Lawn mowing and soap scum

Busy day out at The Dump on Saturday... I went to the Nike run in SF with Eryn and then planned to spend the rest of the day working to get the bathroom clean and functional. That meant that I needed to get the shower useable (read: clean enough to use without getting cooties).

So, I worked on scrubbing the soap scum off the tub some more. I had made great progress with the stuff on the tiles last weekend, but the layer on the tub was persistent. It had definitely had plenty of time to accumulate! I finally resorted to scraping most of it off with a straight razor blade, which sped things up considerably. It's still not gleaming, but I think if I keep spraying it whenever I'm there, the lingering bits will eventually melt away.

After some yardwork (mowed the lawn, raked up magnolia leaves, pruned back the jasmine stumps even more with some long-handled pruners and raked the driveway smooth), I was ready to test the shower. But I had to keep it quick since I hadn't repaired the wall over the tile yet. At least it was mostly clean.

BEFORE:

Many years of soap scum, mostly deteriorated caulk, a few spots of grout failure, plus the water damaged wall made for a really ugly picture. Too bad I framed it poorly and you can't see where the tub meets the floor--that was pretty gross too.

The one advantage to all that soap scum is that it sealed the grout pretty well. The black mildew scrubbed right off instead of penetrating and staining the actual grout.

When I went to peel the poorly executed caulk from the top edge of the tile, half the wall came with it. Alas, I did not photograph that interim step. Just know that it was pretty bad.

AFTER:
Note the gleaming tiles, once again white tub, mad-crazy caulk job and the kick-ass patch job (more about that later). Mom cannot decide which is more impressive--my caulk or drywall skills.

I still need to figure out how to remove the soap dish. It's pretty much corroded into uselessness, so it might as well go away.

Here is a close up of the tub just because this is a miraculous comeback for a 50 year old tub:

In addition to the straight razor, the other product that made this miracle happen is Lysol Bathroom Cleaner (formerly Lysol Basin, Tub & Tile). I had stopped using it about a year ago in lieu of less toxic cleaning products. As much as I like the Method Home line of cleansers, I knew I need to bring in the big guns for this task. I used a whole bottle on the bathroom over the course of one week, which I think burned all the hair out of my nostrils even with the window open for ventilation. Once I've achieved baseline cleanliness, I'll go back to the nicer for me and the environment stuff.

Zero lot line

So, I'm pretty close to a neighbor on one side. The other side has a fence and a wee little strip of dirt (where the dog run will eventually go). I've taken to calling the fenceless side the "alley" since that's what it feels like. I've tried to explain this to a number of folks, but I clearly wasn't doing a good job, so here is a photo:
To give you a better idea of the layout of the house, that's the laundry room door, kitchen windows (the ones over the sink), bathroom, then large bedroom.

I have a door onto the alley from my laundry room, but my neighbor does not. In fact, there is no reason for him to ever enter the alley because his access to his yard is on the other side of his house. However, under that blue tarp is a bed frame that needs to be removed pronto, and there are a couple screens hanging out back there too. I plan to discuss that with him tonight when I'm out there to mow the lawn (with my awesome new Brill reel mower that Nancy gave me--so cool!).

Haircut

Yesterday's major accomplishment at The Dump was to remove the jasmine that was growing wild on the front porch and carport. While it was very pretty when it was in bloom, and I'm sure smelled like heaven, it a) was way too much for the little house and b) needed to come down anyway when it came time for doing the roof. Probably was going to be in the way of wrapping the house for termite fumigation too.

I decided to remove it now rather than wait. I wanted an instant improvement and I definitely got one!

Here is what it looked like a few weeks ago:

And here's what it looks like now:
It was growing up into the roof and was tied on with string and twist-ties and looked like it had never been thinned out. All in all, it was quite a masterpiece of plant gone wild. There are some really thick, woody stalks that I could not cut with my hand pruners, so I'll get some long handled loppers this week to take care of them next weekend to bring them down to ground level. I'm not sure if it will send out new sprouts or if I cut it back enough to kill it. If I didn't kill it, I wouldn't mind having it climb back up, but would definitely do it in a more controlled fashion so it doesn't overpower the little house.

When I have someone out to remove the apple tree, I'll have them limb up the magnolia while they are there. I think that will do a lot to open up the view of the house from the street. Much like trimming shaggy bangs...

We also took a whack at the shed attached at the back of the house, but it wasn't ready to budge, so we left it there.

And I now have a nice, clean living room:
(remember how it looked on the 5 cent tour?):

And here is an apple-free yard:
Worked on the bathroom yesterday too. That is some persistent soap scum, but it is coming along. No photos of that until it's totally clean so you get the full effect. However, it's cleaning up so nicely, I'll be able to shower there if necessary without getting the heebie jeebies or needing to wear shower shoes.

A good day's work

Today Mom and I rolled up to The Dump around 11:30 and got down to the business of cleaning in a way this place has probably not experienced in 20 years.

We removed the rail and bracket shelving in the living room and large bedroom as well as some random-ass shelving and weird things attached to the wall. Then some sweeping and vacuuming throughout and hands and knees floor scrubbing in the big bedroom to reveal some much-improved hardwood floors:

As a reminder, this is what they looked like before. They are still pretty icky with a lot of wax buildup, but it's a start. I had only enough elbow grease for one room, so the other rooms will get the same treatment tomorrow.

