Progress with the mud

I came to the conclusion that mudding the entire basement myself was going to be simply too much work to take on.  It wasn’t so much the physical labor, but the mental anguish that left me feeling drained after an hour or so of mudding.  We had started in the bedroom and sort of learned as we went.  After Melissa and I both decided we had had enough, we called a professional.

We ended up hiring someone to plaster the ceiling of the entire basement except for the bedroom, furnace room, and bathroom (which we aren’t working on at all right now).  In one day, one guy did more and made it look better than Melissa, me, and my dad could accomplish over the course of a few months.  We were extremely pleased with how it turned out, but more importantly, my motivation suddenly went through the roof.  I was completely rejuvenated to get back to the task of mudding and finishing the basement.

My parents had come down for a weekend and we worked on finishing up the bedroom.  And because I don’t trust my own ability to mud good enough not to notice it once painted, I put my own artistic flair on the walls.

I used a 12 inch mudding knife and used short strokes to make subtle impressions on the wall

My custom texturing turned out a lot better than I had expected.  To be honest, other than watching some YouTube videos about it, I was completely shooting from the hip.  We were able to prime and paint the room, and it looks pretty good.  Melissa did most of the painting, with me filling in here and there.

The colors look great, and the texture came out better than I expected

The picture doesn’t show the texturing very well, but here’s another look that gives a little bit of an idea of how it looks up close:

The texture covers up all of my mistakes, and generally solves all of life's problems.

Every day we get closer to the end goal, which is actually being able to use the basement.  My motivation remains high and I working with that end in sight.

Basement Full Of Thanks

It was one year ago this coming weekend that I embarked on an adventure that has consumed my spare time on a fairly regular basis.  It started with a big load of foam insulation board that I had to adhere to the cement wall.  Then we framed the entire room.  I hired the electrical, some of the plumbing, ran electrical wire for heating, hung drywall, started mudding, and so on.  There is still a lot to do, but I would not have gotten this far without some help from  a whole gamut of sources.  I’ve had people provide physical labor, advice, external resources, blog input, and support.  I’d like to thank those people and sources now.

Melissa, Erik, Kathleen, Google, Christopher, This Old House, Rex, Sara, You Tube, Nancy, David, Lisa, Diersen Electric, The Neenah Public Library, Black and Decker, Bosch, Krueger True Value, God, Menards, Jon, Lowes, Home Depot, Ford Windstar, Jeremy, Miller Brewery.

 

For some visual, here are some long awaited pictures of my progress.  I am almost completely finished hanging drywall.  The unavoidable task of mudding is all that seems to separate me from painting!

 

Happy Thanksgiving!

Playing with Mud

I have been documenting my progress with hanging drywall in the basement, and I continue to work towards the finish.  I have completely finished the bedroom (both interior, exterior, and closet).  I have finished the hallway and the exterior of the utility room.  And a while ago, my dad and I finished more than half of the ceiling in the living room area.  I have now begun to move into the bulk of the living room portion, where I will be until the drywall is completed.  I’ve cleaned the area out to remove any obstacles that might get in my way, and looking out into the room, it still seems like I have a long way to go.  But quoting Wisconsin’s motto: FORWARD!

Now everyone knows that mudding goes hand in hand with drywalling.  I have quickly learned that it is very much an art form.  No amount of reading about it or YouTube watching can prepare one for the actual task of mastering the delicate task of spreading slop along a taped seem. In fact, it is so mentally draining, on top of the fact that it is difficult to do correctly, that we are strongly considering hiring out this portion of the project once the drywall is all hung.

I tried my hand at mudding, and getting the corners just right was a very tedious process.  Aside from that, the contorting and the positions you must put your body into surprisingly make it quite physically draining as well—worse than my experiences with painting.  I would give up quickly more because I couldn’t handle the prolonged mental anguish from seeing each pass of the knife come out not quite right.  Maybe I was trying to be too perfect, but that too is not easy to let go of.  Knowing that any blemish left in the mud will show up when painted lent me to relinquish this role in lieu of a more formidable mudder, my wife.

