I ran a bundle of old lathe boards through the planer and polyurethaned them. These will become trim for the upstairs suite at 1403.
When my arms have healed a bit more, I’ll resume work there. Here is my to do list.
1403 3 Ave N upstairs
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 and a 1-bedroom suite on the 2nd floor. This is the story of the upper suite (“up”).
Reuse, Recycle, Refuse
Going to the landfill doesn’t always mean that the garbage goes into the landfill. Lots of this refuse is recycled.
This refuse was from the upstairs suite renovations.
Concrete is ground up and used as aggregate for other concrete or fill.
White wood, they call it, is wood that hasn’t been painted. It can be chipped up and used as biomass in garden beds, according to the people at the recycling depot (a.k.a. the dump).
baseboard heater fixed, faceplates added, stairway storage completed
The baseboard heater works now.
According to my electrical engineer friend, the thermostat was arcing. When dialing it up and down, one can hear a kind of buzzing or hissing sound, the sound of a small arc going on within. Likely the contacts are dirty. He thinks it’s fine, but I think I will replace it anyway. Arcing leads to carbon building which leads to more arcing.
faceplates, baseboard heaters
More finish work was done today. I added faceplates to most of the outlets and switches. Double outlets / switches aren’t done yet because I bought the wrong ones. I’ll pick up the right ones tomorrow.
Seam sealer, normally used in vinyl flooring, was used to seal the butt joints in the countertop.
The baseboard heaters were all installed except in the bathroom. The heater does not work.
microwave, toilet light, baseboard heaters, cabinet door pulls
After working outside for a while, the microwave was installed today. It took a while to get it installed because of the same problem as the rear suite at 520 – the cabinet bracket screws are almost lined up with the microwave mounting screws, forcing the mount to be slightly off-center.
However, there is a little flange that sticks out at the top left, preventing the cabinet door from opening.
It seems to have no purpose, so…
shared hot water, more finishing touches … and a microwave
Because the entire property only has 100 Amperes (80A main floor, 50A upstairs), the upstairs suite cannot handle the on-demand water heater I had planned … yet. As well, there is no room in this small suite for a water heater of any decent size. (I have a 6-gallon, but for two people it should be minimum 15-gallon.)
So, they will share the main floor hot water tank. To do this, they need a flow monitor to measure how much hot water they use and pay the tenant downstairs.
The work begins. These valves are for the upstairs.
missing pieces
Over time, things get swept up, boxed, misplaced, or outright lost. I have no idea where the cover for this window crank went. I’ll have to order another, after I have a Thanksgiving weekend.
The kitchen blind was finally put up. When I get the measurements, I’ll go empty out Home Depot’s stock of blinds again for the remaining windows.
mounting, buying, plumbing, countering, sinking, cleaning, leaving
The Canadian Tire P-trap doesn’t fit. The pipes are 1-1/2″, and this P-trap is 2″. Nonetheless, I found the right one. Where? In the plumbing box. <sigh>
The tenants need a shower, but the shower door still needs to be resized. In the mean time, a simple shower curtain will suffice.
begin finishing touches, begin move-in
The tenants will be here at 10:00am to begin moving in. Still lots to do.
7:45am – With the painting done in the kitchen and living room, the living room lights were mounted.
9:09am – The bathroom was primed yesterday and painted this morning. The walls need some drywall mud and paint touch-ups but are adequately done. Even though there is no 240VAC dryer, the outlet was mounted.
more cabinets, range, paint, bathroom sand and prime
This morning, Erin at Home Depot set me up with new cabinet legs and the little screws needed to hold the soft-close mechanisms in place. Perhaps I can still find the others, but, in the mean time, I need these to move forward. The 36″ corner cabinets have 8 legs.
Levelling these is pretty easy. You just twist the legs in or out.
