Moving Into an Unfinished House (Remembering)

Moving into an unfinished house is in my blood. On Christmas eve, 1963 (I was 6), we moved into our new house “in the trees” in California. Here I am just before that move when we still lived in “the white house” (an old white farm house my step father grew up in).

The house was in the middle of a grove of very old eucalyptus trees. it was a house by definition, but lacked a few of the assumed amenities, such as interior walls, finished floors, indoor plumbing, or any painted surfaces at all. It was a shell—“dried in”.

Of course, this was all very exciting for a six year old. I remember we had electricity because I have a distinct memory of the smell of burnt spaghetti. I loved my mom’s spaghetti, especially when she burned it. Somehow it made the ketchup I poured on it taste slightly exotic.

It was a great day when we no longer had to relieve ourselves behind a tree, of which there was no shortage. But for years, it seems (and I actually think it was many years), we still used a blanket to cover the bathroom door. “Anyone in there?”, we’d yell as we we’d approach the blanket. Someone got the bright idea of installing a red light/green light sign on the blanket to help inform the huddled masses. Still, there were the inevitable accidents when someone would barge into an already-occupied facility, causing irreparable harm to our young psyches.

But these were good times for a boy with a good imagination. It was in this house on another Christmas eve while we still had the advantage of see-through walls that I saw the silhouette of a large bearded man walking through our family room towards the Christmas tree. I took no end of teasing from my brothers about that one. Nothing they could say could dull the memory of that singular experience. This is at least partly the reason my mom had to finally break “the news” to me when I was, like, 10. It was over a bowl of cheerios, for goodness sake. Oh, the cruel reality and shame. Who was that strange man and what was he doing in our house?

I lived on our island in the trees for the next 13 years, collecting kindling and starting fires in the stove in the winter, playing football, basketball, and baseball (with my two brothers) in their respective seasons, swimming in the creek in the summer, and growing up all along.

I left the trees in March 1976 to serve a two year mission. My folks sold the place while I was gone and moved to another state (I eventually found them:-). I went on to marry a girl from Washington, raise four children who have turned into great people, and move into completely finished homes in Utah, Minnesota, Chicago, back to northern California, Colorado, and now here.

I miss the house in the trees, but I’ve always been determined to live in a finished house…until now. We were so anxious to get out of the trailer that we accepted the unavoidable consequence of a less-than-finished structure. But I did hold the line on interior walls. So, before leaving the trailer, we finished installing, taping, texturing, and painting the drywall. We installed 3/8 plywood over the subfloor and painted it with a strong enamel paint to make it easier to clean. For light fixtures, we installed the cheap plastic one-bulb affairs you see in closets.

But, we have a washer and dryer, something we didn’t have for over a year. So, Connie no longer has to go to the laundry mat. (I’m sure the manager there still misses her.) We have a full-sized fridge AND a separate freezer. We have an adult-sized shower!!! and a real closet!!! For the kitchen, we bought a cheap sink base cabinet and counter top section and installed a stainless steel sink in it. Not much counter space for a home, but “it’s sure better than the trailer.” For a pantry, we retrieved a few of our many book cases in storage and used them for now. The kitchen will be finished later when I have a shop to build cabinets.



I now have a better appreciation for why my dad took so long to finish our house. I remember hearing once that he spent about two or three thousand dollars for all the lumber and materials to dry the structure in. (Less than a tenth of what it costs today.) He obviously refused to or couldn’t take out a loan to build the house. Even though I know he went into debt for a tractor, at least he never had to worry about a house mortgage.

Such has been our approach building our homestead. We owe on the land, which we have scheduled to pay off, but not on the house. And we’re content to take as long as we need and pay as we go (now that we’re out of the trailer) for the blessing of never having a house mortgage. For the bathroom, we still don’t have a door, but the psychological damage has already been done and we’re fine with that.

At least it’s better than the trailer!

(September 2011): Moved In and Good-bye to the Trailer. YAY!!!

(September 2011): As must be obvious, I’ve fallen grossly behind in the blog. I guess this is an indication that I’m just tired of building a house. We’ve moved in and so much energy was aimed at that goal, that now that it’s accomplished, I’m not as motivated to do much more, even though the house is not finished. But, as we like to say these days, “It’s sure better than the trailer.”

