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. 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. 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! 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?
March 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.
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.
Bulkhead for gas line
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!
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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- Posted on March 28, 2005 8:38 pm
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