The Forestry Forum

I tried to put it off.  I tried to get her to hire someone.  I tried to do just a little at a time. I tried to get her choose a less involved redesign.

All to no avail.  I'm in the Honey Do Hot Place!   

I'm having to remodel our master bathroom, bedroom and build a new walk-in closet!   

Aaagggghhhh!  I keep telling myself that I'll get through this.  I'm not too convincing.  

What does Red Green say? Something like, "guys, we're all in this together. I'll be pullin' for ya'."😊

Is there a procedure expert around that likes to supervise and constructively criticize the project? :D

Procede with caution, especially when close family and emotions are involved.  :-\
Couple tips I suggest:

Plan out as much of the project as possible.
Make a list of all the materials and tools required to complete it, and make sure everything is in stock and available. I'm on a committee overseeing a $$,$$$ bathroom remodeling job, the contractor started in July and is about 95% done, but not completely done (now December). ::)

Sub out anything you cannot do.
Depending on the size of the job you may have to hire a licensed plumber or electrician to do those parts of the project.

Seriously discus goals of completion date and budget cost, and have a plan as what to do if these run behind and go over (which they do). Watch your "plan" stays the "plan". Design changes and "scope creep" halfway through are guaranteed to throw the time and money plan out the window.

We're pullin' for you, we're all in this together! ;D smiley_thumbsup

Resonator, agree with all your advice and thought it was intentional when you called em "couple tips". 😋

Suppose I could of said: "Things I've learned the hard way, money and pain are good lesson teachers." :D

Resonator, agreed!  When she has all the advantages of not really needing me, it is a soft shoe dance for sure.   :D :D :D

We actually have all the fixtures on hand already.  Tile will be here next week.  The electrical is minor stuff.  Plumbing is relatively minor with the exception of rerouting a vent which will take some doing.  The demo is probably the biggest  part of the job besides tile.  

While I'm a 40 plus year veteran of remodeling jobs large and small, doing this in my own house while living here is the worst.  

Best do it now.Once you hit 60 things get a little harder to do each year.I just replaced my dishwasher and spent most of a day on a 2hour job.

The best advice I can give is once you have your plan and materials on hand, send her away for a weekend or a week while you work. My wife hates construction, but loves a remodel if that makes sense. My last bathroom remodel she happened to be leaving town for the weekend and I was able to knock most of it out while she was gone. It significantly reduced the "little changes" that she tends to add that really slow up a project. Plus, she was much happier not having to live in the mess I created while mid project. I was able to clean up the mess during drywall mud drying and waiting for tile to set, so the house wasn't a disaster when she got home. A dump trailer is worth it's weight in gold during demolition as well.

Levi

I feel your pain, I am trying to wrap up an upstairs bathroom remodel before all the kids are back for Christmas break.   Waiting on my buddy the cabinet maker to get the top (wormy Hickory) mounted so I can finish the plumbing.... Started getting warm last week....I'm sure he's feeling heat on somebody's kitchen remodel.

Quote from: Wlmedley on December 16, 2022, 04:28:24 PM
Best do it now.Once you hit 60 things get a little harder to do each year.I just replaced my dishwasher and spent most of a day on a 2hour job.

Bill, brother, I am 60!  I know what you mean!  Just demolishing half the drywall was an all day event.  Of course it is a lot cleaner than had I done this 20 years ago.   And 20 years ago all the demo would've been done today.   
I painted my first house inside and out for pay when I was 17.  There's no telling how many bathroom remodels I've done.  The last one was on a 1950s ranch style house.  The owners wanted it remodeled to have modern conveniences but with mid-century looks AND the bathroom had to be handicapped accessible!  Good googlymoogly was that a job!  It turned out great!  It is now an Airbnb.  They had me back to do the kitchen later. 
It's living in this job that's different.  It's hard to stop since the job is right here.  Plus the boss can talk about the job at all hours which means I have to listen.  :D

There was a potluck some years ago. All the wives were running around trying to hire each others husbands to finish their house  :D.

I came up for air for the night. It started with "Can you get out the Christmas stuff?" and then "With it out of here you can build those shelves and finish up in here, You said y'all were stuck with some red oak?  :D"

I hear the stripers have been hitting hard on the Outer Banks, just saying.  :D

SawyerTed:
An electric chainsaw or a sawzall could be your demolition friends.
Hope you have a very good vaccuum for dust pickup.
Wishing you the best considering you will have 24 hour supervision, unless you can send supervisor on a gofer mission.
GAB

Ever notice the home-makeover TV shows typically put the homeowners in a hotel while the work is being done? ??? :o :D

Quote from: Southside on December 16, 2022, 07:12:51 PM
I hear the stripers have been hitting hard on the Outer Banks, just saying.  :D

Enjoy kicking a man while he's down much?   :D :D

I would start the project on Christmas day to make sure things got off to a good start. :snowball:

Tile arrived today!  

