you do know that box fan should be dumped when you get donme that project right?Look on the bright side Dan in less than 2.5 years there will be no projects left.oh yes a swingset. Lee
] On Mon, Nov 02, 2009 at 05:01:26PM -0500, Dan Rossi wrote: > Those of you old timers on the list will remember one of my very first > home projects. This took place between Christmas and New years of 2005. > There was a large closet in the master bedroom approximately six feet > wide, and nearly three feet deep. However, there was just a single 24 > inch wide swinging door at one end of the closet. The door wouldn't open > all the way since it hit the radiator. The bar for the clothing was > hanging in the middle of the closet, front to back, and so this closet had > the worst use of space, and the worst access you could imagine. When you > opened the door, you would see the left 24 inches of the bar. 48 inches > of the bar were to the right of the door, so you kind of had to shove your > way into the closet and to the right, to get to anything that had the > misfortune of migrating to that end of the bar. Totally useless. > > So, I ripped out the entire wall, installed sliding doors, put an upper > and lower bar in, closer to the front of the closet, put shelving behind > everything against the back wall, and built a large shelving unit in as > part of the system. It is now a much more usable space. > > Well, the closet in the small bedroom, soon to be the nursery, is even > worse. It is only barely deep enough to hang a hanger, and at that, the > tips of the plastic hangars touch both the front and back wall, so god > help you if you actually hang any clothing on the hangars. > > It is five feet wide, and less than 20 inches deep. It also has a stupid, > useless, 24 inch wide door at one end. So in this closet, if anything > shuffles to the right of the door opening, it is truly gone, because you > can't even force your way into the closet to reach that stuff. > > Well, that wall is now gone. Over the weekend I decided to rip it down. > I first ripped off all the trim around the door, along the floor, all the > trim inside the closet, the shelf, the hanging bar, dot dot dot. > > I used my circ saw with a cement board blade on it to cut up the wall at > the right end of the closet on the outside wall, and then across the top > to the top of the door opening. I couldn't work the saw inside the closet > to do the same, it was just too tight. I started trying to pry the > plaster off from the outside, but the edges just crumbled. So, I got > inside the closet and just ripped down the plaster willy nilly. Some of > it came down in large pieces and some came down in many many many tiny > chunks. > > Let me explain the plaster in this house. It is some kind of precursor to > drywall. Breeze called it Beaver Board. It is bands of precast plaster > about a foot wide and maybe as long as six or eight feet. They are > nailed, horizontally, to the studs. The seams between the boards are > plastered, then a heavy vinyl sheet, like wallpaper is glued over > everything. > > Well, after ripping down the inner wall, I was able to gently pry off the > outer boards from the inside. They came off nicely, but were heavy as > hell. > > I was then left with two 2X6 studs, on edge. I cut through them with a > hand saw at the tops. They were toe nailed into the nice hard wood floor > at the bottoms, with six nails in each stud. > > I am going to build out the frame of the new wider opening so it stands > about three inches proud of the wall, then hang wooden, bi-fold doors. > > After talking with a neighbor, I have decided to rip down the vinyl stuff > all over the room as well, and strip the paint from the trim. I would > like to remove as much of the lead based paint from the room as possible. > yes, ripping down the wall paper stuff, will throw some lead dust into the > air, but I will be sealing the room off from the rest of the house, > putting a box fan in the window, blowing out, wearing a full respirator, > and ripping up the carpeting when I am done. Plus washing down all the > walls before having it painted. > > I've got three weeks before the little angel arrives. OK, I've got three > weeks before she is supposed to arrive, but they tell me it could happen > any day. I asked Teresa if she couldn't hold out until like February or > March. My black eye is heeling nicely. > > -- > Blue skies. > Dan Rossi > Carnegie Mellon University. > E-Mail: [email protected] > Tel: (412) 268-9081 -- Catch a wave and you're sitting on top of the world. -- The Beach Boys .
