Author Topic: The Barnhouse Transformation  (Read 88190 times)

Le Poisson

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The Barnhouse Transformation
« on: October 18, 2016, 05:27:09 AM »
Once upon a time, a wannabe mustachian bought a relocated farmhouse. The idea was that it would be converted to an up-down duplex. The project would take some time, but the numbers looked good. This is the story of the renoes in the barnhouse.

Maybe I should start with some history and work forward from there.

The barnhouse was built in the 1920's (as far as we can tell) from recycled materials. Its floor joists are (even older) barn beams. At one time it stood on a farm and had no basement. Then a freeway and shopping mall were built and the barnhouse was moved to a new farm. When it was moved, it was put on a full depth (8ft) foundation. It was the 60's and Kennedy and Martin Luther King were making inroads into social justice. In Barnhouseville though, not a lot was going on.

After the barnhouse came to the farm, a number of other houses joined it, forming a street out of the laneway - but barnhouse would always be the last house on the street - sort of stranded and away from the rest of them. 10 years after being moved, barnhouse was sold and new owners took over.

The couple had children who grew in the house, and then 10 years ago, the husband died and the wife faced the challenge of maintaining the house alone. He brother did what he could, and a number of repairs were outsourced, but gradually the maintenance deficit grew and the 4 bedroom house proved more than the widow could keep up with. About the same time there began to be rattlings that teh farm surrounding the barnhouse would be developed as tract housing. Plans were circulated, some showed low-rise apartments on her land, some showed row housing abutting it. The owner was offered a trade - a straight swap of a townhouse for the barnhouse and its land, or cash. The widow got her back up and resisted change. She wouldn't see the house where her husband died and her children were raised demolished to build apartments. The developer made offers, land deals were made. negotiations were engaged in. Eventually, a parcel was added to the barnhouse lot and cash was given to the widow in exchange for concessions, but the barnhouse would not be touched. The widow felt she had won.

She took a vacation to the Dominican Republic, fell in love with the cook at the resort and decided to cash out her chips, move to the Carribean to be with him and sell the barnhouse.

Enter Prospector.



Walking through the house there are some obvious issues that need addressing, but most of them are cosmetic. There is much crumbly plaster, poor colour choices, and "funky" bathrooms. The kitchen is dated but functional, and the basement is a clean slate. The house cleaned up nicely for listing photos (really quite well done, they hide a multitude of sins), but on entry one is immediately disappointed by its 1970-esque look and feel. Our hope is that by attending to the issues with the plaster and flooring we will make the house more desirable. The listing photos are below - in my next posts I'll itemise our plan of attack and try to lay out a floorplan so you lot can have some points of reference. Since I still have a FT gig, getting up there to do work is limited to weekends and vacation days right now.


okits

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Re: The Barnhouse Transformation
« Reply #1 on: October 18, 2016, 06:34:28 AM »
Following!  Which room has the glow-in-the-dark star stickers?  :)

Le Poisson

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Re: The Barnhouse Transformation
« Reply #2 on: October 18, 2016, 06:37:00 AM »
Following!  Which room has the glow-in-the-dark star stickers?  :)

The one with the blue bed. I just realized there are no pics of the master bedroom on those sheets - there is good reason for that.

pbkmaine

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Re: The Barnhouse Transformation
« Reply #3 on: October 18, 2016, 07:11:11 AM »
Is it particularly awful?

Le Poisson

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Re: The Barnhouse Transformation
« Reply #4 on: October 18, 2016, 08:33:00 AM »
Is it particularly awful?

Are you talking about the whole house, or the Mbed?

I'll answer about the Mbed, because that's easier. The carpet is square tiles that are not attached to the floor. They look like they would be appropriate for an industrial office. The plaster on the ceiling is coming away from its backing and needs to be removed. There is a toilet in the closet - which backs onto the sink in the hall closet to make a sort of powder room. Since the closet was converted to a bathroom, a closet was framed in, and sliding glass doors were cut down and mounted on a 1"X2" frame. Unfortunately, the handyman who made this closet used exterior plywood instead of drywall to enclose it, and the end wall tape and mud did not adhere well.

