Good morning!!!!

[txdon]

HF carries the Lancelot blade. Maybe a trip to Austin with a 20% off coupon will get one. I would call first.

A 40 grit flapper on the grinder is getting it done, slowly but faster than a trip to Austin. Should be finished by tomorrow with the "Cajun Boil Boat Bowl". Got a gator and a frog for it yesterday - Oh me oh my oh . . . .

88˚ partly cloudy.

 

[mostly_gas]

good afternoon all. 57F this morning and overcast w patchy fog. forecast high is for 66F and some clearing but still short on both counts so far. Got a ride in this morning, and helped prep the house for today's showing, then had lunch w/ granddaughter and her boyfriend. Golf league this afternoon, and need to sharpen mower blades again.

 

[mostly_gas]

On TBN wives: my wife does help with the mowing, just not the trimming.

rswyan: wife has plenty patience for primary plans, it is when the secondary then tertiary etc the enthusiasm tends to wan :confused2:

 

[daugen]

It's about 1500-2000 feet from the road to my barn, and I just found out, the hard way, the original owner did not put a cut off valve in line. Leak, luckily a slow one, near the barn creating a pool of water. A friendly landscaper came and rescued me, dug the line, fixed it, having to turn the water off at the street. My job was to ferry him back and forth in the UTV... So that got fixed, and without a backhoe. Charming to see that the original owner also laid a 110 line right in the trench of mud along with the water pipe. No outside pipe, just lay it in the dirt. Sigh.Good thing there aren't rocks here...

well, that little adventure taken care of. When I peered under the house to see where they had looked for a shutoff, which we found out did not exist at all, after tracking down the last owner, the smell of dampness and mold was just plain nasty. Now I know why they now want to insulate the entire crawlspace and vapor barrier it, like new homes.
No choice in it; they told me the new gutters would help, but not get rid of the existing mold.
what a miserable job that must be, trying to work in that crawlspace, damp and smelly and full of spiders and who knows what.

 

[riptides]

...well, that little adventure taken care of. When I peered under the house to see where they had looked for a shutoff, which we found out did not exist at all, after tracking down the last owner, the smell of dampness and mold was just plain nasty. Now I know why they now want to insulate the entire crawlspace and vapor barrier it, like new homes.
No choice in it; they told me the new gutters would help, but not get rid of the existing mold.
what a miserable job that must be, trying to work in that crawlspace, damp and smelly and full of spiders and who knows what.

Ugh! Your crawlspace brings back bad memories of the crawlspaces on our farmhouse. The original portions we can no longer get to. Either the floors bowed or the ground swelled. LOL. The newer addition, done right, had managed to collect a fair amount of water in it shortly after construction. I may have posted the story on TBN already, some ten years ago. Anyhow, it turned out a water pipe (old one) that the plumber missed at the well, had ruptured. We thought we had disturbed a spring, until the contractors we called discovered the pipe. That pipe cost me big bucks. Bad plumber. Of course by the time I figured out all the water was an issue I could not handle, we had frogs move in.

Vapor barriers are a must. As are proper gutters, and know locations of all water pipes. LOL.

And watch out for ground hogs under there too. Ask me how I know!

 

[deerseeker001]

Drew did you install a shut off valve??

It's about 1500-2000 feet from the road to my barn, and I just found out, the hard way, the original owner did not put a cut off valve in line. Leak, luckily a slow one, near the barn creating a pool of water. A friendly landscaper came and rescued me, dug the line, fixed it, having to turn the water off at the street. My job was to ferry him back and forth in the UTV... So that got fixed, and without a backhoe. Charming to see that the original owner also laid a 110 line right in the trench of mud along with the water pipe. No outside pipe, just lay it in the dirt. Sigh.Good thing there aren't rocks here...

well, that little adventure taken care of. When I peered under the house to see where they had looked for a shutoff, which we found out did not exist at all, after tracking down the last owner, the smell of dampness and mold was just plain nasty. Now I know why they now want to insulate the entire crawlspace and vapor barrier it, like new homes.
No choice in it; they told me the new gutters would help, but not get rid of the existing mold.
what a miserable job that must be, trying to work in that crawlspace, damp and smelly and full of spiders and who knows what.

 

[daugen]

Drew did you install a shut off valve??

no, not there in the lawn and we have no idea where the line goes other than in a long arc around the house out to the road. We figured out the owner/builder built the barn first for his daughter's horses, then built the house. So he ran this one water line this amazing distance all the way back with no known stopping points; it's all lawn. But then I wonder where the 110 line goes; not to the pole thirty feet away but headed directly back to the street. Wonder if he ran that one line originally just to get lights in the barn. We don't know; just conjecture. Seeing that electric line lying in water and mud sure gave me the willies. Going to try to kill that line if it is live; there is no need for it. Electric company came back four or five poles right up to the barn, and put a transformer on it. Talk about aiming to please...

Originally there was a well pump out near the road by the small horse barn I tore down. When it malfunctioned they went with city water. But I'm betting that water line that leaks heads back to that well pump area, so that's my next spot to check. The little barn out front was built first, then the bigger barn in back, so it makes sense things would head back in that general direction if they weren't heading to the house.

The prior owner was called and he said there were no shut off valves. But maybe there is a Y somewhere, some place I can get a valve installed. The hunt continues, at least the leak is fixed.

 

[deerseeker001]

Drew you are getting a education on your property before it is all said and done.

 

[daugen]

Drew you are getting a education on your property before it is all said and done.

yeah, this one did not come with a map. I just have to resolve myself it will be a money pit for a year until I get it all done slowly. So far though, no show stoppers, all just deferred maintenance. Like every single flower bed has rotting landscape timbers. So I hire the teenager next door and he takes it all apart, loads it in the bucket of the kubota, and I dump it on the burn pile.

And this is not going to be any ordinary burn pile either. Safely away from the barn and woods, but still within 100 feet of water, my fireman mowing/landscaping guy is going to build it out of three kinds of concrete block and brick. Not sure how big, but at least 20 feet wide. When it's done, I will take pictures. I told him to build it the way he wanted, and gave him a 300 dollar budget. He found block for a dollar a piece, and I can see them start to accumulate in the back. I think he is scrounging, and why not, for a burn pit this isn't going to win any beauty prizes. I'm so busy trying to get the house in order I'm delighted he is building it. Have a big pile to burn already.

this really is an adventure for me. And I've been waiting for it a long, long time.
A bit sweeter since it's been on the vine so long...

and like some very late harvest wines, it isn't going to be cheap....
But I budgeted for a whole lot of repairs, and my only real concern is the builder's expedition under the kitchen where he said certain supports were not even touching where they should be (I'm going to ask him to shine a flashlight on that for sure), adding some big jacks and shims he said.

I really should take this elsewhere, to some this old house thread...sorry to prattle on. Consider me gagged.

 

[deerseeker001]

Drew I am enjoyed reading about buying your new place and the sale of the home place and now getting her back in shape,brings back memories of my past.