Merry Christmas | 2009

Tomorrow is Christmas but I took advantage of my day off today to make a trip to the dump. Yep that's right I went to the dump on Christmas Eve day. Actually I was going to go by the Cottage Garden next door to the Blue Myrtle House and get a last minute Christmas gift. They weren't open yet so I decided to take the trailer Todd and I filled up on Saturday and empty it. The dump was only open a half day so I had to get there by noon. Since I've mentioned the dump so many times I figured I'd put a picture of it on for you. I took it with my phone so it's not that great.

From December 2009

Rain Forecasted

The weatherman said it was going to storm this afternoon and by all indications it looked like he was going to be right. I left the Blue Myrtle House in a mess on Saturday and the trailer was uncovered too. I took off from work early so I could clean up the debris and cover the trailer before the rain got here. I stopped by home to change clothes, while there Todd offered to help me with the work I needed to do on Myrtle. We picked up all the debris from Saturday and tossed it into the trailer. We filled the trailer then covered it. It took us about an hour to get everything done. It started to rain just as we were leaving.

Almost Topless

The entire roof is nearly off. I worked most of the day clearing debris from the second level. It sure piles up fast. I cleaned up the alley side of the house. I didn't mention in the last post about the big sewer pipe we pulled off the side of the house. There are, or were 2 big sewer pipes that ran/run up the side of the house. The only thing holding one of the pipes in place was the hole it was fished through in the roof. One still remains and is actually attached to the side of the house. You can kinda see the big pipes going up the side of the house in the picture below, click on it to enlarge. I don't know what they are made of but they are very heavy. Mark held the pipe in place and tied a rope around the top. I went to the ground and pulled the rope in the direction we wanted the pipe to fall. Had it fell on its own it would have probably smashed the white picket fence along the alley.

Today I freed the last remaining portion of the roof from the top plates of the walls. This was another great video moment missed. When I cut the last remaining support it came down with a crash within the interior of the house. Man was it loud! I'm pleasantly surprised how sturdy this house is considering its condition. After I pulled off the metal sheathing, old asphalt shingles, and most of the planks from the fallen section I called it quits. I can't remember if I mentioned there was a layer of asphalt shingles under the metal sheathing or not in a previous post. It's actually rolled asphalt and it is very dried out and crumbly. What you see me covered in is that stuff. It's a good thing it doesn't snow here or else this roof woulda collapsed under the weight years ago.

From June 2009

I Like Hanes

7:00am
Today I got started pretty early. I dropped Todd and Alec off at school and then drove straight to the Myrtle House. Mark said he would meet me at 9am to start work, so I decided to make a quick trip to the dump. Have I told you how much I love going to the dump aka landfill? The trailer was filled up and ready to go. The landfill opened at 7:30. I got there about 8:00. Mark texted me just as I chucked the last board off the trailer. He was just letting me know he was on schedule and wanted to know if I was too.

9:00am
Mark jumped right into it. He had no hesitation about getting up on the roof. Unlike myself who was more cautious he began pushin' and pullin' on the rafters to get a feel for how sturdy they were. I didn't have a problem with the pushin' and pullin', I got a little nervous cause he was doing it while standing on them. After about the 4th time of tugging on the rafters I told him I like Hanes. He gave me a funny look. I explained to him if he keeps it up I'm going to need some new undies for Christmas! If you've read my previous posts you'll know how much I'm NOT enjoying taking the roof off.

11:30am
Mark had to leave for his real job. We actually got a lot done in 2 1/2 hours. We didn't get the entire roof off, but we got it to the point that I can handle the rest of it by myself. I spent the rest of the day taking off a little more of the roof and filling up the trailer with blue myrtle debris.

3:00pm
Alec called needing a ride home from school. I told him he was going to have to walk cause I was not at a good stopping point. I told him I'd be done in about 45 minutes.

