On Walnut Street, we finished installing the floor over the place where the weird Psycho stairs had been. Then we spent some time cleaning out the house, getting rid of junk, and moving some things in that we will need (notably two stoves, refrigerator, kitchen cabinets). All those things will ride along on the move.
Meanwhile, over at Rockhead and Quarry, things are happening as well. The building originally was a 600 sf structure, but in 1927 someone added on a weird back room (our architect friend, Susi Stadler, dubbed it "the blumpf"). It is rotting and kind of a mess, so it would have needed to be rebuilt anyway - but in the plans, we want to maximize the amount of open space, so we decided the blumpf had to go.
In order for the blumpf to go, we had to rebuild the original back wall of the building. Most of it was there, but some of the siding had been removed before wallboard was put up (when the exterior wall became part of the interior of the blumpf). So we bought three lap siding and rebuilt the wall, getting it weatherproof for when the blumpf comes down.
The new back wall at Rockhead and Qurry (trim under window added later)
Meanwhile, on Walnut Street, we finally started removing the old chimney. The beautiful brick chimney had to come down because it can't be moved. So our question was: how do we do it?
Originally, we thought we'd put a ladder up to the roof, climb up and tear it down. But Tom and I are reluctantly realizing that, at our advanced ages, we probably don't bounce as well as we used to. The roof of the Walnut Street house is steep, and we were worried that a 35 foot fall might not be great for ether of us.
We thought about renting scaffolding (expensive), renting a cherry picker (EXPENSIVE!) and kept toying with various ideas. But finally, John Dalzell, a friend who is a roofer, made an interesting suggestion: "you're going to have to patch the hole anyway, right? Why not just cut a bigger hole to climb through?"
Brilliant in its simplicity. So today, we went into the attic with a sawmill, and cut a hole in the roof. Then, while Tom watched for traffic and pedestrians (just in case something slid down the roof the wrong way), I went up on the ladder and, brick by brick, pulled apart the chimney and tossed the bricks into the side yard.
The chimney was unbelievably deteriorated - it was no longer a chimney, but had become just a stack of un-mortared bricks. I quickly realized that the one thing I couldn't do was lean against it - it wouldn't support even part of my weight. So I carefully took each brick in hand, and heaved it over the side of the roof.
Heaving a brick over the side of the roof
It only took about 40 minutes to take the chimney down completely below the level of the roof. Then, covered with mortar and soot, I climbed down, and Tom took over. He climbed up with a tarp, and secured it over the opening.
Next, we hope to go back up, and install plywood over the hole we created, and install a roof hatch (so in the future, the roof can be accessed from inside the house). We'll then re-shingle the hole and the roof will be waterproof again. We also plan to start working on demolishing the bloomph (a job that should be doable in a day - keeping it standing would be harder.)
We also need to go over to the Kenney Cottage and do something to waterproof the front porch. The Kenney Cottage has a large hole in the front porch roof. Mostly, it shouldn't be a problem (since there is no porch floor below it, any water that leaks through should fall harmlessly to the ground), but we need to make sure the roof damage isn't directing the rain up against the main structure. Keeping the Kenney Cottage stabilized is an on-going project, but we are hoping to also move it in 2016. More on that later.
The Kenney Cottage back in May - note light shining through hole in porch roof (graffiti has been removed)
Hopefully, the rains that are due tonight will not penetrate the Walnut Street tarp. At least we're getting rain! I was thinking today that the last winter when California got a lot of rain was the winter we moved the Cheney Cottage. Maybe the Water Districts should pool their funds and pay us to move houses - clearly, we bring El Niño home!
There is nothing like planning a weather dependent project for bringing on the rain. Conversely, whenever I have a day of insidework planned, it is always gorgeous out.
ReplyDelete