We’ve been making really good progress this week on our library header.  On Monday, I posted this video showing the crucial moment we removed the supporting 2×4 beams, thus revealing our new header.  Where once there was a wall, there is now space glorious space.

What I didn’t mention in detail in the video is the steps we took to make sure that the 20 feet expanse of wall was properly supported.  We installed a double header to fully ensure the attic floor boards above (which in turn support the roof) were being held in check.  Each header was made by sandwiching 2×8’s with wafer board. Both headers were joined together using these 1/2″ x 6″ hex bolts, secured with 1/2″ washers and nuts.

One of our future renovation plans is to convert the attic space into a guest suite (bedroom + bathroom).  So we wanted to be 200% sure that both spaces would be properly supported. When we performed the “stress test”, i.e. Rick and I both vigorously jumping up and down on the attic floor, there was a slight bit of movement on the library header.  After much discussion, we decided it would be better for the long term structural safety of the library and future attic-conversion that the long 20 foot expanse was a bit more supported.  So, we installed a support post… 

Next up was sheetrocking all the wood.  It didn’t take all that long to measure and cut the sheetrock and attach it to the walls with screws (we find screws better than nails as they are less likely to pop back out and damage the sheetrock). The sheetrock was mudded, left to set for a day or so…

and then sanded.  Hehe…

No, Rick doesn’t have a psoriasis problem, nor a cocaine habit.  He is also not trying out for the part of “Ghost of Christmas Past” in the local adaption of Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol”.  Don’t you just love getting down and dirty.  For the sake of DIY, I mean .

On Friday night, we took the supporting 2×4’s down and revealed our new library header. Check out this short video I took at the crucial moment. I can’t believe how English I sound on camera. Waaaaall….

I’m tellin’ ya. I should be on HGTV.

Not.

The scaffold is back….

Last year, we rented the scaffold to help us install our foyer chandelier, paint the two-storey foyer walls, change out our master  bedroom ceiling fan, and help Rick get onto the roof  (well, almost). 

We’ve rented it again to help us finish removing the wall in our soon-to-be library and install the supporting header.

Once the header is in place, we’ll also use the scaffolding to install sheetrock, prime and paint, then finally install crown molding in the two-storey entry way.  While we’re at it, we’ll probably paint the ceiling, and dust off the foyer chandelier.  Check back next week for an update on our progress.  Have a great weekend!

Rick is making fantastic progress sanding the stairs, gradually removing the old pine color from the treads and railing (eventually we’ll be replacing it with a darker stain).  It’s been a huge job to tackle on his own.  But given the amount of dust that this project has generated, maybe it is best that I have been away for this part (we don’t want a replay of the asthma attack following the carpet removal when we first moved in).

Here are a few pics taken by Rick to document the progress he is making.  The one dark stair tread was a test run on a replacement stain color. Check out those doggy footprints in the dust!

In this pic, Rick has totally removed the stair railing and all the spindles in order to finish the sanding.  It looks so open and airy without stair railing – it’s a shame it’s such a death trap!

I love that there is so much dust in the air that even the camera has little specks of dust in the lens.

You can really see the difference between the sanded stair treads and the original orangey color of the floor.  I think that using a rich chocolate brown on the stairs will add depth and sophistication, and hopefully the “wow-factor”, to the entryway.

The next decision we have to make is what to do with the stair risers.  Keep them white as a nice contrast to the darker stain on the treads?  Or stain them for a cohesive look?  Or do something daring such as paint them a different color, add wallpaper, or even tiles?  What do you think?

…with a swarm of critters. Another project we undertook this weekend was removing all the overgrown, weed-infested bushes around the perimeter of the house. A chainsaw, a rake and a lawnmower (plus two crazy people working in the heat) were all it took to take the bushes down…

What was more interesting was the sheer amount of creepy crawlies (and other small animals) that emerged as we tore down their home. I cannot count how many large spiders we encountered….

I’m not even sure what these two bugs were. Any ideas?

 The first bug was relatively small, but the second bug was huge – about the width of Rick’s hand. At first we thought it was some kind of spider – we counted 8 legs.  But after closer inspection, it appeared as though the two longer “legs” were feelers, making it an insect of some sort.

We disturbed about a trillion of these green leaf-like bugs (can you tell I’m no entomologist?). Once we had removed their bushy abode, they took up residence all over the fascia of the house.  I am starting to understand exactly how many bugs exist out there in the world.  Did you know that there are approximately 10 quintillion insects on the planet – about 200 million insects for every human. I think about half of those insects were in our bushes…

In addition to the creepy crawlies, we found a few other surprise visitors.  Like this tiny, cobalt blue lizard:

and this adorable little frog:

Who knew that our house was a cornucopia of critters?

