You'll Be Floored!

     Can't you just think of it? Late March, sunshine, sand, ocean, think about it. Girls in the smallest bathing suits you can't even imagine, me in a speedo...

You know what that means, SPRING BREAK!

MammaD and I packed it up, went to Costa Rica to drink out of coconuts.

Aaaaaaaaaaaand now I'm lying.

     As a teacher, we are blessed with the spring break, as a teacher, we are cursed with the spring break. Sure, in my twenties I took a trip to LA, Charleston, visited my sister in Boston, and had a couple cocktails at 7 in the morning to annoy my roommates as they went off to their jobs. 2013, we demolished our home.

 

     One of the biggest faults of Dueselhouse was the tile running from the dining room, through the living room, down the hallway to the bedrooms, and allllllll the way to the bathroom. Big project. And just for good measure, why not strip the floors from the blue room and our bedroom?

     Weeks before, we pulled up carpet in the blue room, realized there was some throttled hardwood beneath it, and then pulled up some of the living room tile. It wasn't salvageable. Whoever had laid the tile put the thin-set/cement right onto the hard wood. Terrible. I had the blue room emptied the weekend before spring break - Aura helped me one day too! (sorry, no photo of her tearing up oak and counting nails as they were chucked into the trash barrel outside the window)

     The first Saturday of spring break, I picked up a pile of laminate flooring, and it was go time! We employed the brothers-in-law, Matt and Anthony, also Lyn rolled up her sleeves too! The first Saturday of spring break the tile was gone, and after tearing up some tar paper, sweeping a dozen or two times, a hundred passes with the shop-vac and repeated searches for stray nails. It was awesome.

     The flooring was Allen and Roth laminate from Lowes; Hand scraped chestnut is the color and texture. It is very good looking. Each plank is made to look like a single plank, and is backed with a foam underlayment. All it needed to be laid down is the plastic moisture barrier! Also,we over-ordered, and after returning half still there is enough to re-do a room or two!

     Saturday afternoon I was putting down the blue-room floor. Before bed, my goal was to be into the living room 24 hours from then. And I made through the room, and the hallway by Sunday night.

Monday, my first day home alone, I rallied and took care of the living room/dining room.

Some rotten floor planks had to be repaired before floor could go down. 

It's all a custom job, you know.

Plastic is always laid down before the flooring...

Lots of plastic...

 Slow but steady progress! (This photo is some time around noon, I believe)

Down to the final row!

Katie literally came home from work as I had just finished the final row.

It looked good.

    Everything looked really good. I was happy, and then I turned a corner, and realized that our bedroom wasn't done! Also, I had a truck and trailer full of trash flooring that needed to be removed. Tuesday was spent dropping roughly 1.5 tons of oak, nails, tile, and tar-paper at our wonderful recycling center. It was fun. I also tore up the floors for the bedroom, which was not nearly as easy as the pictures make it look.

     Tuesday night, my project looked like, Wednesday - my thirty-second birthday - was going to be a full-on bedroom and assault then the big flooring project would be considered "a wrap". Tuesday night, I was a little excited about being finished and wanted to get things started and pull up a few rows of floorboards before bed.

Never try to do anything when you are excited before bedtime. Never.

     I crushed the edges of the planks leading to the bedroom. Popping the tongue into it did nothing to make it look good. I was the complete opposite of happy. Wednesday morning was spent (wasted) carefully cutting, measuring, and trimming a new plank. It turned out great, but would have been better had I not wasted from 8am to 11 fixing ONE plank!

 Just above the 2, that is the broken section.

Dumb.

Cutting the plank to get wiggle room...

This is the cut I made, and then I used the removed pieces as a template to cut a new one that would pair right up with the cut.

     Everything appeared to be back on track -though delayed. I was still mad at myself, but there is always one error to keep my ego in check. Time to reconsider the speed of attack, and be more careful.

On to removing the hardwood, and laying the new floors!

 Stripped to the tar paper...

Then clan floor boards, many passes for nails later...

Floor done! Right about 7pm, in time for a big birthday dinner!

     This wasn't the end of the project. There was more trash for the dump, and baseboards. The thresholds aren't finished yet, and the baseboards haven't been completely fine tuned. The fireplace looks terrible too. But the big part of the project is done, and I will slowly whittle away at the little pieces as we get closer to the drop date. The house looks amazing, and we'd love to show you around. You may try to schedule a visit in late July or August. 

