Downtown Building On Hold For Winery Opening

Hello everyone! We have put the building renovation on hold because we are currently working on the winery located at the orchard. Please visit www.westwinery.com for more information.

Thanks,
Chris & Jen

Framing Up The Hallway Upstairs

Well hello again. This time I have moved back up to the upstairs hallway. This is the door I am going to try and attempt to install at the top of the staircase.

It is a vintage door along with a vintage knob and lock.









This is the space where it will go.

I really hope I don't drop it down the stairs! It is rather heavy.













This is the other side of the entrance way. I am framing it up for a back closet area off of our bedroom.

I didn't like the hall way going directly into the bedroom area, so this was my solution.

I am also lowering the ceiling in this area to the top of the doorway you see in the back. I could not think of a need for such a high ceiling in the closet.






This is the framing to lower the ceiling in the entryway. Also no need for such high ceilings here either.

Well come back and checkout our progress in this area. I should have some pictures of the hung door and some more ideas for the flooring in this area.

Later,

Chris & Jen

Still Cleaning The Brick! 10-09-07

Well it has been sometime since my last post and we have been working on a few different things lately.

Here are a few pictures of the brick cleaning we have done so far.

It is a really slowwwww process.








After I worked around the archway I still have to move back towards the front where Jen started.











Just another picture of around the arch of the freshly cleaned bricks. Only took five hours!

In my next post I will be moving back upstairs for some framing.

Until then.

Chris & Jen

Plumbing Upstairs Part 3 09-08-07

Well this is how my day began. Kind of looks like I passed out, but that was not the case this time. I was actually fixing the only leak we had in the water lines. There was one other one but we decided to replace the old line coming into the building, so that doesn't really count.
Come to think about it this leak wasn't my fault either.
This was the line that runs out to the outside faucet, which people know they commonly break in the winter months.
To repair the break you have to cut out the broken section and put in a repair coupling or you have to replace the cracked faucet, which luckily was not the case this time.




Here is the cracked 1/2" copper line.
When I fixed this line I tried to make sure there was an upward angle on the pipe so it will drain when the inside valve is shutoff for the winter months.

Really amazing that these types of leaks are cause for some of the worst basement and house flooding.
Always check your outside faucets each season!


Just some of the water that leaked out.
Good thing it really doesn't matter in our building!



Another stupid mistake on my part with the torch.
It is a great feeling when flesh bubbles up from these types of burns.


Picture of Jen's latest work.
I think she is going to be a while longer!


After making sure there were no more leaks in the copper downstairs, it was time to start moving things upstairs which means I have to get on the ladder again 16 feet in the air.

The water lines had to be run across the ceiling in and against the beams.

Luckily there was only four joints to solder in the air.


The first of the connections.
Oh BTW there is no floor beneath me so I had to setup a plywood platform across the floor beams.

So this made it even more stressful!

I decided to invent a drain for this line going upstairs as I really do not want anything to freeze up in the winter.

If we decide that we won't be staying in the apartment I can just turn off this line and then open the red valve to drain all the lines.


This is a picture of the water line coming up from the first floor.
This is where I put in another shutoff for those just in case something goes wrong moments.

From here you can see that I just hooked into the old copper water lines which saved me a lot of time in re-running them to the toilet and the shower.
I just hoped there was no breaks in the line again!


Here is a small victory! You really learn to take everyone you can get.

The shower has water and worked and so I decided to clean it out and think about how I got to this point by the end of the day.











We will leave you with another picture of myself lying on the floor.

I had to check and make sure the shower drain wasn't leaking, which it wasn't, so that is how we ended the day on a positive note.

Until next week!
Chris & Jen

Plumbing The Upstairs Part 2 9-03-07

Well today is Labor Day and guess what Jen & I are laboring away.

I thought I would start off with a picture of Jen's new project. Jen is in charge of cleaning off all the brick and plaster walls on the first level.

We will check in with her throughout this blog entry to see her progress.

This is the way my day started. Me thinking about how much I do not enjoy plumbing anymore.

I left the shower drain unhooked on Saturday because I just could not take it anymore. So today I started with this. I beleive that I worked on this shower for about 2 hours trying to get the shower trap hooked up to the 3" main.

Here is a picture from the first floor showing the shower trap on the left of the picture.

I was so happy I had to take a picture.

Well here is Jen working on the wall.

Keep on going Jen! Only 4 million more bricks to go.

Back to the upstairs plumbing again.

This is a picture of the backside of the shower area where the trap is located.

The real problem with this was that I could only use one hand to hook up the fittings because the space was so small.

Here is a closer view.

Once the 3" pipe was hooked up under the shower the pipe had to be ran out across the back rafters.

If you click on the picture you will see me down at the very end on the left hanging from a ladder.

Believe me this was a real blast to try and hookup when you are 16 feet in the air.

Finally got the pipe all hooked up and now I am ready to run the 90 and down spout over to the corner connection.

It has to be run down then over because the roof angle prevents any pipe from going all the way over to the final connection in the corner.

