I said there would be more doors, right?
One is from the bathroom, two are from the side of the road. The plan is to hang them, "barn door" style in the laundry area. I realize patina isn't for everyone, but here's what I did.
Detail shot:
I assumed it to all be lead based, and respirated accordingly. Many coats of poly, and forced patience to come.
Both the electrician, and codes preferred more of the sidewalk to be gone, so I got smart (read; spent$$$).
To wit, I rented a concrete saw. 110 ish bucks for 4 hours ("You can rent the sawblade for $50, or buy one for $60-I elected to save the ten bucks). At any rate, the drain was made in about a half hour. 15 miles each way, 4 times, and my back still hurts why?
SLF dug out the trench to keep water away from the house/electricity today, while I screwed around with the laundry room. There were two 4X4 uprights 2 inches from being in the same plane. I spaced out the side on the right, and put a new 4X4 on the left, in line with the whole contraption.
More to come.
Big day today.
First, the city came and dropped the lines.
Then, While I cut "a window" through the coniferous trees out front, 3 electricians got busy on the breaker box.
They went from this:
to this:
We got new service from the road to the breaker box. All up to codes, including a new grounding rod.
This is for Angry. Pretty lame action shot, but that is one gorgeous truck.
New, digital meter.
The guys doing the last hookup at the masthead.
The electricians found plenty of stuff wrong- Strands of wire cut out at the meter making my 200 amp service compromised at best, "maybe 30 amps going to a 100 amp box in the shed", and many other atrocities.
As of now, we have no power to the shed (no big deal), but several dead outlets have come back to life.
To be continued...
Meanwhile, I've been spiffing up the laundry room.
Awesome! I love this thread.
In reply to wheelsmithy :
That’ll do, pig. That’ll do.
In reply to wheelsmithy :
Rather than overhead I had mine buried. Not only is it out of sight I don’t worry about losing power in a windstorm if a tree branch should fall on a power line. Or some errant driver knock down a pole.
It only added a few hundred dollars , the cost of digging a trench. Today with underground directional boring it wouldn’t have been even that much.
Just kidding Angry, here you go:
In case I can't get the video working, or it eventually disappears, here are some still shots of me pulling down a "widowmaker" that was covered in vines. Basically, we're talking a tree broken halfway up, still vaguely connected, and one that would love to pinch the chainsaw chain, and wreak all other sorts of havoc. I'm going to let it dry out in the driveway for a few days before proceeding. This is Poison Ivy country.
Now that I have breakers, I am much emboldened for electrical work.
Lame, but necessary. I've been going through replacing a hodgepodge of plugs and switches with new. This includes ditching 2 prong, ungrounded outlets, moving and re-snakeing various stuff, and general tidying.
The laundry room got some love:
This is all goofy. One switch controls a ceiling vent, the other, floodlights catty-corner outside the house. It all worked, so I just did conduit to hide the crap. The outlet on the wall was inside a demo'ed wall the other side of that 4X4. Again, Occam's razor dictated I just move E36 M3, and try to go with the flow.
Another goofy remnant of many re-modelings past was 3-way switches that made no sense.
Prime example, a 3-way downstairs hooked (improperly) to the switch upstairs controlling outdoor floodlights. This meant, if the switch in the basement was up, the switch in the dining room operated outdoor lights normally, if down, not at all. Please note, there is a mudroom between said dining area and the great outdoors. I struggled a bit, but eventually aborted the nonsensical switch below.
Added bonus: I made room for the dining room light switch. Hard to explain, but many of those walls I tore down contained electrons that have to find new paths.
I'm still a bit green on house wiring, but I'm getting it.
Bonus #2, I fixed a light in the kitchen. Bad switch. Now, instead of two non-functional lights in there, we have one of each. The other one doesn't function, because, well, there's no light there. Only wires.
Basement before:
After:
Today, I installed the mother of all bathroom fans. 6.5 sones, 210 cfm, 7" ducting. It was actually made for a kitchen.
Also, I hope this is the final roof penetration.
Normal bathroom vents seem to top out at 100cfm, and maybe two sones. Suffice to say, this should move some air, and make some noise (always good to help keep the romance alive).
Also, blah blah, wiring, switches, outlets, running grounds, blah blah.
Measured love in sones!
Electrical work continues; real update soonish.
We are blowing through money like a coke head at studio 54 now.
Here's the big update:
Friday, we passed codes on the electrical upgrade. They let the electricians by with some stuff they specifically warned me not to do-such as old wire being hooked to new, but passed it, and all the re-wire is correct, if not as neat and well organized as in a new construction. Lots of circuits are terminated in junction boxes, rather than being removed from the board itself. So it goes in remodels while the house is being lived in. I am largely pleased.