I'm not done with demolition. Emily has to finish moving out of her closet before I start sawing up the old fiberglass tub.  She's working on that this afternoon. Tomorrow I can complete demolition. 

I think by Monday I can start rough electrical and plumbing.  

Tile by mid week.  

The big question is on the double vanity top and sinks.  I won't take out the old until the new is ready.  Emily is ordering granite with sinks mounted underneath.  I will let the countertop company handle all of that.  That likely will be the last piece of the puzzle....as long as nothing changes! :o :o

"Not SO FAST, Scooter!   You ARE going to remove the popcorn texture from the ceiling!  Aren't you?!?

Change Order One!  :o :D :D

 popcorn_smiley 

Demolition is nearly done except for removing the popcorn ceiling.   

The area where the trash can is sitting was a closet, it is becoming a shower.  

The short wall was a wall and doorway that created a water closet for the toilet.  Emily wanted it opened up.  

The door on the right is Emily's closet.  It will remain.  In the bottom photo you can see the ladder in her closet. 

A 6' soaking tub goes where the old fiberglass tub-shower used to be (where the yellow vacuum is).

Everywhere you see insulation and studs will be tile and the floor will be tile.  I might sneak in some radiant heat in the floor but that's a surprise for Admiral Emily.

There will be new lights and a new vanity top.  

To the right of the built-in cabinet is the door to our bedroom.  

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Major progress the last two days.  

All the drywall is complete.  I will paint once the the shower pan is complete and all the backer board is installed.  

I only have to connect the tub drain and supply when I install the tub. All supply lines are in and tested and leak free.   Shower drain is complete except for the pieces to be installed with the second layer of shower base. So plumbing is basically finished.  

The wiring and thermostat for the heated floor has to be done.  The lights fans switches etc all are done. Heated floor system gets installed as part of the tile install.  

Hardie Board concrete backer will be done tomorrow after the first layer of the shower base has set.  I'll tape and mud the backer as I put in the first layer of thinset for the heated floor.   

I hope by the end of next week to be putting finishing touches on everything.  But we will see what works out.  I suspect the Doctor's closet will take some time.  

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And we know the drywall dust is out of your hair.  :D

Looking great!!'

Quote from: Southside on January 05, 2023, 05:23:51 PM
And we know the drywall dust is out of your hair.  :D

:D There are few things more effective than electro-shock behavior modification at helping a man to remember his hat!  :D :D :D

 smiley_thumbsup nice.

Carry on! looks like great progress.

I've not been fishing in so long I can't remember who I am.    :D

BUT the bathroom remodel from hades is getting done.    ;)

By the weekend, I should be nearly done.  

My lines are plumb and square because the laser doesn't lie


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The boss lady worked Saturday and today.  I'm thinking she's as ready to be done as I am.  

Looks great!!!!

Looks Great Ted, 
I really thought it was going  to be pictures all finished. you were gone so long from this post! :D :D :D

It has been slow work on the tile. 

There's a reason there aren't many 60 year old solo tile guys. :D :D 

It's tough getting up and down, doing the fitting, and going outside to cut the tile when a saw is required.  Installing the heated floor took three extra days.  

Just a couple of days of help from Emily moved things along a lot faster.  Having a regular helper probably would have cut the time in half. 

No lawyers have been brought in so you must be doing fairly well.  :D

Like the look of pebble rock floor, my best customer did something like that when they finished their bathroom. smiley_thumbsup

Two young men, who looked 14 years old, installed the new granite vanity top per the boss lady's direction.

The carpenter, sheetrock guy, tile man, and electrician installed the plumbing after the teenagers left (when did they start allowing 14 year olds to drive box trucks?).

Fortunately, the plumbing only took one trip to the orange box store for parts.  
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My wife hates a thick backsplash and the granite company can't do much thinner than 3/4" so there will be a tile backsplash and the peach wall will have tile.  

I sure wish that new sawmill would come...

Looks great! Are you going to float that drywall tape line out on the wall or do you plan on going that high with the backsplash ?

Are you happy with the young guys work they did ?

The young guys did excellent work so yes, I'm very happy.  They even repaired a chip on the kitchen counter that's indistinguishable.

The drywall line has one coat of mud and it's been sanded.   There is some touch up to do.  It is much smoother than the photo makes it appear.  

There was alot going on in the area above the new vanity top.  Torn sheetrock paper from the caulk on the old backsplash, three different shades of paint and the old anchor holes for the bottom of the 36x72 mirror.  

The mirror goes back once the backsplash is done. 

Is it the angle or is that vanity big enough that you will need your cell phone to call each other when at the sinks?  :D

Looks like the tools and tape are staking claim to the "His" corner of the countertop. Everything else is "Hers". ;D

The vanity top is 9'-4" long.  With nothing on it it looks like you could land a F/A- 18 Hornet on it.  

Quote from: Walnut Beast on February 09, 2023, 07:17:51 PM
Looks great! Are you going to float that drywall tape line out on the wall or do you plan on going that high with the backsplash ?

