Ouch

Just.... ouch.

Behold:



Words really can't do this hole justice. Hell, pictures can't really do this hole justice. That thing is about 8 hours of combined effort from the War Department and me. It's roughly five feet deep, four-and-a-half feet long, and a little over two feet wide.

We're trying to dig down to the sanitary sewer line where it comes out from under the foundation at the front of the house. This is so our plumber can install a clean out - and then cap it off and test the system to make sure there are no leaks. The War Department avoided telling me, wisely I think, until we were about three-quarters of the way done that the ONLY reason the plumber needs this particular clean out is for the benefit of the inspector.

At any rate, I can't even begin to tell you how much work that was. The soil isn't soil so much as it is compacted clay with a few big rocks thrown in just for fun. I was so tired after digging for two days that I couldn't even take a picture of the hole. I had to do it on my way to work this morning.

Oh, and lest I forget: it's not done. After moving 78 metric shit-tons of dirt, we hit whatever the hell this this is at the bottom of the pit and decided to just call it a day:



The pipe he needs is down there somewhere. He can bloody well find it. I've had enough digging to last me a month...


PS - No, I don't think going out on Saturday night and over-indulging in red wine, barbecued ribs, and good conversation had anything to do with the pain at all. Why do you ask? Read more...

Monster in the Depths

I was tabbed to stay home and watch our plumber work yesterday (gee, what terrible hardship), and managed to sneak in some "work in progress" shots.

Here's the workshop-side hole for the drains when he left for 20 minutes to go get some more parts:



And here's the same hole when he broke for lunch:



Kinda looks like some freaky, plastic spider-monster climbing out of our basement floor, doesn't it?

Here, I've made an attempt to be helpful and labeled the parts for you:



You'll have to click the image to get the full effect. Go on, click it. CLICK IT!

Yeah, the guy works hard. He also plumbed in the shower drain and vent, but I didn't want to blow ALL my pictures on one post.

He also had a suggestion for how we can fill in the gap under our foundation, and get a little extra strength in the bargain. If we get a nice, thin concrete mix, roughly the consistency of self-leveling grout, we can inject it under the slab and use a vibrating tool to make sure it penetrates to the corners and gives us an even fill. It would also save us the trouble of doing our own concrete work - something we both suck at - when we cover up the drains again. We liked the idea so much (who wouldn't, what with vibrating AND penetrating in one go?), the War Department will be pricing out concrete companies next week.

Oh, and seeing as how I was home and the concrete repair place actually called back (for the first time in recorded history) and had an opening, they came by and patched the crack in the back wall. It occurs to me that I've never posted a picture of said exterior crack, so I'll be submitting you to yet another before-and-after style presentation:

Before:


After:


Now THAT, that's progress. We've been needing to do that for far too long. Of course, the guy showed up at about quarter to 11, and was done and gone by 12:30, but it's the kind of job that would have taken us all day. Much better to just pay the (ouch) $265 and get it done right.

So, this weekend brings more digging (joy!) in the front yard so the plumber can put in a new clean-out for the sewer line. We can also repair, or at least fill, the crack on the inside of the wall, and who knows? We might even get around to doing some more framing... Read more...

Hole-y cow!

Yeah, I know. It's a terrible title for this post, but I didn't spend a whole lot of time on it. I should write something deeper. Something, dare I say, wholesome.

At any rate, here's what our soon-to-be bathroom looked like when I left for work this morning:

Bathroom floor:


Workshop floor:


And this is what it looked like when I got home:

Bathroom floor:


Workshop floor:


Our plumber's a pretty laconic, laid-back kinda guy, not really given to over-expressing himself. When the War Department asked him how it was going, he said, "I've seen softer concrete..."

He busted his freaking ASS today.

Just for fun (and to drive home the point that no part of this reno will ever go as planned), it seems that the guys who laid the foundation 60 years ago didn't do the best job of levelling the grade. This explains the cracks in the pad of the foundation, and probably goes a long way toward explaining the massive crack in the wall, too. You can see the effect of this in the pictures above: it's the gap between the dirt under the foundation and the bottom of the concrete.

And of course, said lack of attention to detail means more work for us. We're going to have to use some of the enormous mound of dirt in the backyard to stop up the gaps - at least around the now open areas - before the inspector shows up to check the plumbing. Oh, joy. More digging.

We weren't exactly idle ourselves this evening. To help out our poor, beleaguered plumber, we opened up the wall upstairs so he would have a place to run a vent stack for the new bathroom.

Once again, a little before and after for you:

When I got home:


Just before I sat down to write this post:


No, we didn't paint the wall before we cut away the drywall. Yes, I know it looks like a different wall. I seem to remember mentioning that my camera was a piece of shit, but NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO, you didn't believe me.

Well, it is. So there. Read more...

Busy, busy, busy

Well, contrary to what you might expect from the paucity of updates, we've had quite a busy week here. First up, we've completed framing the first three sides of the bathroom:



We can't really do much more until the door arrives, and that won't be for another couple of weeks yet.

