Let the healing begin

First and foremost, I uploaded the pictures for the last post all over again, so everyone should be able to see the progress and the gore equally well.

Other commitments (and a sense of sheer laziness) kept us from accomplishing as much as we wanted on the basement this weekend (meaning that no, the sub-floor is not finished).

On the plus side, we did get to enjoy a hot tub, a couple of nice bottles of red wine (not all at once), and the company of kitties other than our own. Oh, and a Wii, too. That was cool.

But we did do a little bit of honest work, and I took a new picture of my finger, so this isn't necessarily a post you can just skip over.

You know, if you actually cared about any of the crap I write here.

The War Department got to experience the sheer joy beauty awesomeness crappitude of Steve's hammer drill (oh, and Steve, thanks again for lending it to us ... um, still) as it was a little too awkward for me to manage with my injured finger. I'm happy to report that Amy likes Tapcons - oh, about as much as I do, really.

Which is to say, not at all.

But the floor is sure starting to look good, eh?



Yes, as evidenced by the picture above, we haven't quite got all the Tapcons in place just yet, nor have we started on the bathroom, but we did pick up the aluminum ducting we needed for the bathroom fan and enough foam insulation to finish the floor.

What? We can only make so many trips to Rona in one day, you know...

Moving on, it's time for an update on

The Injury Report

My finger is healing nicely, thank you. But seeing as how everyone showed such an interest in my deformity, I thought the least I could do would be to offer you an update on its progress.

Without further ado...



Not so gangrenous now, eh Mikey?

You're still all a bunch of ghouls.
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Electrical update

The electricians came back yesterday to finish up and get ready for the rough-in inspection which, I'm happy to say, went off without a hitch.

According to the War Department, who was working from home to keep the kitties company while strange people tromped around our house, the only comment the inspector made was that we should be keeping our building permit in a plastic bag. Which is funny because she took the papers OUT of the plastic bag to give to the electrician to give to the inspector.

But we've learned not to question the wisdom of the inspectors, and our electrician managed to restrain from bursting out laughing, so we have officially passed the first electrical inspection! Yay! (We celebrated by putting down some more sub-floor. Oh yeah. Fun never stops.)

Full warning: this post is picture heavy.

I have to admit that it's kind of hard to capture the awesomeness that is our revamped electrical system in the basement. I think the best I can do is to just post some pictures of various parts and components and hope that the whole becomes more than the sum. Or something like that. I was never very good at math.

First up, here's the electrical panel, after they moved it to the right about four or five inches, and cleaned up a lot of the surrounding wire:



Sadly, I don't really have an establishing shot of what it looked like before but trust me: that's a vast improvement.

Here are some of the newly installed bathroom bits, in no particular order.

Our new fan:





Our new wall heater:



The wall switches (lights, fan, and thermostat):



It's all so neat and tidy, and secure, and really well done. (I have every confidence that the War Department could have done 90% of that herself, but it would have taken her a whole lot longer!)

And lest you think that we've been hiring out ALL the work, here's the current status of the subfloor:



As you can see, we've got the foam down into the corner, and just - heh, like there's anything "just" about it - have to lay the plywood down over top. Weekend work!

Well, that's about it... what's that? You want to see a picture of my finger? Well, all right...

But I'm not posting it out here in the open. You have to WANT to see it. Like, really WANT to see it.

If you REALLY WANT to experience the gruesomeness, all up close and personal like, in LARGE, living colour, click this link.

That was taken when I took the band-aids off last night, after five days. Yes, it hurt. A lot.


Ghouls. All a ya.
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Ouch. Holy f-ing ouch.

Rather than bring you all up to date on the progress we've made this weekend, I thought instead that I'd offer an extra, full length edition of everybody's favorite feature...

The Injury Report

The reason I'm doing this, of course is because we didn't MAKE any progress on the basement yesterday, but spent most of the day dealing with an injury. We'd only just gotten started when it happened, so yesterday wasn't terrifically productive. I think we'd managed to clean up all the sawdust and bits of wire the electricians had left, and had just started laying down foam for the sub-floor.

