'59 DIY Instrument Panel

Example of a '59 instrument panel

One big challenge I was sort of dreading even thinking about with the 59' body to '84 frame/drivetrain, was how I was going to get the electronics to work.  Obviously, the '84 wiring harness wasn't going to just plug into the '59 gauges.  And even if it did, then I'd still have the minimal information that the '59 had: gauges for speed, fuel level, engine temperature, and two dummy lights for the generator and oil pressure.  That limited knowledge would leave me guessing what's going on underneath the hood more than I would like.

Forum photo with four new analog gauges accompanying the OEM speedometer

I found a forum online where a guy shows how he kept his original speedometer by buying an adapter to the sender, and then replaced the other four gauges with new gauges from Summit Racing.  His OEM dummy lights were replaced by proper analog gauges and looked great.  I loved the finished look and quickly rushed over to Summit Racing to look for some gauges.  I found them.  And, they added up quick.  I am not prepared to spend $350 on replacement gauges.  My original plan of keeping everything one can see looking like a '59 has been tossed out in favor of getting everything working properly and functional on a nickel & dime budget.  I just couldn't bring myself to spend that kind of money when I already two perfectly operational instrument panels.  Surely, there was a low budget alternative.

My solution was to make a new instrument panel plate to match my '59 dash from scratch and insert the gauge cluster from the '84 in it.  This way, I can simply plug in the '84 wiring harness to it and BOOM, working gauges!  I took a piece of thick aluminum plate that was left in our shop by the previous owner of the property.  I traced out the shape of the '59 instrument panel plate on it and cut it to size with metal shears.  I cleaned up the edges afterwards with an angle grinder, cut out the holes by drilling 3/8" holes in all the corners to the "windows" then connecting those holes with a metal blade in my jigsaw.  Then, I used a steel brush in my drill to give it a brushed aluminum look.  It's a little rough and I'll spend some more time on it cleaning up the cutouts.  By no means is this the finished product.  I also, haven't decided if I will leave it like this or if I will paint it.  It's pretty reflective right now which may hinder visibility of the gauges while driving.  But, due to the angle of it while installed, I don't expect direct reflection of sunlight to the driver's eyes.  So, I'll probably leave it unpainted and try it out.  I can always pull it off real quick and paint it later.

I also have 5 indicator lights that were part of the '84 dash.  These were in the rectangular holes above the gauges shown in the photo here.  My issue is that the little plastic pieces with the words on them were long gone when I bought the truck.  I'm fairly certain that the outside ones were for the left and right turn signal indicator lights.  I know for a fact (because of a photo I saw online) that one of them is the seat belt indicator lamp.  I will refrain from installing that one.  I don't know what the other two lights are for.  Perhaps, engine light and high beam indicator?  That sounds logical.  I'll figure it out somehow.  Either way, that means I have four more little holes to cut in my DIY instrument panel plate.  I'll put the turn signal indicators near the top corners and then put one of each of the remaining indicators (whatever they are) centered on each side.

I like that I chose to use the OEM '84 gauge cluster because I'll like having a tachometer and analog gauges in place of no tachometer and the '59 dummy lights.  I think that the gauges will look a lot better in the '59 than they did in the '84, too.  Ah, the 80's and its love affair with wood grain paneling as far as the eye could see.

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'59 Ford Inspired DIY Forge

I bought a piece of 3/16" thick stock steel last week to make a couple of custom brackets to mount my '59 bed to my '84 frame.  These are the last of the brackets that I need for the body.  Woo hoo!  Mounting the body has proven to be a challenge and I'm glad that at least this part of the project is coming to a close.  It's been a fun learning experience, but I'm ready for the part that actually begins to make the truck functional again.

I already have the front two custom bed mounts and the rear two custom bed mounts in place and bolted.  The bed isn't going anywhere.  That's for sure.  However, I wanted to give the bed two more mounts in the center to ensure that there can be no allowance for warping it in the event I wind up carrying a heavy load which, inevitably no doubt, I will.

I measured and marked the pieces of metal where I wanted a 90-degree bend.  I began to shape it using a hammer and a large, thick piece of angle iron as an anvil.  I started to get the bend, but it wasn't going to be anywhere near a 90-degree angle.  It was going to curve instead with a fairly large radius regardless of how much I would try to convince it otherwise with the hammer.  I needed heat.

