The Campsie Project

Happy 1-week Libby Lee!

2011-09-24T02:25:00.001-07:00

You've filled our hearts so full of joy in just one week, since you joined us at 5:21am last Saturday.

Shower Time at the Morris Place!

2011-09-04T20:47:00.001-07:00

baby treats from teh Dana Glass!

2011-08-02T10:34:00.001-07:00

such a fun envelope arrived in the mail… Thank you, Dana!

Campsie Yard Sale

2011-06-28T06:36:00.009-07:00

Campsie Yard Sale

2011-06-28T06:36:00.007-07:00

Campsie Yard Sale

2011-06-28T06:36:00.005-07:00

Campsie Yard Sale

2011-06-28T06:36:00.003-07:00

Campsie Yard Sale

2011-06-28T06:36:00.001-07:00

Campsie Yard Sale

2011-06-28T06:35:00.001-07:00

We've decided to simplify.

2011-06-04T08:50:00.001-07:00

"This is the droid you've been looking for."

2011-06-03T06:52:00.001-07:00

Assuming, that is, that you're looking for a remedy for bags and bags of sanded-off floor dust.

Handle

2011-06-03T06:49:00.001-07:00

I love equipment. This is a vintage, high-grade floor sander. It's kind of steampunk.

Mr. Mustard

2011-05-31T15:52:00.003-07:00

Mr. Mustard oversees furniture moving in preparation for some floor work.

Mr. Mustard Is in Your House

2011-05-31T15:52:00.001-07:00

Homage to Todd Selby

One Door Opens… well, actually about 9 doors open — to make a shed, I'm thinking…

2011-05-11T13:59:00.000-07:00

grape hyacinth collage

2011-04-08T13:18:00.007-07:00

Campsie Spring Flower Collages

2011-04-08T13:18:00.005-07:00

Campsie Spring Flower Collages

2011-04-08T13:18:00.003-07:00

Campsie Spring Flower Collages

2011-04-08T13:18:00.001-07:00

Campsie Spring Flower Collages

2011-04-08T13:17:00.005-07:00

Campsie Spring Flower Collages

2011-04-08T13:17:00.003-07:00

Campsie Spring Flower Collages

2011-04-08T13:17:00.001-07:00

campsie still life

2011-03-27T13:46:00.001-07:00

Josh makin it happen once again on Campsie

2011-03-19T18:08:00.001-07:00

five years after we got it, the range is fully functional, fancy down-draft fan and all.

Lucy's Birthday Cake

2010-10-27T07:14:00.001-07:00

Amazing angel food cake made by Esther!

Joshua

2010-08-06T21:44:00.001-07:00

Angel of all sorts of things. For many years.

Porch detail

2010-07-22T16:53:00.003-07:00

Auspicious porch screening!

2010-07-22T16:53:00.001-07:00

It's Christmas in July!!! Tx, Josh and Tommy!

Auspicious porch screening!

2010-07-21T14:34:00.001-07:00

It's Christmas in July!!! Tx, Josh and Tommy!

Porch detail

2010-07-21T14:33:00.001-07:00

Soon-to-be screened porch

2010-07-17T07:15:00.003-07:00

Lucy and I are doing an outflank on the damned Mosquitos, thanks to carpenter-supremo Josh and our trusty painter James. Can you say "breakfast outside?"

Soon-to-be screened porch

2010-07-17T07:15:00.001-07:00

Lucy and I are doing an outflank on the damned Mosquitos, thanks to carpenter-supremo Josh and our trusty painter James. Can you say "breakfast outside?"

Campsie masonry 2010

2010-05-15T11:21:00.001-07:00

Having some significant brickwork done and it's really looking dramatic! (actually it's now entirely reassembled)

Campsie masonry 2010

Having some significant brickwork done and it's really looking dramatic! (actually it's now entirely reassembled)

Burnt coconut scare!

2007-02-28T16:02:00.001-08:00

Burnt Micro, originally uploaded by mrtoastey.

Lucy, god bless her, learned some things about toasting coconut flakes and how, sometimes yr. toastin' 'em? and then? when you open the toaster oven door? FLAMES BURST OUT?

Lucy's okay. Even the toaster oven's okay. The flaked coconut doesn't really exist anymore, at least not in that form.

And something like that'll make you wonder where your fire extinguisher is. Where's yours?

The legendary kitchen cabinet installation

2006-12-17T22:12:00.000-08:00

I have been wanting to build this and put it up forever. And I'm not talking about the kitchen cabinets. That honor and gift could only come from the generous hands of John & Laura, our Kitchen Clamorers...

One day, a few months ago, Lucy and I were so very lucky to have John & Laura come over and install our kitchen cabinets. I am nothing but serious. Did I mention that they were responsible for us even having the cabinets?!? They came over and —well, see for yourself. This animation may take a minute to load. (it's 1.9 mb), but even as they were starting, I knew it had to be documented. So I put a camera on a tripod and diligently shot them every few minutes all day long.

Have I mentioned how lucky we are? Or how sterling they are?

John and Laura! We love our cabinets and we love you!!

(to see the animation again, hit the "reload" button in your browser)

Ode to an Ambassador

2006-12-13T17:17:00.000-08:00

Ode to an Ambassador

Thank you, Ambassador, for taking us culinary places
One burner places, hot plate says
A skillet, a tea kettle, and you, Ambassador
Filled our bellies for a season, too,
three if we're honest
You cooked, honest
One burner, pinching for a kitchen
In the temporary world, you were the savior
Found, Good Will, always, $10 the richer
and us so much more
You're going back now, back for more Good Will,
helping's your fate
a simple hot plate.

—on the occasion of the installation of a very fancy Jenn-Air Range, which will on a certain level never take the place of the used Ambassador hot plate that cooked many many meals prior to the existence of a real kitchen on Campsie Place

New pix of late Fall work on the Campsie place are here!

That Ol' Mick and Lucy!

2006-07-10T06:33:00.000-07:00

Illustrator fabuloso Kenn Minter depicts the Campsie July 4th grill-a-thon! Thanks, Kenn!

Also, here's Kenn's blog.

July 4 Cookout!

2006-07-03T06:01:00.000-07:00

C'mon over! We'll cook some stuff!

5pm, July 4, 2006
Pot luck (side dishes)
239 Campsie Place (map)
Music, gabbin', sittin' around, cookin', lots of etc.
BYO beer (we got lots of the other stuff)

Sifting the Pix!

2006-06-21T07:02:00.000-07:00

Hi friends and friends and friends: Lucy and I are back from the Honeymoon, we're sifting jillions of pictures and they're accumulating over at Lucy and Mick's World Wide Wed
If you've got something to share, please drop us a line or post your pictures to the Flickr Group I set up for this exact purpose!

Thanks and LOVE to everybody!

head on over!

2006-06-16T20:25:00.000-07:00

new honeymoon material at Lucy and Mick's Wed Site. Check it out!

space age campsie!

2006-06-06T05:08:00.001-07:00

space age campsie!
Originally uploaded by mrtoastey.

the back section of Campsie has advanced light years, people! there's paint! furniture! floors! rugs!

It's amazing!

Just in time for my bachelor party! You know I'm getting married, right?

some pizza and beer and …

2006-05-27T14:28:00.000-07:00

some pizza and beer and …
Originally uploaded by mrtoastey.

laura and john launch back into it!

the wall set comes together

2006-05-27T12:22:00.000-07:00

the wall set comes together
Originally uploaded by mrtoastey.

click on the pic for the lowdown... john is over at his shop getting wall hangers to support the foreground cabinet..

live cabinet action!

2006-05-27T11:24:00.000-07:00

Photo_05
Originally uploaded by mrtoastey.

here's what's it's all about!!

Cabinets in progress!

2006-05-27T11:13:00.000-07:00

Cabinets in progress!
Originally uploaded by mrtoastey.

live posts from the TREO phone!

Kitchen Dry Wall Collage

2006-05-26T21:28:00.000-07:00

Kitchen Dry Wall Collage
Originally uploaded by mrtoastey.

A step up from the previously-posted "Chaos Kitchen Collage," but still pretty chaotic, huh? William and DeMarcus show us what's what in the world of drywalling and plastering. What a relief for the demolition-minded mick and lucy.

The floors!

2006-05-26T21:26:00.000-07:00

wow, it's loud
Originally uploaded by mrtoastey.

Folks the floors at Campsie are comin' right along. Thanks to the fabulous efforts of Tim and co. we have got some dynamite restored floors. Fabulous!

Chaos Kitchen Collage

2006-04-17T14:15:00.000-07:00

Chaos Kitchen Collage
Originally uploaded by mrtoastey.

It's our future "heart of the house," the area formerly known as "several small rooms," which is now opened up wide… and kind of a disaster.

