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.