Pipes, vents, ducts, lines, holes, etc.

This is the kind of stuff Dave is working on. Water lines, Gas lines, heat ducts and vents, putting holes in floors and walls for vents and pipes etc.

It takes a long time to do by yourself, but he says it's just easier for him to do it than to have me help. (sigh)

He explains it all to me and I'm baffled. Look at all those wires in the box and at the top.

Then he tells me what this and that is for and where it will go,

and he even shows me how to turn things off and on,

but I'm just glad he is a perfectionist when it comes to this stuff, and he labels everything!

And the good news, Dave bought some of that denim insulation for me to try. See how they are using it with their bare hands? No masks, no gloves, on 100 degree days. No itching or dripping sweat onto my mask and fogging up safety glasses! WOOHOO! Dad will love this! He helps me with insulation and I get on him about wearing safety stuff.

That's what's going on at the house.

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