Broken Joist

While doing all the wiring I've done the past few days, I discovered a broken, cracked joist. The wood inside the crack looks new so it probably happened last New Years! At our New Years Eve party last year, we had quite a few people jumping and dancing right over that joist.

To fix it I first filled the crack with a flooring adhesive. Then I took a 2 x 6 smeared with the same adhesive and straddled the crack with the 2 x 6. I put the same board on the other side of the joist. I would have like to put a 2 x 6 the length of that board all the way from the foundation to the main support beam. There was too much venting in the way to do that.

New electric and lights for the basement

Holy cow! I untangled an absolute mess in the basement, something that has bothered me for years. The previous owner buried so much electric behind walls and in the ceiling. In some places, the wires actually started fires. In other places, the guy put wires together with duct tape! Open splices just pushed towards the ceiling in the basement.

Before Christmas I started by removing the wires, rerunning new wires and making connections inside new electric boxes (see the picture). On the morning of Christmas Eve I thought I would spend a few minutes laying out the new can lights. After I got them up, I wanted to hook them up. Five hours later I had to stop to get to a holiday party. The entire upstairs was without power, for two days!

Today, I was able to do a few things. I used about four hours to run two lines directly to the panel. I hooked up all the can lights to their own circuit. There will be quite a few of them in the basement hooked together so I wanted to dedicate a line just for that. Removing the lights from the circuit that the refrigerator was also a goal I had. Every light in the basement was hooked to the same line that feed the refrigerator. The second circuit I added took the entire upstairs off that same refrigerator/basement circuit. Now the upstairs to the old part of the house has their own 20 amp breaker.

Figured I saved just a boat load of money doing this work myself. I priced out this job to the electrician who wired our new service panel in the addition portion--$3000. I spent around a hundred, mostly on wire that would have been cheaper if China wasn't demanding so much.

Another basement wall ready for insulation!

This weekend I really wanted to button up the wall in the basement- block out the cold before the real winter hits is. The cold air just pouring into the basement all these years is just insane.

The bulk of the work was clearing the debris from the demolition. About thirty trips got it outside. Jackson really helped me get this part done. We then scrapped and vacuumed the old paint from the wall. About an hour to Dryloc the wall. Another hour for the foam board. The fun part was putting up the framing for the new wall. Pressure treated boards as sill plates that I drove into the concrete with an actuated gun and nails with washers. So much easier than tap screws!

The next steps. I'm going to run tubing and connect into the central vac system I installed in the rest of the house. I will also run electric through this wall for some outlets. Insulation will be done this winter, soon, and drywall in the spring.

The pictures below show the new wall. Another shows a board I pulled out from the old framing. An actual burned board! The electric in this old house is another replacement I have planned for this winter. The previous owners just spliced wires together behind walls. The last picture shows the small wall I insulated a few weeks ago. I drywalled it so it was't that much of an eye sore during the holidays.

Brick up an old window opening

For whatever reason, the family who lived in our house covered a old window opening with spray foam and plywood. I discovered this mess a few weeks ago while removing the insulation and drywall from the poorly finished basement walls. Cold air from under our porch has been pouring into our house.

To be honest, I also discovered why the previous owner didn't use cement block to close this opening. With most of the work behind the gas meter, the lack of space made it really difficult to maneuver the concrete bricks. At one point I didn't stagger the joints just so I could block more of the opening behind the meter. I'm no mason at all. Cold air pouring in your house is all I wanted to stop.

The pics below show the before and after.

Insulated Wall In The Basement

Did some work on the basement walls on my day off today. Over the last few weeks I discovered the previous owners created their "finished" basement with the wrong techniques for finishing the walls. They buried electric, insulated the walls incorrectly, nailed wood into the foundation walls which put massive holes and finally, a water line. A hot water line was run behind the insulation against the cold foundation wall. This has created condensation and a small amount of mold (smelled nasty).

I have taken everything off the walls (drywall, insulation and one by twos). I then used Drylok to seal the wall for water. Today I removed the water line by installing a Shark valve. This allowed me to shut off the water flow I that direction and the option to add a Pecs water line later.

Next Ryan and I used foam board adhesive to glue foam board on the walls. The foam board has a R value of 4 which is nothing but it will give the wall some moisture protection.

The last thing we did was install metal 2 x 4s. I used an actuated gun to shoot nails and secure the metal to the basement concrete. I've never done this and was very nervous to use the tool. It worked out ok meaning I didn't get my hand or other body parts shot.

New window installed

Last month I discovered one of the small windows in our old living room has actually been open for the last 15 years! The previous owner just caulked and painted over the ajar window.

I ordered two replacement windows from Home Depot. They took two weeks to come in and the one of them was broken (a rush job to replace should get me the window by next Friday). The windows I ordered have the same detail as the ones from 1919 except they will open. I briefly thought about weather stripping the old ones and working them over so we could open and close them. Single pane, blown glass doesn't keep the cold out. The windows are on the south side of the house so the old ones didn't keep the heat out. The new ones are double pane, with some kind of special gas in between with insulating properties. They are slightly tinted which will also help out.

The install took me an hour and a half. I didn't get to paint the opening but with the nice weather I was able to caulk the window in place.

I made my own sill trim as the pitch of the sill was just too much for the plastic sill corrector supplied by the window manufacturer.

One shows the window opening as I removed the stops and scraped the paint and gunk away.

The second shows the new window on the left. The window lites are not exactly the same but close enough.

Living room wall coming down

After taking the wallpaper off the walls I realized the drywall covering the paster was in pretty bad shape. Hence covering it in wallpaper. On the wall I'm working on, I discovered an early attempt to cover the paster with paneling. We decided to just go down to the studs so we can insulate.

