Electrical!!!

Holy crap! Without Mr. X that would have been a difficult task. Running cable and stringing the series for outlets and switches is a breeze, but that 3 way switch and bringing power to the back of the house would have cause a complete meltdown without his help.

The entire electrical project took about 12 hours of work. That last four hours was due to the fact that we ran out wire and it was too late to head back into town. I'm thinking if we would have had another 100' of wire it would have been done in one day.

This job used about 450' feet of 14/2 wire and 50' of 14/3, twenty-seven 1-gang boxes, one 2-gang box, one 3-gang box, 6 recessed light fixtures, 12 ceiling boxes (for lights and smoke detectors), one bathroom exhaust fan, a whole lot of caps, and about 75 nail plates to protect the cable when sheet rocking.

For some reason I am most excited about the lights that we finally have under the stairwell. Don't ask my why because I can't explain it but for some odd reason I feel like that is a huge accomplishment.

There was one casualty during the weekend...actually three. Two phenomenal bacon cheeseburgers from Hoppers in Waconia and a dimmer switch that met its maker. A replay of my life ran through my head when I saw a flash and heard a pop a foot in front of my face while I was putting it into place. Can you say hand me the electrical tape?

All in all it was a fun and productive weekend. The basement is a mess right now but hopefully in a few months we will be sittings in front of a fire enjoying a movie in out new finished basement.

Basement Bathroom

Now that I have finished all of the plumbing and installed the venting for the bathroom fan I can relax a little and take the rest of the weekend off.  Date night tonight with Sara and hanging out with the kids tomorrow.  I do however have a little bit of prep work for the electrical wiring that we will be doing next weekend.  

We?  Did you hire somebody?  Nope!  A friend of mine is willing to hold my hand along the way.  Let's be honest I will be helping him when and where I can.  I'll just call him Mr. X.  I am very grateful that he is willing to do this for food and drink.  I'm lucky to have such a good friend.

Now that I am back at the computer, I have decided to add more photos.  I am doing this more for myself and one of my friends asks if I would include more.

Shower P-Trap

So, the plumbing started last weekend (3/10/12).  I decided only to do the running of the water lines and the drains because I wanted a full weekend to deal with the water hook up just in case I needed to call in for backup.  I started by installing a p-trap for the shower.  Not too bad.  I just had to make one more unexpected trip to town for 45 degree PVC coupler.  I didn't realize how easy this was going to be.  Always read the instruction manuals for installation.  Don't be a hero. It will save you from a headache half way through the project.  Do it right the first time right?    Man does this adhesive work quickly.  I had a couple of panic attacks while doing this because I didn't want to have to keep cutting back the stub out that the builder roughed in for me.  That would have meant cutting concrete and that would have given me a heart attach.  Putting the PVC together, marking it with a sharpie, and than setting it was the only way to do this properly.  The final step for that will be cutting the PVC to size so I can install the shower.  I suppose I could do that this weekend but there is no hurry on this.  Like I said.  Time to relax.

Now to the water lines.  I guess I'll start with the shower.  It makes sense after talking about the drain.  This PEX stuff is awesome.  Way to make a do-it-yourselfer feel like a champ.  This stuff is fairly cheap and it is very easy to work with.  I got a 100' roll of it for $25 bucks.  The most costly item was the crimping tool used to crimp the copper rings that hold the couplings in place. 

I was very pleased to find out that the shower valve comes with the shower head and faucet.  I was able to buy some adapters that coupled the PEX tubing and the valve.  This allows a rookie to keep away from copper if they want to.  This is the easiest way to do it and it is also to code so all of you plumbers who are angry about this PEX stuff, I completely understand.  I once got an estimate of $500 for just installing a sink.  WTF?

I also ran PEX to supply the sink and stubbed out a drain for that sink.  Also not too bad.  Do you see the valves on the stub outs?  This are valves made bye a company called Shark Bite.  The PEX is cut squarely and you just press the things onto the tubing.  They lock in place and do not leak unless you royally mess up.  They are do code as long as you do not secure them behind the wall.  So as an exposed termination they are fine.  I got three of them for about $30.  The other one is used for the toilet.  These stub outs do not look the best but they will be inside the vanity cabinet so they will not be seen.

