It has been a busy several months, and I am sincerely sorry for not updating the site… I know we have thousands of people hanging onto every word… waiting to find out what we’ve accomplished… …ok, maybe not thousands. Dozens? Probably not. Maybe a handful… But either way, I have finally decided to post an update… so here it goes!

We’ve pretty much finished the basement, except for some final touches. we put down laminate flooring and had carpet installed. We laid a subfloor in the bathroom, and then laid vinyl flooring in my workroom, the bathroom, and the laundry room.

We found the vinyl flooring fairly easy to install. To make it easier, we cut it to approximately the right size, and then carefully moved it into place. The final result turned out great!

The bathroom went together fairly painlessly… The corner shower was simple to install, the sink was easy, but the toilet was a bit of a pain. The closet flange installed by the plumber had an outer ring that could spin around the inner flange. Since the flange was set in concrete, we figured it wouldn’t be necessary to affix the outer flange to the concrete. Boy, were we wrong. Upon tightening the toilet down, we heard a loud snapping sound, and lifted the toilet to find that the outer ring had separated from the inner flange. We hammered it back on, and then went to Home Depot to get some concrete screws to hold it in place. Once that was done, all was good!

Aside from all of this, we have assembled my new desk, installed all the recessed lighting, finished off all the electrical, and done most of the trim work. We’ve also installed the suspended ceiling in the laundry room, and installed all of the doors but one. We are so close to complete, that we’ve even moved the TV and some chairs into the basement family room. I am now also using my basement office, having moved all my stuff downstairs.

I know there’s lots of little things left to do, but I’m in no rush to do them, since it’s summer and I need to save some projects for winter!

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Here’s a list of things that have happened since we got back from Christmas break in Quebec…

We finished hanging drywall… 92 sheets total (We had to pick up TWO more sheets at Rona to finish it)… (Why Rona? Because the Home Depot van was broken!) … That’s a lot of drywall. A hint aimed at the very start of the project (framing) that concerns hanging drywall… Be VERY aware of where your drywall sheets will start and end. Always plan for studs to be at the start and end. Double them up if necessary. If you are hanging drywall vertically (Something I wish I had done) be absolutely certain that you have studs at the 4 foot marks, dead on, to support the edges. You will be much happier when it comes to hanging drywall if you do this. And why do I wish I had hung the drywall vertically instead of horizontally? It’s possible it would have created more seams, BUT, all of those seams would have tapered edges. Two horizontal sheets butted end to end create a seam that is very hard to hide.

I modified/installed the plumbing for the laundry room… It doesn’t look like much, but I had to move the pipes quite a bit to bring them out from the wall, and put new fittings on everywhere… A retrospective hint for hanging drywall, with respect to where your fittings might go… Consider where the edges of the drywall will go while installing fixtures (such as this laundry box) or electrical outlets. Keeping these kinds of things away from drywall seams WILL make your mudding job that much easier. It’s hard to pull a straight seam of mud when you are running into boxes, holes, etc.

We mudded… and sanded…

and mudded… and sanded…

and mudded… and sanded… (rinse and repeat about 20 times, you get the picture…) I have to say, of this whole project mudding has been my least favorite part. With framing, or insulating, or hanging drywall, or installing electrical, you do it once, and you’re done. And it actually feels like progress is being made. With mudding, you do it once… then twice… then three times… and so on, and it never really feels like you’re making much progress. Hints for mudding? This is a hard one to give hints on, it really is a “learn from practice” kind of thing… Most important, don’t put on too much with each application. In fact, if you’re not taking almost all of it off, you’re doing something wrong. You shouldn’t have to sand between each coat, except a bit to get rid of ridges. For screw holes in a line, try to mud across all of them together… it will create a more consistent look, and you’ll be less likely to see any single screw hole. For easy clean up, buy (or borrow (maybe even from me!)) a pole and hand sander that have a vacuum port on them. You’d be surprised how much dust you kick up without them. I could go on and on about this part of the job, since it took so long, but if you really want to know more just ask! When you are finally done mudding, it’s a great excuse for a celebration, as we move onto the next step…