One of the neighbors stopped by. Ryan from down the street introduced himself. He told me he was an electrician by trade and offered his services. I told him I probably wouldn't be needing any electrical work til spring. He said he'd bring one of his biz cards back and asked if I'd keep him in mind.

I Hear Music

I could hear band music in the distance just as I started to climb up on the roof today. I looked around but couldn't see where it was coming from exactly. It sounded like it was coming from the downtown area a few blocks away. I figured it was some preparation for a Glendale Glitters event later tonight. After a few minutes the music started to get louder so I stopped what I was doing and moved around to the side of the house where I could get a better look. That's when noticed a couple of motorcycle cops driving up 58th Ave. They stopped the cross traffic on Myrtle Ave to make way for a parade. I'm not sure what the theme of the parade was, but there were a lot of people marching, dancing, and a few floats. It lasted about 20 minutes. Dang, I had a whole street full of potential customers! I gotta get this biz open asap.

Anyway, I worked on the roof for a few hours today. I didn't make too much progress. The front part of the roof was proving to be a little more difficult than the back. I was by myself and didn't want to take any chances with major demolishing. It was time to bring in the big guns, so I called Mark. He said he could make it by Monday morning to give me a hand. I finished the day filling up the trailer with blue myrtle debris.

Back Roof Off

I worked for nearly 9 hours non-stop today. Todd came down after lunch to give me a hand. We got the roof on the back of the house down. We missed two great video moments. The first was when we collapsed one side of the roof onto the top-plates of the second floor. That was a fairly big crash. The second was when I pushed a large portion of the roof off the back of the house. That was pretty loud when it hit the ground. Carol from next door yelled at me through the oleanders calling me a crazy man. She's right about that!

Dump Count

Since May I've been to the dump at least 8 times. I like going to the dump and all, but it's getting a little old even for me. I figured I could cut down on the number of trips if I had a bigger trailer. So I made my trailer bigger.

Man Oh Man

I never really needed a beer after doing any kind of work, but after being up on the roof for the second day in a row my nerves were shot. I'm not afraid of heights just my imagination. All I could picture in my head was the roof collapsing in on the rest of the house and me riding it down like a surfer on a narly wave! Dude! I dropped my cordless saw twice in as many days. It's freaking me out man...

Todd and I got most of the metal sheathing off the back half of the house. I decided to stop because one corner of the house is very close to the power pole. I had the power to my house (Blue Myrtle House) removed last week, but the neighbor still has hers hooked up. Go figure. I'm going to have to coordinate a day with her to get her power turned off while I take that part of the house apart. I'm thinking I'll get with the City to see if they can bury the power lines to the Blue Myrtle House and Cottage Garden II. If the power pole wasn't there I'd have the new Blue Myrtle House designed in a manner that takes advantage of the alley. Just thinking ahead.

Today is the second day of Glendale Glitters. They closed off Myrtle Ave, but Todd and I were able to bust the barricades.

Up On The Roof

Nope, not as in one of The Drifters greatest hits. More like me getting up the nerve to start removing the metal sheathing that covers the Blue Myrtle House roof. It was a little slow getting started but once I got one piece off I was able to start removing the adjacent pieces. Each piece measures about 2 feet by 7 feet. I'm keeping it to use toward the "artistic" development of the new Blue Myrtle House courtyard. Todd was a great help with the metal sheaths. I popped them off and handed them down to him. Oh, the first thing Todd and I did was make sure the house was able to withstand the pounding and all the movement up top. We built a couple of new walls on the first level to support the second floor.

What Happened In October?

Nothing. Just got a little behind. Let me bring you up to date. Apparently the previous owners initiated a restoration on the house after it was damaged by a fire. Not sure what happened in the interim but the renovation stopped and the house went back to ownership of the bank.

The first step for me was to have the Safety Department inspect the property. The Safety Department determined the house to be structurally unsafe. This was not entirely bad news since my first inclination was to tear the house down from the get go. Since the home is on the National Register of Historic Places I was still willing to restore it if possible, but with the results of the inspection I decided that demolishing the house would be the prudent thing to do.