Looking back at the photos I see the tape line you are talking about.   The mirror covers it.

In reply #33 Tom wrote: "I sure wish that new sawmill would come..."
Me thinks that your wife is probably praying it doesn't come until after the project is completed.
GAB

Funny you guys noticed the "division" of space.  Because that's exactly how it is!  I have the quarter around my sink on the left and everything else is hers.  :D

I'll finish setting the tile today, the niches over the tub and in the shower will be finished and I will start grouting the walls.  

Got the backsplash and mirror installed yesterday. 

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Good to see the mirror is still in one piece. smiley_thumbsup

Quote from: Resonator on February 11, 2023, 09:04:49 AM
Good to see the mirror is still in one piece. smiley_thumbsup

I am sure it was not heavy!

Nice job on the 'thin' backsplash.

That mirror is 34 years old.  We decided we liked it so it went back in place.  Same with the cabinets.  They were custom built by a local man.  He has become my best sawmill customer. We will eventually update the cabinet hardware.

Yesterday we worked 9 hours finishing the tile and doing the biggest part of the grout. 

We are taking the day off today.  

Eight weeks later... I'm down to some crown molding, a little bit of work on the tile in the closet and a finishing some caulking.  The last 5% seems to take 15% of the time. 

Eight calendar weeks from the day we moved our stuff out and demo began.  Take out one week or so for Christmas and New Years and a weeks vacation to Lake Lure and total time is somewhere near 225 hours.  


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And material costs ?  Looks great!!

And when can we sign up for this B&B?
Looks great! Can't  wait to try it. 😃

Those multi-sided floor tiles make a neat look. Having big tiles on the wall should make it easier to clean too (fewer grout joints). smiley_thumbsup

Thanks.  The hexagon tiles did seem to work out well.  We went with large format tiles to reduce the grout lines, make cleaning easier and "speed up" (theoretically  :D ) setting the tile. We also thought because of the large wall area, small tiles would be too "busy "

The materials cost are in the $8k plus range.   That includes the heated floor and 72" tub, all tile grout, thinset, faucets and controls, plumbing electrical etc.  Emily and I did all the work.  

We have 5 or 6 white tile left, 17 hexagon floor tiles and a dozen blue and gray tiles. I think I have an 8 foot stick of pex pipe left over.  I figured it pretty close.  8)

Looks Great! 
I really like the no shower doors , both of my bathrooms do not have shower doors or curtains, a  little water on the floors is easily wiped up.

My sentence was temporarily suspended so I could:

Clean up the tile scraps, demolition debris and finish the caulking in the bathroom. 

Do some light grading of the area around the pool.

Over-seed the yard, lime and fertilize

Scrape the driveway gravel back into place. 

Unclog the drain pipe in the back yard/driveway to the basement 

AND start collecting materials for the master bedroom renovation!  Aacckk!
:D

So after a couple of weeks of "time off" it is back to the "honey do" list.  

Monday we moved the furniture.

Tuesday I removed carpet and padding and removed the popcorn ceiling.  

Today I've been removing the particle board underlayment that was under the carpet.  It has to go because I'm installing oak flooring so it will require plywood instead of the particle board.  

 
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 The old carpet being removed.  


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 I had to remove the particle board underlayment.  It won't hold nails for the hardwood .  
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 New plywood over the OSB subfloor.  

Also removed the popcorn ceiling.  Will be removing the infernal wallpaper boarder today.  


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Keep going Ted, you need to get all that done before the new mill shows up.

Popcorn Ceiling removal!?  No thanks! :D smiley_horserider

Is the scraper clamped to the end of a fishing rod? ??? ;D

Our whole house has popcorn Ceiling.   :'(

 :D :D I wish!  I clamped a broomstick about 3' long to the scraper so I'm not under the falling mess. 

Our house had 2,500 square feet of popcorn ceiling.  Now we are down to 2,000.   I suspect my wife wants it all gone but I'm sure we will be leaving it upstairs.  

Removing popcorn ceiling isn't hard as long as it hasn't been painted. The mess is the problem and then remediating the sheet rock.  The only way to do it is to completely empty the room, no plastic sheets over furniture etc

I hate finishing sheet rock and every nail or screw head has to be touched up with mud.  It really is"the hot place."  My buddy loaned me a power ceiling sander.  It has an 8" disk and makes short work of the sanding after fixing the problems hidden under the popcorn. 

I did learn today to forget about using vinegar or fabric softener for removing wallpaper.  Zinner DIF wallpaper remover is the stuff to use.  That infernal flower border is half gone now.  It's slow going.  

In our rental house with water stained popcorn ceiling, I just put a new ceiling up over it, and left it alone.  It was old enough to have asbestos in the popcorn.

The house came cheap because it was considered a tear down.  This was one of the small problems.