I watched a couple YouTube videos of people creating makeshift forges of their own with some pretty commonly found household items.  I looked around a bit and realized that I could make one.  If for no other reason at all, I'm glad I did this exercise just to know that it is now an option for me to create other items in the future.

The video is a small non-polished documentary of me trying it out.  I had never done this before and I openly admit in the video that I don't know what I'm doing.  However, it was a success.  I needed a compound bend with both brackets.  One is a mirror of the other one.  It's hard to tell from this photo, but I got the exact compound bend I was aiming for.  The only way I was going to get this 3/16" steel to bend this sharply was with heat or a very large metal brake.  Since I have no such metal brake (nor can afford one) but can make heat, I only truly had the one option.

With the '59 body mounted and ready to go, my next step is likely getting the steering column installed and secured to the dash.  Keep an eye out for the next update.

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'59 Ford Project Update

In my last blog on this subject, I talked about the removal of the '84 F-150 body from its frame complete with some photos.  Since then, I sold the complete body to a young guy from Carthage, MO.  Pictured here is the body sold, all loaded up, and being carted away.  I got a good price for it and was thrilled to have both the cash in hand and get all the body parts out of my shop and out of my way.

That was almost 3 months ago.  You'd think that I'd be eager to get to work on my '59, but my wife's birthday took priority.  The truck got rolled out of the shop to make room for all the work I would soon put into making things for her party.  More on that in an upcoming blog, I'm sure.

Back to work on the '59, I changed my strategy some.  Before, my plan was to clean and paint the entire frame before putting the truck together.  If I were building a show truck that would be a great strategy but since I am building something to be driven and used, it seems more a monumental unnecessary effort.  So, I remounted the newly-painted fuel tanks back under the frame and got to work hoisting the cab into the air.  I spent a lot of time trying to accomplish putting together a system for lifting the cab while I would be on the ground, but neither of my two theoretically-sound designs realistically worked.  In the end, I hoisted it using pretty much the same system I used to remove the '84 cab off the frame in the first place.  The big difference was that this time I was up in the rack operating the winch on a platform I threw together rather than dangerously standing on a ladder right by the cab being lifted.

With the cab roughly in place on the frame, I measured how the front clip and bed would line up to the wheel wells.  They didn't.  My measurements would require the cab to be scooted forward seven inches.  The problem is that the firewall-side of the engine is sitting about two inches from the firewall.  In an effort to gain stability and better handling through improved weight distribution, Ford began mounting the engines closer to the center of the vehicle in later model pickups in comparison to the 57-60 model.  As you can see from these two photos, the '84 cab has a nice indentation in the firewall to accept the engine being mounted further back on the frame.  The '59 doesn't have this.

So the best solution I have is to cut out a section of the '59 firewall.  Then, I'll have to fabricate a panel to cover that hole.  Initially, this reminds me of the E-150 vans I once owned.  The engines of the E-150 vans intrude so much into the cab that they have a removable panel so that it's easier to service the engine from the inside of the cab.  What I have to do to the '59 will not be near this dramatic.  It should only be about four to five inches deep of a bump.  In fact, from the inside of the cab it would look similar to how the '84 looks in this picture.  The '59 has no bump, but I'll have to change that.  However, unlike the '84, I believe that I'll make my panel removable so that the engine is much more accessible when in need of maintenance.  Also, the '84 bump extends into the floor in the form of a raised hump to make room for the top of the transmission and driveshaft. I won't need a raised floor in the '59 like shown in the '84 because I am forced to give the whole body a minimum 3" body lift.  This is due to the fact that the '59 frame rails are flat from the front to the back.  The '84 frame, however, has a 3" drop between the axles.  So, to get everything to mount and line up I have to ignore the drop and raise the cab to level out with the bed and front clip.  This will consequently remove the need to fabricate a matching hump in the floor of the cab since the '59 cab will sit above that requirement.

Cutting into the firewall is no small job.  I'll be busy with that for a while since I will want to measure thirty times before I cut.  I want to remove the least amount of firewall as necessary but ensure that any required maintenance has the space it needs to be performed whether that be the removal of the valve covers, spark plugs, etc.  Once that is complete, I can then move my cab into its future location and start working on fabricating my custom cab mounts.  I'll post an update here when I have one.

