Builders Share

Color Wheel

Okay, I'm over the primed vs. tint debacle.  Putting color on the walls, however, is starting to make my head spin.  Part of it is still the strong desire to get this work done so that we can move into the space.  But there's also a kind of madness that can take over when it comes to trying to choose colors for your walls.  Interior designers and color theorists have banked on that madness for years.

Two years ago, when we were just getting ready to move into the downstairs, we went about choosing colors in hopes we could get the rooms painted before move day.  Well we didn't get the rooms painted but we did set on three colors based on a palette provided by a Benjamin Moore brochure.  The only color we were able to get on the wall before moving in was "cream yellow" in the kitchen.

A few days ago I started putting "secret garden" on the wall of the master bedroom.  My first thought was, "What the hell were we thinking?"  The color that I remembered as a soft pastel red was looking decidedly hot pink on the wall. I immediately started to think disaster had struck, I had wasted $70 odd dollars on paint, and I was never going to make the June 1st deadline. (Do I seem a little touchy about this deadline thing?) 

Anyway, Benjamin Moore has a cool website that lets you see how some basic rooms would look in different colors including how washes and tints of one color might look over the base of another color.  I plugged "secret garden" in as a base color and started trying out color washes of various darker reds.  "Navajo red," "copper clay," "smoldering red," "the deadline is looming red," were all worthy options for toning down the hot pink "secret garden."  We decided on "smoldering red" and rushed off to the paint store.

This time, I was going to be smart.  I brought a couple of large scrap pieces of sheet rock upstairs, primed them and then applied a base coat of "secret garden" allowing a couple hours for the primer to dry.

While "secret garden" was heating up on the scrap sheet rock, I got to work painting the boy's room with the third color we had chosen two years ago when our tastes were questionable.  With trepidation I popped open the can of "feather soft."  Whew! A lovely soft, purplish blue peaked out at me.  Somewhere between the color of lilacs and forget-me-nots with a dash of periwinkle and maybe a bit of... How do they come up with these colors?  ...I happily started covering the walls of my son's room.

After finishing the first coat of "feather soft" in Ramon's room, I was ready to experiment with adding a wash of "smoldering red" over the base of "secret garden" that I put on one of the test boards.  The other test board was only primed with white to see what a wash would look like over that.

The results  gave me some hope.  A wash of "smoldering red" over "secret garden" showed  promise even if the names might lead one to think of a forest fire in a nudist colony.  We decided to think about it for a day or two and meanwhile I've put down the base of  "secret garden" on the rest of the walls in the master bedroom.

And now after seeing the master bedroom with one coat of "secret garden" throughout, I'm starting to have second thoughts about my second thoughts.  Maybe  I'm getting used to this hot pink. Maybe it's not so hot pink after all.  It certainly is cheery.  But will I be able to hang onto a bad mood in a room this color?  Will my fellow biker gang members give me a hard time?  Wait, I'm not in a biker gang.  Maybe this could work.  Is this the deadline talking? Can a man be a man in pink room? Maybe if I stock the bookcase with Norman Mailer novels...

handyman

~!@#$%^&

Painting started in earnest just a day or two after I plastered my last wall.  I was hoping to maintain as much of the textured look of the plaster and simply tint it with a color wash but I don't have any experience in that area.  I asked the folks at the paint store and a friend of mine who's been a painter for a long time and they both suggested priming the plaster to insure that any other color added to it would adhere well.

I'm disappointed by how much the primer "homogenized" the surface and I'm kicking myself more than a little for not experimenting with a color wash.  I've already primed the two bedrooms upstairs so the only walls left to experiment are the ones in the hallway. (The bathroom should be primed to prevent mildew from forming on the plaster and to provide a washable surface.)

The error comes from rushing to get it all done.  I just didn't feel like I had time to experiment, having set myself a deadline to move upstairs by June 1st.  Unfortunately, there's no going back from this mistake short of skim coating the walls again which would probably qualify me for institutionalization.

This is really a hard one to swallow, but it's only an aesthetic issue and we're practically sick of using only half of our house.

handyman

Plastered

Sometime last week I plastered my last wall (ever? I don't know).  Applying the veneer plaster was exhausting work and it feels good to know it's done.  The first few walls weren't difficult but after several days of troweling plaster, I thought my arm might fall off. 

