Porch and Polish

Liz and I had a mix of house tasks today. While I was outside working on the yard, she was inside cleaning up a lot of hardware.
Liz and I had a mix of house tasks today. While I was outside working on the yard, she was inside cleaning up a lot of hardware.
With the wall clear, there were a few more things we had to do before adding drywall. First up: installing some wood header pieces, inside the joist spaces, so that the drywall had something to grab onto. And we also wanted to add some soundproof insulation to the walls (a future plan for this space down here is to convert it into a bathroom).
It’s really quite amazing to see how bright things look, and how many details really stand out now. Quite the transformation.
Tonight, we walked through the instructions together, and fine-tuned the depth of the nailer. After a few practice nails on some scrap lumber, she was ready to go all-in.
In the makeshift sever room, which was more or less a back storage area. There were three PCs stacked on top of one another, all connected to a single monitor. There were also three separate keyboards hooked into the machines, and a single mouse. Who doesn’t love a puzzle?
Today, Liz and I decided to focus our efforts on clearing up some room in the basement. While we’ve been working a lot on installing drywall in the second floor hallway, our main goal has really been to use up the existing materials we have stored (and scattered) around the house.
Our first stop (and primary errand) was Salvage One – and a hope that we could find a skeleton key that fit some of the old locks that we have (in particular, for the vintage kitchen door that Liz is restoring).
Quite the transformation from when we first saw it.
Mentioning it here because an issue like this might have derailed us for a significant time, a year or so ago. But on encountering it, we evaluated the situation, made a few measurements, did a cut, and proceeded along with the install.
Big day for us today, continuing our work in the hallway with the (very heavy) soundproof drywall. We made good progress a few days ago, and were looking to continuing working with the material today. The big challenge: getting it lifted up another 4′.
The thing of this is: I’d only ever tried installing this with Bob. The drywall is thick (5/8″), comprised of two pieces glued together. And the kicker? The thing is heavy. Like heav-y.
Back when I was helping Bob install this in the master bedroom, I struggled a lot just moving boards around. And had trouble lifting up the boards onto horses.
Saturday was a house day for us, with our focus being on the upstairs hallway. We’ve made some progress during the week, and even got a bit of drywall on the ceiling. But today was a day to continue that work, and to start prepping the walls a bit more.
It’s kind of a two-fold strategy: aim to stop working at 5PM, and shift gears to work on the house instead. It somewhat ensure we don’t overwork at our jobs, while at the same time prioritize our own house work. Any progress is still progress.
Scored the plaster with a razor, and was able to demo out a small little area. Found the space between two studs, and easily removed the lathe with a multitool. Broke out the sawzall to get through the siding.
With us in the last week of our time off from work, Liz and I have set out some house tasks to complete. Work was particularly busy for the both of us, in the last months of this year… and we’re trying to get back into a rhythm of working on the house, consistently, again.