Warning: if you're really squeamish, you may not want to read the next paragraph. Just skip to the funny bits later. (Don't worry - I didn't take any pictures.)


I was cutting down a piece of rigid foam insulation to put on the floor of the closet, in preparation for covering it all up with a piece of plywood. I was using a metal square, holding it down against the foam with my left hand, and running a utility knife along the edge of the square to make a nice clean cut. Well, I guess I wasn't really paying enough attention, because my finger was overlapping the edge of the square by just a bit, and the knife pretty much sheared off a piece of my left index finger - right through the fingernail and everything.

Right away, it was pretty clear that I'd be needing medical attention for this one, and possibly some stitches. Of course, we knew that the emergency rooms at local hospitals would be insane on Saturdays and wouldn't have much time for a relatively minor wound like mine, so we figured the clinic was a safer bet. I couldn't do much, what with holding a piece of gory gauze tight around my finger, so the War Department got the truck all set and we headed up to the medical clinic at Cook and Quadra.

Well, they're closed on Saturdays (of course - why wouldn't they be?) so we headed up to the medical clinic at Broadmead instead. According to the sign on the door, they were closing at 1:00 today (it was about 1:20 at this point) due to "unforeseen circumstances" (read, "staffing problems"), but they had helpfully listed two nearby places one could seek medical attention. Victoria General was one of them, however, and we were determined that the ER would be a last resort. So we headed back across the highway to the clinic at Royal Oak Shopping Centre.

Keep in mind of course, that every time we got in or out of the truck, Amy had to fasten or unfasten my seatbelt and open and close my door for me. Not to mention that every bump in the road sent spikes of pain shooting through my hand. This was not an enjoyable weekend drive, by any means.

But we made it to the clinic at Royal Oak, and they also had a helpful sign on the door, this one indicating that they close at 1:00 on Saturdays. Not just this Saturday, though. All of them.

This was about the point that I invented new and exciting ways to use the word "fuck". I think I may have startled a couple of nearby blue-hairs with several of those new uses, though they may have been more shocked by the fact that Amy was also engaging in my etymological pursuits.

We were desperately aware that the emergency room was becoming our only option, so we stopped at a pay phone and Amy called a doctor friend of ours to ask for suggestions. He was actually willing to treat the injury himself, but didn't have the right supplies. He suggested that we go to the clinic in Esquimalt instead - assuring us that it was open until 4:00 - and confirmed that if we headed to the ER, we'd be in for close to a five hour wait.

So we trundled all the way across town to the Esquimalt clinic and pulled in to the completely empty parking lot with a deep sense of trepidation. To our surprise, the lot was empty because there were no patients waiting, and within three minutes of walking in the door, I was in the doctor's office.

Now, I can assure you that cutting off a sizable chunk of my finger was very, very painful. You can take my word for it. But I can also assure you that cutting off a piece of my finger was a minor annoyance compared to getting treatment for it.

He started by unwinding the blood-soaked gauze that I'd been clenching around my finger for the past hour or so.

That hurt quite a bit, but not as much as it hurt when he started dabbing gently at the wound to clear up some of the blood.

And of course, that didn't hurt nearly as much as when he squirted some local anesthetic over it.

While he was waiting for the anesthetic to kick in (it didn't), he told me about my options. Because a sizable chunk of flesh was missing, it was going to be difficult to give me any stitches, even if he went through the fingernail (a treatment he described as "rather painful").

Instead, he opted to use a pressure bandage of sorts to keep my finger tight up against my nail until the skin could start to regrow. First, however, he had to stop the bleeding. This meant dumping some freezing agent over my finger.

I thought the anesthetic was painful, but when he put the freezing stuff on, I think I saw Jesus for a second.

Then he cauterized the blood vessels with some silver nitrate, and I thought I WAS Jesus.

Then he loosened the tourniquet, and I knew that he was the devil and I was in hell.

Man, that hurt. Holy shit, that hurt like a son of a bitch. I can't believe how much that hurt. And this was after he'd numbed it.