The whole room is in need of some serious love.

pbkmaine

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Re: The Barnhouse Transformation
« Reply #5 on: October 18, 2016, 09:02:41 AM »
Wow.

LifeHappens

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Re: The Barnhouse Transformation
« Reply #6 on: October 18, 2016, 09:34:58 AM »
Following. Looks like it's going to be a fun rehab.

Le Poisson

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Re: The Barnhouse Transformation
« Reply #7 on: October 18, 2016, 09:55:09 AM »
OK stage 1 work - we decided to attack the living room first.

The reason for this is because it is one of the first things seen when you come in the house, has much potential, and should not be especially difficult to work on.

The living room has 4 major strikes against (and one minor one).

1. Ceiling damage due to toilet malfunction above.

Remember that toilet in the MBed closet? Well it appears that at some point in the past, it leaked and took out the ceiling in the living room. Either that or they opened up the living room ceiling to install it and then poured water in the hole before installing the toilet. In any case, there was a terrible patch job on the ceiling, and traces of water damage. While this damage is pretty limited to the end of the ceiling where the toilet was installed, there are cracks and sags in other parts of the ceiling, so we have pretty much resigned ourselves to removing the entire ceiling and replacing it all with drywall.

Removing the plaster is proving to be fairly not-fun. In other houses I have attacked plaster by running a skil saw up a stud bay and then levering entire sections of lathe and plaster off the wall as a single unit. Generally the nails holding the lathe to the studs pull out easily, and the method leaves me with nice clean studs and no mess. Sadly in this room, the ceiling is plaster over beaverboard. The plaster cuts like stone and the beaverboard cuts like cardboard. This utterly destroys saw blades. So far I have gone through blades for both the circ saw and the recipro saw. I need to find a more effective tool to get this down. The best advice I've seen so far is to get a pipe into the joist bay, and then pull down with might. The leverage should pull everything down in one go.

This is still open to change/discussion though as we may be able to salvage a portion of the ceiling, but I am having a hard time thinking of a non-invasive way to create a transition from drywall to plaster halfway across the ceiling. My great fear is that if I do that, and there is a different expansion coefficient I will end up with a crack across the ceiling where the transition takes place.

Anyhow, we have 2 options here:

Option A - Remove Entire ceiling, install new drywall and potlights. create clean, modern look.
Option B - remove portion of ceiling. Install new potlights. Hide transition with coat of popcorn texture. Add central (boob) light. Put up crown moulding to hide drywall vs plaster edges at walls. Maintain nostalgia of old home.

Strike 2. - Wall covering choices

The walls of this room were covered in paneling, which had been painted. In areas where furniture touched the walls, the paint had lifted and flaked away. Also, someone had caulked the seams between panels to try and hide them. Over time the caulking had moved creating some pretty ugly transitions every 4 feet. The day we took possession, we tore down the paneling to expose the walls beneath. Beneath the panels there are 3 layers of wallpaper before you reach paint, then plaster. Some of the layers of paper actually look really nice - far better than the panels.

Our intent at this point is to remove the paper and see if we are left with serviceable plaster walls. If so, we will have drywall finishers hide the nail holes from the panel nails at the same time they mud/tape the ceiling. If not, we will strip down to stud bays and evaluate for insulation/VB before coming back with drywall. I hope we can just patch nail holes, but I suspect not.

Strike 3 - Windows

The original (1920) casement windows are in the house. Not only do they not seal, they all have evidence of water coming in through the frames. I can only imagine the heat escaping out them. What is strange is that most of the other windows in the house have been replaced. I am not sure why these are still originals. We will be replacing all 4 of them with something better.

Strike 4 - floor roll.

I mentioned that the house was built on barn beams, right? And that it was moved about 6 miles after sitting on dirt for about 40 years? Well those things mean stuff moves. At some point in all this, there has been some settlement in the living room floor between the living room and the central hall. To address this, the PO had a pair of Lolly Columns installed in teh basement, but they set the beam that was brought in on its side so the whole arrangement is basically acting as 2 point loads and not supporting the sagging structure at all.

Our plan is to remove the columns and replace the beam with a wall in the basement. the wall will be built in situ, sized by jacking the sag in the house until the living room floor levels out. This sounds scary, but really isn't. It takes a couple 2X6 lumber plates, a handful of piston jacks, and some basic know-how.

