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December 13, 2022

Potential Design Changes and Garage Work – November/December 2022

As mentioned at the end of the last post, I met with Jennifer, my designer. Among the usual business of selecting materials and such, a new idea for the kitchen came up. She was struggling a bit with how I wanted to have the island centered and facing the french doors. She was concerned about the limited work space and ergonomics. While meeting with her at ProSource, we were in a display area with a really nice island setup. I mentioned it and she said we could do that if we removed the wall separating the kitchen and great room. This was not something I had considered. I had always had my heart set on standing at the sink and facing the french doors and the view that presented. I also liked the idea of having a bit of separation between the two rooms. But I did understand her concerns. So when she presented this idea, coupled with the showroom kitchen we were standing in, I was intrigued. So she will be providing me with two designs: one with the original plan, and another with the new idea she is proposing. More on that when it materializes.

In the meantime, I shifted my attention to the garage, because it is not dependent on Jennifer’s work. Here is how the garage is to look (I’m using the free version of SketchUp, so I’m stuck with the SketchUp label you see in the upper right corner).

East Wall on left, adjacent to Back Wall

I had already framed the east wall of the garage and run wires for the electrical. But the back wall required some work to add two new outlets on either side of the tall cabinets that will be installed there. There was a single outlet on that wall, which would be blocked by the tall cabinets. So I wanted to replace it with an outlet above each of the base cabinets that flank them. To do this I had to remove the drywall so I could run the wire. Here’s what I came up with.

Back Wall of Garage after new Outlets added.

The source power comes down from above. It feeds the outlet on the left, then connects to the outlet on the right, then back up to the outlet up top where it continues to provide power to outlets on the adjacent wall on the right. The outlet up high was originally at the same level as the others but in the middle of the wall, therefore it would be blocked by the tall cabinets that will be placed there. So I decided to move it up above the tall cabinets and run the wires from there. Originally I figured I would just make it a junction box, but decided it might be handy to have an outlet above the tall cabinets at some point. Either way, a junction was needed and junctions cannot be inaccessible (by code), so even though it is up high, it is accessible.

After sorting that out, I proceeded to add blocking, which is what the cabinets will be secured to. Strictly speaking, you don’t have to add blocking. You can just use the existing framing members, but that provides a much smaller target, so I opted for the blocking.

Another thing I did was replace the rightmost 1-gang outlet box on the east wall with a 2-gang box that would provide an outlet and a switch for under counter lighting. I thought that would come in handy and would be good practice for when I do it in the kitchen.

2-gang Box added to support Under Counter Lighting

Before putting up drywall, I needed to get an electrical and framing inspection. This was scheduled and successful. My first time! I’m now a man of the world. One of the benefits of having passed an inspection is that each successful inspection extends the expiration date of the permit by 6 months. My permit was due to expire in February, so I’m good for a while now.

With the inspection done, I proceeded to add insulation and start hanging drywall.

Insulation and first board added to East Wall

If you look closely at the upper right corner, you’ll notice a wire extending from a junction box. This is 240 volt line that feeds the hot water heater. It originally entered the garage from the adjacent wall. Now that I have framed the east wall of the garage, it is a more direct route to have it enter from there. So I moved it and now it is no longer within the plumbing closet in the laundry room.

I should say something about the insulation. It may seem a bit silly to insulate part of a wall given that the rest of the wall (and the opposing wall, not to mention the garage door) is not insulated. I decided to add it because I may want to insulate the entire garage in the future. Of course, the back wall must be insulated because it separates the garage from the inside of the house.

And here are some images of the walls with the drywall hung.

Before I can begin taping and mudding, another inspection for the drywall was needed. I scheduled it and there were no issues. With that inspection complete, I can now proceed without the need for any further inspections for the garage work. So I got busy taping.

It is questionable whether I needed to do any more mudding at this point because most of this wall space will be covered with cabinets, but I decided to continue, mostly to experiment. In my first experience doing drywall (guest bedroom), I used a different kind of mud for my final (skim) coat. It was a lighter mud called Plus 3, and I liked it. It spread well and sanded well. So this time I wanted to try using an all-purpose mud to see how it worked for skimming. I watered it down to make it easier to use, but in the end, I think I preferred the Plus 3 for a final coat. I only did a skim coat on the back wall. I didn’t have enough mud to skim the east wall, and since it was not needed I wasn’t going to buy more. Unfortunately, I forgot to take any pics of the process and only thought about it as I was priming the east wall, so I don’t have an image of the skim coated back wall. Here is a pic of the east wall in the process of being primed.

East wall in the process of being Primed

Here are images of the walls after the primer (Kilz 2) was applied.

One could install the cabinets at this point, but I decided to add a top coat of paint before doing that since it will be much easier with the walls bare (i.e., no cabinets in the way). I also wanted to put up a trim piece between the east wall and ceiling. Here is the result.

Cabinet installation along the east wall was next. It’s common to start by installing the upper cabinets first so that the base cabinets are not in the way. Often one will put up a ledger board to support the wall cabinets as they are positioned, especially if working on your own, as I do. But I saw a video on YouTube where the guy installed the base cabinets first and used a makeshift bench to support the wall cabinets. I will elaborate on this in a moment.

Base Cabinets Installed – looking toward back of garage.

Installing the base cabinets required quite a bit of shimming, since garage floors are sloped for drainage from the back of the garage to the front. I started by using my laser level to establish where the top of the base cabinets needed to be. Using a laser level is a luxury, and I was happy to benefit from it. The first cabinet to be installed was the one closest to the front of the garage (nearest cabinet in the image above), since I wanted it to line up with the edge of the newly framed wall. It required a pretty big shim to elevate it to level, so I cut my own and used my thickness planer to get it just right. You can see how the gap below the cabinets decreases as you move toward the back of the garage. This will eventually be covered with a continuous strip along the kick plate.

Base Cabinets Installed – looking toward front of garage.

I managed to install all the base cabinets in one afternoon, albeit a long afternoon. Having never done this before, I was pretty happy with that. The next day, I started on the wall cabinets.

As mentioned above, I adopted an approach to installing the wall cabinets from a video I saw on YouTube. What appealed to me about the approach was that it was well suited for a single person installation. With the base cabinets installed, all the leveling work is done and you can benefit from that by simply referencing off it. The idea is to construct a simple bench (shown above) out of whatever pieces you have lying around and make it tall enough to reach the bottom of the wall cabinet with about an eighth of an inch to spare. You then place the wall cabinet on top of the bench and use shims to make up the difference to get the cabinet exactly where you want it. Once the cabinet is secured, you remove the shims, allowing the bench to be easily extracted. This worked like a charm and I was so pleased I came upon it. Putting up the wall cabinets was a breeze using this approach.

The wire hanging down beneath the upper cabinet will be used for under counter lighting. The gap between the wall cabinets is a consequence of these cabinets being originally intended for my other house before I sold it (without actually replacing the kitchen). In that house, the base cabinet for the sink did not have a cabinet above it. So I decided to use that space for open shelving.

