Old Guy vs. THE RADIATOR

The plumber came on Wednesday and drained the boiler, which led to Lisa asking, "Does this mean we're committed to geothermal heating?" My answer was, "Yes, but we're can still back out right up until we start dropping the pipes." I was itching to get to the next step of finishing the music room: getting the floor stripped.

I'm an old guy, and I tend to work alone on this house restoration stuff, which can be difficult when it's time to tackle (cue sinister music) THE RADIATOR. The radiator in the music room has 29 fins and is just over six feet long. It's two feet tall and over 10 inches wide. When asked to estimate it's weight the plumber said, "Gee, I dunno, 500 lbs?" I knew I had my work cut out for me.

Fortunately, I used to teach 5th grade, so I have more than a passing familiarity with simple machines. Borrowing a low clearance jack from my brother, I went to the rental store and got two heavy duty roller trucks. I set out by trying to lift the radiator as close to the middle as I could to maximize the lift on the upper end.

I soon realized that I would soon be hitting the underside of the window sill, so I very delicately tried to move the raised end out away from the wall. As soon as I did that I heard creaking noises from the down end and knew that I was probably tearing up the floor on the other end. So I lowered the radiator and went to get some scrap wood. I raised the other side (previously the down side, and put wood under it and went back to the original end which was away from the wall and raised it enough to slide the truck under.

I then lowered the radiator onto the truck and proceeded to raise the other end and wiggle it away from the wall, getting the truck under the other end too.

Knowing I needed to make sure the radiator stayed secure on the trucks I wrapped a rope among the fins. I could then turn the radiator so I could move it out of the music room.

I put it in the living room and let it hang out with its biggest brother

That puppy is eight and a half feet long with 41 fins!

I was feeling pretty good, I had done this in well under an hour and could work on stripping the floor. Then Sunday came and I started thinking about how can I get the trucks back to the rental store by Tuesday? I was certain, I couldn't get that thing out of the house myself, so I talked to my brother and he and his sons came Monday to help. Once again using simple machine knowledge I put 2 fourteen foot 2x12's down on the back porch.

and we got it down pretty easily. We rolled it onto boards in the yard, and removed the trucks.

Now all I have to do is find someone who wants it! Seriously if you want a set, let me know, every one has the original metal cover that came with them, see the pic of the big one, it has some pretty bad contact paper over it but the covers are cool. One idea I had was to make them benches in the back yard, but Lisa isn't buying that one, yet.

-Mike

Completion!

I finished varnishing on Friday and now we have one room (the back room with attached sewing room) completed! I moved a carpet we saved from the attic in, and will move bunk beds for the girls in this week. The carpet is big enough that you can't see any of the work I did on the floor, but I'd rather have the rug down for now. Also pictured is the light we moved from our current house. (It was a 5th anniversary present from Lisa in 1996, I put the original light back up)

Signs of Progress

We have a good start on the back room and the sewing room. The pictures above show stripping off the ceiling paper and removing old finish from the baseboard. Originally the big room was Bess' bedroom, then it became Helen's. We are planning to use it as a family room and the attached sewing room as a crafts room. In all likelihood it will be the girls' room while we are finishing the upstairs. When the upstairs is finished our goal would be to remove the closet which bumps into the kitchen, thereby gaining space there, as well as allow you to go from the kitchen to the family room without having to walk into the dining room, down the hallway and around the corner.

I will be able to take pictures of the finished paint job tomorrow, so far so good.