Bloody Hell!

[Paul B]

So, we bought this house 6 or 7 years ago. We got it for land value 'cause of all the termite damage (worst house in the best street, and all that happy shit). Most of the termite damage I've already repaired 'cause I know my way 'round a framing nailer, and I've re-framed all the damaged bits with treated timber except for the last little bit that I'm working on today.

I've just stripped out the wall linings from the last bedroom and the whole top plate on one major structural wall - the bit of wood that's supposed to be bearing the weight of all the roofing joists (and the roof itself) in that section of the house, is completely eaten away except for a 1/4" or so.

I think the roof is still up out of force of habit, or termite spit, or the grace of god.

We used to sleep in that room - with a roof that could cave in if someone cut a loud fart! Luckily we ain't that sort of people. All our farts are of the silent sneaky variety.

Anyway the whole thing is now jacked up with acrow props 'til I put in a new top plate tomorrow morning. If the local building inspector had of seen that, the whole place would have been condemned.

My warning to you all: Never, ever renovate. Buy a house that's ready to live in and you can spend your weekend working on guitars (or Basses Mathew) rather than wondering why the friggin roof hasn't fallen in and killed you.

[Allen]

So, no progress on the current guitar I guess?

Hope you get it all back together before you get some strong winds.

[sebastiaan56]

Paul,

I assume that cloud of chloropirifos down south is you..... i have to admit that I hate that kind of shit. Good luck,

[Hesh1956]

Good advice Paul M8!

I HATE drywalling!!!!!!!!

[Paul B]

Well, now it's fixed. The roof in that section of the house was sagging by 3/4" or so. The roof joists and rafters were free floating where they were supposed to be supported by the top plate. I had to jack up the roof and slip in a new top plate. Only took a day and a half to do it by myself (a lot of that time reading up on how to do it). And the good news is that the house didn't fall down while I was doing it. For this whole reno, repairing termite damage, having a top or bottom plate needing to be replaced was the one thing I was dreading, studs are easy.

Up next: electricals and then drywall.

Hesh, you know you can hang the sheets yourself (with a panel lift) and then get the experts in to do the joints and sanding. Saves you a bunch, but you still get the professional finish.

[Allen]

Dry walling is dead easy. It's just bloody filthy work. And be sure not to use the wife's new vacuum cleaner to suck up the dust. I killed our first one only a few days after buying it when I was doing reno's in our first house.

[Paul B]

Depends on the type of vac. One that pulls all the air through the motor will also pull all the tiny bits of plaster that get through the filter bag into the motor, They are REALLY abrasive particles. They get into the motors bearings and will kill the whole thing in fairly short order. One of those dyson cyclone type deals, where the particles aren't going through the motor shouldn't bat an eye at that.

Having said that, I still use an old vacuum that my sis gave me 15 or 20 years ago (and it was old then), I've sucked all manner of crap through that thing (including 6 or 7 rooms of plaster dust) and it still works...

They don't make em like they used to.

[kiwigeo]

Ive killed two vacums sucking up plaster debris.....they make a lovely high pitches whining sound before they crater.

[Hesh1956]

Yeah I got warned by a bunch of folks that dry wall dust kills vacs so I have dedicated a Crapsman that lived in the garage for this project. I also put a HEPA filter in it but these filters clog up in no time and reduce the performance of the vac considerably.

So far so good - I have nearly all the dry wall put up which was kind of fun. The mudding is what is killing me although I am starting to get the hang of that too.

I am trying to do the areas that won't show much first as a learning experience......... I am also looking with greater interest at the paint rollers that create a slight texture......

Man I can't wait to getting back to building something easy like guitars.....

[Allen]

I found that with dry walling, that I was being far to critical of how flat I was sanding the mud. I was trying to make them like the panel work I'd do on a car. Your hands are far more sensitive to the imperfections in the surface than will ever show once you roll on some low sheen paint.

Give a wall a try and you'll be amazed at how much you can get away with.

[Paul B]

Textured paint will hold dust. One of Mario's suggestions was to use white semi gloss in areas where wood dust is being produced. Highly reflective surface so it works with your lighting and it will shed any dust that hits it. Sounds like a good idea to me except that it'll show up dodgy drywalling.

[Arnt]

My warning to you all: Never, ever renovate. Buy a house that's ready to live in and you can spend your weekend working on guitars (or Basses Mathew) rather than wondering why the friggin roof hasn't fallen in and killed you.

Man, does that sound familiar!

We bought the house we are currently living in in 2000. We moved back to my hometown of Trondheim after living in downtown Oslo for 13 years. The first born was 2 1/2 at the time and we were getting mighty tired of our little apartment with 4 flights of stairs and the railroad track running through our back yard (did you ever see Blues Brothers? Not THAT bad, but close). So we got this huge wooden house from 1937, on the outskirts of Trondheim suburbia, for just a little more than we sold the Oslo flat for. What a bargain! It needed work, of course...

So here we are, 8 years later, the house still needs work, more than when we moved in actually, since wooden houses need constant maintenance and it's hard keeping up with 2 more kids since we moved in, the day job, and yes, the guitar stuff. They all take time, and all the while the paint keeps cracking... Of course we can't afford the major overhaul by a contractor, so I do this and that, a little at a time, but I just can never get ahead, it seems.

On the positive side, the house is built with fine Norwegian spruce, so all the ongoing renovation projects, albeit small, provide me with lots of excellent brace wood and a mandolin top from time to time! Funny, that seems to be a small comfort for the wife

[kiwigeo]

Ya really cant say youve lived unless youve survived at least one house renovation.