Home Stretch

Lesley and I are now in the mad scramble to the finish line - the lungs are on fire, the legs feel like lead, and the bank account is bedraggled and begging for mercy. Drywall, as it turns out, is expensive.

We pushed hard last Friday and Saturday to prepare the basement for drywalling. Friday, we worked until 9pm, and Saturday we went from 9:30am to 6:30am. Our friend Jay was scheduled to be in our basement by 9am Sunday to assist with drywalling the ceiling, so it had to be ready. The only thing we didn't get done was the vapour barrier, which waited until Sunday morning due to renovation burnout.

The final steps were actually all pretty easy with the newly acquired table saw. Building out the framing for the windows was a bit tricky due to the windows not being perfectly flush with the framing, but it was nothing that couldn't be fixed with the jigsaw. I used some scrap plywood that I had leftover from a previous project, and the resulting gap was big enough to use Roxul insulation instead of sprayfoam.

Build up

Next on the list, was the step. I regretted tossing the previous step in the dumpster when I began the process of building this one, as I'm sure I could have re-used at least some of the lumber. Nevertheless, one new 2x10, and a few existing scraps were enough to complete a new step.

Step up

It was a bit of a trick getting the stringers right, and in the end, I couldn't get them to be identical. They are, however, just for show, as the actual step is supported not by the stringers, but by 2x8 blocks under the tread. So, no worries.

Attaching the final boot was a piece of cake, and Lesley managed to complete the rest of the insulating as I worked on the final bits of woodworking. While we did not get the vapour barrier up prior to Sunday morning, we were nevertheless feeling ready to begin drywalling.

Enter Jay.

Putting up the vapour barrier was actually a lot easier with a third pair of hands, and it went very quickly once Jay arrived first thing Sunday morning. Before long, we were putting the first sheet up on the ceiling. It went fairly quickly, but we were slowed down somewhat by the bulkheads, as expected.

After a full day, we managed to get about three quarters of the ceiling done.

Measuring for the bulkhead

One side down, one to go

We've ultimately decided to hire a professional to do the taping and mudding of the drywall once it's up. I was convinced by the relatively low cost of such a job, and the difference a professional job will make. Plus, we actually suck at hanging drywall, so a professional tape job will hide the multitude of amateur screw-ups that we are undoubtedly making. Our guy is coming by this weekend to give us a quote, and with luck, will be able to complete the job next week, so it's imperative that we get the drywall hung before the day is out on Sunday.

2 Down

1.Fasten the bottom plates of the walls to the floor
2.Finish wiring the baseboard heaters and light fixtures
3.Build the walls out to the windows (cover the 1.5" gap) and sprayfoam
4.Attach the final remaining duct boot to the bulkhead
5.Build the step down from the landing to the basement floor
6.Finish insulating
7.Install vapour barrier
 
5 to go...

Like Beavers...Lazy Beavers

Dam! This basement thing drags on. Despite the lack of posts, Lesley and I have been busy on the renovation, albeit at a much slower pace. The electrical is nearly finished now, with naught but a couple of small bits to complete.

Wiring up the light switch

Since I'm running new wiring, I connected it to the existing circuit with a junction box, rather than running all new wire from the main panel. Stripping the old wire proved to be a major pain as the sheathing was some kind of rubbery fabric, and the conduits were actually wrapped in paper (?!). Old school electricity. If it's not a fire hazard, it's not worth doing...

Splicing old with new

I attempted to keep the junction points to a minimum, and managed to get by with only four, three of which were for connecting exsiting wiring to new wiring (main conduit, baseboard heaters' main conduit, outdoor outlet with cable encased in concrete). The fourth is where the lights run off of the receptacles' line, for which I used an extra-large switch box as a junction.

Incomplete junction

New outlet, not encased in concrete

I also decided to run the coaxial cable for the tv through the wall rather than along the wall. Lesley is not a fan of cords being in plain sight, and so was a big supporter of this approach.

Outlet / cable

Unfortunately, I ran out of 12 gauge cable for the baseboard heaters - I got 30 feet rather than 30 metres - so I could not complete the wiring. Close, but no banana. Having made the weekly pilgrimage to Home Depot just last night though, we're back in business.

Whilst waiting for me to finish up the wiring, Lesley got started on insulating the bits of wall that were ready. Because we've established a 1.5" air gap between the stud wall and the foundation wall, I was a bit concerned that the gap may get compromised over time by insulation slipping out of place. To combat this, Lesley put up several hundred feet of nylon string between the studs to help keep the insulation in place. And then, went to batt.

