Normandy Park Restoration

Mostly, need to wire in the remaining outlets, but that's a 15 minute job.  There are a few drywall screws I need to add as well, and put some mud on them.  In these images I've just put rough mud on most of the existing drywall screws, I'll do the rest later.  All the drywall is in, and I put the scrap carpet down as well. I won't bother to float and tape, or finish the paint until I've finished with the upstairs.  This makes it a perfectly usable room for now, which is what I wanted.  I was thinking about drywalling the ceiling later, but I have to admit that I like the dark beams.  We'll see what I can come up with. The final dimensions worked out to be 9'10" x 12'.  Not big, but ample for an office, and if they bring sewer lines down the street I can add a closet in the workspace next to it easily. For comparison, this is what it was when I moved in. I would have made the office bigger, but you can see there is a significant fram...

Did lots of framing this weekend, and started putting up drywall in the last office in the basement. Should be able to finish it in the next few days.  That one bottom piece on the far wall isn't particularly straight, but after floating and taping, you won't be able to tell.

After several months of looking at nothing but studs, I finally have a fully enclosed Laundry room. Finished up some plumbing and wiring and had the inspectors out on Friday to approve it and allow me to start covering up the walls.  In the process I also solved the wiring issue with the kitchen lights, as I have a track light extending straight from the laundry wall to a full-length track lighting system for the kitchen.  I need to do some finish work on the wiring from track to track, but that's a formality at this point.  This means I won't have any ugly connection box or box cover on the track system, so it will look nice and tidy. Also, got the lighting for the 1/2 bath done.  Obviously needs some finish work, but much better than the wall-wart lighting it had before.  I might consider doing something like this in the bedrooms at some later date too.

Needed to determine the mounting depth and options for in-wall speakers in the office.  I like the NHT IW3's I have in the basement family room, but at about $450/pr they aren't cheap.  So instead I decided to go with a $175/pr set of Boston Acoustics.  To improve the sound quality I mounted them on 3/4" plywall, which will then have drywall mounted over it.  Had to verify that the speaker mounts would accommodate this setup.  Here they are in the rough mounts. Due to the gas line running right next to it, I may end up framing and drywalling around the ducting above the speakers, and I still need to run that wire through the floor joists. You can see the cross stud below each speaker.  This will allow me to create a closed box for each speaker, and fill it with rockwool.

Got done with enough stuff on the house that I wanted a change of pace.  The local hardware store had some pre-made cedar screens for $60, so I decided to get one to play with.  Figured it would make a nice screen to hide the garbage pails. Here you can see the pails and the rough screen  Here I have painted the vertical slats as an experiment.  Overall it looks ok.  Clearly it needs to be level, and I should get it off the ground.  I'll also plan to stain it with the same stuff I used on the siding.  Once that's all done it should look decent.  But for now, it at least hides the pails. Here I've put one coat of stain on it.

Got the vent pipe fully installed now  I have a sheet of foam insulation behind the tube.  I'll put regular insulation on top of it before putting the drywall on. Also, since the other window didn't fit right, I decided to rip out the trim on the guest bedroom so I could confirm the windows are all the same size. I'll leave the window in the master bedroom as is for now, order 2 more windows and install those in the guest bedroom and office.  If they fit right then I'll get a replacement for the master bedroom and the bathroom.

Got one of the bedroom windows in this week and installed it today.  Turns out it's not a good fit. Here is the original window as I'm starting the process of removing it. Here it is from the outside. From the outside, here I've cut the siding to expose the mounting lip. And now with the window out Here is the new window mounted.  As you can see there is a significant amount of shimming going on.  A 2x4 under it in fact.  I have about 1" of total shimming on the sides, and about 2.5" of shimming vertically. This is because I did this window order with the window measured to the finished size.  Well, it turns out when you do that you get a window the exact size of the finished frame, and they assume you will be doing significant shimming so that you can simply lay the window inside the existing trim.  Makes for a quicker install, but I'd already pulled the trim out, and didn't plan to reuse it.  Plus, I can get an extra inch of width a...

The windows in the basement are original, aluminum, single pane, and in poor shape.  Been meaning to replace them for a while.  Bought one as a test, as they are all the same size.  Using the same style as I used on the stairwell.  However, these are not required to be tempered, and to reduce noise I have each pane made in a slightly different thickness. Here is the old window:  And the new one in it's place.  I haven't put the trim on yet, as I'll want to match the trim on all of the windows on the house, so I probably won't do the trim right away.  It's purely cosmetic though, as these are well sealed. Much nicer than the old ones.  I plan to rebuild that window well too, as it's a mess and lower than the gutter drain, which is not where I want it.  This test window fit like a glove, and was very easy to install, so I'll go ahead and order the rest of them.  This will also be the same style window that I will use on the bedrooms...

Lots of stuff this weekend.  Much of it doesn't look like much, but there's a lot of work put in.  First, I have friends coming to stay for a while soon, so I needed to get a little more organized.  I'd had a large desk in the basement that I used for the networking, home audio, and server, but it took up too much room and prevented me from getting to the wiring behind it.  So, I cut down the scrap doors it was made of and made a much more efficient version. I've found having a big desk allows me to be sloppy and wasteful, this setup makes it much more efficient. Next, I finished framing the office at the end of the hallway, including building a box around the duct work and plumbing. I have a few minor trim boards to put up, and then do the wiring and it should be ready for drywall.  I picked up some scrap carpet on ebay for $25 as well, so once that and the drywall are in it should be livable. Next I finished putting the hot water lines in. And ...