Mom scraped soap scum off the bottom row of tiles and removed the bits of decrepit caulk that were left around the tub. Then I impressed her with my mad-crazy caulking skills (hey, I like having good looking caulk, so I'm pretty well practiced) so that the bathtub can be cleaned tomorrow for the first time in goodness knows how long without risking sending more water into the rotting subfloor (the contractor who visited on Friday said there's no risk of me falling through any time soon, so I might as well clean the bathroom so I don't have to look at this nastiness any longer than necessary). Photos to come for sure!

Also up on the agenda for tomorrow: removal of jasmine from the front porch and carport to open it up and demolition of the infested wooden shed at the back of the house.

I'm also getting some help from Nancy who has given me some 1920's oak flooring salvaged from her house remodel. I sure hope I can put it to use! For now, it's going to live in the garage and hopefully not get eaten by my resident termites.

Jackpot!

So, I met another contractor out at The Dump this morning. We talked a bit, took a tour and then discussed goals/objectives, budget, timing etc.

He liked my ideas for the garage/kitchen expansion and in general agreed with a lot of my objectives for The Dump.

The bonus feature is that he does design work too. That means that I could work with him on a basic design plan, keeping construction budget and timing at the forefront before I spend time and money with an architect to do the actual drawings.

He really listened to me, didn't suggest anything wacky or crazy, and said that he would find a way to work within my budget. The plan/phases he suggested were logical and optimized for cost savings, which I appreciate. Instead of coming in and gutting the place at the start and doing everything all at once, he thinks it's better to spend some time designing, get the plans and permits in place and then start work, moving one section at a time.

He said the foundation looks good and that we could level the house where needed, but not go crazy-expensive on foundation corrective work so that the money could be put to other use. He also said that there is no sense rushing to replace the roof right away (it's watertight) since the garage plan directly impacts the roof.

In general, I really liked him. I think he is knowledgeable, honest and that I can trust him to listen to what I have to say. I'll be really interested to see his preliminary quote and next steps. I think he's the one I'd really like to work with, so I sure hope he doesn't break the bank.

Oh yeah...

I almost forgot! As suspected, there was junk in the shed. Two rakes and a plastic shelving unit which I will adopt, an electric weed eater (Craigslist), and a sump pump with hose (not sure what to do with that one). All in all, not as bad as I suspected.

That sump pump worries me though. I know I'm going to do other work to resolve the drainage issues and keep the crawlspace dry, but I'm sure that pump was previously used to pump water out of the crawlspace. I didn't even stick my head down there to see what it looks like after last weekend's rain. I'll let the contractors sort that out.

First steps

Yesterday afternoon was GREAT! I was able to go do a few things around the house that were really satisfying.

Let me start by saying that I found out yesterday that San Mateo County has a subsidized composting program. For $35 I get a really nice composting bin that retails at Smith and Hawken for $129. I'll send in the order form and check today and will get the bin in 1-3 weeks. I figured that it's a great way to plan ahead for spring planting, and a good way to dispose of all the fall yard waste. However, it doesn't resolve my apple issue in a timely manner, so I was prepared to send them to the trash.

When I got to the house, I discovered that the yard waste bin was already full with leaves and grass, so I had no place to put all those apples until the next yard waste pickup (every other Friday, and the next one is 10/5). There are two normal trash cans, so I left one on trash duty and took one to the back yard for the apples. I filled it and still have apples on the ground. However, I have raked them into nice little piles, so you can actually walk around the yard a bit.

After that, I dead headed the roses , raked the gravel driveway smooth, raked all the magnolia leaves into the flower beds (no room in the bin), and swept out the mini-garage, sidewalk and porch before making my first stamp on the place:
Then I went to work on the inside for a bit. I decided to start at the front of the house and will work on one room at a time, gradually working my way to the back, giving it a good cleaning. Even though it's eventually going to be gutted, there is no sense letting the place stay filthy in the interim.

Really, I wanted to see if the living room hardwood floor cleaned up well enough to consider salvaging.

Lots of people thought I was joking when I said they didn't do anything to spruce up the place before listing it. I assure you, they did not, and I have the photos to prove it. So, I vacuumed the baseboards and corners, to eliminate the obvious dirt/dust bundles, then I tried to dry swiffer. It was so dirty that I could hear the grit under the swiffer against the floor. My vacuum does not have a hard floor attachment and it doesn't do too well when I use the rotating brush on the floors, but I figured it was likely to be an improvement over the swiffer, so I ran it across the room.

Then I switched to the swiffer wet mop wipe. This room is NOT large, but it took TWO wipes to get the job done. And here is what they looked like when I was finished (click on photo for full-sized grossness):
EEEEEEEEEEEWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW! But the floor looked worlds better!

By this time, the sun was well into setting, so there was not enough light to take a photo of the floor. In any event, I think they need a good scrubbing on hands and knees with Murphy's Oil Soap and a coat of wax before they really come around. I'll give it a go and if they clean up nicely, I will definitely plan on keeping them and sacrifice my plan for a radiant heating system.

That's it for Day 1. I won't be out there today, but I have a contractor coming first thing tomorrow morning and may even take the day off to spend the day working there. The weekend will be busy for sure.