Renovation

Yes, this is the joint venture!

2011-07-23T19:59:00.003-04:00

August

2010-11-18T14:28:00.001-05:00

The month of August started out by increasing the width of the driveway…by hand. Why? Why not!

Remember that roof that was leaking? Well, it leaked again so it was on to option #2…tear up and replace.

After making a frantic run to the hardware store for some h-clips that someone was supposed to bring and didn’t! We worked into the night.

Unfortunately, we were about one bundle of shingles short. The stores were closed so we had a few well deserved drinks and made plans to finish next weekend. The following weekend, the bundle of shingles were bought and installed. Once again, we were short…this time only by three shingles. The stores were closed so we had a few well deserved drinks and the roof would be finished later. I’m happy to say the roof was finished and so far there are no leaks…at least in that part of the roof.

Back to the house.

By the end of the month we sanded, stained, and sealed the floor in the upstairs bedroom.

The month of family and friends

2010-10-22T00:13:00.001-04:00

Apparently I didn’t take any pictures of the house this month but I swear we did work on it.

July 4th was celebrated with a bang.

The local redneck showed up…

along with the Japanese tourist.

Beersbie was played along with “who can stay near the lit fuse the longest”.

Yes there were kids there, they were kept busy with sparklers.

and there happened to be a few fireworks that were set off.

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Two weeks later…off to a wedding.

Open Bar!

I was very well behaved…I even wore a jacket.

Even though I don’t know who it belonged to, it’s the thought that counts. It might have been a little small!

Some people just had a little Captain in them.

Two weeks later…Our family celebrated the life of Grandma Radtke.

The spray park was shut down do to a fecal matter incident. There were people in hazmat suits, pooper scoopers and lifeguards running like Baywatch.

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Month of June

2010-10-06T14:27:00.001-04:00

I don’t really know where the month went, but were were putting in trim and installing part of the hardwood floor that was water damaged.

May is a long month

2010-09-28T14:52:00.001-04:00

The downstairs window/door trim had to be made. Of course it had to match the rest of the trim downstairs. There was a lot of measuring, remeasuring and cutting and recutting. But, it didn’t turn out so bad.

Taking a break from the trim, I had to do something about my truck headlights. The lenses were yellowed so it was awful driving at night. Instead of buying new lenses for 70 bucks a piece I decided on the “do it yourself” approach. Did you expect anything less? I was a little skeptical when I bought a type of lens restorer…but it was on sale and a lot cheaper than $140.

I did one headlight at a time and this was the outcome.

Before

And after I was actually quite surprised at the final result. It’s been about 5 months and still no sign of yellowing. Yes, I would recommend trying this before shelling out cash for new lenses.

May

2010-09-05T20:06:00.001-04:00

still working on the house but I had a few detours.

The roof was leaking at a friends house so I gave him a hand.

It wasn't this house. This one just smelled like cat piss.

The first fix took a little time. We had to start from scratch.

The second leak was coming from a valley so… we decided to tar the shit out of it and see what happens.

After that, Matt loaded up his wheel barrel, got his pok’n stick and we relaxed by a nice fire.

still April

2010-08-29T20:43:00.001-04:00

So, my father and I had to help a friend in need of some yard work. No big deal. And then I saw the place…

So after assessing the situation, we had at it.

One truck load of metal, two or three loads of brush, a dump truck full of crap and a day of rototilling, raking and seeding and it was done. It only took…well, more than a day.

can you find the mouse in the pictures below?

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April

2010-08-17T16:42:00.001-04:00

almost done with the sheetrock

The final sheetrock screw is being put in

The sheetrocking is done!

On to the painting.

continued…

2010-07-26T20:52:00.000-04:00

hopefully I’m not repeating myself…

Since it was a nice day (back in March), I decided to tackle the side porch ceiling.

I installed a vinyl ceiling to cut down on the upkeep and decided to put in a outside fan. Karen had a few words to say about that since we don’t have one on our back porch.

