Anybody I used to know still post around here??????
POSTED BY: 6ixStringJack
UPDATED: Thursday, May 23, 2024 14:59
VIEWED: 53454
PAGE 26 of 32
Anchor, junction box and flex conduit with two neutrals and two hots run near the "hot" box complete. The anchor is rock solid. Hope to have the electric done tomorrow and have my first coat of mud over the access panels and on the two fixture boxes and any other imperfections by tomorrow night.
When I was loading a complete living room set into my small Cavalier about 6 years ago, the mother said I must be an engineer to have been able to fit that entire set in such a small space. I do admit, it took a little creative work to get it all in there, but I'm just a dumb HS grad with some college. I told her that I was an Alumni of The College of Tetris.
Thanks Russia!
I'm really happy the electric thing is going to take a day or two less than I had anticipated, not to mention the extra day or two of mudding and drying time the other solutions would have added in the end. Damn... it's possible I'll have the priming done by Saturday and ready for the painting stage upstairs by Sunday!
Better get to choosing those colors ASAP!
Painting shouldn't really take more than 3 days if I plan it right. 4 or 5 days is more likely though. That would still give me 3 days before I find out my union test results, so I could, in theory, have all of the upstairs work minus trim, casings and ceiling fans done well before I even interview for the position.
Maybe I could even rip all of the hideous kitchen wall paper and repair those walls before I have a job even. Man... that would be so sweet!
"A government is a body of people, usually notably ungoverned." ~Shepherd Book
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PIC UPDATES!!!! (YAY!)
Master Bedroom (Before/During):
More basic crappy windows/trim. Carpet was already removed.
Ugly closet and not put together very well.
Beautiful (not!) accent wall.
Though the coaxial cable was mounted properly with a plastic frame to attach the cover to, you can see they took a bit of a shortcut on the phone line. Hole-saw right smack dab in the middle of a stud. Nice touch :)
There were two cracks like this that spanned nearly 16 inches. The room took so long to do because the ceiling damage was much more than I had anticipated. As you can see here, I screwed 2 1/4" drywall screws through the 1" thick ceiling to the joists before mudding, which I have been assured is the only way to prevent the ceiling from just cracking again within the first few years of painting.
Mudded ceiling. 16 feet x 2 cracks x 2 feet of fanned out mud = 64 square feet of overhead sanding.... yuck!
Master Bedroom (After Primer Stage):
No more accent wall and a fresh start on the closet.
Proper installation of the coaxial cable and phone outlets.
No more cracks!
OOPS! I forgot to take a shot of the finished ceiling. I'll have to add that later. The entire ceiling looks smooth and free of defects like the corners you can see of it in the last few pics though!
Hallway/Stairwell Project:
Here's the access panel I added for the bathroom. I put the flange behind the wall so the cover will mount flush with the wall itself. All I need to do is mud around it and paint it and it should be barely noticeable, even before I get a mirror to cover it.
Hole in ceiling for junction box for Chandelier. After doing the project I mentioned in a previous post, thankfully, that was as large a hole as I needed to make, so mudding and sanding will be a breeze.
An overhead view of the contraption I made in a very hidden location to anchor the junctionbox for the chandelier. The white board is actually 2 42" lengths of 1"x6" that was shimmed with 2 halves of a wooden paint stirrer to maintain a perfect level. Four 2 1/2" screws were then drilled into countersunk holes through the plywood and into the joists. Four 1" 1/2" screws were then screwed through the box into the 1"x6" boards to the exact pressure to keep a tight, level box. (Up top and below). Two extra wires, a hot and a neutral, were also brought up into the unfinished area of the crawl so I can later add a light and a switch to illuminate the area when changing the furnace filter.
The Chandelier!!!!
Everybody I know won't have a problem clearing it. I had to remove 8 chain links to get that height. Unless Michael Jordan comes for a visit, it seems to be the perfect height for me. I also installed a decorative sliding dimmer downstairs which really makes it shiny.
Bummer that I found out you can only have one dimmer on a 3-Way, but at least I get to take one very expensive light switch back anyways. I won't say how much the switches cost, but let's just say that making this project really stand out in the end had a cheap guy like me do something he usually wouldn't ever do.
