Susanna and I are working on a 5-year plan to get the house in shape so it will be ready to sell. A 5-year plan will give us a few years of wiggle room on selling the house before I retire. There are a lot of projects that should be done before we should sell the house. The most pressing project is the front porch.

The paint was peeling from the porch ceiling, the light was no longer working, and the front steps were rotting. Susanna kicked off the project a few weeks ago by pulling down the stairs and then removing the existing ceiling, which appeared to be thin (1/4″) wainscotting-type boards, likely original from when the house was built 140-years ago. It does look like the roof isn’t leaking, and the peeling paint was just due to age. The boards were solid (no rot), but it wasn’t worth the effort to remove the peeling paint and properly prepare the original boards.

I decided to replace the ceiling with tongue and groove boards milled from my existing stock of eastern white pine (at least as much of it as I can get out of existing stock). I think I have enough to do about half of the ceiling, so I’ll have to pick up more in the near future to give it time to dry before milling.

I milled up a few sample pieces a week ago to make sure it was what we wanted. I was able to get 4 pieces from each of the rough pine boards I had stored in the loft, for a total of (I think) 48 pieces. This morning I took a few hours and milled up all the lumber I had. The boards were milled to about 7/8″ thick and 4 3/8″ wide and between 5′ and 6′ long. I then ran them through the shaper to give the tongue and groove profile.

My next step is to prime and paint the boards, and then finally cut to proper length and install. I was hoping for a nice day this week to lay out all the boards outside and get the painting done in a batch, but with rain today and a lousy week forecast, I started painting them in the workshop tonight with Izzy’s help. Not the fastest process, but she was able to help me get 10 boards primed before she had to come in and get ready for bed. Tomorrow we can put on the top coat of exterior paint.

I was a little hesitant about using eastern white pine. It is very soft and has zero rot resistance. However it is local, cheap , I had a bunch on hand and I can still find it for $1/bdft. I kept the boards fairly thick and am using a decent primer and paint, so hopefully this ceiling will last another 100 years and paint job will last a decade or more before needing work (or at least past us selling the house).

Or, why one may not want to buy a GE dishwasher.

Last week, Susanna noticed the dishwasher was making a whining noise when it was running, and it wasn’t cleaning the dishes properly. I did a little online searching, and it seemed the likely culprit was the pump motor.

This morning, I noticed water raining down in the basement when the dishwasher was running. Not a good sign. After the cycle finished I pulled out the dishwasher and looked underneath. The water was coming from a rubber hose between the dishwasher pump and the main diverter valve assembly. The part is available online for around $60, but the reviews said the replacement part had many failures in the same manner that the original did, lasting less than 2 years in most cases. One reviewer mentioned patching the leaking hose and I took that path.

Ben and I drove to the local Home Depot and I got some Flex Seal paste for the inside of the hose, some E-Z Fuse Silicone Tape to wrap around the outside, and new hose clamps. Hopefully that will repair the leak.

The leak is on the outlet (high-pressure) side of the pump, and seems to be a design flaw. If the repair doesn’t hold, I’ll order the new part, and add a few wraps of the silicone tape to the outside to hopefully extend the life of the new part.

Next step is to wait the 24-hour cure time of the Flex Seal and see if that fixes the problem (for now).

Our plans had been to have a family trip to Europe this summer and renovate the kitchen in 2021. When the craziness of the spring spilled into the summer, we cancelled our tickets to Europe and decided to instead renovate the kitchen.

Susanna and the boys started the demolition in the beginning of July, and then I spent a few weeks updating services and hanging the drywall (with some help from Ben). The boys were stuck at home for the better part of the summer, so we had lots of help during the hard part of the project.

Earlier this month, Susanna spent two weeks finishing the ceiling and walls, from the joint compound, through sanding and finally painting. Then, last weekend, we rented a sander and spent 8+ hours sanding the one hidden gem we found during renovation – a hardwood floor under the linoleum kitchen floor.

The kitchen layout is similar to the old layout, however we did eliminate a window to give us more cabinet space, and moved the fridge. Eventually we will pick up a counter depth fridge to fit with the cabinets. We purchased cabinets from IKEA, and while I don’t really like their furniture, their kitchen cabinets are pretty easy to install and seem to be of reasonable quality. The rail system for hanging the uppers makes lining them up a snap. So no complaints there.

This weekend we hung the cabinets on the wall where the fridge will go. The next week or two will be doing the other two walls and working on trim and other finishing touches. We aren’t too far from having a partially usable kitchen!

The forecast called for less than an inch of snow ending early in the morning. Instead we got nearly six inches of snow with the snow ending around noon. School and my work were cancelled. The boys got out in the morning with Izzy to play in the snow and again late in the afternoon to go sledding with the neighbors.

I was able to get some time to work on the bedroom/bathroom project in the afternoon while Izzy napped. We are making progress on the room. New England Performance Insulation (NEPI) installed the spray foam insulation two weeks ago. I have been working on installing the subfloor and framing for the bathroom. Susanna has been working on picking out fixtures and finding a tiling contractor.

It has been a slow weekend. Both Ben and I have been fighting a cold since Friday. Neither of us is completely knocked out, but we are certainly not feeling up to a super busy weekend.

The boys and I are working on upgrading the game loft – in preparation for Will’s birthday party in two weeks. Over the past two weeks I built a counter using some oak flooring that I brought back from St. Louis years ago. The party will be a gaming party, so we needed the counter to set up the computers on. We also made a Craigslist gain of four bar stools that are a surprisingly good match.

I still have some work to do before the party. I have to add wiring for the computers and two more overhead lights. In the long run we need to finish insulating the space and finish the walls and floor. But who knows how long that will take to finish…