Building Up and Tearing Down

Since the last time I posted, we enjoyed a week-long visit to Troy's parents in Missouri. Troy got to practise with his new quadcopter that can record video. Here's a little snip of us waving "Hi" from the front deck:

We had a great time and you can read more about my visit to the Missouri Star Quilt Company in Hamilton, Missouri here.

After we got home, it took us a while to get back into work on the house. I also spent a few days sick with a cold so that week was a bust for me too. But some progress has been made...

Troy inserted plywood in the wall between the bathroom and closet where there was a big opening to house the medicine cabinets. You can see he also framed the "third wall" of the closet space (on the right).

He has to get those walls framed before I lay the floor.

Troy also started the wiring for the vanity lights and outlets.

Hmm...in this picture, you can only see the boxes, but he has some wiring started too.

Once that side of the closet was framed, I could also work on a layout. I could not find a useful online closet planner (that would let me plug in my own stuff) so I resorted to Excel.

I had to give separated areas for hanging clothes so Troy could separate
his nice clothes from his "grubby" clothes.

Troy needs a lot of hanging space since he hates to fold but doesn't mind hanging. (He even hangs his jeans--well he did when he owned jeans--and that is just crazy pants to me.) He has a dresser that we like, so I figured we could just build the rest around it. And that way he wouldn't have to spend the time building himself some drawers. And I filled the rest of the space with shelves.

Troy hasn't actually approved this plan yet but this was my first stab at it. Except for the top one, I expect the shelves will be adjustable so the spacing isn't all that critical at this point.

As for actual work work, I have scraped off the various finishes on the chimney.

We're going to be gluing either drywall or plywood then drywall and as Troy continually says, the glue is only as secure as the stuff you're sticking it to.

Of course, it's always fun to try and find all the layers from over the years.

1. Brick (not pictured)
2. Plaster (far left bottom corner)
3. Floral wallpaper
4. Striped wallpaper (that I hope was discoloured by subsequent layers because that is a very ugly brown.
5. More wallpaper I couldn't make out.
6. Paneling (all you can see that remains is the glue they used to stick it up).

Some came off, some didn't and by the end I had this on the closet side:

On the bedroom side, there was a lot less to remove. It is a mess of plaster and drywall mud though, including textured plaster that is just ick.

Along the one side, the plaster had given way and revealed the original brick:

I doubt it was ever meant to be a finished surface, but while the plaster was coming off, my head was filling with thoughts of tearing off all the plaster to reveal the bricks and how I could sand blast them to remove all the crap and I could maybe have that "mock" mantel or fake fireplace I keep dreaming about....But then, the plaster wasn't coming off anymore and I realized that it wasn't going to happen. And that it wouldn't even work because the chimney is way off to the side between two doors and it would look goofy. Anyway, all that is to say we will fill in the gap before we glue some drywall up and call it good.

Tonight I finished up the last little piece of subfloor in the closet space

so Troy can frame the linen closet. Then I think we will be done adding walls. I think.

You can see Troy crawling around on the floor in the picture--he is working on setting up the hallway so I can lay more shims there and put in the subfloor. It will be so nice to have the floor done! At the same time, Troy can even out the last flight of stairs (four steps) that are so uneven right now. Equal steps will mean less tripping, which is a good thing at the top of the stairs.