On Popcorn Ceilings.........

A month or so ago, I started work on the Main Floor Living area as Lynda wishes to have it double up as a gallery of sorts for her 'Art Open Houses'. The Living Room had a pelmet or valance on three walls that hid fluorescent lighting that were fairly old and for the best part, did not work.

I pulled those out with minimal damage to the ceiling and discovered that the popcorn (or acoustic) treatment had been installed after the valances had gone up and was not present on the ceiling part behind them. That meant that I would have to build up the treatment to match or remove the popcorn from the entire ceiling.

Since I seem to have a penchant for doing things the hard way, I opted for the latter. Plus I HATE HATE HATE popcorn!!! Popcorn is mainly used by builders because it is so much easier to do than paint. Plus it hides any defects in the mudding and taping of the joints as well as poor workmanship. Did I mention that I hate popcorn??? or for that matter any ceiling treatment?? They seem to be the one thing that instantly date a house. They trap dirt and are generally FUGLY!!!!

So I Googled popcorn removal and the videos and instructions made it look so darned easy. Just spray the ceiling with water and scrape off with a wide trowel. The popcorn drops off and leaving you with a nice smooth ceiling. NOT. My popcorn was mutant!!! I used my floor scraper with a new blade and all that I managed to get off the ceiling was the first few millimeters.

I had to then wait for the ceiling to dry, sand it down with a pole sander with vacuum attachment, skim coat with joint compound, allow to dry, sand, skim coat again and hope that it looks good.

This is a Vacuum Pole Sander that saved my sanity and probably my marriage. The dust gets sucked right into the attached vacuum.

.......and this is the HEPA filter that saved my Shop Vac. Without this, the filter would allow the drywall dust to blow right through and eventually clog. Pricey, but washable and reusable. This is well worth the price.

After all of that work, I've got (half of the surface area at least) a ceiling that is smooth, looks modern and will look amazing painted in Benjamin Moore's 'Decorators White'

However if asked in the future how to deal with Popcorn ceilings, my simple answer would be - Move!! This is not a job for the faint hearted, the lazy or the ones daunted by a Living Room in a mess for the better part of 2 months. Moving just might be less work.

Simple Bedside Shelves - Done!!!

So here are the shelves finally done and mounted on the walls in the girls rooms. I was lucky that the placement of the girls' beds allowed the shelves to be mounted directly to studs.

I painted the shelves using my small touch up sprayer with some leftover paint that I had sitting in the crawlspace. I should get myself one of those HVLP (High Volume Low Pressure) as they tend to be more controlled regarding the overspray issues.

 This is Aaliyah's shelf with her 'Baby Beanie' her DSi and her book.

and this is Layla's with 'Steggy' and the rest of her stuff.

So that's it. No more of their stuff on the floor and me screaming for them to clean up their rooms. Well.... I still scream........... but that's probably never going to stop......

Simple Bedside Shelves

We finally got Aaliyah & Layla to clean out their rooms and purge a lot of their older toys and books. The rooms look more streamlined now, but I did note that they tended to drop their books and DSi's in the floor near their beds when it was 'lights-out'. We thought about getting them bedside tables, but decided against that as it would make their already small rooms look more cluttered.

So it was off to the drawing board and this is what I came up with. I envisioned a curved shelf on which they could rest their gaming consoles for the night while being charged, and a shelf below in which could be kept their books that are currently being read.

I did not plan on spending anything on this with the exception of my time. Thankfully I had some ¾" MDF in the crawl space and some ¼" MDF from the barricades that we had made to keep Coach confined to the Kitchen when he was younger.

I cut the pieces on the circular saw, used the jigsaw to shape the tops and bottoms and then glued and nailed them together using a Pneumatic brad nailer. I finally had a chance to use the Ryobi OSS500 that I scored on Craigslist for only CAD 40.00. This unit is no longer in production and the closest alternatives are from Rockwell and Ridgid. The tool did an amazing job of profiling the sides to match the contour of the half ellipse that forms the top and bottom. - Shout-out here to my cousin JB who was kind enough to drive over to the Danforth area and collect and hold on to the tool for me.

I finally coated the cut edges of the MDF with joint compound and will let it dry till tomorrow when I will sand and paint. The joint compound stops the MDF from soaking in the paint and appearing rough.