Warm and fuzzy

We also hit a fairly major milestone last night - we ordered the drywall. YeeHaw. Is that a light I see at the end of this long, dark, smelly tunnel?  Drywall arrives Friday, and with luck, will start to go up Sunday. I've still got a fair amount of work left to do beforehand, but there's every chance that it can be done.

We have 7 tasks left before the drywalling starts:

1. Fasten the bottom plates of the walls to the floor
2. Finish wiring the baseboard heaters and light fixtures
3. Build the walls out to the windows (cover the 1.5" gap) and sprayfoam
4. Attach the final remaining duct boot to the bulkhead
5. Build the step down from the landing to the basement floor
6. Finish insulating
7. Install vapour barrier

Wish us luck!

Charge!

Been taking a break from the basement of late, both in terms of building and blogging. After spending nearly every spare minute we've had for the past three months down there, we've been needing a mental break. There is no chance of completing it by Labour Day now, and so we're going to take a slightly more relaxed approach going forward, and give ourselves a little more downtime as summer turns to fall.

With that said, I did get going on the wiring yesterday. Of course, just as I began, I quickly realised that I did not have all what I needed, and so started the day with yet another trip to HD. Managed to get about half of the wiring complete despite the short work day.

Wiring is fairly simple. The hard part is in the planning - you need to think about how each receptacle, switch, and light is going to be connected to everything else, all while minimising the number of junctions, and the number of holes drilled through framing to accommodate the wiring runs. After much deliberation (as is my wont), I was able to put together a pretty good plan, that is probably only mildly flawed. At this point, I'll be satisfied that the electrical works, and doesn't start any fires. I actually decided, in the end, that the existing wiring would get chucked. I simply couldn't use it in its existing configuration, and the sheathing was quite damaged in places (even altogether missing) due to years of exposure to moisture. Luckily, electrical cable is not overly expensive, and using a new reel somewhat simplifies installing the runs by eliminating the need to measure anything.

Pictures to follow.

Framing Complete!

We hit another important milestone in the renovation today: the framing is complete.

Triumph!

Despite a 12 hour thunderstorm, and unprecedented rainfall in the Nation's Capital today, the woodwork nearly got completed, leaving only a small number of items left to do. Unfortunately, the rain meant that Lesley was unable to continue her fine work on the window exteriors, but such is life. Today saw the completion of the last bulkhead for the hell-wall, and the the last section of wall. I didn't make things any easier on myself today as I made several mistakes measuring, and had to re-cut a good many pieces. That, and the hell-wall had one final dagger to throw by requiring that a hanger be trimmed in order to fit in the final section of wall. Of course, this being fairly hidden, I didn't find out that trimming was required until I started to try and fit the wall section into place. Oh, loathsome wall. Nonetheless, the work got done, and we're thrilled to soon be moving on to the electrical.

Bulked up

Framing complete

We'll be picking away at the smaller tasks for the next little while until we get ourselves prepared to do the wiring. I don't expect wiring to take a long time, but experience tells me that much time will be taken up solving unanticipated problems. We shall see.

Team Bartfield

Lesley and I worked independently of each other today to accomplish different projects: I worked on woodwork, while Lesley worked on exterior cladding and trim for the windows.

The day started with that long drive to Lowe's that we had put off the other night in favour of a rest. It meant a late start on the basement, but the upside is that being in a hardware store before 9am means no crowds and no line-ups. We picked up the lumber we needed, plus a little extra so we wouldn't have to go back out there. Then it was homeward bound to begin the weekend's work.

I finally managed to fill that 1" gap between the hell-wall studs and the stair stringers. It turns out that the 1/2" plywood that I thought I had gotten was, in fact, 3/8". It was marked as 1/2", and I didn't know any better, so I brought home the wrong stuff. However, 1x3's, as it turns out, are actually only 5/8" thick, so paired with the 3/8" plywood... I picked up three of these puppies at Lowe's, and they worked perfectly. The hell-wall is now more solid, and the wall along the stairs can now support weight.

Gapless

Next on the list was building bulkheads. I was hoping to have these completed by the end of the day today, but it was not to be. Still, I managed to finish the long, replacement bulkhead, and got a good start on the rest.