The home is being disassembled piece by piece to preserve as much of the original building materials as possible. These materials will be used in the rebuilding and artistic development of the new house.

Busting out the Concrete

I'm finally to the point that I'm busting up the concrete around the house. Today I moved the large pavers that led to the back of the house. I temporarily placed them at the end of the parking area. I still have a pile of small river rock I need to sort out near the parking area too. The siftanator does a good job of sifting but it doesn't separate the debris from the rocks, arggggh.

I wanted to bust out the slab along the side of the house where the stairs were, but the mortared tile on top proved to be a tiring job. I removed all the tile from the top of the slab and called it quits. I'm going to try and get back to it on Monday after work. Hopefully I'll get the slab busted out then.

The school down the street had a car wash today. Also, the City of Glendale was setting up for some sort of downtown event.

Catching Up

I've been out of town for a few weeks so I haven't been doing too much blue-myrtle blogging let alone working on the house. What work I have done has been mostly along the back side. Once the small addon was removed it was easier to get to the air conditioning unit about 10 feet away. I had access to the A/C unit from the alley side, but removing the addon gave me more light to see what I was doing. Oh did I forget to mention it's like a jungle back there? You may be able to tell from the photos there are a lot of oleanders along the back of the house. They are majorly overgrown and go pretty high. They actually created a kind of canopy. It was great for shade but made it hard to see. I was always worried some critter or scorpion was about to attack.

The A/C was a pain in the butt to get out. Todd helped me with it. It was no good so we tugged and pulled at it pretty aggresively. It really smelled bad for some reason. Once we got it free of the house and dragged around front we looked it over for anything salvagable. The only thing worth keeping was the fan. Todd detached the fan, and I took the remainder to the dump.

With the A/C and addon gone it was time to start digging along the back. I cannot figure out where all the dirt came from. It was above the foundation by about 3 inches. The dirt was really taking a toll on the wood siding. It took me all day to get the dirt dug down to about 5 inches below the foundation. That's 8 inches of digging if you're keeping track. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention the A/C and addon had a concrete slab under them. I busted out both slabs. I have a big pile of concrete I need to haul to dump.

I met Rhonda. She manages the property across the alley and is an all around handy-woman. She introduced herself and we talked for awhile. She asked me if I got the plans and permits for the house when I bought it. I told her I was even aware there were plans and permits.

I called down to the City on Monday and sure enough they had plans that the previous owner submitted for the fire restoration. They were all approved by the City of Glendale. Problem is they expired last November. The City said I could pick up the plans but would have to resubmit and start the whole process over. Oh well.

First Lenny's Then The Dump

The objective today was to remove the small add-on to the back of the house. It's hard to tell what it was used for. It was wired with a light and a switch. The add-on also had a door on the east side. Not sure how it was accessible since the a/c unit was in the way. I loaded up the van with all the tools I thought I would need to tear off the structural appendage. Once I got to ripping the boards away I realized I was going to need a ladder. I hopped in the van to go get one, it was a good time for a break anyway.

Once back at the house I resumed tearing away. It didn't take long for the boards and other materials to pile up. I saved what was savable, which wasn't much. I had to do some precision demolishing toward the end. I decided in order to remove the relatively small roof it would be easier to remove everything but the two corner studs holding it up and then knock them out and let the roof detached and fall away from the house. All went as planned and the roof landed right where I anticipated. I had it all broken down and thrown into the pile in under 20 minutes. I had a lot of energy today for some reason so I decided I'd make a trip to the dump. I had to go back to the house first to get the trailer, it was a good time for a break anyway.

Lisa came down just as I was putting the last little bit on the trailer. She suggested lunch so we went to Lenny's Hamburgers. After Lenny's I drove out to the dump.

Oh yeah, the house across the street looks like it sold. The for sale sign is down, so I'm assuming it sold.

