Saturday, July 30, 2005

The black hole that is Home Depot

Last night we entered the beast at 6pm and managed to drag our weary selves out at about 9:30pm. We were on one of our "power shopping" trips to buy supplies for framing and drywalling the entry. I hate drywall- it's just so heavy and dusty. Yet another reason not to remove the plaster in an old home if you can avoid it!

We got 10 4x10 sheets of drywall, insulation, pine boards for framing and numerous other items for this project. Steve also got a grinder so he can start his tuckpointing project in the fall.

I got a bunch of mums and 10 bags of mulch for my fall gardening too.

We unloaded everything but the drywall last night from our rented cargo van. This morning, we unloaded the drywall.
We decided to cut the drywall in half for a number of reasons:
1. 5 foot pieces will work perfectly in the small entry.
2. It would be hell on earth trying to get full sheets into our basement.
3.We don't know any willing and able burly men willing to carry them for us.

20 trips back and forth (moving the drywall)to the basement later...Steve started the framing.
We decided not to use the typical 2x2 furring strips to attach the drywall because that thickness would change the depth of the wall, which would make the walls come out farther resulting in the original woodwork not alligning correctly.
Steve contacted USG, the drywall manufacturer, and they said if you decide to use 1x material, you must use a 1x4 and not the standard 1x2.

He is shimming the boards to make sure they are all plumb and using Tapcon masonry screws because we are screwing into brick. A funny thing, the drill bit that comes in the box of screws from Tapcon is always too wide and we have to get next smallest size. For 1/4" diameter screws, we get the 5/32" instead of the 3/16" that comes in the box.

And as I intended, I heat gunned the one remaining door frame and front part of the window.





For the remaining part directly beside the glass, I am planning to apply chemical stripper and saran wrap, scrape off the paint and then use steel wool and more stripper if needed. I don't want to even chance breaking the window.
It's been a busy weekend so far...

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh how fun it is to move drywall- it makes cleaning up the sanding dust seem fun! It looks like it is a productive weekend!

Greg said...

Wow, three and a half hours shopping in a hardware store. I can't decide if that would be a dream come ture or my worst nightmare. Good luck with the drywalling job. It makes me shudder just thinking about working on walls again.

Jocelyn said...

Greg- I thought you loved the smell of plaster in the evening- what gives? :)

Trissa- I put moving drywall as one of my least favorite remodeling tasks. I'd much rather strip paint off wood. Okay, I'm scaring myself now...

AngelSil said...

Ah, yes. The Home Despot. At Haus Westphal we are familiar with what we call 'the drive of shame'. This is when we are forced to drive to Home Depot more than once in any given day having either forgotten a necessary item or having purchased the *wrong* item. Our record, I believe, is 4 times.

Luckily, the closest black hole is only about 5 minutes away.