So then he wrapped it up tight in a couple of butterfly band-aids, gave me some free samples of synthetic codeine (woo hoo!), and sent me on my way. I spent the rest of the afternoon lying on the couch holding my finger at an uncomfortable angle, and feeling sorry for myself. Amy cleaned up the basement and at one point brought me a little piece of finger with its bit of fingernail still attached. It was pretty weird, but we elected not to take a picture (you're welcome).

Anyway, it's taken me almost an hour to type this. Ironically, the part of my body I injured requires the one letter on the keyboard I have the most trouble with right now.

FFFFFFFinger.

Ouch.
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What long weekend?

Was there a weekend just now?

I think we might have missed it. Oh, no, wait. I remember now! It was those three days we spent downstairs in the basement instead of going to work!

Apparently, we had quite a windstorm, too. Though of course, I wouldn't know. I was in the basement. Working...

So, with the framing inspection behind us, I was at something of a loss as to where to turn my attention next. Fortunately, the War Department stepped in and reminded me that we needed to have the subfloor installed before the electricians came.

Oh, joy! More Tapcons! Gee golly, swell!

Oh, speaking of electricians, we had our friend Danny come by to give us an estimate (a little higher than we were expecting, but then it turned out he was including all of the materials like pot lights, bathroom ventilation fans, and heaters, which was something of a relief) and then he surprised us by informing us that they'd be starting Wednesday. Yes, tomorrow.

And us without a floor!

So, we spent the weekend buying rigid foam insulation, plywood, Tapcons (damn it), and all the other things we needed to get started on the floor. And... well, that's about all we did. Get started.



It's turning out to be a right stubborn bitch of a job, this subfloor thing. I mean, I knew I was in for a real treat when I bought a BIG box of Tapcons, but getting the somewhat-warped pieces of plywood to fit on a bumpy floor is a real trick. We did a little more tonight (than what's shown in the picture above), but we're still not even halfway done, and we just don't have the energy or time to do any more. So the electricians are just going to have to be careful not to destroy our foam as they stomp around installing stuff tomorrow.

On the bright side, Amy did a whole shwack of electrical work over the weekend (saving us a fair chunk of change by not having to pay the electricians to do it), and I learned new and interesting ways to swear at ductwork.

I started by installing the heating duct down the wall beside the closet:



Here's a close up of the top of the run:



But it was when I went to install the cold air return that things got really interesting:



Cutting the hole in the side of the existing cold air return was the easy part (and not only because the jigsaw blade wasn't going to fall into any fans if it broke off again - which it did). The real fun began when I started trying to put the new duct line together and realized that I had NO IDEA WHAT I WAS DOING.

Amazingly enough, the Intartubez were remarkably unhelpful in terms of providing any idea of how to go about attaching one piece of ductwork to another. Fortunately, I has a brain - despite what some people may claim - and I eventually managed to figure it out, and even turned in a fairly passable joint. (Even if it was AFTER I completely munged one piece of duct and came pretty close to messing up another one.)



Here's the back side, where the new cold air return goes into the existing one:



Of the three new joints visible in that picture, please ignore two of them. Thank you.

Anyway, I'm going to bed. The War Department will be working from home tomorrow to supervise the electricians and keep the cats from getting TOO freaked out, but I have to go in to the office and live vicariously through the frequent email updates.

Murky buckets and bonnie sewer, as my dad always says.
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We passed!

Woohoo! We passed the framing inspection!

As a matter of fact, he even complimented us, saying that it was something of a pleasure to do an inspection on some good, solid work - for a change.(He also complimented us on keeping such a clean and tidy work area, so we have that, too.)

He even had some helpful suggestions for the ducting and bathroom fan configuration. All in all, it was a quick, constructive little visit.

We are highly relieved.


It's a trick. There's no more post to read. Ha ha!
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Welcome to the bulkhead bonanza

It's been all about the bulkheads around here for the past few days. Well, and probably a few days before that, too.

Okay, so I've been working on bulkheads for, like, a week. Fine, I admit it.

But it's done! The framing, except for one stud that I haven't put it because I'm still squeezing through that particular gap to get to the workbench, is finished! Woo!