Strike 5 - Carpet from about the time Star Wars was released.

This is the easiest thing to replace and sets the tone for the whole room. It is also the last thing we will be doing. The carpet is pretty dated, but really, its small potatoes compared to some of the other stuff to be done.


« Last Edit: October 18, 2016, 01:21:33 PM by Prospector »

Le Poisson

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Re: The Barnhouse Transformation
« Reply #8 on: October 18, 2016, 01:24:02 PM »
My new hobby is trolling kijiji looking for a kitchen to bring in for the basement apartment. I'm really getting ahead of the program looking, but its so fun to do. People keep telling me you can't put a kitchen in for under $20,000 - yet ads like this tell me that's a lie: http://www.kijiji.ca/v-renovation-cabinet-counter/trenton-on/complete-kitchen-cabinets-sink-and-counter/1208456115

The biggest question is whether I can make up a basement layout that will work with used cabinets. I like to believe I am up to the challenge.

Le Poisson

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Re: The Barnhouse Transformation
« Reply #9 on: October 19, 2016, 05:22:51 AM »
Score!

On the drive home from work yesterday, I spotted an oven sitting at the curb. I stopped and asked the homeowner if it was up for grabs - it was, and it worked, but one of the buttons on the panel had the plastic around it broken. They didn't like that the plastic was like that, so they were throwing it out.

Free is my favourite price. But I was in the hatchback, and a stove wasn't gonna fit in there. I drove home and got the van and dolly, then came back for the stove. Score one free induction cooktop stove. I'll put in the upstairs kitchen until I establish that it actually works, then move it to the basement apartment. Now I need to find a pair of fridges.

paddedhat

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Re: The Barnhouse Transformation
« Reply #10 on: October 19, 2016, 07:09:58 AM »
I would guess that more time and money will be wasted on attempting to patch and refinish the ceiling, than it would take to tear it all out and start again. It's the "trying to put a silk dress on a pig" theory, and it never ends well. Good luck, cool project.

meerkat

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Re: The Barnhouse Transformation
« Reply #11 on: October 19, 2016, 07:51:47 AM »
Posting to follow. I like a good reno.

Frugal Lizard

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Re: The Barnhouse Transformation
« Reply #12 on: October 19, 2016, 09:28:18 AM »
Last time we had a ceiling with some big holes, we just covered over everything with the super thin sheet rock.  We fixed the leaking plumbing, installed a whack of pot lights and covered it up with fresh clean drywall.  Original ceiling was plaster and just hauling away the damaged area and the bits cut out for the re-wiring was heavy enough.   There was a bit of mucking about shimming out to match the depth of the plaster in a few areas, but the nice smooth ceiling was worth the work. 

With This Herring

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Re: The Barnhouse Transformation
« Reply #13 on: October 20, 2016, 08:19:03 AM »
Posting to follow. I like a good reno.
Same!

Le Poisson

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Re: The Barnhouse Transformation
« Reply #14 on: October 20, 2016, 06:37:14 PM »
Last time we had a ceiling with some big holes, we just covered over everything with the super thin sheet rock.  We fixed the leaking plumbing, installed a whack of pot lights and covered it up with fresh clean drywall.  Original ceiling was plaster and just hauling away the damaged area and the bits cut out for the re-wiring was heavy enough.   There was a bit of mucking about shimming out to match the depth of the plaster in a few areas, but the nice smooth ceiling was worth the work.

After another day of tear out, I think this is very close to the path we will take.

I got wainscoting to hide sins on the walls, and tomorrow I'll pick up drywall for the ceiling. I'll try to get some pictures up soon.

Anatidae V

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Re: The Barnhouse Transformation
« Reply #15 on: October 21, 2016, 07:26:16 AM »
Following, this looks like a whole lot of fun!

zolotiyeruki

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Re: The Barnhouse Transformation
« Reply #16 on: October 21, 2016, 09:44:58 AM »
The descriptions are great, but....

Le Poisson

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Re: The Barnhouse Transformation
« Reply #17 on: October 21, 2016, 07:20:47 PM »
The descriptions are great, but....


Right you are Kenny, right you are.

There's a hole in the ceiling, dear Liza, dear Liza...