Here they are, prior to filling in with the joint compound. The girls are quite eager to have these put up in their rooms and I will have to paint prior to their return from school tomorrow. I'll do another post when they're painted and on the walls.

These wound up looking like Horn Tweeters

Doing a Number on the House

I've wanted to change our house numbers ever since we purchased our place, but the offerings in the local hardware stores did not meet my approval and size requirements. I knew what I wanted and that was numbers that were over 10" high digits in a sans serif font. Ordering the fonts were an option, but with estimates of USD 260 ++ for the set, the house numbers did not seem that important.

Last month, I decided to do the 'D'Souza Thing' and cut my own numbers based on a font that I downloaded from 'dafont.com'. I cut them on the scroll saw from 3/4" Baltic Birch Ply. I then painted the numbers, electric outlet covers and mailbox in Rustoleum's "Heirloom White"

The numbers stand 1" proud of the wall. Clear silicone caulk and threaded inserts hold them in place.

I got what I wanted, at a fantastic price, and I think that it looks great!!!

Before and After

Close up showing the stand-offs

Washroom & Laundry Room Build - Part 8 - Plumb Crazy

I just finished getting the laundry plumbed in courtesy of my plumber of choice and Brampton historian Mike Billings. I had Mike over initially and detailed to him exactly what I wanted. To which he replied - there's an easy way and there's a difficult way, and what you want does not fall into either of those categories. But I got what I wanted anyways. Since I was closing off access to the main shut off valve in the house, I decided to relocate the valve to somewhere more accessible, and since the laundry pair would be in an alcove, I wanted the shutoff valves to the hot and cold to be just as easily accessible. I installed full bore valves so as to not compromise flow. So here's where I am with my laundry installation.

Mike wanted a picture as he's never done something like this in his entire career.

The laundry outlets. I chose screw on nipples as they provide me with options. Plus IMO it's the better way to go.

The alcove framed. Now that the plumbing is done, I will do some cross bracing and the electrical work before drywalling and painting.

So. There's a reason why I referred to Mike as Brampton's historian. He always regales me with tales of work that he's done in both old and new Brampton. But this one was probably the best I've heard. While driving him after work, I noticed that T&A's on Queen street was closed and the premises up for sale. Mike informed me that the owner had passed away last summer and a takeover plan had fallen through. Then he asked me what T&A's stood for. The obvious - I replied. But according to Mike that's not what's registered at the Brampton Board of Trade. So here's the logo. You tell me what you think it stands for and then scroll below for the official registered name.....

T&A's Logo

T&A stands for Teamwork and Attitude!!!! But you guessed that already didn't you ?????

Washroom & Laundry Room Build - Part 7 - Tin Knockers

11 months ago I did my last post on the build diary for the washroom and took a hiatus while I worked on outdoor projects in the summer. During that time I looked around for a Sheet Metal Worker (AKA Tin Knockers) to modify the HVAC ducting under the stairs to allow for more headroom. Most of the companies that I found in the yellow pages only worked on new projects and most did not want to go next to a retrofit. I had decided that I would undertake the job by myself even if it meant buying a few sheet metal tools. All I needed to get were the 90 degree elbows for the supply and return sections.

I located the supplier in Alberta and saw that Lowe's were their local distributor. A trip to Lowe's however confirmed the worst. Those pieces were only sold to the trade.... Then Andrew (from the plumbing department at Lowe's) put me in touch with Chris who was apprenticing as a Tin Knocker with a local builder and I finally got the work done...

Chris spent close to 3 hours yesterday and gave me exactly what I wanted.

Next step will be to frame in the alcove for the washer and dryer, complete the plumbing and finish the electrics.

Before: The ducts were almost 8 inches away from the bottom of the stairs 

After: A new 90 degree elbow and the existing 45's take the ducting close to the stairs.

Curb Appeal - Part 3

After an agonizing period of trial and error in getting the levels of the framework, we finally drove over to Rona and got the deck boards. Rona had a 10% off deal on PT lumber till the 28th and we got this done in time. We've only thrown the planks on to determine what needs to be cut and to give the planks some time to dry a bit prior to screwing them in place.

Dad and Mum have gone over to A. Joy's for the remainder of the week as the forecast calls for rain. So I will be taking a break as well.

