Well the dust has arrived with drywall work.

Well a pretty decent week was had. The only bad part is that now that I am installing drywall we are also having to deal with all the dust you get when working with this material. I will have to carefully keep the dust down and clean up a lot to protect the furnace from all the drywall dust. Once the mudding and taping begins I'll even turn off the furnace when they are sanding and do a thourough clean up prior to restarting the furnace. So onto what we did this week.

On Sunday and Monday I spent the day's moving 7 loads from the storage unit into the garage. By the end of the seventh trip all that was left was my workbench and a few pallets that had been used to keep the furniture off the floor. This workbench would need 3-4 people to move so was being left until Wednesday when I would have the manpower to move it. Needless to say the garage is full.

On Tuesday I worked on finishing all the basement bulkheads. The framing in the basement is now complete. I then worked on installing the shower in the spare bathroom. The shower pan sits perfectly on the floor and required no shimming at all. I then installed the back wall as well as the left and right walls. The right wall will accept the shower taps so is not fixed permanently until we install the taps next week when the plumber comes back. Lastly I installed the exterior door required between the basement and the cold cellar. Once the door was installed I've been monitoring the temp and so far it stays at a stable 6C in there even though it goes down to -15C at night outside. The house is kept at 15C so it is a nice working temp. Here are some pictures. First picture shows the completed shower stall. This is a 60in by 30in shower and the walls are approx 72" high. The remaining wall area will get covered with water resistant drywall and then eventually tiled. The ceiling above is already covered with water resistant drywall. The second picture shows the 30in door into the cold cellar. There is a gap above the door that will get some spray foam insulation to seal it up.

On Wednesday I started by installing the shower base in the master bedroom. Unfortunately the shower area was right on a joint between two sheets of flooring and for some reason there was a small hump there such that the shower pan would not sit properly. I spent some time sanding the area before I came to the conclusion that I would need to sit the shower pan in a base of mortar mix which is what the shower manufacture recommends if the floor is not level. So half a bag of mortar mix later I had a 1" base of mortar to imbed the shower base. Once this hardens my shower base will be rock solid. While this was curing I finished the bulkheading in the kitchen area. When that was done essentially all framing was finished in the house. However I have decided that I will extend one false wall in the kitchen and I realize that I need to install a small wall to delineate the area where the tub will go in the basement bathroom prior to me installing drywall there. Then we also moved that workbench I mentioned so that I was completely moved out of the storage units. Later in the afternoon I had the inspector come around to inspect the insulation prior to me drywalling the house. They were impressed with my choice of materials and were interested in how expensive it will be to heat the house. I said ask me a year from now and I'll tell you. Inspection passed with flying colours so we could begin installing drywall. In the first picture you can see the mortar mix lying down. The second picture is after the shower base was lowered into position and set into the mortar mix. The third picture shows the completed framing in the kitchen area.

Well for the remainder of the week all I've done is install drywall. I've started in the basement doing as much as I can with the exception of areas where the plumber needs to be. I've also used up all the drywall that I brought into the basement with help from the brother in law and his son and will now have a company deliver the remainder required for the basement. On Saturday the brother in law gave me a hand to install the drywall in the stairwell area. We did not complete it as I don't want to impede the movement later of drywall into the basement however we did at least get a few of the awkward pieces done. In the first picture you see some of the drywall that was installed by end of Wednesday. There is more done now but pictures. The second picture shows three sheets installed in the stairwell. I had placed some bracing across the opening and then placed plywood down so we could stand on it to do the two sheets on the right side of the picture. For the sheet at the end of the stairwell I screwed some brackets on below the wall on the ceiling above the landing. We then walked the sheet down the stairwell placed it on these brackets and then using the "Tbar" leaning against the wall pushed the piece up against the wall. This actually went real smooth and we shortly had all three sheets installed. Once the drywall is delivered for the basement I'll then finish the rest of the walls.

So for next week it is essentially Drywall all week long or until I finish it. I also hope to have the plumber in on Monday to install all the water lines and maybe the HVAC guys will come back with the Hot water tank as well so the plumber can hook that up as well. Now I need to find a good mudding and taping crew to finish off all my drywall. Once that is done paint the house with primer and paint the ceiling. Then install all the plugs, lights and switches to get my final electrical. Then install my master bathroom and I can then look forward to getting an occupancy certificate which will allow me to live in the house while I am finishing it. So if nothing goes wrong and I can find a good drywall crew maybe I will be moving in around the end of March.

Well see you next week and hopefully most of the drywalling will be done.

Harold