The Local Drunks are Nice

The day before today, I went out to begin smoothing the 32 thousand pounds of gravel in my backyard that I had mentioned in my post yesterday. My new neighbors, renting the old Post Office next door that has since been turned into an ugly house (a solid red brick rectangle thing with a flat roof) noticed me and said that he was going to help. I simply smiled and said okay. He said that he would help a few days earlier, when they were having a party in their backyard. But at that point, they were so drunk; I have a hard time believing he could remember the encounter. Anyway, he then said that he would do the rest of the gravel in two hours for $20. I thought about it for a moment, and then agreed to his terms. When I got back a few hours later, it wasn’t finished, but they had gotten more done than I honestly expected, and so I gave them the $20. They said they would finish the job today, but either way, I think they earned their money. This was a big help to me, because I was not looking forward to moving it all by myself.

Back to the inside of my house… After we got the beam up, and most of the electrical settled, we moved on to the trim around the windows and door, and the crown molding around the ceiling. I wanted noticeable trim, and I painted it all a dark gray, the same color my accent wall is currently. I also got some of the thickest trim possible so that it would definitely stand out.

The crown molding was my own brain child. I wasn’t sure how well it was going to turn out because I had never seen anyone do anything like it before, but I am very pleased with the results. I ended up putting regular 2X6’s all the way across the ceiling, and then one all the way across the wall. Then I put a half inch round above, below and in the middle of the 2X6’s. There will be a picture to illustrate. One of the challenges was that the west wall did not have any studs available in the ceiling to attach the 2X6 to, and so we had to go up in the loft and give it some support.

We also put in the flooring. I wanted a nice rich dark color. I debated greatly on whether or not to simply refinish the old hard wood floors already available. But after examining the cost and longevity compared to look, I chose a laminate I found for a killer deal in the Classifieds on KSL. I think that the flooring looks great. The initial challenge with the flooring was with the fact that the starting wall was not perfectly even and straight, and so we could not find a flat edge to start the snap in laminate on. We ended up removing the trim along the starting wall, stapling the laminate down so that we could have an even start, then it was relatively easy from their to continue to snap the rest of it in.


That is just the physical aspect of the labor. The trick to this labor was also helping Ernest focus with four kids running around. I often found myself babysitting while he worked on the technical side of things. Once the kids got out of hand, Ernest would quickly lose focus, and everything would slow way down. One other thing to consider when doing a project like this is your helps schedule.

More Later…

What Delays to Expect When Remodeling

Walls being torn out, beams being put up, electrical being moved, stairs being put in, 32,000 pounds of gravel being dumped in my backyard, and even a stolen 7 foot tree from my front yard. I've been remodeling the duplex I bought in Roy for about seven months now... seven months without a kitchen. I'm a professional fast food eater. Here is the process you have to look forward to when you do this type of project for yourself. I started by removing a baring wall upstairs, opening up the kitchen to the living room with the help of my friend and handyman, Ernest. The kitchen was an awkward little space with practically no room to seat anyone. I also removed an awkward pantry in the middle of everything. We decided when we were removing the pantry, it must have been the original entrance to the basement home built in the 40's, partially because we were pulling up shingles as we went. I put a 20 foot long 6X14 inch rough-cut beam up across the ceiling to support it. The first attempt consisted of a beam that was 20 foot long 6X6 inch rough-cut. But when we took the rest of the supporting wall out, we heard a snap, and quickly realized that the center of the beam was bowing by about 1 inch in the middle. Needless to say, I had nightmares about my roof collapsing that night, until we were able to fix the problem. I also didn't let anyone up in my loft above the beam for obvious reasons. Ernest was kind enough to quickly help me rectify the situation, even though he probably shouldn't have been lifting anything due to a recent surgery he had had. But luckily he did not injure himself. He is a good man. After rebuilding a fake supporting wall, and with much effort lifting and maneuvering and pounding that huge thing in place, we got the new beam in position. The beam also required us to go into the basement, tear out drywall, and support the vertical beams (that are supporting the large horizontal beam) all the way down to the concrete in order to keep things from falling through the floor. One other element of labor consisted of all the electrical that had to be removed and worked around as we put the beam in. We played a fun game of guessing which way the electric wires were running, and what they were powering. We cut into everything from lights, to electrical sockets, to even the power for the furnace. Lots of fun, and lots of work. The beam is only the beginning. I’ll tell you more tomorrow.