projects on the go
This is a house built in 1906 at 1403 3 Ave. N., Coalbanks (later to become Lethbridge), AB, Canada. I bought the house in Dec. 2021 as a rental property. It has a 3-bedroom suite on the main floor (“main”). This is the story of that suite.
Today is the day we finally put in the 1F ceiling / 2F floor joists.
First, remove the nails.
Adding the 20′ (6.096m) 2×8 took some planning. The house was not exact in its measurements. We propped the 2×8 up with some ladders and moved it into place. We had to plane the end of it down three times to get it to fit between the ribbon ledger and the subfloor, stuffed alongside the balloon stud.
We finally got it in.
Now that the corner of the house is more-or-less shored up, we can begin in the main floor.
We ripped the 2×10 20′ (6.096m) today. It is the longest rip I’ve ever done. Everything else has been 16′ (4.8768m). I had to buy 2x10s as the 2x8s in this house are 8 9/16″, and ordinary 2x8s are 8 1/4″. They would be either too short or not tall enough. (What?) What I mean is, it would either miss the subfloor above or the drywall below. So we rip.
The old floor joists in the original staircase location back when it was a 4-square house have been taken out. They were a mish-mash of pieces added as time went on. When we repaired the 2nd floor landing a few months back, we, yet again, pieced some pieces in. I regret that now. They should all have been replaced by real joists, ones that run the maximum span possible, from balloon stud to stair header.
I got two new 12′ (25.4m) 6×6 beams and a 2×10 20′ (6.096m). One of the beams will go in the NE corner of the original 4-square house. The 20′ will become a floor joist sistered alongside an original next to the soon-to-be 2nd floor staircase.
Here is the rotten 6×6 beam in that same corner, soon-to-be cut out.
It is the same story throughout this project – A has to be done, but we can’t do that until B is done. B must wait until C is done. And so on.
The stairway to the 2nd floor must be rebuilt.
Before that, the walls separating the bottom landing of the upper suite and the main suite must be built.
Before that, the wall footprint must be corrected. It was a few degrees crooked previously, likely a) from sloppiness, b) to save wood (the previous two perpendicular walls totalled 8′, but the new will total 8′-2¼”), or c) to save a bit of space in the main suite kitchen.
Next, the upper landing must be moved 18″. To do that, the stair header must be moved (removed, rebuilt).
We rebuilt this upper landing several months back without knowing we would move the staircase. Now I have to undo all this work. Such is life!
Next: New sistered floor joists spanning from the balloon studs to the stair header. This will replace the hodge-podge of crap that filled in the old staircase area from, presumably, when the house was new. I knew we should have replaced it all when doing the 2nd floor!
The kitchen ceiling was full of greasy dust bunnies. The light / fan fixture helped spread the grease around the stippled ceiling material. There were two layers – lathe and plaster and beaverboard. The beaver board is quite flammable, so out it came. Of course, the plaster wasn’t in very good shape, so out it came as well. We removed it all within one day.
Someone asked me if I thought anyone would break into the house and steal all my tools.
One, most of my tools are old and not worth anything. The rest are all registered by serial number.
Two, there are motion sensor security cameras there. They’re all over the place, recording all motion. The inside cams alert me to any movement. Here is the living room cam.
Three, I have good neighbours who keep a good eye on the neighbourhood.
Four, the recyclers who come by to collect cans and bottle know that, if I see them in the alley, I will generally give them what I have. No use in breaking into the house and breaking up the goodwill.
We finally insulated around the electrical panel.
I thought we were going to add another outside receptacle billed to the second floor, but I decided against it. 12-2 wire is expensive. (No, I’m not running 50′ of 14-2 to plug in a vehicle block heater that uses close to 15 Amps.)
Lots of clean-up and organization of tools, materials, equipment, etc. I only had three hours between other work, so not a lot was done.
But we did manage to put up the first vapour barrier in bedroom 1, so that’s a little progress. No pic for some reason. Probably in a hurry to get out the door.
So today was mostly about prepping for 6-mil poly (plastic vapour barrier). No time yet to put it up – prep was kind of time consuming. We wound the kitchen circuit wiring (a 20-Amp kitchen counter and a 15-Amp microwave) through the furring strips.
That done, we all stood around the 2nd storey stairway to determine the best plan of attack.
I generally take pics of everything I do to keep a record of stuff. Today’s big task was re-routing electrical wires. The previous person had 16 objects on one 15-Amp circuit. To me, 10 is about maximum, and they would be mixed within various rooms. These 16 were mostly in one bedroom, the living room, and the bath. As well, they mixed lights with receptacles (outlets), a no-no in today’s practices. I cut the circuit in half, ran a new 14-2 wire from a new breaker to the second half of the circuit in question (living room, now total 8 items), added four extra receptacles to the original one (total 9 items), and cut the lights from this circuit, adding them to another light-dedicated breaker. Sorry, no pics. Maybe later. Late night. I got home 15 minutes before the New Year celebration on TV (CBC, I think).
Also, a partition wall between the hall and the stairway leading to the 2nd story suite was taken down. Not to code! A fire-rated wall will be put in its place.
I also found my notes from the last renovation four years ago.
Lighting was the main reason for starting first-floor renovations.
Bedrooms 1 (front) and 2 (middle) had no lighting. Well, that’s not entirely true. Long ago, it had lighting. It seems that when panelling was put up to hide the plaster, they simply paved over the light fixtures. (Boneheads.) I’ve had the house for about four years now, and this has always been a sore spot. Now? Let there be light!