Yeah, it's like that. But it's getting better! On the left, Ghost Lucy goes through her eternal cleanings… (click for a bigger version, and some imbedded notes)

Today's Head(er)lines

2006-04-17T14:13:00.000-07:00

Mick's Header
Originally uploaded by mrtoastey.
This weekend, Lucy and I were gettin' busy on the kitchen area of Campsie. We've been sort of "bottle necked" by some electrical work that needed desperate doing, so that we could move forward with some tasks (drywall, floor, and cabinet hanging) that will help us actually approach re-christening the kitchen. My finally-achieved goal (weeks in the making) was to finish framing the doorway between the dining room and kitchen. it was one tiny door, but soon it will be two tiny french doors. Why are they "French," anyway?

Bustin' out the Drywall

2006-03-17T08:34:00.000-08:00

Dateline: Drywallia—Lucy and I had a banner night last night in our evolving kitchen. Gradually, there is becoming less a lack of kitchen, being replaced by a distinct possibility of kitchen. This is due to some serious drywallin', y'all. Here we see Lucy, the drywall saw cham-peen. Thanks to Saint Laura, the wiring is (largely) in, and thanks to Shannon and Jeremy we've got some matching flooring to cover up that plywood that Ms. Points is standing on. Salut!

BUT WAIT! Have you been over to lucyandmick.com lately?

The Joys of the Temporary Kitchen

2006-03-17T07:25:00.000-08:00

The Meat Hammer
Originally uploaded by mrtoastey.
I spent a while thinking about those "kitchen meat hammers." I know—they have a more formal name. Um, ah, ... oh yeah—a tenderizer. We say: "We don't need no stinking tenderizers! Not in the Temporary Kitchen!

Our newest benefactors!

2006-03-14T07:29:00.000-08:00

Without Shannon and Jeremy, we literally wouldn't have a floor to stand on! Lucy and I have found kindred spirits in fellow kitchen ripper-outers across town on a fabulous street in a fabulous house.

Pictured, Miss Lucy holds a sawed-out sample of their old kitchen pine flooring that we were just sure wouldn't be right in some way shape or form. That's just the way home renovation works, right? Well, guess what? It's totally right. Amazing.

Now the plan is for me to take it up and take it away. Crazy, huh? In fact, it's awesome. We've got patching galore to do, and really needed the extra board. Thanks thanks thanks, Shannon and Jeremy!

David and Sharlot on the case!

2006-03-07T16:04:00.000-08:00

Well, we've got more saints in the mix! Uncle Dave and Aunt Sharlot have worked their hardware wonder on the doorknobs, plates and assorted hardware from the house. Just got this picture back of the stuff we boxed up and sent them. How about that? When I first saw this show up on my desktop, I thought why did somebody send me a picture of a gamelan?

This stuff is still bangin', though, right?

Joshua Rocks!

2006-03-07T15:59:00.000-08:00

joshua
Originally uploaded by mrtoastey.

I know it's been a while, jeez, it's been a while! We're tearing away on the Campsie Project, believe it or not. Actually, it tends to be a good sign when nothing gets written; it means that I'm actually doing work. Ha!

Yes, we're still looking at a "in-process" kitchen. but there are some other wonderful developments, thanks to handyman Josh.
Our fence is complete! Oscar is quite happy, he now has a "sealed-off" backyard from which to bark at innocent passers-by. And we have a glorious and cool Fence By Josh®.
We just didn't want to let Josh get away, so for a while he was a fixture around here, fixing—well—fixtures and things.
Like, Josh repaired our soffit. Isn't that a weird word? Anyway, the soffit outside of our (lack-of) kitchen was one of the very first things we were instructed to repair, oh, a year ago. Okay, already! Thanks to Josh, it's fixed!
Josh also fixed some of the shingling from our new lack-of chimney. The magnificent Laura, of course, facilitated my removal of the chimney, by—oh, I don't know—closing up the resulting hole in our roof? Yes, that's it. But just with tar paper, due to impending darkness, on one Sunday evening. After several hefty rainstorms (and not a drop inside), we decided to count our blessings and begged Josh up onto a ladder to set in some shingles.

As you can see, Josh is the latest soul without whom we'd be lost. He's also, as you can see, a pretty important addition to any decent Mardi Gras parade.

Campsie—One Year Later party!

2006-01-31T04:02:00.000-08:00

Oh, we’ve fixed everything–

Mick and Lucy—and a cast of stars—have fixed and added and appended and subtracted and overhauled and wait—we’re not really done at all with The House on Campsie Place–the neglected house on the wonderful street in wonderful downtown Lexington.

But we’re ready for you to stop back by and see the progress on the odyssey—one year later!

Friday, February 3th, 8pm.
Stock the Bar! (or not)
Bring Snacks (or not!)

We got some snacks, we got some chairs! And we gots your exquisite friendship. C'mon by!

Lucy and Mick's World Wide Wed

2006-01-24T09:11:00.000-08:00
Welcome, friends to Lucy and Mick's World Wide Wed!

I just put up this new blog, which is located at lucyandmick.com. This is where all our matrilicious plans will be conveyed to you, gentle reader! Salut!

Campsie Project comes ALIVE! (and nobody dies)

2006-01-16T09:47:00.000-08:00
It seemed kind of surreal, I admit—

To have an orange electrical cord around my waist. To be tucked along side the peak of my roof, one arm over, the rest of my body, nuzzling shingles down the other side. The electrical cord leading down the 45 degreed rooftop to Laura, who's juggling a drill and some boards. Also, it was dark outside.
And that was the crescendo to a grand day at Campsie. Unless, you count the wine, spaghetti squash, Mom's sauce, and stir-fried vegetables that followed somewhat later.

We've done some stuff, folks, we've done some stuff! The kitchen is somewhat dry-walled. There's electricity there, too. Why, I even shocked myself just this morning screwing in an outlet. In a sense, it was a relief to see that I could shock myself and it was no biggie. In another sense, OW! But back to our progress.

Laura knows nothing of fear or ignorance, it seems. And Lucy and I know a lot more about home repair and renovation than we could have ever hoped to have known w/o Saint Laura. Look out, folks! She hammers! She cuts! She electrifies! She drywalls! And she's just so darned sweet. And our house is becoming suh-weet thanks to her immeasurable contributions.

We've been working on the kitchen, as I mentioned. When I say "working," of course, I'm really saying "gutting and rebuilding from the studs up." Right? Right.

And we're getting there. Sure, the sink is still lying in the back yard, but it's in a new place in the backyard. Have I mentioned how heavy a cast-iron double sink is? Just try to imagine, I dare ya. I think it is, really quite possibly nearly as heavy as an upright piano. Nearly. Or maybe a Cooper Mini. Okay, maybe not.

So, after months (goodbye, holidays!) of sitting naked, the kitchen, as I said, is somewhat clad in drywall. A new column has been installed to keep the upstairs, well—upstairs. And in the basking in the new column-dom (this was last week), I retired to my office to monitor assorted computer things and became aware of a certain amount of grave pointing and murmuring followed by: "Mick, come here, we need to ask you something…" Uh-huh…

Laura's proposal was to take the chimney down. The goal of such an audacious endeavor was to free up about nine square feet of kitchen floor space, but a very valuable nine square feet. I could go on about how we considered this and that, and weighed the pros and cons (which, actually we did), but the fact is, if Laura says the chimney should come down, Lucy and I are prone to shrug our shoulders and take a deep breath and respond, "okay, we take the chimney down." All I ask is to be pointed in the right direction and handed the appropriate tools.

So, we're taking down the chimney. As in, in progress. And the upshot is that I spent the beautiful sunny Sunday afternoon on the roof with some goggles and a Nine Pound Hammer removing the chimney, brick by brick. It was easy, especially considering my childhood penchant for climbing old TV antennas. Once on the roof, I just leaned there and tapped bricks and then flung them to the ground, one by one. The difficulty, it turned out, lay in the ever-diminishing chimney, and the insuing issue of where to stand on the 45 degree pitched roof. Eventually, I was standing actually below the roof, in the resulting hole of former chimney-ness.

So far, so good, but daylight was fading—quickly—and we had a 3 x 3 hole in the roof. The patching of said hole was where Laura got into the action. I was getting kind of nervous and privately thinking "Okay, I've done MY part—let me inside, I've gotta pee!" Of course, when you've got a home-renovation wizard at your service gratis, you tend to hold it. And what with the sun going down and all…

So eventually it was determined—having sufficiently lowered the chimney, and (somewhat) sufficiently cleared away the flashing around the chimney—that I would take the top rope—okay, top electrical cord—position at the rooftop, while Laura took the rappelling position midway down. I mentioned it was dusk, I believe. Yes, it was dusk. She was hooked in, I was holding on. There was hammering. There was tar-papering. There was the cry of joy and the whimper of terror for each of us as we made our way (at different times) back up to the peak.

But the chimney (or what's left of it) is below the roof now! How amazing and strange! The next step is to continue disassembling it down below the kitchen floor. Easy, right? Riiiiight.

