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 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.
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.
So yesterday I went to Rona to pick up some mould resistant drywall (blue). I got nine sheets, drove to the job site, and began to unload it … except that I didn’t. They loaded the wrong drywall. Dave was very curious as to why I would purchase more regular drywall. My invoice said I bought mould resistant. Rather than make two more trips (there and back), we just carried on with other stuff. The bathroom will wait. That evening, the manager of Rona gave me $45 off my purchase. We unloaded it all and reloaded the correct sheets.
This morning, it still sits on the trailer; no one has walked off with it.
I wondered why I never notice that what we loaded up yesterday morning wasn’t blue. It is apparently not hard to miss.
I spent most of the morning cleaning up and organizing the place. I bought a new exterior light a bit ago but found, at home in the garage, another one. Hmm. I’m disorganized. It gets expensive buying and misplacing and forgetting about building supplies.
I also completed the mudroom / exterior lighting switch wiring.
This afternoon, when Dave showed up, we added Sonopan soundproofing boards to the bathroom / living room wall.
Some cuts were made with a utility knife, and some were made with the table and mitre saws. Using a power saw makes one appear like Kermit the Frog as they are covered head-to-toe with green.
Next: drywall.
Because of the rains in the past few days, I found that the window installed by the previous owner leaks. I have water seepage on the floor from the window framing. I have to reframe now. Not sure if I have to take the window out completely. Knowing me, I will. I can’t take chances. In the mean time, the neighbours have to look at a wrapped window.
