When It Hits the Fan

The situation in Paul's Old House is getting dicey, precarious, desperate--it's hard for me to find the appropriate word here. The overall plan has been (and still is) that he fixes us the third floor so that he can live there. He has been (and still is) living on the first floor. A tenant is moving into the first floor on Monday. Yet, the third floor is not done, the first floor needs work, and nothing is packed. Let's break this down a bit.

The third floor: at this point, the biggest issue is the floors. Paul decided not to move anything in until the floors were done. So, he ripped out the old asbestos tile in the kitchen and sanded the hardwood underneath. He's also been sanding the hall, living room, dining room, and bedroom. This is harder than it should be because the building is old and the floors are uneven. There were also a couple of million tiny nails in the kitchen floor. The thought was that sanding would take a day or two and then there would be time to put on the three coats of finish. At this point, the sanding isn't done. So, the finish won't be dry in time for him to move the furniture up there.

I haven't mentioned that the electrical has to be redone as well. This creates a problem: running two or three sanders blows the circuits. At this point, there is no stove, sink, or refrigerator in the kitchen. These are all crowded onto the sunporch/study with other furniture and shelves. I'll skip the question of painting and the cabinets and, why not, the remaining holes in the walls (exposed lathe etc). And, I'll skip the matter of the scary buldges of chipped paint that suggest some leakage in the roof and ceiling.
Last week he was still considering whether to rip out the ceiling in the dining room to put in insulation. It's probably a good idea that he didn't do that. But there is still no ceiling in the kitchen--this is waiting for the electrical. And the lights. And the insulation.

The first floor: Paul's dad and stepmother came in to help for a couple of days. His dad got the first floor bathroom stripped and primed. It needs to be painted. His step mom got the first floor kitchen scraped. But it still needs to be sanded, washed, primed, and painted. And, of course, all Paul's dishes and kitchen wares need to be packed or moved out--but where to? Then there is the matter of a couple of thousand books, tons of files, and then furniture, clothes, art, sporting goods, rugs. And, cleaning the stove, cleaning out the refrigerator and generally getting the apartment ready for the tenant. Fortunately, she was interested in painting the large rooms of the apartment herself.

I suggested that my kids and I and maybe a couple of other people could start moving the books and files to Paul's office. (School starts a week from Monday; and, a week from Wednesday we have to go to Philadelphia for the American Political Science Association Annual meeting). But, Paul thinks that he might need some of the books and files and isn't sure about which ones. (He's not what one would call a snap decision maker. No, Paul thinks through things, proceeding cautiously and thoroughly.) So, he wasn't ready to think about this yet. This suggests to me that he won't find it helpful to have a bunch of people packing up his stuff and moving it to the basement, to his office, and across the street to my house. That's likely to be too confusing and scattershot. And, it also introduces a whole slew of ethical questions: how much help can one ask for from colleagues who are up for tenure or who are in temporary positions and are applying here for tenure track appointments? Obligations, indebtness, expectation, and anxiety start to complicate the picture.

The tenant is a single mom with a baby who starts work in a week or less. She's coming up from Pennsylvania and is likely to want to get moved in. I wonder if she will be concerned about pain fumes. Maybe not too much since she had planned on doing some painting herself.

Comments

[Travis]

About the request for help from non-tenured folks, the chair of my department when I was a simple MA candidate always made this simple. He offered to give us a meager wage and free beer and pizza. That way we could work as long as we wanted and not feel obligated to stay longer and he was confident that we felt no undue pressure to be there since we were being paid something.

[peBird]

The life experience Paul is encountering is invaluable. What more direct example of the disruptive nautre of the Real but attempting DYI remodeling. It is to laugh.

The male fantasy of building the family's hearth is ancient. These are hard instincts to overcome, especially with the symbolism of Home Depot, Yankee Workshop and This Old House.

Now, what is the current plan? Stay The Course? Negotiated Withdrawal? Distract The Discontented Masses? (start a concurrent hot tub project in the back yard).

[Scott W.]

How bad is the electrical? It sounds like knob and tubing which is very old indeed. The electrical installation is nothing for the DIY to attempt without the AHJ (authority having jurisdiction) becoming involved. Eletricity is nothing to play with, regardless of how confident may be in their abilities. The NEC (National Electrical Code) changes every three years and local authorities usually adopt changes within an unspecified amount of time. There are many things to consider when remodeling.

One thing stays on my mind when I wire a house, children. Just knowing that children will be living there gives me reason to put extra care into the installation. Our residences are the most vulnerable of all occupancies, and the one where the least amount of money is spent when contracting new construction. We sleep there for goodness sake. I hope Paul gets an electrician involved in this.

[Jodi]

The electrical is pretty bad. A contractor/friend who is helping is keeping a watchful eye. Also, another friend did all the electrical in his house; he's advising as well. Of course, at this point, it's more speculative than actual. We'll see what happens when he really gets in there with the wiring. It may well be that he'll have to get a real, licensed, local electrician.