The boards all laid in place. The funky blue is a mis-tint that I got from the restore for CAD 15 and Dad coated the entire framework including the supports so as to offer additional weatherproofing.

Lynda and I took some chairs out and sat out all evening to get a feel of what an evening out on our front 'porch' would feel like. It feels good!!!!

Curb Appeal - Part 2

I finally got work started on the Front Porch. Dad and I pounded in the two support spikes for the pillars that will hold up the trellis over the main door. We then got started on the base. I was forced to use 2x4s as opposed to the preferred 2x6s due to the existing concrete pad. This 'retrofitting' has opened up a brand new set of problems that I have to work around.

We started by making two separate frames, each 6' x 12'. That makes my porch a whopping 6' x 24'. While the frame just near the main door is supported by the existing concrete pad, the area under the Bay window is free hanging. We had rented a lawn roller and a manual tamper that we used to level the ground and then started using the slate flagstone and concrete blocks that I culled from the sit out the the PO had made at the end of the garden.

And that is the extent of the work that I've done to date. Pictures below.

Post pounded into the ground to accept 4x4 posts

The Frame in place. Big!

Blocks ready to be placed under the frame

Not to do with the porch, but this is where the bricks and flagstones came from. We filled it with the old sod, rolled it flat, put 8 bags of topsoil, sprinkled lawn seed, kept it moist for 7 days and Voila!!! Grass!!!

Curb Appeal - Part 1

So - Lynda and I were finally fed up of the way the Blue Spruce has managed to kill off all the grass from beneath it. This is on account of the falling needles turning the soil acidic. My initial solution for this space was to widen the circle and then cover the area with mulch.

However last Sunday while browsing through some old scans of our once favourite Domino, we happened upon a layout that was truly us. This involved removing the grass directly in front of the door, extending the porch till the end of the house, dropping in pressure treated planters flush with the soil, and covering the areas with various mulches.

We really got a lot of work done on Sunday and Monday and after that it was rain, rain, rain and more rain. Hopefully we get started back on this by the weekend. Here's a basic rendering of what we envision it to look like on completion.

Gate Painted

Last Saturday with the temperature hovering around the 18 mark and with a nice cloud cover to block out the sun, we decided to tackle the painting of the side gate and the fence.

Dad had wanted to do this last September prior to his departure, but the nature of Pressure Treated Wood requires the wood to weather an entire season prior to staining.

We chose a color called "Pinto White" from Behr.

The Fence and Gate required two coats of the Stain to ensure consistency in the color as painted on the new wood and the existing brown sections from the old gate.

Methinks it came out quite well as evidenced by the people stopping to look at the gate as well as people from Lynda's office having noticed it.

Many thanks to Avinash who came over to assist and flipped some burgers for our lunch.

Painting. Yes - I did need the shades!!!

The gate painted!!!!

Washroom & Laundry Room Build - Part 6

As of this afternoon, I've completed 90% of the framing.

I have to yet frame the one washroom wall, but decided to do all the framing of the outside walls and get the place in some sort of order prior to Layla's First Holy Communion.

I spent a whole lot of time deliberating what sort of door I should have, to lead to the Laundry Room and finally decided that I would go with a Bi-Fold closet door. This enabled me to avoid a lot of problems that I would have encountered with a conventional door.

I re framed the wall that will finally hold the LCD TV and also extended it to the HVAC bulkhead in Lynda's studio area. The old bulkhead just twisted off in my hands without the need. The new bulkhead (like the rest of my framing) well..... you'll see in the pictures that follow.

Looking in from the TV area - The Washer & Dryer will be replaced by the Hot Water Tank and the Laundry Sink

From the outside looking at the alcove for the TV and Media Components

In Lynda's Studio. Eventually the entire wall will be replaced by bookcases

The chase that I made for the Structured Wiring components.

Later on I will have Audio, Video, Data & Telecom

Just to prove a point that I can indeed do Pull Ups.

Also that my Framing is Frikkin Bulletproof!!!!!!!

Washroom & Laundry Room Build - Part 5

Here are pictures with the concrete poured and done 

The clean outs and drain came level with the floor after all

Water drains into the drain when poured anywhere on the floor

The pipe for the Toilet Flange. The collar around the pipe is 

merely a spacer (my very own conceptualisation) that Mike 

said that I needed in order for the Toilet Flange to be glued 

flush with the floor.

