red hot strapping mama

Oh yeah. We're done with the metal. Today we started the strapping, and it was good. I learned how to use a powerful drill, and spent much of the day screwing. Strapping to the ceiling, of course. Please note there are 2 screws for every meeting of strap to joists.



Here's the nasty corner, with 2 levels of ductwork, all framing by moi meme. Isn't it shiny?


And here's the incentive to finish:


Yes, that's a full drum kit in our living room. The boys had band practice yesterday, and I don't know what songs they played, but I can tell you it was loud. We bought a mess of sound insulation today, we'll probably start insulating on Monday, once the wiring and cable is done. I asked Hugh 3 times if he'd do the cable tomorrow. Here's what I now know.

1. It only takes 10 minutes.
2. It's easy to do.
3. You just go to the box and finish it (huh?).

What I don't know is whether or not Hugh will actually run the cable tomorrow. Maybe if I ask him to show me, he'll just do it.

Tomorrow is also Easter, when we commemorate a resurrection by finding chocolate eggs hypothetically laid by a placental mammal. I'm voting we switch it to the Easter platypus. Far more interesting and plausible.

Happy oestrus, all! May your garden prove fertile, and anything else you wish to multiply.

fingers and framing and funds, oh my!

I am a bit of a control freak. I like to do things all by myself. But I am now getting help from our awesome friend Mike, who is capable of taking control ever so gently. He does have the advantage of a renovation skill set, including monster tools and actual experience. 

As you can see from picture #1, he removed 2 walls worth of drywall, something I wouldn't have done - too much work. It will look better, as we'll actually have even corners now. My plan was strategically located furniture, the inexperienced DIY'ers friend.

This is the wall! And door! Note the desk and TV on the wrong side! And 1/4" wider than the door! Even perfectionists make mistakes...

This is a sideways picture of the closet that will hide the main water intake. I'd turn it, but that would involve technological skills I have yet to master.

This is the plumbing, sans framing, right side up. Note the brilliant flooring job around said artifact. 

This is some of my framing. Alas, not all survived, as the drywall on the right side of this picture was removed.

See the progress? See?

Next steps - well, Mike'll be back tomorrow, doing more framing. He and Hugh will be framing in the bulkheads, and adding cable outlets. I'll be attempting to earn the $$$ to pay for this - as we can't just use Mike as volunteer labour. If he just did a day to help, fine, but he's talking about framing and electrical and drywall and taping - way too much work to not pay him!

My icky 11th finger has merited me a fast-track visit to a dermatologist. My GP was concerned. Why? I've had the silly icky thing for years, if it was cancerous I'd be dead by now. Not pining for the fjords. Pushing up the daisies. Joining the bleeding choir Mehitabel. F***king snuffed it (children watching as I type). So I will meet a 3rd dermatologist in May. #1 took a nasty black thing off my leg. It wasn't cancer. #2 diagnosed a benign spider hemangioma on my 3rd child. It will vanish when pubertis rears its lovely head (pun sort of intended). Now #3 will likely shorten my icky finger, to see if it represents some form of carcinoma, and will find it's fine but may remove it anyways. That won't be fun - the silly thing has its own blood supply and starts at the base of my nail, if not lower. Ah well, now all that remains is to come up with a witty yet unassuming name for it, a task made easier by the fact that smarter minds than I are working on it! Thanks, smart minds.

Right, off to play on the Wii Fit and watch American Idol, the world's most annoying show. Waste time much? I do.

the project expands

I've done almost no framing in the last week. Instead, I've emptied bookshelves and moved as much as I can into the unfinished room in the basement. The furnace room. Where, if there were monsters, they would live. It's also where the laundry is, so not everything fit - no way am I blocking off or infringing on my laundry area.

I've cut up rugs, dragged them outside and dumped them in the garage. Now the room that will eventually be 2 rooms is bare concrete floor, a 300 pound 15 year old TV, a really old, solid oak desk and the computer table. Things I couldn't move - at least not without severe damage to self. And I'm feeling battered enough. We had a mess of books, and I think I moved most of them twice. Plus I dragged a few loads of, um, lovely stuff to Value Village, before opening hours, so they couldn't refuse it. I have one load left. Tomorrow.

The plan has expanded quite a lot. Initially I was going to finish the ceiling and use a bookcase for a wall. Now I'm adding a subfloor system, a real wall and door, and a ceiling. Plus I'll likely drywall the ceiling, and add a nice floor on top of the subfloor. I am leaning towards cork.

There are only a few obstacles now in my way.

1. No cash
2. Not strong enough to get the stuff home from Home Depot
3. See 1

I'll do it anyways. Heck, the entire economy seems to be based on the rich borrowing from the Chinese to buy crap we don't need. I've estimated the subfloor at $900, which I can scrounge up, and the cork at around $4k, which I can't. It is well within my line of credit availability, but och, laddy, the Scottish in me is nae so keen on that. I'll start with what I can afford. And see how I feel once it comes time to buy the fancy shmancy floor. The thing is, while I could just leave the subfloor and throw a few area rugs on it, I am really, really, really not keen on moving all the bookcases back, then moving them AGAIN when I finally suppress the inner Scot and buy a floor. My back is currently trying to throttle the Scot for thinking about it.

Our living room has been transformed from an island of tranquility to the rec room, as of course the kids can't survive without the computer or vidiot games. They are playing some Bond game on the Wii, many explosions are occuring. Happily the drum kit has not been reassembled, as that could compel Hugh and I to move into the attic. Or the basement. There's lots of room!

