Nothing But Words

• Contractor finished removing the wall between the kitchen and dining room – it looks good! #
• Drywalled the arch last night – I cut a series of slits on the back of the drywall so it would curve – much easier than the online advice #
• Racing to get all my wires pulled through the walls before "Drywall Joe" comes tomorrow and seals up the walls. #
• I put a bunch of plants in the ground today, since the joint compound was drying inside. Now I can't shake that alluring manure fragrance. #
• Wow, I got 4 comments from Faceboook friends right after adding my Twitter feed to Facebook. See my blog to catch up http://www.toppa.com #
• Chipped out some of the old kitchen floor tiles last night with a hammer and brick chisel. It was a good tricep workout too! #
• @hakjoon yeah, me too – I'm on the cutting edge now, using my Commodore 64 with Gopher sites. #

I’ve been working like an obsessed fool every day on the house since Maria and the boys left. Monday was the craziest – I put in 8 hours straight after coming home from work, and almost as many hours yesterday. I’ve been doing electrical wiring inside the walls, and putting up drywall. Today a couple guys came to tape and apply joint compound to the drywall. That was the main reason for my working so frantically – I had already delayed them one day, and I couldn’t delay them any longer without having to reschedule for another week. My last minute decision to wire the kitchen for speakers in the ceiling didn’t help

The most interesting part of the work was adding the entryway from the kitchen pantry into the living room. I did the initial cut on the living room side with my jigsaw. I wanted it to match the shape of the entryway on the opposite wall of the pantry, so I made a template of its curved top that I then used as an outline for my jigsaw. Then on the kitchen side I opened up the wall more, so I could add framing support around the new opening. I had to then chisel out the excess plaster on the inside of the wall cavity, so that I could fit in new 2x4s. In this case it’s a good thing modern 2x4s are actually 1 1/2 by 3 1/2. The original framing used actual full 2x4s – since the new ones are smaller, it made it possible for me to wiggle them between each side of the old lathe in the walls. I then attached every 5th piece of old lathe to the new 2x4s (with shims to make up for the slight size difference) to make sure the old plaster doesn’t come loose over time.

I wanted to do all this myself because a contractor would have started by just ripping down a big section of the wall, so as to avoid all the nuances. But the original plaster is in good shape, and I wanted to preserve its appearance as much as possible, especially in the living room.

Drywalling the inside of the curve along the top was a challenge, as drywall doesn’t bend much. I used slightly thinner drywall (3/8 inch instead of 1/2 inch) and then cut a series of slits along the back of it, about 1/2 inch apart. This allowed it to crack on the slits, but only on the back side, presenting a curve on the front side. The guys who came today messed up part of it though. When they added a corner bead they lost the curve on one side (it’d be more acceptable if it was at least symmetrically messed up!). They said that the right way to do this is with plaster, not drywall. They’re probably right, but paying a lot for someone to come do a small plaster job like this doesn’t make sense. I’m hoping I can work with them tomorrow to fix it (they did a decent job on one side, so it’s not impossible).

So here are some more pictures of the kitchen work, with detailed captions (click to see them). Pictures of the living room, sunroom, and landscaping are coming soon…

View at Picasa The kitchen pantry room, with the fridge already moved out and some cabinets partially disassembled03-Jul-2009 10:08, SONY DSC-T1, 3.5, 6.7mm, 0.025 sec, ISO 160	View at Picasa The other side of the kitchen pantry wall, in the living room, with the new entryway outlined on it03-Jul-2009 15:20, SONY DSC-T1, 3.5, 6.7mm, 0.025 sec, ISO 160	View at Picasa The initial cut of the entryway, shaped to match the opening on the other side of the kitchen pantry04-Jul-2009 12:00, SONY DSC-T1, 3.5, 6.7mm, 0.125 sec, ISO 120
View at Picasa The framing I added on the kitchen side of the opening. It looks messy as I already covered the framing with old pieces of lathe, so the drywall will match the height of the old plaster on either side06-Jul-2009 20:10, SONY DSC-T1, 3.5, 6.7mm, 0.025 sec, ISO 160	View at Picasa For the sharp curve near the top on each side of the opening, I cut a series of slits on the back of a small piece of 3/8 inch drywall07-Jul-2009 06:01, SONY DSC-T1, 3.5, 6.7mm, 0.025 sec, ISO 100	View at Picasa When attached, the drywall cracks along the slits to match the curve of the framing07-Jul-2009 06:05, SONY DSC-T1, 3.5, 6.7mm, 0.025 sec, ISO 100
View at Picasa The new entryway with a layer of joint compound on it. The guys who did it messed up the curve on one side when they added a corner bead. I’m hoping I can get them to fix it.08-Jul-2009 18:57, SONY DSC-T1, 3.5, 6.7mm, 0.025 sec, ISO 160	View at Picasa The wall between the kitchen and dining room is gone, with a new 12 inch header along the ceiling where it was (already drywalled in this picture)08-Jul-2009 15:48, SONY DSC-T1, 3.5, 6.7mm, 0.033 sec, ISO 100

