This weekend, Liz and I have been revisiting the trim we want to order. We’ve gone through this process a few times, and have finally landed on a vendor… but still need to do some work on figuring out just how much material we need.
With more duct work and electrical and piping now in the basement, we can no longer easily just insert a full-length board across the basement.
Luckily for us, Bob’s done this sort of thing before. And cut a long board into two notched pieces, which we would then “lock” into place with a tapered peg.
A newer term I somehow didn’t know until today: acorn nut. In the instructions, it told me to use a certain bolt and to attach the “acorn nut.” I eventually figured it out.
With more paint stripper from yesterday’s trip to the suburbs, Liz continued on her work today with the second pocket door. Here, she’s carefully removing trim pieces (which will get cleaned and reinstalled later).
We moved the second pocket door down to the basement recently. We have a lot of doors stored down here already, but with our recent basement reorg… we’ve got a lot more room to work with.
Basement reorg done! The masonite is going to stay, because Liz needs some floor protection for when she’s stripping/refinishing wood. And also for any impromptu breakdancing competitions that might happen.
Which tool do you think was the most useful, today?
We’ve had a few days to decompress and just rest/relax/loaf. And today, we decided to suit up and put a little time into some house work. The basement has been super neglected for a long time, and one of Liz’s goals for our holiday break was to do some serious reorganization.
Liz, painting one of many long boards we have in the basement. She’s using a linseed oil paint, which has a pretty long dry/cure time. So storing these super long boards out of the way (and keeping them from smudging) has been challenge.
We had plans for a lazy day today… but come noon, Liz and I opted to suit up to tackle a few things outside. The weather’s turning, and with more cold temps coming our way… we decided to do as much as we could, to try to finalize some existing/ongoing projects.
A few photos over the course of a few days, showing off some progress on the back porch. Liz has been painting a bit, as I’ve been (slowly) working on getting the railing re-installed/replaced.
The hope is to turn this into a sort of staging area, for when we get to the windows. So with some timing and luck, we’ll likely be transforming this room again in a few weeks. But for now, things look a bit more normal.
Bob always has a few tricks up his sleeve, but I found this particular install impressive. He’s helping put in the exterior siding to the area under the kitchen (where we will eventually store a lot of outdoor supplies, and our garbage bins).
We’ve been using the space under the kitchen as a very makeshift storage area, and a lot of “stuff” as just wound up underneath there. Today, I cleared most of it out in anticipation of some additional work happening soon (putting up some siding, and adding doors).
Putting plywood up means we won’t have as much air going into the basement. And also allows for certain four-legged friends to be near the space, without fear that they might tumble down into the basement.
Not a very sexy project. But a small step towards making the first floor a little more normal.