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.
Being the last day of work before the tenant shows up, it was the final push. Not everything was done.
I knew that there wouldn’t be enough trim boards, so I urethaned a bunch more. The work area:
Floyd came by as I was urethaning. (Is that a word?)
The living room trim was complete. The patch piece still needs seam seal.
Various things were done today. It is my 2nd last day before the tenant moves in.
I rehung the laundry cabinets as they were a little lopsided and put in the shelving.
Dave was by early, and we discussed how to paint the door. I began outside, but the wind carried some dust, so inside it went.
Outside work had to be done before anything inside, but we did get started.
When we got back, we began work on the list. I think there are now 40 or so items on the list to complete.
The floor levelling compound was dry, so I cut a piece of proboard to fit, mixed another batch, and filled the gaps and cracks. I’ll glue the flooring down tomorrow.
A trip to Home Depot to buy the final door (between mudroom and kitchen):
We continued with cleanup of rooms. I removed all the lathe boards from the pantry as Dave said it would be a good tool room. None of these have been de-nailed, planed, or urethaned yet.
We continued with the bedroom 3 window, adding furring strips to bring the frame out to the right level. It still isn’t right, and Dave will likely have to mud it a lot.
More trim board was brought from home to be run through the planer then polyurethaned.
This time, I used the table saw to trim the edges to they aren’t so danged prickly. This is very time consuming. I hope my tenants appreciate it.
Next, the window in the back bedroom needed reinstalling.
1) It wouldn’t close at the top. The rough framing was crooked, or it became crooked when the house was levelled, so the window frame was offset by 1/4 inch.
2) Insulation was pushed into the gaps from the inside, pushing the Resisto tape flashing apart.
3) The Resisto tape flashing that was used does not stick very well. It turns out that we need to apply a primer first. Well **** that. Off it came. I bought some French manufactured tape, and it worked well. After the flashing tape (tape flashing?) was on,…
First, make a shim 0″ at one end and 1/4″ at the other (a very long wedge). Next, try the window in the hole. Then take it out again and make another shim. Then try the window again. In and out, in and out. Finally it fit. Fasten it with screws, and tape it again.
Only the inside trim needs completion.
This is what the living room floor looks like now.
The seam sealer is harder to use than what the salesperson said.
The mudroom window is now un-re-framed. Eh? It was reframed to fit the new window that I broke while trying to put it in. But it still didn’t fit as Benchmark didn’t actually cut it down to size. So, I removed the furring spacer boards to enlarge the hole and retaped all of it.
Bedroom 1 door was painted with a second coat.
As we have to clear everything out of the main floor, and as the 2nd floor isn’t huge, I moved the old range (a.k.a. stove) out and put it on Kijiji for sale. $100.
The fridge outlet was an original and badly in need of swapping out.
I’ve been avoiding the holes in the floor. This is where the original back door was. The framing had been cut through and patched several times over the decades and wasn’t doing anything but weighing the house down at that point, not supporting it. New load-bearing framing was put in with the right size of header and whatnot. In the mean time, the floor still had the hole. I added floor board and sub-floor and mounted everything to surrounding structures. Finding the best match for flooring was not easy, but I think the pieces I chose were a good compromise.
Some of the outlets in the bedrooms were still the old off-white (yellow) type. I switched the remaining old ones out for new, modern looking ones – but not the square ‘decor’ type as these were much more expensive. They all needed faceplates.
The one in the middle of the south bathroom wall holds the motion sensor dimmer switch for the toilet light and a timer and a humidistat for the fan.
To complete the trim boards, the bedroom door must be put in. To complete the door, the chimney floor hole must be repaired.
The floor chimney hole levelling compound seems to be cured.
In haste, I’m thinking we measured the door rough framing incorrectly, likely from the unfinished floor. Now the door has to be altered to fit. I cut the bottom off, saved the insert, and re-inserted it with wood glue.
A door guy at Home Depot suggested using these door hangers, saying it was way easier to hang doors this way than the conventional way. He was right. However, as will be shown later, the tabs stick out too much beyond the trim boards and need to be cut with a grinder.
We continued with the window, door,and floor trim.
The floor levelling compound is showing signs of drying.
The crack mud is also drying.
And now … the bedroom doors. The problem is that the bedroom 1 door is too tall. Why? Was the framing done incorrectly? Likely. I’ll continue measuring tomorrow.
There is work to be done at 520.