So... What are YOU doing? - Part 8

[tango]

Bad night last night so I decided not to connect my new cable to the breaker panel. Instead I cleared out an area in a dark corner of the basement so I could get at the floor above. A piece of floorboard broke, which I discovered when investigating why a patch in the floor above was a bit squashy. It's under lino so I can't see the floor from above.

Having cleared out a load of garbage from the space that must have been there for decades (among the things were a few newspaper pages dated 1982) I was able to get the broken section out, trim it so I could press it back into position, and brace it with a hefty piece of treated lumber that was then held in place with a couple of brackets screwed in tightly underneath it. It's a massively overengineered solution but does mean I'm not likely to have to revisit the problem again.

Along the way I noticed a couple of small gaps in the basement wall. Every once in a while we get a mouse in the house and I've been trying to figure where they are coming in. From the number of empty bags of mouse poison in that room I'm guessing the previous occupant figured they were coming in somewhere nearby. Not wanting to poison mice in case our cat gets hold of them I put a baited trap beside one of the gaps.

If I'm right about mice coming in it will be a bit tricky to get to all of the spaces with my spray foam can but it will be worth it. Even if all it does is reduce cold air coming in it willl be worth it.

 

[tango]

A bit of demolition today. I pried the baseboards off in our bedroom closet and pulled the bottom few inches of the lath and plaster wall off. Being able to get at the space behind the wall meant I could trace a couple of cables that have been confusing me for a while. I found the joists ran where I hoped, which means I can replace some more of the nasty knob-and-tube wiring. I think I now know enough about where cables run that I can disconnect the last of the knob-and-tube and replace it. Physically removing it will be a while longer - because of the knobs I can't get it taken out until I gut and rebuild the downstairs rooms - but it will be good to be in a place where none of it is live any more.

 

[Lamb]

We stayed inside and didn't do much of anything today. Tomorrow I'd like to go out for a bit if the weather is nice.

 

[tango]

We went out for a walk today. It was serously cold. By the time we got home I had ice in my beard.

 

[Lamb]

My husband made bacon at 4am but because I can't eat until later I had to wait so I went back to sleep and finally got up and am eating breakfast.

 

[tango]

After church my wife helped her friend with an activity for the kids, and I went home and took an unexpected nap. Once I'd properly woken up I had a chat with a friend abroad who I haven't spoken to for a while, then went for a walk. It was getting dark so I wore some bright colors and took a bright light with me. I don't use the light unless there's a car approaching - it's about being seen rather than seeing because I can see pretty well using the moonlight and ambient light.

The rest of the evening is allocated to a novel I'm reading. I read the series once already a few days ago but plan to read through it again before taking it back to the library.

 

[Lamb]

I got up at 8 which seems to be my new normal this winter. I used to get up around 6 in the summer. We'll see if I go back to that this summer.

 

[tango]

Since I got active I don't like winter as much. I want to be able to stretch my legs and work, but it's hard when there's ice on the roads and it's below freezing. There are treadmills and the like but they get really tedious after a while.

 

[Lamb]

Since I got active I don't like winter as much. I want to be able to stretch my legs and work, but it's hard when there's ice on the roads and it's below freezing. There are treadmills and the like but they get really tedious after a while.

I agree! I want to go to the park and walk but I don't know how much I can tolerate even if I bundle up. And then wasting my gas to get there only to turn around after a mile seems really senseless.

 

[tango]

I agree! I want to go to the park and walk but I don't know how much I can tolerate even if I bundle up. And then wasting my gas to get there only to turn around after a mile seems really senseless.

I still walk around town if it's cold. I think some of the people in my area think I'm crazy, especially when I'm out walking after dark when it's below freezing. But running is a different proposition - I generate so much more body heat and maintaining a suitable body temperature becomes difficult. I need to wear more layers starting out when it's cold, then be able to lose some layers once I get some heat, but also be able to layer up again if I need to stop and walk. And running means breathing much harder, which draws more cold air deeper into my lungs, which makes my system work so much harder, and so on.

My wife and I looked at gym memberships to tide us over the colder months but couldn't find anything suitable. One place charges an upfront processing fee so if you let your membership lapse they charge you the same fee to rejoin. When I asked what you got for the fee the answer made it clear they charged you because they could. Another place didn't have the upfront fee and had comparable membership pricing options but it was a 40-odd mile round trip, and I figured if conditions were bad enough that we didn't want to be outside the chances are we wouldn't want to drive to the gym. It's a frustrating situation - in a straight line that gym is less than six miles from us but because of the way the roads run it's like we're on opposite sides of a long oval so whichever way we drive it's further than it should be.

 

[Lamb]

Watching tv before bed. Tomorrow we are thinking of going out for ice cream I can't wait!

 

[Lamb]

I'm eating breakfast and doing laundry.

 

[tango]

Restarted some wiring work.

