For the fifth time since I started this website and for the third time since it went “dot.com”, I have switched hosting companies. As frustrating and time consuming as it was to move everything over, it did give me a chance to upgrade some of the features on the website.
New Blog Script
I have liked the blog script since I first found it a year and a half ago. Since I installed that version on the website, the author has upgraded his script to include things like anti-spam measures, which I feel are very important. Unfortunately, I ran into problems trying to back up the old database. After several attempts, I have pretty much given up. A Year’s worth of blog entries, summarized. Rather than copy and pasting the complete contents of the old blog here, I instead will summarize the key entries.
January 2, 2005
First post of the Thumb & Hammer DIY Diary. The purpose: to constantly update the progress of current projects. This feature replaced the old newsletter.
January 21, 2005: Bring in the Pro
After hiring a contractor to fix the structure of the back dormer (oversized window had been installed by the previous owner without installing a new header to carry the load from the roof), I was so impressed with his work that my wife and I decided to hire him to finish the upstairs. He quoted us a reasonable price, and I figured that he could do the work a lot quicker than I could, plus it would give me my weekends back. On the first day that he worked, he strapped out the roofing members with 2×2′s to allow for more insulation, plus he insulated one side attic, and built a new knee wall.
January 22, 2005: The Temperature is rising
With one bedroom about 80% insulated, we are already noticing a huge difference on the main floor of the house. Part of the time today was spent determining the location for the closet in our daughter’s bedroom. The contractor suggested getting rid of the chimney and using the added space. The chimney wasn’t being used anyway, so getting rid of it meant getting rid of a potential source for leaks where it went through the roof, as well as getting rid of the bricks which serve to conduct the cold from outside.
January 27, 2005: No More Chimney
The chimney was removed and I was impressed with the amount of space created, not just in terms of square footage (which wasn’t much), but also in terms of volume.
February 1, 2005: There’s a hole in our roof
The hole had been cut in the roof the day before and about half of the framing was done then. Today the roof was framed in and the structure was being sheathed. Again, the square footage gain is nice, but the volume makes a world of difference. The addition of the dormer opens up a lot of possibilities for the future layout of the room.
February 5, 2005: Dormer almost completed
The dormer has been shingled and sided, and we are just waiting on the double casement window. I paid a visit to an electronics store to price out some structured wiring, and was shocked at the $2.50 CDN per foot price.
February 11, 2005: And the work grinds to a halt
All the framing and insulation work is finished. Next step is the electrical. I spent a lot of time researching structured wiring and decided to run individual wires at about 1/3 the cost. Since I am running the wire myself, any labour savings with the more expensive wire doesn’t apply. The major challenge is determining the route of the Cat V and coax cables so they don’t pick up any interference from the electrical wiring.
February 13, 2005: S-l-o-w–g-o-i-n-g
Not much to show for a weekend’s worth of work. Fighting with some old wiring was very time consuming, and a run to the Home Depot half an hour away cost me a couple of hours.
February 26, 2005: Cold and flu season claims another victim
I was flattened by a nasty bug which kept me in bed for three days. Our contractor picked up another job, which gave me some additional time to finish my end of the work.
April 1, 2005: The epitome of laziness
I made no further progress upstairs during the month of March. Spent Easter weekend on an extended family road trip to visit relatives….
May 22, 2005: The Slowest electrician in the world
Almost finished the electrical rough-in after three months. Why so long?
- Overtime at work. Not as much free time, and less willing to spend free time working. Besides, fatigue causes mistakes.
- Family stuff. Extended road trip at Easter was to visit a relative who had been in a serious accident. My dad also recently spent three weeks in the hospital for knee replacement surgery. Plus I have a three year old daughter, and spending time with her is a top priority.
- The flu from hell.
- Insulation which had been installed by the contractor had to be uninstalled by me for running the wiring.
- Framing dead ends: Because of the placement of some doorways and headers, determining a proper route for the wiring was a challenge.
- Avoiding interference: had to route the catv and coax far enough away from the electrical wiring .
- Spaghetti: Keeping the wires neat and organized was very time consuming.
- Overhead wiring: Spent a LOT of time climbing up and down a ladder as well as juggling a drill, hammer, wiring staples, etc.
- Running the wiring to the basement involved numerous trips up and down the stairs between the second floor and the basement.