 

 Moving Day

We had agreed to sell the trailer and make it available to be moved on Friday, the 9th of September. So, we moved our stuff from the trailer into the house on Thursday, the 8th. Big day. We spent our first night in the house on Thursday night, September 8th. Then on Friday, that great day arrived when the trailer was hooked up and pulled down our driveway, never to return!!!

Final Week Before Move-In

We’re coming down to the final few days before the trailer is sold and we move in to the house—ready or not.

Hanging the drywall was a big job. But taping the first coat was harder. My son-in-law came out and helped me, which made a big difference. But even then, it still took us several days (I’m an amateur), as you can see form the schedule below. I’ve been using Excel to plot out what needs to be done and when it must be completed. This has helped me stay focused, especially as we’re coming down to the end.

 

 

 

 

Taping Drywall

Taping is both art and craft. The book I mentioned (“Drywall. Professional Techniques for Walls & Ceilings” by Myron R. Ferguson), was extremely helpful in laying out a reasonable approach to taping. I did it in three coats:

1. First coat: Using joint compound, cover all screw holes (it’s easier to hide if you combine screw holes into one line rather than covering individual holes). Used mesh tape to cover all finished (long) joints and laid a thin layer of mud over the top, feathering the edges (both walls and ceilings). Laid down a thin bed of mud on short (butt) joints and then embedded paper tape. Paper tape is stronger than mesh tape. Then do the corners by laying down a coat of mud on each of the walls in the corner and then embedding folded paper tape. Feather the edges but there’s no need to cover the paper tape at this point. I used a 5” knife (rounded the sharp corners of all knives). The first coat should be about one knife wide on all joints.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I don’t have any pictures of the rest of the process, but it goes like this:

2. Second coat: This uses the most joint compound, but it went quicker than the first coat. Lay down the filler coat, about two knives wide on a) screw holes (be sure and scrape off most of the mud and feather the edges), long finished edges, short but joints, and corners. I used a corner trowel for corners, which worked best for me, but you still have to feather the edges with a 5” or 9” knife. (I called in a friend who used to be a professional drywaller to help with the second coat because I was overwhelmed. I’m glad I did. His work was much better than mine).

One thing I did wrong was take a bit too much off the long edges when I ran the knife along the wet mud. I failed to anticipate that the mud shrinks when it dries. So, now that I’m finished painting (see below), I can still faintly see some of the long joints. Should have filled in a bit more and not scraped too much off, or done more on the third coat).

3. Light sanding: If done right (if you don’t use too much mud), you really don’t need to sand much. Had another friend show up and offered to help when I was beginning the sanding job. So, I handed him the sanding pole. He did a fine job. Took just a couple hours to sand.

4. Third coat: Used topping (light mud) for this coat. By this time, I was anxious to move on, so rather than do everything a third time, I went around and filled in where needed.

5. Final sanding: When the third coat dried completely (it doesn’t take as long to dry as joint compound), I lightly sanded where needed. Done.

I estimated about 3150 square feet of drywall (including both ceiling and walls). Used about 11 boxes of pre-mixed joint compound and 13 of topping mix. Make sure and wear a mask when sanding. A friend of ours said she got “dust pneumonia” from sanding drywall years ago without a mask.

Texturing the Drywall

After taping everything off (windows, doors, shower, etc.), we began the texturing process.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have a texturing gun by Marshaltown that runs off a compressor and has a large hopper on the top where you load in the mud. I used topping mud (the light weight stuff) and thinned it down to pancake batter (or chocolate cake mix batter, if that’s your preference) consistency, using a 5-gallon bucket, a paint mixer paddle and my heavy duty Milwaukee drill. I poured in the mud into the hopper and sprayed the ceilings and walls, setting the compressor pressure to about 30-40 psi. It makes a mess.

Texturing patterns are a personal thing, but there are two main patterns: orange peel or knock down. Also, whether the ceiling is textured the same as the walls, using a different pattern, or no texture at all, is a personal choice. I chose to do a knock down pattern both on ceilings and walls. It’s easier and quicker and at this point, that wins out every time.