Cutting! It’s hard to see in this picture, but the ceiling has newly cut holes for the recessed light fixtures we picked out. A few “words of wisdom” to those trying a similar project… First, cut the holes before you paint, and preferably before you prime! If you use pencil on the ceiling, you don’t want it to show up through the paint, and you want to see where your marks are. Second, find a scrap piece of drywall, and test cut your holes (I used my handy Mastercraft Maximum rotary tool with circle guide) and try to fit the light fixtures into them. Adjust the circle cutter until you get the holes just right, and lock the cutter into position. This makes it much easier to cut the holes. Third, when cutting the holes, you can’t press the center pin in until you have cut into the drywall… so, make sure you push the cutting bit into drywall *inside* the circle, and then slowly move it outwards until you can push the center pin into the drywall where you marked your center.

Priming! I like priming… It’s relatively easy, and the walls suddenly take on a whole new look… They go from drab gray to spotty/blotchy white, but it’s an improvement. A bit of light really brightens the room when it’s got a coat of primer on it. The next step was to paint the entire ceiling… That took two coats of white ceiling paint, and once again really brought out the lights. It feels much more complete! I don’t know if we used as much primer as we should have… After I was done I saw a Holmes on Homes show where they recommended to put it on thick (push hard with the roller)… I put it on thick, but nowhere near as much as they did… It still turned out ok though!

And now painting! This is the first coat in my office, and is also the same colour used in my storage/work room. It’s a deep green colour, but once dry has a great feel to it, very calm. This coat went on two nights ago. A couple handy hints for painting… If you are going to put on crown moulding, you can be far more lenient on the top corners. Also, buy several tray liners at Home Depot ($2 each!) and save yourself the trouble of cleaning paint trays! Tonight, we moved into the living room area and painted the first coat of two different colours… But those pictures will be a surprise for next time! Wait until you see the colours we picked!

This has been one long post, but I haven’t posted any in a LONG time, so I have an excuse. I should really put together a hints page of things I’ve learned during each stage of this project… It might help people in the future!

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Ok, we’re back! We had some downtime due to some hosting issues, but since then I’ve moved us to a new, more reliable host. I don’t expect us to have any more problems in the foreseeable future. I have lots of new stuff to post… I’m sure you’re excited to see our basement progress. Posts will be coming soon! For the meantime, here’s the latest greatest picture of my puppy!

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It’s a good thing Sasha doesn’t read the blog, because she’d probably disown me after reading this one… After her operations yesterday, I picked Sasha up at about 5:30 after work. They bring her out, and she’s got this big cone on her head! I knew she would have it, but knowing it and seeing it are two different things! I couldn’t help but laugh a little (And feel a little bad for laughing) when she came out. She was pretty miserable afterwards… She would just sit there with her head hung low… She probably thought she was being punished!

I took her outside, and the first order of business was getting her into the car. Although paper thin, the cone takes up a surprising amount of volume. I showed her the kennel in the back seat, opened the door, and said “Get in your house!”… She looked at me like I was stupid or something, as if to say “Do you not see this frickin’ cone on my head? I barely fit in there without it, what makes you think this thing makes me any smaller?”

I took her around to the other side, and let her in on the front passenger seat. She calmly sat down on the seat (A bit muddy, but I could clean that up…) and waited patiently for me to get in. The drive home was uneventful… She sat there calmly while I rubbed her ears… After a while she started drooling on the seat… That’s normal for her though. She gets a little carsick normally, never mind when she’s had surgery.

Upon getting her home, she was more attentive, but wouldn’t eat much… And with the new contraption on her head, she tended to try to go through spaces she no longer fit… Outside, running across the snow, she would look down to “inspect” something, and drag the cone on the ground filling it with snow. Inside, walking down the hallway, she would run into the wall… then get caught on the dehumidifier, then stuck on the doorframe… Eating was a whole new thing for her… She’d lower her head over the bowl, so the cone was touching the floor all the way around… I couldn’t help but think of some weird alien movie where the cone lowers down and sucks up the scrambling humans into the UFO… Freaky…

So far she’s doing well though, and should make a full recovery in no time!

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I’ve added a new gallery for our pets, where I will post the occasional shot of our freaky animals. When I post new pictures, I will usually have a short blog entry about them as well… Visit their gallery here to see what they are up to!

