Mud Mud Everywhere

I had my first work week at the city this past week. It was a short one, three days. I got my first EDO this Friday. I also got a check on Wednesday. A Surprise since I'd only been there one day. I double checked to make sure they hadn't made a mistake. It was just a shock to see a descent size paycheck again. Man I missed that. Aside from a different style of mouse and keyboard I am jumping right into things. Also AutoCad 2007 is a little different version than I'm used to.

The house

I got the all the plumbing wrapped up Friday and put all the drywall up. I finished the first coat of mud tonight and hope to get another on tomorrow. Things aren't going as quickly as I planned, but still moving forward. The new windows arrived today and they look sharp. Now they just need to be installed. Sigh, the list seems to go on and on.

Basement Renos

Before we even bought our house, I had thoughts in my head of adding a second bath in the basement stealing space from our laundry room. So after we had our realtor do a walk through of the house she said it would be a good investment to add the second bath. So there was no time to lose since I start my new job on Tuesday. Unfortunately I don't have a before picture but I have during and at monumental marks during construction.

After clearing out the laundry room and removing one wall, I set up some plastic in preparation to keep dust to a minimum. Last Monday I rented a jack hammer and went to town. Here are some pictures of the progression.

DAY 1 - Jackhammer 101

Here is a picture of me in full force removing most of what used to be laundry room floor. Notice I'm wearing ear protection. I hauled over 40 - 5 gallon pails of debris out of the basement.

Here's an after picture of my head. I was sure I didn't have any grey hair. You can see where my ear protection was.

DAY 2 - Clean up

I got the area all cleaned up and ready for the new plumbing. I planned on puting the new plumbing in but had to wait till day three to pick the stuff up.

DAY 3 - Out with the Old in with the New


Here's a picture of the old cast iron. It only took 1 hour and two reciprocating saw blades to cut through the cast iron. I replaced over half of the main line with new ABS pipe.

Can you see the bathroom yet?? Plumbing is all in and ready and waiting for Concrete. I ran rough-ins for a sink, toilet, laundry sink, and clothes washer - no more CENTRAL VAC pipe for clothes washer drain pipe. It kind of reminds me of an octopus.

DAY 4 - Concrete

I think I was a little ambitious doing the concrete myself. I planned on making it to a funeral at 4:00. Unfortunately I didn't pick up the concrete till 2:00. Marsha was a great help, hauling many buckets down the stairs and helping smooth the concrete. Her cake decorating and great spacial awareness skills was a great help. We finished the concrete at 4:00 but I still had to return the trailer and clean up so, needless to say I didn't make the funeral. I think next time, I'll leave concrete to the pros.
Of course we had to leave our initials. I conveniently placed them where a wall would be.

DAY 5 & 6- Framing

I started framing Friday and finished it last night. Now can you see the bathroom? A spacious 3'3" X 7'5". It's nice to see it take shape, after many hours planning and dreaming in my haed.

So this is all for now. I still have to run the rest of the plumbing, finish some wiring and hang some drywall. Am I being too ambitious, maybe a little.

Who's Been Sitting in My Chair?

Talk about leaving your mark! This is a picture is of our living room furniture. Marsha had just nicely vacuumed the upholstery, and sat down for a quick water break.