Best invention... ever....

Ok, I know I haven't posted in awhile. It's been pretty non-stop getting the remainder of the drywall done. During the two week break over Christmas, I was able to hang all of the large pieces of drywall. I tell you, a drywall lift is the best invention ever. I was able to lift these 60-pound sheets of drywall to the ceiling in seconds. It also allowed me to place the sheets horizontally on the walls instead of vertically. With vertically placed drywall, while easier to install, is a bit more awkward to finish with taping. With vertical 8-foot seams, smoothing the mud will require a long up and down motion which would make it difficult to control the taping knife. Horizontally placed drywall yields long horizontal seams that can be smoothed by walking along the wall. The vertical seams won't be taller than 4 feet.

Now, I've been busy taking care of all the little pieces around bulkheads and columns (chases). I also built the front wall of the bar. The bar will be made of RTA (ready to assemble) cabinets which, when covered with a laminate counter top, will give a standard 36 inch high work surface. The front wall will be 42 inches high when capped with laminate counter top.

Another weekend or so and then I'll be able to clean up the basement and get some pictures taken. Then, I have to install corner bead and start taping.

Soft and cozy and quiet...

The sound-proofing insulation is done! I used Roxul Safe 'n Sound. That stuff is really easy to work with. It's light and cuts easy with a utility knife. It comes in pieces 48x15.5x3 inches in size which fits standard 16 inch framing which is why it's important to stick to standard framing methods and not just slap the lumber up any old way.

I ordered the drywall today for delivery next Saturday. In the meantime, here's some pictures:

Wiring Done!

After 500 feet of 12-gauge speaker wire, 200 feet of CAT-5, 200 feet of microphone cable, 80 feet of HDMI, and over 500 feet of electrical cable, I can finally say I'm finished with the wiring. The speaker wire includes the wires up to the plant shelf near the ceiling in the kitchen and rough-ins for speakers in the backyard. Of course, with that much wire, now I've got an antenna capable of picking up signals from the Andromeda galaxy.

Next step is to start installing soundproofing insulation in the wall and ceiling spaces around the home theatre. This will reduce any reverberation from the audio system and reduce noise from the drain pipes from upstairs.

More wiring...

Another weekend spent installing wires. This time, while waiting for delivery of another 250 feet of speaker wire, I went ahead and started installing the rough-ins for the temperature and humidity sensors and microphones on the main level. I also drilled another hole through the outer wall of the house but this time in the rear wall. I attached a weather-proof enclosure to the hole on the outside in which I'll install terminals for outdoor speakers and temperature and humidity sensors. (I'll drill small holes to allow some air to pass through.)

A few pictures...

The projector screen wall with wires for left, centre, right speakers and subwoofer.

Bundle of wires running from the utility room. They include speaker wires, CAT-5 for the sensors, and microphone cables.


The rough-in for temperature and light sensor (on left) and the microphone installed in the kitchen. These microphones were designed originally to be used for conference rooms and are sensitive to human vocal frequencies which makes them ideal for voice recognition applications. For the temperature and ambient light sensor, I'll drill tiny holes in the plate and install the sensors in the wall behind it.

In a million years....

...mining prospectors will find a huge copper deposit where my house was. While I still have a few things left to do in the electrical portions I decided to begin working on the home theatre wiring. (I ran out of electrical cable staples and decided to switch gears rather than go out in the rain for a box of staples). The 40-foot HDMI cable for the projector was just the right length with enough slack on either end. I also ran the wiring for the surround sound speakers (front-left, front-right, centre, surround-left, surround-right and subwoofer) and the 2 speakers in the exercise room, all totalling 350 feet of 12 gauge speaker wire. The reason why so much wire was used is that the audio receiver/amplifier is not in the home theatre room itself, but in the utility room. I ordered more speaker wire so I can install speakers up on the plant shelf in the kitchen and rough-in for weather-proof speakers in the back yard for when I build the deck.

I also ordered another 40-foot HDMI cable for the LCD display in the exercise room so I can watch the news when I workout. And since the display will be wall mounted, I also ordered an HDMI wall plate so that the 40-foot cable can install to the plate inside the wall. The plate then provides a clean, professional looking interface point to plug in the display.

Almost 225 metres...

I'm getting close to having all the electrical work done. I may hit 225 metres (738 feet) of electrical cable. And that's just 2-conductor cable. There's some 3-conductor cable in there too. All I have remaining to do, are the bar pendant light fixtures, the 3-way switch for the light over the stairs and terminating the lights that are currently tied off of circuits upstairs. The builders installed basic pull-cord lights in the basement that are powered by circuits from upstairs. I intend to remove the lights and terminate the lines at an outlet. This way, I won't have to terminate it in a junction box somewhere.

The House Is Still Standing. Go Figure....

I decided to take advantage of the warm weather on Sunday to put a 4 inch hole through the side of the house for the basement washroom exhaust vent. I started drilling from inside to discover that the drill bit wouldn't go deep enough. Now, no guy wants to discover that their tool isn't long enough so, feeling rather deflated, I went to Home Depot to find a solution for my small problem. Twenty minutes later, I was back in business. Using both a wood bit and a masonry bit to get through the stucco, I was able to bore a hole big enough for the exhaust vent. I installed a vent hood and sealed it with caulking. After all that, the house didn't fall down. So, I guess I did it right.

Aside from that I managed to complete the wiring for four more circuits. Just one more to go and then I can install the circuit breakers.