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This was my Christmas Vacation, 2005
Using three inch deck screws, I hung 2x3s on the edge to the joists above. This gives me space for existing electrical, plumbing, phone, network and gas lines, as well as partially decoupling the ceiling from the floor above. It won’t be perfectly silent, but it’ll be very quiet.
The lighting and other electrical are in and ready for drywall. When I calculated the load for the lighting I wanted to put in the room, I saw I’d be pushing 80% of the capacity of the existing basement circuit, so I ran a new 15 amp circuit just for the lights in this room. The pre-existing basement lights/smoke detector circuit was now down to two 75 watt light fixtures and smoke detectors, so I repurposed the previous light fixture into an outlet for a ceiling-mounted projector.
Drywall ceiling— whatta pain— whatta mess. I’m using regular drywall for the ceiling and mold-resistant fiberglass-backed drywall for the walls. On the back wall, you can see the rigid frames I build to hold the in-wall speakers.
When I ordered the drywall, they asked if I wanted it delivered inside the house. I had expected them to drop it off in the garage, leaving Mary and me to have to haul it down to the basement. So I asked if they could bring it down to the basement; they said they could for $2 per sheet. I gladly paid.
The ceiling is mostly done. We rented a drywall jack to lift the drywall into place. Twenty five years ago, when we built my mother’s house, we had done the ceiling by manually lifting sheets into place. I did not want to repeat that experience.
We rented a sprayer to texture. At first, my mixture was too thick and started to clog the machine. Once thinned properly, the stuff went up quickly, but was an unbelievable mess. The guy at the tool rental place highly suggested that I buy a plastic suit to wear while spraying. Fortunately, I learned years ago to listen to that sort of advice. The suit, my goggles and my facemask were all covered with small dots of drywall compound.
This is Summer, 2006
The walls have been taped, mudded, textured, primed and painted. Why no pictures of the mudding process? First, it was such a mess that I was afraid that the dust would get into one of the cameras; second, we were in no mood to take pictures as neither of us enjoyed mudding, sanding or texturing.
The phone booth was made out of a pre-hung French door and a French door slab. I secured the door slab using pieces of 2x4 that I milled into wooden u-channel. I glued the u-channel to the door slab and screwed the u-channel to the framing.
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267 Lemon Infusion Vodka
Skyy Vodka
Hennessey Cognac
Patron Citron