To create the open shelving, I had to improvise a bit. I had some cabinet pieces I wasn’t sure what to do with. One piece was a side panel with a return (the thick bit below the bottom shelf) that was intended for the dishwasher at the other house. I cut the panel in half and used the return as a facing to match the lower rail of the adjacent cabinets, forming the lower shelf. I think it looks great and has the added benefit of concealing the under counter lighting in the same way the cabinets do. Nice!

The two upper shelves were constructed from a refrigerator panel I decided not to use. I originally intended to use the two refrigerator panels to flank either side of this bank of cabinets (see image at the beginning of this post), but decided it looked better and would function better without them. So I cut what I needed from one of them. I also decided not to add a piece at the top to join the cabinets, as is shown in the SketchUp drawing above. That would limit what I could put on the top shelf. So far, I’m very happy with the way this looks.

I will add a butcher block countertop to give it a workbench look. I will attend to this in early January, as I will be away over the holidays. I also intend to add some sort of slat wall system as a backsplash so that I can hang things on it and move them around as I see fit. But I won’t get to that until it makes sense. I would normally move directly to installing the cabinets on the back wall of the garage, but I am still missing a cabinet. Hopefully that will arrive some time in January and I can continue.

As for the design updates from Jennifer, she just sent me two options for the kitchen. I really like one of them and will be meeting her in a couple of days to go over it. It will probably still be a while before I am able to move forward on the interior of the house, even after we are settled on the design. If the kitchen layout changes, as I expect it will, I will probably have to update the permits. But I still have plenty to do in the garage, so I will continue with that in the meantime.

That’s all for this post as I will be leaving shortly for Christmas vacation. Happy holidays!

October 30, 2022

Plumbing Closet and Bits and Pieces – September/October 2022

In my last post I ended by stating I would call in an inspector for the framing. I did that and the inspector showed up, but unfortunately I was not ready for a framing inspection. The inspector informed me that, although I had completed (most) of the framing, it is not ready for inspection until the plumbing and electrical are done because they can impact the framing. So that was good to learn.

I also mentioned at the end of the last post that I had a problem to fix that was of my own creation. In the front bedroom that will become the workshop, the door opening was not right. The right side was wider than the left (as you enter). You can’t hang a door properly with that.

Although in the above shots it’s hard to see the problem, I show them so that you can get some idea of the repair that took place. I pulled down the drywall in order to get a better idea of what was going on.

From what I could tell, the furring strips where the problem. I had not accounted for the extra thickness they added on the other side of the door opening. But rather than adjust for that, I decided I would frame the entire wall as I had done with the master bedroom and the like. That would provide the same benefits and solve the alignment problem too. So that’s what I did.

With that issue fixed, I started working on the electrical and plumbing that would affect the framing. This involved adding new wiring and and securing the existing wiring to the new framing. I started by adding ample outlets to the east wall of the garage. These will be GFCI protected and required 12 gauge wire.

For the master bedroom I ran some new wire under the large window so that one of the outlets next to the bed will be controlled by a switch as you enter the bedroom. Another outlet in the master bedroom was already controlled by that switch, but it was in a place that was of no use to me, so I rerouted it.

Rerouting the Switched Outlet in Master Bedroom

Also in the master bedroom, I fashioned a couple of supports to secure the conduit for the Ethernet and the PEX pipe for the spigot.

I secured the laundry room outlets for the washer and dryer.

Although not required for the framing inspection, I removed the tiles from the floor of the master shower. I had been watching a lot of YouTube videos about how to create a shower pan, so while I was “in the neighborhood” I decided to take care of that task.

Hammer and Cold Chisel used to remove Shower Tile

I then moved to the laundry room to hook up the drains for the washer and the utility sink (that will be relocated to the garage) and their respective supply lines.

Washing Machine Box with Drain and Supply Lines in place

Drain and Supply Lines in place for Utility Sink (to go on other side of wall).

With the laundry room plumbing hooked up, I could now start building the closet to enclose it. I started by opening the ceiling some more so that I could install nailers to support the framing that was to come.

After that I attached the bottom plates for the closet. The closet will have a 24″x80″ bi-fold door, so the opening you see below will accommodate that.

Although it is just a small closet, the sloped ceiling made it a bit tricky. I was only able to get two sections put up that afternoon. I was hoping to do it all in one day.

If you look closely at the section next to the garage door, you’ll notice that there is no vertical framing member up against the adjoining wall. This is because I did not have the room for it (the red PEX pipes are in the way. Because of that I will add OSB sheathing along that side to provide extra support for the drywall when it goes up. It will be tight, but there will be a small gap between the drywall and the garage door casing when it’s all done.

The next day I was able to finish the framing.

Here you can see the OSB sheathing I mentioned above. The opening in the ceiling outside the closet will be drywalled. I made sure there was sufficient nailing surface for that. I don’t think I will do anything inside the closet to pretty it up; only add insulation. There are places where I could add drywall, but I don’t think I want to close anything in. I want to be able to get full access to all the plumbing, so I think it will remain raw. I can always change my mind about that later. I also may find that I want a light in the closet some day, so keeping it unfinished makes that easy.

The remaining work related to the plumbing closet involved wiring up the 3-way switch, moving the switch in the garage for the garage light, and patching the opening I left when installing the PEX. Here’s a reminder of that big hole.

And here is the repair.

From the image on the right (above), you can see where I moved the switch for the garage light. In the original position it was a bit of a reach. Because the switch box for the 3-way switch for the laundry room light was occupying that space (nailed to that stud), the original builders used the next closest stud to attach the switch box for the garage light. Since I had to move the 3-way switch to the side of the plumbing closet, that space became available, allowing me to move the garage light switch to the more convenient location.

3-way Light Switch on entry to Laundry Room (front and back)

Above left is the newly hooked up 3-way light switch positioned on the side of the plumbing closet as you enter the laundry room from the garage. In the image on the right I’m showing the wiring behind it. Notice that I had to introduce a junction box to extend the existing wires. Even though the switch was only moved a foot or so from its previous location (just around the corner), there wasn’t enough slack to make up that small distance. Since I had to add extra wire, I decided to move the existing wires to a location within the closet that was less likely to interfere with the red plumbing lines, which is why you see them coming down from above.

I still have more plumbing and electrical work to do before I can re-request a framing inspection, but some of that is dependent on the design I’m waiting for. I’ll be meeting with Jennifer (the designer) this coming week, so I hope to have more information to guide my next set of tasks and the content of the next post.

September 23, 2022

Framing Continued – September 2022

In the last post I just finished framing the exterior wall of the master bathroom. My next job was to clear out the tools and such from the master bedroom and get to work framing its three exterior walls I imagined the job of clearing out the master would be a big one, but it didn’t take me too long, so I was able to get right to putting up the foam board on the south wall.

As you can see, I used some of the many 2x4s to help keep the foam board pressed against the wall as the adhesive takes hold. I also put down the pressure treated 2x4s that attach to the concrete slab with tap-con screws. While doing that I realized that I had to put up the foam board for the adjacent walls in order to get the dimension for the pressure treated boards correct, since they would be butting up against the foam board on those walls too.

The next day I returned to do the actual framing of the south wall.

The next day I started on the west wall and managed to get the foam board up and half the wall framed. So I was getting faster.

Having made good progress the previous day, finishing up the west wall didn’t take long the next day.