Not pictured is the toilet closet flange.  I have decided to keep it out of this blog because I don't remember doing it.  My black out rage that came about fighting with the 4" drain pipe and trying to get that flange in was the cause of my temporary memory loss.  Sorry, I have to say it turned into a real shit task.

I cut into the lines and added cold and water supplies.

 

Saturday (3/17/12) is the big day for tying in the PEX tubing to the main water lines.  Holy crap if you never had a puckered a-hole before, making that first cut will help you out with that.  These are my first two attempts and I have to say it was cake.  If you ever do this be sure to have a bucket and a large towel because you will get wet.  Doing all of the bathroom faucets and the toilet supply took me about 45 minutes.  I than turned on the water and...BAM!!!...no leaks.  

I did have one mishap.  Remember the shark bite valve for the toilet supply stub out?  That wasn't turned off.  I turned on the main water and the doorbell rang so I ran upstairs thinking it was my cables for the home stereo that I ordered from monoprice.com.  Nope, just Lily having fun.  She's so cute.  Needless to say I wasn't having fun when I walked back downstairs to see a stream of water coming from the corner.  Good think it was only about 30 seconds worth of water. 

I did install a fart fan.  Nothing exciting but here are some pictures.

Hallway, bathroom, and laudry room wall.

The Holiday Season is over which means Construction Season begins.  This weekend I worked my butt off in the basement.  I logged a total of 17 hours on Saturday and Sunday. Working alone is slow but it is also therapeutic as long as I do my research and get all of my ducks in a row before I start working.

If you recall, I put up a soffit a little too soon so I had to rip it down.  If you also recall, my last blog talked about how I installed the ducts, so I was able to spend the morning on Saturday putting that soffit back together.  It's surprising how easy it was after having done it once before. :)

Most of what I did on Saturday afternoon,  Saturday
Evening, and Sunday morning was framing the rest of
the basement and I pretty much covered that in previous
entries.  What I didn't anticipate was having to go back
through the basement and place nailer boards on almost
every wall and the soffits for future drywall.  Thanks to my Brother-in-law Dan for the advice over the phone.  So for 4 hours, I did that.  There is a little more framing to do like the bathroom closet, the rough in for the shower, and a couple of more soffits in the bedrooms.

If there is one negative about this weekend was that I have discovered that the laundry isn't quite as big as I thought is was but after talking to my awesome wife, she  is fine with the size.  Another negative was that I didn't get to spend much time with my family.  

It is now time to relax and watch the Super Bowl.  The next time I write I hope to be covering either plumbing or electrical.

Air Ducts

The Christmas Tree is up and the house is decorated for the holiday season inside and out.  So, this morning I decided that I have been slacking enough and I should probably continue work on the basement.  To be honest I haven't been working much because I didn't want to waste my summer working in the basement.  Now that the weather is getting a little colder I figured I might as well resume the basement, which has now become strictly a winter time project.

I decided to take down the soffit that I put up before starting with the ducts.  I figured this would make it less cumbersome to cut holes in the main trunk of the heat ducts for the takeoffs that will connect to 6" round ductwork.  This turned out to be easier than I thought it would be.  I was very hesitant to do this myself but after it was all said and done I feel like I did a pretty good job having never done this before.  I didn't have the professional tools to cut perfectly round holes so I used a tin snips and they worked pretty well.  With the small amount of space that I had to work with up there the holes ended up having some flaws so I ran to Menard's and plugged any seams with hi-temp silicone sealant.  That's what they make it for so I'm going to use it.

I used 6" sheet metal ducts that snap lock together to make the pipe and I taped each seam with foil tape.  No screws needed.  Keep it simple stupid.

