Still Scrapping the Wall

I took more time off last week to work on the house.  I spent Wednesday and Thursday scrapping paint off the wall.  My goal was to finish scrapping all the paint I could reach before I needed to climb on the roof to remove the rest and I almost made it.  This is the wall were the electrical wires are attached to the house and it took longer than expected because I needed to be aware where the lines and the hook up was at all times. My father is a retired electrician and I asked him how I needed to keep safe while working around the wires.  He told me the bare twisted wire was the ground and I could touch that connection to the house but the other two black wires were not to be touched.  He told me not to wrap my body around the wires while scrapping.  It is not easy trying to use a heat gun and scrapers to remove the paint and work around those wires so it took a little longer. 

Friday I decide to take a chance that it would not rain and started staining the deck.  I only got the deck floor and stair treads done before the sky turned very dark.  I have been trying to make up my mind about staining the whole deck with the color "Dragon's Breath" and I finely decided that I am not going to do.  I will be painting the hand railing, stair riser, stringer and rim joints with the "Tarrytown Green" and the balusters will be painted "Brookline beige" (the color of the clapboards).

The deck would have been too dark if stained in one color and using a three colors combination on it will make a nice contrast.

Rewriting and Basement Update

The electrician finished looking over the wiring and fixed problem areas. He wired my bathroom exhaust fan, removed the 220 electric stove's outlet and replaced it with a 110 outlet by the stove. He added an outlet by the microwave, so I no longer have it on an extension. I asked him to replace the 2 plug outlets on both ends of the kitchen to 4 plug outlets. I could never get the back porch light to work; now it works. Last Christmas a received new fixture for the porch from my Dad and it looks great. Last thing I requested was an outside outlet near my gas grill so I would no longer have to run an extension through the porch window to run the rotisserie.


He never did find what was causing my TV screen to go black but the TV worked normal this weekend. My father, who is a retired electrician, said he may have tightened a connection when checking the house wiring and that may have corrected it. When I talked to him last Wednesday, I mentioned that I noticed condensation on the electrical pipe bring the outside line to the fuse box. When he opened it up, he found that there was no insulation place up the pipe. The warm house air was traveling up the pipe meeting the cold outside air causing the condensation. He remarked that in some cases the water drips back on to the circuit breakers. I had fiber glass lying around the basement from all the work I am doing and he used it to insulate the pipe.

I finished insulating the 7½ inch space between the sill and first floor in the unfinished basement section. Replacing the fiber glass with the foam board and spraying foam over the sill has cut down the heat loss in the basement. While working down in the basement I took sometime to clean out the dryer’s exhaust vent. I was reading that if your clothes are taking longer to dry than normal your vent may be clogged. I pulled the hose at the dryer’s connection on Saturday and it looked good. So I put it back together and assumed it was ok. But for some reason on Sunday, I went outside and lifted the vent cover and found lint completely covering the wire screening. This time I pulled the hose apart on both ends clean and vacuum everything. I will not be using the dryer until later this week so I will not know if this corrects the problems.

The weather been in the 30s and 40s since Saturday and so the thaw has begun. The repaired basement walls are holding up fairly well but I found some minor leaks. I applied more hydraulic cement over those areas and maybe I can start to paint the walls with waterproof paint next weekend.

Rewiring

I have been waiting six months for this. He called yesterday and said he was free for a few days. I called right back and he is in my house now!!! I can get the bathroom fan wired in finally; it was installed by me last October. He is trying to finger out why I have been having voltage drops in the house. My TV picture would just blackout for no reason and I would have to turn it off and on before the picture would come back. I tell you later, when I learn more.

Gardening will be ending soon.

Last Saturdays was the first of three nights where we had frost. The weatherman was warning us all week that we would be getting frost on October 2, so I took the time in the morning hours to start tearing down my garden. This allows the dew to dry before I starting working on the house. Friday was the big push to get as much done as possible. I picked all 13 tomato vines and removing them all by 7:00 PM that evening. The one remaining cucumber vine and zucchini plant were removed. Five of six eggplants were picked; the remaining one was covered. I left all the green pepper plant in the ground, they were also covered. I had been so busy that I just left the coverings in place until I got home from work Thursday evening. I now have about 50 lbs of tomatoes sitting on a table in the basement.


I just finished cleaning up the area on my first day of vacation because I hired an electrician to update the wiring. He will be putting 220 in the house and fixing the back porch light which has never worked since I owned the place. I also need more outlets in the kitchen. He will also be adding an outdoor outlet near the grill so I will no long need to run an extension cord out the window to use the rotisserie. Here is a before picture of the area. It is bit embarrassing to show this mess.


I moved the mess into my craft room until the electrician and I are done working in the area. I did do some sorting while I moved it and now have a growing pile for the Salvation Army. The east and the unfinished section along the south wall will be water proofed and repainted this winter. When I finish working on the wall I brought shelving to put some order to it.

This weekend I will pull the sweet pepper plants. Emptying and putting all hanging baskets into storage. Washing all the windows and replacing the screens with the storm window. The weather this Saturday will be in the upper 70's and they are forecasting 80 on Sunday but it will not last long. So it is time to winterize the place.