What shall we use to fill the empty spaces?

This weekend Jack once again generously offered his time to help me (re)build the wall between the "Master" bathroom and bedroom. This wall had to be moved because it made the bathroom too narrow to house the clawfoot tub that had been installed prior to my purchase of the house. We started the project by determining that the existing antique bedroom baseboard was going to present a problem, both to the wall-building effort as well as the plaster repair / skimcoating yet to come. After we made that realization, it was a simple step to decide to remove it.





As you can see, it was pretty tall, and the horsehair plaster did not reach down behind it, so there is a pretty interesting view of the house sill, floor joists, and general construction of the place. Once the baseboards were removed and safely stowed, we began to lay out our footers.




This was really the first time the new wall started to feel like a reality for me. I could see how far it would extend into the bedroom, and how much room would be available in the new, larger bathroom. Me likey.

About this time, I got a call from my neighbor indicating that a delivery truck was outside of my house. My gas range had arrived! Many, many thanks to Mom and Dad for such an amazing piece of help!


After the footers were down, we used Jack's laser level (which shot laser lines on the floor, wall, and roof) to ensure that our first uprights and headers were all plumb and in proper alignment. At this time, we started to realize that the 2x4's we were using for this project were not the straightest ever cut (thanks, Lowe's), but we forged boldly onward using our framing nail gun and elbow grease to straighten and align them as necessary.


This technique worked very well for all of the single uprights and cross-members in our little addition, but when it came to the outside corner we had a real dilemma. The outside corner basically was built with a pillar of 3 2x4's nailed together, providing outside and inside faces appropriate for the (eventual) sheetrock installation. The twist in the boards, however, became more apparent as the top of this pillar was twisted almost 45 degrees clockwise from the bottom. It was a big setback, so we broke for lunch, making the Taco truck / Jefferson highway Lowe's run. BTW: I love that taco truck, on the lake side of Jeff hwy a few blocks on the downtown side of Lowe's. Don't be scared to try it! At a few fits and starts (and visits to a number of hardware stores besides that Lowe's) we got some clamps that, along with some cleverly cut blocks, allowed us to clamp the twist out of the pillar. Here's a view looking up from the floor at that whole operation:



At that point, it was time to call it a day. We returned to the project Sunday morning with the goal of getting all the way through installing the sheetrock, but even our first step was a little off as we remembered that Home Depot doesn't carry the paperless drywall I want to use in the bathroom, and we had to go to Lowe's, again. However, we picked up the sheetrock we needed along with some Stryp-eez in a spray can Becky wanted to try on the windows and a couple of other needed tools.

Jack and I started off by getting some firebreak pieces installed along with the final upright.


Once that stuff was installed, we ran the electrical outlets in this wall, one facing the bedroom and one facing the bathroom and protected by GFCI.


All in all, it was a very successful morning, so we turned our attention to this twisted pillar. As we removed the clamps, we saw that it wanted to return to its original twisted position. Frustrating, so we decided to shop around a little bit for a solution. After a nice lunch at Gott Gourmet (also recommended... don't be afraid to get the Chicago Dog, it's inexpensive and very good) and yet another trip to home Depot, we felt we had the proper tools to finish this project. Using levers, levels, clamps, elbow grease, and a lot of cursing, we finally got the top of the pillar in line and secured with hurricane braces (shown here). That took all afternoon, and around 5 we decided to call it a day.


I want to thank Jack again for his help. No way I could have done this without him. I hope to have pics of a completed wall in the next couple of weeks!

Always Use Protection

A lot of time this weekend was spent making an accurate representation of the available space on Visio. Saturday I decided I wanted to get enough tarp to properly cover the floors to protect them from the next phase of work, and as I began measuring the floor spaces I realized that I probably only wanted to do that once. So, I included measurements for doors and windows and countertops and such. What I ended up with is a document that I hope continues to be useful for materials estimates and furniture layout. See it below (really, and click on it to get a closeup!):


On Sunday, Becky and I purchased and laid out all of the necessary plastic sheeting, no mean accomlishment since we had to go to Lowe's to pick up the tarps and that place is like a black hole for time. We also purchased a number of sheets of Luan, a low grade light plywood useful for laying down over the plastic in an area where you might be working to protect the floor underneath from dropped tools and such.

While at the store, I ran into some old family friends, Homer Ed and Carolyn, and we spent a nice time catching up before returning to our shopping. On our way home, Becky and I grabbed lunch at the taco stand where I am now becoming a regular. We enjoyed our lunch-from-a-truck on the steps of the house with an orange Fanta, then laid down plastic over all the floors as seen below.





When we were finished laying plastic, we experimented with the idea of sanding and poly-ing the wainscotting, but after a couple of experimental sanding spots turned out a different color than we expected, we decided to drop the idea of sanding. I may still put a coat of poly on the wainscotting, but I am more interested in spending the coming weekend building the new bathroom wall and hanging sheetrock in there.

Right about the time we decided we weren't going to sand, Jack called and requested that I bring back his shop-vac and give him a hand cleaning the other side of his double. I hustled over there and spent the rest of the day sprucing the place up so he would feel good about moving in.

Anyway, we're nearing the point of sheetrock mud and paint, so if you're reading this and feel like getting a putty knife in hand, get in touch!

4 Full Coats of Poly, 3 China Brushes, 2 Lights left on and for each of us a pair of sore knees!

The Holiday season has passed, but it was wonderful! Becky and I spent Christmas in Lafayette, playing board games and spending some wonderful time with my family. The food was matched only by the company.

Now, about the house:

On Christmas Eve, I got off of work around lunch and headed over to Becky's apartment. After a quick change into some house-work clothes, it was off to the house to apply coat #3. With some observation from Jack, we knocked out the 3rd coat pretty quickly. Sorry, no pics of coat #3.

When we got back from Lafayette late Friday evening, after a wonderful meal with Aaron and his family in Baton Rouge, we opened presents late into the night. I used the following day to do some housework and to get some exercise with Jack and his dog, Scout. Sunday it was back to work on the floors, where Jack, Becky, and myself knocked out the last coat like we were pros.

I came back a couple of days later and took the pictures you see below. Hooray, floors!