October 2005 Archives

On Monday the 14th I ordered my chairs for the theater. I ordered 6 Berkline 090 power recline chairs from The Big Screen Store. They should come in sometime around Thanksgiving, deadline.

Last night I ordered my sconces. I also ordered the lighting controls for the entire basement. I ordered a Lutron GRAFIK Eye 3000 and an entry control. The last pieces to get are the actual lights. I am looking at some Halo recessed lighting, just need to decide what I want exactly. I need recessed lighting since my ceilings are so low.

Well it seems that my estimates for lumber were pretty good. I might need just a few more 2"x4"x8' but hopefully I can just chop up some of the longer ones I got and haven't needed.

The next steps are insulation and electrical work.

Sunday the 22nd my dad and I got up again about 6:30 and started about 7. We started with the last section of the back wall that went from the outside door to the side wall. This wall had a window in it as well. It was also further complicated by the existing sump pump pipe. We next built the small wall section of wall that goes between the fireplace and the front wall. This wall has a heat/ac duct and water shut off valve for outside in it. We basically had to build the wall short on one side. This is where we stopped for the day. I had to go to work and my dad needed to leave to get home, he can't drive at night any longer.

Saturday the 21st we got up about 6:30 AM and started about 7. We started by running the new pump outlet and the piping needed for it. After the initial piping we started on the first wall of the day, the small section of wall from the outside door to the stairwell. Then we did our best to mount the door properly, it didn't work flawlessly, but I think came out pretty good. The next wall we built was the section parallel to the stairs and connecting to the main theater area. That wall was interesting since it had the plywood backing and then it went in the steel i-beam in the basement, the last strangeness was the space for my recessed rack. The last wall we built was the wall between the fireplace and the back of the house. This one had a window in it. It also was the first piece to hide the pipe we ran down the wall and to the sump well. We cut the base at 45 degrees and then added some blocks to lift the end stud. This allowed for the pipe to feed out underneath the wall. We quit about 7:30 PM.

My dad returned again on Friday the 20th to further help on the basement. He arrived about 5 PM. We went out to Lowes to get supplies for the next two days. We started with trying to figure out which sump pump to buy. Then we spent at least an hour talking through how and what pipe to run from the pump well to the new drain outlet. After deciding on the piping particulars we went to get a solid core door and some more plywood. We bought a pre-hung door, the only problem with doors of this type is that often they are in bad shape even at the store. They aren't held together that well so if the door isn't handled well the frame can easily be damaged. The plywood we got was higher grade, that way I could just paint it and not worry about textures.

Tonight in prep for more wall building I finished the drylock painting on the other walls. This time I did some scrubbing with a wire brush to prep the walls. These walls were a little messier than other walls. After scrubbing them I painted them with a brush. Luckily I had enough paint left over from the first 5 gallon supply. I may even do a second coat on this section since it was in worse shape than the other walls I did.

We started the day by getting some new 1"x3" to put above the wall and make sure we don't get near the water pipe again. We finished placing and securing the outer wall. We then started working on the wall on the other side. This wall was to be a 2"x6" with 2x4 staggered studs. We also bought some plywood to place on the back of this wall.

We assembled the wall again on the the floor. We also mounted the plywood. To say this wall was heavy would be an understatement. As we attempted to move the wall in place we found that either the floor was higher or the ceiling was lower in the middle. I had to remove the mounting strips for drywall in the middle to get the wall into place. After securing the wall we added the rear 2x4 to better secure the plywood.

This was all we were able to get done on the second day. With the 12' and two 18' walls done about 50% of the walls are done. Hopefully next weekend we can finish the other walls.

On Saturday the 15th my parents came down to help me out. My dad helped me start working on the walls. We started with the end wall of the main viewing area. I thought the best way to build the walls was to assemble them on the floor and then lift them into place. On this wall we had to frame around the window but other than that it was pretty normal. We were pretty slow at first, but as we got the hang of it we sped up.

We started working on the outer side wall of the main seating area. It was about a 18 ft span. When we had walked the wall earlier we noticed the main water pipe was near the wall line. We noted that we would have to mount the walls away from the pipe. My dad and I built the wall again on the floor. My mom helped us lift it into place. Then my dad starting driving a nail into the ceiling to hold the wall in place. He must have forgotten the pipe. He drove a nail through the top plate clear through the pipe and into the joist. Almost immediately water started leaking over the top plate.

At this point things got a little nuts. I immediately tried to shut off water, only the valve was old and didn't work. My dad and I then pulled down the wall. He tried to stem the flow. My mom went next door to see if my neighbor had duct tape. Ed (my neighbor) first shut off the water at the street which stopped the flow. He then looked at what happened. He said he could fix it. He left to gather some tools. He cut out the broken pipe section and then replaced it with a new pipe and some couplers. The patch worked!

This diversion pretty much killed the night. We stopped for the night.

On Thurday the 13th I had the day off and I decided to get the lumber I would need for my new walls. Tuesday night I laid out the walls with tape in some locations and then did some more calculations. I figured I would need 100 2"x4"x8' and then about 20 other pieces of lumber. I found that purchasing this much lumber at Home Depot is not much different than buying one 2x4, it just takes a lot longer. Luckily my friend Keith came to help me load the wood on to the Home Depot rental truck and then back off again at my place.

I had bought 160 2'x2' sheets of dricore at the end of July. They have been sitting and waiting. On Sept 28 I got started with the floor. I did a couple of rows a night. I got a bunch done on Oct 1. Then I finished it on Oct 4 on my day off. The amazing thing is I used all or part of 158 sheets. I dare say pretty good calculation on my part. I had parts of 5-10 sheets left, but only the 2 totally unused. I would rather have two left than need two. Next is walls.

Almost a two month delay in progress but moving again. After finishing the upstaits wiring on September 11 I finally started putting the basement back together again. I finished pulling nails from the ceiling on September 24. It took me about 4 hours to do that. It was all the nails that were holding the dywall up. I also did some small cleanup in prep for the new floor.