Drywall's done, and we're outta here!

The last thing I wanted to be thinking about while we're traveling was the last bits of drywall that still needed to be done. (Could I have made the tenses in that sentence a little more awkward, you think?) So while the War Department was preparing the house and our housesitter for our absence, I went downstairs and put on the old Carhartts one more time, just for fun.

I'm happy to report that the drywall is officially finished. Well, it's finished being installed, anyway. We still have to get Tony in to work his magic with the mud and whatnot.

Anyway, there were only four pieces left, most of which were small and boring, so there isn't much in the way of interesting pictures for this post. Just so you know...


The piece that required the most work to finish was the last bit of the bulkhead in the laundry room. I had to install a complicated little nailing edge to protect the wires and still leave room for various cables and whatnot.



Looks pretty snazzy, I think. If you're wondering how we plan to tie in that bulkhead to the existing wall and finish off the wall by the stairs, well, so are we.

I also installed the little piece of drywall over the door to the workshop, and the big piece on the workshop side of the entrance. Neither of which makes for a good picture (or any picture at all, really) so let's just move on.

The other complicated task was to finally get the cable lines all squared away inside the electrical cabinet, and put the last piece of drywall over the bulkhead beside it.



That's a whole mess of cables there, but there's not a whole lot more we can do about it.

And just in case you thought I was kidding about the amount of scrap generated by an off-size basement ceiling:




So, yeah. That's the state of the basement at the moment. We're off for two weeks to see my big brother get married in Tasmania. (Awesome! A 15-hour plane ride! Joy!) When we get back, it'll be all systems go to get the drywall covered up, the doors installed, the carpet laid, and the trim put in.

It's gonna look nice. Really.

See you when we get back. Read more...

Another weekend, another piece of drywall

Yes, that's right. We managed ONE piece of drywall this past weekend. But to be fair, it was a REALLY tough piece.

Remember this?



Yes, that really was ... uh ... god, I suck at math ... um, close to EIGHT months ago. Yeah. Anyway, if you don't recall, that's the hole we had to cut in the drywall (plaster, actually - more on that in a bit) so the plumber could run the vent stack for the new bathroom up the wall, through the attic, and out the roof.

Well, we wanted to make sure we had a goodly amount of time in which to tackle drywalling over that particular hole, so we waited until this weekend. And it's a good thing we did.

Saturday started with a trip to, of course, Home Despot, where we picked up a couple of 2x2s and a few steel brackets. We need these to create nailing edges for the drywall to screw into. (As a general aside, anytime you have to make an extra trip to the hardware store to pick up material just to make sure you have something to drive screws into, you're in for a long day.)

Once we got home, it was time to move all the stuff out of the front hall, and hang a sheet of plastic across the entrance to make sure the dust didn't coat the entire living room. We - okay, the War Department - initially thought the dust wouldn't be too bad, given that it was plaster we were dealing with and not the dust factory that is drywall, but within about thirty seconds of starting to work, I knew we'd need a dust barrier.

The first step was to even off the sides of the plaster with the existing studs inside the wall. We hadn't been too fine with this when we first cut the hole as we were more concerned with just opening up the wall for the plumber. Of course, now that there was a pipe running up the right side of the wall, this was a little more difficult that it would have been if we'd just cut it better the first time. But, armed with a drywall saw, a sharp utility knife, and the godsend of a woodworker's rasp, I managed to trim both side edges flush with the studs. Of course, I managed to hurt myself (that's right, the Injury Report makes a triumphant return this post!) and cover myself with a thick layer of plaster dust in the process, but if nothing else, home renovations are sacrifice personified (that's deep, I think I'll get it put on a T-shirt or something).

Anyway, with the plaster trimmed back, it was time to install the nailing edges. Of course, this wasn't quite as easy as just lining up the 2x2 with the edge of the existing studs - oh no. You see, the plaster on the walls averages 3/4 of an inch thick, whereas the drywall is a 1/2-inch. Yes, I said it averages. To get the spacing right, I had to use a piece of scrap drywall (fortunately, we had enough lying around) fastened to a piece of scrap 2x2 to draw a mark on the parts of the wall that weren't blocked by the vent pipe.

To get around the vent pipe, I had to use a piece of half-inch plywood fastened to three brackets that would fit just behind the pipe - but not too far, or I wouldn't be able to drive in the screws. Needless to say, all this took some time.

