My new project - Page 3

S-F · 08-12-11, 02:31 PM

Quick update:

I'm almost done finishing the sheetrock. I'll be finished tomorrow. Then all I have left is to put up the trim and bolt the floor down. The rest of the family is going to do the painting. That's when I cut bait. I still have other IMPORTANT work to do in the house. For example my bedroom walls are still the pink the previous owners painted them. 0.o

Picture to follow soon. Because I know everyone id dying to see photo archives of the fantastic job which is putting up sheetrock.

S-F · 08-17-11, 05:43 PM

Drywall is done! Well, except the portion where Jad the Millenarian decided he'd help out and drove a couple screws into the wall when I wasn't looking. I have the floor swept, vacuumed and wiped. I just finished installing all of the electrical sockets and all of the paint is here. Unfortunately carpet for the floor is going to have to wait until my bank account has time to recover. All of the painting will happen in the next several days. After that my family is going out of town for most of next week so that's when I'll be bolting the floor down. BTW, if anyone is between here and D.C. where they are going, and you need something from MA just let me know.

Daox · 08-17-11, 09:05 PM

Great to hear. I bet its nice to be done sanding! I'm sure it looks great. I do look forward to pics.

S-F · 08-18-11, 05:15 AM

And a cross section of the wall

I'm priming now. Two weeks ago it seemed like this day would never come.

I'm done with drywall. I think if I had to do this over again I would hire someone to do it all. If I count my time as money it would be a lot cheaper and it would have been a better job. I'm just not good enough at this to make it reasonably fast. A pro could have done a better job in much less time. That being said, my job came out looking pretty good.

Daox · 08-18-11, 07:13 AM

Wow that is a LOT more drywall than I thought it would be. If you had to guess, how much do you think that would have cost you to have done?

raydias · 08-18-11, 10:05 AM

Are you going to drywall the ceiling? and insulate it?

strider3700 · 08-18-11, 12:26 PM

having done drywall to save money before I also swear the next time I'll pay someone. The savings isn't much and pro's do it way way faster then I can.

S-F · 08-18-11, 04:55 PM

Well, this morning I wrote a long and comprehensive response to Daox's last post. Unfortunately I clicked on submit right when the forum was down and I don't have the gumption to re write it at this time. I'll tackle it later. The moral was that DIY sheetrock finishing is a bad idea. Save up a little longer and hire someone else to do it. You'll spend a little but more but it's certainly worth it!

@raydias, I am certainly NOT going to rock the ceiling OR insulate it. I am going to put some tasteful, light colored wood paneling up on the ceiling. I always talk about never finishing sheet rock again but for several years now I have been pretty firm on the FACT that I will never finish a sheetrock ceiling again….EVER. What would insulating it do? Keep the heat out and the basement would be colder. I am fortunate in that this house has loads of baseboards so I can run the water at a reduced temperature. Especially after I outsulate the walls above grade. I'm aiming to tear out the fiberglass, dense pack the whole thing from the outside and add R- 32 on top of that with polyiso, topping it off with a rain screen, ship lap and oil based paint. Once that's done the majority of my fuel will go to heating water for showers and the like. I'm going to rely on the HRV duct work to circulate the miniscule amount of heat the basement needs from the main floor. There is a great case study done by BSV where they retrofit three houses. In one of them the owner wanted to save a few G's so he skipped insulating the basement. They tried to remove the basement from the conditioned area. And it didn't work. Plain and simple. The Building Science Corp. couldn't even do it. So my rule of thing regarding ceiling insulation is, don't do it at all unless you are, 1. Putting it above your head in an attic, or, 2. Putting unfaced batts in to deaden sound, which I will be doing in the bedroom seen. My daughter will be moving in there and it's right above my movie theater (AKA living room during the day).

S-F · 10-27-11, 02:40 PM

Well look at that! Progress, right here in River City!

Not much left to do really. I didn't have time to finish the trim before the carpet went in so I'll have to tape it off and paint it when it's done. Then I have a couple windows to put in still. After that I'll leisurely put up a drop ceiling. The door went in yesterday. That was a PITA. It's some fancy fiber glass job.

