Inside

  A quick business note, I'll address a couple of questions, and then a tour inside the house.
      My ability to notify folks of new posts through the blog site is limited so I'll send out a personal email to notify people who are interested in knowing when a new post is up.  Send me an email at dswett@hotmail.com and I'll put you on the list. 
     An LA friend asked if I had started to jack the house up yet.   Apparently this dude thinks I walk on water.  I've been here less than a month now, have spent a good deal of time getting the garage livable and just getting accustomed to a new setting.   As far as the house goes I want to eradicate the odor in it as much as I can before I get started so I know how far to go taking things apart.  I'll clean the lime out of the house I spread there in August for odor control, get the stove hooked up so I can work comfortably inside, and take the mahogany plywood underlayment that is saturated with cat smell out of the house.  Then the stump has to come out, the garden dug, both porches removed probably before I can think about raising the house.  Not to mention spending a good deal of time casing the joint trying to ascertain the best way to go about things and just what needs doing.  But the real point here is that I'm going to try and be as transparent as possible in the blog about my proceedings with the house.  The objective of SWETT LOdGe is to inform as many people as are interested about goings on with the house.  Anything as important as jacking the house up will definitely be covered here.  I may not go into things in chronological detail but I will attempt to get the major features in along the way.  I just got all the glass whole in the house, have one more room of windows to scrape and clean, and will then replace rotten hardware on some windows - but all this I will save for another entry.  Today we'll look at the inside of the house.
      Another friend asked how I know what to do - where to start.   At this point in my life it just kind of comes out of me.  When I was 14 I helped renovate a house to be used as a youth rec center which mysteriously burned down weeks later.  In my late teens I moved to western Wisconsin and began slinging a hammer to help friends with their places and to earn money.  The hippie house I lived in at Otter Creek was about the same vintage as the home I have here and weather proofing is a much more important practice in the midwest.  I became pretty good at it.  A friend was installing wood stoves for a living and drafted me to help.  We went on to build additions, homes, & outbuildings, besides building chimneys and installing stoves.  I learned plumbing and wiring during that time through necessity and interest - I had built my own home doing much of the work myself.    While my kids were young building was my bread and butter.   I got the opportunity to take a break from manual labor and swerved into fine art for a number of years which honed my capability with materials.  My granddad was a civil engineer.  I've always had a pronounced understanding of material and spatial relationships. I look at the old place and can see what needs to be done to make it right.  Though I've never jacked a house up I can see how and where to do it.  What needs to be done first is pretty clear to me - that stump has to go! - and though the path may change as I go along I'm confident of good outcome.   Certainly mistakes will be made but overall I expect an adventure with a nice home at the end of the line.   I hope I can share some of what I've learned and will learn as we go.  Let's get on with the tour.
      We'll go in through the back porch since that's where the tour of the garage left us.  Out the garage and up the east back porch steps  we go - there are steps north off the back porch too. 

 

 It's a sunny afternoon so light is coming in the west back porch windows.  We can see the laundry tub under the kitchen sink window and the back door to the left.

 To the right is the backyard through the back porch windows.  Kate's truck and a fine wood grain vinyl garage roof in view.

The back porch north door which is still boarded shut.  When I first saw the place this door was open allowing anyone who desired entry into the house.  MLK park visible through the west porch window.

   Looking back through the open east porch door the garage walking entry door is clearly visible.

 Same view a little wider with the porch door shut.

 This came with the house hanging between the kitchen door and window on the back porch with little screened vents above and below.  I haven't an appreciation for the sport so the racket is now available at St. Vinnie's.

 Pie safe vents clearly visible here.

A clear view of the back door with it's 'light' - the glass pane in it.

 Ceiling and floor of the porch looking back toward the garage.  These are in OK condition but will most likely come out soon.  Wherever I tear out these sorts of things I will salvage for future use on other parts of the house - particularly siding.

   I tore some nasty orange cat piss soaked indoor outdoor carpet and ancient linoleum off the back porch prior to a dump run last week.  Yay! - more stench gone.  I replaced with pieces of a carpet castoff by Kate's daughter Ruth.  It was in her basement and a bit damp.  After some time outside it beats hands down what was here before.
    Through the back door through the kitchen to the front door.

The west wall of the kitchen with it's double cracked pained (sp?) window.

 The 'view' through that window.  All the windows were scummy and oversprayed.  I've made it a priority to clean and replace panes where necessary - I think it's encouraging to see outside through windows in a house.  It  makes me feel much better about the place anyway and then light comes in when it can.

 Keep turning right to the northwest corner of the house.  Relationship of back door to kitchen west window clear here.  I think the fridge used to sit in this corner.  When I hosed the house down all the water ran to this corner and down into the crawl space.  There'll be some renovating done here.