But I am out of fittings and all the stores are closed to due to it being Labor Day. So let go back and check on Jen's progress with cleaning the bricks.

Hey making some progress!! Well that is it for this Labor Day. I hope I am not still doing this next Labor Day???

Well we will see everyone next weekend so have a great week.

Chris & Jen

Plumbing The Upstairs Part 1 9-01-07

Hello again! Today we started working on the upstairs plumbing (Drain Pipes)

This the backside of the old bathroom which we decided to leave for now. My plan was to redo this but we decided we would like to have a working toilet & shower ASAP instead.

I had to cut out for the 3" drain that will run along the back wall. This seemed simple enough. Yeah right! I keep telling myself you have to remember things very rarely workout easy.



Thanks Jen for capturing the moment of, Oh Great!

This shower hookup will prove to be a real pain by the end of this day.



This is where the vent connects with the 3" drain.
This is also where the kitchen sink drain will be hooked into.


To the right of the picture is the bathroom sink drain and to the left is the toilet drain.
When this bathroom was first built it was plumbed in the first floor ceiling area. Since there was a drop-in ceiling it was never seen.

I wanted to make sure that everything was re-run the original way and this is the corrected way with this later addition bathroom.



Here I am adding the drain for the bathroom sink.

At least I don't have the plumber's crack!




The toilet drain with the upturned 90.
Almost ready for use!




Kitchen, bathroom sink and toilet drains finished.




Picture of Jen goofing around again.
She can't expect me not to put these on the blog.
Maybe someday she will learn.




Well this is the end of our day of plumbing.

Gatorade! I live on this stuff when I am working on this building.

Sorry Gatorade! I forgot to turn the label so I could give you a proper plug.
I really doubt they care about my little blog.

Later,
Chris & Jen

Tearing Out & Repairing The Floor 8-25-07

Hello again!
For some odd reason this weekend I started working on the first level floor to see what kind of damage was done when the building was leaking.
Let's just say it is better and worse then I thought.
This is a picture of the arch with the bottom removed.
Dad and I discovered that his floor level is about 4 inches higher than mine. I guess this is because I am on the downhill side of the street????
This is after I also removed the old water pipe located along this wall.


After removing the pipe dad & I decided to find out if there was a crawl space in the back of my building like he has in his building. We cut a hole shown here in the backroom floor and didn't find anything.
Oh well! It's not like I don't have enough holes to fix.
(See below)



This is a closeup of the backroom hole we cut.



After the backroom hole cutting we moved around to the front of the back wall to checkout the sewer pipe situation. This will be the main sewer for the the upstairs, so I was glad to find a clean out under this spot in the floor. This is really good news.



Here is what I was talking about earlier.
We decided to rip up the flooring on the West wall to see what might possibly be the problem with the springy floor boards.
Just more good times!



Well this is what we found.
Rotten boards, old fixes from who knows when & another discovery about the building.

This part shown here, we believe was a later addition. The boards were not built into the walls like the others towards the front of the building.
This is also where the apartment ends upstairs and you can see a difference in the brick color and a new brick starting point.



This is what we believe may be the older section.
Click on the photo to see how the boards are built into the brink and where also leveled with bricks coming out of the wall.



A final parting picture of the area.
I am glad we opened up this area as it was still very wet and moldy. This will allow some more air to move under the floor and hopefully dry it out.



This is a picture of what happens when a cast iron pipe is pushed from the ceiling rafters.

This was the original sewer pipe from the upstairs area of the building and I really needed it to come down so I could start running the new sewer pipe.

Don't worry though this was a well thought out plan and the important part is nobody was even close to this when it came down. Just another hole in the floor.




Well I will leave you with another picture of the pipe.
Next weekend is the Labor day weekend so I will have hopefully lots of pictures of the progress or lack there of.

All are welcome to stop by this Saturday and Monday as we will be working both days at the building.

Please stop by some of the other open stores that are already making the downtown area a better place to shop and dine.

I also thought if anyone would like to advertise their downtown business or soon to be business for free on this site just send me an email and I will put up an ad.

Also if you check us out regularly send us an email to let us know that you are checking us out.

Later,
Chris & Jen

Jen & The Little Restroom Of Horror's

Well here it is!! The last thing to demo on the main floor. The back restroom.

Pretty cozy!! Got the furnace next to it for added restroom warmth.

I really didn't want anything to do with this demo, so I let Jen go to town on it.



Another picture of the crap hole!!

Sorry bad joke!

But you had to know it was coming!










Nice!!!




















Real Nice!!

You don't want to know. It smelled so bad that bad isn't the right word!











The other side that shares the wall with the back glass.




















I don't think that works anymore. Just guessing???










Almost the end result! It took some time, but now we can make it better.















The back glass. Which we have an idea for.

The pile! Just another load to the dump!

I would like to say if anyone is looking for a toilet, just let me know.

I would sell this one cheap!!

Hey gotta pay for things somehow!!

Till next time, always remember to clean your toilets!