My 6th finger

I've read that if you get a full body scan, odds are good doctors will find 3 to 4 abnormalities, none of which are likely to kill or injure you. We're all freaks! Meaning, of course, that freakish traits are normal, and the perfect human would indeed be a freak.

I have an abnormality you can scan with your eyeballs. It's a teeny tiny "finger", growing under my nail on my ring finger, and it's icky.


I realize this isn't the easiest image to see. It's small, you can only see the tip of it on the end of my finger. Near the clearly trashed edge of the burl of a formerly nice end table. Sigh. We bought the furniture from a guy moving to Arizona, so it was cheap, and we've considered it as utilitarian until the kids are old enough to not destroy it. As child #1 is fond of hosting parties, those years are not yet in sight.

Back to mini-me, my tiny icky finger. It's been growing under my nail for years, compelling me to keep the nails long. But construction work and long nails are a very bad combo, so I cut off my nails, revealing my icky finger to the entire world. Mwah hah hah! The world includes my doctor, a lovely GP, who immediately said it's got to come off and filled in the referral to one of the very few dermatologists in Ottawa. Hence my 21st century need to document this, for surely the world would end if a minute detail of any of our lives were to perish.../sarcasm off.

OK, time to find my good friend the cordless drill and start more framing. I will try not to do any unintentional self surgery on any of my 11 digits, but if I do, I will not post images of injuries until it's safe to take pictures. I don't want to get blood on the camera. Or the keyboard, which is already sticky.

I don't want to join the Amish!

My construction project has begun.

Connor, aka middle child, wants his own bedroom. This is not an unreasonable request, and he's more than happy to have it in the basement. Our basement already has a large room that is mostly finished. Mostly. The walls are drywalled and painted. The floors have an assortment of coverings, none of which will ever be seen in a home decor magazine. There is lighting, and you could call it mood lighting if the mood you want is cave-like.

There is also an unfinished ceiling and a mess of ductwork. The ductwork is sort of in one place. I'd describe it as an L with a couple of small extra legs. An unfinished ceiling is not good for a bedroom because it doesn't muffle the sound of people walking overhead. It is also really bad at muffling Connor's drumming, which, while skilled, is not quiet.

I did some research on ceilings - if googling "finish basement ceiling" qualifies as research. It probably doesn't, but is there such a thing as peer review for construction articles? There probably should be. The Journal of Competent Construction is begging for a publisher. Mike Holmes should be the editor.

I found several options. All of them, except for the just-spray-paint-the-whole-thing-black one, involve framing the "obstructions". So I decided that I would do that, then decide whether to go with drywall, tongue & groove wood or acoustic tile.

The framing directions I found looked pretty basic and feasible. I mean, it's not exactly carpentry when you can cover your mistakes with drywall, right? So I spent about an hour on Friday night, gazing worshipfully at the ceiling with it's various bits of ductwork coiling around eachother. I drew a lovely diagram of where my framing would go, carefully colour coded. In pencil and crayon. MOMA, watch out! That drawing could be the most successful part of the job.

The next day, after my usual Saturday morning cleanup, I ventured into Home Depot to buy a few bits of lumber to allow me to get started. I did a couple of things right.

1. I looked at the wood to pick straighter bits that weren't full of knots and dings.
2. I remembered to buy screws.

I also did a couple of things wrong.

1. I didn't look at metal studs, which are easier to work with.
2. I bought 3.5" screws - WAY too long.

I was delighted that the wood fit nicely into the car. I was less delighted at home when I couldn't get the window to go up, but Hugh fixed that. A stuck down window in Ottawa in winter makes a car undrivable.

I brought all the wood downstairs. Hugh found me a drill. He said I wouldn't need the table saw, which is buried in the garage, as it'd only take a couple of seconds to cut through each 2x2. I found a saw. I measured 3 times. I made the first couple of cuts, which did not take a couple of seconds but went relatively well. It doesn't matter if the wood splinters at the end, because you won't see it, right?

After cutting 2 lengths and 11 cross bits of lumber, it was time to start attaching them. Connor taught me of the existance of a wondrous item, the awl. I really, really like the awl. So far, it's my favourite part of the job. Yeah Connor! You rock.

I then stuck in a screw, attached the drill, and watched as the drill failed to turn. I ramped up the power, and stripped the screw. No problem - I bought a kilo of them. I stripped the next screw. So I found a drill bit you can use to get the hole started. But our tools are an eclectic bunch. Acquired at various garage sales over the years, with the odd 70% off kit from Canadian Tire to supplement them, they have endured many migrations and shuffling of parts. So I have a cordless drill with bits - but no charger. A powerful drill with no bits, that is an extremely effective device for stripping screws. And an antique drill that is manual.

My framing work consisted of cutting lumber with a saw, drilling holes with a manual drill, and screwing bits together with a screwdriver. I felt like I was imitating some electricity-hating commune, although I did have the benefit of artificial light.

I now have a 90" span complete with 7 cross bits, a 36" span with cross bits, the bottom bits to attach the 2 together, and really sore hands. And I woke up realizing I didn't align the already drilled holes properly so will need to redo the 4 holes in the 90" span that will, eventually, link up to the 36" span. Make that 5, as I also did one wrong and realized it yesterday.

I feel a sense of accomplishment. I have 2 spans done, although not attached to the ceiling joists yet, and only 10 to go. This may be feasible, even without power tools.

NOTE. Anyone using this as construction advice is an idiot, and should seek urgent psychiatric help IMMEDIATELY.