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”).
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.
A different brand of mud was used to skim coat the bedroom. It’s not quite dry.
Before drywalling the ceiling, backing had to be installed. There was no rafter tie at the gable ends of this house – only rafters – as the exterior 1×12 sheathing boards offered structure: Such is balloon framing. Thus, I added a 2×4 atop the wall’s top plate to attach drywall.
The first piece of ceiling drywall was put up.
However, because of various causes, the next two rafter ties (or ceiling joists) were not aligned; one was 3/4″ too high, and the next was 1-1/4″ too high. I had to add spacers made of old lathe boards to bring the ceiling drywall down to match the rest of the ceiling. Dave worked on other tasks like mudding seams, filling holes, and having lunch while I stuffed boards in-between the drywall and rafter ties.
More drywall from Home Depot. There is a small discount if you buy 20 or more sheets (like 1-1/2 sheets free).
Protection plates were added to the wiring before drywall goes up.
Lighting wires were stapled in the ceiling.
The 6-mil poly vapour barrier was taped around cuts, holes, and seams.
The first ceiling drywall sheets were put up, complete with light holes.
The bulk of the drywall sheets were loaded into the main floor suite mudroom for storage as there is no space upstairs for these just yet.
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.
In preparation of the main floor, the mudroom had to be emptied of upstairs appliances. The old range is now outside, and the new one was taken up. It was brought up the stairs end-over-end and ended up up-side-down in the bedroom.
The old refrigerator (a tiny apartment sized one) is now in the shed, but the new one is still in its box in the entrance. We don’t want to overcrowd the upstairs with stuff until more work is done.
A book shelf used for tools was brought up, but nothing else will be done until the main floor is complete.
Someone online asked to see pics of the upstairs suite. It is posted for rent online at Kijiji.ca. For now, there really isn’t much to see. (Also found at properties.allansplace.ca/1403-up.)
Entrance:
file error – will show you later
Staircase:
Bedroom:
Living room:
Kitchen:
Bathroom, Laundry:
I have some explaining to do. The reasons renovations to the main floor suite were started in the first place were
Some other reasons were