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My Wife talked me into a heated floor in our last bathroom addition.  We used it a couple of times.  In order to have a floor that felt warm to the feet, it kept the super-insulated room at 92 degrees.

In some house renovations (other than my own), I have installed new sheet rock over older popcorn and over damaged plaster.  There are times when it's just quicker to install and finish new drywall. 

In this case there's little to no damage just the blemishes that the popcorn hid.  

I've done more damage to the walls pulling the wallpaper border down.   ::)

The heated floor is awesome in our bathroom.  My wife says about every other morning how much she loves it.  

Per the instructions I didn't install the heat elements in the closet that's on the NW corner of our house.  

There is a stark difference in the main bathroom floor compared to that cold closet floor.  I did have to adjust the programmable thermostat not to heat after 7:00 pm or our bedroom gets too hot overnight.  

I have it set to come in around 5:30 am and heat until 8:00 am.  Then the temperature drops from 85 degrees to 70 degrees.   In the evenings it comes on about 5:30 pm until 7:00pm at 85 degrees.  

My power bill barely sees a bump.  

We bought this house 30 years ago from an Electrician who had wired his own house.  My back exit has 12 switches 2 rows with 6 gang each.
I still don't know what a couple do.  This place is wired with other stuff on the ceiling.  Fans, intercom speakers, other lighting.  I just counted 38 light cans and trim in the ceiling.  I'd sell this house first. :D

I've repaired a small area years ago.  There's an area in the garage that needs repair above the garage door now.  I'll be puttin' it off. ;)

Timer on the floor is a good idea.  

 
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Friday, I removed that flower border at the ceiling.  The paper on the sheet rock tore in many places.  Along with that the corner tape at the wall to ceiling joint peeled loose in spots when I removed the popcorn.  

To fix those problems, I had to skim coat about 10" at the top of the wall. After that I had to coat the ceiling to wall corner.  

The ceiling got mud on the screw heads.

Tomorrow I will sand and fix anything that needs a touch up with joint compound.  

There is an advantage to 25% humidity today.  The joint compound is drying fast. 

The plan is to paint Monday and Tuesday.  Install flooring on Wednesday, mill custom baseboard and institutes on Wednesday.  

To fix torn sheetrock paper, I paint yellow glue over it, like T1, and sand it after it's dry.  That's followed by whatever mud it takes.  Without hardening the paper where it's torn, it's hard to ever finish sanding it.  Don't use more glue than you need to saturate the torn edges, or it will be too hard to sand without damaging more paper.

It took about 3 hours to sand the ceiling and walls.  Tomorrow morning there will be a little time sanding the second "touch up" coat of joint compound and cleaning up the five corners.  

Between my Porter Cable palm sander and a borrowed ceiling sander, it didn't take long to sand it all.  I borrowed a 2 1/2" dust collector hose out of my shop and connected the sanders to my shop vacuum.  The dust was mostly sucked up by the vacuum that had a drywall filter in it. 

Here is an image of a ceiling sander.  It has an 8" disk so it doesn't take long to sand 275 square feet.  The handle is about 5' and extends to reach higher ceilings.  It's a bit heavy to hold over your head for more than 15 minutes as a time. 

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Very nice job all around, 8)

Truths about remediation of popcorn ceilings.

Fresh joint compound is a must.  No matter what the "boss" says about the 3 year old bucket in the basement.

A fresh set of drywall knives help despite the "boss" reminding you that you have a 12" drywall knife in the sawmill kit of tools. 

Don't apply more joint compound than you are willing to sand off.  Multiple layers are better than two thick ones.  

Every screw or nail needs a quick skim coat.  Don't hunt and fix a few, it's quicker in the long run to do them all. 

Corners are messy.  

When in doubt sand it. 

Knowing when to quit trying to make an application of joint compound "better" is important.

Knowing what paint will hide is important as well.  See the item above. 

Break loose of some of the "savings" and buy the best filters for the shop vac.  It still won't be good enough.

Paint is almost done.  Yes the ceiling is "haint blue" - its a southern thing. 

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Sounds a lot like auto body technique. The "more perfect" you want the surface, the more steps in the process (time). And that's why thick texture is so popular. They break up the surface imperfections (hide a multitude of sins :D), and can be done relatively quickly to get the room done and ready for occupancy. If going with a totally smooth (no texture) finish, I like to use a matt or low sheen paint to diffuse the light and make it all look uniform.

Until a few years ago I did all the body work on our vehicles and especially on my children's vehicles.  So I can say there are similarities.  Interior paint prep is easier I believe.  

The ceiling was painted with a flat ceiling paint for those very reasons.  Any shine on the ceiling in the photos is wet paint. 

I know walls are usually painted after the ceiling but my walls were ready before the ceiling was finished.   There was a water damaged spot that required some additional work on the ceiling. 

I'm waiting on the first coat on the ceiling to dry.  I need to put a second coat on the field and around the edges.  

Next will be hardwood floor.   

One of the reasons I got into sawmilling was to produce the replacement flooring for our home.  