Until then, have a great rest of May and June. We're still putting final touches around for the little-Duesel.

-Jeff

Like a Submarine

Spring has come to Dueselhouse, and while I have a lot to work back through, what better place to start than the present and work backwards!

I was installing a new ceiling fan in the blue room, and needed electrical tape. Of course I didn't have any, so it was time for a trip to Ye'Olde Hardware Depot. Since I was there, I needed some soil break-up for the hole where the stump was. And since I am there, i might as well look at the one thing the house really needs.

It hasn't probably hasn't come up to be discussed here, but Dueselhouse is awesome. An amalgamation of old and new, fresh and firm, classic and custom. All the openings to the outside are relatively (if not completely) new, and while a little throttled the front storm-door is great. What we needed was cross ventilation. The kitchen has a door that keeps the heat in there when it is summer, or keeps the dog inside when the door is open, but darn-it-all if there is no circulation of air in the place.

We need a screen door!

Why today there is a trip to Depot, how serendipitous! Why not cruise past the screen doors and see what's what.

I came home with a vinyl screen door, big top opening, 4 small sections on the bottom. "Do you know how to install one of these?" The cashier asked, studying my Jeep t-shirt.

"I will tonight, when I'm finished." I told her skeptical look.

Back home, the covering was ripped off, and the door was sized up for the space, not quite a perfect fit. A professional had installed the back door last spring - see the story A Square Deal -  and the door was exact, the screen door was off a smidgen.

Fine, full disclosure, I didn't use a measuring tape, the door didn't fit, and I wasn't about to change the door trim. About a quarter inch had to be taken at the top and bottom of the frame.

A bit of massaging with the belt sander, and she slapped right into the opening no problem! Hinges, handle, done! Right?

NO!

I got a little creative, and put some reenforcement trim on the inside of the lower sections.

Pressing Down the Trim Additions

One thing led to another, and the door was installed. The door had a spring to pull it closed. The door had a handle! The door had a hole in it!

The door isn't supposed to have a hole in it, is it? It is a screen door, so technically it is supposed to have hundreds of small organized holes in it. But this new door has a hole in it.

Before anyone begins wailing, and gnashing, and what have you, let's see if this video helps explain:

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how Dueselhouse got not only a screen door out back, but a just-for-Frankie screen door too!

Suffice to say, I am thrilled with this little project.

EDIT 3 Hrs Later: Now I'm thrilled with it:

A Short Story Titled: Improving the Yard, or Pleasing the Neighbors

This is a writing sample I shared with my students:


Saturday morning, I woke up. "It's time to plant a garden," Mrs. Duesel told me. "Ok," I said. We got up and had breakfast. We drove to the garden center and looked at plants. We drove home, the Jeep was filled with plants. We dug holes, and filled the bottom with mulch and plant starter water. We put the plants in the holes and filled around them with dirt and more mulch. We watered the new plants. There were Camellia, Golden Euonymous, Firepower Nandinias, and Gardinia's. We went inside and had dinner. The end.

This was my second version:



My hands were black with soil, and my knees were raw from the hard ground. I pushed one final handfull of soil around the last Gardenia. Brushing myself off, I stepped back to where Mrs. Duesel was standing. Crossing my arms, I admired the Camellia, Golden Euonymus, Firepower Nandinias, and Gardinia's. It was our first garden!





It was a lesson on how to write about the moments of the good stories you have, not telling every booring bit of the day leading up to your real story. Being one who is long winded, I need to be reminded of that myself. 

Peggy's Design

We planted a garden.


It started a week or two ago, when we stopped to talk to the plant guru at Craven's Nursery. Peggy looked at a picture of the house on my phone and came up with a drawing and ideas - along with what we thought (guessed) was reasonable pricing. So we bought what we thought would be the first of several purchases for the front yard, and set an order for a couple of Golden Euonymus.

Katie shuffled off on business, while I dug holes and watered diligently. over a week later, Katie had been home almost four days before I remembered to ask if she had ever heard from the garden shop. 

The answer was no.

They called the next day. We, of course, bought the rest of the plants in one fell swoop. Last I checked, you only live once.