Joshua, fence-builder.

2006-01-07T21:29:00.000-08:00

Joshua, fence-builder.
Originally uploaded by mrtoastey.
Howdy-doo!> We've been away for the holidays, but it's back to The Campsie Project, folks! Our great success currently is a collaboration with the wonderful Joshua, who has built us an amazing fence. The upshot is that—in addition to his cool carpentry—we can let Oscar (and his friends that come over) out in the back yard! The fence is made largely out of reclaimed, ancient barn wood—White Oak, I believe. We've all agreed that Josh's Popsicle Architecture is a great addition to 239 Campsie.

Love (and drywall dust) is in the air…

2005-12-12T14:45:00.000-08:00

Hello, Campsie fans!

In case you didn't know, Lucy and I are getting married. Click here for the whole story! And thanks for checking back here for more wonders of home destruction and reconstruction… after the holidays!

The Upstairs collage!

2005-12-04T10:01:00.000-08:00

The Upstairs collage!
Originally uploaded by mrtoastey.
Here's a peek at the Campsie upstairs. The living room. Our relaxation area. Mostly used for Netflixxing and kitty watching, it's still pretty glorious. Notice the edge of Gordon Gildersleeve's fabulous stair enclosure. Thanks Gordon! Outside, you can see the wonderful fall foliage (since departed) that adds another element of riot color to lucy's color riot. PS: you probably knew it, but we're getting married! How great is that?

The Office saga part 1 (from the Archives)

2005-11-21T05:52:00.000-08:00
I'm a little behind with The Campsie Project, but luckily, I've found a post that never got posted. Here's how my office (which is sweet) came to be! —mick

I don't know what I'd do if I were an insulator.

What a pain. and itchy, too. tonight we had the Whirlwind Marathon Get Mick's Office Ready night of activity. On the agenda, for prepping Mick's future office: hang a ceiling anchor for the fan! run speaker wire for the soon-to-be-rocking Bose in-ceiling speakers! Don't forget! Drill holes to run that speaker wire through! Hang insulation!

I would have completely forgotten about the last one if not for Lucy… Insulation? What's that? Insulation is something that just never occurs to me in the course of daily life. In fact the last minute quick-before-they-lock-the-doors trip to Lowe's had me begging for pity not just so I could come in, but also for guidance about insulation. All I ever wondered before was 'how did Dow-Corning get The Pink Panther as a spokes…panther?' (by the way, I haven't even seen it, but screw the new Steve Martin remake of The Pink Panther. That sacred ground will always belong to Peter Sellers, pal. And if you haven't seen it in awhile, The original Pink Panther is a really brilliant ensemble comedy.—Now we return to our regularly scheduled house renovation. So—I'm getting better at my time estimates. I estimated 5 hours to do these things and I was right on the nose. Not that I'm bragging about Five Hours. Nope, I'm slow as… as… I don't know—something that's really slow… with this stuff. I'm merely pointing out that I'm getting better at realizing how friggin' long any given task is going to take. But deadlines have gotten me swunged into action. It's gradually dawned on me that—since Lucy moved in—the onus has really fallen on these shoulders to live two places or get in gear. And this living two places thing is not my style. I love to travel, sure, but trying to actually live two places? Keeping up with all my ideosyncratic papers and beverages and foods and technology and music? Times TWO? Man, it's exhausting. So I'm jumping at the chance to get the floor refinished and the ceiling drywalled so I can call up Insight Cable and get some high-speed internet in here and set up shop. Hence the frantic work party. And the last task of the eveniing was my first attempt at hanging insulation ('hanging?' I dunno— you 'hang' drywall and wallpaper). It's not hard, is my impression, but on some basic level it quickly sucks. There's something about it that makes it one of the few tasks that we've performed that I don't look forward to doing in the future. Obviously, there are some things we've jobbed out (like floor refinishing and some drywalling) because it requires a degree of finesse that's tricky to obtain. But not insulation. Insulation is just a crappy job to do. Still with any luck it will make for a warm and (privately) rocking office, dyude.

Ladders and such

2005-10-19T08:44:00.000-07:00
I'm tired of getting the ladder. I realized this last night when I was hanging a blind in my fabulous and nearly complete new office. A ladder—when you're doing home renovation—is one of those things that you need about every other minute. And those minutes when you don't need it, it's in the way. You're moving it here, you're moving it there. All this can become vexing from time to time.

My frustration for ladders notwithstanding. Things are going so very very well with The Campsie Project. In fact, the quiet here on the blog is actually a direct result of so many great things happening IRL. I haven't had time to keep up here, due to some of the following:

My New Office: A delight, a treat, a wonder. It's modern, in a Seventies kind of way. It's got Bose Ceiling Speakers. It's got a stereo closet. It's defined by recessed spaces; recessed bookshelves, recessed printer, recessed stereo equipment. Lucy has helped me with the utter bore of trim-painting. I hate it, she loves it. Thank the Lord she loves it. But the real wonder is The Chase, surrounding the upstairs plumbing which is fabulous and worthy of submission to some sort of design publication. Any ideas are welcome. Just email me.
The Laundry Room: Why, it just seems like yesterday that I hooked up the washer and drier for the first time. Wait—it was yesterday. Tuesday, Oct. 18, 2005. Finally, laundry facilities! And what cool facilities they are. Directly off the bedroom. Yes, incidentally, that was me that weakly insisted very early on, that laundry in the basement was adequate. That was the former me. The current me says: "Laundry upstairs, right off the bedroom. Woo-hoo!"

I'll put up pictures soon of both the completed Laundry room (pictured at earlier stages in the above two shots; note the floor state) and the completed Office.

Jamb on It.

2005-09-20T07:05:00.000-07:00

The Smasher (Portrait Tuesday)
Originally uploaded by mrtoastey.
A picture I posted for Self-Portrait Tuesday on Flickr.com. Click it to read an extended caption..

The Closet Concept

2005-09-14T05:42:00.000-07:00

I don't really like that Closet Maid wire stuff, nor does Lucy but we're still happy to have a his and hers type bedroom closet full of it! The project was intricate and rewarding. Oh—at one point I had a question and I called the help number: India.

All the help calls for just about anything go to India these days, if you hadn't noticed. And a very genial Indian man very efficiently and articulately answered my question. This is the way of the modern world, folks!

It's Gonna Take Some Time

2005-09-14T05:15:00.000-07:00
"It's gonna take some time" seems to be the principal lesson on this home renovation thing. We've gotten used to it. It really all goes back to the time honored equation that I learned while working in TV production: "You can have it good, cheap or fast. Pick TWO." I guess for the most part, The Campsie Project has chosen "good" and "cheap" and we're stickin' by that. Here are some neat things of late:

With the tutelage of Tim "the floorman" Taylor, I removed the old bathroom floor to make room for the new laundry room floor. This was the grand prix of patient prying. The qualifying rounds included household-wide episodes of taking up baseboard and quarter-round and removing door trim. Having honed my skills on these tasks I was ready for the gently prying, yanking, coaxing, cursing and begging over a hundred nails out of a couple of dozen tongue-and-groove floorboards.
Lucy has painted most of the upstairs! I helped out early on, but since then it's been Lucy-tron all the way, painting, painting. I've had some fears that things like painting trim will get lost in the mix and never get done (fingers crossed) but that's not so, with the paintsmanship of Points.
Speaking of Points, Father Phil has been our yard genius. Thanks to him, we don't step outside into a scrub jungle and promptly onto a rusty nail. Lockjaw would almost certainly set us back. Or maybe not...
Friendly Phil S., master electrician, has set us on the golden road to a wired kitchen. He came over, listened, commented, drew up some plans, and helped us understand the things that we could do ourselves. Approval pending, but since Samaritan Laura was actually bossing during some of it, I'm sure it's going to be fine. Wire is pulled, outlet boxes are mounted. Still some demolition to do in the kitchen area. And I could have sworn we'd already torn it all down. Huh.
We have got us a kitchen. A temporary kitchen, I'm reminded to say. Lucy thinks we'll end up cooking there for eternity. which just goes to show how decent it tis. the improvised kitchen includes a toaster oven, microwave, fridge and assorted food items, condiments, cutlery, and dishware. And this just in, today from da Gootwill: a hotplate. Some sample entrees and sidedishes, you say? Poached salmon, baked tilapia, brussels spouts, lots of salad, plenty of eggs.

The (lack of) Kitchen

2005-09-08T12:40:00.000-07:00

I've been meaning to share this collage of the Space Formerly Known As Kitchen. Gutting it was kind of a surprise and largely happened the same weekend that Lucy moved (mostly) to the house. So Friday and Saturday, me and brother chris moved Lucy. Then on Sunday, Lucy and Laura basically tore out the kitchen. Just like that, kids! Who knew? By the way, I made that pile of rubble on the blue tarp, ripping out the ceiling as an after-measure.