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Invasion of the Body Snatchers

1984 Ford F-150 before I did anything to it.

Two months ago, I wrote about how I brought the '59 body home from it's temporary resting place.  It seems like yesterday, but doesn't everything?  Either way, I've started the project of reviving the '59 Ford by putting its body (the only thing I have left of it) on the frame of the '84.

It's been going pretty well so far.  I have the entire '84 body off and listed for sale on Craigslist.  I have had several people interested in it, but no trigger-pullers yet.  It's a really decent body, actually.  I never cared much for the seventh generation (80-86) F-series Ford trucks.  Of all the different models, it was my least favorite.  But, owning this one has changed my mind a bit.  Fourth generation F-series has taken it's place as least liked.  That's as far as I will go.  In my opinion, it's far too modern in styling to be a classic, yet it is also too dated to be considered modern.  It's in that no-man's land in-between nice and neat.

Removing the bed.

Back to the project, I rather easily got everything off but then felt the brakes get hit when I started on the cab.  Taking on a project like this takes a certain level of craziness.  Stupidity may certainly substitute, as well, but all along the way, one just has to hope that it's the former and not the latter.  Once to the cab, I started to get a bit overwhelmed when trying to figure out all the wiring.  The only solution was to completely dismantle the dash.  There was no way I was going to make sense out of any of it without seeing the big picture.  So, that's what I did.

Everything removed.  Cab resting on back of frame.

Here's the cab precariously hanging from my makeshift lift system comprised of pallet racking, several well-used and fraying ratchet straps, and a come-along.  It's partially sitting on the back of the frame for peace of mind.  I left it like this overnight because I understood that someone was coming the next day to buy it from me.  But, since that deal fell through, I rolled out the frame and lowered it back to earth. I half-suspected that I would find it on the ground the next morning full of broken glass but, much to my relief, that wasn't the case.

With the entire '84 body removed, I have dropped both fuel tanks and started the tedious task of cleaning the frame and preparing it for paint.  This will take some time, but I've got a pretty good little jump on it, so I suspect that if I keep up the pace, I may have the whole thing painted in the next couple weeks.  Then, I'll get to start the task of placing the '59 cab on it.  That's super exciting but equally as intimidating.  There will be a ton of measuring involved and some customization to make the body mounts work.

Rear of the frame with rear gas tank.  So much cleaning to do!

Once the frame is all painted, my plan is as follows:

1.  Jack up the frame to get it all level and resting on blocks.
2.  Set the cab on the frame where I think it should go.
3.  Attach the front clip to the cab.
4.  Line everything up where it should go using shims.
5.  Measure all the gaps at the connection points so I know what thickness of bushings to get.
6.  See where the current mounts are located versus where the cab will require them to be.

Hopefully, with some Ozark ingenuity, I can make the current cab mounts work for the '59.  If they won't, then I'll just have to add some new mounts where I need them.  Only time will tell. Until my next update!

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Poorly Installed Electrical Recepticle Quick Fix

I'm not prone to posting "how to" videos, but I am commonly searching them out and have been helped tremendously through the years by those willing to post them, so I thought as I do things that others may find helpful, I should document what I am doing to help them out when they go searching the Internet for help.

This is a fix for those wall outlets that are too far back to properly put a wall plate on.  This also fixes wall outlets that move around when you go to plug something into them.  The root problem is the same: the electrical box was installed too deep in the wall.  A properly installed box will take into account the thickness of the drywall to be hung so that once the drywall is hung the box will be flush with the surface of the finished wall.

This outlet had a box that was way too far back and I couldn't even put a wall plate on it with the screw that came with it.  I had to find a longer screw to attach it but it still looked terrible with the outlet so deep.

To be safe, flip the breaker to the off position for the circuit that you will be working on.  Confirm that there is no power in the outlet by testing it with something.

Remove the wall plate.  Then, remove the outlet by taking the top and bottom screws completely out.

Reinstall the outlet but add some washers to the backside of the screw so that the outlet will stand further out.  I used two nuts for a larger sized screw in place of washers since I had so much distance to make up.