Although I made quick work of the remainder of the west wall, I could not start on the east wall of the master because I had to install a spigot on the outside of that wall, and for that I was waiting for the delivery of a special drill bit to create a 1-1/2″ hole through the concrete block. Not wanting to end my day early, I turned my attention to the garage wall that will receive cabinets. As usual, it begins by putting up the foam board.

You’ll also notice if you look closely, I fed the electrical wire down from the ceiling. This will power the outlets along that wall. The next day, I framed it.

A couple more shots of Framed Garage Wall

The day after finishing the garage wall, Jennifer (the interior designer) came to the house. We had a good chat. The next step was for her to send me a proposal of the services they would provide, which should arrive in the next week or so. In the meantime, I would continue with the framing.

While working on the garage wall, the 1-1/2 inch coring bit I ordered arrived. That was nicely timed, as it allowed me to return my attention to the east wall of the master bedroom. I was a bit apprehensive about drilling out the hole for the spigot. I’d never drilled such a bit hole through a concrete block wall. I did a lot of exploring online and it seemed straight forward enough, but there is something unsettling about drilling a big hole in your exterior wall. But it all went very well. I fashioned a little jig out of a piece of 2×4 lumber to prevent the drill bit from wandering as I tried to get the hole started. Below you can see the jig and the long coring bit attached to the drill.

I kept the jig in place using my foot as I pushed the spinning coring bit into the wall. Once the hold was started, I was able to remove the jig and carry on. While drilling I used a hose to keep the hole wet. The drill bit is a hollow steel tube with diamonds on the end. It was originally painted red, but as you can see, that didn’t last long once drilling started. I would push the drill in for a bit then pull it out and spray some more water in. It went quite well and it didn’t take long before I was through to the other side (about 8″).

I was happy with the result. It left a nice clean hole. I fed the new spigot through from the outside and it extended just the right amount.

And here is what it looks like from the outside.

Spigot Installed – Outside View with Cover Open

Spigot Installed – Outside View with Cover Closed

You’ll notice that the old spigot that is attached to the copper piping is still in place. That will just twist off and I will replace it with a cap, which I’ll eventually paint to match the exterior color, so it won’t be too noticeable.

You’ll also notice that the new spigot is kind of different from what you’re used to. it has a separate male attachment that connects to your hose and plugs into the opening revealed when you raise the cover.

When looking for a spigot to buy, I came across this and was impressed. It prevents anyone from making use of your water unless they have the appropriate attachment. I will add another one to the west wall, but will not replace the one on the east wall because it is attached to the main supply line, before the supply line feeds into the PEX manifold. So I’d have to take extra steps to take it out of the loop. For now, I don’t plan to do that, but I may change my mind once I’m moved it and fancy another project.

With the spigot installed, I could now return to framing the east wall of the master. And here is the result.

As far as I am aware, that is the bulk of the framing complete. I still have to create the closet in the laundry room for the plumbing, but that will wait until after the drain to the laundry tub (to be located in the garage) is hooked up.

Next, I turned my attention to repairing the framing of the kitchen extension. This was a job I was not looking forward to. The extension wall, although plumb, was not properly done (I didn’t do it). Two of the three vertical studs did not line up with the studs of the existing wall. If left alone, the drywall would have a slight but noticeable bend. So I had a lot of shimming and trimming to do. On one side of the each of the two studs I had to fill in the concave part of the bend, while on the other side I’d have to chip away wood to ease the convex part.

What made this so tricky was that the shimming was not uniform. It tapered along the lengths of each stud. To make this more manageable, I did each stud in sections. The studs are about 10 feet tall, so I created three separate shims to make up that length. Using my table top 4″ jointer, I planed down each shim a bit at a time, then took it to the wall to see how it fit. I did this over and over again until it lined up with the studs to the right of it. Once satisfied, I used wood glue and a lot of clamps to hold it in place.

Here you can see two of the shims clamped in place. The shims are from left over furring strips I had, so they are wider than the 1-1/2 inch ends of the studs, but that was okay. The extra width didn’t do any harm. Below is an image taken after completing the first stud (it’s a bit blurry, but you get the idea).

On the other side of the stud I used a jigsaw to make horizontal cuts to the appropriate depth every quarter inch or so all along the length of the stud. To determine the depth of each cut I used a level to determine how far out the stud projected relative to those of the existing wall, creating a series of marks over the length of the stud. I then “connected the dots”, so to speak, producing a line at which I could aim. Note that this is just rough framing that will be covered with drywall, so it didn’t have to be precise. It just had to be close, so this approach worked fine. I then used a hammer and chisel to chop out the wood between the cuts. I did not get a picture of the result of this because there was not much to see. I suppose I should have taken a picture or two of the process, but it was a lot of work so story telling was not on my mind. So this is how I went about correcting the misaligned framing. Below are images of the end result with clamps removed.

The overhead section did not require a shim over its entire length. It gradually lines up, so the shims you see above taper down to almost nothing. This means it is a bit wider at one end than the other. I don’t think this will be noticeable once the drywall is up and finished. If it is, then I will address it with trim.

At this point I believe I can call for a framing inspection, which I’ll do next week. While waiting on that I have another error to fix. Something I messed up. I’ll report on that in the next post.

September 6, 2022

A Lot of Waiting – May-September 2022

In the last post I mentioned that I had finally gotten my permit, so I could resume work. The first thing I did was hire out the work to re-cut the slab so that the electrical and refill could be brought up to code. On the morning of May 18th a couple of fellows arrived to cut into the slab in the master bath and kitchen. In preparation for this, I cleared the spaces, took down the walls for the alcove surrounding the toilet in the master bathroom, and used my chalk line to outline where I wanted the cuts made.

I was really glad I outsourced this job because these guys made quick work of it and were done within three hours. Well worth the expense. Here is the result.

The next day I replaced one of the 14/2 wires with 12/2 and enclosed them in a conduit. I later (months later) discovered that even that was not sufficient. But we’ll get to that in another post.

With the newly issued permit, I decided I would look for someone to do the two bathrooms. To this end I met with Georgette at David Waller Interiors to see if they could help. That seemed encouraging and we set up an appointment for May 26th to have Georgette come to the house along with some of the subcontractors they use. The electrical guy had all sorts of negative things to say, telling me that a lot of the wiring had to be changed because once the walls have been opened up, you have to replace the wire (with exactly the same stuff, only newer). He recommended I get an inspector in right away to assess the situation. After he left, one of the other guys, Richard, who was privy to the exchange with the electrician, told me that it was not so dire and that he knew a guy who could manage the entire project and handle the inspection process. Having done so much work already, I was concerned about the inspections and was very receptive to the idea of having someone help me navigate that space. So Richard put me in touch with Marty, who was a general contractor (GC) he had worked with.

Marty showed up on June 6th. I really liked him and we had a good discussion. I sent him my SketchUp model so they could provide me with an estimate. Unfortunately, on June 20th (two weeks later!) Marty told me he did not want to take the job. He was too busy. That was annoying given that he took two weeks before he bailed out; wasting my time. So I called Richard again and he put me in touch with another GC, Joe.

