Monday Dec 28th
The morning starts with hours of searching online for a laptop
motherboard. How is a motherboard related to bathroom construction? It isn't. but for Christmas Eve, Jake's computer gave him a melted video card. That thing is not easy to find online.With a good bit more work the ceiling is finally furred and level. The 1 1/4" drywall screws that we bought wont even touch the joists with all the shimming. Another trip to Home Depot to get longer screws. These 2 1/2" screws are going to be tough to screw in. It's 5pm and we can finally begin to put up the sheetrock ceiling.
Our drywall cutting technique hasn't been put to use for a couple of years, but there are vague recollections of it being a pain. It's 3 degrees F outside, so we're cutting this sheetrock inside in the entryway. It was actually not too bad, and we get a straight cut to go above the tub. We build a makeshift "T" out of spare lumber to assist in lifting the board, and put a cleat on the wall over the tub to hold it up while we put in the screws. Getting the sheetrock into the tub alcove and up to the ceiling (and over the window that is in the way) took a lot of strength. These screws are really hard to get in. Once the screws are mostly in, we call it a night. We'll tighten and counter-sink them tomorrow. We are tired.
Tuesday Dec 29
The carpenters are ready to put insulation in the garage in the
morning, and they notice that the existing telephone line is going to get crushed when the sheetrock goes up.I am able to disconnect the phone line in a 2nd floor bedroom and drop it into the garage where it can be run through holes in the joists. Another leg has to be cut, run through the joists and spliced back together in the wall. I wonder if anybody will ever use them. Does anyone have a land line from the telco?
I spend a couple of hours trying to get those sheetrock screws really tight. What a pain. Uh oh, the edge of the sheetrock is just short of reaching a joist; this looks wrong. I ask the carpenters who are working in the garage to give the issue a look. Yup, that's wrong. I appreciate their suggestion to cut the unsupported sheetrock at the joist and put up a 2x4 nailer to attach another sheet. It takes a little while to cut the board using a sheetrock keyhole saw, but it has to be done. The contractor that's doing our garage stopped by and mentioned that his crew could sheetrock if we wanted them to (so we can make our timeline for tiling over the New Year's long weekend).
The quote for the sheetrock job was pretty attractive given that this work is tiring and we are running out of time before the weekend. We hire the crew to finish up the sheetrock and cement board in the alcove. The carpenters notice a couple of rookie mistakes that we would have made if we hadn't brought them in. A few missing nailer boards would have made sheetrocking the closet an issue. Oh well, sometimes you just have to call in some help.
I finish the bathroom insulation in preparation for the crew tomorrow and we get all the measurements for the underlayment so we can cut out the jigsaw puzzle pieces tomorrow. Another long day.
Wednesday Dec 30
The carpenters continue putting up sheetrock in the garage, as I prepare for the carpenters to sheetrock the bathroom. The underlayment floor needs to be cut which is a little tricky but fits nicely, and the water service fittings for the vanity faucet and the toilet need to be screwed in since they poke through the sheetrock. They wiggle quite a bit, so some blocking goes in to stiffen them up. A few pieces of blocking remain to be nailed in to support the shower mounting and some towel bars.
By about 2pm the carpenters take over in the bathroom. Sue heads off shortly thereafter to rent the tile saw with the help of our friend Mike while I stay back and "supervise." By 4:30pm the saw is here, and we call it a night.
It's nice to have an 8 hour day. Stay tuned, we should have some great pictures by end of tomorrow...
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