Sweating Pipes

This is the story behind adding the water line for the new fridge.

There is all manner of water lines down in the basement.  It's an impressive historical record of water supply lines throughout history, both galvanized and copper pipe.

And there's some interesting stuff, too.

• Shutoff valves in random places (the one the hot line shuts off the kitchen and the master bath, while the cold one only shuts off the kitchen sink!).
• Shutoff valves that are labelled for gas rather than water...
• Random pipe diameters.  A 1-inch line that randomly chokes down to 3/4-inch for no apparent reason.
• Short bits of pipe soldered together to make a longer run.  It's only a 3-foot run, why not one 3-foot piece rather than 6 6-inch pieces with 5 couplings?
• Lines that are capped-off in odd places.  Not near the last branch, but 10 feet after the last branch.

Someday, when we remodel the kitchen and master bath, I'm going to replace all this junk with PEX.

At any rate, I had to tap into an existing copper water line.  Though I'm getting better at sweating the joints, I'm still not good enough.

Well, good enough to get a joint that doesn't leak, but not good enough to get a pretty one.

Or, apparently, to prevent a little excess molten solder from dropping onto my finger.

Lovely isn't it?

Only a few bad words were spoken...

New Fridge

 One of the last appliances from when we bought the house was the fridge.  It's been a little under the weather since day 1.

The ice maker had something caught in it (looked like an old ziplock bag), so it was all jammed up and wouldn't work.  Naturally, the water line for the ice maker was connected to the back of the fridge, but the other end was just dangling down in the basement.  The was no indication that it had been connected to anything.  No shutoff valve with a missing connection.  No capped-off branch line.  Nothing.

The face plate surrounding the crisper drawers would fall off at the slightest touch.

Things at the back of the fridge would freeze solid while things at the front or in the door would be slightly below room temperature.  Regardless of the temperature setting.  It would be especially bad during hot weather.

And the thing would make more noise than a 727 at takeoff.

The hope was that we could live with it until we gutted the kitchen...  We'd been trying to nurse it for as long as possible so we could avoid getting a temporary one, but...  The hot weather over the past month forcing us to throw out a bunch of 3 day old food that had become a science experiment was the straw that broke the camel's back.

Friday night I pulled out the old fridge (see top photo).  Much amusement and muttering resulted from the science experiment that was exposed.  Note - the only thing we're responsible for in that picture is the stray nerf bullet.

SWMBO spent two hours scraping up the crud that had been beneath the old one.  Good thing she was wearing a hazmat suit.  The results are shown in the bottom photo.  Note the shiny new water line that's properly connected down in the basement.  There's a story behind that, too...

At any rate, the new fridge came Saturday morning.  And we don't have to go to the store to buy bags of ice any more...

Spooky

It's an old house.

It makes noises - radiators tic and pop with temperature changes; floors creak and groan with humidity changes.

Weird things happen - light bulbs flicker; the cook top fan turns on when we boil water and the fan switch doesn't turn it off or on (surprise! something that doesn't work! ;-)

But they've always had reasonable explanations.

Until now...

See the little round makeup mirror?  It's one where you can touch the base to turn it on/off or brighten/dim it.

Well...

We had a couple of instances where it's turned on by itself.

Or off by itself.

Not just when no one is around.

One night I was lying in bed reading a book.  SWMBO was in the bathroom.  The light turned on. I got up, touched the base to turn it off, and climbed back into bed.

A minute or so later, the light turned back on again.  I sat up and looked around, wondering if the dog had brushed by it or something.  Normally, she wears her collar so I hear the jingling of her tags.

So I asked SWMBO, "Where's the dog?"

"In here with me," she replied from the bathroom.  "Why?"

"Your mirror light just turned on by itself."

"No way!"

"Way," I said as she walked into the bedroom.  "See?"

"You did that."

"Nope. I've been lying here the whole time."

She walked over, touched the base to turn it off, climbed into bed, and started to read a book.

Five or ten minutes passed.

The light turned back on.

She turned to me and asked, "How did you do that?"

"I didn't," I grinned back.  "Maybe Emerson did."

Her eyes opened wide as I looked toward the light and said, "If you want us to keep restoring the house back to what it should be, you'll quit messing with that light!"

And the light turned off.

It hasn't happened again...

RHA Garden Tour

Last Night the Ramsey Hill Association had a Garden Tour for members.  Ours was one of the featured gardens on the tour.

The Threadleaf Aborvitae was one of the plants that drew the most attention.  Also of some interest was the Canadian Hemlock "Gentsch White" and the detail of its foliage.  Here's a link to a photo album for the garden with lots of before, during and after photos for each step of the journey.  And we're not done yet, so the journey will continue.

We're hearing rumors that our house will be on the RHA's house tour this fall (link to last year's event).

The Stone Wall - Part 2

Every weekend the MN Historical Society has walking tours that start at the James J Hill House and end up going past our house.  Some stop and emphasize the stone wall around the property.  Usually they focus on the unique feature of the top of the wall; the vertical stones.

As the tour guide mentions, it's modeled after walls in parts of Great Britain.  The idea with the vertical stones is that they keep sheep from jumping over the wall.

As far as we know, none of the previous owners kept sheep on the property and we don't have plans to, either...  And the wall wasn't built until the 1920s.

The second photo was taken near Burford in the Cotswolds in England.  The area is known for its sheep.  Though the walls here are dry-stacked, they have a similar vertical stone arrangement on top of the wall.

Still More Landscaping

We're getting close, but we're not quite done yet.

We planted 49 trees and shrubs and 99 perennials over the past two weekends.