With This Herring

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Re: The Barnhouse Transformation
« Reply #18 on: October 21, 2016, 09:04:16 PM »
The descriptions are great, but....


Right you are Kenny, right you are.

There's a hole in the ceiling, dear Liza, dear Liza...

Then fix it, dear Henry, dear Henry, dear Henry...

Metric Mouse

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Re: The Barnhouse Transformation
« Reply #19 on: October 21, 2016, 11:11:02 PM »
Posting to follow. Glad this isn't me!

oneday

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Re: The Barnhouse Transformation
« Reply #20 on: October 21, 2016, 11:12:20 PM »

snacky

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Re: The Barnhouse Transformation
« Reply #21 on: October 22, 2016, 12:21:29 AM »
How did I not find this earlier? Shame on me.

Shinplaster

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Re: The Barnhouse Transformation
« Reply #22 on: October 22, 2016, 09:01:50 AM »
That's going to be a great space when it's done.  I like that it has lots of light.  Hint on paint - tape up samples on all walls before committing.  When you have various directions of light shining on walls at the same time, it really messes with the colours.  Our main floor has east, north, and west windows, and everything reads pink.  It took me a while to find a colour other than terra cotta that worked.

human

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Re: The Barnhouse Transformation
« Reply #23 on: October 22, 2016, 09:06:05 AM »
I didn't read anything in the original post because I'm lazy. I went straight to the photos and thought "I like that retro working class cheap look they went for". Then went back and realized you are tearing it all down!

meerkat

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Re: The Barnhouse Transformation
« Reply #24 on: October 22, 2016, 09:20:55 AM »
Hint on paint - tape up samples on all walls before committing.  When you have various directions of light shining on walls at the same time, it really messes with the colours. 

It really does. At one point we were painting our (massive) living room some shade of green so I got four samples and painted a 2'x2' square of each sample on several different walls, then a 1, 2, 3, or 4 next to the appropriate square. If it hadn't been the for number painted right next to it I would have sworn that #2 on the western wall was the exact same paint as #3 on the northern wall, and #2 on the northern wall looked awful. It was trippy even though I knew it had to be correct because I had just painted it earlier that day.

Also trippy if I think about it too much: how upper cabinets stay in place when they're loaded with stuff. Apparently my sense of gravity is stronger than my sense of something being bolted to a wall when it comes to physics.

paddedhat

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Re: The Barnhouse Transformation
« Reply #25 on: October 22, 2016, 09:48:59 AM »
Hint on paint - tape up samples on all walls before committing.  When you have various directions of light shining on walls at the same time, it really messes with the colours. 

It really does. At one point we were painting our (massive) living room some shade of green so I got four samples and painted a 2'x2' square of each sample on several different walls, then a 1, 2, 3, or 4 next to the appropriate square. If it hadn't been the for number painted right next to it I would have sworn that #2 on the western wall was the exact same paint as #3 on the northern wall, and #2 on the northern wall looked awful. It was trippy even though I knew it had to be correct because I had just painted it earlier that day.

Also trippy if I think about it too much: how upper cabinets stay in place when they're loaded with stuff. Apparently my sense of gravity is stronger than my sense of something being bolted to a wall when it comes to physics.

This used to freak me out, and I would screw the cabinets to the wall like I was going to park a truck on top. After taking a few really trashy, flakeboard kitchen apart, it dawned on me.  The boxes are typically quite strong, doesn't matter if they are made of cabinet grade plywood and quality joinery, or a hot glued mess of flakeboard, they are all pretty tough. So, if you assume that the cabinet will generally hold itself together under heavy load, you are then dealing with two potential modes of failure. Fastener withdraw, or fastener shear (which is unlikely).  Withdraw happens when the screws either pull out of the studs, or the heads pull through the cabinet material.  The right screws, driven into enough studs, is the answer. There are special screws with large heads that are made for this application, but I prefer 3-1/2" deck screws with finishing washers, which are cone shaped, and help spread the load. Finally, a quality install involves screwing the face frames of adjoining cabinets together, so they all share the load. If you use a screw, top and bottom, at any available stud, behind the uppers, and install it correctly, your cabinets will be there until you get sick of looking at them, no matter how much heavy crap you pile inside of them. 