All I need now is to finish the hall, get my mirror and a nice piece of wrapped
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Anybody know a good way to remove contact paper from wood or walls? The tiny linen closet I have across from the upstairs bathroom is chock full of aqua blue-green flower print contact paper on the walls and shelves that had to have been born in the late 60's or 70's. I spent 3 hours today removing only about 60 % of it. And once you've left a small area un-removed, it takes ages to lift enough up to get a firm hold to pull that part up.
F-ing contact paper.
Sure... it has its utility uses.... It's very easy to wash if a bottle of drain-o or mouthwash explodes on them, or if you are a careless bastard and spill all over them, but really.... when would either of those things ever happen in real life when you're talking about a 9" deep storage closet for toiletries?
Just in case anything bad like that ever happens I plan on painting the entire closet in an ULTRA Gloss finish, and I will be staining the 4 shelves the same dark color as the floors and giving them 3 or 4 coats of poly.
Sure, it's a lot more work than contact paper, but it doesn't look so stupid and serves the same purpose... washable nearly-indestructible surfaces that will last decades to come.
The only difference is, my stained wood shelves on a stark, glossy white linen closet will aesthetically withstand the test of time 100 years from now. Any contact paper installed today would be out-daded 10 years from now.
"A government is a body of people, usually notably ungoverned." ~Shepherd Book
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I would say hot blow dryer, if ya have one... but I think Beer would be better.
As in go get one.
Then find a pretty enough gal and send her one.
You working yourself silly is giving ME cabin fever...
C'mon, Valentines is just around the corner. Go get yourself a sqeeeze. Aught, aught, I don't wanna hear yer excuses. Now go... 
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I actually have a blow dryer from my "hair down half my back days". If I thought there was a chance I could get hired in today's market with long hair I would do it again. Everytime I went for a haircut the girl cutting my hair would tell the other girls to run their fingers through my hair and feel how soft it was. 
I cut it back in the day when I knew I was up for a promotion. I tried growing it long again, twice, but bailed out halfway. It's hard for guys to do that..... there's no way to make it look good in the "middle stages" as a guy, and when you're 32 years old you just look like a douche that lives in their mom's basement when you're trying. It's been nothing but short "controlled chaos" for the mane since then.....
I'll have to give the blow dryer a try tomorrow. Thanks Wish! 
Beer on the wall probably wouldn't work though since this contact paper was made to outlive the cockroaches in a nuclear holocaust. Plus, I'd rather drink it.....
Oh.... I get it....
You sound like my mom and step-dad now lol.
My problem is I'm attracted to the high-maintenance girls and I don't have time for that in my life at the moment. I'm in mid-thrust building my castle for my future princess.
I just don't want to be distracted by "Mrs Right Now" when the end goal is to get "Mrs Right"
Once this house is a bit more put together and I get a steady job, that part shouldn't be too hard.
Relatively young, beautiful finished house, no mortgage, no kids, no STDS....
I'm looking for the girl that will give me a reason to stop drinking and finally shed those last 10-15 pesky pounds that are covering an awesome 6 pack that I know still lies beneath.
Valentine's Day is nothing to me. Just another Hallmark holiday. The last few years without a New Years makeout session with a model wannabe is what really hits home. There was a day when I was spending New Years with the hottest girl in the bar, whether it was my GF or somebody I hooked up with that night.....
My last two New Years were spent as the 7th or 8th wheel at married friend's houses with no potential 8th wheels, and even some of their kids.....
It's cool though... My old man did right the second time. Married a woman half his age that already had a kid. She's just as frugal as he is.... a perfect match. They put him and their shared kid through very expensive collages on full scholarships.
One is likely to be at the forefront of renewable energy and the other could pretty much do whatever the F he wants to do after showing his grades at the college he went to. Neither of them paid a dime for college except for taxes.....
I don't want to make the mistakes my old man made and marry early. I want to marry somebody that needs a leg up when I'm ready to provide it. He'd be sending his kids to college from free from his yacht today instead of in his suburban house while researching all the options from his modest suburban house.
My step brother today is one of the most stand up guys I've ever known in my life, after 12 years of my old man in his life. Being a kid without a father in the picture and a 16 year old mother he could likely be a drug dealer today if not just a hard core user. He had a stand-in-Dad that made enough that his mom could stay at home all day and keep a perfectly clean house and help the kids. She might not have made any money at her job all those years, but the dividends paid out by two well educated and well adjusted kids in today's climate will be paid in full.
