A Day of Frustrations

I stopped by Menard's this morning and picked up a brand-new exterior door.  Now that I am finally spending more time out at the new property, I really need to start securing my tools and items I am taking out there.  The machine shed had no lockable door on it when I bought it.  And as such, I have stopped myself from bringing out larger items like my stump grinder and weed mower.  The last thing I need is theft!

The plan was simple:  install a new door!  If you watch a YouTube video, it looks like the entire project might take an hour!  ha!  If I had only known what I know now, I might have paid the few hundred dollars to have it hired done...

The old homemade wooden door.

The door that came with the machine shed.  Yuck!

But first!  Dad was out to help again, and we removed the old wooden homemade door.  The door was heavy and solid, but it was mounted to rotting wood.  That is a common theme around this farm!  All of the main buildings are old, and they just need some attention.  The entire bottom hinge was connected to nothing, as the wood had totally rotted away.

The entire bottom hinge was unconnected on the old frame.

The old door is out!

The sill was all rotted away at the bottom.

With the door off, we realized that we needed to remove a side piece, as well, in order to get the new 36-inch door to fit.  We went to do a "dry fit" and put the door up to the opening only to find out I was a few inches off width-wise!  I didn't get it.  I had measured the old door, and it was 36 inches wide.  I bought a new 36" door...it should fit!

Well, that's when I realized my HUGE mistake.  I bought a 36" door inside a pre-hung frame (what I wanted)!  But that frame added the extra inches.  Ugh.  So we removed the OTHER vertical 2 x 4 frame board.  It should fit now.  We tried another dry fit.  This time I was off by a few inches on top.  Seriously not my day.  Again, the old door matched the new door...but that's it.  The old door did NOT match the new door frame.

Every time we went to just dry fit the door, I was off...by a lot.  It was maddening.

The good news is that all of the original old boards came down (likely 60 years old).  I had wanted to use one of the old vertical pieces, but after I took it off to make the new door fit, I realized it was pretty rotten at the bottom, too.  It's probably best that I didn't use it.

The bottom sill was more of the same.  The wood had actually rotted away about 85%!  I cleared out the old rotten wood and cut a new treated piece of lumber to fit.

The bottom will had rotted away.  I could literally just pull this rotten wood out.  Damp and rotted.

Slowly, we were getting the size dialed in.  We had to add quite a bit of new framing on the hinge side since we removed the rotten parts.  But in another frustrating experience, we put up the door against our 2 x 4 framing only to realize we needed six-inch framing!!!  Maddening!!!  The hinges protruded past the 2 x 4 framing.

As Dad likes to say, "It's the blind leading the blind" when we work together.

But we plodded along.

We finally got the new pre-hung frame mounted in place.  But even that proved to be a chore in ways we couldn't imagine.  Since we had to remove two 2 x 4's (one on each side), we were now entering "new territory" for the door.  And, as our luck would have it, that new territory included electrical wires!  So Dad removed the wires that were now in the way of the new door frame.  After the door was up, I spent a good deal of time trying to get the door plumb with all sorts of shims, but at the end, the door actually opens and closes nicely.

The door is in!

We added a nice silver knob and dead-bolt, and it actually looks decent!  And it actually opens and closes!

But then we had problems with the J-channel.  The aluminum siding is SO hard to work with (it's surprisingly tight against the wall), and it's even more difficult to cut.  I had to go borrow an electric metal siding cutter from a friend down the road, as I was unable to cut the siding by hand with tin-snips.

But again, we plodded forward.  We were finally able to get the two pieces of J-channel behind the sides.  I didn't have enough to put along the top, though.  So I went to the closest store to buy some.  Of course, I didn't take an old piece with me, and I ended up buying the wrong size (the only one they had anyway).  Frustrating again!  So the project remains undone!

The top J-channel remains undone.

The new door is in!  Notice the top J-channel missing.

The old door.

The new door is in!

The door really does help with the appearance.

What a day.

As if that wasn't enough, I realized that my "new" hog waterer is not working.  For whatever reason, the waterer just continues to leak water out a groove in the side of the bottom trough.  I called the manufacturer, and the Service Department says I need to adjust the float.  The gentleman said the groove in the side is actually made for an electrical cord for a heater.  So my float is too high, letting too much water into the trough from the tank, and thus out the groove in the trough.  By turning it down, I should be able to stop the flow of water.

I was encouraged...slightly.  I wouldn't be confident too much until I actually tried it.  

But in order to reach the plastic piece to turn, I had to take off the filter in the tank.  But it would just sit there and spin.  So I called the Service Department back.  He told me that I needed to tank the tank off the base so that I could hold the bottom plastic nut as I turned the top plastic.  So we tried to tank the tank off the base.

And MORE frustration.

There and four bolts that hold the tank on the base.  As you might expect, THREE came loose.  Two actually turned, one broke off the head, and the fourth started turning freely in the base.  Not good.  We would learn that the bolts are actually made into the tank (the poly plastic is melted around them), so once they start to turn, there is really nothing you can do to hold them.  You can't drill through the tank to get them free, as you would then have a hole in your tank.

Wow, what a day!!!

(Also while on the phone, I also asked about the plastic screw cap on top.  He said that part was $63.63!!!  Ummm, no.  What a rip-off!  Similar sizes were five bucks at the local farm but just with the wrong threads). 

So I had to use a cutting tool to grind off the bolt head...all in a tight corner surrounded by plastic.  It was tough to not burn the plastic.  The bolt head heated up so much with the friction, though, that it actually started melting the plastic.

But we finally got the bolt head off, and the tank pulled off the base.

The base is FINALLY removed!  What a chore!  Notice the grinding tool on the left.

So I had two bolts with no heads that just wouldn't budge.  I put PB Blaster on them and planned to try again tomorrow.

