Tile backsplash redux- almost done (really!)
Posted by Jeffrey on Jun 29, 2009
Both the electrician and the tiler came by today (in that order) and it was great to see some of the last things get done. It seems like the last 5% or so has taken the same time as the previous 95% (and somehow, at least as frustrating.)But really the work that Bill the electrician had to do didn’t take that long: putting the trims on the potlights, plates on the outlets and installing the pendant light (which looks great!) with some other bits and pieces.
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Pendant picks up the color of the floor and furniture |
He even replaced one of our existing outlets to match the Decora style outlets he put in. He said that he didn’t like the look of it because it didn’t match. That just shows the attention to detail in his work!
He had to wait on a few things as he ran out of trims for the pots and wanted to come back after the tile was grouted to put the plates on that wall. So he will be back tomorrow, co-incidentally when the carpet is being installed in the front hall and up the stairs as a runner. I found the carpet installer on Homestars.com and he has a fantastic approval rating. So far he has been extremely responsive and has really helped us through the carpet ordering process.
The backsplash was grouted and looks better than the previous one, although the tiler commented that the tiles are still not truly straight and I can see what he means.
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New tile installed last week and grouted |
So now it looks like we could really be done for the weekend! (Cross fingers and toes)
Stay tuned – I will devote some time to talking about the various appliances/ fixtures we chose and what I think of them having lived with them on a daily basis!
Done, at least the wiring…
Posted by Jeffrey on Apr 6, 2005
Well, I just got home and the electricians are done with their part of the job, running the wiring and installing receptacles etc. Now I have to clean up by patching all the drywall which will take some time, but probably couldn’t be avoided. Their wiring looks pretty good and the panel looks neat with the new circuits stapled to the backer board. So overall, a pretty chaotic three days, but probably par for the course.So what have I learned from all this?
What can go wrong will go wrong
Posted by Jeffrey on Apr 5, 2005
So I get a call from the Office of the electricians we are using. The guy on the phone says that he didn’t want to tell me, but the technician who is supposed to be doing the job today had to go the hospital this morning for a CAT scan(!). What are you supposed to say to that? I asked if they were sure he was supposed to be doing work. They assured me that this would be fine. Later I talked to him, and it was an ultrasound, not a cat scan.So as a result they don’t show up till about 11, and they have 2 guys (1 electrician and an apprentice) so they hope to finish what was supposed to be a 2 day job in 1 day. I was a bit sceptical, but wanted to believe that it could be done.
I show them what I want done and they didn’t have the right wire, so one guy has to go to the Depot to get the stuff. They get to work and everything seems to be going along alright until around 3:30 when they say that it will be difficult to install the GFI near the sink as the box is too deep for the wall. I see that they have pulled wire up to the main floor already so they go ahead and start channelling out the lath and plaster to bring the wire up to counter height.
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Wire pulled for 3-way switch. |
I go back upstairs to work and then I hear this loud noise. I go down to check and the guy who was using the Sawzall says, “I gotta go to the hospital. I cut my finger off.” I offer to drive him but he says that the other guy will drive, but they need the location of the hospital. I tell them and clean the guys finger a bit (it wasn’t really cut off) and they start to go at around 4:30.
As I am getting them into the van the Parking Cop comes by and tries to give them a ticket on their other van. I explain what happened and the guy says, “Ok, I won’t be giving you a ticket, but some other officer else might…”
Ugh, so I get the keys for the other van from the guys, they drive off to the hospital and I have to find someplace to move this van so it doesn’t get a ticket.
After doing this I get back to the house and start doing more work. There’s a knock on the door and the second guy is back to clean up after dropping the other one off at the hospital. So he parks around back and cleans up the various tools and wire and loads that stuff into the van and drives off.
Just after this Kim notices that it seems a little cold in the house and in fact because they had to stop everything suddenly, they were not able to feed the panel and as a result the furnace was not hooked up.
I called the office for the, I don’t know, tenth time and told them that and they said they’d call me back. I also agreed to send them a list with what needed to be done to finish as they weren’t sure who would be coming the next day.
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Channel partly cut in wall for counter outlet GFI. |
So a quick recap: Here we are in a cold house, with no power in the back half of the house (no stove or microwave) waiting for someone to call us back to see if we can get our heat back on.