Problem solved

It's a start

I also managed to get the final bulkhead measured up, so tomorrow I'll be able to jump right into cutting wood, and should be able to complete it in an hour or so, which will leave me plenty of time to finish the framing.

While I was busying myself with woodwork, Lesley was outside working on the windows. We got 2x2" drip flashing to clad the wood, and vinyl drip moulding to finish it. The flashing needs to be cut using tin snips, so it is quite time consuming. And it leaves your hands all cut-up. What takes the most time is not cutting it to length, but rather trimming it to fit properly. Once the flashing is screwed in, it's time to install the moulding. The moulding is meant to cover up all the screws and what-not, as well as cover the the gaps that have been filled with spray foam. It needs to be mitre-cut too, which is a bit of a pain. Anyone who has ever worked with trim can tell you that figuring out the angles is mind-warping until you get into a groove. Into a groove Lesley got, however, and before long, the moulding was ready for installation. Of course, the pieces didn't exactly fit the way they were supposed to, so trimming the trim was required, but eventually, all the pieces made their way into the window.

Trimmed out

All that's left is to caulk around all of the seams once the glue cures. That's for tomorrow, along with the other window.

Feeling like we made good progress today, even of our milestones weren't quite met. There's still a chance that the woodwork and window's exteriors will get finished by the end of the day tomorrow, though it may mean putting in a long day. For now, it's time for a glass of wine, and a couple of hours of downtime.

Sweet, sweet downtime.

Day 78

It's getting harder and harder to keep at the renovation through the week, as it drags on through August.

Lesley and I managed to get the long bulkhead attached the other night, but little else. As we find ourselves getting home late from work, and needing at least some downtime before calling it a night, there's just not more than 90min in-between most nights. This evening's scheduled task is a shopping trip to Lowe's in the far east-end of Ottawa to get the needed lumber to complete the framing, but it may turn out to be a much-needed night on the couch instead. Based upon the shadows under the eyes today, a couch-night is sounding pret-ty good right about now.

By the way, I appreciate the early optimism in the poll, which you'll find to your right. Don't forget to vote!

Called on Account of Darkness

It's the dog days of summer, and the sun is setting a little earlier these days, giving precious little time to work in daylight. I started building the bulkheads this evening, and was able to complete the long, ten foot span to replace that problem bulkhead that was removed. I just barely had enough light to see what I was cutting by the end. Lesley will help me to put it in place tomorrow, and the bulkhead construction will continue.

I'm now pushing hard to get the woodwork done by the end of the upcoming weekend in order to give us an outside chance of having the basement completed by Labour Day. At this stage, it will be an immense undertaking to make that deadline, but it's not impossible.

Wish us luck!

More HVAC

Made it to Home Depot this morning after breakfast with our friends Jen & Jay. Picked up the hangers I needed to complete the duct installation, and came home ready to put them up.

After a few hours working on the ducts, I managed to more-or-less complete the HVAC modification.

Cold air return complete

TV room heat complete

Now that the HVAC is complete, I can focus my efforts on getting the bulkheads built, and then finishing up the framing. With luck, that will be done by the end of next weekend.

HVAC

Back from a greatly enjoyed repose, it was time to tackle the HVAC. After much deliberation, multiple trips to Home Depot, more deliberation, a couple more trips... well, you get the idea, I finally managed to acquire the required pieces and a plan to modify the HVAC. As I'd mentioned earlier, the main difficulty is with needing to connect square ducts to round ducts, and not knowing what type of ducting pieces are available. However, I think I've finally figured out what to do, and have gathered up the necessary duct work to implement my plan.

Duct work

Basically, I'm tapping off of existing duct lines to run heat into the finished portion of the basement. As luck would have it, I have two areas of the house that are currently over-served by the HVAC and whose locations correspond to the front and back of the basement. The vestibule just inside the front door has its own dedicated duct, and the powder room at the rear of the house also has its own duct. I will be tapping both of these lines.

Duct work, as opposed to woodwork, does not have to be exact. Metal is flexible, and gaps can easily be sealed up with duct tape. However, you can't use a chop a saw to cut duct work to length, and getting screws to go through metal is not always easy. Cutting requires tin snips, which are basically bulky scissors, and it is always a struggle to cut a straight line. Screws require punching a hole with either an awl or a drill, neither of which really work very well. The screws would prove to be most time consuming today.

Gym side before

Gym side after

For the gym side, I cut a hole in the existing square duct, and installed a top take-off (right), and then a boot (left) directly to it. The boot will connect to a hole in the bulkhead that will have a grate attached.