Photo dump!
New sub-panel
There are new 220 welding outlets. 3 in the "clean shop", 2 in the "dirty", along with new 110s.
Also, 3 outdoor 110s under the deck. One for each bay.
The bathroom is all new (except the old wires feeding it-no worries, it is all grounded and passed codes), and a vanity light, GFCIs, two other light fixtures, and the fan. All are up and running.
This half of the 3-way for the stairs got the "industrial look". I'd call it mostly as intended.
And, as always, if you want to make an omelette, you have to break some eggs. Or in thise case drywall.
Yep, despite my explicit warnings, the guy came through the ceiling. A lot. The holes on the wall were as expected, and no big deal. I guess the idea of carrying a 1X8 or some plywood up there never occurred to them. Oh well.
To keep the stove and dryer running, I put new ends on my welder extension.
Next up, plumb in the new water heater- it is already wired, then the never ending drywall party.
We got the official A-OK late Friday afternoon, and headed 2+ hours North to hang with my uncles and tell some lies for the weekend. Back to work tommorrow.
Cool fact: this water heater, once inspected, marks the end of both electrical, and plumbing work. More permits will need to be pulled for the exterior, but that's a looong way off.
I'll get the inspection set up for next week.
Here's a glimpse into my immediate future:
I really don't want to do a picture/post of every screw I drive into this house, but...
...a ceiling in the upstairs bathroom after 7 months without doesn't suck. More later...
I've been steadily chunking away at this since the electricians left.
All mold resistant drywall.
Visual changes are nice.
Drywall jacks are so choice.If you have the means, I highly recommend picking one up.
The plan is to finish the bathroom, getting it fully functional (save the tub), before moving on to other areas of the house.
Today, the gas company came out, and installed our floor model range. They also de-comissioned the old water heater, and gave the gas log some love. All to be rolled into our gas bill at 0% interest.
In so doing, I was able to remove the old water heater, hook the dryer up near its future home, and move what is to be the powder coating stove to the shed.
Note; much refinement is in store for the laundry room. For instance, A real vent, instead of using the one intended for the removed water heater is imminent. At least the dryer won't be venting directly to the living room, like it was earlier today.
Also, I built a table. I've got my first challenge car to build, and, moving forward, hope to get at least one day a week to work on it.
Drywall is a game changer when you've been staring at open framing for months. Looks good!
I've been spending day after day stinking this project up with my inferior mudding and taping skills.
Lots of You Tube, some new tools, and practice later, I suck less at it.
Props to you. Drywall is my least favorite thing to do, and one I would gladly fork over the cash to have someone better than me do it.
In reply to camaroz1985 :
I have to say, I profoundly hate drywalling, but we just dropped a ton on the electrical upgrade.
It is something I know I can improve in, and, DIY!
I started in on the Master. Ripping out old insulation, eyballing stuff, and prepping.
I didn't like the old "framing" done to hold up the drywall, and pulled most of it out to start again.
I thought it was interesting to get another look at how these houses were originally built.
Up top, there's a header of sorts. Horizontal wood beam with 3 2ish by 4ish boards under it, laid flat. About 15" all told.
Below the sill of the window, 3 more of those 2ish by 4ish boards laid flat. 4X4 uprights in between every ten feet. They were originally exposed as well, inside and out.
All that fills in these voids is large sheets of the Cemesto, which was originally exposed inside and out, as well. It is maybe a touch more than a 1 3/4" thick. I've now been inside a few more houses in the area, and this is what the interior walls used to look like, likely unpainted.
Disregard the unpainted 2X4s they will maybe get saved in the new, overly complicated, all be it non-structural framing.
Yesterday was one year since we took possession of the house. Looking back, a lot of ground has been covered, even though it doesn't really feel like it on a day by day basis.
We took the day off, and went to see Ford vs. Ferrari, and had a nice Asian food dinner (Fulin, for those familiar).
Today, more drywall sanding. One more coat of mud should have the bathroom handled. I am indeed improving.
Since you gotta have pictures to keep a thread alive, here you go:
I'm getting organized in the basement. (Note: I'm pointing out the rack hanging from the joists for molding and trim).
The goal was to have the upstairs bathroom useable by Thanksgiving. We made it.
View from the terlit of the vanity:
View of the terlit from the vanity:
There is plenty more trim yet to come, as well as various touch-ups, not to mention, the bathtub, but tomorrow, once the shower caulk has set, and I've re-hung the door, we have to go neither downstairs, nor outside for a whazz.
This is a momentous day.
Yay! That is awesome. I bet you sleep well tonight.
You'll need to log in to post.
