More electrical roughing, upstairs 90% complete

Billn is back at his normal job, so all work is second shift. Tonight he put a second coat of joint compound on the second floor patches and did a lot more electrical rough work there. All the electric power cables on the second floor are stripped and in boxes. Also, the most crowded switch box on the first floor is stripped and in a box. Finally, all the cables are pulled in the living room.

Billn also repaired (for the second time) a leaky pipe. Again, reusing pipes (which is environmentally friendly) is a good deed and was punished by a leak.

Jenm purchased the paint for the homemade siding.

Tomorrow cables go to the craft/guest and toy rooms.

Billn will return the copper tubing ($2.00+ per foot for 1/2"); we ordered PEX tubing ($0.30 per foot) and fittings last night.

No pictures today, there is nothing exciting about wires and cables in junction boxes.

More electrical rough, completed furring, tools!

Mikem completed furring out the laundry room wall and he framed in one of the old doorways. He went home today, we are grateful for his help.

Billn completed more electrical rough in, which is not exactly photogenic. So here are pictures of some of the tools we are using to complete our work. To the right is the packaging that came with our new miter saw blade. Spice up your saw! If we had this saw at the start, we would be done already. See the flaming arrow printed on the blade further down.

Can anybody say "fire hazard?" Fortunately, we only have one load engaged at a time on this mess, the risk of fire is quite low.

Here billn models the latest in worker fashion, George Orwell uni-suit (recall earlier discussion of the dystopic masterpiece 1984), a worn tool belt and a brightly colored accent (drill to the fashion-unconscious).

Here is our right angle drill, with a 7/8" naileater (see previous posts for pictures of nails that went against this team and lost).

Here is our reciprocating saw, senior daughter E likes to use this.



Here is the current use of the ugly fireplace shelves, tool and material storage.

Here is our replacement circular saw, since our old one passed away at the start of construction.

We sent our keyhole saw home by accident with the original billn. Here is our replacement. Looks like something you would take away from a prison inmate, but it works.



Your sawblade does not have a flaming arrow, you are jealous.

Here is a three-gang non-surface mounted box surface-mounted. We carefully cut the tile for a three-gang box, but discovered a stud in the way. We will fix this in a future bathroom renovation.

What's happened lately?

It has been a few days since our last post. In that time we completed the rough-in for the kitchen window (it will be here in late May), installed the surrender monkey door and did a lot of electrical rough-in. The kitchen is 95% electrically roughed (the range is the only thing remaining, next week).

The original billn went home, we thank him for his work. We picked up the plumbing/heating supplies and the kitchen lighting fixtures. Turns out, they only gave us nine of our special compact fluorescent fixtures, we needed eleven. Hopefully they will come in soon.

Mikem (Jenm's dad) came on Friday, he helped today by ripping 13 4'x8' sheets of 7/16" OSB (oriented strand board) for our siding. Also, on Saturday billn went to a work-day at senior daughter's school. He built a new gate for the playground and helped brace up a monkey bar and rebuild a balance beam.

Here is junior daughter A enjoying our ladder in the dining room.

Here is the interior, looking at our 30" high, 8' wide kitchen window. Also, we energized four of the compact fluorescent recessed fixtures. Nice and bright.

Here is the back of the house, you can see the old steps and closed in door and the temporary steps the original billn made (using old wood we cut out from the old kitchen windows). After the new window is in, we will side this area with the ripped OSB. We will install it in a clapboard pattern. This is our least-cost siding alternative for us and will ensure we upgrade the siding before too long.

We had visitors from our current apartment-town on Thursday, Karen brought her children C and A. It is nice having a backyard again, our children A and E are outdoor people.

Here is the only insect/water damage we found, on the siding behind the old concrete steps. Steps on houses ALWAYS cause water damage. You can see the carpenter ants ate the old cedar siding in this picture. The sheathing behind this siding was in excellent shape, we believe the damage was restricted to this area alone.