1/2 Ton

I'm guessing the total amount of dirt removed from the alley side was half of a ton. Today I finished sifting all that dirt. I raised the level of the side yard about 8 inches. I have another 12x25 foot area to cover before the entire side yard is where I want it. The next step is to dig along the backside of the house. The dirt back there is above the foundation of the house as well.

It was above 100 degrees by the time I finished today. I lost 5lbs of water weight. I definitely need to bring and drink more water during the summertime.

Still At It

Worked for about 3 1/2 hours today sifting rocks from the dirt and leveling off the side yard. I'm working in the shade so it's not that bad. I ran out of water so decided it was time to quit. Pedestrian traffic really starts to pick up about 9:30. It was in the mid 90's most of the morning. I quit just after 11 am.

Leveling Off Side Yard

Most of the morning was spent sifting the piles of dirt in the side yard. Once I sifted the dirt I spread it out evenly. I began placing the dirt along the east side of the yard by the oleanders. The yard will be 6 to 12 inches higher than it currently is now.

Stump War Over

I wouldn't call it a complete success, but we chopped up most the roots to both stumps and cut them down to the point that they shouldn't give us any problems. We're going to inject the stump on the side yard with some stump killer just in case. The palm stump out front is as dead as dead's going to get. It's about 10 inches below the surface.

The Lost Art of Siftanating

What a way to start the 4th of July! Todd and I fired up the siftanator and filled the air with some early morning dusterworks. I'm pleasantly surprised at how well this works. Not only are we getting rid of rocks we're losing some ell bees at the same time.

Met Kim today. It was a real pleasure to talk with her. She had good timing I was due for a break when she strolled by. We talked for about 20 minutes. She grew up in this area and told me a little about her family and the downtown/Catlin Court area. She had some great ideas about what kind of place to make the Blue Myrtle House into.

Easy Diggins'

I fixed the siftanator today. I added a couple of longer screws to each drum handle. It should work fine now. Mostly worked on the front yard. I dug around the big tree out front, cleared away some dead leaves and debris near house. The train went by twice today.

The Siftanator

Matt joined me and Todd today. We tried out the siftanator for the first time. Todd helped me build a contraption to sift the rocks out of the dirt. It took two days to build and 20 minutes to break down. It worked pretty good tumbling about 30 lbs of dirt at time. Major dust! We'll have to make sure the wind is blowing the right way so as to not bother the neighbors. The breakdown was minor, design flaw. Just need to add a couple of screws to hold the screen in place.



Todd handled the siftanator while Matt and I worked the palm stump front. This is war! We got it down to where we wanted. We were interrupted by a blue hornet. It landed on the sidewalk then squirmed into a crack. The crack was promptly covered with dirt. Not sure what possesses boys to do stuff like that, but I'm sure there's a reason.

Side Yard Stumpin'

Todd and I were at it again. We now have two stump fronts. This is war! I'm not sure what kind of tree we're trying to dig up on the side yard, but I know the front yard is an old palm tree. Molly Piper the dog was with us today. She mostly tried to find her way out of the picket fencing. We hacked away for about 80 minutes before calling it quits. Stump 1, Todd and Dad 0.

Cap Gun and A Marble

Weirdest thing. I found a cap gun and a marble inside the palm tree stump we're digging up. The cap gun was really rusty, the marble was just dirty. I sure under estimated the size of this stump from a previous post. As it turns out, it's about 4 feet across. I think I'll dig out the skeletal structure about another 12 inches down and call it dug out.

I'm a little worried about the tree looking plant we're digging around. We cut a lot of it's roots, some pretty big. That was about a week ago. The leaves are still green but they're definitely showing some stress.

Found A Palm Tree Stump

We went to work digging dirt in the front yard.  We mostly worked on the area where the boat and barrel were.  To our surprise we discovered the stump of an old palm tree.  It was about 2 feet across.  We learned a little about the anatomy of a palm tree.  It has been dead for a long time.  It was completely dried out. 

