January 2, 2016
With all the sleet that fell earlier this week, coupled with a day or two of snow, most of Chicago is covered in a layer of white. I assumed most everything was solid, but it turns out… the snow still seems to be tracking the animals that walk through/across our backyard.
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January 1, 2016
Last night, Liz and I talked, and re-confirmed our plans to pick up work once more. So even though today is New Year’s Day, and most of the rest of the country is nursing a hangover… we decided to put in a few hours on the house.
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December 30, 2015
Bob warned us that one of the biggest challenges in living in a house while you work on it is navigating all the stuff. You’re working where you live, and you need to move things out of the way, then back, and then out of the way again.
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December 9, 2015
Liz and I had a nice conversation with Bob about our workshop, and the things we’re learning. A lot of what we talked about focused on learning the techniques/tools (as opposed to simply completing a task).
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December 5, 2015
Given our busy week, Liz and I ended up deciding to work on Friday, after work. Which is one of the worst days to have a “House Day.” But… we desperately needed to put some time in.
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November 14, 2015
Liz ended up sweeping out the leaves with a broom (she didn’t want to risk damaging her plants with a rake), and I ended up using two dustpans to transport everything from the ground to the bag. It turned out to be a pretty good workflow.
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November 1, 2015
With a full week ahead of us, Liz and I decided to dig in and spend a bit of time today working on the basement again. With Bob’s guidance and a practice run under our belt, we felt confident we could tackle a round ourselves.
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October 30, 2015
On Friday, Bob and Julie headed in to Chicago to help us work on the basement. With the powerwashing complete, our next step was to skim sections of the basement walls that needed some concrete/repair. Here, Liz and Bob are checking out the requirements for each bag (1.25 gallons of water per bag).
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October 11, 2015
New day, new power washer. Bob was kind enough to pick this guy up on his way over today.
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October 10, 2015
We spent a good deal of the day getting prepped for work. But unfortunately, when all was said and done… the powerwasher had some issues. There was water coming through, but there was a leak somewhere that Bob couldn’t fix without taking the engine apart.
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October 9, 2015
Friday night, Liz and I put in more time in the basement. We were looking to get some powerwashing done this weekend, which means we needed to clear the basementfloor and also get as much done as we could with the chimney.
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October 7, 2015
Spent two hours last night, working in the basement. This second wall of bricks is coming down much faster, as there seem to be fewer “full” bricks, and fewer bricks overall. At a few points, I took to pounding out the bricks directly, versus chiseling the mortar, which helped speed things along.
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October 5, 2015
I mention this now because of late, we’ve seen a rise in how many “house guests” we’ve had. To offset some of the scariness, we’ve taken to referring to these guys by a name: “Mr. Scampers.”
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October 4, 2015
Today, Julie and Bob stopped over to help us with the house. Outside, Julie and Liz were at work on the parkway. Inside, Bob was taking measurements and making plans while I was in the basement, continuing to work on removing bricks from the chimney.
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October 3, 2015
I slowly discovered that hitting the chisel on an angle made things easier. As did brushing out all the debris before each set of blows. I also got to learn how to chisel away exposed mortar much faster… and to also use the chisel as a lever, to further loosen (and in some cases pry out) bricks.
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