projects on the go
Among today’s tasks
Here’s the bathroom door before being hung.
The dormer needs a ceiling and drywall on both sides.
The wires have been secured and the poly taped.
Eight more sheets of 1/2″ drywall.
The dining area dormer drywall took a couple of tries. I mistakenly assumed one side would take the opposite cut of the other. Oops. Not enough coffee yet (10:00am!). But it’s done now.
The kitchen east wall was drywalled. Floyd came by and helped, and Dave came a little later.
lunch
Because I tend to use gangable boxes, they had to be blocked and fastened to the next stud.
Here’s the bedroom door not quite in the bedroom yet. The rough opening must be framed at 45°.
I was thinking to rip a 2×4 22.5° and sandwich them together. However, my table saw doesn’t quite reach out far enough to get the whole board sawn all the way through. I tried, with Floyd’s help, to cut the remaining 1/2″ reach with a reciprocating saw (saws-all), but this did not work well.
Change of plans – just saw a 2×4 at 45°, and use each half for each side of the door.
This is the first day of fall (equinox), and this is the first day I see leaves on the ground.
Dave taped and mudded the kitchen. Looks really good.
The bedroom door is now in. I must talk with Dave about off-angle corner beads.
Today’s task is to get the exterior of the new windows complete before the scissor lift is returned.
An unfortunate find. Floyd says it’s a sparrow. I think it’s too big to be a sparrow but don’t know what it could be. Any comments?
The first trim board is added to the living room window.
I’m using these 16-foot-long 1x8s as trim boards – part of the house’s history reused.
The living room trim boards are up, caulked, and ready for paint.
When I got here this morning, the scissor lift was still there, waiting for work to begin.
The bedroom window rough opening needed to be framed before the window went in.
However, the lift didn’t go up past 10 feet or so. I moved the plywood back and forth hoping to give a level ground. Maybe the error 18 was because it was tilted sideways? I texted Aaron at United Rentals. A technician would call me back.
We (finally) got a new garbage container. Yay.
The old one had gang spray paint and a big crack in the front.
The garbage bags and the rest of the refuse wood was piled on the trailer. I’ll go in a couple of Saturdays to unload it at the landfill. I’ve separated the drywall, white wood, and garbage (bags, painted wood, etc.) to make it easier at the landfill.
Today we had the scissor lift to do work on the two remaining windows. Here is the view from up above.
While Dave sanded, mudded little holes, and primed and painted the bedroom, I got to work on the last two remaining windows that need replacement – the bedroom and the living room.
The amount of dirt inside the old framing was substantial, more than the other windows.
On to the ceiling. But first, move the boxes full of flat-pack cabinets that are in the way.
There is no rafter tie on the west end of the house. A spacer (1″) and backing (2×4 on-the-flat) were added for mounting the ceiling drywall.
Floyd came by and offered a badly needed 3rd set of arms.
I spend much of the morning and early afternoon working on cleaning up and organizing construction materials and tools. Badly needed.
I bought Ziplock bags from Canadian Tire to organize all the electrical and other stuff. As it turns out, I have a surplus of outlets, switches, etc. that I didn’t know about as nothing was categorized before.
Paper floor covering went into contractor bags. SONOpan soundproofing panels, cardboard sheets, all the big, bulky stuff that got in the way was organized and stacked. The kitchen cabinet boxes were moved out of the living room to hang drywall.
I finally found a bracket that was needed for a 1st floor suite light.
After that, wires were stapled, outlet boxes blocked, and SONOpan soundproofing put into the wall (no pic – I forgot).
Then the next drywall sheets were put onto the north wall of the living room and taped.
Plans for tomorrow are to reframe and replace windows, install living room protector plates, and continue with drywall.
The mudroom light was finally stuck to the ceiling today. Why so long in the making? I couldn’t find the danged bracket until now.
Which brings me to my next task.