About half the shrubs are the pictured globe arborvitae.  We'd planted a different variety last spring and only one survived the winter.  I transplanted the survivor to a different spot in the yard.  The replacements are a different variety that is supposed to be more winter hardy.

The other new shrubs and trees are foundation plantings along either side of the house.

The perennials are scattered in various places to fill-in thin spots.

Perhaps next spring the landscaping will be all done...

Dining Room Chandelier

When we moved in, the dining room wasn't wired for a chandelier.  We thought that the space called out for one, especially with the curved wall at one end.  So with the first set of work we did, we had the room wired for a chandelier.

And we started to look for a chandelier.  To be fair, it wasn't a high priority and we didn't make any special trips.  But when we were out looking for other stuff, we always kept an eye out for possibilities.

We saw a lot of nice ones, but knew that an all crystal one would get lost in the room.  And, much like the sconces, finding the "Goldilocks Zone" was proving to be hard.

Until we stumbled across this one at H&B last fall.  We didn't buy it right away.  We loved it and it was the right size, but were still a little hesitant because we spent two years not really looking for a chandelier.  So the hunt began in earnest.

Nothing else really "wowed" us.

So we bought it knowing it had a couple of problems:

• it had been installed in a room with 9-foot ceilings (ours are 10-foot) so we'd need another foot of chain
• the canopy was missing (the previous owner had saved it to use with her new chandelier!?)

And off we go to John's to get parts.

Now, this chandelier weighs about 85 pounds, so we quickly take pictures and head down there about 30 minutes before closing time.  He's already turned off most of the lights, but cheerfully greets us, patiently listens to our explanation, and looks at the photos on the digital camera.

He smiles, turns around, opens one of the many drawers lining the wall behind the counter, and pulls out a length of chain.  Right color, but too small; this is a beefy chandelier with thick chain.  Again he turns around opens another couple of drawers and pulls out a length of chain that is exactly the right finish, and so close to the original size that most people will never notice.  "So you need about a foot?", he asks as he pulls out a pair of chain pliers and opens up the correct link.  Then he asks, "You'll need the other end opened up too, right?"

He read my mind.  This chain is too thick to open the "Primitive Pete" way without the proper tool.

Then he opens another drawer and pulls out a canopy that's an amazing match.  I was a little concerned that the opening for the collar was too small.  He replied, "If it is, just bring it back and we'll fix it."  He also threw in the mounting strap and threaded rod saying, "If they aren't the right size, we'll get the bigger ones for you."

Then we talk coordinating sconces.  He has the perfect ones, but they're spoken for.  He has an alternative that's beautiful, but might not be the right size.  He lets us take one home to see if it's right.  "Either way," he says, "bring it back tomorrow and we'll rewire it for you or look for other alternatives."

What a guy.

We get everything home and...

The sconces are beautiful, but the arm is too high, so it doesn't really look right; the canopy's collar opening is too small; and the threaded rod isn't the right diameter.

Of course, the old chain is so thick I can't get a link open to send the collar along.  So we load the chandelier in the car and SWMBO goes down there the next day.

John comes out to the car with his chain pliers and opens a link so he can take the collar into the store.  Within 30 seconds, he has the canopy hole opened up to the right size.  Then finds the right diameter threaded rod and cuts it to length.  And grabs the right mounting strap.  So its all ready for me to install; easy as pie.  All I have to do is close the links; no special tool required.

Then he takes back the sconce and says, "You'll never believe it.  The guy who wanted those other sconces was in and has changed his mind.  Do you want them?  We can re-wire them."

We need them in three days.

In all the commotion, the re-wiring guy has stopped working and says, "I can start on them now and have them done tomorrow."

And it happens.

He's a saint.

The Dining Room

I just finished installing the window treatments in the dining room.

It took a little longer than I expected.  This is a hand-built house and while things look symmetrical, they're not.

You can't assume that measurements for one window are the same on another.  Or that the sill is perfectly level.

But everything is done that's going to get done today and the deadline has arrived. It's time to suit up...

The 1980s

Maybe I should title this post "Still More Sconces"...

Thursday night I installed these in the back halls - upstairs and down.  And it being a really old house, sometimes(!)  you run into really old wiring...  (Like I said, it was a busy day.)

We'd found these sconces a long time ago, but there's nothing like a deadline to force things to get done.

Sorry for that long aside.  The point of the post was that the 1980's were a bad time for a lot of things.

Including this house.

If you look closely around the sconce, you can see the old wall color poking through.

Teal.

Yes.

Teal.

Not a subdued Victorian Teal.

A bright 1980s - TEAL!

A smack in the face like a handful of "Hai Karate"...

Now the image of Olivia Newton-John doing Jazzercize in leg warmers and a headband in this hallway is seared into my brain.

Aaaaaagh!

Sconces, Sconces, and More Sconces

We've been hunting high and low for the right sized sconces for the dining room.

Too Tall.  Too Wide.  Too ornate.  Too simple. Too many arms. Arm(s) too high.  Arm(s) too low.  Too much bling.  Not enough bling.

Finding the "Goldilocks Zone" was proving to be really hard.

While at John's getting parts for the chandelier (another story to come) early this week, we asked about sconces that might coordinate.  He replied, "Unfortunately, these are spoken for, but they'd be perfect."

He was right.  They were perfect.

And when we were back the next day for the chandelier parts he said, "The guy who wanted these was just in.  He's changed his mind."

They converted the sconces from candles to electric and we picked them up the next day.

I installed them that night.

Like I said, Thursday was a busy day.