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.