But we did have some visitors on Thursday! The most important of those was the plumber, who pronounced our work thus far satisfactory, and then went down to City Hall, where he was, promptly and without hassle, issued a plumbing permit. (No comment. Just... no comment.) He plans to start jackhammering the floor for the drains later this week! Whoo! Progress!

Also on Thursday, a nice man from the alarm company showed up and moved the alarm control box out of the center of our bathroom, to a more convenient location on the inside wall of the workshop:



He did nice work, actually, and was very pleasant, just like the guy who originally installed it. We highly recommend Price's Alarms. (If you don't live on the Island, tough shit - they're a local company.)

Anyway, our third visitor on Thursday was my personal favorite. His name was Ashley; quite a charming fellow, what with his English accent and astoundingly bad teeth. But it wasn't his personality that I found welcome, so much as it was what he did:



Can't really tell from that angle?

Let me make it a little clearer:



My favoritest thing in the whole wide world! Dead insects! Mwahahaha! He done killed them GOOD!

He also noticed that we had a second nest up in the eavestrough over the driveway, and he got them, too. Ah, it's a grand day when I can take a little personal revenge on Nature. Damn wasps.

Moving on...

This past weekend has been a nightmarish expanse of digging, picking, digging, wheelbarrowing, and digging some more. God, I hate digging!

This is what we done dug:



It's a trench for our new 3/4" water line. And it's dug through almost solid clay. I say "almost" because what wasn't clay was either roots or rocks, in equal quantities. That black shape in the trench is a little protective sleeve I made so that we wouldn't come any closer to piercing the gas line than we already did. Oops.

Really the only good thing that can be said about it was that it wasn't raining. Overcast and cool actually.

Perfect weather for digging.

Damn it. Read more...

We've been framed! Er... I mean, framING.

Much like our favorite baseball team, we've been spending a lot of time in the basement (yuk yuk yuk). Also much like our favorite baseball team, we've been giving it a half-assed effort ("But I was using my WHOLE ass!")

So, you may remember the wall by the hot water tank. We FINALLY completed all of the demo, and we now have an opening into which the door to the workshop will eventually go:



We also added a couple more walls, or at least, the skeleton of such:



I suppose that's technically three walls. Would you believe the smallest of those walls took the most time? Those bloody tapcons were nearly impossible to get working there. On the plus side, I learned a lot about how to make the tapcons work properly, but on the down side, my repetoire of swear words didn't seem nearly broad enough. I'll have to work on that.

Speaking of swearing, I'm pleased to announce a new feature here on the blog:

The Injury Report!

To bring you up to date:

So far, the War Department hasn't gained any injury beyond a couple of bruises suffered when she walked into something or other, and a couple of minor splinters.

I, on the other hand, am a walking litany of abuse. So far, I can chalk up the following (in addition to the usual cuts, scrapes, abrasions, contusions, and other minor incidents that probably won't leave scars):

• A 3-inch scratch on the underside of my right arm, obtained by keeping a sharpened length of wire coat hanger in the right-side pouch of my tool belt. (It's actually a very handy little tool for measuring the depth of the tapcon pilot holes.) I don't keep it there anymore, but I admit that I had to figure that out the hard way.



• While attempting to break up a stubborn piece of aggregate in the way of my masonry bit, I smashed my left index finger with the hammer. I blame my friend Clamb, who was the one who suggested that I use that particular method of breaking up the aggregate. Stupid Clamb!



• The aforementioned nail in the eye. Fun!



• This:




That, in case you were wondering, is a nice little burn in the shape of a masonry bit. See, I was drilling some holes for the tapcon, and hit what I thought was yet another piece of aggregate. So I tried drilling through it - didn't work, so I moved on to the next hole. What I failed to notice was that the tip of the masonry bit had ground down, and wasn't working at all anymore. So, after spinning it uselessly in the hole for a while, I pulled it out and went to change the bit. While I was wrestling with the chuck key, however, the bit touched my hand for a split second. Hence, the fancy burn with the cool pattern.

Fortunately, I have plenty of cooling salve (beer). Oh, and the new bit finished the holes nicely, so no worries and no more smashed fingers.

This has been the premier edition of the OurBasementReno Injury Report. If this were a sports betting pool, and you were betting on who was going to be the most whole at the end of the reno, I'd be putting everything I have on the War Department.

Just saying... Read more...

Fun with math

So, they make these things called "Tapcon" concrete anchors. They're basically just big blue screws, coated with something or other. We're using them to anchor the pressure-treated footers to the concrete floor. I'm sure there's some kind of neat background story about why they're blue or why they're called tapcons, but I'm not really all that keen to find the answer to either of those questions.

But here's the thing:

When you drill the pilot hole for a tapcon, you have to go a quarter of an inch deeper than you expect the tapcon to go. For instance, if you expect the tapcon to go an inch into the concrete, the pilot hole needs to be an inch-and-a-quarter deep. Pretty simple, right?

Ah, but YOU didn't fail Algebra 11! Twice!

