The Signature

I almost started to cry when I came across this signature on the wall.

What's the last name?  We need help figuring this out.  First name is Leo and last name starts with an "H".  One thought is Leo Hansmann, but it doesn't look like two n's at the end.

And Leo signed the wall o Aug. 14, 1905.  I think we should sign the wall right below it showing the date it was restored.

Finding this on the wall got me thinking...  We have many areas throughout the building that have been torn apart and will be rebuilt.  After talking to Dale, we're going to put pictures and love notes about the building in the walls.  I'm sure someone will come across them sometime in the next hundred years.  It'll be fun to throw some of the before and after pics in there.

Then I was thinking it would be really cool to have everyone come help chip away at this plaster and then sign a board!!  Wouldn't that be cool!  I'm sure everyone would want to come help.... I'm just sure of it!  Three walls to accommodate everyone!!!! :)  Just think about it!!! It would be so much fun!  okay... what if I offered beer?!?!?

We're back! And totally energized!

It's really starting to hit home how much work is in front of us, so it's time to dig in and 'git-r done'!

For me, that means cleaning the plaster out from the wood walls of the stairwells.  Three BIG walls.  One groove at a time.

The lower grooves have been cleaned the upper grooves.... ugh.

The area above the doorway and to the lower left took about six hours.  I've got to find a more efficient way to remove this or there's 3 weeks of work ahead of me!

Found efficiency!!!  I call this a hammer drill, although I've been informed by the boss that it's just called a hammer.  That may be true, but last time I checked, you don't hook a hammer up to an air-compressor!  Anyway...  this thing is amazing (and quite loud) when it comes to digging the plaster out from within those little groove.  Next thing on my wish-list...  a pair of earplugs.

For Dale, that means bringing Spring into the building...

Ooooo.....  let there be light!

Ta-dah!!!!  One down and 5 to go!  Notice how massive these windows are compared to the door.  These are double-hung windows and at one point in their life, the bottom half actually slid up to allow fresh air into the building.

Unveiling from the outside (and another butt shot).  :)

The Jerome is going to look SO magnificent when J&J Glass installs the new windows.  I can't wait!

So tempting to wash the windows even though they'll be replaced.  I'll do that if it EVER warms up!  But since it's only about 20 degrees outside, not happening today!

 

I made this picture as small as possible.  Why is it that other people find treasures or money in the wall and we find this?!?!?!!  

Basement - before and after

Just realized we had these pics.  This is the basement next to Delano Floral.  I think we made some progress!!!

BEFORE - 8/7/2011

AFTER - 1/31/2014

Getting ready for the party!

Dale's birthday party will take place at The Jerome and while we obviously won't have the building spic and span, I promise the bathroom will be spotless -- at least to the best of my ability!

Before

After.  The floor may still look dirty, but it has been scrubbed with three different cleaners! And I promise the hose will be gone and the toilet will flush!  

 While I was busy cleaning, Dale was spending the day in the other basement pulling down old pipes and electrical that hasn't been used in years.  Remember a couple of months ago when I told you we couldn't use a sink upstairs because Dale found it was leaking into the basement? Well when he he used the wrench on another pipe, the pipe carrying that water just fell apart.  Yep... this building was ready for a complete overhaul!

The stairs going down to the middle building now have a handrail making this trek a little safer.

Look at what was found in the rafters?  An old pair of skis!!

I think this is a storage room in the basement.   Honestly, it was too dark to see in there so thankfully the flash caught it!

Here are the skis!

Check out the tips!

The buckle is intact on the left ski and is tied together with old string (which I thought was a dead spider when I brought them up from the basement!).

Don't slow him down!

"It's amazing how many things get in the way that slow me down!"  Dale Graunke, 1/10/14, 5:30 p.m.

You know when you're running late for something and you're still trying to get everything ready so you can get out the door?  That would be the pace of Dale Graunke -- all day -- every day.

Last night we talked about what would be accomplished in the coming days and Dale said it was time to get the place cleaned up.  Okaaaayy.  So he had our friend, Mike Barfknecht, bring in a special dumpster to load up all the plaster we've been removing.  So yes, we now have two huge dumpsters in the back of the building (too dark to take a picture and I forgot to do it earlier in the day).

Clean floor!  Also notice the plywood covering the opening to the other building.  That was put there so when the plaster was shoveled into the wheelbarrow and the dust was floating around, it wouldn't go into the other side.

Remember the wood structure at the back of the building?  It's coming down!  The furnace was moved back so it's on top of what was once a bathroom.  There's no plumbing in there anymore so I guess you can call it a closet now.  Also check out the dark areas in the floor - that's where tile has been removed.

More floor cleaned up.

