Bowed Ceilings

Nothing too informative to mention about the drywall install. I discovered bowed ceilings can make drywalling the walls difficult when one doesn't realize that's the issue. Eventually I clued in and created a "level line" that was 4 foot down from the highest point then used the level line to measure how much to cut off the top of the drywall - then they'd at least be level and line up with the studs. I attached all the top sheets of drywall first, then would cut the lower ones to fit after that. I was planning on using the green board on all exterior walls, but have enough that I'll probably just do all the lower halves in green board for extra protection. To hold the sheets in place while I screwed them in, I fashioned a brace that I could push into place to keep the sheet tight against the ceiling.

Just used some 2x4 scraps. Took 2 minutes to make and worked great.

Brace in action.

Here's all the pics. Little bit of a panoramic - started at the window and turning to the right each time. You can kinda see that I finished up all the ceiling too. I even used some old scraps of drywall on the ceiling so I didn't have to cut up bigger sheets of the new stuff.

Was finicky, but you can see the wall tv boxes turned out well.

Drywall commence!

Took a lot longer than expected to load up the walls with insulation and safe n' sound, but I finally finished it up and started to attach the drywall. Here's a few looks of the mega-insulation-palooza.

Packed in there!

All clean, ready to use the drywall lift.

Lifting 4x9 sheets of drywall above my head to get on the lift was terribly entertaining. Not quite as awkward as I was expecting, but not what I'd call fun. The lift worked great apart for the wire slip about halfway up the drywall's journey to the ceiling. Nothing like the feeling of the drywall about to land on your head... Measuring with a tape measure, cutting and lifting into place worked horribly, so for most board I'd lift the full sheet into position, mark it, then take it down to cut and then move it back into position. That ensured the fit was always right. I got the "Troy DPH11" drywall lift at amazon, and so far it's definitely been worth it. Instructions to assemble were terrible, but it's solid, very affordable and definitely more convenient than renting one.

First board in place!

For the boards around the lights, I'd screw into the rafters everywhere except close the lights, remove my drywall lift then use my roto-zip drywall tool to cut around the recessed light openings. I'd cut out on the inside of the light, then around the outside. The housing would then drop down to be flush with the drywall. To make sure I was cutting in the correct general area, I'd use a plumb-bob before I hung the drywall and make a mark on the floor to denote the middle of the light. After the drywall was attached, I'd transfer that mark to the drywall using the plumb-bob again.
Cutting around all these lights, of course, took longer than I was expecting, but I at least got the hard stuff done first. I also made sure to cut the drywall so all the seams occurred at the rafters - so I could screw the edges into them.

I staggered the seams too.

Final Goodies for Exercise Room

The backordered insulation finally got in, so Lowe's delivered my drywall and insulation. Was quite convenient as I just ordered the goods online and Lowe's called me to schedule the delivery. The goods arrived on a huge flatbed truck with a forklift attached to the back. The forklift was too high to fit through the garage door so he dropped it off just at the front of the garage (that's 20 sheets).

I carried the drywall in 2 sheets at a time upstairs and then carried 1 sheet at a time downstairs. The standard "lite" drywall wasn't bad, but the mold resistant green-board was grip ripping. The little panel carry handle I got was a life saver though. Would have been impossible to do it myself without it. I highly recommend one.

The drywall delivered to downstairs.

So, first up was installing all the insulation in the walls and the "safe n sound" insulation in the ceiling and interior walls. Really made a difference in sound transmission as now when I walk into the room it's dead silent. There's no reflection in sound at all when clapping my hands in there. Main reason I'm going to the trouble, is that I might as well maximize the insulation, and that I'm going to have speakers built into the room so I don't want sound the transmit to the adjoining rooms.

Got a view of my drywall lift in there too.

Since the ceiling/floor joists are engineered lumber the insulation wouldn't hold in the space, so I had to think of a clever way to hold it in place. Turns out just stapling in some twine to hold it in place worked great.

Little blast from the past

Was looking through old photos. Thought I posted the new mailbox I added shortly after I moved in, but I guess I didn't. Funny thing is it got knocked over by a flying pumpkin shortly after I installed it, and I had to dig out the post hole, fashion a new redwood post and pour concrete around to secure it. Luckily the pumpkin just destroyed the metal mount and didn't damage the mailbox too much.
In any case, here's da bus:

Maybe I shouldn't have replaced the old one?

Wiring Example

I haven't taken many photos of the before and after electrical work, as compared to the before, there's really not much to see in the after state. Here's a little example of the work done though. Apart from the junction box hell, there was also dangerous work done in the walls. Here's the work I completed on the light switches in the basement living room.

Wiring that defies reason.

Close up. Yes, that wire was live.

After (almost).

I still need to run romex to the new lights (which will replace the two white romex lines on the left side in the picture, but at least I don't have to worry about the extreme fire hazard in my wall. I'm really surprised that cut wire shown above didn't cause issues. It's like they cut it back for whatever reason and forgot to disconnect it in the box later on. Who knows?

Final Wall

Finished up the last wall which pretty much took all day - as I didn't finish until after 8. Framing out the window was a pain, and the existing wall was a fair bit out of level, so with the use of a plumb bob, 4' level and a lot of tweaking, it took a lot longer than I was anticipating. I was able to salvage some of the wood from the existing closet which worked out nicely though. This wall was different, in that I built it in place, instead of pre-building it and lifting into place. I screwed down the bottom plate, then temporarily screwed in the top plate while I adjusted for plumb. When I was happy that it was level from top to bottom, I started adding the wall studs.

before

after

One thing I discovered, as I ran out of 8d nails, is that 10d are a lot more effective. They take a bit more heft to hit in, but overall things seemed more secure with them (luckily I discovered some I had bought earlier). Another thing I made sure to do, and not forget, is to block out any gaps in the ceilings (so that there are studs to fasten the drywall too), and also block out the corners for the same reason.

Close up of the studs blocking out the corner.

Closer look at the framing around the window.

Framing the uneven wall

I had to tweak the framing for the dividing wall as it was flush with the concrete foundation wall. I wanted to install insulation around the foundation, so I pushed out the wall 1-1/2" overall. That entailed using 2x2 studs against the concrete wall and specially cut 2x4s to push out the rest of the wall.

Here's a look at all of the work together - a 2x2 base plate added, a 2x2 top plate, 2x2 studs against the concrete walls with the foam installed against the concrete, and the 2x4 studs added to the existing wall.

from top...

to bottom.

Here's a closer look at the 2x4 studs I had to cut to sit flush against the beam in the existing wall. I used a 4 foot long level to make sure everything was all straight up and down. I used plenty of shims to keep studs level and when nailing into the floor joists above too.

I used my table saw and jigsaw to cut out the notches.