The task itself was a mix of fun and stress.  The skill required to spread the plaster evenly and then smooth it out was fun but the need to get through the task before the plaster set up too much was stressful.  Though I got help from my friend Matt one day and my wife mixed plaster a couple of times too, I mixed and applied most of the batches myself which took a fair amount of energy.  All the buckets and tools had to be cleaned constantly to prevent the plaster from setting up on them and taking care of that on top of troweling the walls is something that's best done by two people.  But again, I had to do the work when I was able, not necessarily when I had a helper.

I'm happy with how the job came out.  There were some mistakes along the way where I left more trowel marks in a few places than I hoped, but overall the walls look good.  They have a texture to them and each one is a little different than the other.  As the light goes from morning to afternoon, the character of each wall changes a bit giving each room more character than if I had simply used sheetrock.

handyman

Sandy Bottom

Shortly after moving into Chez Melendy, I noticed that our water pressure was dropping. It was especially noticeable in the washing machine where the cold water just trickled into the basket and the clothes weren't getting properly washed because the lack of pressure had somehow confused the cycles. 

Since I was the one who had done all the plumbing, my first thought was that I had messed something up.  I had left out some crucial aspect of plumbing a house that was the secret of licensed plumbers and now I was going to suffer for it.

It wasn't that bad.

When I checked the little screen at the kitchen sink tap, I noticed there was a fair amount of silt inhibiting the flow and this was even more pronounced at the little filter screen for the washing machine.  I thought, oh, it's probably because I didn't properly flush out the system after having put it together.  But a week or so later, same thing.

Now I was convinced that my well was running dry and the pump was sucking up sand off the bottom. (I'm great at "worst case scenario thinking.")  After calming down some, though, I decided that even if it was the case that the well was running low, it might be better to try installing a whole house filter myself before calling the well company.  Even if a filter didn't solve the problem, it wouldn't be money wasted because the filter would simply improve the quality of whatever water was going to come into the house.

I bought a SmartWater filter from GE figuring that the brand would probably make it easier to find replacement filters going forward.  Unfortunately, the model I chose, didn't come with its companion installation kit.  The local supplier didn't stock the kit, and when I tried to order it from the manufacturer's website, it wasn't available.  This was a little bit of a hassle because it meant that I had to figure out which fittings I would need to complete the task.  If you've ever stood in the plumbing supply isle of your nearby big box home-improvement store, you know of the head-spinning possibilities.

The installation instructions listed the necessary parts, but all in plumbers-speak.  I knew what a 1/2" compression fitting was but I didn't know there were so many different varieties.  Once I finally figured out which fittings were right for the job, I was ready to shut off the water and start cutting the pipes.

One important thing I learned when soldering copper pipes (besides of course being very careful wielding a torch around wood that's over a hundred years old) is that you're best to get all the water out of the pipes before starting.  I've tried to rush the job more than once only to be frustrated by not being able to get the pipes hot enough to melt the solder. When there's even a little water in the pipes, it serves to dissipate the heat and keeps the pipes from getting hot enough.

Once the filter was installed, I had to decide what level of filtering I wanted.  The GE SmartWater system uses a standard size that can accept all kinds of cartridges from very course filtering to very fine.  I decided on one in the middle that claims to reduce sand, soil, silt, sediment, and rust. (I hadn't really thought much before of the difference between sand, soil, and silt.)  Another filter I tried later only claims to reduce, sand, soil, sediment, and rust, thus letting the silt through.  I can't say I noticed the difference between the two other than that the one that reduces silt got clogged quicker than the other.

Both of them work fine, and no longer do I have sand and soil (and sometimes silt) clogging up my spigots and washing machine.  The SmartWater filter also has a little remote blinking light that you can stick on your refrigerator to remind you when it's time to change the filter.

After seeing what gets filtered out my drinking water, I don't think I'll ever go back to non-filtered. I suppose that's one of the plumber's secrets I did find out in the process.

handyman

p.s. Check out the following How-To associated with this post: Soldering Copper Pipes

Central Nervous System

In order to install a new breaker box, I needed to disconnect power from the main coming in off the street. My friend Alex is a licensed electrician so he was able to remove the meter from the side of the house which provides the link to the power company.

Once the link was broken, we were able to install a new main feed from the meter into the basement (the old one was damaged), and then connect that main feed to a main cut-off switch in the panel.  With the wiring complete to the main cut-off, we were ready to re-install the meter and begin sending power to the circuits in the house.