Add back the wall plate.  Add more washers or take some away as needed to acquire a perfect fit.  The wall plate should be snug to the wall on all four sides and the outlet should be flush to the surface of the wall plate.  If your wall plate starts to bend into a convex shape as you are attaching it, the outlet likely needs to be further out so add more washers.

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Built-In Dresser

It's been several years now since this photo was taken, but it sure doesn't seem like it.  This is a much younger Lyric playing with his play tools.  When we originally built the stairs to the attic we recognized that there would be a nice little usable space under them accessible from Lyric's bedroom.  Our idea was to have a little book nook complete with an overhead reading light.

That's just what it was for quite a while, albeit an unfinished one, but recently we decided to reinvent the space.  The original room was the largest in the entire house at 13' x 16' so we didn't feel bad about stealing some space from it to put in the staircase and a hallway to the bedrooms.  However, we are also enclosing an HVAC system into a closet in this room.  That system will service the second and third floors.  Even after we steal this additional space, it still leaves the room at roughly 10'x12', so it is still a generous bedroom size.  But, we thought we'd use that extra bit to its fullest potential with the next owners in mind.

So, we pulled out the light, disconnected and terminated the wiring within the junction box, roughed in some heavy duty drawer slides using 2x4 lumber and started putting together drawers and a drawer face.

I used some drawer facing boards that I got for free on Craigslist years ago.  Youth Of The Ozarks (YOTO) Thrift Store had been given a container-full of brand new cabinet scratch and dent stuff and mis-sized doors that they knew they couldn't sell so they were giving it all away for free.  Jacob and I spent a good hour filling the 8-foot bed of my truck with perfectly good material.  There were several other people there, as well, filling their trucks, vans, and cars to the brim.  The container was unloaded and cleaned out in no time.

I made the top three drawers by attaching two desk drawers together side by side.  There was a nice solid wood desk at work that was unwanted.  If no one wanted it, the manufacturing engineers were going to destroy it and toss it in the dumpster.  Of course, I wanted it.  And, they were almost perfect for the space.  The bottom three drawers were built from high-grade finished cabinet plywood from the truckload I mentioned earlier.

All in all, we only paid a few dollars for this built-in dresser.  We bought the pulls back in 2008 for 50 cents each at the Habitat for Humanity ReStore.  I bought the screws and wood glue I used at some point.  But, the rest was all free.  I love the way that it turned out.  And, it's a ton of storage.  These drawers are 32" wide and 33" long.  I love creative and practical use of space.

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Les placards sont finis!

Translation:  The closets are finished!

This makes the third time that I have blogged about these closets and for good reason.  We started this project a year and a half ago.  It didn't take but a day or two and I had the closets all framed up nice and solid, but it would take 18 more months to finally be able to sit back on our bed and admire their completion.  But, as they say, something worth having is something worth waiting for.

I spent the weekend quite determined to get all the trim work done.  And, I'm proud to say that it is, in fact, done.  I was a bit nervous to start cutting into the crown trim.  It can be a trick to make sure that you get the angles just right, but I've come to the conclusion that all my previous trial and error on previous projects has served itself well.  I have now come to the place of cutting crown with confidence.

I'm sorry for the grainy picture.  It's certainly not worthy of a true "after" photo.  But, rest assured, I will make sure to get a proper one soon that we will use for our listing.  In the meantime, it works for the purpose of this up-to-the-minute home improvement blog update.

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Brick Patio (part two)

The patio is coming along quite nicely.  Today, I finished going through all the used bricks that still had mortar on them.  It was quite a chore but I got all the mortar knocked off of all of them.  I wound up with a nicely sized stack when I was done.  I didn't figure that a lot of the bricks would be useable, but almost all of them were.

I started laying some of them, but I knew that I would be limited in what I could do because I only had a very small pile of sand left with which to work.  I will go back to American Landscape and Quarry supply on Monday and get another half bucket of sand.  That should be about the right amount to get the remainder done.

While I was laying bricks, Jodi was spreading the brown sand over the top of the bricks that have been down for a while.  We have been waiting on a good rain to come and cement down the lime sand that I have been using as a base.  The lime sand is especially good for this because it gets pretty hard and compacted rather easily.  We didn't really want their to be white sand in between the bricks, but we knew that the first good rain would compact everything that had already been laid and allow new room for a surface layer.

