As I write this, my wife is whisking her parents home. Actually, it’s a ten hour drive– a pretty long whisk– so that may not be the best term. At any rate, I am left alone with our dog after spending the last two months with two additional people and two additional dogs in our house. And as I sit here contemplating what I am going to do for the next couple of days, I am struck by one recurring thought: “Holy crap, it’s quiet in here!”
We have been in a holding pattern for the last two months. The contractors moved on to another project, intending to return here at some point to finish grouting the kitchen backsplash and install the front window. Apparently, they decided to wait until after our house guests left. That gave me two months to get our house in order. Sufficient time for most people, but I am not most people.
I’m lazy. In fact, during the last two months, I not only accepted my laziness, I embraced it. Once I finished off the rooms upstairs, all progress came to a halt. Then, last week, with the in-laws’ visit winding down, I realized that I have a lot of work to do, some of which needs to be done before the contractors return.
Putting our house back together, the sequel
Our master bedroom is still not a master bedroom. There are boxes and things that still need to be organized and put away. All of the kid’s stuff that was in our room is now at home upstairs but here are still boxes of my wife’s books to be put away once I put our new bookshelf and audio tower together. There are also curtains and blinds to hang and a whole lot of cleaning to do before our room can be considered finished. But this is what I intend to accomplish this weekend.
Re-claimed living room
The living room was a catch-all zone for the contractors. We had also left a few of our things in there as well. I moved the bookshelf from our old bedroom and the pantry from our old kitchen to the basement (the other catch-all zone), and cleared out a lot of garbage and hauled it to the dump. The living room is now almost empty. We are planning to have the contractor refinish the living room ceiling which is in rough shape. To help out, and to save some money, I was asked to repair the cracks myself. That is on my list for the coming week.
Laundry room finished
We had the laundry cabinet laying around our family room for the last couple of months. I finally installed it yesterday. I don’t know why I didn’t get around to it before. I guess it was in the back of my mind that I could have the contractors put it up (there’s two of them and only one of me) but we are at the point financially that we can’t really afford the “one more thing while you’re here” trap.
Hanging a four foot wide cabinet, solo… The easy way
To quote Homer Simpson, “I am so smart, s-m-r-t,….” After hanging several laundry cabinets over the years, I tried something so simple that I feel stupid for not trying it before. It is always a struggle to hold a cabinet in place and keep it level while trying to screw into the studs. This time, I took an extra step before finishing the assembly of the cabinet that made hanging it so easy, even I could do it, without messing up the paint on the wall.
Most prefab cabinets have a strip of wood (well, particle board) that gets attached to the back of the cabinet to provide a means of securing it to the wall. I took this piece, and before screwing it to the cabinet, I determined its location on the wall. I marked the locations of the studs and then drilled a small pilot hole through the board and into a hollow part of the wall.
I drilled the hole in the wall for a wall anchor and inserted a screw so it was sticking out about an inch. I then enlarged the hole in the board so it would fit over the screw. After, I attached the board to the cabinet, completing its assembly, , started the screws in the board, then hung the cabinet on the screw in the wall. The screw was strong enough to hold the cabinet up while I leveled it and drove the screws into the studs.
Other ways
A ledger board (usually a 2×4) can be attached to the wall for the cabinet to rest on during installation, but, if no back splash is being installed, there are holes to patch and paint to touch up. With my method, I didn’t have to worry about that step. A similar ledger board could have been attached to the wall inside the cabinet for the backing strip of the cabinet to rest on. Because the resulting holes are inside the cabinet, the quality of the finish doesn’t matter as much.
The main key is to determine the stud locations ahead of time and start the screws in the backing board before attempting to hang the cabinet. I did it alone, I did it relatively quickly, and I didn’t damage the wall paint at all.
Our laundry room. The work surface on top of the washer and dryer is made by Whirlpool for models similar to ours. Above is the cabinet, which I installed yesterday.
Onward to the master bedroom
I think I have procrastinated enough. There is work that needs to be done. As much as I would like to take advantage of an empty house by laying around in my underwear and swilling beer (not a pretty sight, sorry for the visual), I would much rather be able to get our bedroom in order for when my wife returns in a couple of days.
