projects on the go
This is the first maintenance done since the plumbing fiasco. The bedroom 1 door didn’t latch because of James’ abusive vandalism of the property. He put spikes through the door, door frame, and surrounding wall framing. Since then, the door has been out-of-whack.
Note to self: Do not rent to people like this, no matter how irascible they are.
Anyway, thanks for wood filler compound, the door latch is now fixed.
I still have to find a plate for the sunroom door lock.
The new shower stall base was put in, and the back and side walls were added. The results: The house is still crooked.
As Dave would comment, “It’s built like a pig barn.”
The only solution is to continue raising the add-on (pig barn) to be level with the remainder of the house. You can’t have plumb, level, square, and straight in an old house, so I’m told. There’s always going to be one or more of those missing from the equation. In this case:
Next step: Jack the add-on and east side of the house until it is level with the west half. There can be no progress in the eastern half of the house until this is done.
I bought a new bathroom fan from Rona. It’ll be mounted in the shelving separating the toilet from the shower. This is only 1 of 2 fans they had. The other one is almost twice as loud at 6.0 Sones whereas this one is 3.5 Sones.
I bought some more insulation for the walls separating the two suites (2 hallway / stairway, 2 kitchen / landing, & 1 bathroom / entrance). Rona initially sold me four bags of 16″-center batts, but the yard guy trusted me and loaded me up with 24s, and I went back in and pair $45 more.
But, rather than starting those walls, I wanted to design a wall / shelf system separating the shower and toilet. It will be a 36″-long 2×4 shower wall, 4 studs, double bottom plate and shelves with 12″ 2×4 walls, a bulkhead for the bathroom fan at the top, a raceway for the dryer vent next to the wall, a 2×12 base, and four or five shelves. Sneak preview of what it will look like:
Why double bottom plate? The studs I have left over are too short. Reuse, reuse, reuse.
Before anyone arrived, I arranged the switches in the old bathroom light switch location. (Why did the previous owners put a bathroom light switch in the middle of the room, ten feet away from the door?)
So the plan is, since the bathroom light fixture wire ends at that electrical box, I’ll add a motion sensor for the toilet sconce light, an humidistat for the bathroom fan, and a timer for said fan at that spot. In this way, I don’t have to dig the light fixture wiring out of the ceiling to rewire it – I can junction another 14-2 wire from the switch (where it should be) to inside this box.
(Did he just say an humidistat? Yes, just to bug people.)
I filled in the remaining cavities with Rockwool insulation, completed the furring strips, and relocated the outlet.
When everyone arrived, we put in some backing around the gap next to the window in BR2, sealed it (and the window frame exterior) with flashing tape, and added large-gap spray foam insulation on the inside. The trim board will go on over this.
We completed the Rockwool insulation and vapour barrier in the first two bedrooms today.
