Headers, Landings, Foundations, and Turkey

It has been a while since we posted last. We took the week of Thanksgiving off and tried to get in work on the house before hosting the main meal. We got some of the foundation repair wrapped up to deal with a poorly detailed cold joint that was leaking last winter. We got the pocket door headers raised to accommodate the needed hardware that our contractor had not accounted for. Thanksgiving was a great day with 6 guests. The meal worked out well and was on the table around lunch time. Fun was had. Puzzles were solved. Lots of food was eaten. After Thanksgiving day we leveled, glued down, and screwed down the stairs landing that the contractor had left out of level and with only a few nails holding things do down. Today I installed some of the hardware for the pantry pocket door and fixed the rough opening for the pocket door to the master closet. It had been wonderful to be able to heat the house with the fireplace. One bit at a time.

Clean up

Today Cheryl and I spent the afternoon dealing with fall cleanup. Cheryl dealt with leaves in the yard and I cleaned the rain gutters. I also installed screens to keep the pine needles out of the gutters on the side of our house where the neighbors pine trees continually sheds on our roof. The gutters on that side of the house were full of needles. On the other side of the house there was almost nothing in the gutters. Hopefully the screens reduce the amount of gutter cleaning that we need to do. All in all it was nothing to exciting, but just general upkeep that needed doing.

Fire!

Northern California is on fire, and we had a longer workday than we'd planned because our event for the day we're canceled due to smoke.  So what do we do?  Install a fireplace.  We still need to put in the decorative logs, and try to light it.  We should have a lovely and warm gas burning fireplace in time for the winter.

Progress while we were away

We had a week long bike vacation.  I'd planted wildflower seeds before we left, and they had sprouted when we returned.  The seedlings are too small for me to identify, but there are at least 3 different things growing.   We also did some more work on the conduit near the edge of the house.

More Earthwork and Satisfaction with a Job Well Done

Today we wrapped up some of the grading where there had been a pit that was about 5' deep that the contractor we had hired left. It is a long story, but we are happy that this is buttoned up before the rains come back.

Properly graded side yard

We also got a timer installed on the hot water heater to keep it from running during peak hours. Since we got an electric car we switched to a time of use electrical plan where electricity is much less expensive during off peak hours. This will save us money and is also good for the grid because we can shift our electrical use to times when others are not using much electricity.

Shovels and Dirt...

This weekend, we tackled a few projects that had been looming.  We dug a bunch of gravel out of this area that had to be excavated to fix a foundation defect.  We tied into the existing filter fabric and created a nice gravel burrito surrounding the perf pipe drainage line around our house.  We also removed the rootball of a tree that used to be on this side of the house.  We began the backfilling. Our side yard is starting to be usable again, the big piles of dirt are going down!

Storage on the rat slab

Today's project was a flat bench on our sloped rat slab. More storage!  Ian did the woodwork, and I created a paper ceiling to keep the insulation in place.

Sound insulation and a stand for our fireplace

We worked on insulation on interior walls for sound damping.  I had to create some paper walls to insulate against.  And the lower half is to keep the cats from getting interested in insulation.

Ian created a platform for our gas fireplace.  It is more level than the floor.

Energy Efficient Supply Run

We got our roof racks moved over to our electric Rav4 and successfully brought home the plywood for this weekend's project. This is an important milestone in getting away from our gas powered car.

Progress

Another two small boards today.  The last one will be next weekend.

Last room of floorboards

We've been pulling up the old floorboards and replacing them with plywood.  We're on to the last room.  It's a good opportunity to fix the insulation from on top.  Pulling nails is also a nice way to burn off steam after a busy work week.

Odds and Ends

This weekend was filled with a bunch of odds and ends. We got some sheetrock hung. We got the phone and cable conduit wrapped up. We also re-installed the phone box on the back of the house for the DSL line to be installed on Tuesday. Bye bye Comcast! Most of the work was focused on wrapping up the work needed in our storage area before the final inspection. That will allow us to clear out the rest of the house to facilitate sheetrock.

Phone and Cable Conduit

Added the Phone Box

A Weekend of Electrical and Other Work

It has been a while since we did electrical work, but this weekend was filled with it. We got a electrical car charging plug setup for the front yard on Saturday. Sunday afternoon involved wrapping up most of the storage area panel. Wiring a panel is probably a lot faster for a professional, but takes a lot of time for me. There are a few circuits left, but everything that needs to be done before sheetrock is put up is now. We also got a lot of the storage area ceiling sheetrock hung and some other miscellaneous tasks over the last few weeks.

A 50 amp 220 volt GFCI circuit for electric car charging

The storage area panel is nearly done

wired.

One more step

The 3/8" plywood is done!

Easter egg hunt?

We're adding 3/8" plywood to even out the thickness of our floor.  And gluing it down in a lovely Easter egg pattern.  Once the sheet goes on over our glue the "Easter eggs" are well hidden.

All attached

The floor is now all attached to the end.

T&G Floor

March was hectic. I had some work travel and some other things to addend to, but we managed to get the worst of the 1x flooring replaced with tongue and groove plywood. The floor is much more solid now.

Blocking

We're getting ready for sheetrock and we're doing little bits of blocking to mount the sheetrock and to support things like toilet paper holders, towel rods, and TVs.

More framing

There are a number of places that needed special framing due to weird issues associated with the project being a remodel. This is one of the last bits of extra framing that needed to be completed. It feels good to have this bit behind us.

Catching up

It's been a bit since we've blogged.  There are a few other projects we've done in the last few weeks:

Structural supports that were missing in the downstairs store room

Lots of insulation

Remounting our TV with extra blocking.

Fixing a leak in our basement wall.

Details

This weekend we worked on finishing up bits of insulation needed for the insulation inspection.  We had enough time to work on rigid insulation near our foundation and framing details to support the plumbing.

Also one more coat of zypex to waterproof our basement wall.