Out to hot and humid Virginia for 10 days of hard labor to help mom. Didn't get everything on the list done, but accomplished a lot.
AMESBURY HOUSE
REFINISHED BACK DECK.
Professional power washing job didn't do squat for the deck surface. 20 years of neglect left a good buildup of mildew, lichen and grunge that had to be sanded off over 3 days. State of back deck eyesore upon arrival:
Cleaned debris from plank gaps, screwed down loose boards, patched damaged areas with wood filler and sanded entire deck with 60 grit paper for 3 consecutive mornings, (way to too hot once the sun hit it):
Applied 2 gallons Olympic semi-transparent stain, color 'tobacco':
No longer an eyesore!
EXTRA BEDROOM CEILING
Removed the acoustic ceiling on my last trip in May, re-floated and sanded the left quarter where the insulation guy had stepped through and done a crappy repair job.
Primed and painted to match the rest of room.
FRONT PORCH PAINT & REPAIRS
Front porch corner post was rotted out. Applied 4 passes of wood filler for a ghetto repair and repainted:
All baluster nails were rusted out and mostly missing; paint was peeling and tired:
Re-nailed all balusters and re-painted entire porch railing:
RE-MORTARED FRONT STEPS
Mortar crumbling throughout and missing in places. Several lost bricks needed replacement.
Ripped out loose bricks, cleaned out old mortar and rebuilt most of the steps over 3 afternoons eventually using 90 lbs of mortar.
LANDSCAPING
House definitely has some curb appeal challenges. Hired local guy to cut mom's idea of 'grass,' aka a Lariope field that served as the low-maintenance lawn substitute. Trimmed out all the low branches of the front yard tree and ripped out most of the Black-Eyed Susan sprawl that had taken over the beds near the house.
Borrowed the neighbor's truck and enlisted my new best friend Tom to help with a last-minute 5 1/2 hour landscaping frenzy. Bought 28 bags of mulch and 25 lbs of grass seed. Took both of us to cut back and dig out those overgrown greenish-yellow bushes by the driveway:
Dug out all the Lariope around the remaining bushes, (a bitch of a job, best to just get the shovel under it and roll it up like a carpet!). Pulled all the weeds, trimmed all the Boxwood bushes, defined all new bed edges and spread all 28 bags of mulch. Downpour started about halfway through the job, but it was a welcome respite from the heat of the day and ultimately a much-needed bath.
Give it a week or two for the grass to grow in plus a few new annuals for the beds and it's almost passable...
Other minor repairs / tasks:
-- Costco: Bought and assembled a new horizontal rocking chair for mom. Bought a new 48" Samsung TV, returned same for new one when found a big crack in the screen, assembled and set up cable box hookups.
-- Replaced 3 sets of door locks:
-- Best Buy: Bought a new printer for Cousin Kaye.
-- Craigslist curb alerts: Spare wooden chest of drawers, old horizontal rocking chair, large CRT TV, headboard, box of fabric & craft supplies, GONE.
-- 2 careful coats of paint on the upstairs master bedroom water damage stain. Will need some future caulking artistry to finish.
-- Replaced broken exterior socket cover on front porch.
-- Replaced master bedroom screen.
-- Re-glued all peeling veneer on kitchen cabinet and drawer edges.
-- Hauled just about every last thing out of the attic.
-- Took a full carload of quality crap to Goodwill.
-- Cleaned off accumulated goop on deck door trim. 'Goof Off' is great shit.
ASHRIDGE HOUSE So many unexpected problems, problems, problems!
State of "professionally cleaned" carpet was not going to work for mom. Ripped out all 1150 sq ft of carpet and pad, pulled out all the staples, swept up all debris, and hauled the lot out to the driveway:
Did some carpet shopping finally settling on a deal at Lowe's. Got the measurements completed and carpet ordered.
Found some very roach-looking bugs around the house when I first arrived. Arranged for full Inspection and had bug / ant treatment completed.
The kitchen cabinet condition was completely unacceptable. Dropped in on management company to 'review' move-out inspection and have cleaning company come in to remove contact paper residue, dirt and stains inside all cabinets.
Same cabinets and drawers after cleaning, and yes, billed to the tenant:
Storm door window brackets were all ripped out or missing and the window was hanging on by a thread. Repaired broken spots and replaced all brackets:
Tenant had apparently kicked in the door between the garage and house at some point, then done a crappy repair attempt with a few screws. Cleaned up the mess and glued the door frame back together:
Ripped out some extraneous rickety cabinetry from the garage, fixed doors on remaining ones:
Replaced all 3 door lock sets:
And it was about this time I realized that the AC was running non-stop but not cooling the house at all... Arranged for an HVAC look-see and found the system was D-E-A-D. Compressor wouldn't turn on and the condenser coil was original to the house (1986) and "one of the nastiest ones" the guy had ever seen:
Had new outside unit, support pad and fuse box installed. Upgraded from 2 1/2 ton to 3 ton American Standard. New condenser coil installed onto furnace; quite a difference!:
Other minor repairs / tasks:
-- Bought and programmed a new garage door opener. Tenant had apparently lost the original.
-- Cleaned out 10 years of lint build-up and re-taped the dryer vent conduit.
-- Repaired & replaced wood panel that had been kicked out of breakfast nook.
-- Removed about 100 feet of coaxial cable nailed around the molding in most of the rooms. Clearly this tenant needed to have a TV in every room and on the wall furthest from any wall outlet.
-- Removed all the debris piled up behind the shed left by the tenant. Despite the fact that the city picks up Christmas trees left on the curb for free, this tenant and several previous were preferring to dump them behind the shed and over the back fence. I found FOUR total. And thanks for the stash of used motor oil, broken pots, planters and lumber debris guys.
-- Fixed broken upstairs fan and added chain extensions to most per mom's request.
-- Hired local guy to cut and edge grass, clean out gutters and remove old swing set installation in back yard. Set up bi-weekly maintenance.
-- Moved all the debris in the driveway out to the curb for Monday pickup:
And what did you accomplish last week?