Saturday morning Heather came over and we loaded up the last of the stud wall pieces. We also threw in some random bits of junk I found under the stairs after I ripped out the walls. We then took all the junk to the local dump.
I think this is the last of the demolition and destruction. The only remaining thing to potentially remove is the tile. Still debating that one.
I had a coupon for 10% off at Home Depot that expired today so I wanted to use it to get my new flooring. Friday night I went to Home Depot. I was hoping to rent one of their trucks, but it was already rented out and I was going to have to come back the next morning. I decided to get some other bits I needed like face plates and inserts to finish up some the upstairs wiring. As I was walking to my car I noticed the truck was back. I went back inside and signed out the truck at about 7:30 PM.
This was my first mistake since at this point I hadn't purchased the flooring or found someone to load it. I was buying an entire pallet of 120 pieces plus an additional 40 pieces stacked on top of Dricore 2'x2' sheets. First it took about 15 minutes to find someone who was able to operate a forklift. Then it took about 10 minutes to pay for it, since the coupon confused the cashier. It had instructions on it, but she didn't believe it I guess. Finally it took another few minutes to find someone to open the gate to get the lift out to the truck.
I actually drove away at about 8:05 PM. Everything went fine on my way home until I went the hill to my house. I stopped to let a car go by between the parked cars. When I accelerated I guess I did it a little quick. The extra 40 pieces broke loose and a few fell off. I got to spend 5 minutes picking them up of the road and into truck.
I then spent the next hour or so taking the flooring in stacks of four to basement. 40 trips later I now have new flooring piled in my basement. There is a picture of the lovely pile in gallery 3.
I called a water proofing company on July 29th to schedule an estimate. I want to make sure there aren't any problems that need to be fixed before I start rebuilding. I don't want to have to rip anything out later if at all possible. I will wait and see what they say and then possibly get some other estimates from companies that have been recommended. They are coming Monday evening to inspect.
When I pulled down the stud walls I found one interesting section. Most of the studs had been redone at some more recent point. One pair in a corner though were obviously much older. Behind them was a discolored wall as well as some crumbling of the block wall near the top. You can see a picture of it here. Luckily most of the rest of the wall is in pretty good condition.
Well as my luck would have it they actually listened to me this time and came and got the dumpster on the 26th. I still wanted to finish removing the inner stud wall. I started under the stairs and then worked down the length of the room. Since there was no block wall behind this wall I decided to just cut the studs in the middle. This way it was much easier to rip out since I could work the studs back and forth as pieces rather than a whole. Some of the harder parts to remove were the bases since they were attached to the concrete. There are some pictures in gallery 3 of the rubble piles.
After calling for the removal of the dumpster on July 25th I decided finally to remove all the stud walls in the area I am fixing up. Since I had already called for the removal I wanted to get as much of the scrap wood in the dumpster. On that night I ripped out all the studs on the outer walls. Some were easier than others, took several hours to complete. I was able to fit all the exterior studs into the dumpster.
Well I called the dumpster company on July 18th and told them I was done with it. They never responded so I called again on July 25th. They did actually take it while I was at work on Tuesday the 26th.
After my parents left on the 24th I started working on the basement electrical. As part of redoing the basement I was going to have to redo almost all of the electrical. Also most of it was tapped into random circuits on the upper floor. I first started by figuring out what circuit various things were on, so that I could safely disable that circuit and work on it. I first ripped out all the old and decaying outlets. Then I went to work on the existing overhead lighting. I found that in all cases it was curious where stuff was connected. In one case I can't find the beginning or the end of a circuit only the center which drives me nuts. It makes it so I can't clean it up as much as I would like.
After ripping out all the lighting in the basement I went and got some nice lights on a tripod. This is actually better lighting than what I had before. It also makes it so I can work at night.
My parents came down on July 23-24. As far as the basement goes my dad and I discussed some of my plans and tried to figure out what I was going to do. Most of the time was spent with him telling me I am nuts and going to create imense amount of work. My response repeatedly was that I wanted to do it right to begin with so I wouldn't regret it later. His usual response was perfection is great but it is really expensive and hard.
We talked about my electrical hopes. We also debated the need to pull down the center stud wall. Lastly we talked about the tile in my basement and if I should worry about removing it.
Over July 15-17 weekend I started working on the upstairs wiring. I continued working on it during the week as well. I started by cleaning up all the extraneous phone wires all over the house. I also removed the really old wiring coming in from one of the two phone NID's. I switched over to newer wiring. On the older wiring I found an interesting tag. The company on the tag is The Chesapeake and Potomac Telephone Company. As far as I can tell C&P became Bell Atlantic after the breakup of AT&T on Jan 1, 1984. This tag is at least 20 years old and I am willing to bet it is more than 40.
After cleaning up the phone mess I wasted 2-3 hours trying to figure out how to get wires to the outer wall of the living room above the fireplace. I gave up and at this point on July 29th I still haven't figured out how to get wires there. I am probably going to have to call in reinforcements.
I then decided to work on the three bedrooms. I would measure in the upstairs and then in the basement to try and line up where I wanted to fish the wires. I then drilled up through the ceiling, sub floor and stud wall base. This is about 6" of solid wood which takes a long time to do. Then I drill a small test whole in the upstairs and shine a light in. I check from the basement to ensure I can see the light, this tells me that I have nothing blocking. Then I cut a hole for a low voltage plate mount.
This worked perfectly for the first two rooms. In the third room I miscalculated by about 6" and was on the wrong side of a stud upstairs. I will have to patch my test hole which is about the size of a pen.
I haven't terminated either end yet, but I plan to probably this weekend. I want to make sure to test all the lines prior to sealing everything up.
On the 13th Patrick came over and helped me finish loading the dumpster. First we got the carpet / drop cloths in the dupster. Then we loaded on the rest of the wood paneling. Patrick got in the dumpster at this point and jumped up and down on it. Then we decided we had some more space left so we grabbed everything we could to trash it. We threw in the old shelf from basement, the chair cushions and just about everything we could find in the shed out back. There is a picture of the full dumpster in the second gallery.
I have added some more pictures to my progress as it was on July 10 and 11. On the 10th I finished ripping down the ceiling in the main area and began the ceiling in the edge of the room. On July 11th I picked up again and finished the ceiling. One of the pictures shows how I rolled up the carpets and used them as massive drop cloths. The pictures are at the bottom of gallery 2.
My dumpster was delivered Friday afternoon. This means that I really have to get going with demolition since I only have it until Monday the 18th. There are pictures of it in my second picture gallery. It is fairly large, although it is filling up quickly. I first put in all the fake wood paneling in, since it was flat and would just lay in the bottom. After that I started ripping down the ceiling in earnest. I just keep filling up the trashcan and then emptying it. Probably about 10 trips or so thus far. I think in the last two days I have done about 160 sq ft of ceiling. Lots of fun let me tell you. I don't know how someone could do this eight hours a day.