Since this shot, I've assisted Patron Interior Designer Laura with "pulling wire" and other rough electrical. One day, it will be a kitchen again, right?

Ritmo Latino

2005-09-06T08:22:00.000-07:00
Lately, all kinds of work at The Campsie Project fueled by the Micronesian fury of Ritmo Latino, easily the most fantabulous latin music podcast on the Internet. Here's to all the other good-looking listeners!

People live here.

2005-09-06T07:45:00.000-07:00

The tool for me and for the Campsie Project? Ladies and Gentlemen, I again give you the Nippers. Without them so much would not have gotten done around here.. At the very least it's how you get the unpullable nail out…so far anyway.

By the way, we really kind of live here. Lucy really does live here. I kind of live here. I don't know how I'm going to get out of Bassett. That's another blog probably. Saturday we had a liquidation yard sale at my Bassett house that was fairly successful, if under pubicized. There's something so very American about sitting out in your yard and making a nice chunk of change selling off the stuff you don't need. Scratch need—want is really the operative word. Sure—people all over the world sell stuff in front of their houses. But I would venture that such transactions are frequently an important part of their livelihood. Most yard sales I visit (and host) are really just about getting rid of excess (what an understatement) stuff and making money just sitting there.

Anyway, back downtown to Campsie—Lucy and I did some bike riding this weekend. I'm happy to say that she has a new birthday bike and that we're attempting to stave off the pumps by leaving the cars parked. One of the nice things about living downtown, right? And some work was accomplished, too. Lucy, she's the paint maven. I'm not so hot for painting myself. I'm impatient and somehow painting exacerbates that. I like destruction, though; today it occurred to me, as I ripped up the former bathroom/future laundry room floor that I spend a lot of my time working very hard to undo other people's very hard work.

Take this floor (please): Some unknown number of years ago, a former resident had the gumption to have red pine floors installed in the bathroom. Nice. Except, now, years later—when so much of the hardwood in the world is just gone, we need to salvage that red pine to fix the floors downstairs. So after days (no—weeks) of pondering and consulting, I finally got busy today and took up the floor in this 10' x 8' room.

Wow, did it seem bigger than that, based on the effort exerted? aw, yeah. In fact, this was one of the hardest jobs I've done since scraping up the linoleum downstairs with the linoleum spade or even digging out the basement. Damn, it was hard. But as usual, disassembly is my specialty. Seems like we frequently leave assembly to others, but tearing stuff down? Hell, we're all about that.

And the floor is now up. The wood be salvaged. Which means we can get Tim "the floorman" Taylor back in to magic up the hacked apart downstairs. AND we can move forward with outfitting the soon-to-be laundry room. THEN we can move the washer and drier out of the common area upstairs. Seeing the sort of domino thing here? I've been seeing it lately.

Oh, something else—Magic Digging Meridith was teasing me about our temporary kitchen (lucy insists that 'temporary' always be included, lest we fall into sloth and never get the 'real' kitchen done). She said we should publish a cookbook of recipes, which is actually a great idea. We just need a publisher. We'd call it "The Improvised Kitchen" and it would be full of delicious recipes that are limited to the toaster oven, microwave, and fridge, with dishes being all done in the bathtub.

The Crawlspace...

2005-09-06T07:34:00.000-07:00

The Crawlspace...
Originally uploaded by mrtoastey.

Campsie in August - some pictures!

2005-08-25T15:42:00.000-07:00

Shiva Pauses

Late July and August have seen much progress at Campsie, but we've been so covered up that I've neglected to post pictures. Click here to see about all the hubbub, bub!

Hammer and Miters and Chairs, oh my!

2005-08-24T06:19:00.000-07:00
Hi friends!

Sorry for the long quiet. Hard to explain the explosion of —well, let's see— work, vacation, hurry, weddings, construction, destruction, summer, and lots of etc.— that has kept me away from The Campsie Project. I will tell you this—it's not been due to a lack of activity on the house.

We are just steamin' along!

In fact, the upstairs is nearing completion. And as sure as I say that, I must be completely wrong. My fear is that—like moving—construction is one of those things where you think you're almost done, and the more it seems like you are, the more you're not.

This much is true: the upstairs is quite beautiful looking.

There's refinished floors; there's Lucy's great paint choices (we won't mention The Wall That Remains Unpainted, will we?); there's finish trim; there's the bathroom! The freakin' Bathroom, already! The room that was basically a big closet? Well, it's a bathroom now. My finish trim work nearly killed me. On the one hand I love doing this sort of thing. I can't explain why. Alright—confession. I think it's just the Miter Saw that I love. Something about squeezing the trigger and chopping things.. So far, not my hand or fingers.

Back to the trim work. At first, you think 'well, this is easy. 45 degrees this way, 45 that way…no problem!' Uh-uh. I cut all the bathroom baseboard trim and as I started nailing it together and seeing how much air there was between the pieces of wood, I found myself red-lining. Partially, it must be noted, this is due to the soaring summer heat that has accompanied us upstairs. Partially, it was due to this terrible realization: I can't hammer very well. Anybody who knows me will tell you that I'm as sensitive and girly as a red-blooded straight guy comes, but know this: My manly side is shamed at my incompetency at hammering.

Lucy said she'd never seen me so mad as the night I was stomping around in a white rage over my shitty nail-driving work on the baseboards.

Here's the good news: Lucy can fix it with caulk. She says so. And she better be right. We counting on caulk for a lot.

More updates to come. There's more demolition, there's the upcoming "Mick Does Electrical" saga; Much more, too! How will it all unfold? How will it pry apart? How will it get rebuilt? Check back with The Campsie Project to find out!

Screw David Hockney—our bathroom is nearing completion.

2005-08-23T15:26:00.000-07:00

Behold the Campsie Bathroom upstairs! I've become kind of obsessed lately with photo-collaging, a technique which David Hockney mostly gets credit for. Well, let's see David Friggin' Hockney build a closet and install sconce fixtures, the bastard.

In fact—I like this collaging technique because it makes our work look more crooked than it actually is. So when you see it in person, you'll be so amazed that it's not this crooked.

Pretty smart, huh?

Toe-tally rockin!

2005-08-01T20:10:00.000-07:00
Hi peoples!

Lucy and I are back from vacation, and just didn't waste any time getting back to The Campsie Project. Does this have to do with Lucy being about to move in? You bet it does!

We got back to town and found that Plumber John had done as much on the house as we had. Or as Lucy put it: When you go on vacation, so do your contractors. Don't know what's up with that, but Lucy and I agreed that it was best just to drop it like it's hot. Movin' right along! John is now back on the job and claims that he'll finish with the upstairs plumbing tomorrow. Well, that would be nice...we'll see.

Really, we're doing pretty well. Things certainly ain't on schedule, but for the most part, The Campsie Project is chuggin' along and a move-in is imminent!

Also: While we were away, Pedro the Master Mexican Mason returned! Olay!

So this eve, Lucy worked on some paint priming and I worked on shoe molding or quarter round. Both those names are somewhat mysterious, don't you think? But the fact is, it's just the little piece of round wood that butts up against the floor. Yep, we're that far along. Amazing, huh?

So—engrossed in this endeavor, I spent the evening with Patron Builder Todd's glorious Miter Saw, cuttin' 45 degree angles and measuring, measuring, measuring… Next step: nailing. I am expecting this to be a bigger bitch than anticipated and am kind of wishing for a nail gun to rent, even though I've said this before about nail guns: I'm scared of nail guns like dogs are scared of vacuums. I just don't want to be anywhere near them.

So, we'll see. At any rate, next up on the docket: The Laundry Room (that is—the former upstairs bathroom!) Wow, how did we get to this point??

Oh yeah—lots of hard work, outside help, mysterious blessings and cold hard cash.

We're floored!

2005-07-22T09:25:00.000-07:00

Yes, people, I've been mighty remiss at the Campsie Project blog, and I'm sorry! Really I am! Especially when we've got such incredible floors to show you! You've got to take a look! We are really truckin' along! The upstairs is painted, floored, much of the bathroom fixtures are in place... it's amazing!

The Latest

2005-07-21T13:20:00.000-07:00
Well folks...We're gettin' down to the nitty gritty now! Every day reveals a new face for Campsie Place. This is the good part I've been waiting for. I like the demolition and the finish work-what comes in the interim I can do without!

Super floorman, Tim Taylor (not the "toolman"), blew through with his youthful staff from Lawrenceburg leaving us spectacularly refinished wood floors upstairs. I have been doing some painting. So far I've actually picked colors right off of the color charts. No taking in items of clothing or magazine pages for color match. I'm color confident!

Although I put in 10 years in the lighting business yet I have no confidence in my ability to install a light fixture. Luckily (and surprisingly) Mick has been the patient one in this department. He has safely and successfully put up the faboo bath sconces AND the medicine cabinet is up-level and centered! I'm amazed with his trouble-shooting abilities. At one point he came to where I was painting, grumbling, "This is the hardest math problem I've ever had to solve!" Here this kids! Math is sooooo important in life!