To do a knock down pattern, you basically spray an orange peel pattern, wait a few minutes (not too long), then lightly run a long knife over the wall to knock it down. The results are shown below.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It did not turn out perfectly, as expected. A couple of places on the ceiling, above where I have my tools and supplies stacked on shelves, I sprayed too much texture. So, when I went to knock it down, there were a couple spots that was a solid mass of mud with no knock down pattern. I should have caught and fixed it then, but was too tired. It has become, along with many other artifacts, a monument to my imperfection.

By the time I was done at the end of the day, I was exhausted. The hopper filled with mud gets heavy after a few hours. Also, note in the above picture (to the right) that the laundry room was the first one I textured and I didn’t spray enough enough mud. Oh well. Connie assures me that I’ll be the only one who notices.

Painting: Prime Coat

While everything was covered in plastic, I got out the sprayer (Wagner 505 airless unit) and sprayed the primer coat. This is primer paint designed for fresh drywall and I highly recommend going through the time to do it. It was only about $50 for a five-gallon bucket, so well worth it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The primer coat spraying went very well and pretty quick. I did both ceiling and walls. Used about 1-1/2 five-gallon buckets of primer.

Painting: Finish Coat

Finally! Tried to use the sprayer for the ceiling paint (flat ceiling pant) and it just wasn’t working well. My gun had worn out. But was able to limp along and finish the ceilings. Bought a new gun for the finish coat on the walls and it worked quite well. We painted the kitchen walls, the bath walls and ceiling and laundry room walls and ceiling with satin finish. The rest of the walls were painted with eggshell finish, a couple shades darker.

    

 

 

 

 

 

 

Just went out and took some pictures after we tore down the plastic. On the suggestion of a friend, I used a small piece of vinyl siding with a straight edge cut along one side to shield the ceiling as I sprayed the walls. It worked pretty well, but I’ll need to touch up several places on the ceiling and walls, which we’ll do tomorrow.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We started painting the finish coat at about 6:00pm Saturday (yesterday) and finished in the dark. So, when we went out to look at it today, we could see some places I missed. It was a big day yesterday: We sprayed the ceiling, sanded the floors with a floor sander to clean up the drywall splatter and take down some high edges from the OSB sub floor swelling (should have used Avantech!), picked up 23 sheets of 3/8 plywood for underlayment where hardwood flooring will eventually be, 22 sheets of backer board for where the tile will be, then painted the finish coat. Whew!

Move-In Preparation

So now we finish what is needed to move in. The list below shows what’s planned for the next few days. The trailer is gone on Thursday and we will definitely move in to the house.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Visit by the Grandkids

As mentioned earlier in this blog, our daughter and son in law, their children, and my son came down to help out a bit, which I greatly appreciated. I wanted to share a couple of precious memories from that visit.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Brayten and Elle playing peek-a-boo in the trailer. Her laugh makes me smile.

James “reading” Brayten a book.

Buster and Brayten

Plumbing, Insulation, and Drywall

This will be a catch-up entry. Here we are towards the end of August not yet finished with the house. We’ve committed to sell the trailer the first week of September and so we’re going to move in, ready or not.

