Happy New Year

I will like to wish everyone a safe and Happy New Year!!!!

~Angel

Almost there.... Ok maybe not....

This week, several positive and negative items were revealed. I will begin by highlighting the encouraging item then to the unenthusiastic. The plumber was able to update the toilets and sinks for both bathrooms. For the second floor bathroom, he was able to install the vanity top and faucets to include the toilets.

Here is a picture showing the new vanity with the faucet installed for the upstairs bathroom. I would like to take this moment to thank my mom for selecting this faucet. It looks appropriate for this room.
Here is a picture showing the new toilet installed for the upstairs bathroom. As you can see with a couple of minor fixes the bathroom should be completed soon.

Here is a picture showing the new vanity with faucet installed for my bathroom.

I would like to take this moment to thank Kylie for helping me find this wonderful faucet. She had asked a while back as into what I was thinking for a faucet and she was able to help me find this reasonably cost faucet. Thanks…
Here is a picture showing the new toilet installed for my apartment. Good bye yellow toilet… I also forgot to mention that the plumber also changed the hardware on my tub. As you can see in the next photo, the drain was damaged and pretty disgusting with the calcium build up… (Yes that is a yellow tub)

Before

Here is a picture showing the new hardware for my yellow tub… Yes I have a problem with the color… But it’s ok for now… The rest of the updates for this bathroom will have to wait.

Anyway, for the other updates conducted this week were the installation of the six new windows. Here is a picture showing one of the newly installed windows.... The only thing left to complete the window tasks is to install insulation and new wood trim. Because of the high energy efficiency of the windows, I will eventually update all of the windows throughout the entire house, especially since the windows are extremely easy to install and fairly cheap (Bob you Tool!!!).

Now for the set backs…. With the plumber on site, I was able to get him to cap the radiator valve until I am able to replace the cracked radiator. You may remember a while back where I mentioned that the radiator looked to have a crack and was leaking pretty profusely. I also noticed that the radiator was starting to sink into the floor. NOT GOOD!!!! After removing the radiator, I was able to easily remove the peal and stick tiles. Here is a picture of what the floor looked like after removing the radiator….

Well it looks like I need to remove a section of the floor and hope that the floor joists are in good shape. PLEASE!!!!! My concern is that I will need to remove part of the wall within my apartment to reinforce the damaged joist…

I started to remove the floor and realized that the water damage was pretty excessive. Thus far it doesn’t look like the floor joist are a concern. However, I was unable to remove all of the flooring as of yet to make a solid judgment on the floor joints. It looks like the floor has two layers of hardwood planks. I will have to cut the floor boards without damaging the joist… As you can see from the photo, the hole into the floor is a result from the rotten wood that was removed. My plan at the moment is to remove all of the rotten sections and replace it with plywood. I hope to utilize the existing floor joist. But if there is any damage, I will need to sister the floor joist to minimize any further damage. . I just realized something; I might have to retile the entire floor in this room. I am not sure if I can locate the same peal and stick tiles. Problem after problem….

Here is a picture of the damaged radiator.

In this picture you can see the hair line crack into the radiator. I am not sure what may have caused this hair line crack. But it sure did its share of damage... I wonder if it can be repaired, but regardless, it certainly has to be fixed…. Anyway, until next time…

Attic Protector.....

Now that Thanksgiving is over, I can try to get back on schedule. The previous week saw some new improvements to the exterior of the house. When I initially purchased the house, the trim around the windows and the roof were missing metal flashing. The exposed wood was pretty beat up. Holes within the trim work gave access to any creature searching for a warm place for the winter. Too be honest, with the discovery of bats within the attic, this tasked was place on my highest priority. So with that said, I had hired a contractor to perform this task back in August. About a day after I moved into the house, he was commissioned to start work immediately. The only problem was that my contractor wasn’t seeing the same priority list. But I’m happy to finally say that he completed the job yesterday (Yes about 5 months later)...

This picture is the house prior to any work being done to the house.

The trim work above the metal awning shows exposed dark wood, with paint chips pealing off.

Here is a good picture showing the exposed wood trim around one of the windows. All of the windows installed to the house looked similar to this picture.

The second floor bathroom is located in this area of the house. The exposed wood trim is where animals entered into the bathroom ceiling.

When it rained, the back porch would get completely wet. The rain would drip back onto the two porches. So I decided to install new gutters for this location. I felt that when it rained on those hot days, someone would want to relax and sit on the back porch.

This picture shows the trim work completed. The windows look cleaner.

Here is a close up of the windows with the new metal flashing. All of the windows look this good, clean and professional.

The new gutter was also installed.

Another picture of the gutter, but you can also note the new flashing prohibiting access to the bathroom ceiling. The next task on the list is to install the new windows. They finally arrived last Thursday. So I’ll be happily installing them this coming week. I hope you enjoyed this installment, but until next, have fun…