Good Morning all, this is the Saturday Morning Home Repair Blog, where the Daily Kos community comes together to discuss our building projects, ask questions and just generally shoot the shit.
(suggested as our new boiler plate?)
So anyway, I am exlrrp. I am the diarist for today. I have been aware this diary was coming for weeks and so have been photographing my latest building project: fixing the library and unstupiding some stuff. So then I lost the camera. And also photobucket is broken down.
So I have had retake some of the pictures and to learn a whole new thing----imageshack---in order to get these pictures in front of you.
Ok, where to start what to say. When I first started on this room, it was a ghastly chartreuse with an equally ghastly blue green rug. There was a pull chain light. Where you see the mirrored sliding door was a stairs/ladder going up to a sleeping loft above.
Here's a great example of The Stupid: I changed all the outletes from white to ivory and all of them--i mean all of them---had the wires cut so that they only protruded about 1/2" outside of the box. Why do people do this? whenever you see it you know someone didn't know what they were doing. But at least they were consistently stupid.
This is a good shot of me cheerfully contemplating the Stupid and enthusiastically looking forward to getting started. Notice the ghastly green walls
There was a 2" slope coming into the room which the previous ownerhad "fixed" by the old inclined ramp trick. I fixed this by installing 1 1/8" plywood all on the floor on spacers raising the floor 2" and eliminating the slope.
you can see the opening to the loft in the last picture, at the top, where the skylight is. This is all fairly stupid in the scheme of things, it doesn't make sense. nobody wanted to sleep there. Half the skylight is in the loft. The loft can be accessed from the 3d floor, its a storage space now.
Look at the first picture below: at the top of that tall wall a steel beam sits that goes into the next room, the atrium. you can see the other end of it looking through the door. thats stacked in that tall wall on top of one 4x4 post and it also sits on a 4x12 beam going the other way, in the last picture. Yes, those 2x4s sitting on top of it going up to the rafters are actually purlin struts---you may have never seen them before. You may have never seen them before because theyre stupid. In hundreds of houses inspected, I never saw that before. The rafters should be setting directly on the beam with a birdsmouth with solid blocking between them.
All the framing was entirely visible. In the picture of me above, you can see the framing. When I'd bring people in who know what theyre doing, they'd laugh. I hate when that happens
So covering all that up was a priority, as was cutting down the 2" slope---this classifies as unstupiding. So was creating a closet. None of the bedrooms had a closet when I started---now all 6 do except one which has an armoire.
Another factor of Stupid was that the ceiling came down to about 3 ' high on that end wall. this is unusable space but you still have to heat it and clean it. I put in that new wall with the big holes in it---the big hole will be inset book shelves. I make it up as a box and then install it and trim it. there'll be a closet door on the side, there'll be more storage space here.
this took wall framing, sheet rocking, taping and blow on texturing. I also covered the exposed framing---the beams mentioned above---with sheet rock, taped and textured it and then painted the whole room. thats how you see it now.
Still have to install the bookshelves, closet door, trim. I'm custom making all the casings with a router table, the baseboard is a storebought pattern. Stained and boy did irt take a long time to find the right stain. I'm talking months.
this will be the library but I'll put a bed in here to use as a #2 guestroom. Perhaps a futon.
So thats the project as it sits now. Was hoping to have it finished by now but a lot of other stuff happened. At the end of this, this whole floor--thats 4 bedrooms and the atrium-- will get new carpet.
By exlrrp at 2012-08-23
By exlrrp at 2012-08-23
By exlrrp at 2012-08-23
By exlrrp at 2012-08-23
OK thats it for the project, what are you working on? I am on the road in CA right now and won't be in to comment untill later.
untill then, I'm sure our regulars can keep the conversation going