Another picture of the insect damage.

Window in, wall furred out

Before leaving the house today, Junior and Senior decided to give the cat the business.

Here the original billn looks at the progressing work. We jacked the upper sill plate up with the floor jack to try to straighten out our house.

Here is the hole for the new window. It is a dual-window unit, 8'0" wide, 2'8" high. Each window is an awning type (hinged on the top, opens out).

We completed the furring out of the kitchen exterior walls (to accommodate additional insulation, because oil isn't becoming less expensive).

Tomorrow we lay out the kitchen ceiling lights, outlets and switches.

What about the appliances?

Here are images of the appliances we chose. Enjoy. The range is a Jenn Aire, chosen by Jenm to match her name.

Surrender Monkey Door Installed!

Here is the final completed product. The 2x4 across the door was to ensure it didn't blow out while we shimmed it.

If you could read the level in this picture, you would be glad to see we shimmed it just about perfectly.

Below see the original billn preparing. In this picture you can see the original house siding was cedar clapboard. At some point they covered over it with light green aluminum siding. Then they painted it with dark green paint some time later.

Here is the back of the house late in the demolition process, just before we cut the window out.

Do we have a backyard or a junkyard?

Billn, senior daughter E (running a reciprocating saw) and junior daughter A using a hammer. We all work in this family.

Senior and junior daughters became tired, so they rested.

On the seventh day they rested

Today we did only one partial shift. Mikem departed, we thank him for his efforts in truck and trailer driving, loading and child care. We will miss him.

We also had a visitor, Jend and her son B. It was nice having a visitor for lunch and some relaxing chat.
We did work, some clean up (inside and outside) and more electrical rough in.

We did work, some clean up (inside and outside) and more electrical rough in.

We also met our neighbor to our South. They moved from Nyack, NY 30 years ago to raise their young children. That's a nice similarity with our situation.

More electrical rough, more dust inhaling, paint purchase

Today was electrical rough in day. Billn traversed the stairs between the basement and the second floor about 500 times today. Snaking new wires into the existing house is tedious when you are alone. However, even without help, Billn is 90% complete with second floor electrical rough in and 40% with the ground floor. Hopefully tomorrow will bring 90% total electrical rough in.







Jenm purchased the paint today (Home Depot is running an excellent mail-in rebate program and their Behr paint is Consumer Reports top-rated).

Who can connect the colors with the bedrooms? We encourage readers to hazard guesses.

Your color choices are:

1. Licorice Stick (red)
2. Edwardian Lace (beige-ish)
3. Valley Mist (greenish)
4. French Taupe
5. Airy Blue
6. Milk Chocolate
7. Harvest Pumpkin

Your room choices are:

1. Senior daughter's bedroom
2. Junior daughter's bedroom
3. Adult's bedroom
4. Bathrooms
5. Hallways/stairways
6. Guest bedroom (craft)
7. Toy room

Blog readers, do your best! The winner might receive a prize (one night in the guest/craft room?).

Second shift concluded just prior to midnight.

Non-visible progress today, appliance purchase

Today more hole drilling (is there any wood left?), the feeder for the electric panel is in and three circuits are roughed in (two outlet circuits in two bedrooms and the microwave). We bought appliances today, Sears is having a dynamite sale, 20% cash back if you buy three items. The piece of paper with the model numbers is in the car, so you'll have to wait until tomorrow for our list.

Mikem (Jenm's dad) made a dump run, 0.24 tons. Also, he and Jenm ripped 2x4s down to 2x2s. Why you ask? We are making the exterior wall in the kitchen thicker so we can have better insulation. The original plan was to purchase steel 2x2 studs for this purchase (they are light and straight). But we discovered steel 2x2s are the same price as a wood 2x4. That means twice as much. So the table saw converted 2x4s into 2x2s and sawdust.