I can't help but just stand and stare at it.  One of the downsides of performing a home improvement project is that since you're in the thick of it throughout every step, you kind of miss the "wow" factor.  It's like not really noticing how fast your children are growing because you see them everyday.

But, as you can see from this photo, we are dangerously close to being done.  The perspective doesn't really show it, but it is probably more than 3/4 of the way complete.

It cracks me up how long we have been planning all of this outdoor space.  It was December of 2008 when I uploaded this Google Sketchup 3D rendering of our plans.  And, even before I made this Sketchup drawing, we had discussed, planned, and drawn out a rough layout of what you basically see here.  So, for at least 6 years, we've had this pictured in our mind's eye.  In that regard, it's nothing short of amazing to see that we have actually done it and accomplished what we dreampt up so long ago.

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Brick Patio

As you can see, we got the ground all prepped like we wanted a couple weeks ago. There was an awful lot of prepping to do, more than I would have figured.  Jodi kept on pointing at this slightly raised area, then that one.  And, we needed to fill in some low spots that I would not have even noticed.  But, it was all good and all necessary.  I recently read an old proverb that said "If I had ten hours to chop down a large tree I would spend seven sharpening the axe."  There's a lot of wisdom and applicability in that.  I don't usually prescribe to that philosophy very well, though.  Jodi, on the other hand, is pretty good at it so she helps balance me out.

Just like the front walk (which I'm only just now realizing I never blogged about) we got all the brick for free! I've added a photo of the front walk here for your reference.  That project was made possible by the old MFA building in Elkland, MO.  I was driving by it on my way to go pick up the children from my mom's house.  I always liked the building.  It was the only red brick two-story building in Elkland.  It was overgrown and boarded up.  When seeing it, I would usually brainstorm about what could be done with it if I was somehow able to acquire it.  In the condition it was in I didn't figure that the owner of it would have to be offered much to be convinced to let it go.

This particular day that I was driving by, it happened to be being demolished by a large excavator.  I stopped and asked the operator if it'd be alright to come back that evening and grab some brick from the rubble.  He gave me permission to do just that and I came home with a nice load of brick.  I didn't have a truck/trailer combo able to haul a large load so I negotiated borrowing one from my friend, Nate, in exchange for a third of the bounty.

So, it turned out that I wound up owning part of that building after all, you could say.  It's also nice to know that the building, as neat as it was, will go on living, in a sense, having been repurposed into a nice entry walk for our Springfield home that is likely roughly the same age as the MFA building was.

Sorry for the blog within a blog so far.  Back to the brick patio, it's taken several evenings and one Saturday so far to get where I am.  However, I think it's going pretty well.  We are over half way done and it's looking great.  I agree with what Jodi said about it "It really ties in everything we've done in the back."  She's right.  We built a great looking deck, an outdoor closet/remodeled backyard-to-basement entry door, a garden wall connecting the house to the detached garage complete with arched doorway, and installed a proper side door to the garage.  The brick patio is what fills in the area between all these improvements.

This brick, primarily, came from a house just off North Grant.  I don't know it's original source.  This house had a huge stack of them behind their garage.  The owners had just recently bought the house and were looking for someone to haul them away.  My friend, Jake, tipped me off about them.  The other two places that I scored more brick, albeit a much smaller quantity, were from our house and from a Craigslist ad.  The ones from our house came from taking down the second chimney.  When we finished out the attic into a cool fourth bedroom, I dismantled a second unused chimney to below the floor level.  It had previously been dismantled to be below the roof several decades ago, but I took it further down to remove it from the attic altogether.  The Craigslist ones came from a demolished brick detached garage.  There wasn't much left, but I took what they had.

I should have some time tonight to continue laying more brick.  Plus, I can get several hours logged tomorrow morning.  I have no other obligations until early afternoon.  So, I think that I'll try and maximize my time.  I also have the firepit to masonry up, so I can't say that I can knock it all out, but I certainly will get a lot closer.  It will be nice to have a legitimate outdoor space around the firepit that we have been using for some time now.  I'm really looking forward to it all being complete.

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Getting Things Done

Sometimes it feels like we're making progress with this house like an inchworm.  Other days it feels like we've accomplished huge feats is record time.  Not that it's some new discovery or anything, but I've decided that the emotional toll that comes with a home renovation is potentially overwhelming.  Jodi and I have done pretty well keeping our cool throughout the years, but we've also had our fair share of breakdowns.

