2 Weeks Off

I have actually gotten to a point. A milestone, break point, or whatever you call it in my basement project progress. I have all my hvac done, electrical is done, bath and plumbing done, framing done, and mostly cleaned up my mess. To write it down in a little sentence like that doesn't even begin to describe the amount of work I have done. I had the g-ville building inspector over today and he took a look around, said "nice job" had no issues with any of my work and gave me the green light to start drywalling and cover everything up.

I did take a bit of satisfaction to know he thought I did a god job. Especially how little I knew when I started. I didn't know what 16" centers meant or the difference between 12 gauge or 14 gauge wire. I learned codes and what applied to me and in most case exceeded requirements.

Over last weekend, knowing I would be ready for drywall soon, I layed out all my wall dimensions, figured out all the required sizes of sheets according to break points, and went to the store for a quote. Well, once I realized I needed 127 sheets, I had a bit of a shock in anticipation of the work ahead. I thought that might really bog this project down especially with warmer weather on its way so I asked around a bit at work, got a req from a guy, called, had an estimate to do the drywall and texture in the basement. Quote came back acceptable and on Monday he starts. He said its a 2 week job. I wonder how long it would take me if it takes a professional of 27 years 2 weeks. Plus I only get down stairs after Jakester goes to bed, so I work 630pm to 930pm. I figured about a year. This may be the best money ever spent besides Ritalin for ronko.

Now I get a little time off. I have some odds and ends to finish up before Monday but nothing to stress about. My time off, at night, will be spent getting trim ready, ordering doors, picking out tile and grout, and prepping materials to start the finish portion. It may be close but I am hoping to be able to offer up space for the 12hr race in GB.

whew

All fixed.

aaaaaarg and burnt out

Screwed up my taxes. I should say turbo tax screwed them up. I will take the blame for trusting that the crappy program works. E-filed and according to the feds amy has 2 identical w-2. How does the stoopid program, after an "error analysis" not realize she couldn't possibly have two identical w-2 from the same exact company? So with our huge income 33% more than we made the feds think I agreed to pay them $9235. Yeah amendment and the 12-20 week process that hopefully they realize my original is wrong and don't start charging me interest on 9k!

I spent all weekend on basement plumbing only to have low flow, back pressure to the shower, 4 leaking connections, and a drain that wont seal. Now I get to tackle each issue individually and fry my brain.

amateurness

Is anyone sick of winter yet?

I am so happy to have been busy. The basement has been rolling along. I have all my walls built. All my lighting is in. I put up 23 lights, across 7 rooms, with 5 single switches, 1 3-way switch, and 1 4-way switch. Too my surprise they all work. All my electrical is in for outlets, tv's, refrigerator... My bathroom has the shower framed and installed, rough plumbing done, bath fan mounted/wired/vented, cold storage is rewired and lighted, all my hvac is done for heat and return air, and my archways are up between spaces. For this weekend I am going to finish my bath plumbing and run speaker wires for surround sound and get all my tv cable/hdmi cables run. Then its give the inspector a call and start drywalling. If all goes well I would like to have all my drywall hung by the end of March. Do all the texture and painting by mid April, install tile flooring by end of April, get trim and carpet in by the end of May. Then I might slow down and little bit and enjoy summer and pick at mounting cabinets and building countertop in the bar. But it will be a livable finished space by then so it wont matter. At this point I havent hired any work out and only had a little help from my father in law framing a weekend. If I can continue this way I hope to have done everything myself except lay the carpet.

I will post pics someday but there really isnt much to see until drywall is hung. It just looks 2x4's with white wire running off the ground.

If anyone has tips on applying texture with joint compound let me know. I can only get so much from reading how from google.