Don’t let this innocent face fool you. Puppy + small chihuahua teeth + insane amount of energy = chewed house. Reebs doesn’t chew the usual dog fare – shoes, bones, toys and so on.  Reebs is a true renovation dog – she likes to chew walls, wallpaper, insulation and siding. Yes, siding.

Now admittedly, the siding on the back of house by the deck wasn’t in the best of condition when we bought the house. It had already began to rot and tear away in some places.  So, in actuality, Reebs just sped the removal process along by chewing the siding off the house. And she made a good start on the underlying insulation too. Especially in the house.

When we replaced the old back door, we had to remove part of the walls, floor and subfloor to repair the rot and damage. We haven’t quite got around to covering the wall back up – so many projects, so little time yada, yada, yada. Since we moved the dog detention area from the dining room to the kitchen, Reebs has been going to town chewing on the walls.  She has completely chewed through the wall insulation from the inside, and with her siding project on the outside, she is well on her way to making her own little dog door.

So, this weekend, it was our priority to get the siding replaced. A couple of months ago, we bought some heavily discounted hardi-plank siding off Craigslist, in anticipation of this very project. So, we already had the materials and tools to hand.  The original siding came off with little problems. A few measurements, cuts and screws later, the replacement siding was up. 

It is not an exact match to the original siding, but it is a whole lot better looking than the half-chewed, half-rotting debacle that was there before. And hopefully, seeing as the new siding is hardi-plank, Reebs will not be able to chew through this stuff so easily! When in the yard, she’ll just have to amuse herself by chewing on some more bats, bugs and moles…

This weekend, we decided to tackle one of the outstanding projects left on our downstairs bathroom renovation. Above the vanity, we are planning on hanging a large silver mirror, topped off by a satin nickel vanity light.  When finished, (probably in the year 2012 at the rate we’re going!), it should look something like this artistic rendition.

In order to install the new light, we need to run electric wires to it,  either creating a separate switch, or splicing the vanity light into the existing wiring for the ceiling light.  We needed to figure out a way to run the wires without making gaping holes in the walls and ceiling.  We needed to think outside of the bathroom box. Literally.

The floor of the library upstairs runs directly over the bathroom. If we pull up the subfloor in the library, we will be able to access the ceiling light wiring and splice the new fixture. From our previous demos in the library, you may remember that the sheetrock walls and flooring have been removed, leaving only studs and subflooring – here’s a reminder pic of what we’ve been living with these past few months.  So it is really not much more of an eyesore/inconvenience/mess maker to temporarily remove the subfloor too. 

Now, in order to get to the subfloor, we first needed to remove the stud framing and the old door way. The wall that runs down the hallway is not a supporting wall, so could be removed with no worries. 

The wall that is adjacent to the foyer is a load-bearing wall, and so cannot be completely removed until a header is put in its place (much like we did with the two foyer walls downstairs here and here). To keep the subfloor sheet in tact, we did need to remove just a couple of the studs on the supporting wall.

Once the walls were out of the way, Rick was able to pry up one of the subfloor sheets. We did find an electrical box for a ceiling fixture, but unfortunately, it was for the wrong light! The hallway ceiling light sits just outside of the bathroom, so at least we knew we were close.  Another subfloor section coming up! 

By the time we sussed out where the bathroom ceiling lighting is, we were quickly losing light (generally not the best idea to be splicing electrics in the waning day light).  Just in case we hadn’t had enough fun for the day, before we laid the flooring back down, we got the fright of our lives. Earlier, I had been cautioning Rick be careful walking on the floor joists – one slip and he would fall right through the ceiling sheetrock into the hard tile floor below. No, Rick didn’t fall through, but one of the dogs almost did! As we had been working upstairs most of the day, the dogs would, from time to time, come and visit us and see what all the noise was about.  They would run up the stairs to the library, inevitably see that there was no flooring, and stop midstep at the top of the stairs.  But not our little T-Rex (who is either really brave, or really stupid…). He ran up the stairs oblivious to the missing floor and plopped straight into the cavity. My heart froze as I hoped the sheetrock would hold … which it did.  Luckily, Rex quickly realized the situation he was in (as judged by his ultra-wide eye balls) and jump out toute-suite. No harm done, just a few skipped heartbeats! So, with dogs rescued from impending doom, we layed the subfloor back down. We’ll deal with the electrics another day.  Stay tuned…

On Saturday, we were exceedingly lucky to have a couple of friends (thanks Matt and Logan!) come by and help us to remove all the debris that has been building up in and around the house.  On Friday, we had a dumpster delivered and set up in our driveway, facing the garage. With pizza and beer being offered as an incentive, Matt and Logan helped Rick to get rid of all the sheetrock and carpet that has been laying around the house.