David from around the corner rolled by.  We talked a little.  He told us about the Marty Robbins house across the street.  We met Leroy and Minnie.  Minnie is half boxer and half pit bull.  Leroy lives close by.  Hope to see more of Leroy, seems like a real nice person.

Todd and I worked for a couple hours.  It was about 96 degrees at about 6:00.

More Digging Along Alley Side

Got up this morning to dig along the alley side of the house.  Nice day today. Quiet, except for the neighbor dogs.  I think their getting use to me being at the house cause they aren't barking at me as much.

I still can't figure out where all this dirt came from.  The pile on the other side of the yard is getting big.

Start Of The Big Dig

Got up early to start digging around the house. I'm starting on the west side along the alley. This is the side the fire started. Fire damage is evident all up the side of the wall. There is actually a hole burned big enough that a person could squeeze into the house if they were so inclined.

Dirt is piled up above the clapboard siding. It's pretty rotted away in places. All of the utilities going into the house are in this area. There are two electric panels, two stink pipes, one gas, one phone (I think), and some other stuff I haven't quite figured out what they are. The irrigation has also been buried here.

I'm working my way from the electric panel towards the back of the house. Man, there is a lot of debris here! I can't figure out where it all came from.

About 8 wheel barrels of dirt and I'm ready to call it quits. Moved all the dirt to east side of house into yard. I'll have to make a giant sifter for all this dirt. Too many rocks and other debris to spread and plant grass in.

Board Up

I bought some plywood to board up the windows that had broken panes and to secure the house. Todd popped off the steps to the stairway that leads to the second floor as a security and safety measure.

Shored Up

Bought some 2x6's to shore up the inside of the house. The house is in dire need of structural integrity. It's seriously scary to walk around upstairs. I cut the 2x6's to fit under the floor joist as a temporary fix to this.

Excavating the Tree

After chopping down the dead tree, we still had a fairly large job to do. We started working by digging around the base of the stump. After digging a foot or two into the ground, we started hitting the large roots. An hour or so went by, and the tree still didn't budge.

Calling it quits for now, moving around to another dead area in the front.

Jumping Into It

Jumped right in to it.  Lisa and the boys all put on gloves and went to work cleaning up the yard.  Lots of interesting "leftovers" from days gone by.  Most of the stuff is no good.  Okay all the stuff, but I did find a garden hose that looks reusable.

Todd was pretty excited about chopping down a tree that was all but dead.  It had one branch with leaves.  Amazingly there is a lot of  live vegetation.  Plants and trees must be getting water from neighbors and city water irragation overflow.

Didn't do too much to the inside today.  Worked for about 6 hours.

Under New Ownership

Closed this afternoon with Chicago Title.  I'm sure the bank that owned this property is sighing with relief today!  Like anyone else I hope a paid a fair price.  Lisa and I have been looking for property in Catlin Court for several years.  We were both pretty excited about buying this property.

The house is in desperate shape.  It caught on fire between a year and two years ago.  I'm sure it was further damaged by water.  The interior is gutted.  I'm surprised the house is still standing!

First thing is to attend to the exterior of the house.  Lots of overgrowth and dead plants.  The elevation of the yard is higher than the foundation. That's priority one to dig out the dirt from around the house!

Gave A Tour

Showed Mark the house today.  I don't know who was more excited about renovating this house, me or him.  Mark has been my best friend since 9th grade (1976), I can't imagine doing something like this without his help, advice, or encouragement.

I told him it may be awhile before we put hammer to nail.  There's a lot stuff that needs to be done around the outside of the house.  I think Matt, Todd, and Alec are really excited about all the yard work needing to be done - NOT.  Seriously I think they are excited about buying the house and want to pitch in when and where they can.

Offer Accepted!

Bank accepted offer for the purchase of 5807 W. Myrtle Ave, Glendale, Arizona.  Close by next Saturday.

My buddy Steve worked as my Real Estate agent, check him out at stevepalmerazhomes.com.