Oil Tank abandonment

Out here in the suburbs, we have to deal with all manner of irritating and costly renovations. When we bought our house, our inspector had informed us that we would be inheriting a 1,000 gallon in-ground oil tank. Now, this normally wouldn't be an issue (I could give a rat's ass where the tank is myself) except when the EPA reaches their greasy little paws into your business. If and when we decide to sell the house, the future owners may opt to have the soil around the tank tested by the EPA for contamination due to a leaky tank. If the soil is found to be contaminated, all the tainted dirt surrounding the tank will be dug up, put into 55 gallon drums and trucked off somewhere down south. Once there, apparently there's an environmental plant that burns the contaminants out of the soil. Then, the dirt is put BACK IN to the drums, trucked back to your house and put right back where it came from. Whoever is the current owner of the house (namely US) will incur ANY AND ALL COSTS associated with such an operation which can be upwards of $75-100,000 when all is said and done. No thanks!

An oil tank abandonment is basically just that - you're abandoning your in-ground tank for a new one either above ground or in your basement which by doing so basically absolves you from any future testing. During the negotiations to purchase the house, we were able to obtain a credit on the final price since we knew this was something that we were going to have to do. We could have asked for the soil to be tested, but we took the credit instead and went ahead and did the abandonment. We now also have a certificate of abandonment to show anyone who asks. They'd really only have to look in the basement at the new tank to figure it out, but it's cheap insurance against the enviro-nazis

Basically what happens is this: a crew comes to your house. They find your tank's filler tube and dig until they hit the top of the tank. Then, they cut the top off of it and fill it with sand. The old, now sand-filled tank is resealed and the dirt is back filled. The last step is to locate and install a new tank and hook it up to your current heating system. The whole thing took about 5-6 hours, almost two of which were spent waiting for the sand truck to arrive.

The crew that came to do the job were swell enough to allow me to take some pictures while it was all going on. They must have thought I was a little kooky until I explained to the head guy what I was doing. He seemed to understand, which made me feel a little less awkward.

If you've never seen what a tank abandonment looks like or had no idea that this type of thing is even done, today is your lucky day. I've provided a bunch of photos of the process to once again enlighten and entertain our readers. Cheers.

Removing remaining oil in original tank.












Digging around the filler neck. Bye bye Packasandra.













Locating and drilling hole in block for new filler tube.













Thar She blows!













Filling the old girl full of sand.













Action shot of sand filling. Note depth and scope of hole.












Brand-new 275 gallon tank in our basement, plumbed and ready for years of service. Note old, inaccurate fuel level gauge on the wall above the tank, now just for show.

New Additions

After being a staging area for painting supplies and equipment, the living room is finally taking shape. Last week our fancy modern furniture arrived by truck. The table came at 6:30 am. I was still in bed when the doorbell rang, I was all groggy and half-awake and here comes our table. I had never experienced anything like that before, very strange to get a delivery of anything so early in the morning. The couch is covered in plastic right now in an attempt to ward off our scratch-happy cats. I'd like to keep it claw-mark free for a few days at least though the cover will have to come off at some point. We hope they don't tear it to shreds.

But anyway, who knew I'd become such a design/furniture nerd? It's in my blood somehow, probably handed down by my parents. I grew up with a Knoll/Saarinen table and tulip chairs and all sorts of modern furniture in our house. I never gave it a second thought until a few years ago. Mostly, I just like the way it looks as opposed to things you get from your generic home furnishing stores like Pottery Barn etc. But I do enjoy reading about it and learning about where the ideas come from and the impact it had on design as a whole. Definitely fits with my idea of re-thinking basic items and giving them a unique twist. Plus, modern design is just plain cool when you take the time to think about it.

Thankfully, Amy and I seem to like the same types of things, so she is willing to go along with my design-snob ideas.

You'll also notice that she put away a good portion of her books into the glass cabinets, a fairly large and time-consuming undertaking in itself. I think she did a great job.

Anyway, here it is.

Out with the old

We are continuing to remove all the remnants of old-lady accouterments. The fireplace used to be home to a fugly, pseudo-baroque mantel piece that neither Amy nor I liked in any way, shape or form. We planned to get rid of it early on and we've gotten to getting to it. We needed to take care of it because we need to finish up painting. The plan was to re-paint the fireplace so down it came and went out with the next day's trash.

The fireplace is also getting a new treatment. Whoever painted the house last must have really got a good deal on the antique white paint because everything including the fireplace was coated with this paint. The brick wasn't actually 'painted' per se, more like washed over. Not sure if it was a lame attempt at some sort of style or just a half-assed job but in any event it looked like crap. Covering up the hack job required a coat of primer and two coats of semi-gloss white.

After two months, the painting is finally nearing completion. Really, there's only the dining room, doors and the trim in the office left to do. There's also the two bathrooms but we haven't taken down the wallpaper in there so they don't count just yet. I'm too lazy to take on the office right now, I can only hope it gets done sometime this year. The dining room should be finished relatively soon.

Enjoy the photos of the fireplace transformation below.

Ye olde 'before' shot













Fugly mantelpiece













4 screws and it's gone













The Great 31 Sherman Cover-Up 0f 2009


















Best looking painter ever

Ivy menace

It's still the dead of winter but Amy and I decided that we needed to begin tackling some of our outdoor 'issues'. Amy's parents were in town and her dad brought his power warsher (Pittsburghese) so we could clean up the dirty brick. Unfortunately we never got to it because of the cold but we did manage to eradicate the ivy menace from the outside of the house.

Since we don't live at Wrigley field, we're still scratching our heads as to why someone actually planted ivy behind the house because it basically had overgrown everything within it's reach. Ivy is evil, hardy and strong. The roots were everywhere - all along the foundation, up the brick (stuck to it like glue), under the siding, up under the roof overhang and probably into the attic. The downright evil weed was choking the azaleas. Worst of all it was covering up our living room window. There was also a bunch growing up the front of the house too. Ridiculous.

So we had at it. We tore it up from the ground, cut, pulled, ripped and hacked it all to bits. We filled 11 contractor bags with all the stuff we yanked out. It took hours and we just finished before dark. See the pics below.

Am I Evil? Yes I Am!


















Weeds B. Gone!












Room With A View












Room With A Better View