When one enters the house through the front door it is all down hill from there.  It will be difficult to see graphically the amount of sagging the house has done until I get into the crawl space and/or peel some siding off the house to reveal the damage but from the front door - the highest spot - to the lowest spot in the house is a run off of inches.  Maybe as many as ten.  Won't know how extensive the rot is 'til I get there.   Continue the turn.  Pie safe center, back door left, and kitchen sink & window right.

 Inside the pie safe from below.  Shelves are slotted and drilled so air can flow through upper and lower vents to cool baked items but keep them out of curiosity's and/or harm's reach.

 Kitchen sink center.  2/12 yellow romex  wire providing power to the garage and house clearly visible going through kitchen window to  back porch.

    Further round the east kitchen wall with it's cupboards.  I took five gallons of cat shit out of the lower right one - that's why there is odor killing lime everywhere.

 The range used to sit where I've staged these windows for replacing the glass that needs it in the house.

  Two more clicks bring us full circle in the kitchen.

   Yellow romex again.  These panes are now replaced with whole glass,  cleaned, and protected with curtains.   Kitchen ceiling doesn't look too bad and the lime covered kitchen floor.

  Ceiling in the main living area OK.  This light fixture is the only one in the house that doesn't work.

Step from the kitchen into the main living area.  Looking back toward the kitchen.

  We'll turn right again.   The north east corner of the living area with kitchen drawers removed for cleaning, bathroom sink, bedroom door, wood stove from Kate with chimney's flue entrance visible toward the ceiling.  I think they used an oil burner here.

 Keep turning right catching the door to the hall and through to the middle bedroom.

  Seeing the east front living room wall and then the front wall with front door and boarded over window.

 The west living area wall.  This window was cracked and is now replaced with a beveled plate glass piece I got for three bucks at Bring recycling.

  Its view.  That's the bright pink electrical permit in the window that I'm required to publicly display.

  View out the two west wall doublehungs toward MLK park.  Treated with paint remover, scraped, and cleaned.

 Two more clicks brings us full circle in the living area.

 Front living area ceiling and living area floor.  More lime.

 We'll head into the hall.

 Look right or south into the front bedroom.

   Closer....  The floor here hasn't been linoleumed so the original fir flooring is evident under the ever present lime.

  The south front wall.

And the view through it's window.

  The east front bedroom wall.  This window still needs scraping, cleaning, and rehardwaring.  There's been a screen on this window and just today I noticed there was cat shit on that window sill so I removed the screen and scraped the cat shit off the sill.  Interesting way of life.

View out that window.

  Front bedroom north east corner showing the closet.

 The whole north wall.

 Ceiling OK here too - a nice lilac color.

  Back down the hall toward the bathroom and the ceiling here isn't too bad.  We can see the attic entrance above the bathroom door.

  Floor needs to be rid of the 1/4 inch plywood underlayment here.

 Then right into the middle bedroom.

  The northeast corner and east window in the middle bedroom with that window's view.

We'll click around to our right.

The closet in the southwest corner of the room.

  Back out the door toward the living area.

 And on around to complete our look at the middle bedroom.  A little ceiling accent has remained.

  Give the floor and the ceiling a quick look as we depart.  No linoleum here either.  I think I'll salvage the flooring here to repair other spots in the house and put underlayment and carpet in this room.

 Into the hall to the right toward the bathroom.  That throne has quite a presence.

Enter the bath.  Note the vintage medicine cabinet to the left.

 We'll kind of sneak in and click right looking down then up.

 Right some more reveals the clawfoot tub and hot water heater with scuzzy east bath window on the east wall.

 Not much to see out this window but it's filth is undeniable here.

 Click right to see built ins on the bath south wall that won't last long. The 1x4 planks from the tall cabinet doors toward the wall are holding the garage roof linoleum down already.

 Right again look down then up.  Bathroom door just to the right of both these pix.

 The colorful squiggles on the wall are from the glue that was holding the white pressboard wainscoting in place that I tore out and used to repair garage roof and ceiling.  I used a piece of it to board up the front window while it was broken too.  Cheap stuff poorly applied warping and falling off when I found it.  This photo does have a certain abstract quality to it though.
   Ceiling checks out OK here too on the way out - everything looks a bit warmer in the incandescent glow.  The blue medicine cabinet is at the bottom of this photo.  The bathroom floor is a wreck - you can take my word for it.  Covered in the not too distant past with plywood and linoleum it is mostly rotten again.

And that completes the tour of the interior of the house.
    I went on a bit about the electrical setup in the last post.  The amazing thing about the two 14 gauge wires that supply all the lights and outlets in the house is that a blow dryer and a toaster running at the same time would probably be enough to flip the breaker or blow a fuse.   'Course in '24 lights and a radio were about all there was that required electricity - unlike today's high demand electric homes.  Anyway the place looks a lot more inviting at night with lights on even if it is raining (that is not snow!).

 I'll go into more detail about glass next time.    Peace      d