Rec Room Reno ... Part 10 (Phase 2a)

Two almost-full days of work have yielded some amazing results! Hold on to your hats, because ... (drum roll please) ... the drywall is up!  All of it!

 Once again, the day labourer is earning his keep.

I can never resist taking a picture of this cutie

 Adjusting the tool belt

 That's the end wall where the fireplace used to be.  

Triumphant!  

Next: tape and mud.

Rec Room Reno ... Day Nine (End Phase One)

What a busy, busy, busy, work-filled week!

Today was mostly a one-man job, the man being P, the boss.  The man who took a week's holidays to work on renovating the rec room at his wife's request.  The man who gave up the annual trip to the beach in Florida.  Yep, he's an awesome man.

This is morning: 


This picture is for record-keeping purposes since it will be covered with drywall soon.

 This is late morning:

This is afternoon:   

 This is Scooby inspecting the day's work.

 This is Scooby, more interested in the raccoon outside.

Here's the finale!  The ceiling is drywalled. Pot lights and electrical outlet boxes are in. The walls are mostly vapour-barrier-ed (we ran out of supplies). The fireplace is framed in and capped at the top. The roof line has been reinforced and looks almost perfect from the outside. The temporary wall has come down, and there are sufficient supplies to continue drywalling next weekend.  Oh, must run out to get more vapour barrier!

Phase One is Complete!  
Must go fix that man a St. Patrick's Day thirst-quencher. He certainly deserves it.

Rec Room Reno ... Part Eight

And on the eighth day, someone rested.  Is that right? Because there ain't been no restin' goin' on around here.

Maybe it was the seventh day that God rested.  I have been toiling without end and I am too tired to recall the specifics.  

The bottom line is that a rest would be really, really nice.

The day began with the kids cleaning out the back porch, putting the old mousey insulation and sagging drywall in the truck to take to the dump. Then J swept and vacuumed (clothes on) then moved the shop-vac back to the rec room (shirt off). Nice and tidy!

 Next, a trip to the dump.  Look who's driving!

 Next, putting up the insulation.  Who is that masked man?

 Insulation nearing completion.

 Insulation nearing completion.

 Need more insulation.

 Insulation completed!
Next, big awkward plastic sheets called "vapour barrier", which sounds civilized but is absolutely not when it comes to stapling it up on the ceiling.

 Out of ammo.  Need to re-load.

 Insulation complete! Vapour barrier nearing completion.  The temporary wall has fallen! Pieces of it are for sale on ebay. They come with a certificate of authentication. Get yours now!

 Scooby, with his new look courtesy of Jenn the groomer, looks on approvingly.

 Ah, a well-deserved break.  With a cake!  And fresh fruit!  A veritable feast for the labourers.

 Now, bringing in the drywall.  The boss demonstrates the most efficient way to handle it.  Hold your left hand like this and the right hand like this.  J pays close attention.

Completion!  What a day.  
Tomorrow is Day Nine.  The final day for this phase of the reno.  Whatever isn't accomplished tomorrow is going to have to wait for a few weeks until we can carve out a few more hours to tackle it.  Stay tuned!  

Rec Room Reno ... Part Seven!

Wow! Part Seven means it's been a week!  While it feels like we've done lots of work, it doesn't look even close to being finished. I know that this is the part that is the dreariest, when the behind-the-scenes stuff is being completed. And that stuff is important! Electrical, heating, insulation ... I know it's crucial to have those wires in the right place to make the TV work.  I know that logically.  But I want to put paint on the walls and hang pictures!

In a few minutes we'll be making the insulation purchase run (or runs) followed by the drywall purchase run.  Yay!

 The boss is in the rec room giving directions.

 J is on the deck, pulling the wire for the outlet on the back deck.

 S is in the basement, looping the wire through the pipes to the panel.

 J is no longer on the deck. He is running around the yard with Scooby. The outlet is dangling helplessly.  Yoo hoo!  Come back, J!  

S is still in the basement, coaxing the wire to its proper place.  A mere second after I snapped this picture he got it through and gave me a real smile, not a forced Smile-for-the-camera grimace.  Good work, troops!

Can I hang the pictures now?

Rec Room Reno ... Part Six

A productive day has come to a close, and the rec room is coming along quite well.

The outside temperature hit a high of minus 6 Celcius, which meant it wasn't much warmer in the uninsulated room without any heat.  In spite of the cold, the three amigos accomplished heaps:

  -  they cut 2x4s to wedge in the attic area to support the roof
  -  they climbed into the attic and wedged them tightly in place
  -  they moved all the used insulation to the ceiling of the garage area, so that (1) it doesn't go into a landfill, and (2) it helps insulate the garage.  Win-win!
  -  they wove wires around the joists, and P hooked up the pot lights
  -  they installed the wall outlet boxes

And some of them hung upside down like monkeys.

Now, at the end of the day, they can finally go and explore the second UPS shipment that arrived today.  Was it the power supply?  It was!  That makes one very happy monkey.

Rec Room Reno ... Part Five

Another slow day in the rec room adventure!  But there were a few quality excuses:

Excuse #1:  The brown-clad UPS man delivered a brand-new super computer to J. After months and months of saving, pondering, analyzing, discussing, he made the commitment and ordered all the parts, most of which arrived yesterday.  Key component missing: power supply.  All this excitement waylaid the work crew an hour or so.

Excuse #2:  The electrical work that was on the roster for today is essentially a one-man job, that man being the boss.  So one crew member met with friends and the other donned his work duds.  This meant slower progress today.  A friend, R, dropped buy to see the rec room progress and after discussing the blocking in of the fireplace (see the frame?) he mentioned that while the ceiling was open, we may want to consider levelling the roof line.  ARGH!  Project creep means that we won't be done on time! Which means the temporary door will be up for much longer ...

And then, out of nowhere, a snow storm! It looked like an ideal Christmas morning, with huge lazy flakes and soft gusts of wind.  Scooby pranced and played and tired himself out.

Out of excuses, the guys got to work, installing light boxes and shimming the ceiling joists. Next: hooking up the electrical to the box for power!   

Rec Room Reno ... Time Out

Because car brakes don't have any sympathy for how busy we might happen to be, the van demanded immediate attention.  Metal on metal grinding. Lurching to a stop.  Screeching in the wheel well area.  I know my cars, I do!  Well, I have a capable husband who does.  So instead of slaving away in the rec room today, we had to buy brake pads and install them, conquer a few obstacles that were overcome in a wrecking yard (J loved it!).  

Our back deck looks like a red-neck haven of goodies! A TV antenna, a metal fireplace insert, scrap wood and assorted stone blocks.  What treasures!

Mission accomplished!  I must go praise the auto repair experts and feed them something hearty and delicious.

Rec Room Reno ... Part Four

Day Four:  two trips to the dump, a few hundred nails pulled, two exhausted kids, one thirsty husband, many aching muscles, one lonely dog and one clean and very empty room.  A clean slate.  Oh, and we pulled the ceiling down in the back porch, emptying out mousey drywall and insulation ... is this how those critters are getting inside?