Melissa gave it her best shot, and it turns out she was much better at it than me.  She was much more capable of being precise than I was.  She seemed to be able to handle the mental aspect of being tedious and meticulous and such.  She could get through more seems than I was able to get through in shorter time periods and it seemed as though she was discovering life-long-hidden talent that no one had ever seen.  However, she too succumbed to the physical demand of looking up with your hands over your head for prolonged periods of time and, still having not moved out of the bedroom, couldn’t stand the idea of having to still finish up in there only to move out into the seemingly endless field of drywall seems that existed in the hallway and living room.

All that being said, we are looking into other options.  We gave it one heck of a good try, but there is a price on sanity, and I think it might be about the same price that professional mudders charge for their services.

Labor we did

I get a little lax at times when it comes to documenting my work.  Mainly I think it is because I feel more like working than writing, or that I don’t want to take the time to take some pictures and put them up on the computer.  So, I figured in lieu of pictures, I would just write and worry about putting photos up when I get around to it.  After all, the people need information, right?

So Labor Day weekend my parents came down with the purpose of helping me with the basement.  I had gotten a start on the drywall, but it was certainly a long, tough job for one person to do alone.  My dad and I spent parts of 3 days working in the basement finishing the drywall in the bedroom, and continued on into the rest of the basement.  The drywall lift mentioned in my last post has again proven invaluable.  It almost feels like cheating.

One part of the job that had become increasingly frustrating was cutting out the holes for electrical boxes and recessed lights.  I was spending about 15 minutes or so per fixture in measuring, lining up, cutting and adjusting to make sure the opening was in the right place and the drywall would fit into place.  Considering I have 20 or so lights in the ceiling and at least that many outlet and light switch boxes, we are talking about 10 hours of work.  I decided this was just too much, so I did some research and eventually bought a rotozip spiral saw.  http://www.rotozip.com/en-us/Pages/ProductDetail.aspx?pid=DR1_1.  This little tool allows me to put a drywall sheet up, fasten it in place, and then cut out the opening for the light or electrical box with the drywall in place.  With some practice, this cuts my time down from about 15 minutes to about 30 seconds for fixture.  And, as a bonus, it makes the openings much cleaner.  Yet another specialty tool that has made the job a whole lot easier.

In addition to putting up more sheets, we actually got started on the mudding and taping process.  Melissa and my mom actually lent their hands  here, where Melissa started taping and mudding the seems in the bedroom, while my mom worked on mudding over the screw heads.  All-in-all, we all had our hand in the mix that weekend.

Making Drywall Easier

The drywall phase has begun.  I have finished framing, plumbing, electrical, and insulation, and now the basement is slowly going to start to take on the appearance of a real living space.  That being said, I’m sure this is going to be a long process.

I got my first load of drywall earlier this week, getting 24 sheets to get me started.  I’m estimating around 80 sheets to cover both my walls and my ceilings, so I’ll have a few more Menards runs before I’m all done.  I’ve also estimate approximately 3200 screws needed for the entire job, so we’re talking about something big here.

Like a lot of my work in the basement, I have had to do a lot of reading and research into what it takes to hang drywall.  And as a side note, it’s interesting to note that drywall is not installed, it is hung.  I saw one how-to video where they referred to what they were doing as “rocking”, since drywall is also called sheet rock.  Anyway, I am drywalling the ceiling, and drywall is too heavy for someone like me to hoist it up by myself to get it into place.  I looked into renting a lift, but decided to take my chances on eBay.  I ended up getting a drywall lift on eBay for just a little more than hardware stores would rent one to me for a week.  So far, it has been worth every penny and then some.  I have put up 4 sheets so far, and this tool great.

This helps me hang drywall on the ceiling by myself

The lift has a tripod base (three wheels) so I can move it around even when the drywall sheet is cranked up to the ceiling.  It might be my favorite tool so far.