(7/21/11: Plumbing supply) Finished plumbing the house. It wasn’t a very big job, but the first challenge was whether to use a manifold or not. I intended to buy a commercial manifold and plumb home runs to each destination. But, after figuring the cost and the space needed, I decided it wasn’t really necessary. I did, however, build a manifold for the main water lines coming in and going out of the house (below). This allowed me to have control of the incoming water, and each of the lines going out, including hydrants to several areas in the yard and out to the water heater.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I used 1” pex for all main lines and then went down to 3/4” to the water heater and finally to 1/2” to all in-house lines. You can see the stub for the kitchen, above. I forgot to take pictures after putting in the drains. Oops.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Under the house doesn’t look very pretty, but it works. I installed branched lines to the laundry room, bathroom, and kitchen. Pretty simple. The shower was next. I tested all the lines and they held water, except the shower leaked a bit. But, after turning it on and flushing the line, it stopped leaking. We can’t wait to start using a normal-sized shower.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(7/30/11: Plumbing drains) We’ve committed to grey water drains and no septic tank. So, I didn’t plumb to a central drain but to three different 1-1/2” lines running out of the house: Shower/bath sink, laundry/utility sink, and kitchen. These will drain into mulch basins (yet to be dug). Right now, I just stubbed them off outside the building line.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In grey water drain systems, it’s best to use narrower pipe rather than 3 or 4”, as is standard. This is so any solids will flow more easily and not get stuck in the pipe. It’s also important that all water flows to dirt basins that are covered with mulch and not into daylight. I highly recommend the book “Create an Oasis with Grey Water” by Art Ludwig. We’re doing the simple approach and separating our drains to different destinations, rather than the normal approach of branched drains, required if you have all drains plumbed out through a single pipe, as is normal for septic tanks.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Above are the two drains leaving the back of the house (from the bathroom and the laundry room). Below is the kitchen drain going out the east side of the house. They key is preserve fall. That’s why I’m coming out above ground from the kitchen. The target area for the mulch basin is a new apple tree which is just a bit up hill from the drain, so I’ll fill in here to cover the drain and change grade to allow enough fall into the mulch basin.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Also note there is no vent. I’m using AAV’s (automatic air vents) at each P-trap. This eliminates having to run vent pipe up through the roof. At this point, I have no protrusions in the roof because we installed a ridge vent at the top.

(8/15/11: Insulation). I’m disappointed that I didn’t take any pictures of the insulation process. I was going to blow in cellulose, but at the last minute I didn’t think I could pull it off, getting the right density. We’d already installed the web material on the studs in the kitchen. I also miscalculated the cellulose materials it would have taken. So instead of requiring 40 bags at $10 a bag, it would have taken 122 bags. A really big error! At that point, the spray foam option seemed much more appealing and so that’s what we did. At $1.40 a square foot, it wasn’t the cheapest option, but it certainly have me a tight air seal and decent R value (about 3.5 per inch with about 6” of foam, or about R21. Not bad for around here.

The next decision was whether to foam the underside of the roof decking and gables or blow in over the ceiling. Of course, the foam company was trying to sell me on the foam option, but what stopped me was that they spray over the vents, completely covering the ridge vent. Their argument is that you DON”T need ventilation in the attic with spray foam. I couldn’t buy it and there’s just not enough experience with this approach in our area. So, I opted not to do that. Haven’t insulated the attic yet, but will soon and when we do, we’ll blow in cellulose.

Previously, we had sealed up the exterior doors with fiberglass insulation stuffed into the cracks between the door jamb and framing from the outside and then put up 3/4” rough sawn (green) oak, stained, around the doors. Then, we sprayed in some “Great Stuff” window/door foam into the cracks from the interior.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

SOFFITS: While we were waiting for the insulation to be installed, we started framing the soffits. Here are the “pork chops” on the south and north sides off the house. Still need to finish framing the north end and installing the 3/8” plywood. We’re doing it the old-fashioned way, rather than using aluminum soffit panels. Not only is using plywood with 8x16” vents cut into it cheaper, but it is the only system that provides enough air flow ventilation into the attic when using a closed soffit.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And finally, the drywall was hung. I hired a couple of friends to help me and it took us about 2-1/2 days to hang the house. Then, Saturday, I installed the corner beads. I’m going with bull-nose corners for all outside corners except for the tops of the windows, which are typical 90 degree corners.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As you can see, until we get the garage done, the living room is now my tool shed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Connie and I then started the first coat of mud in the laundry room. She’s doing the nails and I’m doing the rest. I’m not a professional, by any means, but with the help of a good book: “Drywall. Professional Techniques for Walls & Ceilings” by Myron R. Ferguson, I at least have a chance at getting reasonable results. As you can see, we just started and I haven’t done the corners yet.

That’s it for now. I’ll try and keep more current. We are planning to move out of the trailer within two weeks. The trailer is sold, after all. We’ll focus on getting the north end of the house done first (laundry, bath, and bedroom). If need be, we’ll finish the front half after we move in.