Joe came by on June 23rd and looked over the place. He mentioned while looking around that it was a bigger job than he expected, so I was not optimistic that he would take it on. So he left and was going to get back to me. On June 28th, having not heard from Joe, I contacted him and he told me that he could not take the job. Too busy. It’s funny how I have to chase these people down just to find out they don’t want the job. This has become a common theme in this industry. I find that it is rare that someone will call you when they say they will. I frequently have to chase them. So I called Richard yet again and he put me in touch with Mike.

I met Mike on June 30th at the house. He seemed willing to take the job and we arrange to meet again on July 7th, at which time he would bring someone else along to take a look. We met as scheduled and Mike and Scott showed up. Scott would be the one managing the project, so I walked him through the house, explaining what I was after. It appeared that they were still up for the job, so I gave them the code to the lock box so they could access the place while I was away on vacation for the remainder of July, returning early August. They planned to bring other trades by to get their input and to determine costs.

I had a conversation with Scott and the plumber while I was on vacation. The plumber needed a few more details. So I was happy to know that Scott was bringing people by. When I returned in early August I contacted Scott to find out what the situation was. He still did not have a number for me, but did have a drywaller scheduled to come by the house. So I met the drywaller at the house. Nice guy, and we had a good exchange. A couple of days later Scott told me that the drywall guy wanted to return to the house to take more measurements and that Scott would drop by too. So I met with them on August 11th and we had a chat.

Scott proposed that we do it in stages. The first stage would be to get the place ready to the point where flooring would be next. I liked that idea because it would be progressive and consequently, I could take over should I choose after each stage. Scott figured he’d have a price for me on the Monday (August 15th). So I was feeling pretty good about that.

On Thursday, August 18th, having not heard anything from Scott, I texted him asking what was going on. I got no reply that day, but did the next day. Scott informed me that he was still waiting to get with Mike to discuss it. Mike was out of town on some personal business.

The next week I was notified by my apartment complex administrator that my lease renewal was upcoming and asking me about my intentions. To answer that and tell them how long I intended to keep the apartment, I needed to know if I was going to hire Scott and company, and that required I have a cost estimate and some idea of how long it would take. So I texted Scott again on the Monday (August 29th). He responded that he was busy on a job but that he would contact me later in the day, which he did not. So the next day I asked again. I got no response that day (like pulling teeth). He did respond the next day, August 31st, giving me a price estimate of $70k. To that I immediately responded that I wanted a breakdown of the costs. I wanted to know where that number came from. It seemed very high for just the first stage. At the time of writing, September 4th, I have yet to hear from Scott.

Given that I seemed to be in a perpetual state of waiting, I decided I had to do something and made an appointment to have an inspector come over and help me understand what I needed to do. I was concerned about doing this on my own, fearing that they would tell me I had to pull all sorts of things down, but I was fed up waiting for people, so I bit the bullet and decided I would open myself up to whatever they had to say. When making the appointment, I explained my situation, which was that I wasn’t looking for a specific type of inspection (i.e., framing, electrical, etc.), that I was looking for guidance more than anything. So they sent two guys over on Friday, September 2nd.

The two inspectors, Chris and Dennis, were very good. They explained a lot to me and made me realize that I didn’t really need a GC to manage this part of the project. There was nothing drastic that needed to be done. Most of the things they pointed out where things I was happy to hear about and can easily incorporate. So I am now thinking I will proceed without the help of Scott and Mike. I’ll pull in the subcontractors myself, as needed. If I do hear back from Scott I will consider what he proposes, but for now I am proceeding as though I am on my own.

As a result of this, I contacted an interior designer. I want to put together a comprehensive plan of what I am doing. So far I have only had a general idea, figuring I would cross the various bridges when I came to them. But if I am going to bring in subcontractors, I’m going to have to have a better idea of what I want them to do. For example, if I bring in a plumber to do the piping to the bathtub, I need to know what bathtub I am getting. Similarly for the vanities in both bathrooms. I’ll also have to know what tiles I want and such. So I’m looking for some help with this and set up an appointment with Jennifer for September 14th.

In the meantime I have started working on the house again, finally! Now that the inspectors have alleviated my concerns, I am ready to resume framing the exterior walls. This includes the laundry room, master bedroom and master bath, and the east garage wall. So I picked up a load of lumber and foam board and got to work on Sunday, September 4th. Here’s what I accomplished:

It’s amazing how good it feels to be finally moving forward again. I wonder if I’ll ever hear from Scott.

The next day, Monday, I finished framing the laundry room and started on the wall in the master bath.

On Tuesday (today) I finished the Framing in the Master Bathroom.

Next I will tackle the master bedroom. That will require that I empty the room, and there is a lot of stuff in it, as you can see. So that will be a bit or work.

I will end here, since this has been long enough. In the next post I will show more of the framing work and hopefully will have something to share about my meeting with the interior designer.

May 13, 2022

Permitting – March/April/May 2022

As mentioned in the previous post, I decided to apply for the permits I will need rather than involve a general contractor. In this post I will detail what I did and the experience.

On February 24th, I made a trip to the local permitting office. They explained that I needed to fill out two documents. The first one is an owner/builder affidavit where I acknowledge that as the “general contractor”, I agree that any sub-contractors I hire will be licensed and insured. It also spoke to a few other things like my responsibility to any employees I bring on, which will not apply in my case. The second document was the permit application. In it I was to explain the scope of the work along with the estimated costs. I filled that out as best I could, but provided separate documents to provide details. Here is the description of the work I provided:

renovation-description Download

Accompanying the description, I provided printouts of selected views of the 3D SketchUp model I created. Learning to use SketchUp took some time. Between that and the many trips to the house to gather the measurements needed to make the model accurate (accurate enough to be of value), it took several weeks to complete the model. I submitted the application on March 21st. Although it took a lot of time, I’m glad I made the effort. SketchUp is a very useful tool and one I will use in future when modeling anything I intend to build.

For the model to be truly useful to me, beyond providing pictures for permitting, it needed to be based on relatively accurate measurements. I know the measurements weren’t perfect, but accurate enough that I was able to really play with the rooms to understand what would fit and experiment with different ideas, all without spending a penny nor lifting a tool. It also made it much easier to create an accurate bill of materials before I go shopping. Here are some of the pics I submitted to the permitting office.

There were more images submitted, some with greater detail, but from what I have shown above, you get the idea.

I submitted these documents on March 21st and then waited. During that time, there was little I could do on the house without a permit, so moved back into the garage some of the things I had stored in the house while the garage floor was being done. I also identified and marked the wire in the attic above the garage that will be used for the new garage outlets. Of course, those were just a couple of small jobs, so I got a bit impatient and decided it was of minimal risk to do a little more demolition. So I pulled off the strapping exterior wall in the laundry room, the master bath, and master bedroom in preparation for framing them.

