1403 3 Ave N main

I’ll be drywalling the kitchen ceiling soon, so cleanup begins in there.  Where do I stash the fridge, stove, cabinets, etc.? 

Mostly cleanup and organizing today.  I’m tired of working in a dump. 

As it turns out, the fridge leaks.  The evaporator tray is rusted through and leaks water all over.  I’ll find an appliance shop somewhere and order a new one. 

I’m not sure why someone would put a wood screw into an electrical box that takes threaded machine screws.  That’s not true – I do know why – taking shortcuts.  Unfortunately, I’m the horse’s *** who gets to make it right again.  I know – there’s no profit in taking care of such minuscule details, but I’m not a Ferengi. 

Short day today. 

I started to put up the ceiling fan.  Floyd came by, and I asked him to finish screwing the fan blades to the blade arms for me. 

Later, I removed the superfluous wood in the hallway / kitchen doorway. 

There will never be a door there again, so it is reframed. 

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The laundry shelving area has unsightly seams.  I should have changed saw blades on the table saw but didn’t.  Too much of a hurry to get it done, I guess.  Now I must buy some filler. 

The bath fan bulkhead area is drywalled.  The fan will go into the hole at the end.  The fan is side-vented, louvred. 

Now I have to find a 6″ to 4″ reducer for the bath fan. 

The laundry shelf area framing was completed, and panelling was begun. 

So this is how it will look, minus the shelving.  They will be adjustable. 

I drywalled the laundry / bath add-on bulkhead, and Dave taped, beaded, and mudded it. 

The shelving hardware was added. 

Today I see if that old living room fan works. 

As it turns out, it is too noisy.  I don’t want to do that to my tenants.  Dave found some fans on sale at Canadian Tire.  I need the one (the only one) without built-in LED lights.  Why?  When LEDs burn out (so to speak), they cannot be replaced.  The fixture looks ridiculous with only some working and others not.  When an LED light bulb burns out, it is easily replaced. 

The laundry (washer) receptacle was re-installed. 

The laundry area framing was continued. 

Before drywall gets put up, the shower faucet needs to be reinforced.  Likely nothing would ever go wrong with it, but one never knows. 

The transition between above and in front of the shower needs attention.  The framing in the east wall of the bathroom / living room add-on was pretty uneven.  The short strip of drywall is a split the difference kind of scenario, so a wide transition mud was necessary. 

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Blocking was put behind the shower faucet.  I had to purchase more machine screws from Canadian Tire – like I don’t have enough at home! 

Dave the Drywall Magician came by and mudded the area between the shower and vanity / bath window.  Between uneven framing and shower flanges, there are lots of areas that the drywall doesn’t match up perfectly.  This is life. 

Narrow pieces of drywall were added to all the ends of walls and such.  Lots of taping and mudding here. 

Next, try to sort out that plumbing wall.  The goals are to a) make it useful, b) reduce the ugliness, and c) house the washer plumbing. 

I’ll keep you posted. 

Boarding (drywalling) the long bathroom wall was an issue as much of the framing is non-standard – some 12″o.c., some 24, some 16.  All original studs in the add-on are crooked by 3 inches top-to-bottom.  We thought of pulling the toe-nails at the top to move them over, but the living room side of the wall is already boarded which means all the drywall screws will be screwed up. 

As well, because of the “compromise” when levelling the house (we stopped raising the 2nd floor joists 1/2″ away from absolute level for fear of tearing the house apart), I found that half inch along the new section of bathroom wall when boarding.  The drywall sheet was levelled to the ceiling, but we found a 1/4″ gap from top-to-bottom along the side of the sheet.  As a 4×8 sheet is twice as long as it is wide, a quarter-inch gap along the side equals a half-inch discrepancy along the top. 

Backing was added to the 8-foot mark, and the bathroom switch wiring was moved. 

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