Which means, of course, that I have to book an appointment with the inspector now. Gulp. While I wrestle with that particular nicety, to which I am most assuredly not looking forward, let us peruse the accomplishments of the past few days.

First up, the final bit of non-bulkhead-related framing: the doorway into the workshop:



That was a little more complicated than the other doorways I've framed in, largely because we're re-using an old door, and not one that comes pre-hung inside a jamb. In other words, there was lots of math involved, and I haven't found out which part of it I did wrong yet. Probably all of it.

Oh, and speaking of my last post, one of the pictures I posted was not the right one. I've since uploaded the correct picture of the detailed framing in the closet. Also, here's our nice new duct, running right off the main trunk of the furnace:



On to the framing!

The first bulkhead I finished (besides the one that will be hidden inside the closet) was the one by the electrical panel. Fortunately, I had only put up the first couple of pieces when the electrician showed up to give us his quote, and he had a few very handy tips. The final result is a little higher, and a little shallower, but I'm a lot less worried about whether all those wires will fit:



As you can see, the whole closet wall is now framed in and ready for the next step:



The next bulkhead I worked on was the long one that runs the length of the support beam. This wasn't very exciting, really; just a lot of short pieces of two-by-two and lots of cursing and swearing - it's damn hard to hold those little pieces in place driving screws through and into the joists:



Not that we needed another reason to take that old crappy duct line out, but the bulkhead works much better without it:




And finally, my favorite bulkhead of all, the little one that covers the vent stack where it emerges from the bathroom wall and immediately turns up into the floor joists. Here's the installation site all prepped and ready:



Here's the bulkhead on top of the jig I used to put it together:



And finally, here it is in place, with a few extra pieces to help fasten the drywall around it:



Phew. That was a lot of pictures. Me go drink beer.

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Framing update

I know I've been saying this for a while now, but I think I might be telling the truth this time...

I should finish the framing this weekend.

Yep. All of it. Bulkheads, doorways, strange little closets - the whole shebang.

What's more, we have our electrician coming by this morning to scope out the project and work up an estimate for us. I'm hoping he won't look at the framing I've already done and tell us it's all wrong. (Still, better it coming from him than the inspector...) Speaking of which, I've been pretty busy this week and, once more, I have the pictures to prove it. Some of them were even taken with my new camera!

Looking back over the past few posts, I must admit that I've been somewhat remiss in keeping you all up-to-date on the framing progress. The last time I posted pictures of the framing, I hadn't even started to frame in the closet, save for its back wall. As you can see from the following series, I've come quite a ways since then.

First up, here's an establishing shot of the whole closet area:



The areas of interest are really the whole left side where the closet is going to go, and the duct on the top right, where we'll be building a bulkhead to hold all those wires. Jutting out from the wall is the outline of where the right-hand wall of the closet will be. Here's another look at that:



Heh, up close it kinda looks like an optical illusion or an Escher print. Or maybe I'm looking too hard. The reason it's so wide is that we want to run a duct line down from the top so we can put in a register at the bottom of the pillar.

Anyway, here's what I did on Thursday while the War Department was at the ballet:



I think even Amy had to admit that was a good night's work! Here's another shot of the inside of the closet so you can admire the tricky bits of the framing (all of it, really):



I also found time to wrap the duct in some insulating wrap so we could run the wires through the same space without any fear of them melting or overheating:



I taped up the joints with foil tape last night (wasn't THAT a fun little task - not!), and did some more bracing and some of the little finicky stuff that needs to be done before I can start on the bulkhead in front of the duct. None of that makes very good pictures, though.

And of course, speaking of pictures, here's one of the supervisor kitty in his natural habitat:



(Every five minutes for the past three days, Amy's been telling me to stop taking so many pictures of the cats. But she won't let me take any pictures of her, so this is what I'm reduced to. Besides, look at that picture! My old camera could never have taken that shot, not in a million years.

Fine, I'll stop with the pictures of my cat. Sheesh.)

Anyway, I have to go wake Amy up so that she's not showing the electrician around in her pajamas. Good times.

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