After hearing nothing after almost three weeks, I sent an email on April 5th inquiring about the status. The next day I was told the application was rejected because the application form I filled out had a page that was for a different city. That is, the form that they handed me and highlighted was, presumably, the wrong one. So, there are two issues with this. The first was that I filled in the documents they provided. Secondly, they never contacted me to let me know there was a problem. So I went to the permitting office the next day (April 7th) to address it. I spoke with the fellow to whom I handed my application (40+ pages) almost three weeks prior. He remembered the house, but could not, at first, find the documents. That was very disconcerting given that it cost me quite a bit to get so many color printouts. Eventually he found them (whew!) and discovered that the problem with the application was not as described to me in the email. It was simply that I did not provide an estimated cost for the electrical and plumbing work. I updated that then handed it back.

On April 18th, I got a response from the permitting office that I needed to provide an electrical plan and details about the slab cutting and subsequent re-filling. So I got onto Google to find out what an electrical plan was. The electrical plan is a 2D floor plan that identifies how the house is to be wired. So my first thought was that I would update my 3D SketchUp model to add that information. Although it can be done using a SketchUp extension, what was required to make that happen would be overkill. So I looked for another software solution and chose a product called EdrawMax. It required a $69 six month subscription, but was better tailored to the task, so I signed up.

So yet another software tool I had to learn, but it was pretty good and gave me what I wanted. I completed the electrical plan April 28th, so about a week’s work once the tool was chosen and installed. Here is what I submitted.

The above image just shows the electrical plan for the kitchen and bath rooms. That is all they requested. But I decided, since I was at it, to create a plan for the entire house, which would be useful for me. It’s a bit busy, but here is the full plan.

With this I am able to identify what devices each breaker covers, so I’ll be happy to have this on file.

As mentioned above, I was asked to submit a cross-section of what will be done when filling in the parts of the concrete slab I cut out. This is what I created.

Both the cross-section and electrical plan for the kitchen and baths were submitted on May 2nd.

I got a response on May 5th expressing concern about the access to the toilet in the master bath and asking for information on the French doors to the lanai. I discovered that I made a mistake when transferring the measurement from the 3D SketchUp model to the 2D floor plan, which made the entry to the toilet alcove seem narrower than it should be. A good catch on their part. So I corrected that. Note that what I show above is the corrected floor plan. In the original I had it about a foot too long. As for the French doors, I informed them that I was not looking to permit that, as it was done professionally last year and the installers took care of the permitting. I sent my response on May 8th.

On May 12th, I got an email informing me that the permit had been approved. Woohoo! On May 13th I picked up the permit and displayed it in the front window of the house.

While waiting for the permit, I decided I would look for someone to cut (re-cut) the slab. I have to open that up again and make changes so it passes inspection. In the original effort, no soil treatment was done, nor was any vapor barrier added. Also, the wires I ran to the island needed to be enclosed in a conduit and one of them needed to be a larger gauge (12/2 instead of 14/2). So these mistakes necessitated a redo. Not only that, but an inspection will be needed before the holes are filled in. The one thing I was not keen on redoing myself was cutting into the slab and having to break up and dispose of large chunks of concrete. So after picking up the permit I scheduled a crew to come in and do that next week. So it looks like I am finally back in business.

March 6, 2022

Delays and Garage – January/February 2022

At the end of the last post I mentioned that I would be meeting with an electrician to discuss adding a 240 volt line for the cook-top. That meeting changed a lot. We had a really good chat and he was kind enough to educate me about permitting. He walked through the house and pointed out a number of things that I should be aware of, but most importantly made me realize that I really needed to get permits for the work I have been doing. Many people proceed with interior remodels without permits, but they really shouldn’t. In my case, the changes were so significant that I really needed to follow the process and have proper inspections done. Even though I have no plans to sell the house, one never knows if that will change. If I do decide to sell, the massive renovations that were performed without permits/inspections could cause problems.

This may seem rather obvious, but I was following Chris’ lead on this and he did not want to go down that road. After my discussion with the electrician, I understood that I was skirting the system, and I was not comfortable with that. I decided it was time to set it straight. So I started looking into what was required to get permits. I called the permitting office and they filled me in. I could sign an owner/builder affidavit that allowed me to be my own general contractor (GC), with the understanding that I was responsible for hiring fully licensed and insured contractors. For work I would do, I had to apply for permits myself. The idea of having to wade through the bureaucracy was not appealing, so I started to entertain bringing in a general contractor to manage it and even hand off some of the work. Although this would cost considerably more, the benefit would be that the work would get done sooner and I should be able to move in before the end of the year, thus avoiding the need to renew my apartment lease.

I contacted three different GCs. One fellow, we’ll call him GC1, was busy but would call me the following week to discuss further. I made appointments to meet the other two. The first fellow I was to meet, GC2, was late. I eventually texted him and he somehow lost my information. My text was what allowed him to find it (?). So he eventually showed up and we did a walk through. As we spoke, I got the impression I only had half his attention as he seemed more interested in his phone. Although he claimed his firm could do everything I wanted, I told him I had other GCs to speak with before I made a decision. As you might guessed, I did not choose him. He did not make a good first impression. The next fellow, GC3, did make a good impression. I liked him and was happy with everything he said. The next step was to bring his engineer in to get drawings together and discuss the plan. I still intended to do as much of the work as possible, but we would figure out who would do what. I told him I would get back to him, as I still had one fellow (GC1) to hear from. GC1 never got back to me, so I let GC3 know that I wanted to work with him. We made an appointment to meet again, and he would bring the engineer with him. To make a long story short, the engineer canceled three separate times. GC3 was embarrassed and was genuinely apologetic. He was going to find another engineer and get back to me. More than a month later, I have still not heard from him. I’ve been abandoned.

Around here, this industry has a reputation for not being reliable. It’s sad, but I’ve heard so many stories about this. So I decided to look further into what it would take to apply for the permits myself. This would require creating construction documents or something deemed acceptable. So I would have to learn a software drawing tool that would allow me to produce such documents. I started learning SketchUp. I’ll get back to that later.

In the meantime, I wanted to do something in the house, so I turned my attention to the garage floor. I expected to do that near the end of the renovation, but since it did not require permitting, I decided to move forward with it. I decided to hire someone to do the work so that I could continue learning SketchUp. I was really happy about that decision because I was delighted with the result.

I moved all the stuff from the garage into the house in preparation for the guys who would be doing the job. I chose an epoxy covering with “full flake”. This would seal, protect, and provide a non-slip surface.

The process began by grinding down the concrete surface and filling any cracks.

Grinding Completed and Cracks being Filled.

Next they applied the base coat, starting with the perimeter then filling in the middle.

Once the base coat was down, it was time to apply the flakes.

They started by distributing the flakes around the perimeter then worked on the middle, from the back to the front of the garage.

After fully distributing the flakes, this is what it looked like.

That was left for about an hour before they started on the clear coat.

Here it is after the clear coat was finished. I love it!

And here is another from inside the house. You can get a better sense of the gloss from the clear coat as it dries.

I left the garage door open a bit until the next morning. I could walk on it later that night, but did not. I decided not to walk on it until it was safe to drive on it, which would be three days. I’m happy to report that this job exceeded my expectations. I’m so glad I hired someone to do this.

This job only took about three hours to complete. I was amazed. My neighbor came by and ended up having them do the exact same thing (color and all) to his garage floor. It did take a couple of weeks before they were able to do the job, one of those weeks due to bad weather. During that time I was busy learning Sketchup, starting by modelling the way I wanted the garage to look. Here is what I came up with.