I also vinylized the front porch ceiling.

The downstairs bathroom was being sheetrocked

and the mudder was, of course, mudding.

The downstairs bathroom was then descrewed, deglued and desheetrock because someone misplaced a drywall knife.

After the knife was found the sheetrock was then reglued and rescrewed.

The back porch steps were widened and new treads were put down.

Incase I didn’t post a picture before… this is how the inside of the back porch turned out.

to be continued…

Life happened!

2010-07-14T19:55:00.001-04:00

As you know, I have a countdown clock to the renovation completion date, which was April 4th. Do to unforeseen circumstances, the completion date came and went. Recalculating to a less ambitious time frame is underway. With that said, I will now attempt to fill you in on what’s been going on.

TO BE CONTINUED…

Back Porch

2010-03-19T00:06:00.000-04:00

it was going to be a nice weekend so we decided to work on the back porch.

In the meantime the mudder mudded with the mud.

We made our way under the porch to see what we were dealing with. That’s when we found it… the pit of despair!

Yes, that is a 1x6 piece of wood holding the porch up.

The board was gnawed on by unfortunate victims that plummeted to their doom. Rest in piece my furry archnemesis.

After a moment of silence we continued with the beefing up.

Once the undercarriage was done we moved on the the floor.

We put in 2x4 sleepers that we cut at an angle. This will help with the 6 inch slope in the floor.

The floor was then cut glued and nailed down. And we were done. You can now drive a truck on it! If you wanted to.

We went to get a nine light exterior fiberglass door. While looking at the assortment of doors, we noticed one was on clearance. It was a steel door that had nine lights and had a double bore. It was almost a quarter of the price of the fiberglass, how can you possible go wrong. Unfortunately, they didn’t have anymore. Over the course of a few days my father used his power of persuasion. Needless to say, the door is now installed.

After an oops of course

At least it was the old door, even though we almost had an instant replay with the new one.

Bathroom break

2010-03-16T14:27:00.000-04:00

Off to the bathroom we went. Making sure everything was tight, we turned on the water.

Yeah, we have a running bathtub. Yes, I know the handles are backwards, but that’s an easy fix.

Now on to the floor, which I decided to tackle myself.

The porcelain tile floor didn’t turn out to bad, it just took a long time to do. A cupboard with two drawers was also installed to make use of otherwise wasted space.

Also a few doors were hung.

And the wall upstairs that holds all of the plumbing was finally put up.

Making Molding 101

2010-02-20T11:23:00.000-05:00

Taking a break from stripping we agreed on a profile for the upstairs molding. The setup took quite a while. Once that was done it was just a matter of running the boards thru…again and again and again.

The Strippers

2010-02-13T23:02:00.000-05:00

For the mudder to skim coat the plaster walls that were left, we had to remove all the painted wallpaper.

We soon realized that the only thing holding the plaster on the walls was the wallpaper! So, we had a little patching to do.

Don’t tread on me

2010-02-12T23:51:00.000-05:00

It was finally that time. During the renovation process, the stairs took a beating, that’s not to say they weren’t bad to begin with.

One by one the treads were removed, measurements were taken and new tread were glued, screwed, and nailed in.

Each step had to be measured individually because of course, they were all different lengths.

Waterworks

2010-02-11T23:05:00.000-05:00

The plumber is still plumbing. In the meantime I went to my workshop and did a little more work on my wall dresser. Being that I don’t have a tenoning jig, I have to make all the tenons by hand.

The plumbing to the upstairs bathroom was sectioned off and then pressure tested, while plumbing was run to the steam boiler.

On February 12, 2010 at 3:30 in the afternoon, the city turned on the water.

The following Monday Don Biesenbach “the HVAC guy” came over to check out the boiler. Of course it didn’t fire up. It was an easy fix (at least for him). He replaced the pilot light doohickey and also the thermocouple for good measure.