So with all this hard work done we feel the need to take a vacation. We're headed to Gatlinburg for the big Eckler Family Reunion (my Mom's family) then Mick's having some (more) "Mick time" and I'm heading to the beach with my Mom, Dad, Sister and her family. Mick and I will meet up again for the last part of the week for an excursion of our own before we head back into the grind. The plumber is working today to finish the installation of the fixtures in the bath. Once that's done it's time to MOVE!

Lucy's In Charge

2005-07-07T20:53:00.000-07:00

Psst—hey.. over here. Nobody followed you did they? Good. Listen—something's gotten into Lucy. She's…different. I think she's in charge now, of The Campsie Project. I went on a trip, and I come back and there's walls torn down and an all-girl work crew and fresh paint and all kinds of gung-ho. You know? So anyhow, I'm just gonna do as I'm told, so I don't get sledgehammered, see? It could happen! Look what's been going on! Look at these pictures! This is serious stuff!

Okay, I'm gonna go. Here she comes now. Don't tell her you talked to me, alright?

Ladies Day of Destruction

2005-06-27T18:55:00.000-07:00
Get this! Mick left town and I hosted a "tear down the walls and rip out the kitchen fiesta fantastica!" We were lead by my new angel friend-Laura (proprietor of Cabinets and Designs on Walton Ave and carpentress extroidinaire). Laura has been itchin' to rip somethin' up ever since she set foot in 239 Campsie. She has assisted Mick n me with a kitchen plan complete with the cabinets...I mean it—she actually hooked us up with some stylin' German made '60's era cabinets not to mention the Jennaire gas stove (down-draft and convection oven included). Laura gave me the courage I needed to tear into the massive energy blocker of a wall that laid at the bottom of the steps.

I decided to make this one a "ladies only" work party. First Anne showed up with a sledge hammer and some garden gloves. This sculpture artist and gentle, kind mother of sweet Olivia really knows how to swing a violent blow to plaster! Next came Sonya—wife of patron saint, Todd and dental hygenist with a soft touch. Sonya took care of snappin the nasty ole kitchen cabinets off the wall-a task I had no desire to attempt. She was rewarded with a few items left behind by the previous owners-cookie sheets, cookie cutters and the like. Watch out—next came Joanne with Jason's crow bar. She knawed away at the remnants with me till happy hour. We tore into her bag o chips and huge vat of home-made black bean salsa before we threw in the towel. I thought it was over until Esther showed up. I was exhausted, filthy, scarred and marred but I couldn't just sit there and watch her rip down that soffet in the kitchen by herself...so I pressed on.

Ya know-I've dealt with a lot of male builders, carpenters and tradesmen in my day. I've gotten the "listen here li'l lady" look too many times. I can't tell you haw proud I am that my girlfriends and I did this one on our own. A little of the "feminine touch" goes a long way!

Thanks li'l ladies! Ya done me proud...

Catching Up with Campsie!

2005-06-14T03:59:00.000-07:00
Let's face it—

We're just way behind with The Campsie Project. I know it, you know it. We all know it.

And I'm not just talking about the blog either! The house, crimony, the house!

The thing is, I told Lucy before we ever started this, that I was looking for something to do that was so overwelming that I would have to throw it up for the universe to help me. Note: That would definitely be this. But it's coming along. Nice things are happening, but the funny thing is how, the more we get done, the more it becomes apparent how much there is to do. Let me restate: there is so much to do.

It's been said, that if we feel overwhelmed, we need only think of Esther's House (what—no blog?!), our California friend, a block away, who is renovating a 2 1/2 story victorian. Esther ain't got utilities. Okay, love ya, Esther!

Over at Campsie, we're thinking of picking up the pace. We've had some wonderful help from Contractor Mike and Co. who have:
replaced upstairs knob-and-tube electrical with la moderne
blown insulation into the roof and walls
set fixtures and switches all over the place
drywalled extensively
finished out my "yikes" doorway
closed up the original (new) bathroom doorway
put in a new auxiliary service in the basement
Right on, guys! Fast, yes. Still, we've got much pick-up work to do. Lots of minor sanding issues. My newly built closet, they were nice enough to mud, extending my reprieve on learning to mud drywall. Every friggin' person I talk to says the same thing: "It's an art…" (insert mocking, sneering, baby voice: "eet's annn arrrrrrtt!!!") Sheesh… I don't know. I'm sure it is, but it better be a quickly learned art—like cell phone photography. 'Cause I gotta get it done…

But Lucy and I have been workin' right along. This weekend was a good one. We did some fine stuff, like dry walling the staircase, and…and…okay—we dry walled the staircase, though! The next step is mudding. We're trying a variety of products and techniques, seeking the ultimate balance between quality and can-we-just-get-this-done-ness. Lucy's been doing a great job at spackling (spackling? mudding? what exactly is the difference?) the myriad of gentle cracks, gentle reader, that plague the upstairs bedroom. I did some of that, too, but she excels, I believe.

Besides, I got sidetracked yesterday when I saw where brickman Pedro had pointed out where "creeters" (pardon my Mexican) had been roosting—underneath the lip of the roof line, in this brick-surrounded bird nest fortress. I dug it out with a long stick, standing on the second-story window ledge, and—I tell you—what a stink. Not dead bird, no-no-no… More of a frat-house-for-birds kind of smell. Sooo gross. I eventually donned the respirator, despite the fact that I was out in the wide-open air, clinging to the 1950's TV antenna. After doing my best to clear the nest out, I moved on to Great Stuff. Which is addictive, I might add. Luckily, I didn't break my neck stuffing trash bags up in this crack and filling it in with the amazing foaming stuff. After, that, I gotta tell you, I could hardly stop. I was out on that ledge for at least an hour looking for holes to fill with fantastic foam.
So we're getting there, Next steps:
Lots of sanding and paint prep. Inside and out, really.
Trying to get a handle on the laundry room situation.
Getting the floors refinished
and 10,000 other things!
Well, that's what we signed up for…so be it…Jedi.

Episode XIV: A New Closet

2005-05-29T21:21:00.000-07:00
Okay, I've got the star wars bug a little bit, forgive the cheesy title. I came home today (to the Bassett house, that is) just extra special dirty. Lucy and I decided to add a closet in the bathroom, and I got to "frame it up." This is something that I really enjoy doing, this rough carpentry stuff. I still have no idea about hanging drywall. That's going to be Mike's bag, I guess. For now. Mike's the contractor, right? It's been a while, huh? Well, this just in: Theoretically, we hired a contractor, which has been kind of an ego-blow for me. It's not that I can't do it, I keep telling myself, it's that, I can't do it nearly fast enough. So Mike's gonna help us get down the road, is the idea.

Moving on from my previous favorite tool, the flat bar, it's the drill making a surprise comeback on the vintage tool trail, and really making it happen for me lately. That and Patron Builder Todd's indespensible miter saw. Between the two of those and a box of star screws I seem to be able to really go lego upstairs. Love those star drive screws! - I guess they're expensive, but I'm not building a whole house, so that's okay. And they allow me the so-far unnecessary luxury of taking things apart if I—ahem—screw something up.

So it's been awhile, right? Soooo much going on. Got side tracked by brother chris' wedding, and replaced blogging with beer, briefly. Stories of that looney affair are (or will soon be) at Mingle Freely, my other blog, people!

Back to the construction—

We're covered up. We've got a lot going on, and yet, haven't been "on site" in awhile, until this weekend. We've got Pedro, our favorite brickman and his assorted crew hard at work on the terribly neglected tuck-point work on the house. It's becoming apparent to me that water-damage has been huge at Campsie Place. Pedro is a gifted mason with funny stories, a wonderful demeanor and Lucy has promised more on him soon. PS: You can email her to demand that she contribute more to this blog.

Meantime, we have tackled a couple of worthy projects:

stripping the stairs - the stairs were really a mess. one of the first things we did after we bought the house was to strip off this jake-leg monkey business where somebody had tried to "enlongate" the stairs by basically building stairs on top of the stairs and then covering the whole thing with carpet. Uh…yeah. We followed up on this mission a couple of weeks ago by ripping the paneling down in the stairway, which created the ever-popular domino effect (becoming an old friend) where, in order to fully remove the paneling and take the stairway down to the studs, we had to actually remove the treads, some of which were split anyway, clear out all the debris and re-install them. Of course the ones there are really just pine 2 x 10's (talkin' like a carpenter, finally, huh?), and later we'll rip them off again and replace them with oak.
framing a bathroom closet - I spent less time than I would have imagined framing in a closet for the bathroom. As I said before, drywall? I have no particular idea. But if you want me (and lucy wanted me) to bang together some 2 x 4's so we can have an inset closet in a wall that's already been ripped down to the studs? I'm your man. And I'm almost certainly over-brimming with premature pride. I just hope contractor Mike doesn't have to rip down the whole thing. We'll see…
That's a quick update. Sorry it's been so long. More reports to come on Pedro and saving our bricks, and contractor Mike coming to the neighborhood to do some serious ass-busting on our behalf.

