Jan 26.4: getting rid of annoyances

Wow - today was a busy day! with lots of stuff accomplished! It seems to me that I spent a lot of time on the phone ordering our main bath and kitchen faucet and accessories (towel bar, etc), as well as confirming that our natural gas hookup will happen by Jan 31st. That will be good because then we can get our new furnace and new tankless water heater installed.

Besides constantly cleaning up, I did manage to get a few things accomplished.

The eco energy audit identified that there was a big draft coming from beside the fireplace. Mario's guys took off the trim so I could caulk it. There were some quite big gaps so I filled it with backer rod (foam gap filler) and then caulked it. I needed to wait for the caulk to set up so I could go back and fill some more. There is over a tube of caulk in this gap!!

Another annoyance was that the stairs from the main level to the bedroom level squeaked. This is my attempt to fix that. I fastened a 2x4 in place under the stair that squeaked the most. The squeaking is because of wood rubbing on wood or wood rubbing on a nail. The risers were nailed to the back of the treads with three nails. When someone walked on the stairs it was obvious that the risers were moving and the squeak was coming from the nails. I glued and screwed this 2x4 to the riser, and the then screwed a few screws from the front (the riser) to help hold it in place. I also put 8-10 screws in to the bottom of the riser (from the back) into the back of the tread, and then removed the three nails that were causing the squeaks.

I had put a number of boxes of floor tile on top of the stair tread that squeaks to simulate the weight of someone walked on the stairs. I will remove the tiles tomorrow and see if the stairs still squeak or if they are okay.