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 and a 1-bedroom suite on the 2nd floor. This is the story of the upper suite (“up”).
Today’s task is to get the exterior of the new windows complete before the scissor lift is returned.
An unfortunate find. Floyd says it’s a sparrow. I think it’s too big to be a sparrow but don’t know what it could be. Any comments?
The first trim board is added to the living room window.
I’m using these 16-foot-long 1x8s as trim boards – part of the house’s history reused.
The living room trim boards are up, caulked, and ready for paint.
When I got here this morning, the scissor lift was still there, waiting for work to begin.
The bedroom window rough opening needed to be framed before the window went in.
However, the lift didn’t go up past 10 feet or so. I moved the plywood back and forth hoping to give a level ground. Maybe the error 18 was because it was tilted sideways? I texted Aaron at United Rentals. A technician would call me back.
While Dave sanded, mudded little holes, and primed and painted the bedroom, I got to work on the last two remaining windows that need replacement – the bedroom and the living room.
The amount of dirt inside the old framing was substantial, more than the other windows.
Rona+ is the only place I could find that sells whole boxes of protector plates (“bang plates”). They hardly have any staff there. Their app is broken – doesn’t accept my email and password despite being told several times over the past two years – so I can’t look up which isle and bay a product sits. I must stand at customer service way longer than should be before someone speaks to me. Their flooring guy in particular is the most miserable person I’ve ever met in retail, pushing me to go to End Of the Roll. In short, I hate this place.
Here’s a view of the new living room window. Looks good, I think. Just needs to be permanently installed before it falls out.
I put down some fresh paper. But this paper is too thin and rips easily underfoot (not from Rona+ but from Home Depot).
Here is my 3rd try at placing the kitchen lighting. <sigh>
I moved the smoke alarm to the left. Why? I measured and cut the hole from the wrong side of the drywall. Rather than patch it up and create a new hole, I moved the darned thing.
More lighting holes.
And now … the windows. I’ve been dreading starting this phase, but it must be done. Here’s the old window framing.
On to the ceiling. But first, move the boxes full of flat-pack cabinets that are in the way.
There is no rafter tie on the west end of the house. A spacer (1″) and backing (2×4 on-the-flat) were added for mounting the ceiling drywall.
Floyd came by and offered a badly needed 3rd set of arms.
I spend much of the morning and early afternoon working on cleaning up and organizing construction materials and tools. Badly needed.
I bought Ziplock bags from Canadian Tire to organize all the electrical and other stuff. As it turns out, I have a surplus of outlets, switches, etc. that I didn’t know about as nothing was categorized before.
Paper floor covering went into contractor bags. SONOpan soundproofing panels, cardboard sheets, all the big, bulky stuff that got in the way was organized and stacked. The kitchen cabinet boxes were moved out of the living room to hang drywall.
I finally found a bracket that was needed for a 1st floor suite light.
After that, wires were stapled, outlet boxes blocked, and SONOpan soundproofing put into the wall (no pic – I forgot).
Then the next drywall sheets were put onto the north wall of the living room and taped.
Plans for tomorrow are to reframe and replace windows, install living room protector plates, and continue with drywall.
The inspector was by today, looking at the work previously done and, thankfully, on the same permit, did a rough-in inspection. He was quite an agreeable fellow, addressing all my questions. So was Ryley, the electrician from Passey Electric. He found some deficiencies.
Along with that…
Some of the work was done yesterday and some today.
So, here goes!
The second floor is rented for Sept. 31, 2026. I’d best get a move-on.
I priced out a water heater from Home Depot. I think it may be too tall. I’ll have to think on it.
The entrance, stairway, and all the rooms are chocked full of stuff that needs to be moved, removed, organized, or used.
We’re almost done! (Not!)
The panel needs improvements, mostly to get up to code. Protector plates (“bang plates”) were added to various walls.
Do I clean up or start construction? I began drilling holes in the hinge for the storage area under the landing.
Cleanup won out.
