New Wall - Day 5

I am SO BEHIND on posts.

Which is a good thing, in one sense, because that means I've been very busy with the remodel and haven't had any time to post my progress.  It isn't like I've been sitting around watching "Criminal Minds".  (Dark show, I don't recommend binge watching.)

Wait, that made it seem like I have been binge watching.  Well, I haven't.  I've been all out, full steam ahead, grinding my nose off the grindstone with this project.

So, of course, I'm going to start by showing you SPF's progress.

 So here's the seam between the new wall and the old wall.  Cover it up with some mud, and . . .

Voila!  The seam begins to fade.  Another coat to feather, eventually, and this will be ready to be sanded, textured, and painted.  (Which also sounds like a lot of work.  Hmmmm.)

Note 1: Do not let cats eat drywall mud.
Note 2: Cats will eat drywall mud if given the opportunity.
Note 3: No, I didn't let my cat eat drywall mud just so I could take this picture.  I took the picture and then stopped his curiosity from, well, you know . . .

The nearly finished new wall!  If only all projects went this smoothly!  (Get it, smooooooothly?  Because of how smooth the wall is?)

New Wall - Day 4

Well, Day 4 turned out to be interesting.

Because it is easier to put up the drywall without the cut hole and use the framing of the new wall to find the edges once the board is up, the HVAC had to go on vacation for a little while.  In July.  And then we realized that the thermostat had actually been left on the original wall, which was now behind the new wall.  So the wall came down, the thermostat was removed, and the wall went back up.

Once that was done, SPF screwed the drywall in place, caulked the seams (this is, after all, an air intake, so we don't want lots of dust or weird wall stuff getting sucked into the HVAC), and taped up the intake with metal HVAC tape to make it clean and functional.

 We weren't sure if this was necessary, but it doesn't hurt, so we did it anyway.

 After disconnecting the thermostat wires and pulling them through the wall into the cabinet, we had a bit of bare wire to bare wire contact.  This lead to a strange clicking sound and a new personality to our HVAC.  New in that it is in a coma.  In July.  So we taped up the ends so that they wouldn't touch each other again and called the HVAC guy, who is supposed to be here today between 4:30 and 5:00.  Last night was thankfully not too warm, and our electric bill should be smaller for it, so silver lining.
The poor HVAC has an error code mechanism that blinks short blinks for the first digit and long blinks for the second digit (allowing for an alarming number of error codes.)  Anyway, it looked like the poor thing was trying to signal SOS.  But no, this was two short-four long, not three long-three short-three long.  So, at least it didn't think it was dying.

When it is fixed (turns out to be a shorted 24 volt fuse) it should look nice.  But we will need to paint and drywall around it as it has been passed back through the wall and connected to the dormant thermostat display.

The vent looks nice, though!  Sturdy and fixed nicely into the new wall.

New Wall - Day 3

Well, working to complete the wall is proving difficult only because of time.  Because we run our own business and I work freelance as a writer, photographer, and educator, we are a little strapped for time, even during my summer break.  Considering that this project is entirely SPF's so far, I haven't been able to help out, though I am really trying to get lots of progress images to show all of you.  Don't worry, though, the next phase of other projects will soon be updated.  Projects that I did work on.

SPF is using both liquid nails and braces to keep the new frame in place and level.  The liquid nails by itself isn't as robust as we would have hoped, which is why there is now some liquid nails residue on the carpet.  I guess we better rip those out!

One of the many things I learned from the amazing Scott McGillivray (sigh) is that whenever you are laminating one thing to another with a liquid glue you should do an S pattern and not include any completed circles or completely entrapped areas.  This way, if there is expansion or contraction due to temperature or humidity changes, your glue won't be compromised.  So we glued this puppy with an S pattern.  (I have no idea if SPF knew that already, but I am going to imagine he did seeing as how I didn't communicate that to him and he didn't watch that much Scott McGillivray with me.)  So, YAY SPF!

The new interior frame will have the outer frame and then a new stud on the 16" mark between studs so that we can be at a standard distance for hanging the drywall.

The last little bit of frame is for the HVAC intake, which needs a sturdy frame to affix the air intake filter cover back to.  One trick is our thermostat, which is affixed to cabinet wall.  I hope it will move easily, but it does have some wiring, of course, that will need to be considered.  Hmmmmmm, considering . . .

Until next time!

New Wall - Day 1 - Update

Turns out, SPF did grab the "before" shot.  The  memo boards were already taken down, but you can see a little of the carpet.  And a lot of the wedding photo which I still need to take down . . .

New Wall - Day 1 and 2

Okay, so I don't have pictures for day one.  Mostly because I forgot how I do these things (reference the last post) and I didn't get the "before" shot.  But no worries!  Lots of other "before" things coming, and hopefully some "after"'s as well.

New Wall - Day 1 consisted of tearing out some carpet, removing some memo boards, taking back some existing drywall and removing the corner bead from the weird edge of the wall that we didn't like.

Let me go back a little.  We have this hallway where a standard wall ends abruptly and corners into the wood paneling of the cabinet that houses our HVAC unit.  The HVAC unit is in the kitchen (don't get me started on the if-I-could-go-back-in-time-I-would-have-put-it-in-the-attic-and-had-an-extra-pantry-in-the-kitchen) and the wood paneling is the same cabinet material as all of the other cabinets in our kitchen.  All of which have been refinished, with the exception of this wall and one other cabinet face.  (Again, reference previous post.)  SPF and I have never liked the weird way this wall works and I really don't want to refinish this wall as well.  Besides that, we are about to get (SPOILER ALERT) NEW FLOORS!!!!!  Sooooo, now is the time to create a new wall so that the new floors can go up to the wall and not under it.

So, SPF did the demo yesterday, bought the new supplies (2x4, drywall, drywall screws, and wood glue [sort of, he bought the wrong kind and is now with the kids returning it at Home Depot and getting the right stuff] and joint compound.)  Both our little ones, CNF and OGF helped.  :)

New Wall - Day 2

With the cut pieces read to go, SPF started to create the wall.  Here are some images from the start of it, for reference.  (Notice the two little people.  Those are new since the last remodeling project was posted here.)

This isn't a great view, but right where the little guy in the red striped shirt is standing is where the wall cuts in awkwardly.

Here is SPF starting some of the screws for the wall footer.

Here is CNF learning how to start screws for a wall footer.  (BTW, one of the most amazing parts about doing these new projects is that the little guys want to help out.)

And here is a better view of the weird wall cut in.  I can also now see that our wedding image that I suggested we take down is still up.  So, I will go and deal with that before the screwing, gluing, joint compound, and dust kick up and ruin my wedding picture.  But, you know, casualties of the remodel process.  (Did I ever tell you about the drywall patch we had to do when the new couch was delivered?  They delivered it right into the wall . . . )