Church this morning was about the love of God. Worship was emboldening. And my Bang energy drink hit just right. It was all a perfect ramp up to a big time productive day!
I got to the house before Melissa, and well before church, so I climbed in a window (Melissa had the house keys...) and got to work. I got the last of Sophia's tile up, which surprised Melissa. It's good to surprise you woman now and then with excellent feats of productivity fellas. Just a tip from a pro.
After that was church, and after that was more work. First order of business was the truck. I got the tie rods replaced and it's now ready for the alignment shop. After I dump the enormous load of tile and carpet that's currently in back of it.
My handy Estwing pry bar
This little pry bar here, in the week that I've had it, has been used more than any tool I've got except my grinder and welders that I've had for years. This. Thing. Kicks. Ass. It's taken like three hammer hits for every two feet of board that's come up, and the same for each and every tile. And it's still kicking. I love this thing in conjunction with my new 22oz Estwing framing hammer.
Dad brought a Stanley version today that mom ended up using, and between us, there was smoke flying while we worked. It was awesome.
Mom, wrapping up Sophie's room for the day
My first part today was to work on the boys room. It shares joists with our room, so it makes sense to do it next. When we replace joists, they'll span both of these rooms. Mom showed up and directed me to try and finish one room before doing more in another. Dad likened it to eating an elephant. One bite at a time, yes, but it's easier if you eat one leg one bite at a time than to jump from a leg to the trunk to the belly and to the ear between bites.
Big progress in the boys' room
Melissa cleaned up tiles and swept Sophie's room, which is a huge help because it helps me focus and see what's next. She fell through the floor and thinks she broke her pinky finger. She thinks she breaks her pinky finger a lot though, so... Like literally almost weekly. 🤣
What floor?
With help, we made huge progress in three rooms, and the master bedroom is damn near finished. I think the piece that I found needs replaced is called the sill joint. It needs to go, everywhere I've seen it. It's the part that goes around the concrete outer wall of the foundation that the joists nail into at the edge. It's gotta go. So if it's wood and it's below the walls, it's gotta go. Toodles. Big work, but I'm excited to get to it.
The wood that was used here is untreated wood, and that's good. This space is far underventilated for treated wood. So we're adding fans to deal with terrible ventilation and to make it safe to use treated lumber that'll last longer and not rot. Treated lumber offgasses though, so it's wise to use a vent fan. We'll be using two vent fans, and one will have ducting going to the dampest part of the crawlspace, the dining room that's enclosed on two sides. This crawlspace wasn't very well designed, but I'll get it worked out. The new vent fans will be great, they'll clear the air under there every nine minutes unless the temperature dips below 35°F (something like 1°C).
I'll also be using screws instead of the stupid stupid nails. If these guys had used screws, I'd be done by now. Hyperbole, but there's a reason God made screws. They're a lot more expensive and slower, but the quality of work with screws is far superior. So I'll be using screws. These are expensive, at something like $5 a pound when bought 20# at a time. We budgeted for 100# of them, but that'll hopefully be far more than we need. I sold Melissa on the fact that I'm gonna do a better job than anyone else would, so damnit, I'm gonna do a good job.
Super duper fancy screws
So tie rods are changed on the truck, all the tile is out of Soph's room, most of the ply wood is out of the boys' room and part of their plank subfloor, and damn near everything is out of the master. That's a hell of a day! And I'm tired, so I'm going to bed. Back at work tomorrow, and the housework continues!
Love from Texas
Nate 💚