Our window, Freedom door and laminated veneer beams (LVL, lambeam) will arrive Monday morning. Those arriving will be a positive thing.

No pictures, electrical rough in and hole drilling is not something that people can appreciate.

Who is Emmanuel Goldstein? Blog readers become blog commenters. This blog is only as good as the comments.

Second shift ends at 2:15 AM today

Today's second shift (9:00 PM to 2:15 AM) was productive. The ugly suspended ceiling in part of the basement is gone (along with a few pounds of mouse droppings and 15 years of dust), the holes are all drilled in the garage for wires, a few hundred feet of old, crispy wiring is out and the cardboard and wood from yesterday's insulation removal is stacked up and ready for the transfer station.

In today's earlier post, we thought we had only one truckfull for the transfer station. That is not correct, the driveway tonight is filled with waste, so the trailer will haul more garbage tomorrow.

Some ask, during second shift work, what do you listen to? Tonight billn listed to jazz on the local public radio station until 10:00 PM, then a Sublime record, Johnny Cash "Live at Folsom Prison" and Marilyn Manson. It helps to listen to music while one inhales pounds of dust.

We didn't pull any wires today, but hopefully Friday we can pull wires into the upstairs. In a perfect world, we could complete the electrical rough in tomorrow. Then we move on to electrical rough in on the first floor.

The night sky above the house is breathtaking tonight, no clouds and there are no streetlights in our area.

I will steal from Time magazine (that pinko rag). Who is John Galt? You are John Galt.

First shift, garbage removal, hole drilling

This morning, a trip to the electric supply house for the service wire, a few boxes and nail-cutting drill bits (more on this later).

Today we visited our local transfer station. We made one pickup truck run of bags, then a full-load (one filled minivan, a full truck and full utility trailer). All told we dropped off 1.1 tons of drywall and non-burnable wood. That's a lot of garbage. We still have another trip to make tomorrow, but only a truckfull.

Since the house is a construction zone, lunch for the under-5 group was served in the garbage hauling minivan.

Also, we drilled a lot of 2" holes in the ceiling joists of the kitchen and the laundry room for wires. Mr. Forstner (guy who probably invented the Forstner drill bit) I love you. Drilling so many 2" holes in such a short time with such little effort is all due to Forstner and Milwaukee Electric Tool. That team allowed fast hole drilling.

The window is outlined in green tape in this picture.

During some hole drilling, the 7/8" nail eating drill bit found a nail to eat. Powerful drill, strong bit. Final score, Drill 1, Nail 0.

Second shift work tonight will be hole drilling for wire in the garage.

This picture is from the road between our house and our apartment. It helps remind us why we are here.

Second worst job ever

Tonight during the second shift, we ripped down the insulation from the garage. 2x10 floor joists comprise the ceiling of the garage (floor of craft and toy rooms). In 1960 the owner installed Sears fiberglass insulation, 2" thickness. It was paper covering on both sides, but the upper level of paper converted to dust since 1960. How do we know it was 1960? We found a March 1960 New York Herald Tribune laying above the insulation. The real estate section headline read "New Tract of Housing Opens in Bellmore, $20,000 class." Those of you who know what "Bellmore" means and $20k means enjoy that one.

Underneath the paper wrapped fiberglass was cardboard. Yes, the previous owner covered the fiberglass insulation with cardboard. Since 1960, they parked cars underneath 400 square feet of a very flammable material. Personally, we would not want to park a convenient source of ignition below a nice fuel mechanically attached to the building our family lives in.

So, pulling it all down was a chore. The installer was very meticulous about installation. The cardboard was supported with roofing nails. The cardboard was also supported by wood strips running perpendicular to the joists. The wood strips were a combination of scraps, pieces of strapping and old flooring. Pulling it all down was quite a chore.

What will we put back you ask? 10" (nominal) of fiberglass with drywall. We will go from an R-6 to R-30, a significant positive improvement (oil is ~$3.00 a gallon, ouch).