Campsie Photo update!

2005-05-10T13:11:00.000-07:00
It's time for an album, folks, and I'm not talkin' about Hall & Oates, here. I'm talkin' about Jeffries and Points. And THE PROJECT. Haven't done a photo-tour recently of the Campsie Project, so… shall we?

Right this way, please for NEW PICTURES OF CAMPSIE!

THE OLDER PIX REDUX

Also, for those who may have missed previous galleries, here's a repost. Through the magic of Ofoto (I mean—Kodak Gallery), you can go see what it looked like when we bought it, or at The Housewarming Party, or the Legendary Digging Party or the basement jacks that Patron Builder Saint Todd installed.

NOTE: You should not need to log in if you don't want to, but it is a decent service, if you're up to your ass in digital photography like me. (But I'd be remiss if I didn't at least mention Flickr, which is way cooler.)

We're feeling better, doc.

2005-05-10T12:19:00.000-07:00
We were feeling a little hopeless rcently (but it's passing). Glum. Over challenged. You know, like people with a house half-torn apart.

Tearing up seems to be the specialty of both lucy and I. It’s kinda scary. I started to get allergic to it recently (lucy might tell you that “allergic” is Mick's new over-used emotional adjective), feeling like we by god needed to be doing some building up; enough with the tearing down. I think we’ve reached a point of panic over not finding any more things to tear down (or at least choosing not to, which is a kind of progress) and being a little too clueless about how to fix the things that we’ve torn down already. There’s this vague agreement that we’ve got to move in here. Soon. Or at least, as soon as possible.

That doesn’t have the imminent ring to it that I wish that it did.

So much work and then there’s moving. Hence, the overwelm-ment. Overwelmation. Take or pick, they both mean, shit, dawg! What we gonna do?

Well, looks like we gonna hire ourselves a contractor.

The idea is that if we don’t, it’s just going to be forever before we move in. This work is like some sort of self-replicating optical illusion, though. The closer you look the more there is to do.

Lucy and I have basically defaulted to either tearing stuff up, or buying things when this realization sets in. Not that we’re as bad as others might be. I mean, it’s not like I’ve bought any major tools yet. We bought a shop vac, okay.. Really we’ve gotten pretty far on crowbars, small lumber purchases, a hammer, hex screws, and gloves and kneepads.

The thing is, it’s actually easy to put off doing anything with a trip to Lowe’s or Home Depot. We go in, walk around, say ‘what were we looking for?’ and leave with a box of screws. So, I’m just saying, financially, it could be worse. Today, for instance, we actually bought stuff: a medicine cabinet, a wall heater, and an exhaust fan. All needed, for sure. But this led to the regular ‘chain reaction effect,’ which in this case was: how the heck do you install a wall heater?

Electricity is bedazzling us, friends. How does it work? We do not know. But we’ve heard that it has great potential.

So we’ve got these imponderables (or infinite poderables):

Upstairs wiring – it’s knob and tube, dube. We gots to partially rewire! (not new info)

The behemoth that is the bathroom – can mick just be proud of his demo work and “framing lite” and turn it over to a pro so that it might get done this century?

The bedroom closet door addition – see previous

That’s where we are, or aren’t depending on your degree of optimism. Mine is actually high, but keeping eyes on the road is sometimes tricky.

To close pleasantly, here’s some of what actually did happen today.

Climbed up on the roof and unstuck two painted-shut windows. Hurray, sweatbox upstairs!

Did a quick frame-up where the bathroom door used to be, so that drywalling can happen. Now how d’ya drywall?

Set some braces in the wall, so that the new medicne cabinet will hang and not come crashing down in another exciting episode.

Finally did some important listing. There a lot of non-hammer swinging work to do on this project, and I think Lucy and forget that. Therefore, the listing, and some phone calling.

Coming soon: The Contractor Cometh…

We’re getting there.

Jamb on it!

2005-04-25T21:43:00.001-07:00

Jamb on it!
Without a doubt, we've seen that Miss Lucy has a special love of pulling nails, and taking things apart. Here we find her in her native environment, dissecting the former door jamb of the room that is to be the bathroom. In the background, behold, gentle reader, the wonder of my newly-constructed new door frame!

Hammers and Nails and Saws, oh my…

2005-04-25T20:46:00.000-07:00

New Doorway or Beer stand?
Now we're startin' to see some action.

Lucy and I have been hard at work. I say this because we maybe—a teensy little bit—have questioned our time commitment recently. I keep thinking of a boomerang— you throw it and it flies away, and then arcs back. Well, I keep waiting for it to circle back. Of course, I hope it doesn't chop my hand off when it comes zooming it. I don't know how that figures into the metaphor, but I'm really totally against having my hand chopped off.

But the gist is this. We've spent a great deal of time and effort tearing things apart, right? And at some point, I reckon, we start putting things back together (yes, this has been the theme of several posts). And that will be nice. Not because I'm tired of tearing things apart. That is actually quite a bit of fun. But more because I'll rest easier once I can confirm that putting things back together is—you know—doable.

So here's the latest: I've been doing two serious carpenter projects: Opening a new doorway and installing braces into a section of floor. I'm kind of amazed that I've been able to do either. But it's true! I framed the new doorway. Not the bedroom closet doorway. We won't talk about that one. That one is the one we'll call "The Closet Door Project that Shall Not Be Spoken Of."

But look over here! (distracting gestures and colors ensue) It's the new bathroom doorway! Okay, it's the frame of the new bathroom doorway. Jeez, ya just gotta be so literal all the time... But really! The new bathroom doorway! Framed by me! I studied three books, all of which seemed to address aspects of the framing process... but never the whole thing. So I tried to start with some commonly-held principles—for instance: "framing is accomplished using studs" and the like—that all the books shared, and then I ferreted out specific info as necessary. Mostly this amounted to literally hours vacant staring and trying to remember middle school algebra. 1/16th? 3/8ths? Holy cow. I didn't realize carpenters were actually rocket scientists. I literally spent half of a day trying to be sure that I was about to nail a stud into the right place in the floor. ONE STUD. (sidenote: next time you see constuction workers standing around, apparently aimlessly, remember this valuable insight: they are actually quite busy trying to remember middle school algebra.)

I must confess now, this was all a lot of fun. What with the countin' and the addin' and the transmogrification. First I tried to make mental notes. Riiiight… Next it was sketching on the drywall, and then finally it was time for graph paper. My favorite. I haven't gotten to really use graph paper with a purpose since 7th Grade Drafting. And I still worry that I may have missed my calling.

So I measured and hammered and cut wood and stared a lot. Also, I used screws for this job, since I was trying to prepare for the inevitable taking it apart because it's wrong.

And guess what? We still don't know yet. That great secret and surprise won't be known until the door jambs are installed, and even then I guess until the door itself is hung, smashed or banged into place. Whatever it takes!

MORE PICTURES ARE ON THE WAY! STAY TUNED!

Construction as of late facilitated by the sounds of: David Bowie, The New Pornographers, DJ Paul V, Bill Tapia, The Decembrists, and the Dawn & Drew Show.

We've got The Power…

2005-04-25T06:19:00.000-07:00
VERSUS

WHICH WOULD YOU CHOOSE?

This weekend, very productive. We're entering a sawing phase, and I went to "The Depot" and—with some teeth-gnashing—bought a miter box, MSRP $14.97. (PS: Lucy thinks I'm an impulse buyer, but if so, I'm totally a cheap-ass impulse buyer. Speaking of cheap, where you buyin' your gas?

Anyway, I was excited about my miter box, plastic though it was. Then Patron Builder Todd came over to inspect my stud-work, and you know what he did? He laughed at my miter box. It reminded me of the time I was driving my Honda around near a great mechanic's place, with the emergency spare on. I'd been remiss in getting the "real" tire fixed, and Steve DiMartino waved me in, and patched it and put it on, right there, on the spot. When I tried to pay him, he waved me off, saying, "I felt sorry for you." Hooo-kay..

So in quite likely the same spirit, I was offered the indefinite loan of a kick-ass electric Miter Saw. And sweet baby Jesus, that thing is the cat's pajamas.

Okay—So maybe I never actually opened the plastic cheap Miter Box. Or maybe I opened it but refrained from actually cutting a single piece of wood. Maybe I had hoped against hope that this might happen, this cosmo-sent gizmo. Who knows? Maybe the Shadow knows, but he ain't talkin'. In fact, he's tied up in the basement.

I cut a hole in the wall..

2005-04-19T18:59:00.000-07:00

I cut a hole in the wall..
Originally uploaded by mrtoastey.
Plaster, lathe, saws-all.
Plaster, lathe, saws-all.