After finishing all five of the air supply lines I need to put in the air exchange lines.  I will need to put in one exchange per bedroom and one in the main living area.  Also I have to install a line for the exhaust in the basement bathroom.  This will happen next weekend because I am done for the day due to the fact that my wife works and the kids are not to be trusted without supervision.

I really can't wait to be finished with the framing.  I am ready to learn more but the lumber must go up before electrical and plumbing.

Update to come next Sunday.  Sorry no pictures.  

Day Three.

Hey.  I finished another wall today.  Bad new though.  I was a little hasty to put up the soffit because I have not cut holes and run the HVAC yet.  It will happen but I may be a little tight to work up there.  Oh well, lesson learned and we move on right?

The second bedroom has been started and the wall that was put up is identical to the first bedroom wall.  The only difference is that the closet rough in is on the opposite side obviously so we can don't have to share a closet between the two bedrooms.  This time it went much faster.  I quit early today because I have to go back to work tomorrow.  So lame that I couldn't get Friday off, but I honestly go to work to relax during this busy time at home.

 
I also went to Menards today to get a shower for the bathroom because it's on sale.  Budget, budget, budget.  Always buy the stuff when it's on sale even if it will be a while before you need it.

On a more personal note my wife gets home on Saturday and I can't wait.  She has been gone since Tuesday and the kids and I really miss her.  I will have a little side project that I am doing that will surprise the crap out of her.  Let's hope it's done by the time she gets home.

Day Two.

Rough night last night.  Worked until 8 o'clock or so and I am very thankful to my Mother for taking care of the girls this week because my back is killing me.  As long as I keep up with stretching those dang hamstrings and icing the herniation everything should be ok.  I also had physical therapy at 7 o'clock this morning.  Can you believe it?  First day of the mini staycation and I schedules a PT appointment that early in the day.  Oh well enough complaining.

Today we started framing the first bedroom.  I can't believe that I'm doing this and not hiring it out, but I believe the benefits of personal accomplishment and saving about $2000-$3000 in labor just for the framing is well worth it. 

For the wall's floor plate I used 2x4 treated lumber, liquid nail to secure it to the floor, and 2 1/2" Hard Cut Masonry Fasteners driven through the 2x4 into the concrete.  Everybody was suggesting that I use a powder nailer and I believe that may have been the best way to go, but DIY projects when you are on a budget call for cheaper alternatives that work just as well. 



The wall itself went up pretty well until I got to the rough in of the closet door.  That was very time consuming and I actually don't want to talk about it.  :)  The closet doors will need a rough opening of 49 1/2" x 81 1/2" and that's what I did.  It was pretty simple to do but it was time consuming.  A carpenter would have build this wall on the floor and, when finished, would have lifted the wall from the floor to the intended spot.  A newbie like me did it the old fashioned way.  One piece at a time.  I considered the other way but know that in the end I would probably have had to tear it apart and start over so I decided to measure each board, put it in place, make sure it was plumb, and nailed it into place. 

I really need to mention that all the while my Father was helping out.  He did a pretty good job dealing with my grumpiness too.

Day One.

Note to self:  Next time you build a soffit be sure to space the boards 24" apart instead of 16" apart.  It will save you time and money.

So I finished the soffit that encloses the guts of the house, ie. duct work, water lines, gas lines etc. in about 4 hours of work.  Not too bad I guess.  I can't help but feel I messed up when building it.  In the photo below you can see that the cross boards are placed underneath the ladder and looking at it I feel like I should have secured the cross boards inside the two ladders.  This would have given me a higher ceiling and more importantly it would have given me a solid corner under the sheet rock.

For those who absolutely know, the ceiling height is not an issue, but do I need to change this for sheet rocking purposes?  Let me know.

 Because we got such a late start due to the fact that there was so much to do before work began we only got this one piece of the project done but it was interesting and when it was all said and done in a run that ran the length of a house there was only a 1/4" difference.  In my book that pretty damn square if you ask me.

P.S. Don't mind the mess in the background.  I have a herniated disc in my back so that will be there for a while.