Le Poisson

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Re: The Barnhouse Transformation
« Reply #26 on: October 22, 2016, 01:03:20 PM »
Today's lesson...

Barn beams that are solid can hold a lot of weight. Beams that are not are bad news. Time to get threaded rod, some 2x8's, and a bucket of patience. Unplanned beam lamination workshop starts now!
« Last Edit: October 22, 2016, 01:08:13 PM by Prospector »

Mrs. PoP

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Re: The Barnhouse Transformation
« Reply #27 on: October 22, 2016, 01:39:14 PM »
Following, because this is clearly going to be awesome to watch.  What's the estimated timeline?  Or is there any?

Cannot Wait!

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Re: The Barnhouse Transformation
« Reply #28 on: October 22, 2016, 02:37:53 PM »
Hi Prospector!
I saw on another thread the amazing job that you did on your backyard so it gives me confidence that you will turn this place around too!  I'm thrilled that I got to see it in the present state - the listing pictures above don't tell the true story.
Can't wait to see this turn into your ambitious vision!

Allie

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Re: The Barnhouse Transformation
« Reply #29 on: October 22, 2016, 03:17:11 PM »
Looking forward to the transformation.  That picture of the holey beam makes me very glad I wasn't in the room when that was opened up! 

Bracken_Joy

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Re: The Barnhouse Transformation
« Reply #30 on: October 22, 2016, 04:08:05 PM »
Definitely following. We've got to keep you accountable! =P

Le Poisson

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Re: The Barnhouse Transformation
« Reply #31 on: October 22, 2016, 07:12:38 PM »
OK Chicago, I need to know. Who is betting on the barnhouse and who is betting on Prospector?

okits

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Re: The Barnhouse Transformation
« Reply #32 on: October 22, 2016, 10:02:12 PM »
I'm not in Chicago, but I bet on you!  "Ingenuity" and "dogged persistence" come to mind. 

Besides, Momma is thinking about living in Barnhouse in five years.  You gotta make the reno happen!

Le Poisson

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Re: The Barnhouse Transformation
« Reply #33 on: October 23, 2016, 05:54:31 AM »
I need to go back in time by 24 hours and put on goggles and a respirator. Beetle dust coming out of my face holes this morning and it sucks. Runny nose, hacking cough, and scratchy eyes.

Should played safer last night.

arebelspy

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Re: The Barnhouse Transformation
« Reply #34 on: October 23, 2016, 07:08:34 AM »
Why was this never linked in your money thread?  :)

Following!
I am a former teacher who accumulated a bunch of real estate, retired at 29, spent some time traveling the world full time and am now settled with three kids.
If you want to know more about me, this Business Insider profile tells the story pretty well.
I (rarely) blog at AdventuringAlong.com. Check out the Now page to see what I'm up to currently.

Bracken_Joy

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Re: The Barnhouse Transformation
« Reply #35 on: October 23, 2016, 08:11:46 AM »
I need to go back in time by 24 hours and put on goggles and a respirator. Beetle dust coming out of my face holes this morning and it sucks. Runny nose, hacking cough, and scratchy eyes.

Should played safer last night.

Resident nurse to make "tsk tsk" noises at you. To quote my favorite PT: "Make a better choice"

Le Poisson

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Re: The Barnhouse Transformation
« Reply #36 on: October 23, 2016, 10:40:50 AM »
See the shiny part? I just took that much sag outta the floor!

LifeHappens

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Re: The Barnhouse Transformation
« Reply #37 on: October 23, 2016, 11:10:12 AM »
Today's lesson...

Barn beams that are solid can hold a lot of weight. Beams that are not are bad news. Time to get threaded rod, some 2x8's, and a bucket of patience. Unplanned beam lamination workshop starts now!

In the name of the Flying Spaghetti Monster! I hope there are no more surprises of this sort in your future.

Metric Mouse

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Re: The Barnhouse Transformation
« Reply #38 on: October 23, 2016, 05:10:22 PM »
See the shiny part? I just took that much sag outta the floor!

Shiiiiiiittttt.... Good work.

okits

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Re: The Barnhouse Transformation
« Reply #39 on: October 23, 2016, 06:35:32 PM »
See the shiny part? I just took that much sag outta the floor!