We decided on this great idea for maximizing the silly bedroom closet space. But I think it was Satan who really had the idea. The hole leads straight to Hell, I'm afraid.

Day of the Saws-All

2005-04-19T17:48:00.000-07:00
Hello, Campsie watchers!

Yes, we've been a bit remiss with the postings, but I guess that's like saying "Under Contruction" on your web site, so I'll just spare you the apologies and cut to the action!

Let's see, hmmm, oh yeah! Knocked a doorway out upstairs. (blush)

Probably the most satisfying things I've yet done. I get worried over the DEstruction and lack of CONstruction, but hopefully that tide will turn if we can get Plumber John in to do his Pipe Magic®. Lucy and I were prepping for his hoped-for arrival, and then got the word that we were getting wait-listed 'til end of the week. Pleeease, let it just be end of the week…

So Sunday was a day of cutting wood, cleaning up wood and plaster and some of what I like to call Stand and Point Time. As best I can tell, this term hasn't been copyrighted yet, which is a mystery to me. I use it all the time. As in: "Patron Contractor Todd, can you come over so we can have some Stand and Point Time over this upstairs bathroom business?" I mean—isn't that nearly the core of working with contractors?

Thank the lord Jeee-zus Chreesto for my contractor friends, especially Todd and Josh. Both those guys know they'll be getting more calls from me. Lately, I've been trying to understand all about doors. I've gotcher carpentry books, dude; I've got the Readers Digest Complete Do-It-Yourself Manual, which is described as "the yard-stick by which all other books on do-it-yourself are measured." Thanks to Bob Tharsing for the tip. Now go look at his fabulous paintings.

So I started knocking out a hole in the wall in the bedroom, for another closet door. Maybe a bad idea. But I did as my parents' old pal Steve Murphy did and "make a decision, even if it's a bad one." Okay, so maybe bad one. Can't tell yet.

But the amazing thing is, I've knocked out another door hole, this one into the bathroom (er—future bathroom, that is.), and I'm feeling good about it. Probably because I got to use the sawsall. But I'm starting to think terms like studs, cripple studs, headers… And I'm getting kind of excited about the possibility of framing a door.
Is it possible that I could actually do this? Tune in again, fine reader for the eventual, much-later-than-I-think, answer!

Progress can be infintessimal right?

2005-04-11T06:17:00.000-07:00
Let's talk about smashing. Knocking. Pounding. That's where we are with The Campsie Project. Let's talk Crowbars. That's been my tool of choice recently. Lucy and I got to smashin'—last week and this—the ceiling out of one of the downstairs "bedrooms" (this house is full of tiny rooms-- they're all technically "bedrooms") so that Plumber John could get to the pipes, so that he could run the pipes, so that we could move the bathroom, so that we could have the laundry room, so that we could finish the upstairs so that we can move the fuck in (sorry Mom!) to the upstairs, so that we can stop payin' double mortgages, so that we can be happy for ever and ever and ever.

So there's some things that have to happen, gentle reader.

And they're happening, Kesey. Lucy, she been ripping up base boards, which provides a peculair, near orgasmic satisfaction, if you pull the piece off without incuring damage. Ohhhhhhhh!

Speaking of damage: yesterday I went to town with Jim's sawsall. Can you say "flying plaster chunks?" Yup. I don't know— It's one thing to carefully measure a doorway; to consider the possible wiring in the wall; the stud locations; etc. It's another to actually lay into it with a power tool. I feel sure that I've done something terrible and wrong. Sick and wrong. But I'm assured that I haven't. I'm yet to believe that, personally. But here we go… you know—what with the wall, and the hole in it.

I hope to have a framed in closet door there in the near future.

Tune in next time for some images of Destructo-Vision!©

Slow But Sure

2005-04-01T06:27:00.000-08:00
Looks like it's my turn again. Ole Mick is submerged in receipts, celebrating the return of tax time. The latest on Campsie pour moi? I've become a bit stumped by indecision and disbelief at the vast nature of the work to be done. Sunday (our normal work day) included a lot of head scratchin' and wanderin' around. We finally just threw our hands up and went to a movie (Life Aquatic-I give it ***). I'm actually quite at peace with that decision. Normally I would've beat myself up for having lost a day of work but this time away was needed. I just couldn't commit to the latest project-ripping out the ceiling in one of the 1st floor rooms in order that it may be lowered to accomodate the plumbing move for the upstairs bathroom. I've now polled my various sources of inspiration and I'm ready to proceed. A new consultant is on board-Laura Dalzell-an ole pal from my Ky Lighting days. I've worked out a trade with her. I do lighting plans for her and she offers me her supreme space-planning abilities. This coming Sunday we'll be doin' some wall-rippin' so watch out!!!

watch out for that hole

2005-03-18T10:56:00.000-08:00

watch out for that hole
Originally uploaded by mrtoastey.
Here then is the absence of the rotten kitchen corner, where a leaking fridge had destroyed the floor. It was cut out and replaced by a new subfloor.

Here are more pictures, if you get turned on by that kind of thing.

The real Basement Jaxx

2005-03-18T10:54:00.000-08:00

No jumping, jacks...
Originally uploaded by mrtoastey.
The jack system that has been installed on the side wall of the house. It's holding up... the house! Well, not really. But it is supporting a new beam which is relieving the load on that side.

The Jack Attack!

2005-03-18T07:13:00.000-08:00
So, we removed tons of dirt, remember that?

I know you do if you were one of the wonderful people who helped make it happen! Again, Lucy and I thank you so much for the astonishing effort put forth. I shake my head and just cry… cry… cry. No, I don’t– but I do gape some. And mutter “geez,” a lot.

The thing is, I had this moment of concern when I had this thought: What if some of those people who were doing the miner forty-niner bit didn’t even know why it had to be done? For what, already? And I wrung my hands some. My dirt-diggin’ hands.

So, if we didn’t get it straight with you, this is why we needed to dig out seven tons of dirt: To put in a series of jacks to support areas of the house that have suffered from neglect over many decades.

And here’s the very good news: The jacks are in! Which couldn’t have happened without the crazy digging day. But really, even Lucy and I are surprised. Patron Restorer Todd and his rock’em sock’ems flew into action last Thursday, just 4 days after the main digging party and two days after Meridith, Lucy and I dug out another ton. (see previous posts)

And to our astonishment, by end of day Friday, there were concrete platforms, jacks, a new support post, chimney reinforcements, and some sawed-out kitchen floor, just for added destruction. Pretty amazing for three guys!

The upshot: The floors will never be level. Todd keeps reminding us: "This is an old house. Old houses have wavy floors," Spoken in that sort of too loud and too enunciated tone, generally reserved for remedials (kidding!). BUT there is a dramatic difference all over the place. And the kitchen floor no longer has a rotted out hole in the corner, but now a nice strong patched-in section (that will soon be covered with…tile or something—the jury (Lucy) is still out.

Now here’s an invitation: If you were one of the Dirt Brigade, come over and see what you helped us accomplish! Just email me and we’ll figure out when you can stop by.

Don’t worry— the shovels have been put away.

If you're afraid to come over, here are pictures to look at.

Old-Fashioned Amish Basement-Lowering

2005-03-11T10:42:00.000-08:00
(this was displaying funny on some computers, so I fiddled with it some. No new content, just easier to read! -- mick)

Well, well, well, we had ourselves a work party. It was just an amazing thing, I tellya.. The turnout! The tons of dirt moved! The incredible grime! And, oh, the friends who helped make it happen. Let's take a look back. In words and pictures! (photo link at the bottom)

Since before we bought the house, Saint Todd was preaching house-jackin, friends, house-jacking! See, we've had these, ah, foundation issues that we've known we were going to have to contend with. These are the kinds of things that led to the popular question You're not gonna BUY that house, are you?

And yes, we did, as you can plainly gather by this point.

But downstairs, all was not right, and we knew it. Or upstairs for that matter. Or outside. But it sure is a nice, um, street, friends!
The bottom line: we needed to excavate major dirt from the basement to get to the foundation walls so that the sill plate could be repaired in several places where terra-mites (as Lucy likes to say) had chewed it down. (Ancient history people! Don't Worry! TJ, the Insect Technologist was here!) Hence, the jacking.

But first, the digging!

This was not something that you particularly look forward to. Todd had two words to ease the pain: Work Party! Now, it's entirely possible that, based on my social history, there was a misunderstanding about what this meant. Traditionally, this would have meant "work," as in, working on making a cocktail or working on a new dance. So I must apologize to those who didn't realize that, this time, it meant "work," as in "hauling dirt." It's a mistake anyone could've made, right?

And so, with some reluctance and recalcitrance, we marked the calendar, and sent out emails to about 30 people. You know the kindóhardworking, guilt-able... your best friends. No, reallyóLucy and I had no idea who would possibly take this kind of bait. We offered food, beverages, shovels, gloves, dust masksÖ who would go for this sort of thing?

