Colfax Family Project

Thelma's Pride at 5348 Colfax Avenue North
Thelma's home on Colfax needed to be converted from her home to a house ready to be put on the market. Rob visited and provided his input on what needed to be done to 'stage' the house for the real estate market.
There were numerous projects that needed to be done. Here are a few of the larger tasks.
Sue and Linda spent days going through every room and cupboard making a detailed list of all the items in the house. The result was nine pages of items. All the children and grandchildren were then given a list so they could walk through and put their name on items that they would like to take home. Sue and Linda then began the tasks of cleaning blinds, curtains and the numerous inside jobs.

There were many tasks on Rob's list that required attention and the following is a brief photo gallery.
Cleaning the windows in the house required all the efforts of the nephews and sons.




The potting shed needed a lot of TLC.
Before picture	Before picture

After Picture	Jeff, Natalie and Ellie painting.


	A note on the potting shed. In 1992 the family gathered and removed a decades old lean-to and replaced it with the 'potting shed' as you see it today. Thelms used the shed to store all her gardening tools and to start seedlings in the spring.

Jeanne weeded the English Garden.

Jeanne weeding the back "wetland" area.

Jeanne weeded and arranged the front.

And also the side.

Jeanne selected plants for the English garden.

Flowers in bloom!

The north side of the house raked and cleaned.

The 'vegetable' garden needed weeding.

Amanda took on the task of finishing the project.

Amanda weeded the corner rock garden.

The potting shed needed to be cleaned out.

A new side gate was needed and Les took on the task.
There was a chain link fence where the snow blower
is sitting. Charlie took it out. The new gate will
be positioned at the corner of the garage.

Les custom building the new gate.

Les and Amanda make up the gate crew.

Here John is fixing the hole in the roof. One of many of the projects he undertook.

The garage door needed a security eye. The old opener
couldn't be retrofitted so a whole new opener was
purchased.

Bobby fixed the sliding doors in the master bedroom
closet.

John took on the task of repairing all the cracked windows.
He also took on the task of clearing out the crawl space of old empty boxes and taking a load of wood from the
garage loft. In between all that he made other repairs.

Inside painting was a Linda/Sue project; three closets and the bathroom ceiling.

Everyone came over to look over the items on the nine page list. Here are a few photos.

Ethan in Walsh's bus uniform.

Here is a collage of cousins.

Large Projects

Cleaning the Garage Rafters

John and Shad spent an afternoon removing lumber,
trunks and stuff from the garage.



The next large project was to remove the old wooden, rotted floor in the garage.


	Base of the new floor


New garage floor after three coats of paint.

Cleaning begins!
First we rented a dumpster!	Cleaning Crew

More Cleaning Crew





John began cleaning the crawl space and Jeanne finished it.	Brandi helping Jeanne in the basement.

Jeanne washing/waxing the basement walls.
	Jeanne continued with the cleaning: kitchen, windows, floors, laundry room and all the walls.

Chuck sorted the hazard waste and took it to the Hennepin Country hazard waste dump.

	The dumpster is FULL!

Next Large Task: The Well. A well must either be licensed and working or plugged. The decision was to plug it since it hadn't worked for decades. We hired a licensed contractor who said he would plug it but he didn't have the crew or time to dig the hole. Guess who dug the hole?	Next, estimate where the well head is located. The contractor arrived with a metal detector and put an X where he thought it should be.
First task was to remove the pump and get rid of the old water storage tank. Once the pipes were exposed, a tape measure was inserted to help figure the distance of the pipes to the well head.
	John's friend Andy cut the cement.




Two pipes from the house connected to the well head	Bob and Sue covered the well hole to keep out rain.
Then we had a cave in so more digging.
Five days later the crew from E. Renner arrived with their equipment. The first task was to cut the pipes from the house to the well head.	Setting up the hoist crossbar with the 1 ton electric motor.

Finally got the first section	Ran into problems with fourth section. Rerigged so the pulley was a two ton pulley.


From the well head to the water was 37 feet. From the well head to the bottom of the water table was 87 feet. The last part was to pour the cement down the hole.	The next task was to fill the hole. Since Bob and Chuck created the hole, they had the fun of filling it back in. A rented 'thumper' packed down the dirt.

The licensed contractor fills out a certificate and mails it to us for our records. He then registers the 'grouted' well with the State. We can then record the certificate with Hennepin County as a permanent record for 5348 Colfax Ave. North and present it to the buyer upon the close of the sale.	Next step for the crew was to cement the top of the hole. Chuck and Jeanne went to Home Depot and loaded 12 60 pound bags of concrete onto Chuck's truck. Sunday morning Chuck arrived at Thelma's with the load. Ethan and Alex arrived to help with the heavy work.

As we waited for the big job of the well, smaller jobs were performed.
Basement windows needed some TLC.

Front porch needed new paint.

Basement floors needed a lot of work and polish.	Crawl space needed a thorough vacuum.


Hot and cold running water thanks to Trayton.	Picnic table needed a coat of paint.

Cleaning was an endless task.	Sue, Linda and Jeanne cleaning.
Kitchen cabinets inside and out.	Wash kitchen walls and tiles.
Wash/Paint kitchen closet: line shelves.	Wash and iron all curtains.


	Clean the fireplace.
Wash basement closets.	Clean/Shampoo all carpets.

Clean 3 storm doors and frames.	Clean all light fixtures and wall plates.

Wash and wax all floors.	Clean washer/dryer, tub, furnace, water heater.

English garden is thriving.	Basement window needed replacement. Busted out the two encased windows and began to install glass bricks.


	The Fireplace The fireplace needs a drain in the event water comes down the chimney from a rain storm. There is a pipe that extends from the bottom of the chimney to the basement. For all these years, a bucket was hung on the pipe to collect the water. Now, a hose has been installed from the drain pipe to the basement sump pump. No more bucket.
Bucket	Hose