Since my update last week, probably 75% of the siding is now up. There is still some caulking to be done as well as most of the painting. There is consistent rain in the forecast for the next two days so I am going to be switching gears on the outside and working on the inside.
In the interest of ‘edutainment’, I figure I should be working a little harder than just posting pictures of progress and a short blurb about it. I am going to try and get some helpful information in these posts. So, with that, here is a starter information about siding.
Since the quarantine began we haven’t been out much. On occasion we have something that has to get done. In this case, we needed to get our exchange student to the airport at three AM. I was driving on the freeway and I thought to myself… “Wow, it seems the headlights are really dim. In fact, are they on?” So, I flipped the switch and the headlights came on again.
During that trip, it happened at least three different times. But, it wasn’t always both headlights. Sometimes it was one on either side of the vehicle. My first instinct was that it was an electrical problem. This Lincoln Navigator is a bit of a gremlin with electrical problems. There are what appears to be phantom errors with the parking sensors, check engine light, suspension monitor, etc. I check them with a code reader and reset and they seem to disappear.
Today’s headlight is a complicated and potentially expensive proposition. Not only are the bulbs expensive, but there are also ballasts and igniters, that is to say a bunch of electronics as part of the assembly. A big shout out to p38fln on f150online. The advice was that if both are going out within 2-5 minutes of startup, that it is likely the bulb. So, I ordered two new bulbs at $54/ea. The worst case scenario was that I replaced the bulbs for no reason, but they are ten years old at this point.
There are a number of good videos on YouTube on how to change the bulbs. It actually is pretty easy to access them. By far and away, the most difficult item is to remove and re-install the T-10 screws that hold the headlight in place. It is not a real accessible place and little screws tend to be difficult to start.
Start by removing the two 10mm bolts holding the assembly in. Once those are out, there is a tab on the left (or right depending on which light you are working on) that needs to be lifted. Pull the unit straight out.
With the assembly free, remove the three inserted light bulbs by twisting and pulling. Then remove the connection to the headlight by pressing the tab and pulling straight out. Now the assembly is out to remove the headlight.
Remove the rubber cover to the headlight. With at T-10 screwdriver, remove the two screw that hold the bulb. Pull the lamp out and disconnect the electrical connection. Finally, remove the metal clip at the base of the bulb and swap it onto the new bulb. Reverse the process to install.
I am happy to report that I have had no headlight outages since replacement. This is a limited data set and I have driven the vehicle three times since. But, it was happening every time the lights were on before I changed the bulb.
From this experience, I would recommend doing your research. I saw a lot of effort and cost expended by others when a bulb change was the solution. Replacing wear parts make sense when troubleshooting and repairing anyway. I dont know what a shop cost would have been, but I would guess several hundred dollars, plus the hassle.
I may sneak one more in this week, just because rapid visual changes are about to happen. I have the lap siding to finish the south side. Nevertheless, I will talk about what has been accomplished since the last update.
It has been a structural journey over the last week. Sill replacement has been the focus. I replaced eight feet of sill from the south east corner of the window all the way past the front door. I started with completing the demo in the front. That took two days.
I continue to preach… the root of this problem is poor building practice. I believe that the reason I am dealing with this problem is that the driveway was laid right against the house. Wet cement touching non treated wood will lead to rot. The sill was cedar, which was good, but no match for bad decisions. Six inches of soil should have been removed before the driveway was laid so that it wouldn’t be against the structure.
I removed and reset the door. The rough opening barely allowed the door to fit (they were exact measurements – opening and door). Fortunately, the framing around the door was rotting anyway, so I restructured the framing to allow for 1/4″ clearance around the door.
Because of the thickness of the sheathing and siding, the door did not fit properly into the opening with the trim. That was all rectified so that there will be a unified trim look and hopefully a better fit inside.
The door also needed new structure under the threshold. The last opening was actually hacked out of the sill. Not only was the sill rotten, but the height and angle left the threshold sagging and a gap under the door.
This whole process was a slow go with jacking and temporary supports. I needed surgical cuts with butchery grade tools and cancer of unknown spread. I think we are through the worst of it and look forward to putting it all back together.
Also exciting news, we have agreed on a price and scope of work to reconfigure the bathroom, the entry door will no longer be in the kitchen, stubs of pipes will no longer be out of the floor and there will be space to add a washer and dryer.