Here’s a recent shot of Sasha… she’s about 6 months old now, and full of energy. She’s usually calm, and doesn’t bark, but when visitors come by she turns into an uncontrollable ball of spinning, jumping, and licking fur. She’s just over 35 lbs now… With any luck she should reach 65 to 75 lbs once she’s grown!

Her and Max are quite the duo… Max loves to torment her by running past her cage, jumping all over the place, and sometimes even stealing her treats and dog food! Sasha is booked in for tomorrow (The 12th) to get “fixed”, tattooed and have her dew claws removed. She will be staying at Expressway Kennels over the Christmas Holidays, and I’m sure we’ll both miss her!

Here’s a recent shot of Max… He’s quite the building inspector. During all our work in the basement he’s been right there, rolling in the sawdust, playing in the dirt, and sleeping on the insulation. Even when the plumber was over digging below our foundation, Max was right in there digging with him… Although he had a different intent than the plumber…

Max is quite the stud, as you can see from his shots. He really stretches out and just “lays there” whenever he gets a chance… draping his lags and tail wherever they might land. He loves to torment Sasha, and climb up on the fish tank to “get a better look”. He’s a real talker too, when you tell him to get down, he cries at you until you swat him. Max is scheduled in tomorrow as well… He’s getting his front claws removed! I’m sure he will be *pissed* at us about that one after! Max will be staying with my parents in Estevan over the Christmas break… He’s sure to have a great time there, tormenting Andrea’s cats!

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After arriving at home from work on Friday, I spent about four hours hanging drywall in the bathroom. I completed the interior walls of the bathroom, except for the bit above the closet door. I should be able to finish that off tonight. It was fairly easy work, besides the one full size sheet I had to hang across the doorway. I put my drill into my toolbelt, lifted the sheet with both hands, then put my shoulder into it while I got a few screws in place. I don’t recommend trying that… Help is always necessary when hanging drywall horizontally!

The rest of the weekend was spent planning and assembling the remaining plumbing hookups for the bathroom. To get things started, I figured out where the shower valve would be placed on the wall, and cut a hole for the valve to poke through. I assembled the valve with it’s proper pipes, to be coupled to the rest of the pipes later…

On Sunday, Lee was over helping, and we worked on finishing off the system. We added these two valves above the laundry room, so that I could cut off the water to the bathroom in a hurry if necessary. After soldering these, we later discovered the hot side leaking, so we had to resolder it. Later that night, Chantale and I noticed the cold side dripping, so we also had to resolder that one!

While waiting for the valves to cool down, we soldered the shower valve assembly in place (Seen above). This one was easy, as I had soldered all the lines the day before… All that was needed was to couple it to the water lines hanging in the wall. It turns out one of my threaded connections started leaking later that night, so that one had to be rewrapped with teflon tape and reseated.

After working on the shower hookup, we attacked the sink hookup. My first beginner mistake a month ago was bringing the water lines off on the wrong side, resulting in the hot and cold pipes in the wall being backwards. This fancy crossover was assembled to bring them back to the right side. Amazingly, this rather complex connection didn’t leak at all!

Later that night, after Lee left, Chantale and I finished up the toilet connection (This one was easy!) and let the water in! As stated earlier, we discovered a leak on the cold water valve in the laundry room (And resoldered it), and a very slow leak on one of the threaded connections to the shower valve. That one was a little more work, but not too bad!

In my opinion, it all turned out rather nice… I’m leaving the system pressurized for the next week to make sure no leaks develop. To view more pictures, be sure to click on any of the pictures in this post and browse through our gallery!

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This Mastercraft Maximum Rotary Tool (Mastercraft’s version of RotoZip) was on sale for half price… $87.50, down from $175. Since I’ve had good success with Mastercraft Maximum in the past, I decided to give it a go… and so far I’m really impressed! With the included drywall bit, we’ve been able to make cutting out doorways, outlets, windows, lights, and vent openings MUCH easier. For outlets and vent openings, you simply insert the bit through the drywall in the center of the fixture, and then cut across until you hit the box or vent. You then pull the bit slowly out, and carefully cut just past the edge of the fixture. Finally, you push the bit back in and guide it around the outside of the box or vent.

