Feb 23 &24 – attic stairs, plumbing and electric
We have a plan. We are going to get drywall in in 2 weeks. I’m determined. This weekend was part one of a two park push to get everything done. We are exhausted but one more weekend and we’ll take a break.
First off I had Stefan cut me some holes. Cutting plaster and lath is tricky business. We use a 2 part system with the Rotozip. First we use a tile bit to cut the plaster followed by an all-purpose bit to cut the lath. The Rotozip works great. you really have to use a rotory tool of some variety. Anything that pulls back and forth like the sawzall is just going to shake the lath and destroy the wall. A circular saw works well for big holes but for little holes, you really need a more precise tool.
We are adding a switch in the stairwell to control the lights at the top and bottom of the stairs. This will solve the “climbing the stairs in the pitch black” problem that we’ve been dealing with.
If you remember from last week, we pulled some wires from the basement for the stairwell outlet. I finished off the pulling which involved being very tricky and going through this closet.
Projects for Another Day – Cabin Fever edition
I’m ready for winter to be over! I can’t wait to get back into the garden. I’m also looking forward to Estate Sales and weekend trips to New Hampshire and New Bedford for antiquing.
1) Strawberry Rocks
This first little projects is meant to be a squirrel and bird detterent. Put these out and the birds will “learn” not to eat the berries. I have my doubts that it will work but they look super fun to paint.
2) Stepping Stones
I love these stepping stones made with quickcrete and a rubber doormat.
I love the added traction and the slightly whimsical design.
3) Brick Path
This brick path is definately happening this year. I love the way this is done. The bricks are just dug into the dirt. If any snow-heave throws the bricks, just plop it back down in the spring. The shifty, disheveled look just adds character!
4) Shed Trellis
This shed has a trellis attached along with the fake window with a window box. Our shed is def getting some of that treatment. We’ll see what gets done this year but I have a window I’m eyeing.
Insulation
We ended up going with Foam insulation in the open areas. The cost was quite a bit cheaper than what we could get for the net-and-blow cellulose. I think as the job gets larger the cellulose gets cheaper but for this job, the foam was less than half the estimates we got for the cellulose We had open cell foam sprayed in the closet/laundry, the exterior wall of the master bath, and the rear wall of the 3rd floor bath. We didn’t have anything in the eves done. We are still trying to figure out just how to do the roof.
A quick lesson on foam after the jump
(more…)Weekend Update – President’s Day Weekend
What a weekend. 3 days full of work! I’m so sore I can barely move. We had a lady out to give us a quote for the insulation in the open spaces. Turns out she was free Tuesday so we had 3 days to get the house ready for insulation. We were 90% ready but it was quite a push to get that last 10% done in just 3 days.
For reference, this was the bathroom on Friday:
And this was the laundry room:
The third floor bath looked like this:
and this wall was still up:
After lots of cleaning and putting away, the bathroom and laundry/closet were in ship-shape. I also stapled and stripped the wires for the overhead lights to keep them out of the way of the insulation people.
In addition, we needed to add the dryer vent. After doing the fan vents 2 weekends ago, this one went super quick.
Vector really liked the hole right at Vector height.
Stefan also finished up all the “large” pvc. We just have a 2″ and a 1.5″ vent to tie in. By next weekend, we should be 100% done with PVC! If I never have to smell PVC glue again it will be too soon. But alas, there is yet another bathroom to redo at some point.
The insulation people are going to put a bunch of insulation in the kitchen ceiling. We took out some Insulation we had already put up there. It seemed silly to undo work we already did but the insulation people had a minimum and we’ll be going from R13 to R32. That’s a LOT of Rs. Before that did that insulation, we wanted to pre-pull some wires.
Vector really liked hanging out up in the ceiling. Given the option of being a ceiling cat or a basement cat, he’s definitely a ceiling cat.
We also pre-pulled some wires in the laundry room for what I’m calling the stairs switch. Generally you have a 3-way switch at the top and bottom of the stairs so you can see where you’re going. We are putting our version in on the stairs. We pulled some wires up for that area. They are just coiled up in the closet/laundry waiting for next weekend.
In the 3rd floor we did a bunch of wire organization. Here’s the mess of wires that was in the bathroom:
and now:
Look at that wire-management job! The wires are coiled, zip-tied, and hanging neatly in the attic. Whoo organized.
At the suggestion of the insulation lady, Caroline, we went ahead and removed this wall.
Before:
During:
After:
If you’ve never removed plaster and lath, trust me, it’s a big dirty heavy job.
Oh, one other project. Strapping. the 3″ PVC with a fitting didn’t quite fit in the wall of the 3rd floor bathroom so we added a half inch of strapping so the drywall can go up easily and so we can get a extra touch of insulation along that wall.
Borrowing a co-workers framing nailer has been awesome. Another weekend and I’m hoping we’ll be able to return it! As much as we’ve used it, we should think about buying one. Then again, we’re almost done.
In addition, we got another 3 ish inches. It was windy so it drifted up to 8 inches is places and, of course, those places were the sidewalk and driveway where we needed to shovel.
The insulation people are also going to insulate the top of the basement which is hopefully going to keep it a lot warmer. It’s frigid down there now. But, that involved cleaning up the basement a bit. I moved all the wood and organized the wood scraps.
It doesn’t look like much but it really is much more compact and neat. And they’ll be able to get around to all the walls of the basement.
After a mad push Monday night, we were ready Tuesday morning at 8:00 AM when the insulation guys showed up. Whew. Busy weekend!
We’re going to try to get everything else needed for the drywall done over the next 2 weekends. It will be really tight but if we work like we did this weekend, we can do it! Oh drywall, what luxury.
I’ll be taking “after” pictures of the insulation and get a post out to you later this week. I hope you’re as excited as I am!
Cheers,
Sarah