Washroom & Laundry Room Build - Part 4

Last week Mike came over and completed the balance of the rough-in plumbing. We managed to get everything according to plan and I now have the task of filling in and cementing the entire thing over. I also put in the clean outs and the drain and tried to get them level with the floor. That was an absolute pain, but it turned out OK.

The typo 'colset' is unfortunate and difficult to correct!! 

This is the end for the Shower Pan

Washroom & Laundry Room Build - Part 3

I seem to have slacked on getting the framing done in time. Anyways - I've completed framing the walls against which the shower cubicle, WC and Sink will go. Horizontal bracing still has to be done, but I will do that tomorrow. The framing was an absolute bitch on account of the sloping basement floor as well as the concrete wall which was quite out of plumb.

I got everything plumb on all axes, and finally used 'Tapcon' concrete screws to affix the base plate to the concrete floor. I was tempted (for all the wrong reasons) to use the 'Ramset' Trigger Operated Powder Actuated Tool. It uses a low velocity cartridge, .22 caliber, to fire the nail through the wood into the concrete floor. Oh Joy!! But I would have to rent the tool, buy the cartridges, buy the nails... The Tapcon's were a better bet.

I've only done the two walls as they will be used as reference for the placement of the toilet flange and shower pan drain.

Now we wait for Mike to come complete the balance of the rough in plumbing.

Washroom & Laundry Room Build - Part 2

Yesterday, we completed all the piping. It was more complicated that previously envisioned. The system had a silt trap that led off from the Weeping Tile from the perimeter of the house which led into another trap that led up to the floor drain. This trap was then connected to the sanitary side of the drain. The system was not done so well in the first place, but I was convinced by Mike that the Weeping Tile side needed to be loosely fit in order for the water table to seep into the system and eventually drain, thereby eliminating the possibility of a flood.

This morning I had to get a Fernco coupling from Home Depot to connect the 4" Clay Tile to the 4" ABS pipe that will come up to floor level. Having installed the ABS pipe, I then proceeded to fill in the hole and tamp it down. I will give it a couple of days to settle down, adding more sand as necessary.

The warren of pipes

Another angle

Filled in

Washroom & Laundry Room Build - Part 1

On the 13th I finally started work on the Washroom. Mike from Cardinal plumbing came over and we reviewed the plans. 

First we removed the Concrete sink that weighed over 300 pounds and installed a standpipe directly into the watertrap of the old sink. We then moved the faucets of the washer beyond the proposed wall line of the new washroom. 

Mike had kindly donated his sledehammer and pickaxe to do the breaking of the concrete and the digging.

On the 17th, I broke the sink apart and moved it outside for future disposal at the Brampton Civic Dump. I then broke the floor with the sledgehammer to get the trench started. We have a cleanout close to the basement drain into which we plan to run the drains from the toilet as well as the shower.

This morning while digging, I hit water. This was not suposed to happen as the cleanout should lead directly into the main drain and out to the street. Anyways, Mike will be here tomorrow to have a look and advise what is to be done next.

More to follow.

300 lb sink proved no match for 50 lb Hammer

Looking into where the washroom will be. The shower tray is standing in the corner. 

Same corner - different view

The entranceway will be replaced by a 32" door. The Laundry pair will fit under the ducts. 

Digging in the dirt!!!

Some Errrr.. Plans

So we're months away from Summer. You would not believe that with the temperature hovering around -15 this morning. anyways, it's never too early to plan for Summer projects.

This summer is all about curb appeal. We plan on getting circular pavers under the Blue Spruce that adorns our front lawn, and then stain the 40 year old brick to match the paving stones. A dark grey. The slab outside the front door is not perfectly centered and I will extend the slab another 8 inches to the left. After the slab has cured, I will use rectangular slate tiles in a brick pattern. Then I will build a pergola above the front door to match the style of the pergola above the gate leading to the back yard. Finally I will make 12" high street numbers which will be painted white to match the pergola.

This is what I envision that t will look like. The brick color is not an accurate representation, but everything else is to scale. Drawing was done in Google Sketchup with a 1 day learning curve.