June 9, 2005: Surprise Plumbing Emergency
Earlier in the week, temperatures soared into the 80′s so we fired up the air conditioner for the first time this season. A few hours later, my wife noticed some water coming through the ceiling in the bathroom. Upon investigation I learned that the PVC pipe carrying the condensation from the air handler in the attic to the exterior of the house was cracked, either by the contractor when he was stashing his garbage in the side attic, or by me when I crawled over it to change the air filter. It was a relatively easy fix, though I initially bought CPVC pipe which is not the same as PVC. Once again, the trips to the hardware store took longer than the actual repair itself. There was no real damage to the ceiling, as the water was seeping between joints in the drywall. The bathroom is going to be gutted anyway at some point down the road.
June 26, 2005: Let there be light
On the weekend of June 11, I tested the light circuit upstairs. It’s a relatively complicated circuit with 3-way switching in one bedroom, and 4-way switching for the hall light. Things were made more difficult when one bedroom light simply would not work. After double and triple checking the connections, running up and down stairs to turn the power on and off, I finally discovered the problem– the bulb was burnt out. To make matters worse, I had a similar problem in the other bedroom and did not check the bulb first. After messing with the lights and figuring out the 4 way switch, everything worked as it should.
July 1, 2005: Happy Canada Day
Finally a holiday weekend and a chance to get something accomplished. By mid-day, though, the temperature upstairs had risen substantially. The wiring rough-in was finished and I was replacing the insulation, but working with the insulation in the heat was unbearable as the fibers were sticking to my sweat. Replacing the insulation is going to take a lot longer than I first thought….
July 9, 2005: An ambitious schedule
After months of working 6 and 7 days a week, I finally had 2 weeks off for vacation. I had a list of projects to keep me busy, from finishing the insulation, to replacing the railing on the back deck, to removing some shrubs around the house.
July 12, 2005: 105 degrees with the humidex
A sawzall made quick work of the old deck railing, but I discovered that a portion of the deck was resting on a retaining wall made of railway ties which were rotting and falling over. The easiest solution to resolving the safety issue was to remove that portion of the deck. I also removed part of the front sidewalk, which was comprised of brick pavers. Removing the sidewalk was not difficult, but moving the bricks from the front of the house to an area beside the shed was a bit of a workout. I also removed some of the shrubs as I had planned.
July 15, 2005: Relentless heat wave
With temperatures in the 90′s for the previous days and with no relief in sight, I finally decided to let the contractor finish the insulation when he returns. I was tired of the fibers sticking to me… I washed the back deck with Wood Shield Wood Restorer (available at Home Hardware) and the improvement was astounding.
July 18, 2005: Sticker Shock!
I made a Home Depot run for the materials for the deck railing. Originally, I had planned for the project to cost in the neighbourhood of $250. Once I saw the prices of the lumber, I realized that the cost was going to be substantially more, but I never expected the bill to come to $600. And that was just for pressure treated lumber (and hardware). Cedar would have cost double that….and that’s just for a railing and some steps. My day got off to a pretty bad start, too. When I was removing the easy-out roller seats from my minivan, I pinched my finger in the lever shredding off a small chunk of skin, which bled profusely.
July 24, 2005: It’s nice to be remembered….
I finally got in touch with the contractor. He was working on other projects, but planned to return here in the fall. August 1, 2005: Not the smartest move… With the temperature in the triple digits with the humidex and the UV index very high at 8.5, I certainly paid the price for working on a southern exposure deck without a shirt on. I also spent way too much time trying to fit stainless steel nuts on galvanized carriage bolts, which simply doesn’t work. Finding galvanized nuts locally proved to be impossible, so I made the 1 hour round trip to the store with the orange square logo. Despite the setbacks, I did get several posts and some top rails installed.
August 8, 2005: Shouldn’t I be finished now?
Though I got a lot of the balusters installed, I ran out of screws. Still a few more sections to finish plus the stairs to install.
October 10, 2005: I blinked and summer was gone
Update on the past 2 months: Deck complete except for the last four out of seven steps. Got an estimate for the heating upgrade, which includes zoning the boiler system. The price tag approaches 10 digits. The tile around the bathtub in in our bathroom was loose. I removed the damaged tile and drywall, and made a quick patch with plywood and Barker Tile board. And we also upgraded our computer with a new hard drive, so a lot of time was spent getting our files back on our system.
