DIY with Scribe: Living Room and Dining Room.

scribe

Well, Gents. I am ramping up to take the guys up to work on the house for a long weekend starting this evening. It is gonna be a real working bender to be sure.

We are removing the ceilings in the Living Room and Dining Room; reframing to level ceilings; wiring the lights and 2nd floor areas; insulating; sheetrocking and taping to round out the weekend. I shall try to post some pictures with results and update the project as the rooms progress into the fall and possibly winter.
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Mars · Posted: Fri Aug 03, 2007 12:05 am Post subject:

Sounds like a wild weekend indeed :)

I'm getting ready to take off to my camp (or cottage as some say) for a week or so. Last time I was out there, I ended up having to jack up the back end and re-cement some columns that it stands on. I don't know whose idea it was to build it on these cement stands. I won't head out until Tuesday (after all the crazy long weekenders are gone and the lake will be peaceful).

scribe · Posted: Sat Aug 04, 2007 11:56 am Post subject:

I figured out the new hotel in town has free wireless! Just connected via laptop outside of the hotel. Lady Scribe is not gonna be happy to find out I figured out access to internet at our oasis from media. Laughing

I should be able to just look in online while enjoying coffee. Right???

So the adventure started with a bang. We crushed a deer on the way up. Took out the headlamps and turn signal assembly and crunched much of the side of the van. I spent all of yesterday driving around looking for a new headlight and turn signal before Jonny Law makes me do this. So I am already behind the guys. Today I have much to do just to catch up. I will have to earn my paygrade today.

Sounds like a great time to me, Mark. They build on those columns because it is the most cost effective foundation enabling the construction of affordable camp lodging. I assume the frost line is pretty low up your ways. Might explain why they failed and could fail again.
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scribe · Posted: Tue Aug 07, 2007 12:47 pm Post subject:

Well, after today, in 5 days we will have pressed in on 70 hours of hard labor. We gutted the rooms, framed the ceilings, secured the second floor squeaky flooring by screwing from the exposed underneath, wired lights, insulated for sound and firestopping, sheetrocked, and taped up through today. I also installed a different radiator on the second floor that needed to be repiped, changed the dining room door to a pocket door, and reconfigured the gas fireplace in the living room. Our goal today is to pile on as much plaster as possible before we return to the city where it is back to the grind without rest.
passout

view from the dining room right before sheetrocking....

View from the living room looking back toward the dining room....

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scribe · Posted: Sun Sep 30, 2007 12:57 pm Post subject:

Well caballeros, we are one day into another blitz of 4 days. This session we are aiming to:

-finish plastering, sand, and prime
-strip the shellac off of all the moldings and sand them
-install crown
-paint ceilings (walls get wallpaper later)
-clean up for incoming company the next weekend

Today, I install some speakers in the ceiling I forgot to roughin and get to work on cutting new electrical into the existing baseboards. Hopefully, replace some of the moldings we had to remove as well if the guys can get caught up with the shellac removal.
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Ralf Toth · Posted: Sun Sep 30, 2007 2:42 pm Post subject:

Can't wait to see the pictures when you are finally done! How many more hours of work do you estimate?
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Mars · Posted: Sun Sep 30, 2007 3:25 pm Post subject:

Is this going to be your new home or is it like a flip that house type project?

bombadil · Posted: Mon Oct 01, 2007 12:07 am Post subject:

Sheesh, I'm really impressed!

If you ever find yourself in Pennsylvania with time on your hands, feel free to drop by my house! We could use some help with converting the garage into a glass studio for my wife. Very Happy

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scribe · Posted: Mon Oct 01, 2007 1:11 pm Post subject:

Day 2 went reasonably well. The plastering is done but the stripping continues. Hopefully by the end of today the priming, stripping, and crown installation will be complete so that we can paint and clean-up tomorrow. If I have to, I will figure out how to keep the guys on another day to push it along. This is the heart of the home and it is impossible to keep the dust out of every area until it is done!

Ralf- it will be 80% complete when it is livable again. The rest of the work will be cleaner finishing work (except for the floor refinishing). The rest of the house where work has been initiated in earnest is about this far along. I will have to back up and go room to room to bring everything to 100%. For example, I will still have to stain and shellac the moldings, install new windows-blinds-curtains, install electrical devices and finish fixtures, repair-sand-varnish floors, and wallpaper. Probably about 100 hours or more to go in these two rooms alone.

Mark- This is like a dream home to us. Eventually I want to retire here. When I die I intend to haunt this house! We bought this 7 years ago and I have suffered much to pull it along this far. It is quite a large home and I have redone or will redo just about everything. For example, plumbing and electrical have been completely redone. There are only two areas left out of close to 20 areas (rooms) that need to be gutted and redone. I intend to replace the roof and porches even! All this even before the big landscape construction project I have in mind for a major DIY with scribe project.

Stephen- Sounds like I might have to accelerate my plans to buy a bobcat for my landscape construction project. Because we will have to put a ditch-witch on it in order to channel in a much larger gas line to your garage! I bet that will take at least 1.5" pipe! I will work cheap if I get glass blowing lessons. Very Happy

Where in PA are you? Why did I think you were from Michigan?
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bombadil · Posted: Mon Oct 01, 2007 1:36 pm Post subject:

grodog · Posted: Sun Oct 14, 2007 12:43 am Post subject:

And here I thought the thread-title was scribe detailing the sequel to RJK's "Living Room" for his home game---the "Dining Room"! Very Happy

(Come to think of it, that's not a bad idea... Wink

).
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scribe · Posted: Mon Oct 15, 2007 2:12 am Post subject:

OK. Sorry for the delay in some forthcoming pictures guys. It has been a hectic month. I am sorry to admit that these picts are already before our latest 5 day blitz. Much has happened since this set!

After the latest blitz, we had applied 16 5-gallon buckets of compound, 125 pounds of plaster, 8 gallons of stripper to the moldings, many sheets of sandpaper, and a few gallons of paint.

All of the moldings have been stripped and sanded and are ready to be stained and shellacked. But first I need to finish replacing some of the moldings with new oak to match the old. The crown molding is finished and painted in both rooms. Lady Scribe picked out this molding. To be honest, I was skeptical at first but I let her win this one. I thought they were much too large, but she was right. They look great when painted to match the ceiling. The recessed lights have been trimmed out and aren't hanging down anymore. And everything has been cleaned up and furniture moved back in.

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