Well, Well, Well...

A couple of days ago the waterpump for the well decided to start turning on every hour and run for a few minutes, then it slowly started to get more often. Shutting the water off after the pump and shutting down the pump allowed me to watch the pressure in the line drop. We just replaced the foot-valve last year (actually May 2014) Seemed like it was only last year. 

Having the back and knees I have, lifting the concrete Well cover and crawling down in the pit is not something I aspired to, so I called the boys from Tomaszek Plumbing. 

Finding water at the elbows indicated the foot-valve was probably alright, so was it the hoses or fittings between the house and the well-top or the well-top to the valve. A pressure test found the pipes to the house were fine, this is good as it would have required getting a backhoe and breaking the wallet. Pulling the hoses out of the pit revealed a pin hole in one of the hoses. 

So time to replace both old hoses.

It may have been one of the smallest parts on the system that caused the issue. The pressure switch feed fitting was plugged. This had the pump running at a higher than normal pressure before shutting off, instead of 60lbs it was running to almost 100lbs.

The new floor is in the dining room.

Unfortunately that means it still all has to be carried upstairs where it will be installed.

 Today I will pick up the Pergo Gold underlayment. I was advised to use this because where most material comes by the roll and wants to keep rolling back, Gold is flat fold out sheets. Each box covers 100 square feet.

Floor and lights

The wall board for the cubby hole in the attic has been replaced, this was torn out when the house suffered a water leak (twice). The Contractors chased the leak and found it was along the north wall of the north dormer at the flashing. 

The floor for the south room on the second floor has been ordered and should be arriving on the 25th. Pergo

Removed the power outlet at the bottom of the basement stairs ceiling. Wired in a LED light. The house was originally wired with a single incandescent bulb outlet. Later that was removed and the outlet placed so a hanging fluorescent light could be installed. 

A step back a bit and across the stairwell to the other room

The plan was to have sanded the floor and sealed it as it is, sort of a plain pine board floor. But I ran into an issue with that, first, while doing the sanding I had a few splinters come up off the board edges. These, if you were walking with bare feet would be anywhere from 2 to 5 inch spears in the bottom of a foot. this would probably be undesirable. Second, the flooring doesn't exactly meet, some boards are right up against each other, others have gaps. A couple of these gaps were about a 1/4 wide, so anything spilled on that floor (game room, something sooner or later will spill), would end up staining the ceiling below.  So it looks like I will be placing some sort of inexpensive under laying and floor, probably vinyl roll style. Since  I have no cash for that at present I have decided to leave it alone and move on. I am moving the shelves back in and securing them. This will allow me to get boxes of DVDs and games out of the den on the first floor and on the shelves out of the way.

I am happy to declare I procrastinated.

I was to re-wall board the access to the eaves after the contractors fixed the leak, but happily I can say I didn't do it.  Last weekend the rain found it's way in again. The contractors were here yesterday with hoses. they re-created the leak, removed the shingles, replaced the flashing, resealed it all and re tested the area. We should be all set now.
This is good, because they are doing Nat's roof today and if I have to disturb them again it will slow her house up.

Ceiling Stain

The two contractors from M&W Enterprises showed up yesterday, They climbed in the eaves, hung out the windows and looked around for the reason of the leak. With no water stains in the eaves, and dry insulation it appeared to be the water did not travel. The shingles were seated tight but after a little tracing and investigating they found a small water dust track on top of a crossmember under the roof. Investigating further they found that it lined up with the spot the dormer meets the roof. They found there was a small hump in the flashing. As long as it rained normal there was no leak, but with a wind blown rain the water would be pushed sideways through that tiny gap. They removed the flashing sealed the area with Black Jack and replaced the flashing. Should be all set. We spent a half hour talking, seems the Owner of the Company has a Cape with the same dormer set up. He also just redid his inside walls and ceiling in his attic and looking at the way mine was done, determined that for some reason, back in the 1950s and 1960s builders regularly had sheet rock meet where there was no support beam. They just taped the seams and mudded them without pop-corning it. He thought at the time it was just his place, but he has since seen one other house an mine where they did the same. In his house, he actually sanded all the joints smooth then laid new Rock over the existing ceiling and walls creating all straight seams.

Today I will re-wall the two small sections I busted out to gain access to the eaves. I have a section of Gypsum in the garage left over to work with, and I have fiberglass rolls I bought for the garage ,which I can use to replace the two small sections I pulled out. Then it will just be a matter of a little repainting.

So, another item of interest

We have had rain for three days and nights straight, not torrential, just constant. So some of that water seems to have found a way in, How has yet to be determined.

This is the first floor bedroom, Now that means its time to find out why.

A trip to the second floor for a look see...

 So a little, before work this morning, investigating...

the dust particles flew out like someone opened an Egyptian Tomb

Nothing comes to notice right away, and the roof looks OK, so a little more sheet rock removal along with insulation. It may be the gutters backed up and overflowed against the soffit but they don't seem to have a problem at first glance/

Tonight after work will hopefully tell more.

Side note, As a kid I used to play in both eaves and the peak, traveling from one end of the house to the other...

I don't remember these areas being so...tight.