After celebrating Christmas on the 3rd floor, we started to pack up the house on Regester Street while also working to get as much dirty work done including the 2nd floor sanding / oiling and the 1st floor drywall (didn’t quite get this done). We completed our move on January 10th. The house was stacked with nothing but narrow pathways through each room while 3 humans and a cat were crowded into the 3rd floor. We’ve been building furniture, unpacking and organizing ever since.
Ikea furniture is always better with a friend. Siri found out the hard way when she smashed her foot trying to do it solo.
We managed to pile enough stuff into the shed and shack to set up our bedroom. We bought some book cases from Ikea and using leftover furring strips I built a king size bed frame with storage underneath in lieu of a dresser. Hanging clothes go in a PAX wardrobe by the doorway. We also got two pre-hung doors at the auction and have been fighting to get them in ever since. Having them will be a treat as we’ve been without a bedroom door since we’ve moved to Baltimore.
In the basement we finished up a few things. After 3 weeks without laundry I soldered up the valves for the washer and dryer, hooked up the gas and ran a dryer vent hose to the window. We also stapled up the PEX for the radiant heat under the living room. This freed up enough room for the next big step, a permanent beam to hold up the joists who’s ends had been eaten by bugs or rotted away by moisture in the bricks. To do this I added a 12′ long 4×6 treated beam held up by 4 built up 2×4 posts resting on treated 2×4 pads. This structure serves double duty as the back posts of my work benches. These benches are 24″ deep and 36″ high and run 12′ down to the front wall and around another 8′ to the water heater. I’ve topped them with 3/4″ particle board and 3/16″ hard board so they’re easy to clean. A 21″ deep bottom shelf lets us store things underneath without having having it sit on the potentially wet basement floor. Another bench of similar design was built on the opposite corner and right now it is a mountain of tools.
While I was working in the basement, I also moved the lights over from the middle of the room to above the sink / dryer and benches. These were a pain from day one and in total I think I’ve broken a half dozen CFL bulbs with my head. Having them on the side, I was able to store leftover lumber in the ceiling, seriously tidying up the room.
Until just last weekend we were moving boxes out of the 1st floor enough to be able to finish the ceiling drywall in order to paint it. Once it was painted we needed to do a final sanding of the floors. The living room floor is exactly the same boards as the 2nd and 3rd floors, but the kitchen is much lighter. It was hard to notice this until seeing both next to each other.
Living Room < – > Kitchen
The final cleaning and oiling of the floors had to be done over two stages due to the oven, fridge, couch and cabinets that we were unwilling to move back out side. We moved everything we could to the living room (front) of the house so Siri could do the kitchen. This morning the floor was ready to have things on it so we moved everything from the living room to the kitchen and she is working on that today.
The reason all of this is coming together now is that we will be hosting our house warming party this Saturday and a visit by Siri’s parents next week.