It has been a while since I lasted put out a Post.

Well, what have I been doing these last two months? Beside the holiday stuff, I cut in a bathroom fan before the first snow fall and I am still waiting for the electrician to wire it in. I raked the roof four times between December 8 to December 28 because I was worried about ice dams forming from all the snow on it. We had a thaw on December 30 to 31 and the roof was fine but the gutter downspout near back porch froze solid and water was running on the outside so I spend 2-3 hours with a heat gun defrosting the downspout the day before the thaw.

I finely put back the shoe base molding; it was pulled off over 6 six years ago when I was refinishing the wood floors. Before I could lay the molding down, I filled the larger gaps between the floor and baseboard with foam insulation. Allowed the foam to dry, cut off the excess then applied a bead of caulk before nailing the molding it place. This has cut down on cold air drafts and made the house feel warmer.

I also finished a project I started last winter. Last winter I was working on the storm/screen door to the three season porch. I finished stripping, painting, and hanging the door last March but never got around to painting the storm window for it. I finished painting it in October and replaced the screen with the freshly painted storm window.

These last two weeks, I have been back in the basement working on another unfinished project waterproofing the basement. I started working on this last winter and wrote about it in "Moisture and Water Problems, Part 1 -3". I finished cleaning the exposed south basement wall and 3/4 of the east wall. I cleaned the areas with wire brushes attached to an electric drill. I put off a lot of loose cement. Here are some pictures of the cleaned walls.


Last Saturday, it took 6½ 10-lb buckets of hydraulic cement to fill all the holes in the prepared walls. Next I plan to buy 2" sheet of foam board insulation and cut it to size fill in between the studs above the fountain to the basement ceiling. I was using the spray foam but that been to messy, the foam would fall in on itself and on the floor. Using the solid foam board and filling in the cracks between the board and studs should work out better.

That is what I been doing on the house these last two months. I will try to be more current on my posting this year.