Looking at the forecast for the rest of the week here, there is definitely rain all day today and it looks iffy until next Tuesday. There are supposed to be dry days but gray with mixed showers until next week. That is a real bummer when you are trying to button up the exterior of house.
So, I thought I would show some progress and then talk about how I am going to work around it.
First of all, I guess that I have been pretty lucky in the weather lottery. Many times in April, it can be just as wet and cold as December, just not as much light. So, the fact that I have had three weeks without a lot of rain is pretty remarkable.
The house wrap is on the back and side (as shown). I have barely touched the front as I can see there is rotten sill. That will have to be repaired before we can button it up completely. My current strategy is to work on those two sides until I run out of materials. I am guessing that will be at the end of this week.
I did drag some of the T-111 and trim boards into the basement for painting last night in preparation. Today, I am going to try and make some progress on pre-painting before installation. It is much easier to paint materials on the ground and touch up nail holes and such when installed than trying to paint everything in place.
Aside from that, I did some drywall damage cutting the rotten studs out and replacing so I can switch to inside. The window trim will have to be modified now that there is a new window. I am vacillating around replacing or cleaning the drywall in places. The main reason is that I think the carpet is in reasonable shape and I am worried that it will be ruined if I start cutting chunks of drywall out and mudding it up.
Lastly, there is always clean-up. At least the way I work, things come out of the shop and get thrown back on the bench when returned. Saw dust piles up and it is kind-of a mess to work in and around. I have been doing it on the weekends as preparation for the next week, so it is not horrible but it bugs me to see things in disarray.
Before I started on the pantry project, I had estimated for my wife, the cost would be $100. My estimation was based on my belief that I would need finish, hardware like drawer slides and some incidentals.
I was cleaning up the other day and I ran across the pile of receipts from the project. So, I was curious myself how I did. I knew that it was more than $100 based on some repair to the bandsaw, but how bad was it?
Date
Location
Req. Cost
Opt. Cost
Description
Jan 17
True Value
$19.85
Dust collection, glue
Jan 20
Home Depot
$40.83
Hardware, plywood
$55.12
Polyurethane, dust collection
Jan 25
Bi-mart
$16.97
abrasives
Feb 4
Bi-Mart
$8.49
hardware
Feb 11
Lowes
$12.87
knob, bandsaw blade
$17.17
Extra blades
Feb 11
Amazon
$158.94
Bandsaw blade release
Feb 11
Do-It Best
$4.99
Electrical extension
Feb 14
Woodcraft
$45.97
saw maintenance upgrades
Feb 14
McGuire Bearing
$10.56
Thrust bearing
Feb 21
Bi-mart
$4.49
Epoxy
Feb 25
Bi-mart
$4.99
patching compound
Feb 26
Home Depot
$1.48
shims
Feb 26
Sherwin-Williams
$22.07
Paint
Mar 3
Lowes
$6.18
Brads
Totals
$275.89
$155.08
$430.97
So, the truth is that I didn’t make it under $100. Without the saw problems, I would have been much closer, more like $120. In addition to the required cost, some of the optional costs could have been avoided, like the polyurethane turned out to be an unnecessary purchase. I upgraded some parts in the bandsaw when I was dealing with the bearings.
I certainly never planned on dealing with a tool failure, but it happens. The other optional purchases were for productivity or replacing used stock items like abrasives. Productivity is hard to quantify but stock is not; I did not need to buy those items because I already had them. Technically, not part of the cost of the project, but realized as part of it.
Isaac (my nephew) and I finished re-framing the back corner yesterday. We are on our way to getting that section buttoned up. My goal this week is to have all of the rot framing done and sheathing on the south side. The pictures are the words.
My wife and I were talking about all of the ‘Improvements’ that were considering for the cottage. On one of the walk-throughs we were looking at some mildew along the wall.
That got to looking around at a potential source of the problem. I found a problem with the siding.
Katy bar the door… I have a huge problem.
That is the corner post and sill of the room in the first picture. So, guess what I am doing… that’s right, rebuilding this place.
For a discerning slum lord, there is always the question of where to stop. If I was intellectually honest with myself, the entire sill shows evidence of being punky (that is code for almost rotten). There are literally studs that are rotten and sistered to new wood. I had no idea the building was in this bad of shape.
As of this point, I am optimistic that all of that can be repaired. Time, money and effort are all that is required. Believe it or not, I like to consider the future and how to prevent this again. Certainly, there are some better building materials but there are some worse ones as well. Today’s lumber does not hold a candle to the durability of the old growth used in 1979 (when this house was redone).
