Framing & Windows

Have you ever seen a chainsaw for concrete? Now I can say that I have not only seen one, but operated one. It comes with a gas powered hydraulic pump and cuts amazingly. Dean and I enlarged the openings for 2 of the 4 windows, utilizing this amazing tool. The bedroom window and living room window were enlarged to accommodate egress as well as additional natural light and ventilation.

     The basement framing pushes on with a few days to go. Most of the walls are framed with a tricky corner finished recently. The duct work does not allow for the upper framing connection on one corner of a wall. This corner therefore needs to be tied together with the other framing members located adjacent to it. I feel we came up with an elegant solution to this problem Utilizing a false header system and tying everything together with some extra lumber and nails.

Window Wells

The digging is complete and the concrete is poured. Two new window wells were added: one on the South side, in the living room and one on the North side, in the bedroom. The larger 2'-6" x 4'-0" windows are required for egress in case of a fire, for a person to escape or a fireman with an air tank to enter. The south well is 3' x 3' and the North well is 3'-6" wide x 3'-0" long. Both wells are 2'-6" deep with a 6" curb on the outside. The design of the first poured South well that had a minor failure in the form, therefore the North well was significantly reinforced. Some advice given to me after the fact was to make concrete forms stronger than necessary because it is always a giant problem if the from fails. We did not have catastrophic failure but the 1/2" plywood from needed emergency buttressing. Overall it looks good but the next one will be much better.Additionally, the concrete truck brought enough to pour the basement floor. We filled in the trenches from the plumbing and are ready for some clean up and wall framing.

Basement Plumbing

Andre the plumber has been hard at work in the basement on the plumbing for the conversion. Dean rented a Jack Hammer and we demoed some trenches in the floor, also digging out the sewer main so Andre could hook up to it in a couple of different places. Wherever the basement plumbing connects to the main, a back flow preventer is needed to keep the sewage out of the basement in case of a flood. We added 2 floor drains, one on the laundry room where the water heater is located and a second near the outside door where the other water heater is located. This should prevent any major catastrophe in the plumbing department. For the future expansion into the attic for a new master bath the waste pipe and the vent was run up the existing chimney. Previously the chimney was removed in the attic to accommodate this.

Additionally, Dean and I managed to remove an existing floor joist in the stairwell to accommodate the head room requirement code. In this process we managed to cut the cable TV to the first floor. Luckily a replacement fitting was located and we were back to the Olympics in no time.

Hidden Treasure

While installing new outlets in various locations around the house I made a discovery. The location is behind Lora's desk in the living room. I cut the hole for a new electrical outlet, went into the basement and fed the wires up through the floor. After feeling around in the new outlet hole for a minute I realized I was touching finished wood. Not the inside of a wall cavity studs that give you splinters. This was some type of trim or something but definitely not the inside of a wall. After Lora's 12 second inspection we determined a larger hole was in order, to be patched later. Was it a false wall constructed during the duplex conversion? Maybe the fireplace was located here. Then the finished panel in the wall moved a little when it was touched. It is was a hidden pocket door abandoned long ago. But why? Could we get it operational again? So I proceeded to remove the trim that would be blocking the operation of the pocket door around the door frame. The door pulled out a little bit. Not too far though because something was blocking it from pulling all the way out. I did manage it out a foot or so. Careful inspection of the hardware revealed the small amount of use this door received before it's untimely cocoon in the wall. The most remarkable part is the key to the door was left in it for future use. But why would you eliminate this door simply to hang a standard swinging door in it's place? The electrician in this house made a poor choice and drilled two holes through the door and ran 2 wires through the door to a switch. This made the door inoperable and therefore I assume the electrician provided a swinging door in it's place. This must have happened 100 years ago. We will be removing the door, hardware and track and using this great find in the future upstairs in the master bath. The door will remain in it's current location until I can remove it safely and reattach the wiring.

 

 

  

Some Movement.

Finally the holidays are behind us, the FAFSA is complete, and the scholarship applications are just about finished. This is the time for the hard work to begin. A week or so ago I finished the duct work in the basement. Once again this services the basement and the first floor unit. I replaced the main trunk line from the furnace with a lower profile, wider duct. This will allow the end user to feel a little more head room in the rooms with exposed duct. The profile is 3"-4" shorter than before. This may not seem like a lot but, when the ceiling is 7' at the maximum those few extra inches are important. Also, the old duct had supply lines emerging from the sides of the duct where this new version will have no exposed supply lines. The modern design of the basement accepts the exposed main trunk line well without any superfluous duct running around in the room. This final duct design officially finishes the initial stage of the remodel and from here on out it is going to be a much quicker project. It turned out beautifully, but there is still so much work to do. Today I got all the old duct out of the basement and cleaned for the next project of wiring the first floor before installing the ceiling in the basement. I even got three outlets wired. This is a little bit of cheating because two of the outlets were back to back. Look for the next installment much quicker than this one. I have a deadline  to meet.

HVAC Overhaul

    
     The HVAC duct system is receiving an upgrade. The duct is really old and dirty, which is not enough to replace it, but it will also be too low in the room. The new and improved version will be 7-1/2" tall x 22" wide square duct. This duct will be exposed in the room The elbows you see are coming out of the top between the joists. All the rest of the pipe will be hidden in the joists and you will only see the grills in the appropriate places. Soon I will be ordering and picking up the new return duct for installation.

   The existing furnace is nearly new and is a 90+, or a 90% efficient model. It will be more than adequate to supply the basement and the first living floor. This should be complete in the next week or so.

Old electrical

I began the process of removing some of the old electrical from the basement. It is called knob and tube. I am removing an abandoned run and will be doing some wiring on the first floor to make the outlets active that are dead. This includes all new wall boxes, outlets, switches and wire. This project is beyond my ability therefore it interests me. I purchased a book, meter and will be ready to go soon. Hopefully I don't burn down the house. (Just kidding)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knob_and_tube_wiring