Wrapping it up! (final blog entry)

 It's been awhile since I've updated this blog. Mostly it's because somebody's living there now so it's kind of hard to photograph their domicile and invade their privacy.

 The bottom line is that the house is being lived in and it's now a home.  Other than finishing up some wiring and electrical work and some trim work and little detail work it's pretty much done.

  Yes, there's still some painting that needs to be done and we probably need to put down a new tile floor in the bathroom. 

   The house finally has heat, and while I never really concluded or wrapped up the story about the boiler, I did snap a photo of the finished project in the basement with all the lines going up to the cast iron radiators. The radiators by the way, do an amazing job of providing heat to the home.  They've also been using the cast iron wood stove in the living room.

manifold to radiators

Also worth mentioning,  my cabinet maker Andrew re-created the original upper kitchen cabinet with the original glass front doors and hardware. He's the same guy who built the heavy sink base support cabinet for the 180 pound cast iron farmhouse sink.  

And finally, the hardwood floors got installed in the library.

  I still go up every once in awhile and do a little bit of work here and there,  but mostly it's in good hands.

So, I think this is where I'll wrap up this blog.  It was a long 5 year project, but I took it from a falling down mess to an inhabited home.  There were times that I got frustrated and wondered what I had gotten myself into, but there was also a lot of pride that came from the progress.

I hope that someone out there enjoyed watching the transformation. 

Stay Well & God Bless,

Fritz

Ok Santa, we're ready for you.

 Today,  Bundy helped me install a chimney.  Technically the chimney was already there, but we did install a chimney liner and extend the chimney out through the roof.  Now the boiler/burner has a place to exhaust through.

I'm one step close to having a warm house this winter.

  

Fire in the hole.

     Today Bob came out to the house and began the boiler/ burner install.

    While he was fitting pipes to the inlet and outlet side of the boiler, I bought the fuel tank around leveled it up on the side patio and ran a new fuel line and shut off valve.

By the time I had completed that, Bob had installed the circulator, the expansion tank, the boiler drain valve, and the water fill line, as well as installing a pressure relief valve and a check valve. He also installed two shut off ball valves so that we could fill the boiler with water and test for leaks.

After testing for leaks, Bob installed a new fuel filter, purged the lines, and bled the air out of the system.

Finally, Bob fired up the boiler.  What a big milestone today.

Up and Running(water that is)

     I finally got around to photographing the plumbing for the upstairs bathroom, the new wasteline, and the kitchen sink. With the new electric water heater hooked up we've got nice hot water coming out of the faucets everything is working as it should.

    Bundy even reconnected the wasteline to the septic tank outside with all new PVC pipes and fittings.

A Real Nice Job (and a crappy one too)

 As promised, here are the photos of Ralph's plumbing job. All ready to hook up to the boiler for heat (hint-hint Bob).

     My handyman, who I'll call Bundy for now, hooked up the new water heater and ran hot & cold pex lines to the bathroom and the kitcken sink.

    Thursday, the septic company came and pumped out the tank, but there was a blockage in the waste line, so the water was still backing up into the house.  Bundy tried snaking it but has no luck clearing it out. So, today I rented a cast iron pipe snapper(cutter) and we removed the poop chute from the 2nd floor all the way down to the basement in three(3) foot increments until we found the restriction. 

   Turns out there was a big clog consisting of rust flakes from the inside of the pipe. We got it all out and then flushed out the pipe using the garden hose and the drain snake. It is flowing freely to the tank now.  Bundy is replacing all the drain pipe from the foundation up with brand new 3" PCV as I type this. I'll post photos of the finished product next week, but for now here's a snapshot of all the old cast iron pipe in the back of my truck.

Here's what the inside of the tub drain looked like:

    

The house is now a home!

    A few things have happened since my last post six weeks ago.  First and biggest change is that the old house is now a home.  Yep, I have a new handyman who will be fixing up the house while he and his lady friend are living there. It has a bit of a different vibe now when I go there. It is now someones home. 

   In exchange for living there, I will be receiving labor on the tasks of finishing up the house.  I had Ralph run a new water mainline through the basement and to the boiler & the new water heater. Meanwhile, my handyman( I have to check with him to see if he minds if I use his name publicly) ran new hot & cold water lines up to the 2nd floor bathroom.  I'll photograph all the new plumbing next week and post it up here.

     The bathroom was fully functional for two days until a backup occurred in the drain pipes. I guess as cousin Eddie Griswald would say: "The shitters full!"  So today I had to locate and dig out the septic tank.  On Monday the big poop truck is supposed to suck it clean.  I'll leave you with a few pics of the tank after I dug it out but before I opened the lid (I'll spare you from that sight).

   

  

2021 Season

     March is here, the snow is melting, and in a few weeks the 2021 building season will begin. Like last season, I have a list of things that I need to accomplish and a few new friends who will be able to help me fulfill those goals.

     First, I'll introduce you to Ralph. He's my plumber and a hell of a nice guy. Ralph will plumb all new water pipes from the now working well to the kitchen, bathroom, water heater, radiators, and most importantly to the boiler.

     Once I have water to the boiler, then Bob (who you all met last year) can finish the boiler install and get me heat in the house!  That will be the biggest accomplishment since the back roof!

     I need to replace some soft floor joists in the library (formerly the piano room) and then install a subfloor and the hardwoods.

    Lastly I'll introduce you to Tommy, who will be helping me replace the front porch posts, level it up and re-roof it.  It is sagging due to the rotted posts that you can see in this picture.

   So stay tuned for another season of me trying to rebuild my 1861 house.

 

   

  

High & Dry

    Ever since posting that picture the other day of the house with all the snow in the yard I got to thinking that maybe I should go up there and check on the situation.

    I actually have not been to the house since November, and I did read that that area of Pennsylvania got about 15 in of snow. I also know that It's been raining pretty hard on and off where I live for about 10 days.

    As a result of all that rain and the thawing and melting of all that snow, many homes in the neighborhood where I'm currently living have flooded basements, mine got a little bit of water but both sump pumps have been running non-stop.

    I figured that the basement of the house in Pennsylvania might have seen some water as well so I went up there yesterday. I had a pleasant surprise when I went down into the basement and found everything to be completely bone dry. I guess all that concrete work that I did on the North side wall and regrading and sloping the yard really paid off.

  

While I was there I unhooked the Christmas lights and removed the timers. Everything in the house appeared to be exactly as I left it with the exception of a walnut on the third floor that my friend the squirrel bought in. That squirrel is sort of my full-time caretaker, he watches over the place when I'm not there.

I took a picture of the house as well as a photo of the Delaware River and the Roebling bridge which you can see really well this time of year when all the trees are bare and have no leaves. You can also see where the town snow plow knocked my mailbox over, but that's okay I'm not really getting much mail there anyway. I've attached the photos to this post.

Happy New Year

 Here's hoping that '21 brings us all health & success.  On a personal note I'm hopeful that this is the year  I get the plumbing & heat finished in the house and perhaps get it able to live in.

  For today, let me post an old photo of the house when it was a home.  A nice wintery scene complete with lots of snow and a tree swing for the coming springtime.