This world? Kids of my own? Hell no. I'm not going to add any of my own to it. But I'd be honored to help the right Woman to make her illegitimate child from a deadbeat be everything he or she could be like my Dad did. I give him even more cred since he had a kid of his own the second time around and this one would probably be a household name in the average American household if he ever decided what he was going to do with his 172 IQ.
It's crazy to me that my s
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Thanks Wish!
Your blow dryer idea worked perfectly. I did think of doing that yesterday, but I didn't feel like figuring out where I buried it because I didn't think it would make that much of a difference. Man am I glad I found it for the top 1/3 of the removal... The "closet" is only 8" or so deep and is really only good for stocking toiletries. So to reach up that last 2' or so in such a small space would have been brutal if it kept ripping on me and I had to keep trying to peel up a new section with my fingernails. Not only did the heat loosen the glue a bit, but it also gave the contact paper a rubbery consistency so it was much less likely to break while pulling.
You easily saved me 4 hours of work here!
I Prepped the walls for mudding and actually worked a few hours late tonight to get the first coat of mud on. If things go well this weekend I'll have all of my furnature moved downstairs in prep for the floor refinishing and I'll be ready to primer the hallway on Monday. Should only take one day to primer it hopefully! Yay!
Oh yeah... I bought the coolest cheap little plastic tool today. Actually, it was one tool that came in a set of 8 plastic tools for 99 cents at Menards. It's a scraper that looks a bit like a shaving razor and you can replace the blade with utility knife blades when it gets dull. It made scraping away the gunk where the door casings and floor trim were removed a breeze. Since there are 7 doors in the hallway (2 of them are just a decorative doorless frame), I felt it necessary to try to get a tool like this rather than using a utility knife like I did in the rooms. I easily saved myself another day of work by spending a buck.
It's really cheap and I don't think it would last too much longer with the abuse I gave it, but at a buck, who cares? Most of the other tools in there are pretty useless, such as a plastic utility knife, but there is one of those keychain knives that could come in handy. I used to have one, but it was so dull I chucked it.
"A government is a body of people, usually notably ungoverned." ~Shepherd Book
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Some GREAT news I realized today.....
I already know that I can't use large (3 5/8") casings on the doors in the hallway because too many of them are too close to the walls to even think about it, but I wanted to use large door and window casings in the bedrooms.
For about a week there, after primering my Master Bedroom, I thought I messed that all up. Measuring where the light switch is to the entry way, I was coming up with 3 5/8" overlapping the beginning of the junction box, which would mean that I'd either have to notch the casing, or score the plate for the switch......
In my mind, I thought I forgot that I needed to move the switch over a few inches.
But, truthfully/thankfully, the idea was no longer on my radar because I didn't have to move it. I don't know what I was thinking. I was measuring from the end of the drywall to the switch, and not the extra nearly 2" from the actual end of the door frame.
This means oversized casings for the windows and doors in both bedrooms. Yay!
Got my second coat of mud up today and should be on track to start primering on Monday or Tuesday, even though I have to move a ton of furnature downstairs when my bro comes over on Sunday.
Once I figure my paint colors, my God, this shack is really going to start looking like a home come late next week!!!!!
I'm glad the 1st floor hardwood looks as good as it does. I always hated that my Mom and Step-dad treated the house like a museum when I was a kid. I'm already going to be instituting a "no shoes" rule for the 2nd floor when the work is done, but I might not ever get around to doing the 1st floor hardwood because I don't want to be "that guy".
It's good enough by far to be presentable with a few area rugs over it and not have to worry about people spilling stuff or tracking anything in.
Of course, I'll kick their ass if they do it and don't clean up after themselves, but I won't go out of my mind in rage if accidents happen downstairs if I don't put the work in on the floor.
"A government is a body of people, usually notably ungoverned." ~Shepherd Book
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NO....
MORE.....
DRYWALL DUST.....!!!!!
At least upstairs anyways
One step closer. Tomorrow, hopefully will be two coats of primer in the hallway and I'll be set for painting! Hopefully the first coat doesn't reveal anything I feel needs to be repaired and I can just move right on to the second coat after the first is complete. Aside from the access panel for plumbing and the electrical work, the hallway was a much easier job than the bedrooms. Only one 2-foot ceiling crack and just a few minor wall repairs over 2 doors.
Wow... I'll really be painting the upstairs by Tuesday or Wednesday at the latest.
I do believe there is a very good chance that my 2nd floor will actually be completely remodeled short of the trim, casings and window frames before the end of the month.
