The remodel continues
In the last post we saw the shop roof get dried in, the siding getting installed, and the white stain applied to the siding. This week was more of the same. I’ve got to say, it really helps progress being up here 7 days a week. It’s allowing this to progress incredibly quickly. What that also means is there’s lots to write about. So apologies in advance for the lengthy post.
Siding is complete
This week I got the siding buttoned up. There were a few missing areas on a couple of the north side walls. With the siding complete, I picked up a new door and got it temporarily installed. There will be an exterior door going into the craft room and then another exterior door between the craft room and the shop. Although I could get away with an interior door here, the weather stripping and insulated glass will help keep dust and noise out of the craft room. However, the outside door going into the craft room hasn’t arrived yet, so I picked up the door for between the craft room and shop and temporarily installed it in the other door opening. This way the shop is able to be locked. Another big step!
Staining and Caulking
Since the siding was complete, Oceana and my mom tag teamed the stain work and got the rest of the new siding stained. With the first coat of stain on nearly everything except the carport ceiling, Oceana started caulking everything in. She got all of the caulk work complete and now everything is ready for a second and final coat of stain.
Fixing the concrete floor
One of the big hurdles for this shop was fixing the concrete floor. There’s 3 areas of concrete on the floor. The outer two are about 2″ higher than the middle slab. Well, one end is 2″ taller and the other end is nearly flush (it tapers). Also, on one of the slabs (near the low area) the concrete was real bad and much higher in areas with the aggregate exposed. I started with grinding off all of the high areas to get it flush or below.
Pouring the new floor
Next I added aggregate to the real deep areas of the floor. I did this so that I’d use less self leveling concrete as it is quite expensive. Next, my dad and I mixed and placed about 25 bags of self leveling concrete. We used a straight 2×4 as a screed board and drug it across the two high slabs to allow the new concrete to be in the same plane as the existing slabs. I say same plane, and not level, because although now it is in line with the other slabs, it is certainly not level! We got it placed and let it set up for the night. As it was setting up, I mixed up more termite pre-treatment and sprayed the rest of the framing and siding (some had been done previously).
Grinding to perfection
The next day I looked at it and wasn’t thrilled with the final finish and blending of the concrete. There were quite a few bumps and divots and the transition from the old to the new was a bit lumpy. Not great for rolling stuff across. I got the concrete grinder back out and started grinding and blending away. After half a day of grinding and two diamond coated grinding discs, I’m really happy with the outcome.
Afternoon insulation
Since the grinding took the early half of the day, I opted to fill the later half, you know, the hottest part of the day, with installing the insulation in the ceiling. But at least it’s not July! Tom had lent me a panel lift for when we get to installing the plywood on the ceiling, and I found it quite handy for installing 20′ long batts of insulation by myself. I got the ceiling buttoned up and my dad jumped in on the walls after some wiring work.
40 sheets is a lot of plywood
The next day Bagwell lumber showed up bright and early with 40 sheets of 5/8″ plywood as well as a handful of other items. We set up a cut area in the shop and I started on the ceiling plywood as my dad buttoned up the wall insulation. Long story short – we had a huge day. And we were both whooped at the end of the day. We got all 40 sheets of plywood on the ceiling and the walls. That panel lift that Tom let us use was awesome. I can’t believe how well it worked. I cut and installed the sheets while my dad followed behind me and screwed the panels in place. We were a few sheets short from completely finishing but it was a ton accomplished in one day.
Another big day
Thursday was another big day. Bagwell showed up bright and early with the plywood and we made an early supply run to Lowe’s and then to Sherwin Williams. When we got back, I framed in the door opening between the craft room and the shop and then installed the remaining sheets of plywood. With that done, we cleared out the shop and I gave all the walls and ceiling a quick sand with 120 grit. As I was sanding my dad was masking off everything for paint. After lunch, we tag teamed the primer and I sprayed on a heavy coat and he came behind me and back rolled the primer. Back rolling helps even out the coat. After a quick clean up, the primer was dry enough that I began caulking the inside corners. After the caulk was dry enough, I got set up and sprayed on a heavy coat of semi gloss white paint to everything. This place is starting to look awesome!
Farm tour
Tom invited us all out to the farm for a tour. Oceana has been asking about this because she really likes animals and she’s intrigued by the cows. Do any of yall remember Gilligan’s Island – “a three hour tour”. Well a simple tour of the farm wound up being quite exciting. We got to see a newborn calf that has now been named Oceana. We also found a cow that had gotten stuck in mud in the swamp. It wound up taking 2 tractors (because the first one got stuck) to pull the old girl out of the mud, but she got free and she’s in good health.
Odds and Ends
In other news, our home sale is on track to close later this month. It’s going by incredibly fast. I’ve got 2 weeks to get the shop (and ducks & chickens) moved up here. 2 more weeks of insanity and then a little time off to decompress. Off topic, we added insulation to the ceiling and walls of the shop. I checked with a digital thermometer in the afternoon. The areas with plywood read 86 degrees in the ceiling. The craft room (without insulation) read 116 degrees. Insulation was a good investment!
That’s all folks
That’s all for now. Sorry for the long post – lots has happened. As always, thanks for following along on our crazy journey.
It’s still amazes me now when I look at the shop and see how much has been accomplished in such a short time. It will be ready for use soon! Your Dad has enjoyed helping with the remodel, and you have organized and executed the most detailed plans to keep everything going smoothly. The tour of the farm was quite unusual with the new calf being born and the cow getting stuck in the swampy mud. It was a highlight of the week! Our Super Bowl party was great…it seemed like every half hour Oceana brought in a new snack for us. She was the “Hostess with the Mostest.” So many fun memories have been made at 6 Lake Byrd already. I love being able to visit here now (especially since it’s freezing up north). Love, Mom