For this project it just wasn't meant to be.  For the other 1400 square feet on our  first floor I will make the flooring someday. 

Emily wanted the primary bedroom completed so we went floor shopping.  There's a local flooring company that we've done business with over the years.   So we went there first.  

Long story short, we bought new pre finished oak flooring at a salvage price.  It had been in the warehouse since 2008.  It was on hand when the builder finished a group of spec houses and quit building houses.  We couldn't walk away from $1.33 per square foot. 

It isn't perfect but is quite satisfactory for this project.  It was less than 50% of the unfinished price!  

I started on the flooring today.  The flooring has been acclimating in our foyer for 10 days or so.  The moisture meter measured it at 7.5%.  I checked about 12-15 pieces from different places in the stack.  

Ssshhh!  I bought a new pancake compressor and the floor nailer with what we saved on flooring and still stayed under budget!  

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Good progress Ted, and once that flooring is nailed down, you'll be 99.99% done!
Question: what are you using between the plywood and the hardwood?

That's Red Rosin Paper.  It's supposed to be a squeak reduction, dust and vapor barrier.  

Who knows?  There's all kinds of materials used between subfloor and flooring.  The National Hardwood Flooring Association recommends asphalt roofing felt. I'm not putting that under my flooring.   

Red rosin paper is pretty benign stuff.  My basement is a very dry basement so I'm not sure anything is really necessary.  

Red Rosin paper is also cheap at $16.00 for 400 square feet. 

Yea, I bought my 35 to do some projects around the farm and house remodel too. We see how that worked out... :D

Mitzy, our 16 year old dog, supervised my work Wednesday.  You can see there's about a dozen rows left.   

Every row of flooring requires the end board to be cut to fit.   Even running three or four staggered rows, it takes time to get the measurements and cut the end boards.  I'm sawing outside at this point. 

 The short wall to my left was out of square by 3/4".  It will be interesting to see how the floor runs out against the wall  on the right. 


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SawyerTed:
Do not for a billionth of a nanosecond think that I am jealous or envious you, cuz I'm not.
I have enjoyed your remodeling threads, and thanks for the ride from a distance.
On this latest job, I'm thinking your most important tools are knee pads.
GAB

No worries!  :D  I enjoy a project even as exhausting as it might be.  DIY renovations aren't for everyone despite what the DIY shows make people think. More than once a buddy has called and asked for help after getting into a project. 

Some of my local friends have asked, "Why don't you just hire a contractor or someone to do that?" 

But when they see the finished project they ask, "You did that?  It's very nice!  What did it cost?"   8)

I usually tell them the contractor price before telling what we spent.   :D

Ted, everything looks great!  You've really done a nice job on the entire project.  Well done sir!

Thank you, Scott.

The best laid plans.. 

I've lost momentum and some time time for  two reasons.  The first is I've caught the crud my wife fought last week.  

The second is I needed a hardwood flooring jack,   It is a ratchet type device that presses against the bottom plate on the stud wall and applies pressure on the last few courses of flooring.  It closes any gaps on the last 4 or 5 courses.  

The flooring nailer doesn't work close to the beginning and ending walls.  On the beginning the shoe and handle won't let the tool fit to the tongue of the flooring.   On the ending wall, there's not space to swing the mallet. 

So the last few rows have to be hand nailed or nailed with a finish nailer.  

I thought I ordered the flooring jack last weekend.  But I didn't.  

Emily wants custom baseboard.  To do that I had to order knives for the molder.  They will arrive Monday.  

A flooring jack would be nice, but I always got by with blocks of wood and a long flat bar (Superbar) twisting it sideways for leverage while toenailing all but the last board over the tongue by hand.

I built new houses for a living, doing everything myself with a couple of uneducated helpers, for 33 years.

I thought about various alternatives.  With several more rooms to do in the future, $35 wasn't a crazy amount for the tool.  

It did the trick.  

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From the bottom of the window, that wall kicks out about one inch.  

Otherwise the flooring came out square on the final edge.  

Looks good to me!

Quotethat wall kicks out about one inch.

Good spot for thick baseboard or baseboard plus a 1/4 round shoe. smiley_thumbsup

I put in a tapered strip to fill that gap.   I was advised to leave a 3/4" gap on both sides of the floor and 1/4" on the ends.    So a tapered filler was necessary for about  48". The rest of the 16'6" wall was square with the opposite wall.  

Emily wants stain grade baseboard.  It's less expensive to make it than buy it.  So there will be a 3/4" thick custom baseboard and a 1/4 round as you suggest.  

I've seen worse.   I have a little bathroom house on our point that I'm getting ready to redo.  The building is about 12x12.  One gable end is 3-1/2" wider than the other end-mark once and let it go.

It originally, before I owned it, had four small bathrooms in it.  Sometime before we got the land it's sitting on, it was gutted.  I would tear the whole thing down and redo it, but it's brick so the outside will last, and really more work and permits than I wanted to get into.

I'm going to put in two nice tiled bathrooms.  In order to get the rooms square, I had to build a tapered dividing wall with every stud a different width.

Sometimes keeping the "grandfathered in" structure is easier than permits to rebuild especially on the water.  Rules change and make putting the same thing back difficult.  

It pays to learn how to compensate for those out of square and out if plumb problems.  

Two pieces of scrap flooring cut into long triangles will give you an amazing amount of leverage to put those last pieces in. You screw down one of the triangles and wedge in the other, @Wudman (https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php?action=profile;u=624) showed me that trick when we put down 1 1/2" x 6" thick T+G flooring in parts of the mill shed, that became a chicken brooder instead of a filing room, but we won't talk about that.  :D The 14'x40' dedicated brooder is on the schedule for this spring - maybe I will get some of my mill shed back.  

Phase 2 is done but for a few decorations and pictures on the walls.  Most importantly I get to sleep in my own room with my own wife!   :o :D Not that I sleep with anybody else's wife...

Phase 1 was the bathroom.  Phase 3 is enclosing the porch to build a closet where the window without the curtains is.  That will be the closet door.  

Shew buddy I'm tired!

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Looks great! Now you can come to the sawing project 8) 8)

I wish!  We have a long planned trip with reservations, airfare etc.  I just couldn't change all of that. 

Better planning next year.   

Whose bed have your boots been under Ted?  smiley_guitarist  ;D

A much needed sabbatical from the MAJOR Honey Do List is sadly over!

It's time for phase 3 of the bathroom/bedroom/closet renovation. 

This will be the Doctor's closet.  She's been using an upstairs bedroom as a closet/dressing room since December.  I guess I better get back to work!  Did you hear a whip crack?!?  She's not even home!   :o :o :D

This was the end of the wrap around porch at the bedroom.   The window will become a cased opening. We will add a door and a deck on this side of the house. 

For what it's worth, the floor jack really isn't supporting the roof,  the post on the right is carrying most of the load.  But I like it there for peace of mind. 


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Good luck, I am just good and started on a bathroom and two more bedrooms in the basement of our cabin....

I love the floor jack! 8)

Today's progress.  

The orange box store botched my order.  Missing a couple of pieces and they apparently don't know the difference between a 2x12and a 2x10.  Thankfully I caught their error and built to the materials on hand. 

I need one more 2x12 to finish the band.  

NOTE:  The floor jack is gone.   :)

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Since the last update we insulated the floor and installed the subfloor.  I'll have to add plywood over the OSB subfloor to level up with the existing bedroom floor and to nail the hardwood flooring to. 

Friday, we removed  the siding from the house.   Emily wants to try to reuse it.  There wasn't a good way to pull it off.  I wound up driving the nails through with a punch/nail set.  

We framed the weight bearing wall on Friday as well.  Today I applied the OSB on that wall and finished framing the end wall.  I left the sheathing off so I can get the other materials in without going through the house or lifting as high to come in the doorway.  


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So project creep has begun!  Change order #1 - build cabinets with drawers on the end where the blue ladder is leaning.  She really needs that.  

Change order #2 - build a 12' deck that ties the front porch to the existing back deck.  I'm thinking screen porch. 

Shew Buddy!  I'm tired.  

I use to work for the low income. There was a guy that was removing old wooden siding from a house. He turned it over and it looked brand new. I saw it on his house with the new look.

This siding is smooth on one side and rough on the other.  The rest of the house and this section were installed rough side out.  Unfortunately, the texture won't match if we did turn it over.  

When the boss goes to work, the guy doing the work will likely put some new siding on.  :)

Western red cedar siding prices have been a bit shocking.  I get that the resource is being protected and it's fallen out of favor. But whew!  

The local builders supply wants over $3.00 a linear foot!   That's for 1x8x16.  One board is $49.   Not quite $5.00 per board foot, it works out to around $3.09 a linear foot.   I need 18. 

The orange box store wants $158 for 6 1x8x12.  It works out to $26 per board.  That's $3.25 per board foot or $2.19 a linear foot.  More reasonable but not like prices 35 years ago.  

I use the local guys as much as possible even though their prices are higher by a few percentage points.  Over twice the price of the box store is just too much!

Seems like in 1988 when I put the siding on it was $0.85 a linear foot with the builder's discount.  If it wasn't that cheap, I'm sure it was less than a dollar per foot. 

Ted, the "Cedar shock" is a real thing. About 2 years ago my son was doing a restoration/repair/expansion job for a client and when he priced out the White Cedar he needed for siding he about choked. I forget the exact prices and won't guess, but he went back to the client to share the news and tell them he needed to get the material costs from them up front, he couldn't float that kind of money until the job was done. :D I did get the drops off the job. ;D F4S in any of the the cedars is crazy.

My Pop built a 12x14 shed when I was a tyke. I don't remember him building it (probably 3 y/o at the time), probably 1958 and he did a fine job on it. Some windows, nice door, the siding was a fancy T&G ERC material. I got to repaint it every 3-5 years. Doug fir framing. Anyway, as a young adult working as an industrial carpenter I remarked at how expensive wood was (circa 1973) for some side jobs I was doing. He told me when he built that shed his total material bill including nails, shingles, siding, framing, plywood (floor), hinges, and windows was under $100.00. It blew me away then, and it blows me away today. What would an ERC shed cost today?

White Oak makes good siding.  I believe a man with a sawmill could come up with something.

Tom, I did try to get the boss to let me cut some poplar or pine siding.  It will stain to match but she's afraid it won't ever match.  And you know if mama ain't happy...

She's working part time to pay as we go for the renovations so she gets what she wants.  

I ordered the cedar from the orange box store.  

Well, if Momma ain't happy, then ain't nobody happy. :D Go with the WRC, you only bite the bullet once on cost, but could die many deaths if you try to compromise. ;D

 I have often been 'forced' to spend the extra money to do it right, when in my bones it was a really hard swallow. Can't say as I ever recall regretting taking the high road.

Real estate is one of few assets that appreciate in value, so it's possible you can get your money back when you sell. smiley_thumbsup

You are 100% right.  While selling isn't likely, the value of our home/equity is important.  

We'd like to leave it to our children.  It's in the middle of the family farm of nearly 300 acres.  That's part of Emily's argument.

She also wants a screen porch on that side of the house.  That means we will be seeing it up close a lot.  

In the grand scheme of things, an additional $500 is small potatoes on this home.  I saved several times that on the flooring anyway.  

In 1988-89 I was the contractor and builder of this house.  At 26 and 25 we held back on some amenities because we thought we couldn't afford them.  

Now we are better situated to fix things how we want them.  I'll have opportunity to put in some flooring made with sawmill lumber in about 18 months. 

The Doctor, Emily, is getting a cedar lined closet.  

This is my first purpose cut project lumber.  I cut this red cedar on the LT35 before it left.  It's been in the dry for close to 2 years.   

I think mama will be happy.  It's been planed.  I'll cut it to length and joint one side then rip it to width on the table saw. 

She's fine with random widths on the closet wall.  


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Going in the planer.
 
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My stack of planed cedar.
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This cedar is 10" wide.  In my area, cedar like this is a bit unusual.   

Love that look, and the smell to boot

I'm not sure what the current pricing on western hemlock is but might be worth looking into for any of you folks with a clapboard siding project. In the past I did a lot of clapboard siding and used the hemlock quite a bit. 
Really liked the quality and price point of it over cedar. When it came to something that was to be painted or solid stained you'd never know it wasn't cedar, had one smooth one rough side just like cedar clapboards. Long lengths weren't a problem either which was nice on longer walls. Durability wise it's held up well, I've been back to several jobs that have been done for 15 years or better. One thing I found when nailing on the ends was pre drilling should done. Never found that to be a big deal though, just took a siding nail clipped the head and left it chucked up in a drill nearby.

Progress is slowing a bit.  But for a noe man show it's coming along. 

The house wrap was left over from my buddy's cabin build.  It's hard to put up by  one's self in 25 mph wind.  :D  If it didn't have print on it nobody could tell.  

Reused the cedar on the two short walls. It has worked out good.  

It took a week for the door to arrive after ordering it.  

Rough electrical is done and sheet rock ceiling is installed and mudded.  

Walls will be red cedar and beadboard.  


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With my son's help, we finished hanging siding.   Reused on the front short walls and new on the long wall.  

With the help of a "preacher stick" (old carpenter's term because it keeps you honest) the siding is nicely lined up with the old adjacent siding.  


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The "preacher's stick"
 
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Reused siding

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New siding.  

I've used "preacher blocks" on different siding and roofing jobs, to keep all the overlaps equal. I've always thought the definition was referring to "tell you what to do, or guide".
I've also heard the term used by different tradesmen and engineers, for guide pieces made on site used in fabrication and assembly. I'm sure the term is as "Old as the hills". (Old saying). ;)

The carpentry "vernacular" is interesting and it's always fascinating to me to hear the regional differences in terms (and their definitions).  

This Old House comes to mind in that New Englanders have a much different carpentry language that here in NC.  

And example is the term bullnose.   Some places it's a rounded edge like on a stair tread, other places it's a facia board covering the tails of rafters. 

Having worked on a few jobs in different regions (even within NC), a man learns to ask questions.  

Yesterday was a long day of fitting bead board paneling.   Got most of it done.   

The area where insulation is showing will have the cedar lining.  It's mostly just for accent.   

Along with that it finally came time to remove the window that becomes a cased opening.   Got that done.  

Paint and electrical will be next.  Then flooring and final moldings.   

The last thing will be the built in cabinets on the end.  
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A little paint, finished the electrical and cedar lining/accent wall.   