We're so close to the end.  While that's a good thing, obviously, it's also a de-motivator in itself.  Before we were close, we didn't give ourselves too many time lines.  We didn't crack the whip because we couldn't see the end anywhere near.  Now, that we're fixated on it, it can't seem to come too soon.

This second-to-third-story staircase we built has been barely noticeable amongst the stacks of tools, buckets of paint, ladders, and piles of trim almost since we built it.  I remember there was a stretch of time when it was still roughed in and didn't have a single piece of drywall on it.  Then, it finally got drywall on it only to sit for seemingly forever before it got drywall mud applied.  Then, more waiting.

Finally, we jumped right in and made the mess we knew it would make when picking up where we left off.  We sanded, re-mudded, and sanded some more.  It turned out pretty well and I'm satisfied with it.  Though, Jodi and I have sworn off ever doing drywall again.  We fully understand why wall paneling was such a popular trend in the 70's.  It probably looked stupid then, too.  But, at least it wasn't a 7-step process that took days to do even for the professionals.

So, with the walls done, primed, and painted it finally looks like it belongs to the house rather than being a misplaced construction project.  It's not done, of course.  We still have to install all the trim, but it doesn't make sense to do all that until we get the floors sanded down and refinished.

Jodi knew that it would be a little while before I installed treads and kick plates on the stairs so she took the liberty of painting the roughed in staircase as a temporary fix to pretty it up in the meantime.

I think that if we had the diligence to only work on one project at a time until it was done, we would perhaps feel better about our list of what's left.  But, in our defense, the reason we have always had multiple projects going on simultaneously is because we've also had small children the entire time we've lived here.  So, we have things to work around that contractors don't.  Like nap times.  We couldn't have just stopped working once a child fell asleep OR we could keep going somewhere else.  Also, the seasons played their role in our project list making.  We sometimes had to put one project on hold while we worked another that the weather allowed for at the time.

Yesterday, we started the brick patio.  That blog is to come, though.

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Finished Deck Photo (Finally)

One thing that keeps me from writing a lot more blogs about our home improvement projects is that when we get done with a project, another one usually has already begun.  Such was the case with the deck.  Although, another reason the finished photo never got taken was because the siding wasn't done.  I didn't want the newly finished deck to be overshadowed by the house that was in desperate need of a facelift.

So, the last photo of the deck I wrote about was while it was still under construction.  As you can see, the railing wasn't up.  The privacy fence wasn't complete.  The gate hadn't been built.  The right door needed painted.  The siding needed replaced.  And, the yard was a mess.

All of these are fine for a photo while it is under construction.  But, the level of expectation goes up for the finished product.  Take Extreme Home Makeover for example.  Imagine if they still had tools lying about during the unveiling.  Picture them "moving that bus" to reveal a beautifully renovated home with a ladder leaning up against the roof, bare patches of dirt in the lawn, and a short stack of paint cans on the porch.

This is my dilemma.  I don't like taking that finished photo until it's TV quality.  But, perhaps, I'm too hard on myself.  Maybe it's ok to see tools lying around.  Maybe no one but myself cares, after all.

So, here it is.  You might take notice that it's not 100% complete.  I still have to finish the underpinning on the east side (or bottom-right to you).  One thing that came as a surprise to me is that the two brands of wood that we used for the decking both weathered to look the same.  I knew that they would weather closer to the same, but I didn't at all expect that I wouldn't be able to differentiate between them after a single season.  Not that I'm complaining.

We just started prepping the ground last night to lay our brick patio.  That's pretty exciting.  We got the masonry lines ran for leveling, the ditch dug for the buried drain pipe, the pile of pea gravel moved out of the way, some of the leveling complete, and the perimeter line laid.

When my father-in-law saw the size of our deck for the first time he humorously asked, "You trying to get out of mowing?"  Jodi and I just figured that if you're going to do it, then you might as well go ahead and do it.  You know?  The deck is a great size and is a perfect spot for outdoor entertaining.  With the installation of the brick patio, our outdoor space will finally be complete.  However, with around 1100 square feet of combined deck and patio space, my father-in-law will most likely be certain of my disdain for mowing.

