I forgot to take some motrin this morning, trying to gimp my way along until my chiropractor is in town on Monday. Everything I did hurt, but damned if that was going to stop me. It wouldn't have been my first brush with death (maybe my 6th, lost count), but since there aren't ribs poking into my lung or out of my chest I had to carry on.
I dropped 6 hours into the kitchen today. This included fixing the plumbing in the basement with new shutoff valves going to the kitchen sink (thank you inventor of sharkbite fittings!). The old ones were knob type, on galvanized pipe, and of course wouldn't work. I wanted to put more time in but need to get ready for the employee appreciation holiday dinner.... I'm somehow in charge of the entire evening and yet didn't help plan or put it together.
The old plumbing for the original kitchen is behind the newer looking 2x4 section. Always interesting what you find. We left the baseboard heater hooked up, I want that moved by professionals since the system is pressurized and I want it to work. It's going to be 22 degrees tomorrow and I didn't want the entire system down just in case there was an issue. The area showing subfloor will be built up to the same level as the tile (of course they don't make the tile we have) so there wont be any removing or adding of tile.
Fortunately only one spot lacked insulation. The old stuff will be pulled out (the really old stuff) and replaced. The windows will be foam sealed where applicable. I'm debating if we should put more insulation under the newer 2x4 section. I don't know if it will make a difference, but I'm sure it won't hurt anything. It depends on the price at home depot tomorrow.
The studs are so far apart, it's no wonder we had a hard time ever finding one to screw or drill into. I might add some cross braces in the large above counter level areas. The upper left is missing insulation, I tore it down to check the water damage. There are some boards with damage but since the roof is fine, and the boards are still sound, we won't worry about it (now that it doesn't leak).
The good thing is now that it's stripped we can move light fixtures around, add outlets, whatever we feel like doing. Since we won't start drywalling for a few days, we have some time to decide on anything else. I pulled 8 trash bags of drywall and all kinds of wood scraps out and into my wagon and into a pile in the garden area. I'm going to borrow a friends dump truck when we are done, it
will be cheaper for one big load to the dump.
It was a great day of work, especially when the motrin kicked in. I think the shop vac worked harder than I did.
Its is great when a plan comes together.
ReplyDeleteI agree. We did the insulation today, all the old nasty r11 is out, r19 is in and the cracks and small spots foam sealed. Should make a huge difference!
DeleteAre you going to have a dual drain for the sink? The first is the regular drain into the sewage and the second will drain directly outside (into a bucket or something) so you can use the sink water as gray water for the garden if you ever have such a water shortage that you need to recycle the water. It works much better on houses that are raised rather than on a house like mine which sits on a cement slab.
ReplyDeleteHaven't thought about that, I only want a dual tub so I can do the dishes by hand without having a dish drainer on the counter.
DeleteI could easily modify the drain in the basement at anytime if it was needed, the dirty water travels through 12 feet of pvc before it hits the central drain.