New York Renovator

Remember the old days when companies in the United States wanted to build things bigger and better? Ever upward! Remember? EVERYTHING was “new” and “improved”!

American companies built products with exceptional quality, just because THEY COULD do it!!

I’m not so old that I can’t remember those days. It seems like a million miles away, now. How on earth did we get to where we are right now?

Stuff just doesn’t last anymore. It seems that companies are now backtracking. Instead of building products with better and better quality, they are making them as cheap as they possibly can and still get paid for it.

Our sump pump died last week. It was only FOUR MONTHS OLD. It’s the third pump we’ve been through in two years, and all those died in a matter of months. These aren’t inexpensive pumps, either– these babies cost hundreds of dollars. But they are made in China and they contain plastic parts. Needless to say, we were grossly disappointed when another pump failed this week and the basement flooded again. It was only a few inches so it’s manageable. But SHEESH.

Because we are in “winter preparation mode,” I’m having to buy expensive things, things beside the regular cheapo pair of $10 Chinese-made sneakers or the $5 cheapo umbrella that fails after one gust of wind. No, I have to buy snow tires! $500 for snow tires, that we use for only half the year! The time my husband got snow tires, they only lasted half a year. The treads wore down very quickly.

So I don’t get it. Why are products more and more expensive and less and less durable? I can only conclude that the companies are skimping on their manufacture. And what can the consumer do? Can we petition the companies, perhaps? Think they will listen? Hmmmm…

Maybe this is a sign of getting older, LOL. I’m remembering the “good old days” when stuff lasted, sheesh, at least a year or two or more…..

I would think that the “green” movement would help with this situation, but it has been strangely silent. You’d think that someone would protest the rising junk dumped into landfills, as Americans clog the land with discarded, broken junk. It would be more productive to pressure companies into making more durable products than forcing Americans to use one toilet paper sheet at a time. Weird.

What do you think? Do you think products are better made today, worse made or no difference? Am I alone in thinking that we CAN manufacture better, more efficient products at low cost energy at affordable prices? We did it once before! Why can’t we do it again?

I’m doing a lot of armchair traveling this year, I tell you.

Exercise, what’s that? Oh yeah, the thing that cures diet pills, uh huh.

Well, the Hubs just assembled, primed and painted two new Adirondack chairs and — let me tell you — they are some of the most comfortable chairs ever. I wrote an article on them last month. The history is fascinating. About a hundred years ago, a wealthy vacationer (to the Adirondacks, you guessed it!) named Thomas Lee suddenly found himself devoid of lawn chairs for his large family, and attempted to build his own. He created many prototypes, asking his 26-member family to try them all out and vote for the best. The family unanimously voted for this type of chair: the back reclines slightly and the knees are elevated above the hips. Wide armrests beg to hold big icy glasses of tea or lemonade. His chair was a hit. Lee gave his design to a local carpenter, Harry Bunnell, who needed some work for the winter. But the carpenter patented the design himself and started a business, building and selling the chairs, flourished with his own signature. Not very nice. Bunnell manufactured Adirondack chairs for 20 years, made from local hemlock and inscribing his name on each. I suppose the chairs, if any exist, are collector’s items, eh?

Mine are made in China from cheapo pine. But they are comfy nonetheless.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a lot of lounging to do. Happy weekend.

Did you hear about the lunar eclipse last night? It was a unique event, because it occurred on the winter solstice (the shortest day of the year). Unfortunately, I missed it (I actually do try to see these astronomical events, I think they are amazing!), but someone made a very cool video of it! I’m glad some folks broke out their adirondack chairs and super cameras– this video is so clear it’s almost like you are there, watching it with your own eyes. The video is best played in full screen mode– SO impressive!

Winter Solstice Lunar Eclipse from William Castleman on Vimeo.

After watching an eclipse I have to wonder if people really did believe in the “Flat Earth” theory. I mean, all you have to do is watch an eclipse to see that this isn’t so. I don’t know where the idea came from, I’ve only heard insinuations that folks back in the Dark Ages believed it, just like they believed that maggots sprang from meat left on the butcher’s butcher block table, or that scientists could turn lead into gold in their magical utility sinks. :S

Anyway, eclipses are cool. I hope you liked the video!

