Helium Hand

Helium Hand (aka SWMBO) has volunteered us to be part of another event: the 2015 Summit Garden Stroll.  It's tomorrow if you have an interest in that sort of thing.

That's why it's been busy over the past week or so.  I've been working to get the master bath ready for the tile setter while everyone else is pulling weeds.

There are a few shrubs that didn't survive the winter, but there's not time to anything about them now.  It'll be enough just to get all the weeds pulled while I wait for the mud to dry.

If you're not on the Garden Stroll, here are the summer flowers you're going to miss.

And if you'd have been here a month ago, you'd have seen these spring flowers.

Master Bath - Part 4

It's been a busy few weeks and I finally have what I hope is the last coat of mud on the walls.

If it's fully dry tomorrow, I can wipe it down or sand it to get it ready for paint.

While I'm waiting for it to dry there are a few other things have have to do.

SWMBO just sprung on my that she wants a TV in here.  Fortunately, the bottom foot of the one wall isn't closed yet, so I have a way to get the cable run up from the basement.

And I forgot about the thermostat wire that is needed for the in-floor heat.

Most of the hydronic heat parts arrived this week, so I can start getting that prepared, too.

Here's Mud in Your Eye

I was mudding and taping the ceiling the other day.  I was wearing my normal glasses instead of safety glasses.  I probably didn't have my step ladder in quite the right spot either.

A blog blob of mud fell from my taping knife.

And you guessed it... It missed my glasses and hit me right in the eye.

It was cool and refreshing, but I couldn't see a thing.

So I spent a few minutes in the kids' bath rinsing my eyeball.

It felt weird for a few hours, but no long term issues have resulted.

New Master Bath - Part 3

Now I have enough electrical done that I can close up my access points from the master bath.

So I quickly hung the rest of the dry wall.

And started throwing some mud around.

I'm hoping to get it done while I'm waiting for the in-floor radiant heat supplies to arrive.

Once they are here, I can quickly run that before the tile guy comes at the end of the month.

These are 9-foot ceilings which explains the gap in the drywall at the bottom of this one wall.  The in-floor heat manifold will go there.  Once they are installed, I'll be able to rock that bottom foot.

Crispy

Here's an example of one of those fixtures without a junction box. It's in the second floor back hall.

Note the old knob-and-tube just poking through the plaster.

The wires are twisted together, tinned, and then wrapped in cloth tape.

The insulation on the knob-and-tube is pretty crispy and fragile, so I'm glad I'm replacing it.

This is likely an original fixture from when the house first was electrified.

Note the original ceiling color as well.  It's not too far off what we're planning to use for the wall color when all this is done.

... and Tears

As you'll recall, in the last post I spilled a bit of blood.

Well, here are the tears to go along with it.  They might be tears of joy that I'm getting rid of the nutty stuff like this.  Or tears of sadness that I have to.

Take your pick...

So, this is the electrical box for the sconce in the back hall.  I guess I should be happy that there's a box at all.  Most of the knob-and-tub has no box; the wires just poke out of the plaster...
1 - it should be a light fixture box, not a switch box.
2 - the red wire doesn't have any sort of protection from the sharp edges of the metal box
3 - the red wire runs to the 3-way switch below the fixture
4 - the black wire is hot and is on a separate circuit
5 - the white wire is serving as the neutral for the light, but is on the same circuit as the black wire

And here's the switch box immediately below the light.
1 - the travellers are connected (as they should be) to the bottom terminals on the 3-way switch
2 - the common terminal has the red wire from the previous photo and the common wire that runs back to the other light controlled by these switches

I am SO glad I'm fixing what I can while I have the walls open...

Blood, Sweat, ...

This is not the first time blood has been drawn...

Once again there's a deadline and I have a series of things to get done before the tile guy comes for the master bathroom.  I finished the "new" electrical rough-in a week or so ago and have been working on replacing some of the old knob-and-tube in the hallways while I have access.  Some of it runs through what will be the master bath and now's the time if I'm ever going to do it.

There is also a dire need for more light in a couple of places in both the first floor and second floor halls, so I'm wiring for new fixtures while I'm at it.

This photo is at the "front" end of the first floor hall.  I've cut a hole to be able to trace the old wires and fish the new wires up from the basement.  At this point I looked down and noticed that the bleeding had already stopped.

Not sure when it started.  I was "focused" on some other things, so the reason why will come in the next post.

Stay tuned...

It Never Ends...

This should have been a post about progress on the master bath.

But it's not.

The light over the island in the kitchen has been acting strangely over the past couple of weeks.

It would occasionally flicker.

Or s l o w l y  turn on after flipping the switch.

In the latter case, there was a slight delay which gradually became longer.

Finally, the delay became infinite (OK, technically it wasn't infinite; I got tired of waiting...).

I replaced the bulb and still no joy.

So I replaced the stinkin' fixture with one that won't fail.

It's very stylish. ;-)

Now if I can just get this bathroom done so I can drop a bomb in this d!*n kitchen.

New Master Bath - Part 2

Last weekend, after I finished patching the sub-floor, I started hanging drywall.

SWMBO was out of town lying on the beach with her girlfriends...

So I recruited Little Man and SWMBO, Jr. to help hang the sheets on the ceiling.  Over the course of the day, we managed to get most of the ceiling done.  It's a lot easier with a lift, but we only needed to hang 3 full-size sheets.

We also managed to get a couple of pieces on the wall before picking up SWMBO at the airport.

It was a busy week with other goings on (see rileyspockets.com).

Needless to say, not much else got done this week.

Until this weekend.

In between the other weekend activities, I managed to get the rest of the sheets hung on the walls.  I also got the exterior of the shower stall done.

My Rotozip makes quick work of the holes that need to be cut.  The bits are quite fragile however; they break on a pretty regular basis.  I have the shop-vac attachment which really helps keep the amount of dust to a minimum.

New Master Bath - Part 1A

Earlier today I finished laying the sub-floor in the shower.  It's built up 3/4-inch above the floor in the rest of the room, but that's OK.  The shower pan would have forced it to a different height anyway.  At least we now have solid backing over the entire space.

I also pieced in sub-floor chunks in the rest of the room.

In addition, I made some minor mechanical adjustments - the HVAC duct openings needed to be extended out past the furring strips, the attic's electrical feeder cable needed to be stapled down, and the same for the AC drain tube.

I have a little electrical rough-in to clean up, but that will extend into the hallway (I want to get rid of some of the knob-and-tube in the hallway).

However, there's a big stack of drywall in the hallway that needs to be moved first.  Might as well hang it if I'm going to move it...