also added a bit of cost to my installation.  Manifolds are not strictly needed, but are pretty spiffy.  These copper manifolds cost about $20 each and require a special mounting bracket that costs another $15.  The water is supplied from the right side and then is distributed to each fixture.  They actually sell really fancy manifolds too.  Some people install a "home run" system where every run goes all the way back to a centrally-located (larger) manifold.  These larger manifolds often feature cutoff valves for each branch.  Pretty neat idea, but not very practical in retrofit applications.
My more observant readers might have noticed that several of my manifold ports have a little 3" piece of tubing.  This little piece of tubing has a plug in the end of it.  These ports are reserved for future use. Someday we will remodel the upstairs bath, and I might decide to add more fixtures.  If so, then I can tap into this manifold and be golden.  These 6 port manifolds cost $20 while the 4 port versions cost $18, so getting the larger size was a "no-brainer" for me.

Hot and cold water to the shower.  Connected to the existing copper stubs with a copper elbow and PEX adapter.

I have completed the run to the shower (shown above) and the toilet.  Both went extremely smoothly.  It is really cool that I can make the entire run with basically no fittings.  In the shower pic above, you can see the I sweated a copper elbow+ adapter to transition from the PEX.  On the toilet, I was able to make it all the way to the toilet shutoff without any need for elbows or any other fittings.

I'm Screwed

I didn't have a lot of time to work on the house after work today because we took the kids to the local library to visit Santa and decorate their Xmas tree.   I did however find time to tackle a small job that was driving me crazy.  The side entrance door sticks. It sticks because the hinge screws are stripped so the door sags. For the past year we have struggled with it.  Whats worse is that it doesn't have a knob or lockset so we have to open it with our pinky.  A few months ago I thought I was smart and went to the workshop and grabbed a handful of 3" deck screws.  I figured that should tighten up the hinges.  WRONG.  The PO had the same idea except they had used 4" screws.  They were not doing the trick anymore either, obviously.  The solution was to pull out the old screws and plug the holes with wood dowel+glue.  I am happy to report that the hinges are tight and the door closes smooth as silk now.

Paint stripping progress

Been spending a couple hours each evening working on paint stripping.  Well most evenings.  Today Celia and I cleaned out the pond since all the leaves are now off the trees.  Here is an updated picture of the door I have been working on:

As I make progress, I am getting excited about the the finish coat.  Ill will be nice to finish something. I have been researching shellac which has been quite a learning experience.  Along these lines, I found someone selling old windows on Craigslist (cheap) and I plan reuse the wavy glass from them.  I find it funny how at every turn in this project I have to learn something new.  Now it is glass cutting, lol.  I also ordered some Sarco Glazing Putty (Type M) for the glass.

When blogging isn't enough, make a video!

Made my first Youtube video!  It is a howto on how to strip paint from old hinges.  Enjoy!

More paint scraping

Today my time was mostly spent with the family.  We went to a close friend's wedding reception.  Afterwards, I was able to get a couple hours of work done on the house.  As you can see I am starting to remove paint from around the door.  I snapped this picture because I finished removing most of the paint from the transom window.  I couldn't resist hanging it back up in the frame to see how it looked. This is probably the first time this window has moved freely in a LONG time. I cant wait to have working transoms!

QUESTION:  I discovered that the window glass is set with glazing putty.  Not too surprising, I guess. My question is what color I should paint the putty?  All the trim will eventually be shellaced, so I am unsure if I should paint the glazing putty white, or if I should paint it a brownish/tan color to blend in with the wood color.  Thoughts?

Stripping Down

Hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving.  We sure did.  We also have been using the long weekend to work on the house.  We have been a little burnt out again on the kitchen so we have been focusing our efforts of the kid's room.

I removed all of the carpet in the room.  I did it myself and it went quite smoothly.  I used the technique that I perfected when removing the carpet in the dining room several months ago.  I pulled the carpet up 3 foot at a time, cut the backing, and then rolled it up into little bundles.  Each bundle was tied with twine which will make it easy to put it out for trash day. Under the carpet (1993 vintage) was a layer of Masonite.  I pulled up a piece of it to take a peek at the original 1x5 pine plank floor underneath.  From the small section I looked at it looked in pretty good condition.  We strongly considered ripping out all the Masonite and restoring the floor.  Instead, Celia talked me into keeping carpet in this room.  It will be the kids room and wall-to-wall carpet will be a little more comfortable for them.  I am excited to try restoring the original floors in some of the other 2nd story rooms though...

Notice all the staples?  The perimeter of the Masonite is stapled every 2 inches.

We also finished demo on a false wall that concealed an old radiator pipe that ran from the basement to the attic.  Once the wall was down, I sawzalled the pipe and removed it.  Here is the wallpaper we found trapped inside the little wall.

Celia and I also attacked the molding in this room.  If you remember, this molding is all pine.  It has been covered in lots of paint over the years.  The original coat was a faux wood graining called faux bois, which  I blogged about last year. The molding in this room is quite nice.  Lots of bumps and ridges, and curves.  I am going to make sure my next house has the plainest, squarest molding possible because picking paint out of all the grooves REALLY SUCKS!

Mostly stripped.  This shot was taken after Celia worked with a dental pick type scraper to remove the bits of paint in the ribbed area.

Some of our friends and family have questioned our decision to strip all this molding since it is "just pine".  I understand that staining today's modern pine wood is usually not done because of its' inferior qualities regarding grain and stain absorption.  However, I have seen pictures of old-growth pine  that have finished up beautifully.
Examples from around the internet: