It’s been a while since I put up a post. This was mostly due to the work involved in getting ready to sell my primary residence. In preparation for showing the house, I removed the wallpaper in the kitchen and painted it. That took about a week and was no small task. But it was worth it. I was happy with the result and it lead to a very good showing (I’m not going to post pictures – sorry). The house received above asking offers immediately. I accepted the highest one and set a closing date of October 26th (which I later moved up to October 19th).

While that was going on I was looking for a place to live near the renovation. I wanted to buy another house rather than rent so that I did not have to worry about the time I spent working on the reno. That is, if I rented an apartment, I would have a lease and therefore a feel the pressure to get the reno completed before the lease expired. Unfortunately, I was unable to find a suitable house to buy and ended up renting a one bedroom apartment. The good part was that the apartment complex was right next to the reno, so it would only take a couple of minutes to travel between places.

Also during that time (end of September), the windows were installed. That took a few days before it was complete, but I was happy with the results. Here are a few images.

Sliding Glass Doors, French Doors, and Front Windows

I took these pictures before the work was finished, which is why you see no handle on the french doors and stickers on the windows, but you get the idea. Since these are impact/hurricane windows, they are quite substantial. As a result, there is a noticeable reduction in outside noise, which is very nice.

I was in the new apartment on October 16th and required a bit of time to settle in, but I got back to work on the house not long after. With most of my stuff from the move stored in three of the four bedrooms, my first job was to hang barriers to protect it from the dust. Below are some pics of the three rooms I used for storage and the barriers I put up.

The Barrier to the Guest Bedroom and Contents
The Barrier to the Office and Contents
Barrier to the Workshop and Contents

I attached the plastic using Velcro, so they can be easily removed or adjusted.

With the move complete, the plan was to get back to hanging drywall. However, I was now without a drywall lift. I had been using a lift I borrowed from Chris, but he needed it, so I had to buy my own. This delayed my return to work by a few days as I awaited its arrival. Once it showed up, I started work in the foyer, beginning with the ceiling, but another problem arose that forced me to work elsewhere. I was in the process of planing down furring strips to even the ceiling joists when my thickness planer belt broke. I had to order another, which will take weeks, so I decided to move onto to the dining room.

Dining Room North Wall

This wall is about 10 feet high, so it required two and a half sheets of drywall (notice my new lift!). That wall borders the garage, which is insulated with the usual batt insulation. The next wall I tackled was the adjacent wall (east), however, before doing that I had to make a decision about sound insulation for interior walls. As mentioned in a previous post, I was not really impressed with the sound dampening effects of the MLV I used between the workshop and office, so I decided to try a product called Safe and Sound, which is a stone wool batt insulation that has sound deadening properties.

I placed it between the studs in the wall, as shown below.

Sound Insulation in Dining Room

Unlike the MLV, I noticed a difference with this almost right away. It seemed to really quiet the room. So picked up another 12 bundles for the remainder of the inside walls I plan to address. Although this room is open to the great room, it is where the piano will go, so I want the surrounding walls to dampen the sound as much as I can. Also, on the other side of this wall will be the laundry room, so it should help dampen the sound of the washer/dryer too.

With that decision made I proceeded hanging drywall.

Hanging drywall on remaining walls of Dining Room

I then moved on to the bulkhead that separates the dining room space from the great room.

Dining Room Bulkhead

Over the next several weeks, it will be all about hanging drywall. I think I have all the sound insulation and drywall I will need to do the rest of the house except the master bedroom and master bath, so I will report on my progress in the next post.