In the image above there are a couple of wall cabinets sitting where the A/C air handler sits (not modeled). I don’t have a spot for them, so I just put them there for now.

Before putting the other house on the market, I was going to replace the kitchen cabinets to entice buyers. So I purchase the cabinets at the end of 2019. Almost two years later when I finally put the house on the marked, housing prices took off, so my agent felt there was no need to replace the cabinets. As a result I decided I would use them in the garage of this house, which is what you see above.

These cabinets required assembly, so after the floor was done and drying, I used the time to assemble the cabinets and move them into the garage for the time being. The first one always takes the most time because I’m figuring it out. I started with the 24″ base cabinet (B24), shown below. Notice all the other cabinets in boxes in the background.

The next day I assembled the 15″ and 18″ base cabinets (B15 and B18). So getting faster.

Once B15 and B18 were done, I moved them into the garage into the position I will eventually attach them.

The next day I assembled four cabinets: two 30″ base cabinets (B30), the sink base cabinet (SB33), and my first wall cabinet (W30). I moved these into the garage and placed them along the wall opposite to where they will go because I will need them out of the way so I can frame the wall upon which they will be attached.

The following day I assembled W15, W24, W30, and the first 18″ pantry cabinet (P18).

I was missing the 24″ pantry cabinet, which is supposedly on its way, so I only had the second P18 left to assemble. I did that the next day. The missing 24″ cabinet (P24) will fill the opening between the two P18s.

There was a lot of cleanup to do after that, which I got to promptly. Now I am in a holding pattern, with respect to work inside the house, until I get permits. I’m busy modeling the house with SketchUp, which will require a lot more work as I add detail. In the meantime, here is a sneak preview.

The above image is of the overall floor plan. The garage details shown earlier are not part of this model. I will keep that separate. Below is detail of the plumbing (see past post for the actual work). I intend to capture this sort of detail for all the changes I have made and will make. This will take some time, so I will pick away at it until I have modeled everything I feel is needed by the permit office. Even then, I’m sure they will ask for more. It will be a learning process.

I’m not sure when I’ll be able to resume work on the house. My priority now is to continue modeling and get my permit applications in. How long it takes to get approval is a big question. It will probably involve some back and forth. Hopefully the next post will shed more light on this process.

January 6, 2022March 6, 2022

Drywall Hanging Continued – November/December 2021

I was planning to post this only when I had finished hanging all the drywall, with the exception of the master bedroom and bath (haven’t decided what to do there yet), but I ran into a snag in the kitchen that will require the assistance of an electrician. This required me to stop for a bit, so I decided to use the time to catch up on this. I am writing this in early January of 2022, but the work I will be describing took place in November and only the first week of December. After that I took several weeks off and visited family and friends to celebrate my 60th birthday and the holiday season.

At the end of the last post, I had finished hanging the drywall in the dining room. From there I began with the hallway by the guest bathroom. Unfortunately, I only have a couple of pics from that.

I think I neglected to take more pictures because I ran into a problem along the way that took my attention away from picture taking. In the image above, the intersection between the drywall and the ceiling at the inside corner was not square. This left a gap (not shown here because this picture was taken after I fixed the problem). I was aware of the gap, but thought it was small enough to be covered up by the thickness of the drywall. I should have measured it to be sure, because I was wrong. So I had to come up with a solution. What I did was fashion an special piece of left over finger pine (the white wood used for the coffers) and glued it to the existing piece. I wasn’t concerned about the joint, as wood glue is very strong and more than sufficient for the job. I was concerned about how to clamp the new custom piece to the existing board. Fortunately there was a joist right next to where the new piece would be placed, and I was able to use wedges to maintain the pressure as the wood glue set. The tricky part was to get the butt joint lined up properly, but I managed it. With that in place, I moved to another area to resume drywall hanging so the glue could set up undisturbed.

Some time ago I hung the drywall on the ceiling of the foyer. I was not happy with the results because there was a dip in the center. The joists were not properly aligned. I thought I had addressed this problem a long time ago, but it was not sufficient. It was not really noticeable by eye, but it bothered me. So I pulled down the drywall and got busy creating furring strips to level the joists. With the aid of my thickness planer, this made all the difference. I rehung the drywall I pulled down and was happy with the result.

I labelled the above picture “first attempt” because it is the only clear image I have of it. This is the uneven ceiling before I pulled it down. I included it because, as I mentioned above, you can’t tell that it is uneven from the picture (it dips down in the center), so it’s what you would see if I had a clear image of the correction.

After hanging the foyer ceiling, I returned to the hallway where the glue for the repair was fully set. I finished hanging the drywall there. The pics shown above of that hallway are all I have (sorry).

I then went back to the foyer and started on the walls.

I also ran a second wire from the first to accommodate two sconces. I completed hanging the drywall in the foyer over the next couple of days.

The next step was to work on the long wall in the great room. I’ll call it the Great Wall from now on. However, before doing this I had to do some reorganizing of the workplace as the drywall was stacked in front of the Great Wall.

I moved the many 2x4s that lay along the base of the Great Wall and stacked them in the dining room as shown. I also moved the 12 foot sheets of drywall to the dining room. I left the 8 foot sheets where they were (as shown above) for the time being, as they were not in the way to start the hanging. Once I completed part of the Great Wall, I would move them.

Before I could hang any drywall along the Great Wall, I had to put up the sound insulation.

The section missing sound insulation looks through to the master shower area. That will be filled in before I put the board up on that side.

I started hanging drywall along the Great Wall by doing the top section first (approximately a 2 foot strip). I then added the first 12 foot sheet.

The next day I completed the Great Wall and in the process relocated the 8 foot drywall sheets so that they were out of the way.

I moved onto to the entrance to the master bedroom and then to the south wall of the great room.

Next up was the area around the french doors. To accommodate the french door installation, I had to remove most of the vapor barrier, so that had to be replaced before hanging the drywall. That’s the brown paper you see on the third image.

When the french doors were installed, I no longer had any window covering to provide privacy, so I am using a few drywall off-cuts to do the job. Although it is pretty private in the back, I have a lot of valuable tools strewn about the place, so I don’t want to advertise.

Before hanging any drywall on to the east kitchen wall, I had some more vapor barrier to install.

East Kitchen Wall before I changed my mind.

The next section of the east kitchen wall required a bit of thought because it is where most of the appliances and cabinets will be, so I decided to forego that for now and tackle the north wall of the kitchen because it would be easier. I added sound insulation and started hanging.

It was time to prepare the east kitchen wall. This involved verifying I had the wiring I needed and adding nail plates to protect them from errant drywall screws and such.

Even while prepping the wall, I was not entirely comfortable with the arrangement. The wooden strips you see anchored to the concrete block are only 3/4 of an inch thick. That is probably sufficient for hanging the drywall and cabinets, but is very limiting in terms of adding outlets and running wire. You’ll notice that the two outlets shown above are actually recessed into the concrete block. That is, sections of the block had to be broken to make room for the outlet boxes. So I toyed with the idea of re-framing the wall using 2x4s. The 2x4s would reduce the kitchen area by 2-3/4 inches along the length of the wall, but would provide a much stronger wall and provide ample room for running wire. I could even add some proper insulation. The loss of space was negligible, so it didn’t really factor into my decision. The effort (and cost) versus benefit was the main consideration. After some serious deliberation, I decided to do it.

