The Temkin Tribune

The Secret Room!!!

It is well known that some of the houses in Canton were stops along the Underground Railroad ...I don't know if our house had a role in the Underground Railroad but it certainly could have...You see we have discovered that there was a large secret pantry under the back attic stairs.  The space is only about 4 feet wide but is at least 12 feet high at one end and runs about 12 feet long.  Michael and I were aware that there was some sort of pantry but we were unaware of how large the space was.  In this picture, one wall and the floor have been completely removed but you can make out the places where the shelving was inset into the wall and where the two pantry doors still exist.  On the kitchen side, behind the stove, however, the walls are covered by nasty, thick, knotty-pine paneling...and the nasty paneling covers up the original Victorian tin paneled wall and ceilings...Couldn't you just cry???  I know I could!!!    The space had been accessible to us in part via two little doors in the wall of the old laundry room.  The edge of the old laundry room, is where the silver backing of the insulation shows.  The old laundry room was another story...it was used, in the 70's as a therapy room by one of the previous owners.  It was an adequate laundry room but I think one might have ended up with more mental problems after therapy in that single light fixtured, dark, faux-paneled cave.  Well, its gone now...Upstairs laundry room here we come. At the top of this picture, you can see the gray paint on the board which would have been the back of the top stair.  The opening above goes to the attic space which will become our bedroom.  All of the yellow paint indicates portions of the old secret pantry.  In the upper inset you can see where the shelves used to be.  I don't know how you got up to that top shelf to get the jelly down but they must have fun trying to see in that dark pantry.

Progress

 Here is what the 2-story addition looks like from across the street.  You can sort of make out the expanded family room (our old sunroom) and the unfinished deck above it. On the two-story addition, the small opening on the bottom floor is a temporary opening and will be enlarged to accommodate a large window...  In fact each floor will have a large window facing the street when they are finished.  The roof is now finished, though here it looks a bit like we are building our own pagoda.  The roofers finished on last Monday and today we are expecting all of the windows to arrive.  The house is to be wrapped in TYVEK paper and the windows installed and then our contractors will move to the inside for the winter months...so very shortly I will loose access to the kitchen.  Yikes.  I have many offers of kitchen use from our friends but I will be making a little make-shift kitchen in the living room.  I am working on filling the freezer with foods that only have to be heated...so wish me luck on that one...HA.

The Sunroom's Last Stand...

Hello. I know it has been a while since we last spoke but the Temkins have been mighty busy.  We are on the 23rd day of construction and things are moving very quickly and at the same time very slowly.  How is this possible? Well, as I write the contractors...Bill and the Guy-Who-Drives-the-Silver-Cconvertible are banging away on the floor joists for our new and improved family room.  Yes, the old sunroom is a thing of the past...in fact a thing of just Tuesday afternoon...Oh.  Here is a picture of the last piece being torn down by Bill (on the ladder) and Mark...and notice my very, very full dumpster in the back ground.   In fact this is our second, very full dumpster for the take down of the sunroom.   Why so much wood in a room which was finished with faux wood paneling and faux wood trim, you may be asking yourself.  After all the room was only six feet wide.  Well friends, it turns out that the sunroom had been the house's original porch and whenever it was converted into the sunroom the clever contractor just built around the existing porch.  So there were two complete ceilings and two complete roofs to remove before this bad boy could come off the house.  Needless to say Bill was thrilled at all of the extra work to take the sunroom down.

The silver backed insulation covers the large opening directly into the kitchen.  Bill fashioned our makeshift wall so that we can retain the use of our kitchen for as long as possible during the renovation.  He also thought to make it very secure and even insulated it.  Bill is terrific like that.  I guess you can tell that I am quite enjoying our own HGTV program...and staff.  I have learned a ton of stuff about construction and I am enjoying having all of the workers around... They are all people you'd want to know... and they don't seem to mind all of our questions...even the kids questions...and my neighbors keep telling me how lucky I am to have this guy or that guy on the building crew...They all seem to have stellar reputations for doing things right.  I think you don't work with Paul...our general contractor extraordinaire...unless you are up to his standards...and that is really saying something.

 

Renovation photoalbum....

Hi. Look over there.  Yes, to the left in the sidebar.  Just in case you haven't had your fill, I figured out how to put up a ton of renovation pictures.  I will be adding pictures weekly.  Remember though, it is a work in progress and I have not put in all of the titles and descriptions for these pictures.  You should also know that the pictures are not in order.  I haven't figured out how to put the pictures in order quite yet.  I'll get it eventually.

Thursday...I forgot to show you my dumpster!

Look.  Isn't it a thing of beauty?  I cannot wait to be able to lift heavy things...I am going to fill this baby up!  Yahooo!

Day #2 Wednesday

This is a picture of the foundation and crawlspace for the addition to the "sunroom."   This picture was taken at the end of the day and as you can see, our crew wastes no time.  I have been completely impressed by the sheer physical effort it has taken in just these few days to progress so far.  In this picture we are facing the driveway and backyard.  The structure in the background is our screen house which we take down in the fall. 

 

RENOVATION BEGINS!!!! DAY #1

 

Here is what it looked like at about 8:10 am Tuesday morning.  The white house you see belongs to our wonderful and patient neighboors.  Our house is just out of frame on the right.  The gentleman who operated the backhoe was like a surgeon!  By the end of the day, the new basement space was a nearly square hole and frames for the footers were already in place.

Packing or the Olympics....hhhmmmmm?