Sure enough the call comes in: someone will be by later that evening. Around 8 who shows up? Both the guys from earlier! Except now that now he has a huge bandage around his finger. “Six stitches,” he said. I said I feel bad; twice today you’ve had to come directly from the hospital to do work on my house. That’s awful. He said no problem; he will direct the other guy on how to hook up the furnace feed to the panel.
Well, it worked so the heat came on and I had to send the office this fax with the stuff that needed to be done, but the fax, wait for it, was on one of the circuits that was shut off. I had to run an extension cord from another room to get it to turn on.
I really forget how dependent we are on power.
One day to do their job.
Posted by Jeffrey on Apr 5, 2005
Heard from the electrician late yesterday that they will be here this morning with 2 guys (rather than one) so they can hopefully finish the job in one long day. That would be great!Bit More Demo
Posted by Jeffrey on Mar 31, 2005
A slight bit more demo last night. Took out the drywall on a wall for the furnace room; one which I though I would not have to tear down. Tonight have to rip out the studs and rebuild as it has to be extended for the door to the work/laundry area. Behind this wall are two jackposts which were put in years ago that I sure don’t want to touch, so I will just build around them. I have studs left over from the closet project Graham did, so hopefully I will have enough wood to construct all this. |
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Existing joists with plywood laminated and blocking installed. |
I also took a look at the return air duct because I need to put in a floor level return and route it to the return duct which is attached to the ceiling. I put my hand up there (behind the water pipes, wires etc.) and found that there is a huge hole in the duct on the top surface. Normally this is not a problem since the way the return is done, there is sheet metal covering the joist space so that becomes the plenum for the return air. The problem is that the joist space is open on the other end so air just gets sucked in from between the wall and the floor. After the electricians finish with the wiring I will go in and close it off and route a return to the floor level.
Start in the Middle
Posted by Jeffrey on Mar 28, 2005
For those who haven’t heard my constant complaining, I am finishing the basement in our 1920’s vintage house. The house is pretty small and to boot, also very narrow (about 12 and a half feet wide on the inside), so getting the most out of the space means using every inch effectively.I wanted to start documenting what I have done, even though I have completed a lot of work to date (and many trips to the nearest Home Depot).
So for those of you who have been asking here are the latest images.
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Rigid insulation fixed to wall. |
I finished putting in the rigid insulation and securing it using strapping and many tapcon screws, so that I can have a surface to attach the drywall. I am using Type “X” drywall for the walls and want to get all the surfaces trued before I start putting it up. As you can see the bottom of the wall is not quite in line with the rest of the wall, so I have to shim a bit to get everything straight.
Also, have to wait for the Electricians to finish rewiring the basement next week before I can put up the ceiling drywall and tape.
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More insulation. Note ’slide’ I built to get bags of concrete into the basement leaning against the far wall. |
Sunday, as I was looking at the bathroom, I decided to take a peak under the drywall on the exterior wall of the bathroom. I was trying not to disturb too much in that room as I wanted to focus on the main space, and besides, it was already pretty much finished, except for some awful cedar siding which I ripped out. I was just going to patch these areas and put up a new ceiling and call it a day, but as these things go, there is always something else hiding behind the wall.
When I looked behind the old drywall, lo and behold, there was no insulation behind the wall. Hello? Exterior Wall? Insulation? I thought that generally insulation was supposed to go against the cold wall of the house, but I guess the person who renovated the house in the 70s wasn’t so fussy. So I figured, take out the drywall and put up the rigid insulation to take care of the problem. As I took down the drywall, I noticed an area of about 9 x 3 inches which had insulation stuck in it. I had to remove this and it was really dirty. Why was it dirty? Well as it turns out, it was covering a hole in the wall which went straight through to the outside! No wonder the bathroom was so cold in the winter!
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Bathroom bulkhead built around gas supply pipe. |
But hey, never let an opportunity go to waste. I was going to replace the vent fan anyway (the old one just vented into the joist space, duh), so I went to the Depot on Monday to buy a fan and duct so that I could use the hole to vent to the outside. So what if I had to wriggle myself under the front porch of the house through dirt and stuff to install the duct from the outside and seal it. All in a day’s work.
Hooked up the fan and the duct and built the bulkhead for the drywall and thought, this was just supposed to take a couple of hours; what happened to the rest of the day?
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Bathroom bulkhead built around exhaust fan using existing hole in wall. |
[...] and groove ply and the floor feels really tight and strong. Its nice to know that when I did ...