I want to be impressed but I don't understand what I should be looking for.  Please explain further?

Bracken_Joy

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Re: The Barnhouse Transformation
« Reply #40 on: October 23, 2016, 06:48:52 PM »
See the shiny part? I just took that much sag outta the floor!

I want to be impressed but I don't understand what I should be looking for.  Please explain further?

I grabbed a random video, so I can't vouch for it's quality, but I think he essentially did this: https://youtu.be/QjEe50LnN8g

Apologies, Prosp, if incorrect.

Metric Mouse

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Re: The Barnhouse Transformation
« Reply #41 on: October 23, 2016, 06:51:45 PM »
See the shiny part? I just took that much sag outta the floor!

I want to be impressed but I don't understand what I should be looking for.  Please explain further?

The shiny silver area of the jack piston (between the red body of the jack and the dark colored screw portion of the jack, towards the left side of the picture) is the distance Prospector had to raise the floor to get it level. Looks like about 6 inches or so.

okits

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Re: The Barnhouse Transformation
« Reply #42 on: October 23, 2016, 07:45:04 PM »
See the shiny part? I just took that much sag outta the floor!

I want to be impressed but I don't understand what I should be looking for.  Please explain further?

The shiny silver area of the jack piston (between the red body of the jack and the dark colored screw portion of the jack, towards the left side of the picture) is the distance Prospector had to raise the floor to get it level. Looks like about 6 inches or so.

Ahhh, thanks!  Yes, that was a saggy floor!  Good work, Prospector!

Bracken_Joy, thank you for the video!

Le Poisson

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Re: The Barnhouse Transformation
« Reply #43 on: October 24, 2016, 05:29:05 AM »
After a long weekend at barnhouse, I am both sore and winded. I got some work done, but not as much as I would have liked, and all my gains in lifting the floor were mostly lost when I framed in the wall. Try as I might, I just couldn't get the framed wall to slide into place, and in the end I cut it down in height in order to wedge it in. It is now most definitely supporting the house though, so at least there will be no new sag. I guess that's a good thing.

I think made a serious mistake in not wearing a mask. Between plaster dust working upstairs, and the wood dust downstairs, I'm really feeling crappy. Still horking up gobs of stuff and my nose is running a black-brown goo. The smell of the dust on my jacket during the drive home had me wretching. I bought a coffee (a rarity for me), and just let it sit in the cup holder to change the smell in the van.

Last night I didn't get out of barnhouse until 01h00, had an hour drive home, and then needed a shower and laundry before bed. Working sucks folks. I don't know why people do it.

Le Poisson

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Re: The Barnhouse Transformation
« Reply #44 on: October 24, 2016, 09:57:55 AM »
I wanted to talk a little about my extended (4 day) stay at Barnhouse. It was a good adventure, but full of hard work. And there were some unexpected outcomes to the time away.

On my first night I arrived later than planned, and installed new locks. Not a lot to report. Arrive, check that all is well, and crash. We had left the trailer behind - loaded with trash - after our last stay so I figured I would start the next day by emptying the trailer, then set to work.

The next day I woke up around 07h00, made breakfast, and then was shocked that it was 09h00 and I was still sitting around. I scrambled to do anything with my time... and so I stripped wallpaper from the living room. Immediately after starting though, I questioned the choice - since I was going to overcoat the walls, the paper could stay. Instead I should look at the header on the stairs where I keep smashing my head and see what I could do about it. I took off the trim, got out my multi tool, and realized it was dull. Well then maybe I could call around to tradespeople to get quotes on other work. Called a plumber, some carpenters, reno guys, etc.

Basically I spent the whole day flitting between jobs and got nothing done. Pretty much a waste of the entire day. If I kept on like this, the whole house would be a wreck, and I would have nothing to show for it. Plus i had bought hundreds of dollars of drywall and supplies that I couldn't install until other jobs were done first.

I needed a plan.

I decided that the next day I would set my goal to at least get the wall between the kitchen and dining room painted. It was a small, achievable target. I primed and painted the wall. It looked a lot better. It took a long time because I had to brush on a lot of the paint around the shelves and window/door frame, but it turned out well. And spending was considerably less.

