Vent like you mean it

I mentioned in the previous post that Andrew came today to work on the venting situation.

Here's the lovely hold he cut in the side of my chimney, with the vent running down:

Here's the vent coming out of the top of the chimney. It's since been run through the roof:

And here it is, screwed onto the draft hood of the water heater, flowing gently up and into the chimney:

You can see my expansion tank in the upper right corner too.

Bathtub of doom

Andrew was over today working on my water heater venting situation. Really, he was here to make sure the work got done. That's what I pay him for. OK, I pay him because he knows what he's doing, but also because he'll gently push me along and encourage me to leave some of my OCD tendencies behind. Like peeling the label off the top of my vent cap. Which nobody will ever see.

I figured I'd better buy the bathtub today, because Andrew's ready to go (he's going to push the bathroom project) and I am ready to bathe. So I went to Lowe's where the bath guy helped me figure out how to get the tub I want. And then I went to Home Depot to check their prices. Of course they're the same, but HD offered a 12-month zero-interest store card, where Lowe's only offered 6, so decision made.

I paid a little more for the tub to be delivered to my house. It weighs 440 pounds. I think that's probably for the best. And I think Andrew is going to have to reinforce my floor.

Here it is -- a left-handed American Standard Spectra 5 1/2' cast iron apron-front tub:

It probably weighs more than a Kia Spectra.

So it's before 4pm, and I could go to the Y and take a shower and get some real work done today, but I'm going to just skip it and enjoy the Christmas party at the Admiral tonight.

Ten at a time

Right now, all I can think of is Breakout (or Arkanoid) when I deal with bricks. I dealt with many bricks on Saturday, moving them out of the attic where Andrew had stacked them after deconstructing the chimney. The chimney is now down below the level of the "joists" (I use quotes because to call my ceiling joists "joists" seems awfully generous). Eventually I'll post a humorous picture of the ceiling joists, but until that point, I'm working on becoming less embarrassed by them.

Anyway, here's the leftover chimney with a bit of liner remaining:

I moved the bricks down in a milk crate, nine at a time -- and carried one down with me each trip I made to stack the bricks out back. Here's my ingenious "pulley" system. Again, quotes because the "pulley" is a collar tie. This time there's a cracked-up liner in my bucket.

I also pulled out the last liner visible in the first photo that was above the joist level. I had to break it in half (rather than cut the furnace vent) but you know what? It felt good to destroy. It always does. Despite the dust.

Order to chaos; chaos to order. About 150 bricks stacked behind my house waiting for a purpose. Or Freecycle.

Casualties of war

No, not a construction wound!

But if you have any ideas what to do with these gorgeous rococo frames, let me know in a comment. I have 2 of them. Both desecrated.

Damn lead vent pipes

So I have this lead vent pipe in the corner of my house that I'm removing, since I can replace it with an AAV and not have to have another hole in my brand new roof. I was hoping it'd be possible to cut it at the basement level and pull it all the way up through the house, but it seems like that's not going to be possible.

I actually climbed up on the roof just now to check. The roofers had tried to pull it up and told me it felt like it was trapped by a coupling, and now that I've had a chance to yank on it, I feel the same way. So I have to cut it in the attic, but the clearance is terrible: it's right up against a rafter at the very corner of the attic.

I charged my old Olympus camera too, since it's waterproof and smashproof etc. so I can take more pictures. So far I have been taking pictures with my iPhone, which I don't touch when my hands are really nasty, or carry in my pocket when I might sit on it, which is pretty much all the time at this point.

Anyway, the pipe was finally cut after some wrestling with a compact hacksaw, a hammer and a chisel. In the end I just motored through with the reciprocating saw; I think my blade is curved enough that it just bounced off the rafter...

Attic cleanup & wiring day

So I'm covered in soot. Or something black and dusty and awful.

I went to have some breakfast at the corner market in my work pants, because I was lazy. I think they thought I was some kind of insane vagrant. For the record, breakfast was a delicious piece of vegetable-packed strata. (Stratum?)

Today I'm hoping to finish cleanup in the attic. Yesterday I moved the bricks Andrew dismantled to the back patio and cleaned up. I'd also like to fish some wire in the front of the house, in preparation for the spray foam.

The list of what has to be done before the spray is as follows:

• Roof penetration for water heater B-vent, securing this vent in place. This will probably require fully plumbing it to the heater before the foam is sprayed, to make things easier for myself
• Replacement of knob and tube at the house perimeter from the attic, so that it can be covered by spray. So far this includes a duplex switch at the front of the house, the exterior light, and an outlet at the front. I'm also considering adding a light to the back porch, but it could be wired from elsewhere easily enough (or I could just drop some wire through that wall and leave it for when I'm ready)
• Removal of the lead vent in the corner of the house
• Final cleanup in the attic. I want to blow a bunch of air through there for a couple days while I still have gable vents to get as much of the nasty particulate out as I can. Ancient coal dust, or something

Time to quit dawdling and get down to business. Which unfortunately will probably involve lots of washing filters, because this fine dust clogs all my filters in about 10 minutes of vacuuming.

The house blogger's creed

Preface: OK, I've gotten some confused responses to this, so bear in mind this is a parody of the "Rifleman's Creed."

This is my house blog. There are many like it, but this one is mine. My house blog is my best friend. It is my life. I must master it as I master my life. My house blog, without me, is useless. Without my house blog, I am useless. I must post in my house blog true. I must blog more cleverly than any other blogger who is trying to outwit me. I must outsnark him before he spams me. I will....

My house blog and myself know that what counts in this battle of renovation is not the brand of drywall screws we use, the noise of our wet/dry vacuums, nor the construction dust we make. We know that it is the final product that counts. We will finish trim...

My house blog is human, even as I, because it is my life. Thus, I will learn it as a brother. I will learn its weakness, its strength, its features, its intricacies, its toolbars and its templates. I will keep my house blog clean and ready, even as I am clean and ready. We will become part of each other. We will...

Before God I swear this creed. My house blog and myself are the defenders of good design sense. We are the masters of our enemy. We are the saviors of my life. So be it, until victory is America's and there is no enemy, but Peace, socialized medicine, outlaw of capital punishment, legal marriage for all, decriminalization of marijuana and free beer. And hopefully a nice house.

NB: This is my first post to this blog. I've backdated other posts to the time when the work described was done.