The phone didn't take such a great pic... and I'm sure it was the phone.  Anyway... check out the tarps that were hung between the two buildings. This was to keep the dust out.  Is anybody questioning this?  Check out the floor in the lower lefthand corner of this picture.  Looks like dust to me!  So what's a little more dust!  It's Dale's world, so whatever makes him happy....

These stairs came from the structure in the middle building that he's tearing down in the first picture.  Another recycling opportunity!  These will now become the temporary stairs to the basement in "Deann's" building (that's the space closest to Delano Floral) because those stairs are leaning so badly that I don't really care to go up and down them.  See picture below.

I don't like these stairs, which is why you don't have a better picture of them.

The area where the tile have been removed is the same area where there was MAJOR rippling going on in the floor.  Look!!! No ripples!  Boy, that Dale is one talented guy!

Dale is determined to get this structure out of there.  That's where the stairs came from.

I was drinking a beer during this picture segment and watching the scenery. :)

Going at it with a maul.  Keep in mind, this is after 10 hours of work -- and he's still going!

This is a close-up of the floor.  As you can see, once the tile is removed, there's another layer, which I think is called sub-flooring.  I have a really bad feeling about this one.... I think that's my next job.  Remember, I get to do everything close to the ground. Yikes.

So the structure is down...  My beer is finished.... and Dale will remove the rest of the plaster and load up the wheelbarrow with the plaster on the floor (approximately 3 loads according to him).  

So now he's home after a 12 1/2 hour day.  I was out of town this week and he got so much done that I think we're going to have "date-weekend"!

Recycling Day

Remember all the pipes in the middle of the floor last week? Well, Dale loaded up the pickup and off we went to the recycling yard in Waverly.  1500 lbs. recycled today!

I only have a picture of the yard because I thought the guys working there would NOT appreciate me taking pictures of them unloading the steel in the freezing temps.  So I sat in the cab with the heated seats.

Dumpster's almost full!  Should be full by the end of the week!

Dale finished this wall last week.  We had a miscommunication and I didn't know that's what he was up to when he was supposed to be home for date-night!

Since we have running water in only one of the buildings, and the weather has been the coldest in 20 years,  Dale's been keeping an eye on the temperature in the basement to make sure the pipes don't freeze.  The thermometer got down to 38 degrees.  Too close for comfort.  So the trap door in the floor was opened (I didn't even know it was there!) and the big fan is pumping warm air into the basement.

He just couldn't resist.  Had to start peeling back the tile to expose the wood floor.  I don't know why he had to start there - that's where we had to remove everything from the basement!

Then he had to go see how the floor would come up on the other side.

And checking on the ease of removing tile in the middle of the floor.

BEFORE:  Shelf thing almost gone.

AFTER:  Oh so clean!

BEFORE:  There a green wall and that white shelf thing off to the right.

AFTER:  Now it's all gone!

Deja Vu - 2 months later

Started the day off fairly easy as you can see below.  Not feeling very ambitious today so grabbed a screwdriver (not the drink!) and with coffee in hand, started chipping the plaster away from the grooves in the wood.

I thought it was going to be a day of taking plaster off the wall with my very-own-brand-new respirator!  But NOOOOO, it's 40+ degrees and sunny outside and we're heading to the basement AGAIN!!!

I just looked back on an older post from October 27th, titled "More than just a Photographer".  It was 2 months ago that I was in this exact basement cleaning it up.  And now Dale made a mess again.  He's tearing down all the stuff I couldn't (or didn't feel like).  The next couple of pictures may not appear that bad to the untrained Dale-helper, but I'm here to tell you... it was HELL today!  My first clue that it would be a tough day was seeing those two sawhorses in the middle of the room.  That meant Dale wasn't done yet.

Yep... That green wall came down, those strips of wood on the ceiling (95 feet of them) all came down, too.  And as you know, I'm not the tallest girl in town, which means I get to bend over and pick everything up.  Then, up the 12 stairs, around the corner, out the door and into the dumpster I go.  Over and over and over again.

I was standing in the same place for the picture below as the one above, only I turned to my right.  The stairs would be off to the left.  In front of me is a wall of pegboard and some weird two-foot box built along the wall.  And of course, it also needs to come out!  As quick as I was able to carry garbage out, Dale was tearing into more.  In case you were wondering, pegboard is really heavy.

That would be a sump-pump in the middle of the floor with a nifty jury-rigged (and yes, that's the correct spelling.  I looked it up) hose making it's way outside.  I'm sure it'll be used this March when the floods come because it won't warm up enough for any of our snow to melt so we'll have some "moisture" in the basement.

More useless wood stripping to come down off the ceiling (and for Lynn to clean up).

 Oh look...  why use the sawhorses when you can save time and get down on the floor to cut wood into little pieces!!!!

Are those knee-pads he has on?!?!?!  Hey!!!!  Oh wait....  shhhh.....  don't say anything or I might get those for Valentine's Day!