Yesterday was a really completely different type of work day for me. Y’all know that I nearly at all times work alone. Once I’m able to work on a venture, I placed on my noise-cancelling headphones, activate a podcast, and get busy. I cease each two hours and verify on Matt, however aside from that, it’s simply me and my instruments.
However yesterday, I had a helper/apprentice working with me. This can be a younger man in his early 20s from my church who can also be in my Wednesday evening church group. He’s a scholar on the native commerce college the place he’s learning avionic electronics (I feel I bought that proper 😀 ). And whereas he’s going to high school, he’s additionally working. He talked about Wednesday evening that at his job, he was handed a caulk gun, however he had by no means used a caulk gun earlier than, so he didn’t know learn how to use it. Somebody mentioned, “Nicely, it’s best to have referred to as Kristi!” I jokingly mentioned, “Sure! I can maintain a seminar on caulk weapons and you’ll come.” He mentioned, “I ought to get your telephone quantity and are available work with you someday.”
I wasn’t positive if he was critical or not, however as I used to be leaving, he requested for my telephone quantity, after which he really came to visit yesterday and labored with me on the storage room from 3:00pm till 8:00pm! And it was SO FUN! And what I liked is that it was very a lot a give and take for each of us. He’s a younger, robust man, so did lots (or most) of the heavy lifting and gave my drained, a lot weaker physique a break. He carried out the entire heavy contractor baggage stuffed with tile and concrete board that I had faraway from the partitions. And I walked him by means of utilizing a round noticed, setting the depth gauge on the noticed, learn how to begin a reduce with a round noticed in the course of a flooring versus beginning on the sting of a bit of plywood, and so on.
We bought the entire tile, concrete board, and drywall that crammed up the bathtub bagged and eliminated, after which I confirmed him what holds a tub in place and learn how to take away these issues so {that a} bathtub may be taken out. And naturally, he was extremely useful in really getting the bathtub pulled out and brought outdoors.
After which we marked and measured the place the ground joists are (or needs to be) in order that we might reduce a big sufficient gap within the flooring in order that I might look beneath and see if I might decide the place the scuttle gap to the crawl house must go. I had forgotten that this lavatory really has two subfloors in some areas, so I used to be in a position to clarify to him the distinction between how we do subfloors at the moment in loos versus how they did subfloors in loos again within the late 40s and early 50s.
Again then, they put the subfloor between the ground joists in loos, with the brief subfloor boards sitting on stringers which can be nailed to the edges of the ground joists, in order that high of the subfloor and the highest fringe of the ground joists have been flush with one another. That gave them an additional 3/4″ of house for that tremendous thick mattress of mortar (or concrete) that they used to make use of to put in flooring tile on lavatory flooring. Whereas at the moment, we put the plywod subfloor on high of the ground joists, after which put concrete board over the subfloor, after which set up tile with a a lot thinner layer of mortar.
He had additionally by no means seen how a pier and beam basis is constructed, so he bought a glimpse of that yesterday. He’ll get a significantly better view of it at the moment after we take this complete flooring up. We didn’t try this yesterday as a result of we actually wanted to get the ceiling drywall eliminated and out of the room earlier than taking on the subfloor in order that we might have a floor for our ladders. Additionally, if we took the subfloor up first, after which took the drywall off of the ceiling, all of that drywall would fall below the home into the crawl house, making the cleanup course of a lot more durable.
So after I used to be in a position to fulfill my curiosity and look below the home to find out the place the scuttle gap wanted to go (which, sadly, is simply contained in the storage room door, so it should undoubtedly be front-and-center), I coated the opening with a bit of plywood and we bought began on the ceiling drywall. Since he wished the expertise, I let him do the toughest half and take down the part that had the tile on it that was above the tub. He had just a little hassle with it, particularly round that vent, so he requested for my enter on learn how to go about it, I gave him some pointers, and he bought it finished!
Whereas he was doing the tiled part, I used to be engaged on eradicating the remainder of the ceiling drywall. I uncovered all type of junk up there that I ought to have eliminated the primary time I did this lavatory rework. However I bear in mind being so scared about having to take away the ceiling drywall again then (I was so petrified of that attic), so I’m positive I simply wished to get the ceiling coated as rapidly as doable. This time round, I’ll take a while to take away all of this junk (very outdated batt insulation, random items of plywood and wooden, outdated wiring that isn’t related to something) earlier than the brand new drywall goes up.
Once we stopped working at 8:00 final evening, the room regarded like a whole mess, however we had made some nice progress.
It nonetheless has to get just a little bit worse earlier than it begins getting higher.
The final two remaining issues that must occur earlier than the plumber will get right here subsequent Tuesday is the concrete board and subfloor want to come back up, and the wiring for the retailers, switches, and lights have to be rerouted to their new places for the storage room.
I’m hoping we are able to get most of that finished at the moment, after which I’ll simply want to attend for the plumber to come back on Tuesday.
As soon as the plumber is completed, the room can be prepared for rebuild — new subfloor, new flooring, and new drywall.
If we are able to get these final two issues finished at the moment, I’d even have a weekend free to work on a enjoyable, artistic venture! I’ve just a few concepts rolling round in my thoughts of some issues I’d like to make only for the enjoyable of it, and I’d like to have a while to mess around with these with feeling responsible about how I actually needs to be spending my time engaged on this storage room. 😀 A few days of enjoyable, artistic tasks could be an amazing break earlier than I’ve to begin again on this room. However there’s additionally an excellent likelihood that we gained’t get completed, so I is likely to be again on this room tomorrow getting the final bits completed up earlier than the plumber will get right here.
Addicted 2 Adorning is the place I share my DIY and adorning journey as I rework and beautify the 1948 fixer higher that my husband, Matt, and I purchased in 2013. Matt has M.S. and is unable to do bodily work, so I do the vast majority of the work on the home on my own. You possibly can be taught extra about me right here.