The Shower Continues

That sneak peak from yesterday is going to get a little bit clearer.  Here’s a little history of this project:

The basement was stubbed in for a bathroom when we moved in.  However, a few nuances were left in our hands.  The layout was essentially identical to the upstairs guest bathroom which has a bathtub in it.  We did not want to put a bathtub in the basement, but the drain for the shower was way out of alignment for any type of shower unit we felt like going with.  So, when we had a plumber come out and do some rough-ins for the bathroom and a couple of other sinks, we had them move the drain for the shower (and the toilet, which was also slightly off).  They left the shower drain boxed in so that when we got a shower unit we could dig the drain out again and move it accordingly.  That turned out to be more of a project than I thought.  I had to dig about 10 gallons worth of rocks, cement, and dirt (luckily it was already jackhammered out, so I just had to dig).  After getting it all dug out, I had to cut the pipe and replace the trap assembly so that it would align with the shower pan that I bought.

The next step was to fill in the hole with cement and build a wall to create the shower alcove.  That’s what I did today.  I dusted off my masonry hat and troweled in some cement, using a trusty 2×4 to make sure the newly poured concrete was level (I did the same thing with the toilet stub, which was already in the proper place).  So I filled in the hole (which will take 5 days to cure, according to the package), and I built the wall.  Now I just have to wait for the cement to cure and I can continue on actually getting the shower unit in place.

Cement poured and smoothed, wall built and in place

Pre-shower

Here’s just a sneak peak at my latest endeavor involving installing a shower unit in our basement.

 

The pipe had to be moved

 

 

 

 

 

In order to align with the drain on the shower unit, I had to move the pipe slightly.  I had to cut this pipe off and go buy a new trap assembly.  It is still in the process of being all pieced together, but oh the adventure I am having, digging a huge hole under my basement and all.

Constructing a Soffit

I’m back!  After a long gap in posts, I finally am taking the time to write about my adventures.  The absence has certainly not been a result of a lack of action on my part.  On the contrary.  I have actually been quite busy with my house projects over the past few months and I have used my time for work while neglecting my publishing.  But no more!  I have a lot to write about and I will start with a wonderful adventure I recently completed: constructing a soffit.

For those of you who know me well, you know that I have a strong interest in the Civil War.  So I can equate pretty much anything to something related to that period in US History.  Prepare yourself for a history lesson!  The town of Vicksburg, Mississippi, sat on the Mississippi river and was a key point in controlling trade and traffic on the Mississippi.  The Federal Army made capturing Vicksburg a major objective in the war, knowing that taking Vicksburg would essentially cut the Confederacy in two and cut off any and all trade to the South from the great River.  Gen. Grant was tasked with the mission of taking this town.  Ultimately, Grant tried 8 different plans for getting his army in striking distance of Vicksburg, the first 7 attempts failing miserably.  But alas, his 8th attempt got him to the gates of Vicksburg, and a long siege took place that ultimately ended with the Confederate army in the town surrendering on July 4, 1863.

So goes my soffit.

As you may recall, we framed the basement walls in February.  The basement has some duct work that hangs below the ceiling joists, and in order to drywall, needs to be framed in as well.  I made several attempts at this and it took about 3 months from initial thought to final completion.

My first attempt consisted of building small ladder frames out of 2x3s, and then mounting these to the ceiling on either side of the ducts.  I got two frames built, and when I put them up, they were no where close to being straight.  The boards themselves (2×3 studs) were warped, and clearly not intended for a structure such as this.  Back to the drawing board.

From the advice of my electrician, I went to Menards and got 12′, pre-fabricated I-joists.  These seemed much easier.  They are already constructed, and all I have to do is put them up.  Well, I measured a straight chalk line using the duct work as my mark (this turned out to be a mistake).  I fastened some of the joists up to the ceiling on either side of the duct work and started connecting the underside with 28″ 2×3 sections.  Much to my frustration, from the middle of the first section to the end, the gap between the two joists was a full inch off.  As it were, using the duct work as my guide was a bad idea, because it wasn’t straight.  I remeasured using the outside wall as my guide this time and made a much straighter line.  I moved the joists and started again.  Once I got everything up, I was able to slowly add the bottom cross pieces and finish the job.

