Basement Door Work, Continued
Tonight was supposed to be house night, but I ended up doing work work while Liz suited up and continued working in the basement.
Posts Tagged "our first home"
Basement Door Work
Liz has been a lot more motivated than me of late, in terms of working on the house. While I had some momentum setting up the washer and dryer, I’ve since settled from that motion.
Setting Up the Dryer
Next up was the hardest bit: removing the existing gas line. Originally, I had intended to just pop off the cap. I struggled with this a bit, and decided halfway that it would be better to remove this length of pipe entirely (which connected to the gas shutoff valve).
Setting up the Washer
The laundry has been piling up. And under normal circumstances, I’d be going to the laundromat. But we’ve had a washer/dryer combo sitting in the basement for some time now, waiting to get hooked up.
We’ve punted on setting these up, choosing instead to focus on the first floor of the house. It was a conscious choice, and the bulk of our efforts have been on getting the first floor a bit more in shape, a bit more habitable.
Cleaning Up the Basement
I think that for Liz, she needs to keep active and to do things. It helps her, to keep her mind focuse on other tasks. For me, diving into ordinary chores and tasks is incredibly difficult, due to the dissonance between the mundane thing I’m doing and the world outside my window.
Newly Taped Dining Room
While there are some areas that are still wavy, the taper really did “hide our sins” in terms of some of the gaps and differences between our boards.
Dining Room Cleanup, and the Ting Test
When we got to checking the ceiling, it was *ting* *ting* *ting* everywhere. After a minute, we decided to just let me go and review/re-hit every single screw, rather than having Liz test. Because they were almost all bad.
Last Dining Room Drywall
The last 1/2″ bit of drywall was, of course, the trickiest for us to install. We got the measurements right, and dryfitting was pretty good. But we had to lift and almost get the piece fitted from an angle. It was really awkward and stressful, but once it went in it was pretty good.
Basement Door Drywall, Re-Do
This was a disheartening thing to see: most of our work, in piles of rubble around the room. Apparently, we didn’t have a beveled edge over the door, and there were waves in the pieces we installed. So he spent a while tearing that out so we could start again.
Another Late House Night
It was late in the evening by the time we got to putting up more 1/2 by the basement door. We were making a lot of mistakes in our measurements and cuts – partly due to how late it was, and partly due to the fact that we’d been working a lot of late nights for some while now.
Dining Room Drywall, Continued
We’ve noticed that, as the night wears on, we get tired and start making mistakes. While I’ve been really proud and excited by all our progress and momentum these last weeks, tonight just left me feeling bad – ending the whole evening’s work with a mistake.
A Late House Night
All of us began working and hanging out in the dining room together, with Bob focusing on the duct work and Liz and I continuing to drywall. Despite the cramped space, we managed to navigate around one another pretty well.
Solo Dining Room Drywall Run
I’m still not sure if we can make our deadline of having this room done by next weekend. But the more I can get done now (this weekend), the better off we’ll be. So it made sense to try to put a little more time on my own.
Dining Room Shuffle and Drywall
With the cabinet interior done, we just had to cut a 10′ board and slap it up. We debated a bit, and then Liz said “Let’s just stop talking and do it.”
Taping the Living Room, Day 1
I’ve been pretty bleary-eyed since our work last night. And both Liz and I are pretty exhausted. But it’s exciting to see this room shape up, and I look forward to seeing its progression over the course of the weekend.