Hello, Blog Jog Day visitors!

New York Renovator is my little home on the Internet. I blog about our adventures as we *try* to fix up our 1855 home in Upstate New York. We’ve been here 10 years, but have really only recently begun to update. We’d been running on 1920s knob-and-tube wiring, a 1940s heating system, and 1950s plumbing for TOO LONG. Just a few months ago, we gutted and renovated our kitchen. By ourselves. Yes, I’m exhausted. lol. But not so much that I can’t blog about it. And I can’t believe WE DID IT!!!! Yay!

You can read about our story here. And read about the history of this house and how we got it, here. Or, you can just read about this year’s project, the kitchen and dining room. Or, if you’re looking just to have fun, you can check out my Find the Kitty Friday posts here. My Tabby Point Siamese cat, Livvy, is the star of that show.

When you’re ready to pull away from my riveting posts and photos, continue the Blog Jog to Soul Mate Tips, or check out other participating blogs at the Blog Jog Day Blog.

Thanks for visiting!

It’s rather funny. After spending untold $$ and hours (and blood and sweat and tears) renovating our home… the first thing we all want to do to relax now that it is *almost* over is.. GO TO SOMEONE ELSE’S PLACE ON A VACATION! lol. Well, as much as I absolutely love my home’s new look, a vacation would be sooo nice, especially if it was to an Outer Banks rental. I have been through North Carolina, but never to the coast and Outer Banks. And the kids have never been out of the state, except once when they were babies. They are the ones who really need a nice vacation after all this intensive work.

I have always wondered what exactly was “Outer Banks,” so I looked it up. It’s a very long chain of islands along the North Carolina coast, covering almost half the coastline of the state. Did you know that the Outer Banks was where Wilbur and Orville Wright took off on their first flight, on December 17, 1903? And did you know that the first (recorded) English baby was born on the Outer Banks– Virginia Dare of Roanoke Island, on August 18, 1587. The Roanoke Colony disappeared shortly after her birth. The story is sad but fascinating. This is from Wikipedia:

[John] White [Virginia's grandfather and leader of the original settlement, who had left several years before] landed [on Roanoke Island] on August 18, 1590, on his granddaughter’s third birthday, but found the settlement deserted. His men could not find any trace of the ninety men, seventeen women, and eleven children, nor was there any sign of a struggle or battle. The only clue was the word “Croatoan” carved into a post of the fort and “Cro” carved into a nearby tree. All the houses and fortifications had been dismantled, which meant their departure had not been hurried. Before he had left the colony, White had instructed them that if anything happened to them, they should carve a Maltese cross on a tree nearby, indicating that their disappearance had been forced. As there was no cross, White took this to mean they had moved to Croatoan Island, but he was unable to conduct a search. A massive storm was brewing and his men refused to go any farther. The next day, they left.

The place is brimming with history. AND beauty. Oh, I do so love the Atlantic Coast. I could spend forever there.

Photo from Wikipedia "Outer Banks."

Today, the lovely Outer Banks is a big tourist site, with beautiful rental homes. And no wonder. Just look at the rental homes, aren’t they lovely?! This is the Beachcraft by Carolina Designs, one of the best (I think) because it is so beautiful, and so close to the ocean. *sigh* It’s lovely.

WOW.

It would be wonderful to *finally* relax, soak in some sun, waddle my feet in the Atlantic Ocean, and watch the kids relax and find seashells. *sigh*

Today is our Sabbath rest day from work. We chugged along for nine days, packing up the kitchen and dining room, setting up a temporary kitchen in the garage, and demolishing the kitchen and dining room. What a wild ride! It’s like life just STOPPED during that time. I even forgot to water my baby tomato seedlings, and they died. I guess I’ll have to buy plants from the home center this year.

Anyway, we are thrilled that the demolition is DONE! We are now entering the planning stage, now that the walls are open and we can see exactly what’s going on within the structure.

The gutted kitchen, as viewed from the dining room.