So…on February 15, 2010 we finally had heat! 33 days before spring.

Basement electric

2010-02-07T00:49:00.000-05:00

Now it’s on to wiring the basement.

The Basement was a little confusing to wire. First I had to make a diagram to connect five lights to two three way switches with power starting at one of the lights. And then I added a few pull chain lights and some outlets for good measure. Then of course, the wires had to be routed around all the other wires and plumbing. But thanks to my old friend the beast (AKA PBR), it went down smoothly. The beer that is, the wiring went very slow and tedious like two old people, well never mind I digress. Before I could finish some of the wiring joist hangers had to be installed. While my father took on that task I happened to take on a small side job as a court courier! Yes I am a jack of all trades. As I delivered “The Papers” I wasn’t quite sure whether the women was going to slap me or kiss me…you decide.

On to the downstairs bathroom

2010-02-06T00:01:00.000-05:00

City code requires a vent in all bathrooms that don’t have a window. It was a little above freezing so we decided to run the vent hose.

I was a little afraid the siding was going to crack but luck was on our side. We connected the hose to the fan and finished the wiring in the bathroom. We couldn’t sheetrock it yet because the plumbing wasn’t done, but it’s being worked on.

yup, more sheetrock

2010-01-24T00:18:00.000-05:00

don’t ask

The sheetrock is just about done, at least for the time being. So we moved on to beefing up the stairwell wall.

Then, my father took part in a workshop on how to cut correct angles in sheetrock. This was put on by the multitalented mudder.

We then found ourselves on the kitchen floor screwing down every tongue and groove board.

Once that was done we put our batteries on the chargers and grabbed the cement.

We leveled the floor as best we could and got our batteries from the chargers and presto…

we have a new kitchen floor.

Sheetrocking again

2010-01-16T14:25:00.000-05:00

But first…

I rented a sheetrock lift for the weekend and Anthony was coming over to help hang the ceiling downstairs. I received a call late Friday night from one of my tenants saying there was a little drip coming from the downstairs ceiling. I figured I would take a look in the morning before we started sheetrocking. Well, the little drip ended up being more like a waterfall. After cleaning up the mess and turning off the water I said screw it… I had sheetrock to hang.

After a late start, things went smoothly until Anthony got his hands caught under the sheetrock. Anthony did get a little up in arms when I had to take a picture of his misfortune before having to raise the lift even more in order to lower it. Of course it didn’t help that I was laughing all the while.

Continuing the kitchen

2010-01-14T00:02:00.000-05:00

Once the boards were taken off the walls in the kitchen, wire was run and insulation was installed.

I think this is the first picture of my new mug. This thing has fallen off ledges, tumbled down stairs, been kicked around, used as a hammer, and hasn’t spilled a drop yet. The only fault I can find is that it doesn’t refill itself. Thanks Linda…

The next day I continued in the kitchen while my father helped the mudder.

Yes I know the mudder isn’t mudding but he’s also pretty decent at installing bathtubs.

I finished the wiring and insulating in the kitchen, at least on the outside walls, then the boards were put back on in kind of the same order. As for the kitchen counter that we planned on saving, well, the top didn’t quite come off like it was supposed to, you know, in one piece. Into the wood pile it went, but we still are planning on saving the cupboards.

hi ho, hi ho, it’s back to work we go…

2010-01-06T00:05:00.000-05:00

After a few days off, I headed back to work. As soon as I opened the door, I knew we were vandalized. By the way, we did decide to rip out the walls in the kitchen.

After having another beer and staring at the artwork it finally dawn on me. My father had marked the boards to make it easier to reinstall them. Smart man, otherwise it would be like working on a puzzle that was face down.

Christmas family time

2009-12-28T00:49:00.001-05:00

Tyler likes his juice,

Even though we did get a little confused.

And then there were the cars…

This went on for hours while the girls baked a birthday cake.