The boys all worked really hard, especially seeing as it was around 90 degrees outside! (I was charged with the most important, labor-intensive job of all – going to get the pizza!). The carpet had been stored mainly in the bonus room upstairs and some in the garage – it therefore didn’t really effect our quality of living that much (out of sight out of mind, and all that).  The sheetrock was another matter. With two huge piles in the front living rooms, we were constantly battling the dust – as soon as we cleaned the floors and the surfaces, the dust would seemingly return right away and be coating everything once again (of course, not helped much by our doggies who thought it was a great game to play in the rubble and then track dusty paw prints across the house).  Although we still need to clean up a little, it has made such a difference having all the sheetrock out of the house.  So thanks again, Matt and Logan!

In the spirit of paying it forward, we continue to post the items we are replacing around the house for free on Craigslist.  In addition to the environmental concern of keeping perfectly working furniture/fixtures etc out of the landfill, in these tough economic times we believe it is important to help others that are perhaps less fortunate than ourselves.  Rick has begun to replace the outside light fixtures with more up-to-date ones.  On Saturday, the older, working lights were posted on Craigslist, free to the first person to pick up.

Almost immediately, we received several emails from people interested in taking the lights. Sorting the emails on a first come, first serve basis, we arranged a time for the first person to come by that afternoon. An hour after the scheduled pick up time, there were no signs of them turning up.  We even tried calling the phone number they gave us, but it said the number had been disconnected.  Having dealt with many “no-shows” in the past, we’ve found that the best course of action is usually to move on to the next person in line, scheduling a new time for them to pick up the items.  So we emailed the first person explaining that since we hadn’t heard from them, and they hadn’t picked up the lights, that we were now offering them to someone else. 

The lights were claimed by the second emailer shortly thereafter.  But the story doesn’t end there. Several hours later, we received a rather irate email from the original emailer, cursing us out because we had given the lights away to someone else. We replied kindly suggesting that we would have gladly held the lights for them if they had simply communicated about any difficulties they had picking up the lights at a certain time. It is now 24 hours later and we are still receiving emails from this person, explaining why they are “more deserving” of the lights than anyone else, even signing one email “from the poor people you could have helped”.  Who knew that the simple act of trying to give something away for FREE would cause such drama?!?

Ok, if renovation isn’t already hard enough, it is made much more complicated when done at night under minimal lighting conditions (i.e. after your husband inadvertantly disables the electric).

On Saturday, Rick continued removing the right foyer wall to open up the two formal living spaces either side of the staircase.  As he was removing the studs, he was careful to disable the electrical outlets previously contained in the wall. This was done during daylight hours, so it was not until much later when we went to switch on the lights downstairs that we realized they weren’t working.  To fix it, Rick would need to go under the house and see which of the electrical cables needed to be reconnected to make the lights work.  However, going under the house, in the pitch black at night didn’t seem like the best of ideas.  However, it was imperative that we continue with the renovations  – with the wall gone there was only minimal support for the flooring above. So, by the light of the two spot-lights above the fireplace, Rick continued removing the studs from the wall in preparation for erecting the header.  Despite the lack of lighting, by late Saturday night we had managed to get the header to sit in the supports on either side of the wall (and I even went up the ladder to help!)

After stopping by the DIY store to get a sledge hammer on Sunday, Rick was able to bash the header into its final resting place. Ignoring the huge pile of rubble and general messiness, the new foyer (equipped with two brand new headers) is starting to look really good, don’t you think? )

According to the weather forecast, Thursday was the start of 4 days of uninterrupted sunshine – a perfect stretch of time to change out the dining room window.  Much like the back door, we knew that at least one of the windows in the dining room would need to be replaced as soon as possible after moving in. With the weather being so changeable, it has been difficult to find a few days of continuous good weather – this weekend was our chance.

 You can clearly see the state of the window framing. The wood just crumbled at our finger tips when we removed the trim from around the window.  It didn’t take too long to remove the window from its frame, with the decay being so bad.  We custom ordered a new double hung, vinyl window several weeks ago and it has been sitting in the dining room waiting for the right opportunity to be installed.  The rough frame was a little larger than the window we ordered, but a few shims and screws secured the new window in place.  We will need to caulk the outside to weather proof the window before applying new decorative trim – we’ll post the before&after pics shortly…