Eidan in Lesser Town (Mala Strana), Prague View at Picasa Eidan in Lesser Town (Mala Strana), Prague28-Jun-2009 21:27, SONY DSC-W55, 5.2, 18.9mm, 0.006 sec, ISO 100	Eidan with a pretzel at a pub in Prague View at Picasa Eidan with a pretzel at a pub in Prague28-Jun-2009 21:57, SONY DSC-W55, 2.8, 6.3mm, 0.017 sec, ISO 100
Kai at the statue of St John Nepomuk on the Charles Bridge View at Picasa Kai at the statue of St John Nepomuk on the Charles Bridge28-Jun-2009 23:06, SONY DSC-W55, 2.8, 6.3mm, 0.008 sec, ISO 100	Chandelier made of bones and skulls at the Sedlec Ossuary View at Picasa Chandelier made of bones and skulls at the Sedlec Ossuary04-Jul-2009 19:53, SONY DSC-W55, 3.2, 7.2mm, 0.04 sec, ISO 1000

Maria just emailed these pictures to me. They’re staying in an apartment that’s right around the corner from Charles Square. She says the apartment is spacious but rundown, and several major appliances don’t work, like the washing machine and the satellite dish for the TV. Fortunately, she brought lots of DVDs for the boys, and there’s a laundromat nearby. Her mother is there with them too – she’s there for 2 weeks and she’s helping out with the boys while Maria is with the students. Maria found a babysitter to help out for the time between when her mother leaves and I arrive at the end of July.

The boys are having a good time. Maria sounds like she’s exhausted but still enjoying it. She’s not just teaching – she created this program for Villanova and she’s managing the whole thing on her own. It’s a research seminar on entrepreneurship in the Czech Republic, so she’s been arranging various field trips for the students to businesses in the area, helping the students plan interviews, etc. She took the students to a silver mine yesterday and next week she’s taking them to a Taiwanese factory. She brings the boys on the field trips, and they love hanging out with the students, and the students seem to enjoy their antics.

I’ll post more pictures as I receive them!

• 2 full days of plastering, tilling through dense roots, and laying a tile floor – I'm so sore I can barely move now. I'm so out of shape! #
• @Toontje – good to hear you got the Shashin tag working #
• @speno @mister_eno – just figured out "at" replies (call me a Luddite, or maybe a Twiddite) – thanks for welcoming me aboard #
• Oh unglamorous logistics- before I can tear down the kitchen wall, I have to pack all the dishes and glasses in the cabinets somewhere #
• Finally finished a big set of updates to the Shashin docs, and compiling the phpDoc for it – http://bit.ly/WzMyz #
• Today's the big day – I took down the cabinets and pulled out all the electrical last night, and today my contractor takes down the wall #
• Built a perfect arched entryway into the living room. Now to celebrate my manliness with a beer, a burger,and JCVD from Netflix #

Maria left for Prague with the boys last week. She’s teaching a class there this summer. They’ll be there for 7 weeks, and I’ll join them for the last 3 of those weeks. In the meantime, I’ve been busy destroying the house.

In the evenings after work I’ve been dismantling one side of the kitchen, piece by piece. We’re taking down the wall between the kitchen and the dining room, and replacing it with a bar counter. So I’ve been taking down the cabinets, packing away all the dishes, food, and appliances, and removing all the electrical wires from the wall. Today a contractor came to start taking the wall down. He’ll also put in proper structural support to make sure the 2nd floor doesn’t come crashing down on us . It doesn’t seem to be a load bearing all, but the house was constructed in an …unusual… way, so he’s playing it safe (the 1st floor ceiling joists are parallel to the wall, but then there’s a wall above it on the 2nd floor, offset by about a foot, and the 2nd floor ceiling joists run in the opposite direction; I’ve never seen anything like that before, and neither has my contractor).

I’ll use the 3 day weekend to do a little demolition of my own – I’m adding a doorway on another side of the kitchen, leading into the living room. With all the changes to the walls, I also need to re-configure most of the electrical wiring in the kitchen.

The kitchen is actually one of two projects I’ve got going. The other is remodeling our sunroom. Pictures of that coming soon.

View at Picasa The dining room wall, on the eve of its destruction30-Jun-2009 16:52, SONY DSC-T1, 3.5, 6.7mm, 0.025 sec, ISO 160	View at Picasa The kitchen side of the wall, with oen base cabinet and one wall cabinet already removed30-Jun-2009 16:53, SONY DSC-T1, 3.5, 6.7mm, 0.025 sec, ISO 160	View at Picasa The cabinets and various kitchen items in their temporary basement home. There are also lots of dishes, etc. in boxes in the living room01-Jul-2009 20:26, SONY DSC-T1, 3.5, 6.7mm, 0.025 sec, ISO 160
View at Picasa The kitchen wall, with the gas line capped, and all cabinets and wiring in the walls removed01-Jul-2009 21:43, SONY DSC-T1, 3.5, 6.7mm, 0.025 sec, ISO 160	View at Picasa All the lathe and plaster is removed – the framing will come out next02-Jul-2009 15:19, SONY DSC-T1, 3.5, 6.7mm, 0.025 sec, ISO 160