Basement Remodel Project: Hanging Drywall

Have you ever noticed how a room can grow and shrink with each successive phase of a project? In this case, I believe mounting the drywall sheets to the walls of our basement made the rooms grow a bit.  Here are several photos at different stages of completion.

This image shows the south end of the family room early in the hanging process.

A closer view of the pantry closet and stair landing a little later, but not quite at the end.

The view to the north from the stairs shows the closets on the north end of the family room more clearly.  The pieces of drywall that don't match the majority are simply scraps left over from prior projects.

In this view of the family room closets, almost all the pieces were hung and waiting for the mudding to begin.

This is the view from the bedroom looking south into the family room.

Another view of the stairwell clearly showing drywall pieces in three different colors.

Corn in the backyard, 2014 -- weeks 13, 14, 15, and 16

 August 3

The biggest changes in the crop at this point in the summer are taking place behind the husk leaves of each ear as the kernels mature.

 August 10

The height of the stalk reached its maximum about four weeks before this photo, so our attention has been drawn to formation of the ears.

 August 17

I also watch for stalk and leaf drying since the plant typically dries as the kernels are drying.

 August 24

By the 16th week, some stalk drying was visible, but less than I expected.  Referencing photos from previous years convinced me that the drying rate at 16 weeks wasn't much different than most years.

 August 3

Zooming in on where the action is, the ears appeared close to full size on August 3, but weren't showing signs of drying yet.  Growing degree days were 11% fewer than normal for the week.

 August 10

Not much change in the appearance of the ears this week, and the number of growing degree days for the week was only one unit off the historical average.

 August 17

The week of August 17 showed more signs of stalk and ear drying even though growing degree days were 7% fewer than normal.

August 24

By week 16, some of the husk leaves were pulling away to reveal beautiful kernels beneath, but those that were visible were obviously not fully mature.  Unseasonably warm weather during that week produced 28% more heating degree days than average, and the plants appeared to accelerate their drying.  As long as there are plants in the field, we'll keep reporting more progress toward harvest!

Basement Remodel Project: Framing Overview

You may have noticed in a previous photo that our basement has concrete blocks both on the outside walls and for the bearing wall separating the east and west sections.  The basement remodel project in our previous home convinced us that lining the exterior walls with 2x4 studs and insulating those walls made for a very comfortable space all year round.  This post details some of the framing and insulating necessary to define our new rooms.

This wide door opening leads to the guest bedroom at the north end of the space.  A five-foot wide french door will occupy that opening so the doors can be opened to allow natural light into the south family room from the largest window in the basement.  The two spaces on either side of the door opening are closets that open into the family room.  At the time of this photo, the framing and insulating were complete, and drywall panels were just moved to the basement and were ready to be hung.

The door at the far left is the one that was featured in a previous post and one can see the wood burner and the stone wall that defines that appliance's spot in the room just this side of the drywall collection.  I hope to include more details on the wood burner's new surroundings in a future post. The thickness of the block bearing wall is also apparent in the door opening.

The southeast corner of the family room is home to the electrical panel and a waste water pipe that runs down the exterior wall before going through it to the septic tank in the yard. I debated how to hide these two items while leaving them both accessible, so we opted to build this closet in the corner of the room to gain some storage just at the base of the stairs while providing the desired access.

In this photo one can also see the different strategy applied to the exterior walls of the stairwell. I wanted to minimize the space lost to insulation, so these walls received 1.5"x1.5" furring strips with 1.5" foam insulation in between.

This is how the southeast corner looked before demolition was complete, including framing around the sewage pipe that did not leave access to the clean out port. That and more was removed as part of the demolition.

This is the northeast corner of the space looking from the bedroom into the closet that's home to the sewage ejector pump for the bathroom just to the right of that pump.  This door opening was cut in during that bathroom addition project, and doesn't disrupt the bedroom space too badly.

Finally, a shot that's a bit blurry but gives one a good view of the family room from the stairwell. A lot had already happened by this point: framing, wiring, moving and adding lights, reconfiguring heat runs and returns, building a new masonry wall behind the wood burner, etc., but more was yet to be done.

Corn in the backyard, 2014 -- weeks 10, 11, and 12

July 13

July 20

July 27

July 13

July 20

July 27

Although the corn stalks didn't add any height in weeks 10, 11, or 12, the growth of the ears was impressive over that period.  In the first week, temperatures averaged about one degree F warmer than normal, while the second and third weeks were much cooler than the historical average.  July 13 through 19 averaged six degrees F per day cooler than normal, while the week of the 20th through the 26th averaged over two degrees F cooler.  We didn't get much rain over the period, and even the humidity was on the low side, so the corn had to be pulling moisture out of the ground for its purposes.  Even though the weather was not Central Illinois' traditional hot and humid variety for this time of year, the corn didn't appear to be suffering greatly.

Basement Remodel Project: West door replacement

One small part of the basement remodel project was replacing the door that separates the east half of the basement from the west half.  The door style, while architecturally interesting, didn't match the style of the rest of the doors in our house, and the size of the door was non-standard.  Here's the culprit.

We had a similar door leading to the space we claimed for a bathroom on the other side of this basement space.  Although we replaced that door a few years ago, we didn't change the height.  In fact, I didn't consider changing the height until well after it was practical to do so.  So we have a door on the bathroom that kinda matches our other doors, but is shorter than normal.  On this opening, I decided to do a little extra work to end up with a standard 80" tall door.

The biggest challenge was removing the header over the old doorway that supported the floor joists above it.  As you can see, the wall is constructed from concrete blocks, and the header is solid concrete about 52 inches wide and about 8 inches tall and deep, which would mean the header weighs about 280 pounds.  Although I planned this process as best I could, I wasn't sure how much effort would be required to loosen the header from the wall, and move it off the wall so it could be lowered to the floor.

I used a rotary hammer to loosen the mortar around the header, and then beat it with my 10 pound sledge hammer to move it off the wall.  I was appropriately concerned about safety through this procedure, and supported the header with two nylon cargo straps attached to hooks temporarily mounted in the floor joists.

Another consideration was how the floor joists would be supported after the header was removed.  Since the plate on top of the header would remain after the concrete was removed, I figured a floor jack would be sufficient to support the three joists over this section of the wall.  In this photo the header was moved far enough to fit the floor jack behind it so they were both supporting the wall, and the header had a few more inches to travel horizontally before it was free to be lowered.

Once the header was free to be lowered to the floor, I couldn't take my hands off the straps until the concrete reached the floor.  The concrete was removed without injury, and I was able to build a wooden header that both supported the floor joists, and allowed room for the full-height door.

Obviously this photo was taken much later, but it shows the new door painted and hung in the larger opening, and ready for trim.