The very good news is that few partition walls in this house are load-bearing. It’s rather odd. The house seems post-and-beam with balloon frame walls. In case you are wondering what balloon frame is, I wrote a post about it: Up, Up and Away. It’s called balloon frame for two reasons: one, the studs along the exterior of the home start at the sill plate (the top of the stone foundation) and go allllll the way up up up to the roof rafters; two, the hot air balloon was just coming into vogue at the same time as this unusual style of framing. The history of the balloon frame design is interesting. It is, however, an inefficient method for home building today, because it requires vast lengths of solid beams, which is not economically attainable. The balloon frame house also has two things against it: the second storey relies on the strength of nails to hold it up on ledger boards; and the long voids created inside the walls from the basement sill to the attic rafters is a fire hazard– there is nothing to stop a fire from racing up the walls to the attic.

Old style "cut nails." These were some of the first machine-made nails in this area.

This is a machine-made "cut nail"; these nails were manufactured in the U.S. from 1820 to 1910. Nails were previously hand-forged.

My home has some slight variations of the balloon frame that make it a little stiffer and safer. For one, instead of relying solely on nailing the second storey floor system to ledgers, the builder created beams with notches to set the floor joists. That was swell of him. Secondly, inside the first floor walls, the builder installed brick noggin. I assume this was for the purpose of making fire stops. It also helps to keep the house very cool in the summer. However, it’s also cool in the winter. :S And the noggin interferes with the placement of plumbing, electrical, and insulation (all these were implemented into housing decades after my house was built). If you are interested in reading about the history of Mr. Rogers– the guy who built my home– you can read about it here: Our History. I often wonder what Mr. Rogers would think if he knew his house was still standing.

The studs are still very straight and stiff. I’m impressed that, after 155 years, the studs are so straight. I recently (this week) discovered two support joists that have serious cracks, however. We have to fix these immediately. And the house does sag in the center– it has ever since we bought it. I think the sag is due to the inept “improvements” of previous owners, who hacked into the support structure and had no idea what they were doing. Before I can replace the walls, I need to meticulously inspect them and add support where necessary. After this, we can add electric, plumbing, etc. I’ll have loads more on this to come.

These studs are incredibly straight after 155 years.

P.S. In case you are wondering just how much stuff we removed from these two gutted rooms: the weight came to over 3.5 TONS!

I found this very cool photo site devoted entirely to houses of old: 50s Pam’s Photosets on Flickr. This one startled me, because it looks something like my kitchen here… well, before the cabinet doors fell off and the drop ceiling came down… and before the orange laminate countertops warped from age (yes, we really need a new kitchen!).

Pam has loads and loads of really neat photos, not just kitchens! There are photos of older houses, old promotional items, vintage appliances, old advertisements, and more. It’s a fun (sometimes scary) trip down memory lane.

Some new readers to my humble bloggy abode have recently been requesting photos and more information about our renovation work here. I haven’t done much renovation this summer, but last summer and the past few years, we worked hard on the gardens, exterior and basement work, and gutting the living room.

I have tried to organize our stories in a convenient manner. Here are some links to click to read about our work and see some of the photos. (Be prepared, some photos are mighty scary!)

I had spent time researching the history of the house and property (it goes back to 1855), and blogged about it here. If you like history, you’ll like this post.

There’s Our Story here, which is a condensed version of the year 2007.

And if you want to know about this crazy family that took on this project eleven years ago, you can read more about it here.

I am in the process of looking for a new template for this blog, where I will be able to list some of our “classics” posts so you can see all the stuff we’ve been doing around here. The blog itself is also a work in progress! But I promise THAT will be done before the next century. Thanks for your questions and thanks for reading about our adventure!

The electricity in this house continues to drive me crazy! I just can’t figure it out.

Half the electricity in the house is still out. I have been very slowly redoing what I can. But we still have only a cobbed-together kitchen light with two outlets. We are still without lights in the Front Entry, the Dining Room, the Laundry Room, the Breakfast Room, the upstairs Hallway, the upstairs Bathroom, and one of the bedrooms that we call the “Spare Oom.” So far, the only new circuitry I have put in are the Living Room, the girls’ Bedroom, the Master Bedroom, and the boys’ bedroom.

For the sake of brevity, I shall quickly explain my goal: in order to get lights for our Dining Room, I have to do the Front Entry first. And in order to do the Front Entry, I have to do the Upstairs Hallway. The switches I want for these rooms are all near each other, and the holes in the plaster walls are all open to accomodate the new lines.

