Adventures in Renovation

Here are some photos of the completed framing for the bedroom wall. I propped my door in the frame for the photo to get a sense of what it'll look like. Things changed a little from my initial diagrams. The final wall I built with stud 24" on center since the wall isn't a load bearing wall. Initially I was going to use jack studs for the top window and door frame. Then I read that those aren't necessary with interior walls that aren't load bearing.

I found a PDF document online put out by the EPA called Value Engineered Framing. This outlines how it's better to use 2x6 studs 24" on center with steel header hangers. This system uses less lumber, costs less, and allows for better energy efficiency by adding thicker space for insulation and reducing the number of studs that transfer heat outside the house. Of course, they're talking about exterior wall. I then changed my plan to use no jack studs to simplify things and use header hangers just in case. It turns out tho that I'd have to special order hearer hangers from Simpson and they cost $9.95 per piece which is a lot more than I thought I'd have to spend. Now that the wall is up, I think I'm going to skip the header hangers. It's really damn tight. I don't think it's going anywhere.

Posted by at 11:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Who needs a pickup truck when you've got a Volvo with a Thule rack!

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I finished the framing for the bedroom wall yesterday. BAM! Only took a couple hours and no one was even helping me. I thought to myself, if Regina's Dad can build a log cabin without any help, then I can frame a wall. It seems most of the time I spend on construction goes into planning and trying to figure stuff out when I come across a snag while working. But this went fast because everything was already figured out. The moral: think less = more done.

Now it's time to re-build the bathrooms walls. But first I have to plan it out...

Posted by at 5:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Show is threatening to wreck my house plans now. It snowed just enough yesterday so that I couldn't get any lumber at lunch to finish the bedroom wall. Also, I'm looking to get steel header hangers to make the framing easier and use less wood but that's not the kind of thing Home Depot carries.

Someone on Vicki's block made a giant blinking sign that says 'SNOW' outside their house. I think they made it with christmas lights. I'm not sure if this is to celebrate the snow, encourage it to snow, or warn people that there is snow. Here's a little video I took with my camera.

Also, Monday Camillo came over he rocked my plumbing. We took the old cast iron 'T' out of the waste pipe and replaced it with PVC. He also started to run the plumbing for the water pipes to the upstairs. It's gonna be all plastic. But we got cut short because there are come more parts required like copper pipe to fit the plastic to the old copper. It helps to have an expert. Camillo rocks. He works 10 times faster than I do. I just hope I spelled his name right.

Posted by at 8:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

In the last month this blog got hit with a whole bunch of comment SPAM! I had hundreds of comments on my entries with random stuff in them all with links to online poker gambling crap. It was such a problem I couldn't even log onto the blog because there were too many spammers leaving spam on my blog last week. So I had to update Movable Type and add a bunch of plugins too try to refuse spam. Fortunately Movable Type is great and has published a really good guide to fighting comment spam and made a plugin for a new html tag called "nofollow." That keeps search engines like Google from following the link in the comment spam to the online poker site. These links give the poker site a higher rating on search engine's which is their ultimate goal. They probably don't care if anyone reading this blog actually goes to play online poker.

Posted by at 10:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)