Tyler likes his goldfish, he even shared with a bear.

After the gift giving ceremony, we played a riveting game of ants in the pants.

Tyler likes his apple…core and all. In the few short days we managed to celebrate two birthdays, Jesus being one of them.

and for those of you into that sort of thing…FEET!

FYI this is sign language for the color white. Yes, he knows sign language.

Odds and ends…

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More sheetrock, insulation, wiring, etc…

2009-12-28T00:19:00.000-05:00

We installed a in-wall heater in the bathroom instead of a baseboard to save on space. It was a little more expensive, but really cool!

The toilet isn’t going to be there, that’s just were it’s sitting. Yes, that is sheetrock, aka “Barney Board”.

The bathtub also arrived.

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In the kitchen downstairs, wire was run for pendant lights above the island. In the “green Room” downstairs, plumbing was started for the upstairs bathroom.

In the second bathroom, a baseboard heater was installed.

To save on space we were going to install a dresser in the wall. Not being able to find one that fit I decided to build my one.

The dresser was coming along nicely until, working into the night installing insulation, I managed to get my whole arm stuck between two 2X4s. You can’t see it in the picture but the culprit was right above the dresser. Moving my arm in every direction I thought possible just made things worse as my elbow began to swell. This went on for about five minutes. I decided to reach for my cell phone with my other hand and proceeded to call my father to have him come up and cut the 2X4s. But, I realized if he came up he would have to take pictures, and then they would have to be posted. So, to save face, I hung up and continued my struggle. Somehow I was finally able to free myself and then decided to quit for the night. By the next morning the swelling on my elbow was gone only to be replaced by some nice bruising.

As for the following picture… bigger IS better.

Sheetrocking, Day 2

2009-12-05T14:35:00.000-05:00

The day started like and other.

Once I taught Matt what a hammer is actually used for, things went pretty smoothly.

Bill “move that bus” Whiting came back for two more days. Thanks Bill.

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And then comes the sheetrock

2009-12-04T14:47:00.000-05:00

at 8:00 in the morning there arose such a clatter, I sprang out of bed to see what was the matter. Away down the stairs I flew like a flash, tore open the door not knowing my pants had a slash. The sun on the breast of the new-fallen dew gave the lustre of mid-day, who knew. When, what to my wondering eyes should appear, but a man standing on my porch that said, “your sheetrock is here”. He was a tall young man, so lively and quick, I knew in a moment he could see my… More rapid than eagles I covered my shame, and he whistled, and shouted, and called me a name…I’m not going to repeat it. It was pretty vulgar.

After apologizing we went over to the house to start unloading the sheetrock.

It was actually pretty cool. The delivery boy had a wireless remote control. He stood in the upstairs window and guided the hoist. He took a few chunks from the vinyl window, but in was on the outside, what are you going to do. Every time he hit the window he would stop and look at me with an expression of “ooohhh shit”.

I enlisted my neighbor to help for a few hours.

He helped unload the 60 sheets and then stayed to help with the ceilings before I kicked him out. Thanks Matt.

A little while later Bill Whiting came to lend a hand.

Skeletons in the closet

2009-11-21T14:35:00.000-05:00

We did take down a wall in the kitchen.

We found this in the wall. Remember “Stir of echoes” with Kevin Bacon? No bodies though, just a poor job and sealing a hole in the chimney.

No more blow jobs!

2009-11-21T14:19:00.000-05:00

After two weekends of blowing insulation into the outside walls we were done.

Time for a break.

After that, we cleaned up the mess, sealed up the walls and did a few other odds and ends.

I call shenanigans!

2009-11-14T16:48:00.001-05:00

First of all the directions state you should where a mask! Second, what the hell is she smiling for, it’s not fun.

Third, why isn’t he covered in insulation, where is the duct tape holding the hose together, and most important, where the hell is his beer!