The lineup was like this, from the steps out:
Golden euonymus flanking the steps, a nandinia "Firepower" is next, then a gardenia, and another firepower, with a camellia ending each row. 
The golden has a nice yellow tint, the firepower turns red in the fall and keeps its leaves through the winter, and finally the camellia will flower in the winter, around Christmas.

The clay that makes up the topsoil around Virginia needed to be cut with find grind mulch. We prepped the soil with some wild plant starter that packs the soil with vitamin B12, and that's the bulk of the task. Not a bad way to spend a Saturday. 

It looks good. Dueselhouse is looking pretty sharp now, we have officially been upgraded from "worst house in the neighborhood" status to "just another house on the block," which is a big step. Just imagine what will happen when we slap a fresh coat of paint this place.

BOOM!


This place is gonna be changing its facebook status!

In a relationship!

Edging on Insanity, or Fighting with Abandon

Photo lifted from: http://romancebandits.com/grass/
Pretty silly piece, I may have to read more of it.

I don't know if you've ever cared for a lawn before, but choosing what beverage to consume while casually walking along behind the mower, that pulls itself along, is only half the battle. And if you're going to do battle, it's better to go with the intent to win.

Where I grew up, there was a house that was completely abandoned. Just up the road from my parents house, and when I learned to drive I passed it daily going anywhere. The place was overgrown with weeds, the roof was sagging, there was no glass in any of the remaining window frames. It was a mess.

Rumor has it, the last family had cleared out in the mid eighties. Then kids stared partying in it, and there was a fire. By the time we moved out there, I was in my mid teens and the house was a complete mess. [I'll see if I can find a picture back in my files, but we all know I won't]

Point being, this house was half collapsed off to the side of the road. There was a low spot where a driveway once was, but it was covered by layers of leaves and dirt. The ground had quickly grown grass and  weeds, left unchecked by years of not mowing.

Dueselhouse was left empty for at least a year before we moved in. When I imagine my home prior to May 29th 2012, that is the image I have in my head, and it embarrasses me to think of it that way. So one of my main motivators is to make my house not look like that mess - including the whole fire part.

As I was saying, Dueselhouse was forclosed upon by Freddie Mac, and left lonely for some time prior to its new moniker. Whoever cared for the lawn was obviously employed in just cutting the grass once every couple months so that the locals didn't complain. (I've heard from a couple neighbors they all pitched in a time or two) Now the only photo we have seen of the house besides the MLS listing that led us to the palace is the one from a rental ad around 2005.

It was a grand place. A tree grew off to the left, there was an ornate, craftsman style, to the porch railing; and the trees that have recently fell (on/near the house) were tall and almost still alive looking.

The classic image also shows a large walk leading to the front steps, but today the front walk wasn't looking quite so grand. We had a good twenty inches of walking space, but the old photo led me to believe that there was more to be seen. Additionally, the curb surrounding two sides of the property was all but invisible to the passer by. And the sidewalk! Oh the sidewalk... well, you get the idea.

There is a curb under there, somewhere.

So while Katie was looking at house plants the other night, I picked out a string trimmer and what just floored me - a jug of premixed fuel for a two stroke motor. Unreal how lazy people are, and I bought a quart of fuel for about five dollars.

Never again. But I tried it.

Armed with a Ryobi multi-trimmer, and rake, I went to work. I trimmed and cut down along the side of the house, the porch, the mail box, and then I was at the front walk.

I looked at that front walk, and revved my weed-wacker.

The sidewalk looked back at me, and just sat there. Maybe it was looking at the neighbors house defiantly, I don't know. The jerk.

Well, I started trimming.

Son of a gun was almost a foot wider by the time I was finished! Now, when Mrs. Duesel and I walked out together, we could actually walk beside one another! Who knew? Well I then realized the sidewalk was probably just as over grown. And the curb out front...

SURPRISE! Our home is surrounded by a fine line of concrete just waiting to be revealed! Oh, and the gutter that runs from the curb to the pavement of the street, that isn't supposed to have grass weeds growing in it!

I laid down the broom and rake along the lines where the grass once reached for the comparison of trimming it all back.