October 31, 2005: Deck finished
Deck was completed a couple of weeks before, including the steps and a gate. It could have been done in about 4 days, but spreading it over a few months showed how low it was on my list of priorities. Looking forward to the next project, which will probably be to get the basement organized.
November 16, 2005: More structural issues
In order for the heating system to be updated, the basement needs to be cleaned up. In order to get the basement cleaned up, devoting part of the workroom to storage seemed the best course of action. But there are a couple of structural issues that need to be addressed. Issue one is the doorway in the load bearing block wall between the workroom and the rest of the basement. The doorway has no header, and the top plate of the wall does not offer enough support for the floor joist over the door. The other issue is similar. There are a couple of floor joists over the stairway leading to the basement that are not supported at all. I will have to build some sort of archway to offer support to this area.
November 19, 2005: New Laundry Team
Our new washer and dryer were delivered the day before. The washing machine is a front load model which uses minimal water and will likely save us a bit of money. All in all, it’s a pretty sweet team and much better than the budget team it replaces.
November 29, 2005: Workroom project started
I spent about half an hour removing some of the strapping and insulation from the back wall of the workroom. Vertical 2×2′s were nailed to the block. Regular batt insulation was installed between them. Four mil vapour barrier was stapled up, and more 2×2′s were installed horizontally. The result of this setup was that the insulation was compressed and offered little R-Value. On the positive side, though, the block appears to be in good shape and there is no sign of moisture damage so far.
December 16, 2005: Upstairs renovation to continue soon
Earlier this week, I got in contact with the contractor again. He was quite honest when he said that he was busy with a number of “higher profit” outdoor jobs, but he would come back to ours now that winter was here. January 6, 2006: Attic renovation resumes After spending a couple of hours clarifying a few points in our agreement the day before, our contractor got back to work, finishing the insulation and installing 1″ extruded foam insulation on the bedroom ceilings and cathedral slopes. We also discussed options for my future renovation plans involving the bedroom and bathrooms on the main floor, and he openedmy eyes tothe possibility of a walk-in closet– something I had not considered. January 8, 2006: Drywall started Yesterday, the contractor finished installing all the insulation and vapour barrier and started hanging the drywall. The ceiling in the large bedroom has been drywalled, and the walls of the dormer as well. Finally, there is a real sense of what the finished space will look like.
January 17, 2006: First mud coat
The first mud coat was applied today and no doubt about it, this is going to be a huge job. I’m really glad I hired a professional. Last week, I went to Home Depot to look at some flooring options. They have cork flooring available by special order, but the price was over $17 per square foot. I had been considering cork, but given the price, it seems to be cost-prohibitive. On the other hand, bamboo seems to be comparable in price to quality hardwood flooring, and hardwood flooring still remains an option as does laminate. I don’t want to undercut any investment we are making upstairs by installing a substandard floor. Right now, we are leaning towards bamboo. It is a relatively new product, so not everybody has it in their house yet. Plus it is affordable, being about the same price as hardwood. And, it is a more environmentally friendly alternative as it is a renewable resource.
January 22, 2006: Contractor’s work is finished
After 6 days of mudding and sanding, the contractor finally finished his portion of the work. There is still a lot of work to be done: priming and painting, flooring, hanging doors, and trim work. Meanwhile down in the basement…. I have started sorting the electrical mayhem, cleaning up some of the wiring. The plan is to install a bank of closets across one wall of the workroom so we can put some “stuff” away. Once our financial situation recovers, we will finally be able to get the heating system updated. I make no apologies for hiring a contractor to do the drywall. Sure, drywall is clearlyu in DIY territory, but with all the cathedral slopes and funky angles, it was a very complicated job.
March 5, 2006: And the walls came tumbling down
Four abrasive disks, a chisel and a sledgehammer. A couple of hours of work and a whole lot of dust. That’s what it took to widen the doorway to the workroom by about 6 inches. With the help of a couple of jack posts for temporary support, I installed the new jack studs and header in the doorway, making it structurally sound. A couple of weeks ago, I stripped part of the outside walls of the workroom of the strapping and insulation. I applied a couple of coats of Drylok to the block and am now ready to reframe and insulate that area and start building some closets. Well, that’s it….that’s a half-decent summary of all the posts made in the blog during the last year and several three months. A database dump would have been easier, but for some reason, I just couldn’t get it to work……