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Bedroom Floor Removal

It's been a while since I wrote a blog, even longer since I shared any of our home renovations.  So, no time like the present, right?

Last weekend, we started the master bedroom floor project.  All of the hardwood flooring in the second story of our house was installed directly on top of the floor joists.  Since, there was no sub-flooring, the floors have likely always been creaky and poppy in places, but certainly during our tenure here.  I don't generally notice the noise in the day when everyone is up and doing things.  But, having raised two children from babies in this house, I am highly aware of the unwelcome noise at night.  There's very little in this world that's scarier than the pent-up sheer fury in a desperately tired parent's face at 3:00 a.m. who having just spent an hour lulling a teething baby back to sleep steps on a noisy floorboard in their carefully planned escape from the baby's bedroom... rrrRRRREEEEEEEE!!!

So, the replacement of this floor has been a long time coming.  Our plan is simple:

1. Pull up hardwood flooring as carefully as possible so as to not damage the tongues or the grooves... check!
2. Lay down 3/4" plywood sub-floor and fasten with deck screws to keep it from ever loosening and thus separating from the joists and creating a potential noise location... check!
3. Lay down laminate flooring underlayment as a noise-reducing/gap filler.
4. Reinstall the hardwood flooring.
5. Sand and refinish.

While I had the floor open, I went ahead and added some electrical outlets to bring it up to the "two per wall" standard that you see in most new construction.

It's exciting getting this room close to completion.  We've renovated almost the entire house, in and out, and all the while we've slept in a bedroom that had had all the wallpaper scraped off and had been given a fresh coat of paint, but had been void of any other renovations.  In a couple weeks, we should have the floor back in, all the walls and newly-drywalled ceiling sanded smooth and painted, and all the trim put on and painted.  The only thing left to do will be the floor refinishing which will likely be done right before we put it on the market.

Stay tuned for future photos in the coming weeks.

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New Memorial Day Tradition?

Last Saturday, Jodi and I got to work on our bedroom.  I finally got around to hanging the closet doors.  While I was doing it, I got to thinking about it and suspected that it was Memorial Day 2013 when I framed and drywalled the closets.  A quick search of my blog confirmed it (click the link to see that blog with the before and during pictures).  So, an entire year passed between building the doorways and putting doors in them.  Sheesh.

It also took me all day to do it.  This was my own fault.  I purposefully framed the doorways according to my drawing that called for a 48" wide hole for two 24" wide doors..  I just got excited during the framing process and forgot to account for the trim.  I framed to the finished opening measurements.  Add to that, I completely dropped the ball somehow on my opening heights.  They match each other quite well, but are a full 3 inches shorter than standard height doors.  I still don't know at what point I made that failure.

All this added up to me having to trim down the standard 24" doors to make them work.  It all worked out in the end, but the end should not have been at the end of the day and wouldn't have been if I had made everything right in the beginning.  If I hadn't successfully made the doors work I'd be really beating myself up right now.  But, given that they look and function well, I let myself off the hook.

It's pretty momentus for us, really.  Since we moved into the house in March of 2007, our clothes have hung on closet poles attached to the wall right out in plain sight.  It's like we were sleeping in a really large walk-in closet.  I've grown so accustomed to them this way over the course of the last 7+ years that our room looks considerably strange and empty without the clothes in view.  I'll learn to get used to it.  And, despite the unfamiliarity of the apparent emptiness, I enjoy the organization and the wide-open feel.

We were supposed to work on the house all weekend. But, we only worked the one day and were surprised with an invite to a river cabin for the rest of the long weekend.  We just couldn't refuse and it felt good to act on a spontaneous impulse to go relax off the grid for a couple days.

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Salvaging the '59

After 6 long years cooped up in the garage, the '59 has reemerged covered in a thick layer of dust, but happy to be free of its wooden confinement.  We pulled it out last Friday after I got home from work.  It wasn't too difficult to do.  The tires held air long enough for us to pull it out, but not much longer after that.  I steered it successfully keeping it from hitting anything while Jodi eased it backwards pulling it with the '74.

I started pulling it apart on Saturday.  It was pretty rough.  I was blowing up my face with a pretty steady stream of sneezes like I was powerfully beat boxing.  Everyone in the neighborhood was mowing.  I even did myself right before I got too work on the truck.  I'm not sure if it was the mowing or pollen or the dust off the truck, but my face didn't like it whatever it was.