TV side duct before

TV side duct after

For the tv side, I've installed a "T" to carry the air from where it used to end at the vestibule, all the way to the south wall of the basement. I've also installed dampers so that I can close off the basement duct and open the bathroom duct during the cooling season, and vice versa during the heating season, although the bathroom duct will be left partially open during the heating season. Nobody likes a cold toilet seat! Unfortunately, I neglected to get hangers for the 5' duct that runs from the "T" to the wall, so I couldn't quite finish the job today.

Cold air return before

Cold air return after

I thought a lot about whether to put in a cold air return duct, and I must say that I was inclined not to. However, since the hot air registers will be up near the ceiling, I ultimately decided to put in the cold air return in order to draw that hot air down to the floor. There will be a 5" duct and boot attached to the pictured duct, bringing the cold air return down near the floor to accomplish said feat.

In the end, I'm quite satisfied with how the HVAC went today. While it did take way more time and money than expected (7 hours, $150), the plan was implemented as it had been envisioned, and it will save a great deal of electricity for almost no extra gas.

While I was HVAC-ing, Lesley was dealing with a different issue outdoors. We have a groundhog that lives under our deck named Gary. We like Gary, except that he has recently taken to eating Lesley's tomatoes, and has fallen somewhat out of favour as a result. More recently, he found himself trapped in our garage (we think) afterI had put away the BBQ. Faced with being hopelessly trapped, and being the clever little devil that he is, he managed to burrow a tunnel from the garage to his home under the deck.

Gary's tunnel

He left quite the pile of gravel in our garage, which is the only clue we had that the tunnel was even there. Nonetheless, Lesley managed to replace the gravel and stones, and actually stuffed mortar under the garage itself to discourage any further such tunnelling. Crazy groundhog. Gary is now forever Marmota non gratis.

We'll be back at it tomorrow, although it is supposed to rain all day. Might just be another shopping day.

Hiatus, Part Deux

I cannot believe it is taking so long to renovate this basement. I mean, I knew it would be a lot of work and all that, but holy sweet Moses this is taking a long bloody time.

Lesley and I are off to camp for an extra extra long weekend. We leave tomorrow for the North Channel of Lake Huron, just west of Sudbury, and the blissful absence of basements. While this will push back the completion date of the reno, the break is much needed, and we are both really looking forward to it.

Tonight's task was yet another shopping trip to you-know-where. It was actually mostly successful for a change - I managed to get the flashing and vinyl moulding I need to clad and finish the basement windows' exterior. I also got the requisite screws for the flashing and adhesive for the moulding. Picked up a new pair of safety glasses while I was there too - mine are all scratched up, and I stepped on Lesley's the other day, so new ones were required - and some more 2.5" screws.

Booty

What I did not get was duct work. Not that they didn't have a plentiful supply of different ducting doohickeys, but they didn't exactly match up with what I'd remembered. The problem is, I need a catalogue of available pieces in front of me as I look up at the existing duct work so I can figure out what to use and how to use it. Unfortunately, Home Depot has no such catalogue, so I must rely on my memory, which is not unlike a sieve. I am, however, confident that the HVAC will eventually get modified.

Gotta go pack.

Rumination

Didn't get much accomplished today from a tangible standpoint. Spent much of the day ruminating upon the looming need to modify the HVAC instead. Part of the difficulty is that all of our duct work is rectangular, whereas all of the duct work you can buy at Home Depot, et al., is round. A rather frustrating problem. Still, after much deliberation, I was able to to compile a shopping list, so with a little luck, the HVAC will get modified yet.

In terms of tangible goals, I managed to accomplish two minor items today. The first was removing a problematic bulkhead. This bulkhead was attached to strapping that was, in turn, fastened to the floor joists to support the previous ceiling.

One more problem

The issue with this is that the remaining bits of strapping will ultimately interfere with the hanging of drywall. Basically, the strapping was nailed into the joists, and the bulkhead was nailed into the strapping. Also, the bulkhead had been trimmed to take into account the width of the strapping, so there was just no way to salvage this. The only solution is to take it down and start anew, so take it down I did. The plus side is that this bulkhead contains some of the duct work that I plan on modifying, so its removal will make that a bit easier.

