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.