The rockers came during the week, while Liz and I both were upstairs working. I got to see some of the early work, but on walking down as they were packing up… the whole area looked completely different.
The main hall felt like a room again, and not a bunch of exposed studs. It was a very shocking thing to see.
Rockers are coming tomorrow, and tonight we had some last-minute prep work to do. Put up the remaining backer boards, and move all the drywall so it’s accessible (the ceiling drywall is tucked away in the kitchen).
But those stressors aside, the fact that we have our flooring physically here? The fact that we’re at this phase in the process, aiming to get actual new floors down… it’s really remarkable. It’s a tremendous milestone for us. And amidst the whirl and bustle of everything that has happened (and has yet to happen), it’s easy to lose track of that.
One of the strong arguments against renovating your home while living inside it: the lack of available space. We’ve gotten used to shuffling things around, but things on the first floor are starting to get a bit cramped.
Rough night tonight.
We were much faster tonight, having shaken off the cobwebs last night. We were moving a bit faster, and covered a decent amount of ground.
It’s been a while since Liz and I tackled prepping and installing backer board. The process isn’t too bad overall, but we were slowly remembering the process and steps.
The reason for this particular work: on Bob’s suggestion, installing backer board along the base of all the walls saves time during the trim installation period. No need to hunt and hope for a stud – because you can nail in anywhere at all. Because the backer board is everywhere.
After a few nights working solo, I was fortunate to have Liz help with getting the remaining drywall patches up on the ceiling. She’s been super busy with work work lately, and tonight was a moment when she pulled away to help out.
Around 5:45 PM, I set up this area for us downstairs to sit and plan out the next few weeks. There’s a lot of things Bob is working on, all of which needs to happen prior the drywall guys coming. And then the taper coming after that. And then Nick/Milton to do the actual, final floor install.
A lot of the afternoon was me figuring out just how to go about cutting material to fit. I needed to add one layer of 1/2″ plywood, and then another 3/8″ lawyer of drywall on top of that.
A closer look at the damaged joist (which I discovered last year, when doing demo in the office space). The fire damage is right near where a light fixtured used to be, along with the old gas lines that fed into the light. It’s a small miracle this house (and all houses at the time) didn’t burn to a crisp with all the gas lighting inside.
Electrical is stubbed out for the closet!
As Bob was working on the new closet, he needed the top part of the drywall mudded and taped (per code). He’s finishing up the duct work here, and needed this done before the next day. So Liz ended up suiting up unexpectedly tonight, and put in some time trying to get into some pretty tight spaces.
It was mostly lathe removal, but led to a ton of debris and soot from the ceiling. A shame that our new plywood got so dark from grime and muck. You can see where the trash can was, and how dirty the debris makes things.
The original frame was about 16″ closer to the door. This small adjustment gives us a bit more room on first walking inside the house.