The other accomplishment was securing the top plate of the recently completed wall to the nearest floor joist. Normally, you would attach cross pieces between joists, and attach the top plate to these, but because our joists are cemented into the foundation, there is no outer joist along the foundation wall. To solve this dilemma, I am using mini ladders to span the gap between the last joist and the top plate.

Mini-ladder

Using scrap from off-cuts, I have constructed these tiny ladders and placed them every 32" along the top-plate. I actually used nails to build them since I was going to have a bunch left over anyway, and didn't want to use up a bunch more screws. This took a bit longer, but in about an hour, I had all of the "ladders" built and installed.

Tiny ladders

That's it for today. The balance of the afternoon was spent finalising the list for our weekly trip to Home Depot, which we will do some evening this week. In the interim, work will begin constructing bulkheads, but for now, we relaxate before heading back to work in the morning.

Smurftastic

There is one hilarious downside to using Bluwood - it will slowly turn anyone that's using it to various shades of blue.

I've got the blues

Made some serious progress on framing the basement yesterday. I started out by lowering the sill for the window by 1.5" so that I could finish up the framing for that section, which went well. Had some difficulties getting the nailers installed onto the back of it though due to the tight fit of the wall, and the many hanging electrical wires, but with some muscle and some rather creative strings of curses, even if I do say so myself, the wall found its way to completion, and was put in place.

Section I complete

The wall currently being framed is the long wall of the basement. It runs 23.75", and will be done in three eight-foot sections (I could not get 12' Bluwood lumber, which would have been my first choice). Unfortunately, none of the sections are simple - they all have something that needs framing-around. Section II will frame around a bulkhead.

Section II

This section presented no issues, and went in without much difficulty. Most of the studs were nailed in on the floor to minimise the number of screws needed, which was good. I've been going through screws like it's nobody's business - there are already upwards of 500 fasteners in these here walls! Next, was the final section for the long wall, which will frame around the second window.

Section III

Having learned my lesson from the first window, I managed to get this sill set to the right height the first time. This wall had almost no studs set in place on the floor, and so many a screw was employed to fasten studs to plates, and kings to jacks.

Getting screwed up

This is also the first blue wall that will be attached directly to the floor joists above rather than nailed into the concrete. Section I has a cold air return duct directly above it, which is why the nailers are being used for it. This section will employ the "ladder" solution that mom suggested way back during demolition.

Time to turn the corner now that the long wall has been framed. Finally, I will have something to attach the top plate directly into since the floor joists will run perpendicular to this wall. It is the only wall with that luxury. The joys of renovating. This first section is also a simple wall, with nothing to be framed around, so it went up fairly quickly.

Turning the corner

I'm quite happy with yesterday's progress. I started out with the intention of framing around the corner, and I managed to meet that goal in time for dinner. Plus, I must be having fun, because Lesley caught proof of me smiling (between curses, no doubt).

In denial...

We've now basically run out of wood. There are a handful of studs left, but not enough to complete the final section of wall, and we still have some corner studs and some jack studs to install. I'm not overly surprised as I suspected this might happen shortly after we began. The original order was calculated as the number of studs required to frame up the existing lengths of wall, plus ten percent for framing around obstacles. Close, but no cigar, Unfortunately, only Lowe's in Orleans carries the Bluwood, so it'll be a bit of a trip to get out there for the wood we need to finish the job.

Despite running out framing lumber, there are still plenty of jobs to be done, not the least of which is building a new step, a new bulkhead, and filling the gap between stairs and studs. Today will see the accomplishment of some of these items - time will tell how much progress is made.

Whoopsy

Well, even the best of us can make the odd mistake.

This evening was spent framing around the window in the basement. A fairly simple task, all told, although each piece of lumber needs to be measured individually as neither the floor nor the ceiling joist are level, making the distance between them different at each point along the bottom and top plates. A little bit time-consuming, but it's not exactly rocket science.

Basically, when you're framing around a window, you want to respect the stud pattern as much as possible. Setting king and jack studs can therefore sometimes fall between studs, which is what has happened here. No worries, though. Because these wall are not load bearing, I will not be installing a proper header, nor will I be blocking the king studs. Also, since the windows are so close to the top plate, the kings and jacks will actually extend all the way to the top plate, making this task even simpler. Before too long I had the kings, jacks, and sill in place.

Progress

Lo and behold, as I was screwing in the studs, I notices that the sill was sitting a little bit higher than intended. I'm framing the opening to match the rough opening in the foundation wall, and the sill is rather conspicuously 1.5" too high. Yup. forgot to take into account the width of the lumber when I cut the bottom jacks. D-oh!! Rookie mistake.