Why is this the second worst job ever? What is the worst?

Brooklyn Barrister pledged to help us last weekend. 4" of snow kept him away (even thought we drove through more snow to help move from Penn to Georgetown for a semester). When Brooklyn Barrister visits us in May, he will climb into the interstitial space between the East kneewalls and the roof. In there, he will remove 2-4" of OLD cellulose insulation and install 10" fiberglass. That is the worst job ever. We love you Brooklyn Barrister. We can't wait for your visit.

Please post comments, it makes our blog better.

More hole cutting, some more demo

Today we cut all the outlet and switch boxes in the second floor and completed the first floor (or nearly). We also cut the new door opening for the laundry room. We cut out the remaining drain piping that we will not need in the future. We did a little more demo, related to the hall-kitchen opening.

We looked closely in the attic and cut a hole through the front kneewall on the second floor. We will spend money on insulation this summer for those areas, 1950's insulation is not quite as insulating and what we do today.

Tonight Jenm's dad comes with a utility trailer. We will truck garbage to the transfer station tomorrow.

After dinner, second shift work will include cleaning up in the laundry room, papering the floor and teardown of insulation in the garage ceiling. The garage ceiling was originally insulated with 3" insulation and covered over with cardboard. The new plan will be 10" insulation and drywall. The insulation must come down because we have to run new wires to the first floor rooms for light and power.

Tomorrow we buy a couple of special drill bits, the service wire for the new panel and some more electrical boxes. Hopefully we can start pulling wire.

The focus is now on the second floor, since we learned our cabinets won't arrive until June. This week we buy appliances.

Who is John Galt?

Cabinet choice

One blog reader asked about the cabinets. Well, we didn't do much different than our previous house. We chose Kraftmaid maple verneer recessed. http://www.kraftmaid.com/doorsfinishes/index.cfm?navigationid=312X0&doorstyleid=54

These are exactly what we had in NY.

The color isn't the same, we chose praline.

For countertops, we splurged on Corian. We chose "Maui" as our color choice.

http://www2.dupont.com/Surfaces/en_US/products/corian/pr_corian_colors.html

We learned today though the cabinets won't pass through Vermont Customs until early June. That is a long time to wait, but there is not a lot we can do.

Those of you anxiously awaiting completed kitchen pictures, check back mid-June.

Spent money, not so much visible progress

Yesterday (April 16, 2007) we spent money. We bought the Freedom door and the window, lots of lumber and insulation, about 100 electrical boxes, 1,000 feet of cable, some of the light fixtures and other stuff. We spent no money at Home Cheapo, rather we supported our local business.

Today, the lumber arrived. Also, we completed removing nails from the kitchen floor. We screwed the sub-floor down (with about 2 pounds of 2" screws). The idea behind this is to minimize or eliminate squeaks. Nails are a common cause of squeaky floors. If the floor moves 1/16" up and down when you step on a spot, it squeaks as it moves along the nail. Our floor is screwed down, so it shouldn't move when you walk on it. Also, we pulled about a lot of loose or popped up nails.

We covered the floor in red rosin building paper. The idea here is to keep the basement clean (debris likes to follow gravity down into the basement through gaps in the subfloor). Also we would need to put the paper down under the new floor anyway.

We hung the electrical panel (if only to have some visible progress).

We cut out the old drainage piping that we will not use in the new configuration.

We also cleaned up all the nails, screwed the subfloor down and removed all the last bits of drywall and nails from the laundry room.

We cut in all the holes for electrical boxes in the dining room, the living room, the toy room and the craft room. Also we cut 1/2 of the electrical box holes in the kitchen. Finally we fully roughed in all the boxes for the laundry room.

This progress is important, but it doesn't look like much. Tomorrow we will cut electrical box holes in the upstairs.

No matter how many times you sweep and vacuum, the floor is never clean. But that's life.

The pictures below don't require captions. Enjoy.