So, I decide today that I am going to put a switched light in our upstairs Hallway. I remove the old fixture and test the wires (as I always do) to make sure there is absolutely no voltage surging through the wires. I am devastated to discover a mass of tangled wires behind the fixture, and some wires are still live. ??? Wha? I had shut off and removed this circuit a month ago. It should have no voltage!!

I suspect that the original installers used lighting fixtures as extra junction boxes. I am no master of electricity, so I don’t even know if this is possible. But this one fixture has three cables attached to it… I completely disengaged the switches for this Hallway fixture long ago. They were on Circuit #18. This circuit is gone– removed from the service panel! So I open up the fixture and find energy… I try to see where this fixture wiring is getting its energy, and when I shut off Circuit #15– the kitchen light with two outlets–one wire from the fixture wiring goes dead (but the third cable still has power from another place). So… this Hallway light was originally being fed from two or three circuits??? (Circuits #18 and 15 and something else?) Can this be? Or could the switches have been on one circuit and the light fixture on another circuit?

Whatever the case, I have absolutely no control over the old electric in this house, and it makes me terribly jittery. How can I disengage a fixture’s wiring if I don’t know where it is coming from and to where the electricity continues? (we have found junction boxes in the walls and ceilings and this kind of circuitry may be no different). And what if I disengage it anyway only to discover that I have disconnected a connection that makes the meager remainder of the house electrified (as what happened with my mouse-chewed wire)? It seems that the electric in this house is not in “sections” as is standard practice now (a feed cable running from the service panel out to sections of the house), but rather is in a loop (a “feed” wire running through all sorts of places, electrifying anything and everything it goes through, and then back to all sorts of other places in a “neutral” loop. It is crazy and how can I replace this kind of wiring without losing everything beyond it in the looped circuit???

Since I can’t afford to lose the small amount of electricity I have left in the Kitchen, I have chosen to leave everything alone until I can redo the wiring in one big sweep. And that means tearing down ceilings and some walls.

ARG!

I’ve run into some problems with the electricity in our house. Actually, we’ve had numerous problem with the electric here, for years. Only two of the four bedroom lights work. Various outlet receptacles are faulty. We’ve tolerated the situation for years, but I think we will have to do something drastic now. Quickly.

After we tried to replace a mouse-chewed wire, we lost half the electricity to our upstairs, all of our bathroom, 3/4 of the Kitchen, and the Laundry Room lights and outlet. I tried replacing the wire, but the circuit keeps shorting. So I am exploring why. I pulled down the Living Room ceiling today, and discovered a junction box with 100-year old wiring. That is still in use. And it’s in bad shape.

Here’s why our electricity won’t work:

Here’s a close up of the handywork.

More photos of the Living Room ceiling:

This is the moment I can either laugh or cry. I can be so very very happy I found this before a fire started. We have a lot of electronics in the house (and growing all the time). It is a miracle the house still stands after all these years.

I could cry because this means that, on top of redoing the Living Room, I have to rewire half the upstairs and the Kitchen, Dining Room, and Laundry Room now. And school and winter is coming. Ohhhh Lord….

Also, they had cut a substantial chunk out of a beam that had been (note the use of the phrase “had been”) supporting the upstairs bedroom flooring. The beam had failed to point of cracking and dropping. I will have to sister the beam to prevent more structural failure.

Of interest is today’s daily devotional by Dr. D. James Kennedy. I have it as my home page. Taking a break from my demolition, feeling a bit panicky about the situation, I took a break to check email. Today’s devotional is so fitting.

Have you ever faced a daunting task, one that looked not even remotely feasible? At times like this, God, who can do the impossible, wants us to have faith in His presence and in His ability to see us through.

…The ancient Israelites serve as an excellent example of what not to do under pressure. Faced with an overwhelming task, they failed to respond in faith.

…When circumstances overwhelm you and the task at hand is daunting, place your full faith in God and trust that He will deliver you into your promised land.

I’ll take this one step at a time, yes I will. For now, I am planning a new circuit map to restore electricity to the house. I think I’d better finish the Living Room first before attacking the Kitchen. The kids will need a station to do their schoolwork, and the Dining Room is pretty cramped now as it is.

One very positive note is that I will be removing that awful drop ceiling from the Kitchen!