Oh and one more thing. I haven't done any work on the rest of the house at all really aside form changing out light switches and so on. Nothing that effects the performance of the house form and energy conservation point of view. I have yet to even turn my thermostat on. The coldest it's been is 68° in the early morning. The I have never lived in a house that retains it's heat so well. So now I know from experience how much heat is lost through the basement.

creeky · 10-28-11, 10:55 AM

hey, super nice job s-f. What a difference it makes, looks fantastic.

I used to hate drywall but then I got a bit zen about it when I realized that all I had to do was expect it to take forever. And expect to put up 5 layers of compound until it was perfect. After that I was good. It helps that every time I do another bit of drywall it goes a little easier. That said, your drywall project was way larger than anything I've done yet.

I installed the door on my "power shed" and I had it all perfect then went to open the door, because the install directions said, "from the exterior raise the door into place, then, from the inside, place the shims..." Exactly how I was supposed to magically move through a solid door? So I went to open the door and the guess what, the black tab that held the door shut, and the install sheet said "do not remove the black tab until..." well. It held the door shut. So I had to lower the door. Pull out the black tab ... and of course I totally messed up the door fit and it took some time to get it back to level and square. Which I managed, because I ignored the install sheet and just started putting in screws ... ragga fragga bing bang

looking forward to the "final" pics.

08-17-11, 09:05 PM	#23
Daox Administrator Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: Germantown, WI Posts: 5,525 Thanks: 1,162 Thanked 374 Times in 305 Posts	Great to hear. I bet its nice to be done sanding! I'm sure it looks great. I do look forward to pics. __________________ Current project - To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 0 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 0 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. & To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 0 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.

08-18-11, 05:15 AM	#24
S-F You Ain't Me Join Date: Nov 2009 Location: Northampton MA Posts: 662 Thanks: 6 Thanked 71 Times in 58 Posts	And a cross section of the wall I'm priming now. Two weeks ago it seemed like this day would never come. I'm done with drywall. I think if I had to do this over again I would hire someone to do it all. If I count my time as money it would be a lot cheaper and it would have been a better job. I'm just not good enough at this to make it reasonably fast. A pro could have done a better job in much less time. That being said, my job came out looking pretty good. Last edited by S-F; 08-18-11 at 06:04 AM..

08-18-11, 07:13 AM	#25
Daox Administrator Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: Germantown, WI Posts: 5,525 Thanks: 1,162 Thanked 374 Times in 305 Posts	Wow that is a LOT more drywall than I thought it would be. If you had to guess, how much do you think that would have cost you to have done? __________________ Current project - To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 0 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 0 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. & To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 0 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.

08-18-11, 10:05 AM	#26
raydias Lurking Renovator Join Date: Apr 2011 Location: lincoln CA Posts: 14 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts	Are you going to drywall the ceiling? and insulate it? __________________ Ray

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08-12-11, 02:31 PM	#21
S-F You Ain't Me Join Date: Nov 2009 Location: Northampton MA Posts: 662 Thanks: 6 Thanked 71 Times in 58 Posts	Quick update: I'm almost done finishing the sheetrock. I'll be finished tomorrow. Then all I have left is to put up the trim and bolt the floor down. The rest of the family is going to do the painting. That's when I cut bait. I still have other IMPORTANT work to do in the house. For example my bedroom walls are still the pink the previous owners painted them. 0.o Picture to follow soon. Because I know everyone id dying to see photo archives of the fantastic job which is putting up sheetrock.

08-17-11, 05:43 PM	#22
S-F You Ain't Me Join Date: Nov 2009 Location: Northampton MA Posts: 662 Thanks: 6 Thanked 71 Times in 58 Posts	Drywall is done! Well, except the portion where Jad the Millenarian decided he'd help out and drove a couple screws into the wall when I wasn't looking. I have the floor swept, vacuumed and wiped. I just finished installing all of the electrical sockets and all of the paint is here. Unfortunately carpet for the floor is going to have to wait until my bank account has time to recover. All of the painting will happen in the next several days. After that my family is going out of town for most of next week so that's when I'll be bolting the floor down. BTW, if anyone is between here and D.C. where they are going, and you need something from MA just let me know.

