This Is Not A Big Ball Of Mud

Day by day the stack continues to get smaller.

More finds its way to the walls and ceiling.  Sometimes it feels like you've walked into a tropical greenhouse with all the moisture in the air as it dries.

The big wall and its "cuddle nook" are taking shape.  And you can really get a sense of what the space is going to be like.

Especially around the dormers that overlook the Cathedral.  It will be a cool view when Red Bull's Crashed Ice is here in a few weeks.

I Love The Smell Of Mud In The Morning...

Well, it's more in the evening actually.

Every night when I get home from work there's the faint smell of fresh mud.

It's the smell of progress...

One additional little treat today was the creation of the pan and installation of most of the the backer board in the shower.

Joy in Mudville

While I was busy at work today, lots of mud got slung around the attic.

Most every surface has at least some, including the guest bedroom,

the hall, and

my room. ;-)

The Old Master Bath - Part 9

I suppose at this point I shouldn't be calling this the old master bath.  It should now probably be properly called Her Dressing Room...

The shade arrived recently and I quickly installed it.  I'm sure the neighbors have been getting a thrill in the meantime.

Those with a keen eye will also note the new details on the panels in the left of the picture.  We'd been toying with the idea for a while and...

You might recall that there was an article about us and the house in The Highland Villager just before the Ramsey Hill House tour back in September. The author had brought his wife along and we gave them both a tour as part of the interview.  She is artist and one of her friends specializes in doing work like this, so naturally we got to talking and one thing led to another.

Last week she was here and did these cool little pieces.

Got Mud?

Now it's going to get interesting...

All this is going to get spread around the walls and ceilings over the next couple of weeks.

I'm going to let the professionals have this one.  They can do it much faster and better than I can.  And I have other stuff I need to do.

Rockin' - Part 3

Despite the self-inflicted problem from the previous post, things have been progressing.

The bedroom is done.  As is the hallway (except where it had to come down so I could re-wire).

All that's left is the interior of the two closets, interior of the bathroom, the ceiling in the big room, and the  walls in the stair case.

Then mud and tape.

We have been thinking about various fixtures, flooring options, colors, etc and have already chosen some.  So we're ready when the time comes.

Two Steps Forward; One Step Back

This should have been a post showing a bit more progress, but...

Note the lack of drywall on parts of the ceiling and wall in the hallway.  Their used to be drywall installed there, but it had come down.

After the drywall was hung in the hallway, I installed some temporary lights (see bare-bulb fixture hanging from the ceiling where there is drywall...).

And discovered that I messed up the wiring for the hallway fixtures controlled by the 3-way switches.

Arrrrgh.

That meant I needed to re-wire that leg of the circuit and therefore the drywall had to come down in a couple places.  Better that I discovered it now rather than after it was all mudded, taped, and painted...

The reference book I've been using describes how to wire single fixtures controlled by 3-way switches.  You can follow the same instructions when wiring multiple fixtures, EXCEPT when the fixtures are wired between the switches.  I found a decent on-line reference for how to do it - note the difference between options 3 and 7.  As an aside, I ended up re-wiring it like option 5...

Rockin' - Part 1

We know this is going to take a while...

Thursday was prep day - get all the materials and tools up there.

Friday the installation started and made decent progress.  The rock is about three-quarters of the way up to the ceiling on three walls of the big room.

Here Comes the Boom

Early Thursday morning this showed up in front of the house.

170(!) 12-foot sheets went up through the attic window.  Each sheet weighs 110 pounds, so that's by far the easiest way to get them up there...  ;-)

Even though the heat in the attic isn't turned on yet, the new insulation has been keeping the attic temperature at 55 degrees.  I think the guys were happy to be working in a relatively warm space for a change.

It Wouldn't be a Party Without a Project

With this being the holiday season, I wasn't really working on any projects.  We've had something going most every night, so there really wasn't time to devote to the house.

Thursday night we had some friends over (Hi Mark and Rhonda!) for a lovely evening.  At that point everything was fine, but it wasn't to stay that way...

Yesterday (Saturday) was going to be a relatively lazy day so we could get ready for hosting a family gathering of 20-25 people on Sunday

Yeah, right...

Late in the morning my daughter came into the kitchen and said, "Dad, the bathroom floor is wet.  Did someone plug the toilet?"

I went to check it out and indeed the floor was wet.  But it wasn't from a plugged toilet.  The tank had cracked and was slowly dripping onto the floor...

If you look closely at the picture you can see the crack.  It runs from just above the flush lever down to the lower left corner of the tank.  You can also see the discoloration in the base tile where the water's been drawn up into the tile.  We'll have to see what happens to that when it dries out...

Needless to say, my lazy Saturday turned into a project day.  I had to quickly do some on-line research to see what toilets were in stock locally, pick one up, and install it before we went to my mother-in-law's for the evening.

I managed to get it all installed and one of the guests got to "christen" it this morning...