118 Henry Street

During the blog hiatus between 2004 and August 2006, we weren’t exactly idle. One of the projects conceived, executed, and completed in January/February 2006 was building out a closet in the west bedroom. The original space was more of an attic storage area than a closet. All that separated the conditioned space of the bedroom from the unconditioned space of the attic was the closet door.

In fact, the goals of the project were, primarily, to stop heat loss thru the attic. Secondarily, create a “real” closet.

The start of framing

Looking into the original space, you can see the roof decking and the waste vent pipe. Virtually no stopping heat from leaving the room and exiting the attic vents.

Another view of framing

Thermal barrier…thanks Deborah and Mike

For the final finish, we matched the look of the downstairs bathroom closet, beadboard for the walls and simple moldings. We still needed access to the attic, so we built an insulated access panel.

First coat of primer

Detail in progress

Completed and in use

Detail of completed

The hanger pole is the same piece of iron pipe used as a hanger pole in the original attic space. We bought antique yellow pine for the floor. Still needed to stain it to match the rest of the room. The access panel turned out pretty well.

Access panel and finished floor

Too much going on with the roof project to write much but here are some photos from the�first half of our odessy.

WARNING: some of these images are not suitable for viewing by owners of modern houses. Only folks acquainted with the..ahem..joys of old house ownership may be able to withstand the visual impacts.

First day of demolition, looking out the east bedroom dormer

Ben, my son, helping with the demo

Along with Ben, Eric, my nephew-in-law, has been a tremendous help. Without them, we could not have even envisaged this project.

Roof deck below east bedroom dormer

The hole in the roof decking indicated by the arrow has the following view of the attic:

Rain bucket in attic since 2003

Roof deck removed, rafters exposed

Aforementioned bucket, moldy insulation and 2×4 rafters..oh joy

All of the cellulose insulation is now gone, to be soon replaced with new (non-moldy) fiberglass..thanks Deborah and Mike!

The following is a series of pictures concerning the kitchen and roof over the kitchen. First, the second biggest roof leak we had:

Kitchen roof leak not getting any smaller since 1921

Roof deck above kitchen

The slope break in the roof deck is directly over the leak. Difficult to see but most of this flat decking is rotted with water damage.

Big kitchen leak to the right of the chimney

Finally, with all the decking, insulation, and rotted wood removed, we have created….

A kitchen skylight…sorta…

During the rain last week, Eric and I tried to make the most of it. We removed all the shingles from the carport and prepared it for new metal roofing. When done, it will match what we are putting on the house.

Working while we can

Last Friday, the end of the 3 day rain spell, was definitely a low point for us. We had a huge hole in our roof and the rain just kept getting stronger. Finally, things got so soaked that the progress-o-meter began turning backward and forward progress was being negated by damage to�all the work we’ve done in the kitchen annex.

Kitchen annex leak

We will have to redo the ceiling drywall…sigh…

The last weekend brought back the sunshine and we were able to get back to work. The culmination on Sunday was the actual start of construction. Viola, says Ben.

First of the new rafters

Closeup of the first new rafters

The highlight of the weekend was Sunday lunch. Carole cooked Cuban soul food: roast pork, collard greens, rice’n'beans, and mac’n'cheese.

Cuban soul food makes a family smile

Carole joined DeShawn and I in Chester to bring in the new year. I’m mostly an old bear about staying up too late, especially during the colder months. But, with some gentle persuasion from Carole, I actually stayed awake until midnight on December 31; the first time in a couple of decades. There’s a lot of hope in our non-nuclear family that 2004 will be a very good year all around. If the year’s start was any indication, that hope is well founded.

The restoration theme for the holidays immediately past was definitely "electrical", set in a couple of old house attics. Working on Carole’s electrical issues over Christmas got all my tools and focus directed towards some of the unfinished electrical work needing to be done upstairs at 118 Henry Street. Last August, we had some electricians re-wire the upstairs, effectively removing the need for the old knob and tube circuits on the second floor.

As I mentioned after they were done, I was truly ambivalent about their work. They provided me with a practicum with which could be applied all the book education that I’d acquired about electrical work. The less positive aspect of this practicum was that almost all of their work had to be redone (by yours truly) to meet building code. As of August, I had cleaned up approximately 2/3′s of the work they had done. The remaining part was the lighting circuits for the bedrooms and bathroom that were fed from the attic.

In fairness to them, the attic wiring was not a safety hazard like the crossed circuit they left me with. But, with wires running willy-nilly, diagonally across the ceiling joists with no anchoring or protection, it was very disorganized and difficult to do any other work in the attic without stepping on wires. The finishing touch was that they forgot to wire one outlet when running the outlet circuit and, at the very end of their stay, had to wire it to the lighting circuit.

So, New Year’s day and January 2nd was spent in the attic organizing and mediating the tangled mess. About 6 hours on the 1st and 4 hours on the 2nd got the outlet issue resolved and most of the spiderweb of number 12 wire taken care of. I learned quite a bit working in Carole’s house and made good progress overall. Even put in a porcelain light fixture for future journeys to the attic!

Saturday, DeShawn and I spent most of the day outside. The weather was gorgeous with temps in the 70′s. The Carolina’s almost always have a January thaw week when the cold is broken for a bit with warm air from the Gulf of Mexico. This year, it came very early and well timed for the holidays. I experienced this phenomenon during my very first winter in North Carolina. In the last week of January, 1989, I was bouldering in shorts and a tee-shirt, perspiring in the 78 degree sun.

While DeShawn rode his new bike, dug holes in the yard, chased the cat and generally enjoyed the spring atmosphere, I blew and raked the last of the leaves from the yard. This was the third round of leaf maintenance so far this winter. The big pin oak (that’s willow oak to you folks north of the Mason-Dixon line) nearest the house finally gave up the last of its foliage. Total amount of leaves this year was relatively high, probably because of the abundant rainfall in 2003. Based on past years, the bets are on my having moved about 5000 gallons of leaves, mostly pin oak.

Hope you all had a good holiday and wish you a needle pegged to the right on the Progess-o-meter for 2004!