Sigh.

I really wish I'd taken a picture, but by the time I got the nailing edges installed and the piece of drywall cut to fit (only took three trips up and down the stairs to do it - it wasn't exactly a square piece, even with the plaster trimmed back), I was covered in dust, tired, hot, and somewhat unwilling to take the drywall out of the hole just so I could go and get my camera.

So, no work-in-progress shots I'm afraid, but I do have one of the finished project:



So yeah. That's a weekend's worth of work right there. Oh, and of course, it's time for another edition of

The Injury Report

The plaster on our walls is made of concrete - or something very close to it. At any rate, it's very sharp.

I scraped my right pinkie finger on some protruding plaster inside the wall while I was trimming the sides of the hole. It bled somewhat, but not too badly.

While trying not to touch the injured part of my pinkie to the plaster on the back of the wall, I scraped the cuticle of my right index finger across what proved to be an exceptionally sharp part of the plaster I was attempting to trim. It didn't bleed as much, but hurt much, much more.

Anyway, I hope to get one more post in before our travel-imposed hiatus next weekend. But if not, well... see you in April.


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The end is nigh... of drywall, that is.

Yes, it's true. We can honestly say that we're almost finished the drywall. Almost.

Of course, that's after a full two days of hard slogging away at it. So, in a way, you could also say we're still not finished. Hmmm... I think I'll stick with being almost done, if it's all the same to you.

At any rate, I apologize in advance for the relative brevity of this post - yet again - but it's been a long day of work, even with losing an hour to that antiquated daylight savings time nonsense, and I'm tired.

So here it is, the completed bathroom drywall:





Yep. It's done. As is the office - well, almost. There's just one piece I haven't put up yet, and that's to cover the bulkhead by the electrical panel.

We also tackled one of the hardest bits, the wall behind the laundry sink and washing machine:



Looks pretty good, eh? You'd hardly notice that we had to make a last-minute run to Crappy Tire to get an extra piece of pipe we could reroute the drain for the sink. Yep. Half-an-inch of drywall screwed up all the angles.

But that's about it. Oh, the War Department cleaned up all the detritus in the yard and got it stacked nicely by the curb for the once-yearly city brush pick-up while I put up the last piece of drywall in the closet and the tricky piece under the support beam by the workshop, but really, that's the sum total of a weekend's worth of work up there.

Sheesh.

I think the next time I take part in a renovation, I'm putting in for the supervisor position. It looks like a freaking cakewalk to me:




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Long day, short post

It's been a really long day and I'm really tired, so don't expect too much from this post...

Oh, who am I kidding? If you're reading this, you know better than to expect too much from any of my posts. I know, I know: shut up and make with the pictures.

Well, all right, but don't say I didn't warn you.

Our window of opportunity in terms of work was somewhat limited yesterday, owing to the fact that we'd invited some friends over for dinner without really noticing just how messy our house had become over the past few weeks. Between getting the kitchen/living room/dining table/bathroom cleaned up and presentable for our guests and running around all over town for booze and groceries (these aren't the kind of people for which you want to entertain without a skinful or two of good wine in your system), we had precious little time to work on the basement.

Today, however, was much better. We finally managed to tackle a job that I had long been dreading: the shower walls!

Rather than spend $53.00 (seriously!) on a 4-1/2" hole saw to cut the hole for the shower taps, we elected to use a 1" hole saw, followed by a series of 1/2" drill holes, followed by extensive Dremelling. Amazingly enough, it worked perfectly, and we got the hole in exactly the right position, and exactly the right size. Sure, it probably took us about an hour longer than it would have taken a professional to do the same job, but we're getting used to that. Sadly.

At any rate, we bolted the two halves of the shower together and then fitted the whole shebang into place:



Yes, the brown tape-like stuff is coming off, no, that isn't the color scheme for the bathroom.

We also -FINALLY- conquered that awful piece of drywall beside the bathroom door:



How did we manage that, you ask? Simple, I say: the War Department did what we should have done the first time and made a template:



Believe me, I was awfully close to stapling that piece of cardboard into place and then just playing dumb when Tony showed up to start the mudding.

"Cardboard? No way, man. That's top-quality drywall. Well, that's what they told us at Home Depot, anyway..."

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