I sheared off about every third bolt that I removed.  I guess the ratio of the strength of 55 years of corrosion versus the strength of the bolts used tend to lean in the bolt's favor, but only slightly.

I got the headlight bezels removed and then took out the headlight assemblies.  I also managed to get the bumper off, though I'm not so sure that it was necessary.  I don't know that I will be keeping it.  It's bent back on the passenger side and kind of gnarly shaped from damage.

After work on Monday, I went back at it and got the bed removed.  A neighbor helped me carry it into the garage.  Then, again, after work on Tuesday, I made the most visual impact by removing the doors, hood, and front clip.  Removing the front clip turned out to be pretty easy.  I had made it very difficult on myself trying to remove the grill from the quarter panels.  I read a forum that Ford enthusiasts suggested foregoing the removal of the grill separately and instead removing the entire front clip as if it were one piece.  That advice proved invaluable.  It had very few connections, all of which came undone fairly easy.

So, with the body stacked neatly in the garage, I only have the cab left to wrangle with.  I'll disconnect the steering column from the steering box, all the wiring from the engine to the cab and the heater hoses and I should be ready to unbolt the cab mounts.  I'll have to get some help for the cab removal.  I imagine I'll need three guys besides myself to lift the cab.  I don't know how much it weighs but I suspect it to be around 400 lbs according to forums.

Once done with the cab, I'll pull the rest to the scrap yard.  Then, we wait.  When I have the cash together I'll buy a truck similar to the one advertised here. I'm looking for a running carbureted 302 with a 3-speed in a 73-79 Ford F100 or F150 with a decent body.  I have found three or four in the last few months come and go on Craigslist so I should be able to find one when I'm ready to buy one within a month or so, I figure.  I hope that's the case, anyway.

I'll pull the body off just like I'm doing now with the '59 then I'll put the '59 body on it.  I'll have to do some customizations to make everything work, but it shouldn't be too difficult.  Once the body swap is done and the '59 is drivable I'll make it my daily driver again.  Then, I'll use the body panels I pulled off to upgrade the '74.  The '74 is pretty rusty and could use a better bed, tailgate, and cab floor pans.  I'm hoping to get all or most of that with the truck I buy.

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A Porch Renovation Timeline

A front porch is important to the house.  While it's not necessarily the first thing people see when they pull up to your property, it's where their eyes will travel once out of their vehicle and walking towards the front door.  It's the first real personal impression of your home.  It's what they will look around at after knocking and before you get to the door to welcome them in.

Our porch has gone through some major changes in two big steps at two separate times.  The first photo shows the porch basically how we found it.  What that photo doesn't show is the baseball-sized hole near the stairs that made people doubt whether or not they wanted to take that leap of faith just to see us.  I don't know if anyone ever turned back at this point and perhaps I'll never know.  Either way, you can see from the second photo that we repaired the hole by cutting out all of the boards near the stairs and replacing them with better (still used) boards that I got from our friend, Jake Sing, after a job he did removing a porch.  Jodi scraped, primed and painted the floor giving it a much needed makeover and I ripped out the old, mismatched, rotted rails and replaced them with nice new treated rails that I built.

It looked tons better.  However, that was many years ago.  Time and wear have shown their work on the paint since then, which you can see in the third photo.  You can also see that we chose to paint the rails white.  This photo was taken last Sunday afternoon.  You might notice that the siding on the house is missing.  The siding guys (Covering Exteriors)(plug, plug) had this all prepped for the new siding that is still being put on the house as I write this.

It took me about an hour, but I got all the old porch boards removed and all the nails pulled out of the joists (4th photo).  I had to add a couple small connecting joists that should have been there given the design, but were not.  No biggie.

The new floor (5th photo) went in nicely.  I started it Sunday, worked on it until I ran out of screws on Monday night, and finished it Tuesday night after stopping at Lowe's on my way home from work.  I'm super happy with how it turned out.

The siding on the porch got completed yesterday which completed the package.  Jodi and I LOVE it!  I have to re-hang the porch swing and put the welcome mat back in front of the door.  But, I think that we are done with it!  And, that's a great feeling.  :)

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