I have a light fitting currently operated with a pull-chain. I plan to put a switched light and probably a ceiling fan in the space so need to rethink it. I don't like using the pull chains on fans because they tend to scratch the glass of enclosed lights, so I've been looking to put a switch to control it. Where I wanted to put the switch won't work because I have to set it so far back from an entryway because of other obstructions. That leaves one place, so yesterday I cut a hole in the wall only to find the space between wall studs is so narrow it's a miracle I didn't hit one. I literally have space for a single gang back box and about half an inch of extra space.

Annoyingly the new space is between two existing switches that I've already rewired. One is in a room that's finished, the other is not. So I'm going to use the cable from the unfinished room to pull a new cable, then pull them both down to where the switch will go and run a new piece of 14/3 to power the new light/fan, and run everything into place. It will be a little while before a fan actually goes into that space but I'm looking to get wiring done as far as is possible, so I can press on and get the next points connected.

Along the way I rejigged the wiring to a closet light. It was on a generic "upstairs" circuit, and is now connected, albeit with a temporary botch, to the growing "upstairs lighting" circuit. Part of the job I'm working on is to do it properly, but for now it's taking small steps so I don't end up with things disconnected that I need to use. At present we have a junction box tucked away under the floor in the attic - a code fail by current standards but acceptable when it was done. My plan involves that box going away. Practically speaking my long term plan involves the entire circuit that powers it going away, but that's a little way down the road. I have two more rooms to gut and rebuild first, both of which are in daily use.

 

[Lamb]

I'm relaxing and about to play some computer games.

 

[tango]

I had a rethink of the wiring plan because I didn't feel like pulling apart some tight wiring in the unfinished room. So I fed the cable from the finished room into the ceiling box of the closet light and ran a cable from there to the location for the new switch. The cubby area has no exterior walls so in the night it's a dark corner that my wife doesn't like much, so I found a combination switch/socket I could put in place. So now I have a light with the pull switch disconnected (it turned out it wasn't originally part of the light fitting at all), a switch on the wall to control it, and a socket under the switch that houses a nightlight. It's surprising just how much light those things throw out.

I've also decided to try pulling the ceiling down in the next room to face destruction. I was going to replace the windows with wider windows to take up the space originally used by window wells but if I do that the windows won't match anything else in the house. I don't really want to replace all the windows so I'll fill the cavities with insulation and soundproofing materials. The original plan was to lift the attic floor, lift the insulation, then pull down the ceiling. The trouble with the plan is that lifting the floor damages it to the point most of it can't be reused, and the cost of flooring is high enough that I'd rather not have to replace it all. Pulling the ceiling down from below means getting showered in cellulose insulation but that can't be worse than being showered with plaster and dust. My hope is that I can put fiberglass insulation in from below without finding I have to lift the floor anyway. I managed it for parts of the adjacent room that I finished and if the ceiling joists are reasonably spaced the fiberglass should be snug enough it won't fall out under its own weight. I have some wood batons I can pin into place to support it, if it proves necessary.

 

[Lamb]

Had a long night's sleep and got up to the smell of bacon cooking!

 

[tango]

I got my upstairs lights connected to the circuit dedicated to upstairs lights. My focus is now on the next room to be completely gutted and rebuilt. I'm combining it with an adjacent closet that's very long and narrow, to the point it's all but worthless. So far the wall between the two is down and the drywall broken into pieces and bagged up. Two doors and door frames are removed ready to be redeployed elsewhere. I know where one of them will go, it's just a question of figuring what I need before I make a hole in the wall between two halves of the house because I can't have the cat getting into the building site side of the house. A chunk of banister is removed because I need to extend a wall into the space it currently takes.

Today's job was to start pulling down a lath and plaster ceiling. I'm hoping to be able to pull down the ceiling and replace the insulation from below, without having to lift the floor in the attic. The first step is to pull down the plaster so I can get that bagged up. Then I'll pull down the laths, which will also bring down the cellulose insulation from above. THen I hope to be able to feed new wiring through the space above and fit fiberglass from below, holding it in place with wood batons if needed.

This room is the most ambitious piece of work so far but once it's done we can move some stuff out of our way into it, which will buy us some breathing space in the rooms we are currently using.

 

[tango]

After a cold snap I got back to house breaking. Today I pulled down the ceiling in the work room, gathered up something like 150 gallons of cellulose insulation and bagged it up, and made a big pile of dead laths. I also ran a cable from the nearby switch to where the light switch for the room is going to go. The switch isn't there yet - I need to do some work to replace wall studs - but the wire is ready for when I can put the switch in place.

Tomorrow I get to haul all the laths out, clean up the rest of the cellulose, and fit some fiberglass into the ceiling cavity. So far it's looking promising that I can do all the work from below, which means I can preserve the floor in the attic. With the price of wood these days I've been hoping I can preserve the floor rather than having to lift it and then pay through the nose for a new floor.

Assuming the fiberglass will go into place without troubles it means I can use the space above, which will free up a different space ready for another piece of work slightly further down the line.

 

[Lamb]

My husband and I got up early and did the grocery shopping. Now I'm finally surfing the forums I like to visit, this one is always first.

 

[tango]

I decided to abandon my house renovation project, figuring it's easier to start from scratch. Thankfully the local bulldozing company was free to help out. Hopefully all the rubble will be gone by the end of the day.