This is what really happens…

First you have to find a way to attach the hoses, this is where the duct tape comes in.

and yes it takes two people.. One feeding the hopper and the one who picked the shorter straw gets the end of the hose…guess who that was…

more picture to below…

The insulation blew out from every nook and cranny. no it isn’t snowing

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It's was nice and easy for some...

and then there was me.

Snap, crackle, pop…It’s electric!

2009-11-13T16:36:00.000-05:00

Yup it time to do a little rewiring.

With the walls open it’s easier to run the wire. The hard part is figuring out where to put all the outlets, switches, cable/phone, and lights. For that, I call in the professional, my mom. For each room we discuss the probable placement of beds, tables, couches etc…and that helps us decide how to run the wires.

to be continued…

I am running all kinds of wire including bell wire for the front and back doors. When I bought the wire I had it wrap neatly in a coil for easy running. I gave the coil to my father and turned my back for a second…

it took about 20 minutes to get it un-knotted!

After that fiasco, is was on to more and more wiring.

We had to at least get the wiring done on the outside walls before we cut put in insulation.

The Great Wall

2009-11-12T15:03:00.000-05:00

I was recently informed that this video didn't make it onto the site, so here it is.

This was back on September 26th. This was the wall between the first and second bedrooms.

yeah, birthday party

2009-11-07T14:13:00.000-05:00

I took a day off to celebrate a friends thirtieth birthday. We had an amazing race (it was like the TV show for those who watch it) and then a party after at the duck hunters club! Here are a few snap shots of the festivities.

Jell-O shots anyone?

electrifying

2009-11-02T19:50:00.000-05:00

Electrical work has started. We thought we would start from scratch.

If you saw what it look like before you would start from scratch too.

Floor leveling

2009-10-31T20:20:00.000-04:00

The upstairs floor was a little sloped to say the least. We bought some leveler and proceeded to mix up a few batches and level the floor.

Yes we are now selling the rugged distressed wife beater t-shirts. The are only $9.99 for 3. They come pre-stained in medium and large both of which are extra short to give that desired look that drive the women crazy.

The next day, this is what we found…

Most of the leveler was fine except for a portion that raised 4" off the floor. We still don’t know why. Anyone have any ideas? In any case we repair that section and put down rosin paper and cover the whole floor with 3/8 plywood, it looks and feels great!

The incident

2009-10-31T20:14:00.000-04:00

So there we were, putting up the walls in the downstairs bathroom. In case I haven’t mentioned it, I bought a Porter Cable FR350A round head framing nailer with a dual action trigger, non-marring nose tip and a thing that tells time. After using it for a few weeks I’ve become pretty fluent in how it works…so I thought. We were installing the last wall when it happened. I angled my Porter Cable FR350A round head framing nailer with a dual action trigger, non-marring nose tip and a thing that tells time to put in the last nail. Apparently I hit a knot in the old wood and the 3 1/2" nail took a 90 degree turn threw the side of the 2X4. It all happened extremely fast, as soon as I pulled the trigger my father grasped the side of his neck and said “something hit me!”. I looked were the nail was supposed to be, it wasn’t there! All that was going threw my mind was “don’t pull the nail out, don’t pull the nail out!” We both went into the living room where there was more light. My father Pulled his hand away from his neck and said “am I going to need stitches?” We both breathed a sigh of relief when we realized it was just a flesh wound. To this day, when I’m using my Porter Cable FR350A round head framing nailer with a dual action trigger, non-marring nose tip and a thing that tells time my father leaves the room. Below is a picture a week after the incident.

Still Framing

2009-10-31T01:07:00.000-04:00

The house now has all double pane Pella windows, but we’re still framing. We’re turning the three bedrooms into two bedrooms with nice size closets. I know you shouldn’t get rid of a bedroom but there were no closets and it just made more sense.