For windows and doors, you just have to guide the bit along the edge of the 2×4 and hold the piece being cut out to keep it from falling and tearing the paper. To cut a circular light fixture opening, just screw on the circle cutting attachment, set it for the right radius, and cut away! Drywall bits have no cutting surface at the end of the bit, so it can travel easily along the edge of a metal box or 2×4 framing.

This tool came with a variety of attachments, including the plunge router base, snake attachment, circle cutter, angle grinder, and two different depth gauges, one with a handle and one without. All of the attachments snap on in seconds, making it easy to change cutting methods. The angle grinder uses a short flexible shaft to connect the rotary tool to the gears that run the angle grinder… I’ve already broken this shaft! After talking to the Canadian Tire guys, they recommend I call the number in the manual and order a replacement part for it… I will try that first thing on Monday.

Overall, I would HIGHLY recommend this tool if you plan to do a lot of drywall work. It cuts faster and smoother than a hand drywall saw, leaving a more professional finish. Add to that the fact that it can use any Dremel/Rotary tool bit with the included collets, and you should never need another rotary tool! Unfortunately, it was only on sale at one of the three stores here, and it’s no longer on sale… Keep an eye out for a good deal on it!

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On the left, the original stack of drywall (Plus all of the insulation, more than half of which has been used already)… On the right, the stack as of December 4th, 2006. Of the original 90 sheets of drywall, we have used about 40 sheets. Based on walls/ceilings completed, we figure we are just about half done hanging drywall. At this rate, we should have just the right amount of drywall, if not a bit extra!

In this shot, you can see Max perusing our work… He has been a real work-cat… From day one he has been involved in every aspect of this project:

• Climbing on and under the pile of debris
• Walking in the cement and leveler when I poured it
• Clawing up and laying in the insulation
• Laying in the pile of sawdust by the miter saw
• Playing with random objects (Nails, screws, wood, wire, screwdrivers, etc) on the floor
• Laying in the trench that the plumber dug beneath the concrete, and then
• Using the same trench as a litter box…
• Laying on the pile of drywall while Colin tries to cut it…

I’m sure there’s more, but that’s all I could think of for now! It’s always fun having a weird cat around…

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This is a picture of my office, after we finished hanging all the drywall. In this shot, you can see the hole cut out for the air duct… It was cut out using a Mastercraft Maximum rotary tool, very similar to a RotoZip. This tool is extremely useful for drywall work! We haven’t cut the holes out for the lights yet, but their distances from the wall are marked along the joists, so we can use the same tool with it’s included circle cutter to cut out 5 inch holes for the recessed lighting.In order to make it as quiet as possible in these rooms, and to reduce noise traveling through the floor to the rooms upstairs, we’ve insulated all the ceiling and wall spaces with Roxul Safe & Sound insulation. This stuff has great acoustical blocking qualities, and is also a great fire block… It will not burn!

This is the storage/work room in the northwest corner of the basement. To the east it opens into my office, and to the south into the furnace room through a pocket door. We put up drywall everywhere in this room, ceilings included. The floor will eventually get new tough linoleum. I plan to build a workbench directly below the window (Thus the high outlets, for tools), and storage shelving along the north wall (On the right).

This is a shot of the furnace room… The walls in here are insulated and covered in drywall. The ceiling will not be drywalled, however I will be putting in as much insulation as possible, and holding it up with vapor barrier plastic. I am undecided about how far I will go to finish the walls in this room. I might mud them and not paint them, or I might just mud and prime them. The floor will have it’s linoleum scraped off, and painted with high quality gray concrete cement.

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Here you can see the progress after two sessions of hanging drywall. We spent three hours one day, and three hours the next day to get this much done. Hanging drywall is fairly easy, and doesn’t require any level of precision to get it looking good. The room in the picture is my soon to be office. Since this picture, Lee, Colin and myself spent another evening finishing the ceiling in this room, and started into my utility/storage room.

I picked up a Roto-Zip type tool (Mastercraft Maximum) at a great price, and found it to be one of the handiest drywall tools. For cutting out electrical boxes, lights, air ducts, doorways, and windows, nothing could be faster than this… It cuts faster and straighter than a hand drywall saw. I’ll try to take some pictures of this handy device, and maybe some action shots as it’s being used!

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