08-18-11, 12:26 PM	#27
strider3700 Master EcoRenovator Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Vancouver Island BC Posts: 745 Thanks: 23 Thanked 37 Times in 30 Posts	having done drywall to save money before I also swear the next time I'll pay someone. The savings isn't much and pro's do it way way faster then I can.

08-18-11, 04:55 PM	#28
S-F You Ain't Me Join Date: Nov 2009 Location: Northampton MA Posts: 662 Thanks: 6 Thanked 71 Times in 58 Posts	Well, this morning I wrote a long and comprehensive response to Daox's last post. Unfortunately I clicked on submit right when the forum was down and I don't have the gumption to re write it at this time. I'll tackle it later. The moral was that DIY sheetrock finishing is a bad idea. Save up a little longer and hire someone else to do it. You'll spend a little but more but it's certainly worth it! @raydias, I am certainly NOT going to rock the ceiling OR insulate it. I am going to put some tasteful, light colored wood paneling up on the ceiling. I always talk about never finishing sheet rock again but for several years now I have been pretty firm on the FACT that I will never finish a sheetrock ceiling again….EVER. What would insulating it do? Keep the heat out and the basement would be colder. I am fortunate in that this house has loads of baseboards so I can run the water at a reduced temperature. Especially after I outsulate the walls above grade. I'm aiming to tear out the fiberglass, dense pack the whole thing from the outside and add R- 32 on top of that with polyiso, topping it off with a rain screen, ship lap and oil based paint. Once that's done the majority of my fuel will go to heating water for showers and the like. I'm going to rely on the HRV duct work to circulate the miniscule amount of heat the basement needs from the main floor. There is a great case study done by BSV where they retrofit three houses. In one of them the owner wanted to save a few G's so he skipped insulating the basement. They tried to remove the basement from the conditioned area. And it didn't work. Plain and simple. The Building Science Corp. couldn't even do it. So my rule of thing regarding ceiling insulation is, don't do it at all unless you are, 1. Putting it above your head in an attic, or, 2. Putting unfaced batts in to deaden sound, which I will be doing in the bedroom seen. My daughter will be moving in there and it's right above my movie theater (AKA living room during the day).

10-27-11, 02:40 PM	#29
S-F You Ain't Me Join Date: Nov 2009 Location: Northampton MA Posts: 662 Thanks: 6 Thanked 71 Times in 58 Posts	Well look at that! Progress, right here in River City! Not much left to do really. I didn't have time to finish the trim before the carpet went in so I'll have to tape it off and paint it when it's done. Then I have a couple windows to put in still. After that I'll leisurely put up a drop ceiling. The door went in yesterday. That was a PITA. It's some fancy fiber glass job. Oh and one more thing. I haven't done any work on the rest of the house at all really aside form changing out light switches and so on. Nothing that effects the performance of the house form and energy conservation point of view. I have yet to even turn my thermostat on. The coldest it's been is 68° in the early morning. The I have never lived in a house that retains it's heat so well. So now I know from experience how much heat is lost through the basement.

10-28-11, 10:55 AM	#30
creeky Journeyman EcoRenovator Join Date: Jun 2011 Location: a field somewhere Posts: 304 Thanks: 64 Thanked 44 Times in 31 Posts	hey, super nice job s-f. What a difference it makes, looks fantastic. I used to hate drywall but then I got a bit zen about it when I realized that all I had to do was expect it to take forever. And expect to put up 5 layers of compound until it was perfect. After that I was good. It helps that every time I do another bit of drywall it goes a little easier. That said, your drywall project was way larger than anything I've done yet. I installed the door on my "power shed" and I had it all perfect then went to open the door, because the install directions said, "from the exterior raise the door into place, then, from the inside, place the shims..." Exactly how I was supposed to magically move through a solid door? So I went to open the door and the guess what, the black tab that held the door shut, and the install sheet said "do not remove the black tab until..." well. It held the door shut. So I had to lower the door. Pull out the black tab ... and of course I totally messed up the door fit and it took some time to get it back to level and square. Which I managed, because I ignored the install sheet and just started putting in screws ... ragga fragga bing bang looking forward to the "final" pics.