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The Garage door

2009-10-19T01:36:00.000-04:00

After carful consideration, we decided to leave the garage door installation to the pros. Martin’s Door Service stop by and gave us a quote. I of course added a few things, like windows and a lock. He said it will take two weeks. So in the mean time we frame in the garage door and cleaned up the garage.

Two weeks later Martin’s Door Service showed up at 8:30 in the morning. Two kids got out of the truck and went to work. Something that would have taken us at least a day and a twelve pack took them one hour and forty five minutes. I think it was well worth the $125 installation fee. They left the weather stripping pieces off because we still had to do some painting and trim work. We even had a lesson on how not to leave the key in the lock when opening the door (the key breaks clean off).

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Framing

2009-10-18T18:37:00.000-04:00

So, the house was kind of cleaned up until we started some minor repairs.

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Again with the side jobs

2009-10-17T15:41:00.000-04:00

Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach him how to fish and he will eat for a lifetime.

Clean up

2009-10-07T11:18:00.000-04:00

It took two weeks for the windows to come in but first things first. We had to clean up our mess in order to make another one.

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The delicate process of gutting

2009-10-03T22:47:00.003-04:00

and so it begins…

the process of gutting a house usually starts off slow…

until you start getting into it. And then the truck comes, we build a ramp,

and it goes from this…

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to this…

a few beers and four and one half tons later the house was gutted. We only lost one trash can.

oh yeah, someone also broke a perfectly good wheel barrel (you know who you are).

driveway enlargement

2009-10-01T01:37:00.001-04:00

This part was pretty easy, mainly because we didn’t really have to do much. With the help of Jerome Cohrs (Cohrs Contracting Company) and his crew, and Monson(Monson Mowing and More) the driveway went very smoothly. well…let’s say it started smoothly. The guys came early and unloaded there equipment…

They then proceeded to rip up and expand the old driveway

The dump truck came just like it was supposed to, and they started loading it.

When full the dump truck was off to, well, dump.

and then they inevitable happened. A hydraulic line blew on the skid steer. Two Hours later the progress resumed.

Of course because of the delay they weren’t able to finish so they were going to come back the next day. It poured the next day. The day after that they were going to finish. The dump truck broke down. A few days after that they were going to finish. And they did! Shit happens. The driveway is done, well, The driveway is now double the width, fabric was put down, and a hole crap load of stone was delivered and smoothed out. The blacktop is going to have to wait for a few years, it’s expensive, besides I want to wait until the stone really packs down. The sidewalk in front of the driveway was paved over, so after removing the pavement we found that there was only about an inch worth of concrete that was all broken. Maybe in the spring a new sidewalk will be installed. As for now it’s fine, I just have to remember how bad it is when I’m using the snow blower. I’ll have pictures of the completed driveway later.

Oh by the way, remember at the beginning I filmed the exterior of the house. I made a comment about the fact that I didn’t film my feet when I was walking. This is what I was talking about.

gopher problem, no more

2009-09-25T01:10:00.001-04:00

we were experiencing a pest problem on a major scale.

but with a little bit of late night fireworks we blew the f@#*ers to hell!

That burning sensation

2009-09-19T22:51:00.000-04:00

In order to save some money Mary Rice was gracious enough to let me burn a little bit of the wood we tore out of the house during the demolition stage.

as you can see we had a little bit of fun…

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Some more than others…

There were only a few minor scrapes and burns. Since then, there were six more truck loads of wood and four more bonfires.

The Garage

2009-09-15T14:54:00.000-04:00

the garage renovation isn’t as exciting but here are some before pictures.

and during pictures

We had to pull the back wall in about six inches, so why not use a truck.

The chain connected to a very large eye bolt which went through the wall, a sheet of 3/4 plywood, a 2x4, a few very large washers and then a nut.

Interior house pictures

2009-09-13T11:00:00.000-04:00

The moment you all have been waiting, pictures of the inside of the house…

Before Radtke Real Estate started the renovation process!