I now had a clear view of how the system worked, though.  The water goes up in the base, and a large plastic float pulls down a metal pin with a tapered plastic knob.  That knob stops the flow of water.  So with the tank now separated, Dad could hold the plastic nut, and I could get the filter off.  It was still tight, but I got it off.

So I went to turn the plastic tapered (and threaded) plunger.  At the first 1/4-turn it broken right off.  I mean, INSTANTLY broke off.  Unbelievable!!!

WHAT A DAY!

But I was now able to take the float assembly all apart.  I called a parts company, and they had all the pieces I needed.  I debated replacing the whole assembly, but it didn't seem worth it.  I only replaced the metal rod that was rusted and broke and the black plunger.  I also ordered a new leather washer for inside the tank.  Total cost was about $10 plus shipping.  I asked about the plastic cap, and it was $65!  NO THANKS!!!

The large float, the cotter pin that hold the float onto the tank, the filter, and the black threaded plunger.  Only part missing is the broken metal rod which I probably had in my hand for ordering purposes.  I am replacing the rod and black plunger.

Unfortunately, that means a few days of waiting for parts.

So with no good waterer, I tried to caulk our original homemade waterer with fast-drying caulk.  I used the old metal trough I found in the barn for current watering purposes, but hopefully this new caulk works.  The pigs need water!

This is the third try at getting a water-tight seal.  It has teflon on the threads.  I tried caulk, then roofing tar, and now a quicker-drying caulk.  Surely something has to work!

This waterer should be ready to go by tomorrow.  Even though it's "cured" in 45 minutes, I am giving it at least 12 hours.

Dad left for Bible Study, but I stayed around to keep working.  And by working, I mean I decided to take out some energy on some walls.  Today was set-back after set-back.  A frustrating door, a frustrating waterer, another frustrating waterer.  None of the projects were complete.

Sometimes a man just needs to swing a hammer.

So for the first time, I started the heavy demo in the house.  I have taken down the wood paneling, but tonight started the plaster removal.  The heavy job.  And I decided to start with the kitchen where the plaster was in the worst shape.

The kitchen was in rough shape already.  The walls had SO MANY layers of coverings.  Paint, plaster, and numerous layers of wallpaper.

The plan was simple.  Bang, bang, bang, remove.  So much of the wall showed deterioration already, so it wasn't a matter of breaking up the plaster really.  It was a matter of just pulling it off the walls!

The plaster was already in rough shape in the kitchen.

The plaster is crumbing already...before I even begin!

So I started in these crumbing areas first.  And the work was quite easy!  The plaster just peeled off the walls here.  Super easily actually.

You could just pull this plaster off the lath.

Some of the plaster was still in good condition, though, and you instantly knew where!  When you bang your hammer on bad plaster, it's mushy and soft.  And you can peel it away rather quickly.  But when you bang your hammer on good plaster, it's the equivalent of taking a hammer to a sturdy concrete sidewalk!  The reverberation is instantly felt in your forearm and hand!  And because the wall changes so quickly, you never know which type of hit you are going to get!  Mush, mush, BAM!  Owwww!

But the wall started to crumble before my eyes.

Before...

During...the wall is coming down!

It was dusty but not overly unbearable.

After!  The plaster is down!

The farmhouse restoration has OFFICIALLY begun.  This project just turned real.

The kitchen remodel begins!

I tell you, once you start taking walls down, you REALLY start to learn about the house.  A couple of interesting lessons I learned tonight:  The exterior walls really DO have blown-in insulation!  And honestly, that was the worst part about the job tonight!!!  The plaster dust is prevalent but not unbearable.  But when you get into that insulation, it instantly turns into a fine powder, and it is downright unbearable.  I mean, this stuff is nasty.  I have a full respirator on, but when this insulation goes airborne, you have to get out of the area.  This is going to be a major problem.

I found blown-in insulation behind the exterior walls.

The previous owner said that it's only on the first-floor, so that is going to help, but wow, this is going to make those exterior walls go slow.  It's seriously nasty stuff.

Second, and this is super neat.  The house is built with hand-hewn logs!!!  I LOVE that the house is 153 years old, but seeing the craftsmanship and beauty behind how it was built just downright mesmerizes me.  The lithograph from 1873 shows this kitchen being already on the house, but the walls are speaking a slightly different tune.  In the pantry area, I uncovered the exterior sheathing of the home.

The boards here are full of notches.  And these notches are from a worker standing on top of or alongside the board and cutting it down with an axe!!!  It's so neat.  Literally, each notch represents the swing of an axe from over 150 years ago.  Talk about work!  But what is more amazing to me is the straightness of the board!  With his broad axe, that worker was able to get a straight board!

Each of those notches is from an axe swing over 150 years ago!

So fascinating.

I love it.

Here is a neat illustration for how these boards would have been cut by hand:

Picture 3 shows the notches that you see in my boards!

I probably knocked down plaster for an hour-and-a-half.  Some went down easily, some not so much.  But I had a couple of take-aways from the experience.  First, the work isn't all that hard.  It's not easy, but it's not rocket science, either.  You just break up the plaster with LOTS of hammer swings, then remove.  Second, there isn't as much plaster on the ground, as I would have imagined.  I thought it would accumulate quicker.  I was expecting more to dump.  Third, this project is going to take awhile.  Even with the work tonight, I can see how each room is going to be lengthy.

But it's a little encouraging.  The walls can come down.  And new walls can go up.  It's just a matter of  hard work and time that stands between me and new walls.

Lots of time.

So what a frustrating day.  But this evening, I opened up some possibilities for what can be.  I can start to envision the new home.  With the walls coming down, the dreams can go up.

I am eager to put this frustrating day behind me (I know there will be more), but I also look forward to what a gem this house can be.

One day at a time.