To keep to the point (I am watching Blazing Saddles right now), one of the easiest things to keep a house looking lived in is to keep the perimeters trimmed. Curb, driveway, sidewalk, edge of the house. Put a deep clean line on it, and you've got a good looking piece of property; at least, that's what I think.

Everybody has something that makes them think that their house isn't the worst looking place on the block, what is that line that makes you think the house is habitable versus abandoned?

Next step, landscaping!

(Ok, flower beds and shrubs will be a spring project, but you get the idea)

As a little post script, I should tell you what I did with all of the slag from edging the property.
Most of it went into paper-lawn cutting bags, from Home Depot. But in the street was some built up soil, what could someone use that for?

Perhaps if there was a post hole in their yard... what could cause such a situation?

We moved our mailbox to the porch, like many houses in the neighborhood. Removing the post that supported the original mailbox was extremely hard. Fortunately I am extremely strong, so the post pulled right out. Next I filled the hold in the ground with afore mentioned soil that had build up in the street! It's got to be good, there are all sorts of weeds growing in it!

Post hole in ground

Dirt from the street

Problem solved.

(note: I did pick out much of the weeds before stuffing it in the hole)

AND ANOTHER THING:

Edging is a dirty job!

Sponging, borrowing, storing... Furnishing on the cheap!

Circa 2005

We hear it all the time, "You guys are really making Dueselhouse look great, but how can a lowly teacher and decor coordinator afford all this?"

Truth is, we couldn't, if we weren't astronomically wealthy.

We, literally, have debts well into the hundreds of dollars on our credit card. We cut extreme corners wherever possible - this is why so many of you haven't gotten thank you notes for wedding gifts yet. Next month, I promise!

Rooms like the Man bathroom cost nearly forty four dollars to remodel. Our bedroom closet almost broke the bank costing over a hundred dollars, not to mention the intrinsic costs of two full days of work! The revamping of the kitchen (paint and the Ikea countertop)... well let's just say it was the equivalent of a dinner and several drinks at Smith and Wollensky's, for one person!

Point being, we have been mortgaging Frankie's future college fund in this pile of sticks and plaster. It's time to start cutting back and stop spending what we don't have in the first place.

It's election season, so we did what any natural D.C. citizen would do, grass roots furniture campaign! Those with the least are likely to give the most, right? You already know how we milked mother and father Duesel for the back door, Katie's brother for a table saw (do I still have to give that back?), my sister threw in a shopvac, and paint labor from Katie's sister and husband. The time had come to look for more suckers friends.

We began at the bottom of the barrel, former roommates, college friends, and generally people who wouldn't likely want whatever they offered returned any time [soon]. After an exhaustive few hours on the phone, Katie hit on our first donor,  John Birkhofer! Always the cautious optomist, staunch republican, and friend of over seven hundred on facebook; Katie and I were confident, that John was the man to abuse!

On the same Friday as the man bathroom remodel, John pulled up to the Dueselhouse donation center with a fancy futon with underneath storage drawers. Awesome!

"It's been in storage for almost four years," he revealed, "So you're welcome to it until I get my own apartment again." What John doesn't know, is that by the time he gets his own apartment, there will likely be a girl involved. We all know that women don't like their man to bring along his single guy furniture. Proven fact.

I expected a flashback to college, until we began assembling the futon. Solid oak construction, steel gliders, magazine storage in the arm rests.

No, we not on campus anymore, Toto.

As we finished tightening down all the screws, Katie paid the man. Cold beverages for everyone! Not a bad exchange for a futon; when a thought crossed John's mind. "Do you guys want a coffee table for up here too?" he motioned to the TV just sitting on the floor opposite the new couch. With that, he increased his donation to silver-status.

Already in the truck, we only had to walk downstairs and shuttle the generous "map table" up to the attic room. In minutes, the newly air conditioned space had turned into a room. We are greatly appreciative to John for all his generosity. While much of my phrasing is in jest, the appreciation is very real.

Next up at the loading dock, the eldest Indrisano offspring, Lynn, is going for platinum-donor status with a corner cabinet, and who knows what else, for Dueselhouse. But when you walk upstairs, it becomes clear that there is a real room for guests to settle into; or just escaping my random escapades - not that Katie ever needs a break from me.

Not a bad looking room either... it just needs a quick coat of paint. We could knock that out in a single evening, right?