I hate packing.  I now I've said it before but it is still true.  I hate packing.  I am watching the Olympics and I wonder, as I see the American swimmers kiss the gold medal and Michael tells me that the Chinese bite the medal, are we sure that the medals are completely gold, silver or bronze?  I don't think anyone should be putting the medals near their mouths if there is even the slightest chance that they could be full of lead.  After all, all of those toys made with lead paint make you wonder.  At least they make me wonder...especially if I have to pack.   And another thing.  Have you seen the little girl who actually sang the Chinese national anthem?  Not the cutiepie who lip-synced the Chinese national anthem but the little girl who SANG it.  She is a beautiful little girl.  The people who decided that she was not cute enough need to get their heads examined...And as the proud Mommy of a seven-year old semi-toothless, little girl I am completely offended.  There are very few things cuter that a kid who is semi toothless.  Dumb dumb dumb.  Oh yes back to packing books....uughhh.

I just saw the Women's 200 meter butterfly.  WOW!  Very exciting race.  The top two winners are from China and I think my favorite thing to see is the look on the swimmer's faces when they stand up and read the boards and find that they have won and/or broken a record.  SO beautiful!  I also love to see the other teams congratulate the winners...I know...packing...

Men's swimming...What's with the unitards...they are really weird.  And they hinder my view of the beautiful bodies of all these swimmers.  Maybe the Women's Volleyball players should add a little to their "uniforms" and the men's swimsuits could have a little subtracted?  Also the swimsuits make the back muscles look very strange when viewed from the front of the swimmer...they sort of look like the swimmer is sprouting wings...or a strange set of side-breast muscles...odd.  Oooh Men's All-around Gymnastics...I like gymnastics.  Wow.  Fantastic...I am packing and watching...really...Ah well, I have to go to bed soon because all of my lab work is at 7:45 in the morning...uugh. 

Renovation Prep Dilemma Number 1: part 2

More good news...It ought to be pouring by the time I get to Potsdam...the first time...I am hoping to get it all dropped off in two trips...HA! 

.....I just heard a discouraging word...from deep within the bowels of the scary Temkin basement Michael just screamed an expletive...I should say THE expletive...I am guessing that he is now covered in propylene glycol...

Yes, as I suspected.  Michael IS covered with anti-freeze...Not a happy man...Gotta go check on him or maybe I should just stay out of the way for a few minutes while he solves the siphon problem...OH no...More naughty words...

...5:00 E.S.T. Update It only took me 2 hours waiting in line, in an electrical storm complete with hail but I was able to successfully dispose of HALF of the anti-freeze...Yahooooooo.  So much for the second trip...Michael and I cannot figure out how to open the second drum anyway...ah well we have some time...We will have to wait for the next Hazardous Waste Disposal Day....To be continued...

Renovation Prep Dilemma Number 1

Hi Everyone -

I am on a brief lunch break from what I am going to refer to as "Renovation Prep Dilemma Number 1"(RPD number 1) or How to get two fifty-five gallon drums full of anti-freeze up and out of the basement and dispose of it legally.  It is not really a dilemma though is it? Obviously we'll (read "I'll" because Michael is enjoying his day by vacuuming the entire upstairs of our carriage house... Yuck-o-rama!  I got the better job today.  Poor him.)

Now I am guessing that you may want a little background information about how we came to be in toxic-waste disposal business. So the 110 gallons or so of anti-freeze (Yep, good old propylene glycol as for cars) was in our heating system...within all of the pipes and radiators.  Why?  Well, during the big ice storm ...I think it was in 1998...before we owned this house...the owner, who did not live in the house decided to fill the system with antifreeze in order to prevent the pipes from freezing.  Because this home was not his primary residence he left the antifreeze in the radiators for two years and then we bought the house.  When we moved in we had to have the floors refinished and so some of the radiators had to be removed, necessitating the drainage and subsequent storage of the anti-freeze in our basement.  We never had any intention of putting the anti-freeze back into the system as it doesn't heat at the same temperature as water does so it is not the best thing to have in there.  And can you imagine a what a radiator leak in the house would be like?  Yikes...SO we had...let's just call him "The Idiot Plumber" drain the system.  "The Idiot Plumber" belongs to a story that I don't remember if I had told you already...I must have referred to the "Great Moving Day Flood" at some point....ah another story for another day...

So on to the solving of RPD number 1: First of all you must have a place to bring the anti-freeze and the two fifty-five gallon drums.  That is covered as long as we can get the materials to the Potsdam municipal airport before 5:00 E.S.T. today... yes, of course it is TODAY!!!  The St. Lawrence County Planning Board is holding its 3rd (ever?) Household Hazardous Waste Collection Day...woooo hoooo.  Not quite as fun as the Orange County Strawberry Festival or the New York State Fair but exciting for us nonetheless.

The first 20 or so gallon were easy and even fun to transfer into my brand new five gallon "pickle buckets."  Michael has a nice little siphon with a down tube about 18 inches long (Oh that sounds a little bit naughty doesn't it?)  and it works well as long as there is liquid in the drum to cover the down hose...however...at about 20 gallons the tube is no longer in the anti-freeze so the flow through the siphon...predictably stops.  I had actually planned on this happening and I had a piece of garden hose for my solution.  It fit the siphon snuggly and reaches all the way down to the bottom of the bucket...Unfortunately, I had to squeeze the bulb (don't snicker...) for the entire next five gallons and I think between that and Facebook I now have carpel tunnel syndrome.  How frustrating...and time passes.  It is now 1:37EST.  I need to get more buckets and get this stuff to the airport...

Please forgive the roughness of this passage...I'll edit later tonight...No time now.  Gotta siphon now...