UPDATE - Asbestos Removal From the Basement

Wednesday morning, the guys at Lakeshore Environmental came to start work in removing the remaining asbestos-containing vinyl tiles in the basement and the asbestos-containing black mastic (glue) that held those tiles down.

I posted about this issue before, when testing was being done.  The upstairs is not regulated and has minuscule traces, which we will encapsulate rather than remove, a recommended. I was at the house in the morning dismantling the rest of the metal shelves left by the prior owner.

Having already taken down the plywood shelves, this was juste a further annoyance.  Hopefully, I'l either get some use or a donation tax deduction out of them.

Last night I returned to check up on progress and was met with this at the top of the stairs:

I strapped on a mask and ventured downstairs. Not dramatic, but "tidy" in terms of the floor:

They have an exhaust fan creating "negative air flow" from the basement up and out of the house. All vents and the furnace are plastic'd off to prevent any fibers from getting into the HVAC.

After two days of cleaning, there is still evidence of the mastic, but its just a stain on the porous concrete and not "mastic" itself.

BEFORE:

AFTER:

UPDATED Mud Room Destruction

I was at the house this a.m. for some plumbing issues -- new RPZ valve for the outdoor spinkler system -- and to sneak a peak at the asbestos removal in the basement (more on that in another post). But one thing I also wanted to do was snap a few post-demolition photos of the mud room that were lacking from this post.

Here are a few more shots of Alice's room with the floor cabinets, washer and dryer removed.  This is the exterior-facing wall, where new plumbing and venting and waste lines had been run to accommodate a washer and dryer in that room (now sans, washer and dryer):

A shot back at the other corner where the base cabinets "protected" that lovely "brick" tile.

And looking from the opposite corner back towards the kitchen and (full) bathroom:

After renovation, that wall (still holding the nailed-on upper cabinets) will be removed and a new one in its place will exist about three feet in -- about 6 inches past where the door to the kitchen ends, shrinking this room by about 3 feet.

As a result, the full bath will also shrink into a powder room sized 1/2 bath.

Looking at these pictures, I'm beginning to appreciate my wife's reaction to this as a "disgusting" house. But you gotta break some eggs to make an omelette, right?

Laundry Room / 4th Bedroom / Maid's Quarters . . . Partial Demo

So there is a weird room in the corner of the house.  Here it is on our architect's rendering (ignore the labels, which he added):

When we bought it, it was the "laundry room" but it was so completely out of place it looked weird. The cabinets were circa 1983 with a dryer that looked like that vintage but a new-ish washer.  There was the same bizarre brick-like tile as in the kitchen.  And, the plumbing looked "newer" than the rest of the house.  To cap it all off, it was adjacent to a FULL bath, with jack-and-jill doors.

After finding the original plans, we discovered that it was a fourth bathroom (or third, if you count what is marked as "bedroom #1" above as an office. In the original plans it is marked as a bedroom:

It is super tiny, though.  Our speculation is that it was a small maid's quarters, which would explain the full bathroom there.  The jack-and-jill doors would also suggest that the bath doubled as a powder room for guests.

A short discussion with one of the surviving children of the former owner, revealed that the laundry had originally been in the basement but moved upstairs in 1978 when his parents bought the place to accommodate the fact that his mother had broken her ankle and couldn't navigate stairs well. That would explain the "circa 1983" cabinets.  Probably circa 1979 or so.

We are planning on stealing some of the room from the full bath and making it a half bath/powder room (we don't have a live in maid or nanny), and giving it a bit of a makeover for a proper laundry / mud room as shown previously.

I wanted to do some more demo on my own, so I tackled the appliances and the cabinets.  Before during (I thought I had taken some "before" photos but I cannot locate them??!!):

I removed the lower cabinets. Here is the first out along with the counter top.

Horrible angle, but behind that floor-to-ceiling cabinet pictured left is the corner cabinet removed.

I ended up leaving the uppers in place because they were nailed rather than screwed to the wall and I was concerned that, crowbar in one hand and only one free hand to support the cabinet, that it would spell disaster!  Best to leave that to the pros.

I'll take a few more photos of that room cleaned out of everything but the upper cabinets tomorrow, when I meet the asbestos-removal crew.

Bring the Heat!

I ordered a heat gun the other day:

There is a considerable amount of wood that is covered in years and years of latex paint.  My hope is that at least some of it can be completely uncovered, stained, and shown rather than simply repainted.  For example, I'm fairly certain that the siding is all a decent-caliber of cedar that has a chance to be exposed -- its prominent on all sides of the house.  Also, the front door has been slathered with several coats of paint over the years, including some of the hardware.

I started yesterday -- while waiting for my law partner to pick me up to go appliance shopping at ABT -- to take some paint off of the front door:

The first patches of white, yellow, and brown paint coming off:

And 50+ years of paint waste:

The gun, resting . . .

 

This is as far as I got yesterday.  More this weekend!  Hopefully, the whole door cleaned, sanded and then decide if its in good enough condition for stain or whether we paint it a bold blue, green, or red!

Thinking of also adding these windows from a kit from Crestview Doors to spruce it up:

And a nice mid-century door knob like this:

or this:

While I'm excited about this "little" project -- even the work and choices involved in just one door make thinking about the entire project a bit overwhelming!

So . . . Here's the Plan . . .

We are nearing a time of getting serious.  We have finished out ideas on layout and have "plan."

This is the "before" (a/k/a the existing layout):

And here -- if all goes to plan, is the "after":

The only thing that cannot really be appreciated or captured on this is what we HOPE to do with the existing ceiling in the LR/DR area.

Currently, it is a "tray" that you see here:

It slopes up on the edges to become raised a bit in the center, making an upside down "tray" - hence the name.

What we are hoping for (budget permitting) is some thing like this SHAPE, sloping up from the windows to the kitchen:

With this FINISH, so that we can make some nod to the mid-century roots of the home:

Fingers crossed that we are able to pull it off.

Only Minor Destruction Today

I had a meeting -- actually, it was more like my architect had a meeting -- this morning.  Since I had to be at the house, I figured I'd tear some stuff up.

So, I focused on the den.  There were weird vinyl tiles in there, which were supposed to mimic hardwood.  We had them tested with the rest along with the mastic and they came back negative, so I decided to remove them and add them to next Monday's garbage.

Before:

Last week:

With carpeting removed and carpet tack removed.

Close up of the fake wood floor.  (the metal bar next to the register is the "safety" device for the sliding glass patio door).

And, today:

Tile removed.

Close up of baseboard removed, exposing the original, unpainted portion of the wood panel.

When discussing the fireplace, we decided (since the wood paneling was going anyway) to pull some away to see what was behind it:

Our plan is to revamp the fireplace completely, sealing off one side and giving it a much more clean and modern look.  The bare wall there will be capped with some sort of book or display case.

Who Stole My Sprinkler Thingy?

Yeah, you read that right.  My sprinkler "thingy" is gone.  Count this as an "unexpected"surprise for home ownership.

The technical term for the "thingy" that I'm referring to, is an "RPZ Valve."  It is a device that regulates water flow in an automated sprinkler system.

Some of them look like this:

When you come to MY house, it looks like this:

Notice anything missing where that red line is?  Me too.  I thought that I could just hop online and buy one and screw it in.  Turns out, its a fairly sensitive piece of plumbing equipment.  On top of that, it costs me about $100 / year to have it "tested" to comply with Village regulations!

In total, part, labor to install, and inspect (seems silly that an inspection is required on TOP of installation, but thems the breaks), is going to be an unexpected setback of about a grand!