I needed power in the house to keep the project moving along, but it wasn't convenient to complete the wiring at the time I was getting help from Alex.  We had pulled wires for all the downstairs circuits and pulled the necessary feeds for the upstairs circuits, so it was safe to start closing up the walls downstairs.  Alex showed me how to neatly wire the panel and completed wiring for one of the downstairs receptacle circuits up to the first outlet in the line.  Now I had both knowledge and power--a potentially dangerous combination--and was able to send Alex on his way.

Once the drywall work was done on the downstairs, I was able to complete wiring the remaining receptacle, lighting, and smoke alarm circuits.

A word of caution: Even the most experienced electricians are susceptible to potentially life-threatening mistakes.  While we were drilling holes and pulling wires, Alex drilled right into the old main feed that was still providing power to the old panel.  Thankfully the outlet that the drill was plugged into had a Ground Fault Circuit Interrupt so that in the instant the drill contacted the Main, the Interrupt tripped.  How did he happen to drill into the main?  When the Foam-Tech guys sprayed their poly-urethane magic on the foundation walls, they covered the old main.  There was no way of knowing where the main went once it disappeared into the foam. In hindsight, we should have made sure of the main's path before drilling, or even better, the Foam-tech guys should have flagged the path of the main before covering it with foam.

handyman

p.s. The book Complete Wiring (Stanley Complete Projects Made Easy) has been indispensable in helping me through the maze of house wiring.

Planning the Operation

Being the General Contractor for my own renovation project was nerve-wracking at times but also gave me a lot of control over the costs.  As it approached time to start re-wiring the house, I was making calls to various electricians to feel them out on whether they would be willing to let me work alongside them while getting the house wired.

As it turned out, around the time I was getting ready to start wiring, I was acting in a play and met another actor, Alex Cherington, who worked as an electrician to pay the bills.  Alex agreed to help me after visiting the project and realizing that I would be capable as a co-worker.

The first step in rewiring Chez Melendy was making a plan.  I needed to map out all the circuits. This included specifying the locations for all the lighting fixtures, receptacles, and switches, and determining the amperage for each.  Mapping out the receptacles was easy enough but designing the lighting for each room, was more difficult. I realized that in order to do the work myself and in a reasonable amount of time, both in terms of design and installation, I wouldn't be able to get too fancy.  Leaving out the bells and whistles of a 21st century lighting design was not a problem in my mind.  My intent in renovating Chez Melendy was not to create a super-modern home with an historic shell but to create a comfortable living space that was up to code.

Mapping out the circuits took some time, and there were many revisions along the way. (The picture above is not the final plan.)  Alex's experience was indispensable in the planning stage, especially in keeping things within the local code.  And even despite all the planning, when the wiring got under way, there would be some necessary changes on the fly, like moving a switch from one side of a door to another. 

The best planning couldn't prevent a change in use later on. In an earlier post, I mentioned the outlet dedicated for the microwave that somehow ended up in a cabinet behind some wine glasses.  Even with considerable planning there's always the possibility of change.  In that particular case, I had to decide on the placement of the outlet before we had completed a cabinet and appliance design for our kitchen.  As it turned out, we decided to get rid of our microwave altogether.  Our kitchen is small, and given the amount of space a microwave takes up compared to the amount of use it gets, we opted for more cabinet space.  The dedicated circuit is still there if we change our minds and want to go back to using a microwave (and eating food that's rubbery and has cold spots), but for now the wine-glasses take precedence.

When the planning was complete, I could go around the house and place the boxes that would hold the receptacles and light fixtures.  Since I knew that my exterior walls were going to be thicker than the standard 5/8" sheet rock, I used adjustable boxes there.  These have turned out real handy for setting the boxes at the proper depth for mounting the receptacle and face plate.

When the boxes were all placed, we could start pulling wires, first by determining where to drill holes and then by pulling the proper gauge wire from the basement at the point where the new breaker panel would be, through the walls, and to the first outlet or fixture in the circuit.  Once the wire was at the first box, we stapled/secured it in place along its run, working backwards from the outlet/fixture towards the spool lying in the basement.  Once we established that first run, we could then take the spool to the first box in the circuit and feed the wire to the next one, again stapling/securing the wire along its run working back from the new box to towards the spool sitting at the previous.  This method saved us from having to estimate the length of the wire for each run; there was always more to pull from the spool if needed.

More wiring to come...

handyman