So this Saturday is a bit interesting and all over the place. I did some different things and all went towards making the place better...just realized that I might need a new ladder to complete some work as my ladder is not tall enough.
Started the day off pulling old cables off that were scattered everywhere under the house and around the garage. EVERYTHING is getting replaced, so again...if a cable is visible to me somewhere, I better know what it is and what it does - Internet, Power, TV, etc. Today, due to the old wiring, some new wiring and just the ugliness of it all....I have no clue what does what.
This is just a tiny portion of it...but basically pulled cables like this from under the house with my Multimedia Cabler/Electrician. I decided to choose someone we use @ my office as I trust his work and he knows how I like things done - from a Networking side. Clean work, professional, and cheaper labor = perfect.
So one thing I tried avoiding is getting into a fist fight with Spiders and such...well today we were going to go at it head on. As most older homes...this place has crawl space under the house...and lots of it. No slab foundation - basically can walk and crawl (in the upper areas of the slope) underneath the entire home. What comes with space that has not been touched or walked through in years and years and years???? SPIDER WEBS!!!!
Well today was the day I decided to start cleaning the crawl space up. We had to pull cable and the only way was from underneath the house. So I went to work cleaning all that up with one of those web dusters - as freaked out as I was, I decided to man up and get it done. Basically did as much as I could while cutting all old Coax, Telephone Cable, Dead Electrical and every other old wire item that was under the house - a was it a lot!
With the removal of all those cables (some dating back to early 1930's - yes I know because this is what my background is in...Telecommunications)....comes new wire. What I found under the house were spliced, extended, rigged cables that just made no sense. From looking at what we pulled, I have no idea how a phone was able to be connected or even if they really used the coax cable for TV...if so, the signal was probably horrible due to 10 million splitters under there. It was the saddest cabling Ive seen in a while.
No need to worry - we are redoing it ALL. Yes - single cable runs from the main Network Closet directly to the rooms, no splitters. Brand New Coax Cable - proper and new CAT6 cable throughout the home (yes, CAT6). Why not do it right? Our network box/closet/MultiMedia box will be just as advanced as any corporate office would have in their server rooms. Access Points will be hidden under the home (enough to cover the entire front of the house and street if needed, to the entire yard). No messy clutter in the house - everything hidden from view mounted properly. All cables are the same as we use in my office - fire rated, plenum, etc....the works. Since most cordless phones use 1 base, I am only running 1 single phone line to the kitchen area (for a real phone - IF I even get a phone). Each bedroom will have roughly 4 Data Ports (not all exposed, just prewired just in case) and wireless of course will cover the rest. Nothing like wanting to be hardwired and then its not available - though wireless is great these days, hardwired ensures reliability and constant connectivity in the event you need that uncut gigabit business.
The pictures are just samples - not how it will actually look as far as colors. This is simply for the use of seeing the layout and where things will be placed.
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| View from in the kitchen looking toward the dining room (front of the house) |
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| View from Dining Room looking into the kitchen (missing some details such as rear door/casement/moldings and such) |
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| Top View - Center of the page is an opening for the Refrigerator - it will sit flush in there. Behind fridge is a pantry. |
These roof tiles things seem to follow me. When I was growing up, we moved to a Spanish/Mediterranean style home with these things and here they are again - only 100 years old or so.
So with that age comes moss, dirt, plants....whatever grows on these things. I wish they had like an animal I could just attach to it to get rid of it all. For those that had fish tanks...those fish that suck on algae...that would be a feast for guys if they cleaned my roof tile.
So after pulling cables, clearing spider webs, having my cappuccino and chopping it up with my cousin that decided to stop by...I had this great ideas of cleaning these thing. Boy was an idiot for thinking this up...little did I know how much work was involved. So much...I forgot to snap after pictures when I finished and I wasnt about to set up the ladder and climb back up to snap a photo or two. I did manage to get one before and after so you see the difference, but its nothing spectacular...just a cleaning task.
Heres what I started with. Notice the tiles have like some yellow, green, spotty grossness to them. I didnt like it and could see it from the street - still could too because I didnt have a ladder to reach lower parts from the roof. This is the junk I power washed off and it actually worked with some time and patience.
So looking at this picture - it doesnt look like I did much...BUT I DID. On the top left area, this is the area I spent quickly power washing to see if it would make a difference...and it sure did. That area actually looked like the bottom of the picture - black dirty moldy looking stuff. Not sure what it is...but it washed off as long as I sprayed a long enough and slow enough to get it off. I continued to power wash the rest and it actually came out pretty nice.
We were originally going to repaint this with Terracotta color paint (specifically made for it), but I decided to wash it and see how it turned out. I think to save cost and time - power washing will do for now and if we decide we want an even cleaner look, then painting and/or replacing is an option down the road. Honestly, when the house is repainted, it might just make these things look a little more decent.
I managed to get a decent shot of the front with my phone - but since I dont have a before pic, so you wont be able to appreciate it as much as I did. Just imagine it looking as dirty as the two pics above that are side by side...it cleaned well.
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| Much better than it looked before - but I will spend more time on it when we power wash the house down the road. Ill need a taller ladder to get to it properly. I was on the roof trying to reach the front area - just didnt feel like face planting off - it was sprinkling too...so a bit dangerous.
This concludes my Saturday work on the house. Next week is another fairly large demo job in the garage (so I think at this point). My mind might change, but I figured my garage or "Man Cave" is something I spend a lot of time in...so I do want it nice before we move in otherwise Ill never get to it given all the stuff we have accumulated over years. It would be nice to move into something and organize it once rather than moving it out and doing work on it after - it probably wont happen if that the case.
Next weeks blog will probably include: More framing during the week in other rooms, Electrical and MultiMedia Cables installation begins, possibly some plumbing and roofing misc, and best of all - DEMOLITION of my man cave and getting that garage down to bare studs to prep for electrical "wants", new lights, insulation and other fun stuff.
....till the next post!
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