The first job was to remove the drywall I had already put up around the window and all the furring strips and outlet boxes.

In the images above, you can more easily see the openings in the block to accommodate the outlet boxes. These openings will be covered by sheets of foam-board that I would glue to the concrete block before framing the wall. They provide minimal insulation, but serve well as a vapor barrier.

The red bags of R15 insulation shown above will provide the real insulation along that wall. In the images above, I’m leaning them against the foam-board to apply pressure while the glue sets.

The next day I started framing the wall. I started by putting down a base plate of pressure treated 2x4s, which I secured to the concrete slab using TapCon screws. The rest of the framing built upon it.

Notice that I did not complete the drywall hanging on the part of the north wall adjacent to the east wall. This was because I needed to have the east wall figured out before I would know how far to place the drywall. So that part will be completed only after drywall is hung on the east wall.

After completing this section, I moved to the opposite end and continued from there.

Because of the vent hanging down in the middle, I could not frame the entire wall at once. I had to do it in three sections, leaving a small section for last that I could slip around the vent. I had quite a few 2x4s left over from demolition long back. I was able to make use of almost all of them here. You can see that in the different colors of the vertical pieces.

With the wall framed, I added new outlet boxes and drilled holes in the vertical members to accommodate the wires. I also added the insulation.

I left a couple of sections bare because I still had to figure out exactly where the wiring for the oven, microwave, cook-top, and vent hood would have to emerge from the drywall. But that would have to be figured out in the new year, because I was about to stop work for the holidays.

When I returned from vacation, I thought I would get right back to it, which I did until I hit a snag. I discovered that the cook-top required a 240 volt line, not the 120 volt I had assumed. Silly of me not to notice. When speaking on the phone with an electrician, I learned that it would have to be a separate line from the one feeding the oven. I was prepared to run the new line from the existing one, but was not comfortable introducing a new line from the breaker box. For that I will get an expert, whom I will meet tomorrow. In the next post I will describe what transpired and hopefully will show more drywall in place.

November 1, 2021March 6, 2022

Windows, Move, and Resuming Drywall Hanging – September/October 2021

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

August 14, 2021

Drywall, Ceiling – August 2021

In this post I describe the work I did on the ceiling of the guest bedroom.

All ceilings in the house were knockdown textured, which looks like this:

Since the guest bedroom ceiling required a repair (shown in previous posts) I was faced with how to make the patch match the existing ceiling texture. I decided that rather than attempt that, I would skim coat the entire ceiling (existing knockdown) and re-texture it. By doing this I wouldn’t have any issues with matching, and I might even be able to avoid texturing altogether if the skim coated resulted in a really nice smooth ceiling. So that was what I did.

Because I would be skimming over a painted surface, I needed to use an all-purpose premixed mud rather than the lighter variety I had been using for the walls. The all-purpose mud contains some adhesive elements that make it bond better to painted surfaces. The skimming process will require two passes. For the first pass, I used the mud straight out of the bucket.

The guest bedroom (all bedrooms) have a tray ceiling, so after removing the light, A/C grill, and smoke detector (I wrapped the bit hanging down in a plastic bag) I began by skimming the angled perimeter first.

I was pretty pleased with the result. It seemed to smooth out the texture easily. I wasn’t expecting it to look so smooth right away. I finished the first coat the next day. The images below were captured while most of the mud was still wet, so it looks kind of splotchy, but it is pretty smooth.

The next day, when the first skim coat was dry, I got up close to scrape and sand the really rough bits (no need for a full sanding). There were definitely some rough areas that were not obvious when viewed from a distance. I did not attempt to smooth them out completely. I only cleaned them up a bit in preparation for the second skim coat, which I expected would cover or fill them in. I decided to use the Plus 3 mud for the second, and hopefully final, skim coat. I was already familiar with it since I used it on the walls, and it would be much easier to sand than the thicker all-purpose mud.

I watered down the Plus 3 mud to a thick yogurt consistency and applied it to the angled areas first, just like the first coat. Being the finish coat, I did my best to limit the lines between pulls of the 14″ knife, keeping pressure mostly on the leading edge. This worked well for the flat areas. The corners of the tray were a different matter since I could not get any of my knives to smooth them out. So I resorted to a sponge. I put enough mud over the area, then used a wet sponge to smooth them out. I left a little bit mud in those corners to sand to get the result I wanted. Here are some pics of the second skim coat before I left for the evening.

The next time up, I sanded the ceiling and touched up a few places. After that, the room was ready for primer (ceiling and walls). I picked up a gallon of KILZ original primer and applied it to all inside corners of the walls and ceiling before applying it to the ceiling. With the primer I had left, I applied it to the west wall. The next day I picked up another gallon of primer to finish the priming of the remaining walls, but also picked up a gallon of ceiling paint. It was my intention to prime all surfaces, but only paint the ceiling, since I knew it would be white. When I figure out what colors I will paint the walls, they will be ready.

After the primer was dry on the ceiling and west wall, I used my 4″ drywall knife and a sanding sponge to scrape and smooth out any obvious lines from the priming. During this process I found some areas on the unprimed walls that were not well sanded. This was missed because it is not easy to see them due to all surfaces being white. So I purchased a hand held light wand to help me direct the light more easily and identify defects. It worked really well and helped me sand out small patches I missed the first time. Following that, I primed the remaining three walls.

The next day, I sanded/scraped what I’d primed and then painted the ceiling with the first coat. That was followed up with the second and final coat the next day. I’m only showing pictures of the final result rather than between coats because there’s not much to see. So here is the final result.

Ceiling after Second Coat (still a bit wet by the door).

You can see that I was not concerned about the ceiling paint getting onto the walls where they meet. When I eventually paint the walls, I will cut in properly to make a nice edge.

I’m happy with how the ceiling and walls turned out. That I did not have to texture the ceiling was very pleasing. I was hoping I could have a smooth ceiling, and now I do.

With the walls primed and ceiling painted, as far as drywall is concerned this room is done. My objective was to learn all the lessons I could in this room before proceeding any further with the other rooms. So I will resume hanging drywall in the rest of the house.

However, before doing that, I will suspend work on this house for a while and turn my attention to the house where I reside. My primary residence is about an hour and fifteen minute drive from the house I am renovating. I am getting tired of the drive up and back each day. I spend about two and a half hours driving and only around three hours working. My personal circumstances are such that I no longer need to remain where I am, so I intend to sell my primary residence and get a place very close to the reno. That will save a lot of wear and tear on my car and allow me to spend more time working on the reno. To prepare for this I have to do some minor work on my primary residence to have it ready to show. I’m not sure how long this will take, but it will take my attention for the next few weeks. During this time I expect the windows and doors will be replaced, so I will need to drive up for that. So unless that is delayed, I think the next post will be about the that.