I've cut short the completion of the wall since it's Friday and I could use a beer after a long week, and will fix the boo-boo first thing tomorrow morning before proceeding with installing the last two studs. Piece of cake.

Bit by Bit

We've been chipping away at the basement during the last three days, working on the framing. I'm hoping to get the framing done by the end of the coming weekend so I can get started on the electrical. I figure I've got about eleven hours of framing left, so this seems like an achievable goal. Since Sunday, I've managed to frame around the corner to the first window.

Framing continues

I've built as much of the wall on the floor as possible, and will be framing around the window with the wall in place to increase the accuracy of stud placement, which is tomorrow's task.

We've also made another trip to Home Depot since Sunday to pick up more supplies. We acquired a 2x10 to replace the step down into the finished part of the basement from the landing - the old one was removed so that the floor tiles could extend under the landing - some plywood that we had cut to size to fill that 1" gap between the studs and the stringers, some more screws and spray foam, concrete nails for the walls, caulking for the windows, and some nylon twine for when it comes time to insulate. More on that later. What we did not get was cladding for the windows. Neither the Home Depot nor the Rona carried what we needed, although apparently, one of the other Home Depots does. That's been one of the more frustrating parts of this renovation: having to go to multiple DIY stores to get the things we need because no one store has it all. And I don't mean Rona versus Home Depot versus Lowe's - one Home Depot carries different stuff than another. We've been to seven different stores so far. Argh.

Time to call it a night. *yawn*

Day 53

Got back to work today after an awesome day off in Montebello. It being Sunday, we'll work until 4pm and no later. That gives us precious little time to get stuff done. With the second window in, we're now concentrating on framing until it's done, and with luck, we'll be able to complete it before the end of next weekend.

Today's framing project was connecting the blue wall with the regular partition walls. This involves framing up one last segment that will go around a bulkhead. Since building walls on the floor is much easier than building them in place, we're going to measure out each piece, and hope that everything will fit as planned. We must be getting better at measuring and cutting, because everything fit like a glove.

I've been framed!

I've also had to solve a small problem of not being able to attach the top plate of the wall to anything. Actually, it will be attached to the bulkhead, but I'm not convinced that the bulkhead will provide for enough strength, so another solution is required. In the end, I've decided to attach "nailers" to the back of the top plate, and nail the nailers into the concrete foundation. This is why I've left a gap of 1.5" between the wall and the subfloor. I'm not crazy about taking this route, but the the nailers have gaskets attached to them, so it should be fine. Besides which, I'm not planning on dismantling this basement again in this lifetime, so it will be someone else's fun renovation to remove them.

Nailer, I hardly...

Time to call it a night. I can hear the sounds of Weezer playing at Bluesfest wafting in the open window, and look forward to being lulled to sleep by the melodies of  "Buddy Holly".

Compression

Lesley and I were home today as it was a "compressed" day. We each work an extra hour every day through the week (actually, Lesley works an extra four hours, but that's another story) and get a day off every other week. Today was that day off. We put the the time to good use and got in a solid eight-and-a-half hours today on the basement. Task one was putting in window two.

Soon to be replaced

This window was much more solid than the last - the frame had no rot in it , so I needed to apply some force to the pry bar to get it out. Out it came though, and before long, I was cutting boards for the new frame. The process was pretty well identical to the last one, except this window will have pvc electrical conduit running through it to accommodate both the cable, and the phone line.

Phone line

Ran into a minor problem with the spray foam while finishing off the window. As I was cutting the shims flush with the frame, I knocked over the can of spray foam, breaking the applicator straw, and sending the can into a froth. Spray foam is super-sticky, and you DO NOT want to get it on your hands because it doesn't come off. In trying to stem the tide of foam, I got it all over me. I imagine it will be a few days before it wears off. Fun. Also, because the applicator straw was busted, it was quite the messy challenge to spray-foam the gap between the window and the frame. Foam got everywhere, and that stuff really makes a mess. Despite the foam-difficulties however, the window did eventually get installed. Feels good to be done with that part, because it means that the framing can continue unfettered.

New window #2

The conduit also got installed, and I'm very happy with the result. The previous window had two holes drilled through the frame to let the cords in - now there is a better and more permanent solution.