Pictures show the drywall pulled off. Then a close up of the under the window part showing the cedar tongue and groove siding on the outside. No insulation at all has brought in cold air from outside every winter.

New windows for the basement

We have wanted to replace our basement windows for years. The old ones were original. I could tell they were hand made with blown glass which dates them around the time the home was built 1919. The had aluminum storms installed over them. This didn't stop cold air from getting through. From the inside the windows were locked, chalked and painted shut. Even the lock was painted over!

To begin I ordered the windows two weeks ago. I took measurements and triple checked to make sure I got the right size windows. I wanted to eliminate the wood casing around the window completely and go right to the stone foundation.

First picture shows the old windows with the wood casing and storm windows installed.

The Opening
I prepared the opening by removing the entire window and frame. In some places water had started to get behind the frame. I scraped and hammered until I got the opening perfectly clear.

Fill the holes
The foundation block had holes running vertically deep into the wall. I plugged those holes with block then covered the hole with mortar. Did this on both windows at the same time. The second picture shows the bare opening and the third one shows the holes filled.

Preparing the windows and install

While the block dried I covered the all the edges with painter's tape to protect the white trim. On all four sides of each opening I laid down a thick bead of block adhesive. This is some really sticky stuff. I made sure the windows were plum and level. I used concrete screws in each corner to hold the block in place while the mortar dries.

Cementing the window in place

Lastly I used a mortar bag to run mortar on three sides (I use exterior caulk on the top). I feathered to mortar into the existing foundation. Once it dries and ages a bit I don't think you would be able to tell the windows were installed.
The last few pictures show the completed project. Two more windows to go!

Bookshelves for my classroom

Last year I moved to a new grade and classroom. The classroom was an addition to my school. Very nice and new however without storage. I had tons of student books, teaching materials, books about teaching and then supplies. Last year I built a low shelf to his language arts books and reading center work. This year it was a shelf to cover my small reading books plus a shelf for my day to day teaching materials.
Love how they turned out. I didn't put a lot of effort into the joinery or the finish. I didn't have a lot of time to mess around with them.

Shelving unit for garage

Yesterday I finished a shelving unit for the garage. I've always wanted a place to put the coolers, baseball stuff, yard toys, and the chairs we use at sporting events.

I used the metal corner brackets to get the first shelf level. The rest of the shelves are screwed or nailed together. To purchase a shelf this big and sturdy it would have cost too much. I made this for under $50 bucks.

Shelves for a friend

My friend Tina asked me to build her shelves for a small desk area in her kitchen. She wanted them to match some existing shelves on the other side of the kitchen. I was able to match some of the edge detail with a router bit.
Hanging the shelves was a bit of an ordeal. Her husband Jerry and I spent around two hours hanging them. We were using the product Zip which just screws into the wall. Each one can hold 50 pounds of weight. The first two shelves went in easily. The ones to the right were a bear. Not sure what the dry wall on that side was- maybe first generation dry wall. It wasn't thick enough and it was hard like a rock. The Zip product just spun then ate up the wall too much.
She loves her new shelves and I think they look like they have always been there.

Garage Siding is Done!

Today my friend Jerry Scacchitti came over to help me finish up the garage. The back of the garage is just as challenging as the front, except it was missing the huge whole for the doorway! Jerry and I were able to do from the ground to about seven feet up in a little under 2 hours. We then spent 3 hours on the cuts for the angled sides.

A little memory bubble for the project today was watching my friend side while he took a conference call on his blackberry, listened to music playing and me talking. Every once in a while he would take the call off mute to add to the conference call then return right to siding! Amazing

Pretty much a side per day this week. Not bad for a few hours of sweating and working. Totally worth it to me to save the difference between hiring out for this work. The siding cost about $1200 and I figured I worked a total of 20 hours on the siding project.

Bought the siding material from B & L Wholesale, Rochester NY. Free delivery and the will take back any unused materials.

Pictures show Jerry in various stages of work. The last pic is the completed back. The ladder is still there to fit in the eaves- that will be another day.

2nd Side Completed

Today Jack and I worked together on the siding on this 2nd side. Jack did a very good job. The two sun sides are finished. Here are before (with my little guy Ryan) and the after.

Love siding! Goes from trash to clean looking in hours. Reminds me of grouting tile. You smear this mud over the tiles, making it look like a mess, then wipe it away to reveal something awesome.

Vinyl Siding on the garage

Front completed today on our garage. A few challenges I didn't expect. The thin sides were not the same height. That really messed up the first long piece of siding over the door. That one piece had to be perfectly straight or it would throw off the entire job.

I baked in the sun all day and had a throw down with a few bees. The hardest side is done- lots of angled cuts that were not fun.

Refinished A Bench

Today I helped out my mother in law with refinishing an outdoor bench. The bench was made of oak and had seen some time in the weather. The wood had turned black and rough.

My daughter and I sanded the wood with 80 grit, 120 grit and finally 220 grit sandpaper. That took us around 2 hours with an orbital sander. We then cleaned the black iron parts and spray painted it. The wood was treated with a polyurethane.

Last we assembled the bench.

Edging around the pool

Putting the finishing touches on the edging around our pool. This should help keep weeds down and look nice once the grass comes in from the places I torn up last week. Got to get water back there! Grass needs water- genius.

Edge around the front flower beds

After years of trying to figure out an edging that looks good and
stays in place I found this stone at home depot.
I dug a small trench, put in gravel as a base and then hammered them
in place. They were easy to bend around the plant bed.

Cork board frames

Worked on creating frames for our cork board squares. The squares
secured to the cupboard with double sided tape kept falling off- with
all the stuff going everywhere. These frames should hold up better.