(To be perfectly honest, neither did I. I failed it once. But I still maintain that it wasn't entirely my fault. When the quote beside your Algebra 11 teacher's photo in the yearbook reads "I hate Grade Nines", you probably have a case for that particular teacher being not the most empathic or understanding of individuals...)

Anyway, here's a little sample of my stream-of-consciousness when attempting to figure out how deep the hole needed to be to accommodate a 4" tapcon and a standard pressure-treated 2x4:

Okay, so, 4-inch tapcons, but need to leave an extra quarter-inch, so it'll be 4-and-a-quarter, less the thickness of a 2x4. But how thick is a 2x4? It's supposed to be 2 inches, but they don't make them two inches now, I think I remember them being something weird like 1 and 7/8 or something. I should measure it where'd I put that damn tape measure.... screw it, I'll use this yardstick. Oh wait, it's on the dryer. Okay, so a 2x4 is actually 1 1/2 inches wide - wow, that's not even close to 2x4. Why the hell do they call them 2x4's? Should they be, like, 1.5 by ... let's see... 3 and a half... so yeah, they should be called one-and-a-half-by-three-and-a-halfs... doesn't really roll off the tongue, though, does it? All right, so where were we? Right, 4" tapcon needs a four-and-a-quarter inch hole, minus an inch-and-a-half is... uh... damn it. Three... no, wait, 2 and... a ... a half... plus a quarter. 2 and three-quarters? That can't be right. I need some paper...

Okay, now I draw two lines four inches apart... no, wait, four and a quarter inches apart. And now I hold up this two by four to the line... huh. Would you look at that? There's cat fur ALL OVER this thing.

Anyway, yes, the correct answer to the problem was indeed 2 and three-quarter inches, and you'll be happy to know that the tapcons worked like a charm.

Of course, the fun started all over again when I looked at the box and realized we'd purchased three-and-a-quarter inch tapcons, not the four-inch ones...



Oh, and just for shits-and-giggles, I should also note that I destroyed two masonry bits. Because I'm good with tools. Read more...

Permit update

Okay, we're no longer putting in a "Guest Suite" and "Exercise Area" in addition to the laundry room and bathroom. Instead, we're putting in "Storage Areas".


Yeah.


You know, I can kind of see the logic behind it. They're concerned about the places where people sleep, and probably for good reason.

But whatever. At least we have formal permission to do the renos! Read more...

Construction!

Yes, that's right, folks. We actually BUILT something!

But first, some establishing shots. This is the wall by the hot water tank that will eventually become the doorway into the workshop:



And this is the same area, from the workshop side:



See the hot water tank? Huh? That's why I called it "the wall by the hot water tank". Clever, eh?

Anyway, here's what it looked like after my favorite task of all, DEMOLITION!



Notice my handyman's secret weapon holding the plug for the alarm box in place? That's some primo stuff there.

Anyway, because the tool... er, gentleman at the permit office kindly gave us the go-ahead to begin construction on the bathroom, we started framing in the wall that will separate the bathroom from the workshop. Thanks to the wonder of the intertubes, you can watch it form magically before your very eyes!

Before:


During:


Framed!



Yeah, I know it doesn't look like much, but it's a dead straight wall, and it's pretty damn sturdy, too.

Tomorrow, we start framing the tricky bit around the corner of the chimney, and I take ANOTHER trip down to City Hall to see if the inspector can be reasoned with at all. Stay tuned! Read more...

More concrete concerns... and some concerns about concrete

So, yes, as mentioned, we now have a building permit. Yay, right?

Well, not so fast. You see, in order to get that permit, I had to agree to raise the supporting beams flush with the floor joists. There's just no way we're willing to start cutting up the house, so I have to go back in and talk to the building inspector again, and explain that a) the final clearance after we put in the floor and ceiling will be less than the seven feet indicated on the plans, and b) we have absolutely no intention of moving or altering the structural supports.

We're hoping that if we just label the entire basement "storage" that they will let both height requirements slide. We're keeping our fingers crossed, but our hopes aren't exactly high, if you know what I mean.

In other developments, we had a guy out to try and clean our drain pipes. I say "try" because he really didn't get very far before telling us that he would need a more powerful machine.

Why, you ask?

Well, because of this:



That's one of the drain pipe segments he removed from the trench we dug at the rear of the house. According to him, it appears that the drains have never been cleaned.

Here's the trench after he got done pulling bits out and trying vainly to clean the muck out of the weeping tile:



Yeah, we had a LITTLE rain, but really not very much.

The other interesting thing we discovered was some strange holes in the footing of our foundation:



There are two of these holes, almost identical in size and appearance, and they seem to have wood embedded within them - bits of the original forms perhaps?

At any rate, it just means more work to fix them. Sigh. You'd think we'd be used to these little surprises by now... Read more...

A funny thing happened...

...on the way to work this morning.

I stopped by City Hall.

And picked up our approved permit.



I don't understand these people. I really don't.



A longer explanation will be forthcoming, along with picture of our drains (Wow! Fun!), but work is calling at the moment. Stay tuned. Read more...