FINALLY!! The saga begins

Posted: Mon Aug 18, 2008 4:07 am

Well... yesterday was a productive bust.

TheBoss (the Mrs) had a difference of opinion regarding the entire wall height of the bathroom being tiled. So, we compromised and I'm tiling the walls to 6 feet, then two feet of gypsum everywhere except the shower.

Since this is a change, I'm a bit short on the DenseGuard for the walls, and have extra Hardibacker. It's not a biggie, and it will result in less expense on the bathroom. At least SOMETHING in the studio will cost less than I planned!

At any rate, I was putting the final touches on some screws in the last bit of gypsum. It was a snug fit, so I was trimming out a bit of gypsum when a fleck of gypsum popped in my eye. It wasn't too irritating at first, and I finished off the screws.

I thought the fleck would wash out pretty easily when I grabbed a shower.... but nope... it decided to get stuck in the upper lid and cause as much pain as it could.

It's amazing how such a small bit of anything will bring you to your knees.

Before anyone asks, or comments... no, I didn't have my safety goggles on, nor my mask. I was passed that point and was simply doing what you do to finish the task.

So, after irrigating and trying every other trick I know, I simply went to bed and let my body flush out the gypsum. So... all in all, not much was done.

Sure enough, about 3am, with my eye sealed like a coffee can, I woke up and managed to feel the fleck come out. WHEW!

This morning I'll run back to exchange the excess materials for gypsum, mud and skimcoat. I hope to get the bathroom walls done this morning. I should be able to get the mud and skimcoat on by tomorrow or Wed. That way the tile guy can hopefully get in here and finish next week.

Posted: Tue Aug 19, 2008 6:47 am

Well... I called the tile guy yesterday morning and left him a message that we were finally ready to start tiling the bathroom. I figured that it might take a week or two to get on the list.

WRONG!

He had an opening from another client how failed to confirm yesterday. So, he bounced right on over and started to work! WOOO HOOO!

In the meantime, there's a threat from tropical storm Fay coming up the coast... bonus.

Since I wasn't able to put a crew together last weekend, I had all that 3/4" OSB sitting outside and ready to be destroyed by all that potential rain.

So.... guess what I got to do?? nope... guess again... OK, be stubborn about it... I had to move all 100 sheets in the studio.

It was a lovely time!

The tile contractor gave me a hand with a dozen sheets or so. Then my landscaper stopped by and gave me a hand with the last stack.

I honestly think there's still a bit of the toxin's in my system from my encounter with the black widow. So, since I feel like I've been run through a meat grinder, I think I need to back off from the heavy stuff for a few days. I've got quite a few other aspects of the build to continue on with, so there's no lack of things to do. I'm thinking it might not hurt to work on some light stuff for a coupla' more days and rest up.

I'll get some pix of the tile/bathroom ASAP.

Posted: Wed Aug 20, 2008 2:48 am

So much for backing off from the heavy stuff.

TheBoss and I went to get tile last night. The 12 small-ish tile squares for the bottom of the shower weren't bad... It's the 18 boxes of tile for the walls that were no fun.

I got help loading em' in the truck... but there was no way I was gonna survive unloading em' last night down at the studio. I'll get the tile contractor to give me a hand pulling them out of the truck this morning.

Once that's done, I'll head back for a 3.0 door for the bathroom. I'll have to get in his way a bit to get the door up. Unless he can start on the walls. Then I'll get the door in this evening when he leaves.

Posted: Wed Aug 20, 2008 6:02 pm

Well... here's some pix of the OSB that needs to go up... and some shots of the bathroom...

Posted: Wed Aug 20, 2008 6:09 pm

I take it back...I do NOT envy you!!!

Posted: Wed Aug 20, 2008 7:12 pm

oh... sure.... thanx.... what a pal you are! Very Happy

Posted: Tue Sep 02, 2008 6:24 pm

Been a few days since I updated this thread.

Since the last post, I'm lost a coupla' days due to a wedding, gotten a lot of tile up and actually started getting some of the MDF up on the walls.

The tile contractor is all but done with the tile in the bathroom. He's got just a couple of small rows of the floor tile, the threshold, a couple of rows of wall tile and about a half dozen cap tiles to put in.

I'm gonna call him tomorrow morning to let him know that the door/casing for the bathroom is up. He said that as soon as that was done, he could get out here and finish the job in a couple of hours. Then come back the next day and grout it.

I've been working on getting the MDF up in the control room and the tracking room. I've got two rows of MDF up in the Control Room and almost have the bottom row completely up in the tracking room. So far, I've managed to get up about 24 out of 100 sheets... WOOO HOO! A quarter of the way done!

This weekend I'm expecting a few friends (loonz) to come in and we're planning an Amish Style studio raising. We'll get as much of the MDF up as we possibly can. We're mainly going after the ceiling. I hope hurricane Hanna doesn't come into too much play... it might keep a lot of the local folks at home hunkered down....