Tomorrow I'll start on the floor.  The built in cabinet is after the floor.  

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It's really getting "hot" now!  Black powder deer season starts Saturday.  Plus two cousins, who I've not seen in years, and I are going fishing three days next week.  

So I'm rolling on with it!   


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Did I say it's hot where I am?  smiley_devil  :o :o :D

Here's the cabinet going in one end of the closet

Working my way down applying drawer fronts and handles.  Maybe I'll have it done by Friday.


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Looks great Ted!

It's been awhile since I've posted here.   

The "hot place" cooled for a bit once the closet was finished but then came the next round, a new deck.  

This time I pulled a permit since it was obviously new construction.   The new deck is 16x26 with a triangular connector to the old deck that's 22x28.  

The new deck will eventually have a 12x14 screened porch.  

The old deck needed new decking.  I was fearful the old deck would require a complete rebuild.  Luckily the framing was sound.  This deck has a 4" fall over 22 feet and the decking runs the same direction as the fall.  Rain water runs off away from the house.

So far the footing and framing inspections passed without issue.   

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The new deck looking from the old deck.  

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The new deck and the exterior of the closet build.  

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Looking at the old deck.  

Very nice and flows well.  :thumbsup:

I've still gotta get a lid (roof) over my last year's rebuild.   :wacky:

Nice job SawyerTed  :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

Talk about being in the "hot place" those rail kits can be a frustrating thing to install.  The directions don't provide any help in how to get those spindles inserted in both the top and bottom boards.  The boards are pre drilled.  

I learned yesterday that it's harder with two people than one.  When the other person adjusts, the spindles you are working with fall out.  

The other thing is my 34 year old self wasn't the carpenter my 62 year old self is now.  Getting all the rail sections near the same length is challenging because of where the rail pots had to go.  Every rail section has to be individually fit.  

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The rail kits are about the fastest/least expensive railing other than site built wood.   Even the wood will be $7 or $8 a linear foot.  

We used the rail kits on the back porch and of course the chief design doctor required matching rails.  Those porch rails were assembled and held together with plastic straps.  You just cut the top and bottom rails to length and installed the unit.  You cut the straps later.  

These rail kits come as individual pieces to be assembled.    

Looks Good! I've been doing some deck work around our place as well. As far as railing cost and ease its hard to beat the cable railing systems. Granted its all in the look you are going for and may not fit your taste but a spool of railing cable, some end ties and crimper is fast, easy and effective.

Yes, I agree, cable railing is cost effective if building the cable system from scratch.  Less than $150 for 1000 feet of cable.  The hardware comes in kits as well for not too much money. I looked into cable before starting this whole project. 

Eight or ten horizontal strands would probably have worked.   

Pre packaged systems are either cheaply made or ridiculously expensive. 

Emily said it looks too much like high tensile cattle fence.  We both have strung about all the fence we ever want to.  Horizontal cable won't pass the grandson climbing test.  ffcheesy  Part of this deck is 12' off the ground.  Grandson's parents, and his grandmother vetoed cable.   ffcheesy 

Good looking deck. Nice thing about the black is they kind of disappear when looking through them to the scenery beyond.

I agree with that. It's a ladder effect and frowned upon by insurance. I do enjoy the open view though and is rigid enough to keep a cow in provided the grass is green enough.

I'm sitting here on the finished deck trying to cool down a bit.  The deck addition and renovation of the old deck turned out pretty nice.  

Rolling gates keep the grandson contained and away from the steps and I found some nice pickets for the stairs.  

I've moved on to a new project that I've put off too long.  It time to build a fence to protect the Mayor of our community.  Dixie is my dog.    She has a tendency to visit the neighborhood but mostly my children's homes.  We have to go get her sometimes because she thinks her home is about 1000 acres.   

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So in goes a fence for her protection and so see can go outside without supervision or being tethered.  

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Good Ole Dixie.  She's 10 years old 

It's been a busy few weeks.  Had to finish the fence.  Then we have transitioned to getting ready to go to Portsmouth Village on our annual volunteer stint.   
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This is the gate from our upper driveway into the backyard. The 6x6 on the left is to mount Emily's farm bell.  We've had it for 30 years, this will be our 3rd post for the bell.  

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Getting the camper ready, I found the 12 volt water pump wasn't working.   It was 9 years old so I went ahead and ordered one.  Amazon delivered overnight and I worked on trying to get it working this morning.  No luck.  It wouldn't self prime.  I figured it had a bad diaphragm.  I setup the return to Amazon.  

Drove to Greensboro to get one from Camping World. Installed it and had the same problem.  After  troubleshooting, which I should have done more with the first pump, I determined the problem was in this set of valves and connections and the pump was sucking air.  

A quick trip to the hardware store and assistance from one of the best hardware store men around I had the parts to replace the conglomeration.  

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It worked.  This is the replacement. 

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Of course, I had to be Papa Ted all along.  

Our first German Shepard, was a Winn Dixie.