I solved the comment problem by reinstallion Movable Type (yay, what fun……), so you shouldn’t have a problem anymore. The spammers certainly aren’t. I knew things were up and running correctly because the Online Poker jerks posted the MINUTE it came back up.

I love poker as much as the next girl, but COME ON. How many home renovators have money leftover to gamble away online? Wrong crowd, guys.

While trying to thwart comment spam (you’re are not in need of online poker games or Cialis, are you??) I accidentally broke the commenting feature….. so I will be working diligently to fix it.

If you’re a Movable Type user, SixApart put out a good guide to beating the spammers:

http://sixapart.com/pronet/comment_spam.html

After we received a U-haul full of furniture from my parents (who sold their house and all their belongings and are living in an RV!), I thought we would have trouble cramming anything else into the house. But the space seems to grow when we’re not looking. So when I found a matching china cabinet and buffet table marked down at the Salvation Army, I couldn’t resist bringing them home.

(click for larger)

(click for larger)

Our kitchen lacks cupboards/storage, so for now we’ll use them to hide canned goods and tupperware.

I love thrift shopping. I get a kick out of walking into a store and finding something unique for next to nothing. Someday, I’ll get up enough courage (and cash) to try estate sales and auctions. For now, Sally Ann’s do will do.

This set of jewelry strikes me as the perfect gift for any fixer-upper… I mean, who wouldn’t be thrilled with Phillips head earrings??

For those of you that are wondering what knob and tube wiring looks like, I snapped a few photos. Knob and tube wiring was common in the early part of the 20th century. I think the old metal boxes and glass and porcelain they used are pretty cool looking… the fraying fabric covering the wires, however, scares the crap out of me.

This is what the old wire looks like – it’s thin and covered with fabric, and the knobs hold it up on the joists. It is supposed to be secured between the two porcelain pieces, but much of it is now just draped across them. The lines run willy nilly ALL OVER THE PLACE and are very hard to make sense of. Unlike newer wire, the hot and neutral wires run seperately to fixtures; there is no ground wire.

This is an old box we took down off the wall – check out the glass, very cool looking right?! I will be happy to throw it out though.

We’ve been diligently rewiring the downstairs. The fridge is now on a GFI breaker (no death by snack attack, hooray!), and the living room, foyer and office are almost entirely rewired. We still have a lot to do, but now that we’ve gotten the hang of it each outlet goes a little bit faster. And the basement looks ten times better already.

When this is all over, we won’t have to worry about our electric for many, many years. I look forward to that.

I nagged poor Teague about this unsightly mess until he finally got a chance to cut and wire-nut the cables…

BEFORE:

AFTER:

This small change makes a big visual difference; it’s also twenty times safer than having fabric-wrapped wires hanging from your porch ceilng. The insurance company (and the neighbors) will be pleased.

My knuckles are bloody, my back is aching, my eyelids could use a set of toothpicks to keep them up…… but I am thrilled with yesterdays accomplishments!

I have great news for all you fixer-uppers out there who are in the same position we are. Last night, at around midnight, Teague and I determined that although it’s going to be slow going, we CAN and WILL rewire the house without hiring a pro.

(keep reading!)
Read the rest of this entry »

Tomorrow morning, Teague and I will throw caution to the wind and attempt to begin replacing the knob and tube wiring ourselves. At first, this sounded like such a freakishly hard project I was sure we’d have to take out loans and hire a professional electrician. After all, it’s electricity we’re messing with. And that is both dangerous and incredibly complicated, right?

Well, it turns out it might not be as complex as those highly-paid pros would like you to believe… In fact, I checked 3 basic wiring books out of the local library, and all 3 state in the very first paragraph that basic home wiring is not nearly as hard or as dangerous as most people imagine.

So for the past 2 days we’ve been doing our homework. I have read two wiring books cover to cover – they are incredibly boring, but even a novice like me could understand the concepts. The Complete Guide to Home Wiring by Black & Decker is my favorite. The pictures and illustrations are in color, and the diagrams are easy to understand. I’m a visual person, so this is especially helpful for me.

Teague made a materials list and came back from Home Depot with all sorts of goodies, including 500ft of Romex cable, new receptables, new light switches, a “fish kit” (to fish wires through the walls) and some GFI boxes for the basement.

Tonight I plan to finish mapping out our first floor – I’ve been taking measurements and labeling all of the various outlets, switches and light fixtures found throughout the house so that when we are examining the maze of knob and tube in the basement we’ll have some idea where it’s leading and what it’s powering.

So, wish us luck – I’ll report back to let you all know how it goes. Hopefully we will bust the myth that only pros can handle this stuff!

This is what the kitchen looked like after I sanded down a section of the ceiling patched with sheetrock compound:

At least I was wearing a mask this time. And now the ceiling is smooth AND primed with two coats of Killz. Yeehaw.

We’re pushing through as many projects as possible before AllState comes to inspect the house – they’ll be visiting in “a week to two weeks”, so time is not on our side. This Wednesday we’re going to start replacing the wiring on the first floor, which along with the rest of our fixes should put us in good standing with our new insurance company. It’s a good thing we’re both young and healthy, because the work we’re doing is definitely putting our bodies to the test. Not to mention the effects of all this added stress. But on the plus side, we watch a lot less mind-numbing television.

I am thrilled to report that this giant gaping hole in the wall – that the previous owners had covered with a manilla folder and taped down with brown packing tape – is GONE!!!

Before:

After:

Teague did all of the plasterwork, and I did the sanding, priming and painting. Oh, and we replaced the old light switch cover as well. Looks pretty darn good, doesn’t it?