Projecting and The New House

Projecting

Now that I have purchased a new house and been there a month the word projecting has taken a whole new term.  For me what projecting has always has meant was: Practicing a climb and the movement over and over until you are able to complete the climb physically and technically in one go with no falls on that try. 

 Now what it means to me is: Working on your house to restore it to its state and grandness by taking old classic features and things and fixing them so that they are up to date and functional and as great as they used to be. 

One of the hardest things about projecting for climbing is that you do not have the ability to typically project more than one at a time because it is very consuming to memorize the moves and constantly work on things and it is draining.  With our house the analogy is that it started off in a move in state and each project takes it down a grade from that state until the project has been sent. 

 House Projecting: 

Stairway  Carpet:  We took out the puke orange carpet that had been in the house for 30 years out and now and it was a chore.  The staples from the carpet and the carpet before this one were all in and it was 5 days of 1 hour each morning and 2 hours each evening getting the staples and nails out without pulling out the wood floors underneath.  The wood floors underneath have been painted twice and stained at least once and there are two visible layers of paint over the stain.  We are at a stand still here as we look into: carpet runners, floor sanding, carpet runner bars for the stairs.  Either way we both feel that it is a world better than the puke orange carpet whether it is two layers of paint or pristine.  It is just a matter of taking it to the next level.

Basement windows/Cleaning basement:

Well all of the basement windows were rusty and many were covered with plywood.  Steph’s dad convinced me to start taking them out and so I did.  It was about 1.5 hours a window of solid labor to get the windows out with chiseling, hammering, drilling but mostly a crowbar.  Then once we got the metal frames out I took a whole load to the dump. Now we are researching and fining windows that match and are going to fit the house.  Part of this is also getting or making window well covers and also getting the floors clear and also the basement in general clear and free of things like cobwebs and dust.  There was also the equivalent of 10 sheets of plywood and 40 2x4s that were all moldy and also in shelving that was rotting ans smelly.  That made for a pickup load of stuff to the dump. So now we have holes for windows and are researching the best fit for the house.  Once we have done the research I am confident that it will be easy to figure out the rest.

Gout Weed Removal:

I have never heard of this weed and still do not know much about it other than it is covering almost every flower bed that we have.  Someone has told me that you can make pesto out of it.  I am thinking that this would make a really good pesto party that would feed probably 60 people.  Hopefully we can figure this one out without chemical warfare.

And that is all that is going on right now.  It is plenty.  We have also been able to host a going away party impromptu for a friend with 9 guests and it also felt great.  Even with things sort of mid swing.  Maybe I will have time to project a route for my birthday or something in between all the other projecting.

Insulation and outlets to code in the garage:

We have been working on getting the garage ready as both a working area and also as a good storage unit for all our outdoor gear so that we can pick up and go when we want to go out hiking/camping/climbing/skiing/canoeing/ biking.  One thing that we noticed was that the garage is uninsulated.  Another thing that Steph's dad noticed when visiting last week was that it is not to code in terms of electrical.  The other discovery when looking at the circuit for the garage was that it was a 15 amp circuit that had more than 15 amps of things on it and also that has many of the rooms upstairs lights and basement lights on it so anytime there is a draw all the lights flicker which I don't really like. 

Also I just made some super awesome Vietnamese soup that I thought I would include a picture of as well.

 

We are in the process of adding new wire and will be insulating at some time.