(the pictures go in order so view them as a slide show to give you a walk through)

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Back to roofing

2009-09-13T10:43:00.000-04:00

The repairs on the roof were made, and the siding was put back on.Then we thought, while were up here we might as well put in a ridge vent.

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we measured and ran a chalk and measured again. Piece of cake…

We didn’t know there were two and a half inches of asphalt shingles, a layer of cedar shingles and one inch roof boards to cut through, surprise!

Many reciprocating saw blades, a few beers, a couple slips down the roof, and one circular saw blade later we were done for the night. The next few days consisted of cutting and adding the shingles on the vent and a lot of clean up. But I had a gas powered leaf blower to clean off the roof!

Unexpected side jobs

2009-09-12T12:38:00.000-04:00

So my mother called me in the morning. She said my father needed some help for a little bit installing a fence. A little bit turned into the majority of the day.

a few holes had to be six feet deep

When you drop a washer in a eight inch diameter hole six feet down it’s a little challenging to get out. And by the way my mother isn’t just leaning on the fence she’s holding it up!

By mid-afternoon the fence was done, well, I was done…on to the next project… by way the fence is handmade wrought iron and it looks incredible. It was made by Paul Clise. (no he doesn’t work for Lowe’s)

yes it’s a snow blower in need of a little TLC. A friend dropped it off for me to take a look at because it didn’t run. There is one major problem with it. It’s fixed but still sitting in my driveway!! hint, hint

Still Roofing

2009-09-08T00:30:00.000-04:00

so the roofing went on…

and on…

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and on…

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Day 2

2009-09-05T14:46:00.000-04:00

The beginning of day 2 began by picking up from the night before

and

cutting a few more things with the chain saw.

and then on to the roof… Fun was had by all (my father, Anthony and Matt)

And it was easy going up…

going down…well that was a different story

After lunch at the Cedar we assessed the situation after poking and prodding a little we found a surprise

above is a picture of part of the “surprise”and it continues…

Friday, September 4, 2009 Day 1

2009-09-04T14:46:00.000-04:00

Let the games begin...
On Friday, September 4, 2009 at 1:00pm the papers were signed...
at 3:00 the chainsaws were running.

Here are some video highlights of the day. Yes I know...just tilt your head.

No trips to the emergency room... it was a good day.

Thanks to the help of my father and Anthony(and his dull chain saw), day 1 was a success.

Road Trip! What do You mean you don’t have Utica Club!

2009-08-18T15:53:00.001-04:00

So I am gearing up for the renovation by taking a trip to the Brewery and stocking up on supplies for the first week (whenever that is).

Much to my dismay the brewery was having technical difficulties…they did not have any UC and wouldn’t have any for a couple of weeks! We were able to find an out-of-the-way beverage store that had a few cases of UC in bottles. I picked up a few even though I wanted cans. We then proceeded to scourer the earth (or at least Utica) for UC in cans. My persistence paid off, I found 2 six packs at a local rundown gas station. I asked the cashier if they had any more, he thought he had some in the back and ask how many I would like. Of course I said “all of them”. After some ruckus in the back room, he came out holding 4 six packs covered in dust. The cans were falling out of the deteriorated holders and bouncing off the floor. Luckily none exploded, just dented. There’s nothing like a warm UC in the car after a satisfying days work.

Survey? We don’t need no stink’n survey!

2009-08-12T18:00:00.001-04:00

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Yes I know the house isn’t technically ours yet. We came across the property dimensions so we thought we would see if we could find the property stakes. Unfortunately we couldn’t find the directions to “big bud” the metal detector so we had to resort to more simpler means, for now…

2009-08-03T10:08:00.000-04:00

Here is some video of the outside. I tried to keep it as smooth as possible, you try it...it's hard! I'm just glad I didn't film my feet when I was walking.

Exterior Pictures

2009-07-23T14:45:00.000-04:00

Here are a few exterior shots. Sort them by name if you can. It will give you an all around view.

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