I'm making a conscious decision to go ahead and stop putting up the MDF in the CR and tracking room to start working on the kitchenette wall in the lounge until Friday. It's only a couple of pieces of gypsum and once I get that up, I can jump on getting the kitchen done after this weekends' festivities.

I'm really gonna try to get pix up tomorrow...

Posted: Tue Sep 02, 2008 9:23 pm

Hey buddy! What area of the Carolinas are you in? My in-laws live in Raleigh off of 1. Maybe I can see the facilities sometime when they are done?

It looks inspirational!

Oh, and you should post a pic of the Black Widow if you have won. Spiders scare the poop out of me.

Posted: Wed Sep 03, 2008 5:51 am

Weezy,

Bring it on!...

Do you come down 52 through Wytheville and then down 40 through Winston-Sallem/Greensboro?

If so... you pass right through Graham on your way to Raleighwood. Graham is just east of Burlington - between Greensboro and Raleigh-Durham.

If you want to see the most of the raw construction, you may wanna try to get down in the next week or so. After that, it's gonna get a bit hard to see some of the details because finished walls should be going up soon. After that, we'll have to make our way around through the attic to see any of the isolation techniques. And believe me... with all the ductwork up there, it's gonna be rough to maneuver and cleanly see stuff.

Gimme a call or PM me and I'll get you actual directions here.... oh... and bring a camera, nail pouch and work clothes! (heheheh) Only kinda' kidding... I've got an extra nail pouch. Very Happy

But seriously, I'll be more than happy to show you around the place. That way, you can see what Andre's talking about in terms of the second wall and separation from the exterior concrete wall of your basement.

As for the black widow... I have no idea where she was. I mean, I got bit and didn't realize it for like 36-48 hours.

The only way I know it was indeed a black widow is because the bite looked like classic black widow bite photos I found on the interweb.

Oh yeah... As a tack on to the thread I forgot to mention this...

I ordered 4 more cases of acoustic caulk; 2 of the OSI SC-175 and 2 of the new Green Glue Company's acoustic caulk.

I plan on using the SC-175 to finish the MDF layer joints of backer rod and caulk. Then I'll start using the Green Glue caulk on the gypsum layers.

Once the first layer of gypsum goes up, I'll use green glue between the two gypsum layers of the isolation booth and the tracking room.

I really would like to use it in the control room, but I may still have to forgo it due to cost constraints... we'll have to wait and see.

At any rate, the caulk should be here this afternoon. Which is a good thing, considering I'm down to my last two tubes, and one of those is already in the gun.

With the possibility of Hanna coming to visit this weekend, I'm trying to get Andy and the HVAC guys to get back out here with the copper lines for the HVAC compressors.

Unfortunately, Fay dumped enough water to cause a minor cave in of the trench leading from the studio to the pad. I'm worried that Hanna (and the two storms following on her heels) may soak the ground bad enough to cause even worse cave in, and longer delays in getting that HVAC pad poured. The tentative plan is for them to be here tomorrow sometime. I've got my fingers crossed!

Posted: Wed Sep 03, 2008 7:31 am

From your website MadMax.

"If you really want to “get-away” for a day or two, we have a small public airport that can get you quick access to the mountains or the beach in short order, then get you back after a refreshing break."

That's cool, but the runway is too small by half for Ed Force One. Smile

Posted: Wed Sep 03, 2008 11:13 am

Greener wrote:

From your website MadMax.

"If you really want to “get-away” for a day or two, we have a small public airport that can get you quick access to the mountains or the beach in short order, then get you back after a refreshing break."

That's cool, but the runway is too small by half for Ed Force One. Smile

You are not thinking get away. Get away means no entourage. Pick up a DASH-7. It can do 2,700 ft runways, and still fit 2 dozen or so people in proper comfort.

Andre

Posted: Wed Sep 03, 2008 12:01 pm

avare wrote:

You are not thinking get away. Get away means no entourage. Pick up a DASH-7. It can do 2,700 ft runways, and still fit 2 dozen or so people in proper comfort.

Andre

Fair point, Ed Force One ain't exactly "low key". Razz

Posted: Thu Sep 04, 2008 5:51 am

If you wanna bring in something bigger, there's PTI and RDU.

RDU's about 45 minutes and PTI's about 20 minutes drive.

They both handle private traffic, but I'm pretty sure the rates are a bit higher for access.

Posted: Thu Sep 04, 2008 6:36 am

Here's the pix as promised from the last coupla' days work...

(At some point, I'm gonna' have to get a wide angle or I'm gonna' have to stitch a couple of shots together.)

Posted: Thu Sep 04, 2008 10:41 am

I think its time to change the heading of this thread to "Finally!! The saga ends."

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