The sources of water must be considered. There was a bush up against the house, that was removed last fall. There are cherry trees hanging over the house, those were trimmed last fall. The gutter was plugged, I scooped it out, but the cherry trees still exist so that will be a maintenance activity.
Once the water gets to the ground, it needs to get away from the house. I am considering digging a drainage ditch. We will see.
I dont even have the full scope of the problem yet. So, I wont be able to present it until I know. What I can say is that I will be busy until this project is done.
My rash of car issues seems to be continuing. Last weekend when I was pulling bushes out of the yard, the battery light came on the pickup. I wasn’t sure whether it was the battery, alternator, ground or some other electrical issue. The pick-up gets light duty these days, even though I have been driving it more due to recent other car problems. It is the other vehicle that we have that can carry us all at one time.
Since we are not going anywhere these days, I waited for more definitive signs of the problem. When I was moving brush on Sunday and it was clear that the battery was not going to make it. The voltage gauge was almost visibly going down. As it turned out, I got all out of the charge that I could and the pickup died at my friends property.
My friend charged it up for twenty minutes and the battery seemed to respond well. I barely made it the mile home, bucking and stuttering into the driveway. Sunday night, I gave the battery a full charge and started to diagnose the problem on Monday. I couldn’t really reach all of the terminals and test points on the alternator due to positioning, but I was reasonably sure the problem was in the alternator.
Suspect alternator
The last alternator I replaced was around $50 for a rebuilt unit. That was my expectation going into sourcing this one. I started seeing prices in the $150 range plus a $40 core charge and I reconsidered my approach. I wasn’t completely sure the alternator was the problem, I didn’t want to wait (or pay for speedy delivery) from RockAuto and I didn’t want to pay AutoZone $200. Maybe the junkyard was the answer?
It has been a while since I bought anything at a junkyard. In fact there are two here in this town and about 10 more locally. Part of my hesitation is I really don’t like to buy electrical components used, they are somewhat of a wear part and junkyards often don’t guarantee the viability of electrical components. Also, it is one of the businesses that get a fair amount of tire kickers, looky-loos and how to questions. My experience with the counter people have not been overly pleasant.
I found one locally, that I could have today. I got it for $30 and he gave me thirty days warranty with it. When I went to pick it up, he said “I’ve got brand new batteries for $40. You need to come back.” I thought, I do need to come back. My son’s Cougar needs a lot of things like a stereo, speakers, battery, etc. The counter guy talked my ear off for thirty minutes before fortunately another customer showed up and I was able to escape.
I wont claim that I made an inside connection. That takes time and consistency as a customer. But, it renewed my willingness to use junkyards as a resource. It also got me thinking about putting them higher on the list of places to check if I need something quickly. I got the alternator replaced on the pickup in about two hours and it was putting out 14.6V while running. A job complete with a happy ending.
By the way, I took the voltage regulator off and one of the contacts was completely worn out. I could have bought a new one for about $40, but I still would have had to take the alternator out to do it. The alternator I replaced looks to me like it was a rebuild or aftermarket because it wasn’t embossed as Motorcraft. I expect to get a few more years out of this repair.
Have you ever moved into someplace brand-new, or even had a new car? Everything is pristine. Fast forward three years and when is the last time you dusted the baseboard? You know the spot in the shower that is not easy to clean the mildew off without removing the shower door? The blinds are dirty, the light fixtures are dust collectors.
This is the one thing about being a landlord that I really don’t like. Tenants never return the place in the pristine clean condition that it was received. And there really isn’t anything you can do about it. So, it is the one chore that has to be done on each transition. It’s also the kind of clean that you really cant pay someone for.
Getting ready for the bathroom
I am suggesting that part of this quarantine time can be used for a really deep cleaning. Think about windows, cabinet fronts, light fixtures and walls as well. It takes a lot of effort and nobody really wants to spend their time doing it. But when it is done, you feel a lot better about the space that is now clean.
This is going to be a foreshadowing of the life in the future. Recently, I had tenants move out of an Accessory Dwelling (AD). That is a fancy way of saying that we have a small house that we rent out.
This was their version clean (most of the furniture doesn’t belong here). Over the years, I have put in quite a bit of work on this place. After each vacancy, it seems like I need to start over with paint and flooring and finishes. Not to mention deep cleaning. I will announce my final plans at some point in the near future, but for now this is the next project.
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