Wednesday update

It seems that I spent all day running around getting supplies to finish the lower level.

One of the things that I purchased was the nosing for the stairs - it's a piece of solid maple that was about $5/ft. The nosing was 3/4" thick, which is 1/4" thinner than the thickness of the foam plus the wood (both are 1/2"). So, 1/4" thick plywood was glued to the concrete with construction adhesive, and then the nosing was glued to the plywood with wood glue. The grey box is a heavy object to hold the nosing in place.

This panorama shows the entire width of the lower level, showing that the flooring is now over 2/3rds complete.

Dale was over tonight, as well as Louis, and we completed this other 1/3rd of the floor in 2 hours (total so far is 5 hrs x 3 people, so 15 hrs total).

I forgot to post that the door to the broom closet was installed yesterday. It was 80" high but I needed 78" high, so the door had to be cut and then the hole plugged.

Tuesday update

I was working by myself on Tuesday during the day, so I decided to finish up the painting. The first thing I did was uncover the flooring to the back door. It looks pretty good. I put green tape on the edge of the steps to cover up edge in case any glue oozes out.

This is the kitchen wall after the painting was completed. I thought I would use about half a gallon (well, US gallon or 3.78 l), but I ended up using almost the whole can.

David came over in the evening after work to help put the floor down. Louis also came over which was nice. The first thing to do was to put the 1/2" Styrofam down under the flooring to act as a vapour barrier and also as insulation so the room is more comfortable.

Then we laid a chalk line to get the first two rows straight and parallel from the wall.

Here Louis is chiseling a notch out of a piece of flooring so it will fit properly in the pantry.

At the end of the evening, we had completed just over 1/3rd of the flooring - in just over 3 hours with 3 people. (I used this flash in this photo and it shows the dust in the air - we had just swept the floor so it raised some dust.)

Flooring has arrived!

The flooring arrived at 8am. There are 23 packages of flooring weighing 45 pounds each. I helped the driver unload the flooring under the carport (it had been raining although it wasn't then), and then I carried the flooring into the house. Eric arrived at 9:15 and carried the flooring down to the basement.

Since you have to let the flooring acclimatize for a day before installing it, we spent the day doing other things - like priming the drywall patches in the upstairs hallway.

Also primed the wall by the back door. Notice the white lines on the stairs - that is caulking on the cracks prior to painting.

This is a detail of the molding that I put together to cover the gaps at the top of the support posts.

This photo shows the stairs and landing by the back door covered with heavy objects - they are weighting down the flooring that I glued down. If you look at the stringers of the stairs, you can see that they are now white* as I gave them their first coat of trim paint.

* The 'white' is Cloud White, a Benjamin Moore colour.


The dogs aren't supposed to get on the leather couch, so I put the mops across the seats. It's very effective, as you can see...

Waiting for the flooring

We are now at the stage where we are ready to do the flooring, but it hasn't been delivered yet! So in the meantime, am working on finishing up all the drywall touch-ups upstairs and the touch-up painting.

The corner here got squished in when the oil tank was being removed so it needed a drywall touchup.

This is the wall by the back door landing, by the kitchen. It was also beaten up a bit when the oil tank was getting taken out, and also it had some drywall that should have been repaired by the painters but they didn't do it... (Grr)

This shows the last wall in the basement has now had the second coat of paint. Also, I have all the styrofoam that I need to put down under the flooring.

This shows the wall by the front door. It needed a lot of drywall patching - again that was work that the painters said they were going to do but didn't and then said he didn't mean it. We've used those painters for 10 years, but will never be calling them again.

stairs There was a triangle shaped opening at the bottom of the stairs to the basement, right beside the green wall. I attached a piece of wood to it - had to fasten in some backing behind it so it wouldn't move, and then applied some wood filler. It needs some sanding to smooth it out and may need a second coat. The plywood on the landing has been screwed down about every 6 inches to remove the squeaking. Now those screw holes need to be filled and sanded before gluing down the flooring.

Final stages of painting

This photo shows some of today's accomplishments:

1. The last wall to be painted in the lower level has been sanded and primed and will be painted (green) tomorrow.
2. The window has now acquired casing.

More big things happening

The PUPS people came and took away the empty storage unit today. We had it for two months and it gave us a place to store some of the extra boxes until the basement was finished.

Eric removed the old flooring material from the landing and this flight of stairs. A lot of the backing from the old flooring stuck to the floor and required first scraping and then sanding. This actually took Eric most of the day.

This photo shows a number of accomplishments:

1. The lights are on!! That's the last of the pot lights - 19 in all.
2. The closet door is hung! The opening was just barely wide enough for the door - I had to plane the door a little bit for it to fit.
3. The grills for the warm air and the cold air return are installed. This was a LOT more work than it sounds because of the complexity of ceiling mounted warm air grills.

Hopefully the last coat of mud on this final wall. I hope to sand and prime this wall tomorrow, and perhaps even apply one coat of paint - it will be green.

Cup of Cocoa!

The first coat of Cup of Cocoa going on the wall. The wall now has two coats and completely used up the can of paint - not one drop was left!

Tawny enjoying chewing on a stick.

This photo shows a number of things:

1. The shelves are installed in the pantry.
2. The light is installed in the pantry (I had to buy a bulb.)
   
3. Some of the plates are installed in the basement - the pantry light switch, for example.
4. The walls of the stairs to the basement area have been painted!
5. The light at the top of the stairs to the basement has been reinstalled. :)

Eric started cleaning off the steps in preparation for their finish.

Finally, colour!

This photo was taken half way through the day. You can see the walls are in the process of being painted and the lights are still hanging down.

By the end of the day, two of the three walls that are targeted for green paint had been painted with two coats. The two walls are on opposite ends of the room - one with the pantry and closets (shown here) and the window wall. You can also see that the trims for the lights have been installed and they are no longer hanging down below the ceiling. The third wall couldn't be painted because the trim was stacked against that wall. You can see the trim on the left foreground of this photo, which means the third wall is clear. This evening, I sanded and applied another coat of drywall compound (mud) to the joints on that wall. Hopefully I will be able to sand it tomorrow and apply a 3rd and final coat of drywall compound - then it can be primed and painted.

UPDATE: Forgot to mention, the ceiling has been finished also - used another half a gallon.

Almost painted ceiling

Applied 3 gallons (US gallon can is 3.78 liters) to the ceiling. That covered the whole ceiling once and most of it with two coats. I need about another half gallon so have to get another can of paint tomorrow. The colour is a Benjamin Moore Cloud White - it's a bit of a creamy white.

Three gallons should have been enough to paint two coats on the ceiling as it is about 480 sq ft. To coats makes 960 sq ft and each gallon is supposed to cover 350 sq ft, or 1,050 sq ft for three gallons.

Priming completed

Today we started painting the basement. We are unable to paint one wall because the trim and doors are piled up on that wall, but we primed the ceiling, the rest of the walls and the closets.

I did the prime check and found that the far wall did not look very good, so I had to get out the drywall compound and patch the screws and the butt seams (the vertical seams in this photo). Tomorrow, I will sand these patches and prime them before I start painting the ceiling.