The Next Upgrade Starts Tomorrow: Roof 2.0

Tomorrow the folks from Scott Roofing will come to begin a few projects:
--replace the tar-and-gravel flat roof with both improved insulation and a white rubber-type covering that will reflect heat
--fix the small roof overhang above the front door
--fix the mess that is the busted wooden gutter
--check out the roof over the bay window
We're very excited to finalize the roof work on 83 Durant.

The old switcheroo

We bought these awesome switchplate covers while we were in New Hampshire a few weekends ago, and we just got around to installing them today. Both are in the kitchen.




You can find these yourself direct from the creator, Tin Can Sally: http://www.tincansally.com/

We did some yard work today, and of course, Carter was just as helpful as ever:

Fence Painting: Check

Check out our forsythia! It's really pretty exciting to discover all the lovely flowers and things blooming. We find something new every day! Normally, that's a scary thing, but with the garden, it's actually quite nice.

I finished painting the fence today. So in addition to three hours yesterday (doing the outside) I spent another 6 hours today, doing the inside and between all the boards. That's a lot of time to paint a fence. Admittedly, that includes a bike ride to the hardware store today to get a second gallon of paint. The whole job took about a gallon and a half. Here are some shots of the work. Notice the rose bushes blocking some of the fence. My arms are all kinds of torn up from the thorns. Ow!





So now the fence is looking lovely and I have a necessary job crossed off the list (I like crossing things off the list). Next outdoor task: the deck. It needs a new coat of weather-proofing, and before that, it needs a good washing. But that will have to wait until another weekend. These chores just don't stop. SIgh.


Jake was also doing some outdoor work, attempting to finish moving the dirt to the necessary places in the back yard. Unfortunately, our well-wrapped pile of dirt was so well-wrapped (and yet not quite well enough wrapped) that it was in fact a pile of mud. Since the mud was too muddy, Jake took on some demolition instead. There was this weird fenced-in area on the right side (kitchen side) of the house; we believe it was sort of a dog kennel/cage for the previous owner's dog. We have no need for such a thing, and it's really a bit of an eyesore, as you can see here:

And here, the new and improved situation:



These are the beautiful tiny blue flowers that have popped up all over our back yard. I don't know what they are, but I like them.

Painting the Fence

We have a white picket fence. Laugh all you want, but that's what was here when we bought the place, and we really don't need to try to find a better solution to this. Of course, the fence wasn't exactly white. I'd describe the color as "weathered." There was also this old sign attached to it (it was an old no parking sign) that had been painted over.


Ever since we got the outside of the house painted, this fence has looked especially bad. Today the weather was lovely enough to do some painting. Jake made a quick trip to our friends at Ace hardware down the street, and I got busy. Three hours later, I've finished one side of the fence. It's a long, tedious job. And sadly, though all the neighborhood kids were out and about on their bikes, and kept stopping by to talk and see Carter, they did not fall for the Tom Sawyer fence painting trick.



Carter was quite useless, as seen here:

Earth Day at 83 Durant

It is a beautiful day here at 83 Durant. It's also Earth Day. Today we had a fun family adventure. Yesterday, Jake rigged up Carter's kennel so it fits on the bike trailer. Today, we got Carter into the kennel, and pedaled into town. We got lots of gleeful pointing and cheering. It was pretty fun. We were heading into town to pick up our New England Rain Barrel, which we ordered through the city (they got a special state grant to get discounted ones). The folks at the rain barrel distribution were very amused to see us, and wanted to know how we planned to get the rain barrel home. We came prepared, with bungees and ropes and whatnot, and here's the result.

We made quite the scene riding through town. We got some other great stuff at Earth Day, including a rain gauge and a fancy sprayer head for the garden hose. And we felt very virtuous doing it all on the bike.

Skeleton Key: Don't Try This at Home

So here at 83 Durant, we like exploring the sometimes kooky, sometimes curious artefacts that make up a pre-1900 house. We're rather fond of the old doorknobs and locking mechanisms. Jake bought a couple of little brass skeleton keys to see if we could make the locks on the bedrooms work. [Do they sell two packs of skeleton keys for $1.29 in the checkout aisle of your hardware store? It may just be a New England thing.] And it worked! If by worked you meant turned in the lock, causing the locky thing to poke out, and then permanently stay in that position, as depicted here:



THANKFULLY, we tried this out with the door open, so no one was locked in or out. If we had in fact done this with the bedroom door closed and us on the inside, we would have been trapped, and, get this, there isn't even a phone in that room. I seriously have no idea what we would have done.

This has been the state of affairs for about a week. I used the WD-40, and tried very hard to make it move. So hard, in fat, that I broke the little brass key. Awesome.



Today, Jake was in the basement and took a look at that old pile of door hardware. He figured out how the mechanism worked, and then decided to take the lock on the bedroom door apart.

Here's the insides:


That little white piece in the middle is clearly a piece of a coat hanger. Obviously, someone has done a home fix-it job on this before. Jake fixed it right up, put it back together, and now it's working better than ever!