August 1, 2021August 1, 2021

Drywall, Level 1 to 5 – June/July 2021

In the first post about drywall, I neglected to explain what “Level 0” meant in the post title. I could go back and update that post, but now that I will be discussing level 1, I’ll just do that here. There are five levels of drywall finishing. For most of the walls, I will strive to achieve a level 5 finish. The levels are as follows:

Level 0: Simply hanging the drywall itself. No finishing at all.
Level 1: All joints and interior angles have tape embedded in joint compound. Excess joint compound, tool marks and ridges are acceptable.
Level 2: All joints and interior angles have tape embedded in joint compound and wiped with a joint knife leaving a thin coating of joint compound over all joints and interior angles. Only a single coating is required. Also, all screw heads have been covered with joint compound. Tool marks and ridges are acceptable. Achieving this level is good enough for the surface to receive tile or for a garage.
Level 3: Same as level 2, but an additional covering of screw heads, and tool marks and ridges must be removed. Achieving this level is sufficient when the surface is to be covered with a heavy textured finish, which will hide any imperfections. In my case, reaching this level on a ceiling intended to have a “knockdown” texture, is acceptable.
Level 4: Same as level 3, but an additional coat of joint compound is required to cover flat joints. Screw heads and accessories require three coats (an extra from level 3). This level of finish is sufficient for walls that will take a mat paint finish or will be lightly textured.
Level 5: Same as level 4, but a light skim coat is required to cover the entire surface. This level of finish is required when a smooth wall finish is desired and a non-flat paint is to be used.

In this post I will describe the work I do in the guest bedroom. As mentioned in the last post, I decided to stop hanging drywall after getting three of the rooms hung (almost – more on that later in this post). I decided to circle back to the guest bedroom and move forward through the levels so that I can gain experience that I can use when I move on to the other rooms.

I found a great YouTube channel called Vancouver Carpenter, which has helped me a lot That guy is a really good instructor. In one of his videos he discussed the need to prefill all joints before attempting to tape. Prefilling involves using a setting compound (as opposed to a joint compound) to fill all gaps. The idea is to have a surface that is ready to accept tape, where the tape will not get sucked into the gap. The setting compound contains a hardener and has minimal shrinking after drying, so it will be a pretty strong surface upon which to tape. Here is a before and after of the first wall I hung in the guest bedroom.

Notice that the setting compound is applied to all seems. The gaps between the wall and the ceiling are all filled. Even the factory edges (horizontal edges with bevels) are prefilled. For the vertical butt joints (non-factory edges), I use a utility knife to cut a small v-groove into which the setting compound will go. The claim is that by prefilling even the non-gappy seems, you will reduce the likelihood of cracks appearing later on.

Here are more images of the other walls. Although not required for level 1, I also covered the screw heads. It’s not pretty, but the gaps are filled.

Following this work, my order for 100 feet of mass loaded vinyl (MLV) for sound insulation arrived, so I set about putting it up on the remaining wall in the workshop; the one that borders the office.

I attached this using drywall screws and plastic caps from roofing nails. It worked well enough, but I switched to a screw with wafer heads for the remaining portions.

Next, I covered the MLV with drywall to finish the drywall hanging for the workshop. As alluded to in the beginning of this post, this was the true last bit of drywall I would hang before circling back to finish the drywall in the guest bedroom

Drywall Covering MLV on West Wall of Workshop

After doing all this, it was time to determine if the MLV provided some level of sound insulation. To do this, I played a song on my phone and placed the phone behind the wall (in the office). I then compared what I heard with what I heard when the I moved the phone where no sound insulation was in place. Unfortunately, I did not notice any difference, which surprised me. So I will try using a different material next time and see if it improves things. MLV is expensive and hanging it is difficult because it is so heavy, so I am happy to try another material. But that will have to wait until I am ready to continue hanging drywall. For now, it is back to the guest bedroom.

I decided to address the opening in the ceiling of the guest bedroom first. We opened that area long ago to see why the ceiling and the wall in the corner were not straight. It didn’t really reveal anything obvious, so I decided to open it up further.

I discovered that the corner was poorly aligned due to some makeshift framing. To improve it, I added a few nailers (sorry, forgot to take pics) then patched it with drywall that would bring it closer into alignment.

By straightening the ceiling (it no longer swoops up to meet the adjacent part), the corner piece is a bit lower that the adjacent part of the ceiling it meets. I could not improve upon that without major surgery, so I will make the adjustments using mud (what they call “mud framing”). The patch looks kind of ugly right now, but it will be fine when I tape, mud, and finish it. You can already get a sense of it after prefilling the gaps.

After that dried, I started taping it.

After taping I applied my first cover coat.

One of the advantages of addressing the ceiling patch first, was that it gave me an opportunity to try taping and mudding in an area that will likely be covered by a texture (knockdown or skip trowel) and therefore more forgiving. After doing this I felt ready to start taping and mudding the rest of the seams in the guest bedroom, which will be less forgiving. Here are several shots of the result after applying my first cover coat. Note that while doing this I continued to add additional coats to the ceiling patch as I went along to smooth it out (more required, though).

One of the most difficult parts of this was the work required to tape the corners between the new drywall and the ceiling. This required that I scrape and remove the tape that was under the finished surface of the ceiling to make room for the new tape. I used a wet sponge to soften the dry knockdown texture covering the tape on the ceiling, then started picking away at it. Sometimes I would get a nice long strip to come off, but mostly it involved pulling bits and pieces. In the end I was successful and was able to apply new tape to the corners. It turned out well, but I’m not looking forward to doing this in the other rooms. I’ll search for a more efficient method when I get to that again.

To bring the walls to level 4, I required a second coat of mud. I did this in stages, applying the mud to one side of the inside corners first, then the other side the next day. I did some light sanding in between to get rid of any obvious imperfections and tool marks.

As usual, I added more coats to the ceiling patch. It’s just about where I want it now.

After applying the second coat and allowing ample time to dry, it was time to give it a good sanding in preparation for the skim coat (which would take it to level 5). To do this I used a pole sander and a hand held sanding sponge.

Here are some images of the result after sanding (level 4).

For skim coating, I tried a few different methods. I found another YouTube channel I liked (Paul Peck Drywall) that showed how he used a paint roller to apply the mud before using a 14″ knife to remove it. So I experimented a bit. I first tried using the trowel to both apply and remove the mud. Then I tried the paint roller and the 14″ knife. I did a bit of back and forth between the two before finally settling on the roller/knife approach. You can only use the paint roller when skim coating, because the mud is thinned down enough to make the roller work. When cover coating, you will not thin the mud (or only slightly), so applying it with a roller is not practical. I found that applying the mud for skim coating with the roller was faster and easier, so that became my preferred method. Perhaps I’ll change my mind some day, but at my current skill level, this works well.

I did this for all walls over several days, then started on a second skim coat for all walls. Between coats I did a bit of sanding, but after the second skim coat, I paid more attention to the sanding and finish. The second skim coat would be the final one before paint primer, so I spent a lot of time looking for imperfections and sanded them as needed. I also identified areas that needed a bit more mud and touched them up before the final sanding. Here is the result.

West and North Walls second Skim Coat Sanded

I’m happy with this. The real test will be how the walls look after the primer and paint are applied, but that won’t happen until I get the ceiling done, which is my next task and the topic of the next post. So until then…