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.
The first screw-up for today was the 1x2s from Home Depot.
They are most certainly not 1x2s. A one-by-two, of course, is not 1″ by 2″, but 1-1/2″ x 3/4″. However, these are not 3/4″. They’re 5/8″. I’ll be taking them back tomorrow morning. More shrinkflation.
I needed to rip 1x2s down to 3/4″ square to act as filler between the window frame and trim. Instead, I ripped some old 1x6s down.
We begin again. This is where we left off last time – with a temporary floor.
I noticed, when putting a cover on the outside GFI for block heaters, that nothing would plug in. The outlet was stuck. I see now that it is a tamper resistant outlet. In other words, it has some piece of plastic in there to prevent things from being plugged in. Dave noticed and told me about it earlier in the year when he was plugging in the cement mixer. As it turns out, all GFI (or, at any rate, all 20A GFI) duplex receptacles are tamper resistant. I went to Home Depot to get one that isn’t, but they didn’t have any. Dunno what I’m going to do here. More on that later.
Time to put in a temporary floor so we can get the window in. I picked up some treated 1/2″ plywood from Lealta Building Supplies. The counter guy game me some good advice about later painting the surface of this. It will be two layers of 1/2″ instead of one 3/4″ ply and one 1/4″ paintable ply.
The window is in. Dave and I hoisted the window up on its frame and s l o w l y carried it to the veranda where we rested it on three upturned buckets. We put a 1×4 across the opening on the inside so the window wouldn’t just fall in.
The large living room window was turned up-side-down, and I put a bead of Flex Paste in the interior gap. This stuff is hard to squeeze out of the tube. But, for $22 a tube, it is likely better than simple caulking. Now I must wait for it to cure.
In the mean time, I fitted the small living room window framing with exterior sheathing of 1/2″ OSB. It is a smaller window than previously, so the gaps need to be filled and sealed.
Next, tape flashing to seal up the gaps.
Now that the lift is complete, we can work on the main floor.
This is a milestone, a turning point. I don’t want to jinx it by saying so, but things should go smoothly from here. <knock on wood>
Now that the living room window wall is straight, the window rough framing is tilted.
Floyd, Dave, and I discussed how to fix it.
You know what I would choose. We reframed.
I picked up more drywall for the living room from Home Depot.
But, before that, I wanted to check their spray foam bottles and applicator. It seems that that little plastic thing stuck in the applicator was not part of it but likely broke off from another spray foam bottle.
Before any drywall is put up on the final living room wall, several things must still happen.
So, that means no drywall, taping, or mudding yet.
The living room add-on walls are scraped of all rotten sheathing.
I got some spray foam insulation from Canadian Tire and filled the cracks between the stucco and the studs. Very sticky stuff. Next, the insulation went up. We used what came out of the walls but doubled it up (R12, yellow) and filled in the rest with new (R22, pink).
I added 2×2 furring strips to the SE and E living room walls.
The new window framing must be complete first, so I removed the old window. Some kind of insect had made its nest in there a while ago.
Corners are always a small issue when furring. This time, I fastened a 2×3 to an existing 2×4 and a 2×2 to the 2×3. This allows for drywall attachment.
Dave showed up. After we temporarily fitted the new living room window in, we looked at what used to be the porch (soon to be the veranda) and how it was constructed and added to over time. I tore off a bunch of superfluous wood used to frame in the old windows.
Whoever changed the original veranda into a covered in porch carved up what used to be beautiful pillars. There are four in total. I wonder if there is someone with a lathe who wants to turn a 6×6 post. It doesn’t have to be fir – that would be expensive. But it should be 8 feet long.
I’ll start the insulation and replacing the header king studs next.
I got some pink insulation, drywall, and a piano hinge from Home Depot today.
Two sheets had damaged corners, so I got them for $10 a piece rather than $23.
I have some explaining to do. The reasons renovations to the main floor suite were started in the first place were
Some other reasons were