Since he's now a master locksmith, he also took apart the mechanism on the spare bedroom door and got that one up and running (it hasn't worked since we moved in). [That one also had a coat hanger spring which was out of whack]. And then he went and fixed the closet door, too! In fact, as I am typing this, he is walking through the house, checking every single door and doorknob. He's like a super-hero. Old Lock Man. Or something like that. With his trusty screwdriver and needlenose pliers, he saves the nation from troubled doorknobs.

Thank goodness we live on the Hill

Lowell is flooding. Pretty seriously. The University closed for the day, streets all over town are impassable, and people are being evacuated from several areas of the city. This is a repeat of last May, when the city had a 70-year flood. According to the Lowell Sun, this morning the Merrimack was at nearly 57 feet, which is just a foot shy of the peak during last year's flood. And the river's still rising. We're going to walk into town in a little while to check things out.

This is a picture from last May's flood. Those metal bars are the railings on a walkway that was completely covered. There are apartments that were flooded in the old mill building. I'm sure they're flooded again, sadly.



Thankfully, no water in our basement so far.

_______________________________________________
Update a few hours later:

We're back from exploring the city. There's a lot of water out there.

Here's today's image from roughly the same spot as last year's flood:



We should get a photo of the spot without the flooding, but that's the river walk down there; if you've visited us here in Lowell, we've probably taken you for a walk right through this spot.

Here's another spot on the riverwalk:


There was also some excitement for Carter.


He actually waded out there, chest-deep into the water to say hello to the ducks. Actually, we're not sure if he wanted to eat the ducks or just meet the ducks. We kept a tight hold on his leash the whole time.

This picture shows one of the reasons I love living in an old city (even if it does flood).


A bridge built today would never have such details. Lowell is called "The Flowering City" (I'm not sure who came up with this promotion or when, but I like it) and this is just one of the lovely details.

No News is Good News

Not much new to report from 83 Durant. We've been busy with non-83-Durant work, sadly. We did get an estimate on replacing the back flat roof with a white rubber roof, which offers both improved durability and energy efficiency. They will also take care of the front door overhang and the rotten soffit/fascia boards (the ones that are invitations to every critter in the world to come live in our house). We'll probably be getting this job underway in the next month or so. We also got an estimate on getting drywall installed in the spare bedroom. Jake and I are going to do the demolition ourselves, which will include ripping out the horse-hair plaster and lathes, and then installing new insulation. We'll get the professionals to install drywall. This project will probaby wait until after school is over. Should be good and messy, but also exciting to see what's behind those walls!

It's pouring rain in Lowell, so we're glad we made a quick window-well cover yesterday. I bought a big piece of plexiglass yesterday. We'll eventually reinforce it with a wood frame (I think) and we still have to do some brickwork around the well, but for now, it's keeping the rain out quite nicely!

Tom Sawyer with Topsoil

We've had an amazing day. It was beautiful outside, a perfect opportunity to start some yard work. We went to the local garden center and found out that they could deliver a cubic yard of dirt TODAY. We thought that would be perfect for the hole situation in the back yard, as portrayed here:

Last fall, I partly filled in the holes with leaves, but it kinda made the holes into tiger-trap like pits, covered in a deceptive layer of leaves, leading to a few twisted ankles.

We prepared the way by making a tarp-based delivery chute covering the steps that lead from the driveway (where the truck would be dumping our dirt) to the backyard (where we needed the dirt).

We bought a new wheelbarrow for the job. We own a wheelbarrow. We're officially grown-ups.

And here's our giant pile of dirt


While we were waiting for the delivery, a couple of the boys across the street (5th-grader Junior and his brother, 3rd grader Demetri) came over because they were having trouble with their bikes. Jake helped them out and got both bikes going again. The kids were very happy, and suddenly wanted to join in the dirt shoveling. Shortly after, another boy, 7-year-old "Tiny" stopped by to see what was going on. He actually ran home, got himself a shovel, and joined the madness. His 10-year-old brother, Isaiah, showed up shortly thereafter, followed by 13-year old Ariana (Junior & Demetri's sister) and 12-year old Deanna. They demanded tools, and joined in shoveling and hauling and pounding and shoveling and hauling and dumping and arranging the dirt. It was insane.




We kept telling them to go have fun and ride their bikes, but they just wanted to shovel the dirt (and play with the dog, and roll around in the dirt, and throw the dirt, and play with the wheelbarrow and generally run around in our yard).





To be honest, I have no idea how we would have accomplished this job without them. I know there were some serious labor law violations here, but man, those kids were amazing! They stayed around for THREE HOURS helping. We actually had to send them home finally. We did give them lemonade and cheez-its, but that's an insanely low hourly wage. The thing is, there is no way these kids would have done this if their parents told them to. [In fact, Jake has talked to Junior before, when he wandered over here after his mom gave him a chore to do and he didn't feel like doing it.] But once they saw other kids shoveling dirt, they thought it was the coolest thing. We even tried to talk them out of it, but they were totally into it. I've never seen anything like it.