All I can say is: We were truly blessed by some fine fine friends on Sunday.

People started showing up at noon sharp, as requested and pretty much just started digging. I kid you not. And this basement of ours was quickly looking like some sort of World War II tunneling operation or Escape From Alcatraz.

Within minutes the air was thick with dust that we could've been on some archaeology expedition. And we were, a bit. Unearthed were many an antique bottle (see pictures), but thankfully no bones or other gruesome stuff. This was a plus as it kept any of our shovelers and bucketeers from running out in a tizz. Did I just mention bucketeers? Have I explained the procedure?

See it's like this, Indiana Jonesó

With the help of many kind and wonderful souls, we bucket-ferried about seven tons of dirt out of our basement. I am not kidding and I'm not lying. I can't think of all the people that get thanked, because I spent a lot of the time up in the dirt, like y'all did, but I'm gonna try: Meridith, Esther, Travis, Jennifer, Dave, Todd, JoAnn, Perrin, Melissa, Kate, Meridith (2 separate days!), Rona and Steve (for food), Loris (for food), Clark, Kenn, Phil, Diane, Double D, TT, Jamie, Josh, Jim, Sonya and if I forgot you and you're reading this, leave a comment and I'll correct that omission, because we're so very grateful!

Now, the pictures!

Dirt!

2005-03-09T10:49:00.000-08:00

dirt
Originally uploaded by mrtoastey.
Kenn's cartooned the basement party at Campsie! It's nice to have a cartoon archivist. We built that into the loan, y'know.. go see Kenn's site!

Dump Day!

2005-02-17T10:42:00.000-08:00
Oh, the anticipation... Lucy and I have both been learning that home renov instant gratification takes different forms. For instance, ripping up carpet tacks was lucy's thing. One of mine earlier today was peeling the chicken wire off of the inside on the side french door. Ahh.. But we both had ancipated the joy of the arrival of Todd's dumptruck to cart away our stinking (but relatively dry) pile of carpet in the driveway. We peeled it up about a week ago and have taken turns wringing our hands about when the dumptruck would arrive. Well, today was the day.

Todd couldn't be any prouder to be a dumptruck owner, I'll say that. Our Contractor MC pulled up in his red Ford DT, with the kind of paternal beam unique to contractor parents, and of course we were into that. But after the great cardio of flinging carpet into the truck, the real wonder ensued when Mick got to go to the Dump! And I'm just sayin' wow. The dump. Here's a thought I've had before: Be thankful—down-on-your-hands-and-knees thankful— that the trash truck comes by and takes your shit away every week. Because, the volume, man, the volume! More to come.

Sunday scrapin!

2005-02-15T09:41:00.000-08:00
Sunday was my rebound day from Sick Saturday. Sidenote: I try not to call in sick to work hardly ever because you end up paying for it by being sick on the weekend eventually. I can't remember the last time I called in sick for work, but it must have been sometime.

I was happy to get out of the sick thing and back over to Campsie for some action. Lucy spent the day doin' this and that. She said she hadn't been upstairs, and when i asked why, she said she was a-skeered! girrrrl... shee-it.
Our house isn't haunted, I don't think. I've never had a ghost. When I was a kid our furnace made this noise like Frankenstein's Monster lumbering around. It could be kinda scary, so a ghost is never really something I've wished for, historically. Anyway, if Campsie is haunted, it's haunted by the ghosts of technology gone by. Things like: hot water heat. knob-and-tube electricity. giant TV antennas.
Today we scratched out heads some more over the lock situation. Who would have thought this could be such a fiddle-faddle? (I don't have any idea where that came from.) Still mystified by how you get all the locks on a house to use the same key without calling a locksmith and without buying damned Schlage locks, which are just as ugly as any of them, but three times more expensive. Once I'd thrown my hands up over that, it was time to draft our new tool into action: the cast iron floor scraper. Ah, yes! Now, this is the warrior that we got to help with ripping up linoleum in the upstairs bathroom and downstairs in the kitchen and the hall. After a few tentative strikes here and there, I was thinking, "this is going to be an incredible bitch." I took a deep breath and headed into the upstairs bathroom, put my back into it, and made some very satisfying noises of destruction. This is a violent process, fabulously loud and... an incredible bitch! But verrrrry satisfying. After tearing through 3 layers of linoleum (layer two was pretty cool, kind of bachelor pad Louis IV), I hit this grimy skuzzed-on layer under which was—surprise!—hardwood. Unfortunately, it's kind of soaked in filth (I mentioned this is the bathroom, I believe), and the floor may be hosed. There's some evidence of water damage around the toilet, which could explain our mammoth water bill. Just add this to the "wait and see" list.

On a momentary bleak note, right before bed, Lucy read to me from Mr. Fix - It, who says that knob and tube wiring is cause to run away from a potential house purchase. Well, too late for us.

Today's destruction brought to you by: Cast Iron Scraper, Flat Crowbar/Claw (always a favorite), and my new rubber kneepads. they were $15, but I think I'll get my money's worth and my knees will thank me.

My Turn

2005-02-13T09:40:00.000-08:00
So here's my first entry. I won't be stepping into this too often-no fancy new laptop, no cable modem. Lucy+computer=disaster. I just went to touch this thing and the signal disappeared! My virgin entry shall respond to Mick's comments thus far.

I'd like to start by saying that the picture below is NOT Todd, our carpenter friend. This is a random guy demonstarting the claw action of the channel-lock pliers. Mick refers to them as the nippers. I discovered their real name as listed on the tool itself when spacing out in the midst of extreme fatigue yesterday afternoon. I looked down and there it said-channel lock.

Mick was, in fact, officially sick. Must admit I doubted it for just a moment but when he missed the bellydancing extravaganza last night I knew it was real. Esther's "work party" was just that...a work party. Those present (just 6 of us) chatted and hummed whilest lugging many dirty pounds of stinky rotten rusty nail ridden wood. We cleared a pile about 5' tall X 15' long. Needless to say-I'm sore in places I never knew I could be sore. My HANDS are virtually useless today. (Word to ma mutha-DON'T WORRY). I think today I'll work a little less intensly. Perhaps a trip to our neighborhood home improvement stores will be in order. I hear tell from my fellow home improvers that I will settle on one vs the other (Lowe's/Home Depot) as our "relationsip" grows. Comments anyone? They BOTH give lotsa money to the republicans so don't give me THAT reason.

It's true-I can't wait to go to IKEA.

I'm really stumped on the door hardware thing. I'm sure we're beating a dead horse...no-we're at a dead end...no-it's a red-herring. I think I'll sleep on it some more. There really isn't anything to steal. We're better off without the wine.

We're almost finished with the project of removing the former inhabitants floor coverings. It's proving to be an amazing unveiling. The floors are beautiful.

It's true-I may have found my purpose! I think this is just what Mick and I needed-hard manual labor and a learning process.

For the Lack of a Lock

2005-02-12T22:28:00.000-08:00
Spent some of the day surfing for locksets (a new term for me) for the house. Also, I kept incorrectly spelling "locksets" as "Laptop Cases." Back to the matter at hand—Yeah, there's a variety of folks out there with keys and I suppose we need to change the locks. We're still at the point where there's really not much to steal in the house, except my ukulele and some bottles of wine. Wait-- I guess that means there's really quite a bit to steal, then isn't there?

I think Lucy and I overcomplicated things, just for practice. The locks just need to be re-keyed probably, but we went shopping and found that it seems possible to spend between $15 and $300 on a "handleset," which all seem to come in brass, brushed nickel or brushed brass nickel. And did I mention that they all look like they came off of George Washington's house? Yuck.

Seeing as how I like making lists, this house is a great project. Certainly lots of lists to be made. Today, I was hoping to do some hard work, but I woke up with a nasty cold and stayed in bed, while Lucy pulled nails and stacked wood for Esther. I drank water, though. What's that buddhist proverb, "Stack wood, drink water?" So I was doing my part. Okay, maybe I'm wrong...

You've Got Nails!

2005-02-11T09:05:00.000-08:00
The best tool, the most gratifying tool, the most almost orgasmically satisfying tool so far is the nail/staple pliers or nippers, as they're sometimes called.They've got a curved head (ohhh!) that allows you to grab onto staples from the carpet in the hardwood and just roll them out.. You just want to do one more. Just one more...

Rehab starter kit

2005-02-11T08:57:00.000-08:00

the other day, i went with Todd, our patron saint of renovation, to get "the tool kit." this was just a few tools that we, the rehabbers would need. It actualy only amounted to a few things. I'm sure we'll find things we JUST GOTTA HAVE pretty much every time we walk into Home Depot or Lowes. I'm going to concede that I may not have to have a table saw just yet, but I'm still looking for an excuse—i mean—a reason to get one.

Can't Wait to go to Ikea

2005-02-09T18:47:00.000-08:00
Lucy says: "Gosh I can't wait to go there. we're gonna get a lot!"