Upstairs cozy nook and behind the scenes

I'm going to show you a secret!  When you go to someone's home, and you see a partial wall sticking out, such as this one (below), it's usually  because there is something inside it such as plumbing or heat duct.  Sometimes you will notice a "box out" along the top of a ceiling.  That's usually heat duct.  This is in the closet that we enlarged upstairs.  We had to run some plumbing from the bathroom below it, which is right below it.  So we had to make a box out.   I'll show you more after it is dry walled.

 The other side of the box out.

 

 Behind this closet door is alllllllll attic.  Lots and lots of attic.  With lots and lots of insulation.

 Had we decided to enlarge this closet, and it was in the original plans, we wouldn't have had to add to it later.  As it were, we had to add a partial wall,  (we- as in Dave!) which was a bit tricky.  We also had to remove the original 2x4's the carpenters installed and add support beams below the floor.  I tried to find that post from a couple of years ago, but couldn't find it.  We had to do it before we enclosed the ceiling on the main level.

 Anyway, Dave loves a challenge and he finished the wall.

I thought I would show you some of the behind the walls stuff that goes on in a home.

Lots of wiring. 

  Lots of plumbing

Also lots of duct work, and insulation.

 This is a space that he made for a cold air return, which will be in the upstairs foyer ceiling.

 And here is the closet now.

 It looks very much like a cozy nook, and I love it!  Dave reinforced the support beams across the top.  He calls that "putting the love into the house."   

 This is from standing inside the closet looking across the foyer.  The bathroom is across from the closet.

 That's it for now.  There is always so much behind the scenes stuff that goes on to building a home.  I know it's a bit boring, but if we didn't need wiring, plumbing, or heat, or support beams it would go a lot faster! 

Have a great weekend!

Cindy

And PS - Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Another room finished....almost!

This room is finally done - except for painting!

The far end you are looking at will be for storage, and the other end is my craft room. I am so excited. It has to warm up a bit before we paint down there though. I'll have a place to store all of my craft supplies, and I'll be able to build bee frames in the basement! I won't have to wait until summer time, when I need them, I can have them done ahead of time. Sweet.

You can see the duct work that Dave has been working on. I helped!

See the joint....beside the bracket.

I taped them all. Whut? That's helping. It's something.

I was especially proud of the end.

Then we had to paint these joints with some goopy stuff, where the duct curved.
While Dave was making notes like this....

I was making notes like this! awwwwww sweet.

Cindy

Gas line and other stuff

Ok - so I'm a bit behind in blogging on the house project. Why? Because I've been working on the house project. Blogging had to be put on the back burner....but today we are taking a basement break and I thought I'd show you where we're at.

Dave has finished the heat duct work in the basement. Now remember, this is not to heat the basement...we're going to have electric baseboard heat in the basement since we won't always be in it. This duct work is for the rooms above the basement.

So now when we move to the rooms above the basement, we won't have to put in duct work.

I sealed the duct work with this gray goopy stuff.

Dave finished the wiring, duct work and gas line in the fireplace (above the basement)

and got it sealed off. This helps keep humidity and birds out of the basement!

He also built a bulkhead to hide the duct work in the basement and I've been applying the drywall mud in the appropriate areas, trying to skim it on and not glob it on.

And I've been putting insulation in the ceiling. After taking 4 hours to do six ceiling bays, I did not turn down the help when my Pa offered to help me!

With his help, I only have three bays to go, but I'm waiting on Dave to finish running a water pipe. I have to say, the ceiling insulation is very hard work. You have to wrap the duct work first, then put in the insulation over your head. The little glass crystal thingys in the insulation fall all over you, and you have to wear a mask. It's impossible to wear glasses with a mask because they fog up instantly, so you have to either close your eyes or use a lot of solution for them. Plus you have to wear long sleeves and even with long sleeves you itch like crazy. Not to mention there was a heat advisory out. This is just plain old hard work.

The gas pipe is also done inside the

basement ceiling...

and the week we were on vacation,

the gas company showed up and ran the pipe outside.

First you have to locate where it's going to go, and locate where everything else already is, such as electricity, sewage, water, etc. There were flags all over the yard.

Then another big hole was dug...We have actually called in the troops to help with our yard. That's another post.

This is Master Welder Greg, who they called to come and weld the line.

Viola' we have gas!

Cindy

Still working on "C"

"Ya gotta do A, but before you do that you gotta do B, but you can't do B until you do C and you can't do C until you do A! That was part of a comment from "Dreaming"

or As my cousin Vickie put it, "you're ready for A, and B, but you gotta do C first." I thought it was funny that they both used the same type of analogy.

We want to paint drywall (A)and put in the ceiling(B), but we have to put in heat duct work (C)for the rooms ABOVE the basement and gas pipe (C)for the rooms ABOVE the basement before we do anything else.

So, I thought I'd give you an update on the house, even though it's probably a bit boring. We never got anyone to come out and tell us where to run the duct work, so we've spent hours figuring it out on our own. We decided we'll just install it ourselves too. A guy did come out and tell us how many registers we need for each room.

And thank the Lord we did not drill any holes in the floor for registers before discovering that the vents we bought were the wrong size!

We are constantly learning. They don't even sell register covers to fit the vent size on the right. It's bigger than the standard vent size, on the left. Odd that they sell the vents, but not registers to fit them.


There are all kinds of rules & regs that you have to follow to be up to code with bearing walls.

One register done, upstairs. About ten more to go. (sigh)

And we also have to put in gas pipe, in the ceiling, for the upstairs.

Which involves reinforcing the ceiling.

We are almost done running gas pipe, and the gas company is coming out on Wednesday to install the outside part of the pipe.

And while Dave does ductwork and gas pipe, I'm learning drywall techniques.

You use this kind of 'tape' on the wall, to cover up where the drywall comes together.

Then you take a slab of drywall mud and run it over the tape, very smoothly.

We have these plastic outside corner things that you spray with water and stick on the wall. They are very specific not to rub the water on the plastic corner or you will rub the sticky off.

After you stick it on the corner, you use mud to seal it in as well.

You use this tape on inside corners. You cut it to size, then fold it in half, then drywall mud it in.

I told Dave it's like icing a cake.

Making sure you fill in the blank spots, then smooth it all out.

Piece a cake.

Cindy