My Saturday goal was to move around the fixtures in the upstairs powder room. I got teh toilet off, but then realized I didn't have solder or plumbing tools. I remounted the toilet, and changed tasks. It was already 13h00 when I switched to removing the steel "beam" in the basement. That went surprisingly quickly, so I moved on into figuring out what to do with the rotten wood I uncovered beneath it. I was able to excise it, but it was hard, dirty work. Cutting the beam with a sawzall meant opening up tunnels of 100 year old beetle frass (fine sawdust that had been digested by beetles) As I cut through the beam, the dust came down in great clouds that would blind me. It was 9:00 by the time a reportable piece of the beam was out. After that extraction went quickly - by 10:30, the beam was completely removed. I put in temporary supports and went to bed.

For Sunday, I had no choice - I had to get the support wall in before I could go home, and there was work the next morning. I spent the first half of the day jacking the house and buying framing lumber, then put together a rough frame for how the wall would go with an apartment, finally tipping up the wall around 17h00. It didn't fit.

I mean it fit with the house jacked, but no matter how I placed the jack to support the wall above, I couldn't get the wall to slide in. Eventually I cut down the wall I had framed by about an inch, and used a sledge hammer along with the jack to wedge the wall into position and plumb. Lifting a house with a 5 lb sledge and a 8 ton jack is heavy work. I'm happy that the wall is in, but disappointed that I didn't get the amount of lift I wanted. By the time everything was in place, it was 11:00. I still needed to sweep up the frass all over the house, clean up all the part jobs I had done all weekend, do dishes, and pack for home.

I got out around 01h00. Very tired, but alert.

Looking forward, I need to go to the house with a work plan, and get organized (as much as possible before heading up. I can see how contractors are either successful or not depending on planning. Something as simple as not having plumbing tools threw off the whole plan for a day. And I could have bought them, but didn't want to spend on tools I already had.

All good lessons. At least the house is supported now. I can keep going forward from this point on my next visit. 

I need someone to teach me how to replace the topcoat on plaster - any tips out there? Just use hotmud?

Le Poisson

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Re: The Barnhouse Transformation
« Reply #45 on: October 28, 2016, 07:24:45 AM »
X-Post from Lifestyle Journal:

Following my fantastic crappy project management workshop the other day, I put together a workplan for this weekend at barnhouse. Bosslady came by and saw that I was putting together a workplan and talked about how great it was to see the effect of good training. I agreed wholeheartedly then closed the screen before she read further than the title. Because projects like "Bathroom makeover" and "Install living room ceiling" don't look very traffic-y.

I think I have a plan to get shit done this weekend. Yay me. On the upside, putting the plan together meant allotting time and materials and gave me a packing list of tools-n-shit. Plus it gave me a materials list so I can preorder shit for delivery SAT Am, saving me time running into Home Depot/Rona/Lowes (a fast trip is 45 min, a normal trip is over an hour). I haven't put together a risk assessment for the jobs I want to get done though, so things may all fall apart.

I wish I could attribute this planning to the training I went through... but they never covered off things like work plans, risk assessments, or even critical path. Instead we learned how to hug. I was thinking about getting more organized after last weekend. I think this will make things go more smoothly.

Metric Mouse

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Re: The Barnhouse Transformation
« Reply #46 on: October 28, 2016, 11:15:32 PM »
While hugs can be an important part of any project, I love that you used company work time to make a work a plan, and it made you look good. :D

Le Poisson

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Re: The Barnhouse Transformation
« Reply #47 on: October 29, 2016, 07:54:16 AM »
Today it's all about the powder room. Here it is with carpet out, but walls untouched. This is the before status.

( last shot is from the master bedroom looking into the closet. )

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Re: The Barnhouse Transformation
« Reply #48 on: October 29, 2016, 08:24:02 AM »
Wow that looks amazing.

Le Poisson

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Re: The Barnhouse Transformation
« Reply #49 on: October 29, 2016, 09:43:26 AM »
Delay in critical path... drywall and lumber delivery 3 hrs late. Should have done risk analysis on that.

Bathroom tear out completed. Considering how much existing plaster and drywall is really salvageable.

Off schedule by about 30 minutes.

 

Wow, a phone plan for fifteen bucks!