I can't wait to look at those before/after pics.
"A government is a body of people, usually notably ungoverned." ~Shepherd Book
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Hey Wish,
I don't have the exact color names yet, but here's what I was thinking I'm going to do. I wanted to run the ideas by you, and the reason's why, and see what you thought of them.
1) Hallway/Stairwell - Light Beige-type tint on walls, in a semi-gloss.
Why:
EXTREMELY dark hardwood floor stain.
Glossy White trim/casings.
Semi-gloss is easy to wash, and it the hallway/stairwell is likely to be a fingerprint haven.
I've heard that neutrals like Beiges are great for linking rooms of contrasting colors together in the hallways.
The stairwell will be VERY busy with my plans. As I've mentioned before, I want dark stairs with light vertical parts for the wood, and I'll match the wooden banister with this theme in mind. I will also have the mirror that will reflect the chandelier with a decorative piece of abstract artwork behind it. I can't imagine any other color than a neutral would work with all of this action without looking chaotic.
Plus... there is the question of the living room color and how it works with the hallway/stairwell.......
And so....
2) Living room - Darker Beige tint (eggshell).
Why:
Light varnish on 1st floor.
White trim/casings. (Probably going to put some thick, decorative white crown molding on the 1st floor too).
The dark beige should mesh perfectly with the light beige upstairs in the hallway and stairwell, as well as all of the potentially "chaotic" things I mentioned before.
The living room will likely be a host to a myriad of artistic pieces, and from what I hear, the neutrals-to-whites-are a great way to make the art stand out, even if it's a dark neutral.
The reverse-transition of dark beige on the 1st floor wall to light beige on the 2nd floor walls should work brilliantly with the contrast of the light floor on the 1st floor and the very dark floor on the 2nd floor.
The white trim throughout will be the thing that ties it all together.
Eggshell, because even in that sheen it should be completely washable using high quality paint (Benjamin Moore). This should be good for a living room. If anybody is "fingering" the walls with something like axel grease, I'll have to figure out how to get blood off walls too
3) Master Bedroom (about 16'x16' - A light to medium reddish tone (eggshell). (Not pink, by any means, but a lighter red that wouldn't be to dark to be imposing with the very dark hardwood floors).
Why:
It's the color of passion. I figure a few years after I get married and the walls don't even do it for us anymore, I could always change it to a tranquil green, right?
My fancy King Sized bed set that I bust out on special occasions is a burgundy color. (I don't waste that on myself. It costs me almost 30 bucks just to get the comforter dry cleaned!)
I never thought I'd consider a red on walls, but my mind has been changed after seeing some things online.
4) Secondary Bedroom - A very, very light blue.
Why:
Well... I'm hoping for a son to carry on the name in the future
It turns out that the primarily navy blue oriental rug I've inherited from my grandmother will fit perfectly in that room and only show about 1 foot of hardwood on all edges.
Blue is my favorite color.
As long as I'm single, I could just sleep in the 2nd bedroom if the red ends up too loud for my sleeping habits. (It would be better to keep the Master Bedroom clean for any after-hours hook ups anyways, right? .... next Valentine's day, perhaps???)
In all rooms, at least upstairs, I was thinking I'd go with just a flat white ceiling to absorb the light and mitigate the few imperfections with my mudding that are driving me crazy with the glossy primer showing. I figure with the DARK floors and the glossy white trim it would be a great contrast.
So... what do you think, Wish?
I need to figure this out STAT!
I just finished painting 2 coats of primer in the hallway tonight and now I'm ready for paint. I have a few misc things to take care of like removing the paint from a sloppy trim j
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I'd have to say, based on the last few months, that you were already a little high wired at eight, hah. I've started a drinking game based on the number of times you say "primer". hehehe....
I was walking out of my kids school this morning and saw one of my kid's classmates counting the blocks in the wall to his class, so intently he did not see or hear me say "Morning ---" even though I was right next to him. He's 9. I remember counting driveways to town when I was five, and my kid can't step on a crack because she heard that old poem, and she knows it's not true, but can't help herself... I think most kids pass through a period where they tried to force the world to make sense, to work for them. The lucky ones get to pass through that... The unlucky ones I feel for... I can't imagine the constant panic they live in.
Anyway, don't let it eat ya, Jack, they are just... walls. But yours look better than mine, I will tell you that. I didn't have the luxury of repetition, the stuff makes hubby choke and gag.
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