Project 5 Part 2: almost but not quite complete
well, we still aren't quite done, but we're really close. my previous estimates of completion were a bit optomistic it seems. but, a whole lot did get accomplished this weekend.my mom, dad, brothers Jim and Dave, and
nephew Bryce (Jim's oldest) arrived Saturday around 9. i had taken some photos of the urine damage in the sunroom, so mom and Bryce started pulling out the old floor there. Jim went around wiring up all the devices we ran wire to the previous electric day. Dave, Dad and I went about figuring out how to rewire the main level lighting. in the proc
ess, Dave found the source of the short we had been dealing with. it appears the light in the living room was partially held together with scotch tape. yes, scotch tape. now that's some genius work there. we did see some pretty sparks when he was taking the light down. we deciphered where all the lights and switches would be on the second floor and proceeded to cut out floor boards as necessary to gain access to that area. while doing this, we noticed that all the second level floor joists had been doubled up at some point. more on this later. there was a bit of a gap in the flooring at one wall ... many treasures were to be found laying on the plaster beneath (pens, birthday cards, film negatives, etc.).once the wires were all pulled, Jim took over installing ceiling boxes for the lights while we moved on to getting wires to the second floor lights and switches. those were really easy in comparision as we could generally just drop from the attic down. the upstairs hall light was trickier, as it is a 3-way switch ... with the 2nd switch being downstairs. this resulted in a wire going from the attic, to the basement, and back up to the first floor switch. nothing like taking the scenic route.
mom and Chrissy repainted/caulked the windows from the attic dormer and
spackled some holes about the house. Chrissy also took care of making us some great meals. after dinner, the lights went back in (including the new chandelier for the dining room). oh, and just because the package says 100W bulbs ... think a little bit and get bulbs that aren't so bright if there are 9 of them (i think airplanes started accidentally landing on our street after we turned the light on).the crew was a bunch of troopers as they all kept working until about 10! dad and Dave went home, while mom, Jim and Bryce decided to stick around. Sunday, Jim did some final work on some switches and outlets, i did some insulating around exterior wall outlets/switches with fun expanding foam ... and we all tag-teamed the living room hardwood. by mid-afternoon we had it all out, including nails ... and a lot of cleanup done. we did find some areas where staining made it through to the subfloor -- so some shellacing there will also be needed.
this brings me back to the 2nd floor joists being supplemented. after pulling up
the first floor hardwood, we noticed evidence of a previous wall (see picture). it appears that maybe there used to be a load-bearing wall and a partition wall there (making a hallway?). this explains the new floor joists (which span from outside wall to outside wall) and a seemingly useless beam in the basement. we can't quite figure out what the room would have been used for ... it was very oddly shaped. this would also mean that the double-doors into the dining room didn't used to be double-doors either. maybe pulling up the dining room floor will enlighten us further.ok, so we have a little electric work left. we need to figure out how to get a new wire to the sunroom light (no access above), re-wire some lights and outlets in the sunroom, add an outlet to the downstairs bathroom, and add under-counter lights in the kitchen. not bad really, compared to what has already been done. it's very nice knowing that almost all of the wiring is now new. sweet. quite a project though, quite a project. i've added some pictures of random things to the flickr site if you are interested (including some stained floor pics).
posted by Chris and Chrissy Miller @ 11:20 PM
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