Wow, I built this all by myself!

With this completed, I move closer and closer to being able to drywall and being able to start using the basement for entertainment.

A Hole in the Wall

Ben Franklin I am not.  It is a well known fact that Ben Franklin invented electricity when he flew the kite in the storm, and he took that electricity to help defeat the British and form the American nation.  Ok, that’s a bit of a fabrication.  In fact, other than a few experiments, Ben Franklin really didn’t do much in terms of advancing the science of electricity like we may have been taught.

What does this have to do with me and the house?  I too have done very little to advance electrical development of the basement.  I studied all I could and came to the conclusion that starting an entire basement from scratch was not the right time for an electrical ignoramus to try his hand at running electricity throughout the house.  So I hired someone to do it for me.

What I did do, however, was mount some of the fixtures.  We are going with recessed lighting throughout most of the basement, and part of me talking down the quote for the electrician, I mounted the recessed lights in the ceiling; fortunately I had my dad over to help, so it didn’t take quite as long.  It wasn’t very complicated, but it did take a couple of nights.  All told, we have 21 can lights in our basement, and while the labor wasn’t back breaking, it did take a fair amount of thought and method to make sure the spacing was right.

The other thing I took on was mounting the bathroom fan.  That turned out to be more of a chore than I expected.  I was able to get the fan unit mounted in the ceiling.  The trouble came with running the duct work to the outside.  The 4 in flexible duct I had needed to attach to the fan, take a 90 degree turn, go through two joists, and then exit the house.

I rented a 4 1/8″ hole saw to cut through the joists.  Well, I couldn’t get the duct through the first hole.  I returned to the hardware store and got a 4 1/2″ hole saw; this worked a lot better.  So I got the two interior holes drilled and was ready to…..ahem……drill a 4 inch hole in the side of my house.

I did all the measurements and the placement of the hole was at no point a problem.  What was the problem was my arsenal of drills.  My cordless drill only has one battery and it was already pretty low.  I have one fairly weak corded drill and another 30 year old drill.  I started drilling with my corded drill; it was slow going and I’m pretty sure it was more than the drill was meant handle.  The drill started smoking eventually and after a while I wasn’t getting any deeper in the hole.  I tried switching drills, and none really worked.  Well, I eventually got through, but not before my drill started losing a large of amount of specs of something from the inside.  I have decided that I may need to add a better drill to my arsenal of tools.

I got the end cap fit into the hole, attached the duct, taped it all up with foil duct tape.  So now I can say I mounted a bathroom fan.  And I can cross “drill a 4 inch hole in your house” off my bucket list.

My self created fan mounting kit

That's much better than it looked about 15 minutes earlier

This was actually the easy part

Hiring My Services

When you are a handiless homeowner, sometimes people will be looking for help on all sorts of house related projects or fixes.  Clearly that was the case when I miraculously fixed the sump pump for my in-laws.

We are watching Melissa’s parents’ house while they are away and came across a backed up sump pump.  The pipe outside their house was likely blocked by ice and so the water was getting pumped out of the house and directly outside the back wall, leaving a big pool of water right next to the pipe.  This was essentially causing the water to seep immediately back into the sump basin and get pumped right back to the same spot.  No water was getting in the house, fortunately.

Here I come to the rescue.  With some guidance of what to do, I construct a pipe system (from some pipes that Melissa’s dad had on hand and used in the past for this exact same purpose) to direct the water above the ground and into the yard, bypassing the clogged underground pipe.

You can see the pipe in the ground that I am bypassing

Up and over the snow bank

So the next time you have an emergency sump pump problem, it’s probably still best to call someone else.  But if no one else is available, your friendly neighborhood handiless homeowner is there if you are desperate!