haha, i wish I were a homeowner. I just spend the ridiculous extra amount on a garage. it's not easy living on capitol hill and having one... but I do like to keep it organized.


...
yeah hey scott, I'll try to get some awesome drift / racing / car vids if you let us all mess up your house.

 

I have been remodeling an old home for the better part of a year and a half. just moved in this past weekend. I'm slow, but i'm thorough.

We're talking ground up restoration. This house was built in the 60's and had never been remodeled. We tore out all the paneling and put in sheetrock. We reran all the wiring from the fusebox (replaced with breaker box). Installed laminate hardwood floors in most of the living areas and porcelain tile in the kitchen and bathroom. Speaking of the bathroom, we knocked down a wall into an adjoining closet and doubled the size of the bathroom. We installed all new doors and new windows.

This past weekend, the Directv was installed and the internet was hooked up (DSL). I had a 42" plasma in my house before I had a working shower.

 

Scott's living room is missing a kegerator. That might complete the decor for the ultimate bench racing room - eh?

So nobody is living in their cars?

 

Any sheetrock tips? I've done stuff in my garage and basement that I didn't need to finish really well when I put recessed lights in. Now my wife wants me to put 4 lights in the living room just like you did, along with running friggin wiring through the studs, so I'll have a lot of patching. And it will have to look good. I'll be using old construction cans vs the between the studs cans, but still need to rip up the sheetrock to drill through studs.

Do you use fiberglass mesh tape or flat tape and then sand?

Thanks,
Frank

 

Heh you should have asked
I have the tools (drills, bits, fiber cam, glow rods, etc) to pull wires through without having to trench up the ceiling.

 

This was the first room I used these cans on - the others were reno, put in after the sheet rock went up. I've always "trenched" the ceiling because it's so quick- cut it, rip it down and drill the holes. Slap up the sheet rock and the holes are gone.

 

new place means a party call up the strippers and midgets with nacho hats on!

grats on ze hizzy fo shizzy

 

Hey, get to my flywheel damnit

Looks like some awesome progress man, we've done that kinda of work at home and it takes up a TON of time.

 

http://www.hammerzone.com/archives/i...air/large.html

 

frank- use the mesh tape for sure. Way stronger and easier to work in with the mud. It's like painting- better to do a few thinner layers rather than a thick one. And it's said that a good "mudder" doesn't need to sand. That means a 12" blade to taper out the mud from the center peak over the seam. I usually resort to sanding though, on the count that the more I mess with it the worse it gets. And get a philips driver bit that's made for sheet rock- it'll let you drive the screw in with a perfect countersink w/o popping through the board.

Maybe Ben can let you in on his trick for drilling through the studs without having to rip out the sheetrock?

 

Usually can be accomplished with a drill, flexbit, gloves, and some glow rods. Acess into the wall is granted at the hole that you cut for the old construction can/workbox/speaker/etc. Insert the flex bit, go slow as the bit penetrates each stud incase there's something on its back side. You'll have to bend and guide the flexbit with the hand that's not on the drill (that's why you wear gloves). Go through each stud until you've reached the next access hole location. If your flex bit isn't long enough, work until it's out of length, then go the next location and drill towards the first location to "meet in the middle" like how they bore for tunnels.

To get the wires through your penetrations, tape them tightly to the tip of the glow rod, and insert the glow rod and wire through your first access hole and then through the holes in the studs. Sometimes you'll need to thread a couple of glow rods together to make a longer rod. Have a helper reach their arm into the second access hole. Eventually, the helper will be able to grab the leading end of the rod and pull it out of the second access hole. This is pretty similar to taping a wire to the end of a coat hanger and shoving it through a firewall grommet and having your wife pull it through as you push it.

Much easier than those large sheetrock patches (yuck!). In rooms with recessed lighting (can lights) I can typically retro a wire across without having to cut any holes across the span of the ceiling. Of course, you have to cut at the top plates to get the wires to "turn the corner" into the wall though.

 

Here was my non turbo project this fall. My garage. I only have an after pic for now. You can see in one picture that the window trip is taped and the trim is ready for paint.


I was finished in time to take on another non turbo project

 

The flex bit doesn't like my "real" 2-bys, nor the fact that the floor joists are scab'd and dubl scab's from the second floor addition. Works fine on normal pine studs though.

 

Got the workbench 99% done.

 

Nice. Potential upgrade: IKEA has some very cool nylon wheeled casters

 

casters are a possibility. the real problem? all that junk on the left where the bench should be. mmm DIY turbo tub (begi IC on top)

anyone need a microwave or two semi-decent CRT monitors? one 15 and one 17...

 

we just took 10 17" monitors to the recycler today.

 

closet's done:

 

tv gets mounted today and then removed to patch and repaint the entire place

(i would have done it yesterday, but i forgot my 1/2" concrete bit)

 

that fireplace is bad ***. I'm diggin the brick and trim they used.