Conduit

It took us about six hours to get the window installed. I don't know where all the time went, but chipping out the existing mortar was time consuming, as was mortaring in the new frame. Basement windows are tough - give me regular windows any day.

Unsatisfied with calling it a day after one window, we got back to framing. The next wall to be framed is the first be constructed entirely of Bluwood. The floor is not level for this span of wall, so our approach is to measure the height at each end of the eight foot wall segment, cut cap studs, and frame up the "box". Once complete, and put square, we measured each individual stud, and cut them all to length. This allowed us to build this segment on the floor despite it not being level along the floor. The approach worked well, and in a couple of hours, we had our wall up. It was a perfect fit.

The first blue wall

Tomorrow, Lesley and I are taking a day to enjoy the summer, and are off to Montebello to enjoy the day by the lake with a cooler full of beer, and steaks for the BBQ with Lesley's cousin Carol, and her husband Terry. Should be fun!

Straight up

Lesley and I got to work on the wonky wall tonight. After some deliberation, it was decided to pull the wall down and re-set the studs. They were measured properly going into the top-plate, but not the toe-plate, so we need only re-set that plate. Pulling the wall down was not too difficult as it involved only removing a few screws, and giving it a good yank.

Once on the floor, we pounded out the toe-plate, and removed the nails, saving those that were straight enough for re-use. Re-setting the studs was a simple task, involving only simple measuring - each stud was moved over about an inch, giving you some idea how un-plumb they were. Before long, the wall was back up, and ready to be fastened in place.

This wall runs parallel with the floor joists above. Part of the original problem is that I had assumed that the floor joists and the chimney stack wall ran parallel to each other. They do not. Having realised this, it was much easier to then set the wall independently of each. We secured it using wood blocks screwed into the top-plate and then into the joist. The distance to be covered is not more than an inch and a quarter, so this makes for a an easy way to fasten it. After about ninety minutes, the wall was fixed.

So plumb...

It feels good to get a victory after a couple of tough days. Renovating can be not unlike an uphill battle through quicksand at times, but when things are going well, it can also be a lot of fun.

Fixed

Renovating is Hard

Today we set out to install the new basement windows. This involved removal of the existing windows, and the associated mortar.

Because the existing window frames were all rotted out, removal was a snap. I basically grabbed a hold of the security bars, gave a good pull, and voila. Window removed. There were hundreds of earwigs living between the wood and the concrete, which was exceedingly gross. Not knowing what to do, I grabbed the shop-vac and sucked up the little buggers before they could spread their way throughout the house. Ew.

Next was chipping away at the mortar that had been "holding" in the old window frames. This proved to be a challenge. One side went very smoothly, and the mortar was removed no problem, but the other side, for whatever reason, was  much harder and more difficult to chip away. Lesley and I must have spent several hours just chipping enough mortar out that we could get our window in. Unfortunately, we were unable to provide for the recommended 1/2" gap around the window, as that would have meant several more hours of chipping, so we settled for a snug fit. At one point, I thought we would never be able to get enough mortar out, so it was a relief to get out as much as we did.

Once we were satisfied with the opening, it was time to cut the 2x6 and 1x6's to length. This was the easy part. Cutting them to length, and dry fitting them was quick, and before long, Lesley was mixing mortar, and I was cutting dados in the boards.

Mortaring

Lesley is a pro at mortaring, and it wasn't long before we were fitting in the boards. We first mortared in all the cracks and divots in the existing wall, and then back-buttered the boards, pressing mortar into the dado grooves. After that, it's pretty well just a matter of fitting the board in place, squeezing out the excess, and cleaning it all up. Once complete, we took a little break to let the mortar cure before installing the window.

Rough opening complete

After forty-five minutes or so, the mortar was hard enough for us to proceed with window installation. This was the easy part. The window basically fit like a glove - a tight, racing glove, but a glove nonetheless.

Installed

Fortunately for us, the window went in plumb, level, and square sans shimming, so we were ready to screw it into place. The only shims needed were along the sides due to the planned-for gap, and before long, the window was secured.

Fasten-ating

All that was left was the spray foam to fill in the gaps. This stuff is super-messy, and we used way too much, but at least we know the window is well insulated. We'll be putting on cladding on the outside as well, but for now, we're calling it a day. We were hoping to get both windows in place today, but the time spent chipping away at hard-as-granite mortar made that impossible. We'll just have to wait until next weekend to complete the window installation.

Windowed