We decided to sound-proof our master bedroom walls. And move our closet over to that wall to further sound-proof and optimize flow. You've seen the diagrams, right?
So my dad came over to move our electrical outlet so we could have a lamp beside the bed and a light in the closet and all that jazz. And he finished the demolition on the drywall (basically, I had not gotten very far, so he did pretty much all of it). FANTASTIC! YAY DAD! (I smell a lot of Father's Day loot coming...)
And my mom came to help too. She love being productive, so in between helping my dad, she painted the shelf in my bathroom vanity and started painting the back of the front door red and started re-painting where my heating duct had been put in and the wall had been re-drywalled. FANTASTIC! YAY MOM! (We'll forget about the trim-paint situation. It's just another funny memory.)
All happiness!
And then it started getting complicated.
For the previous two weeks, I'd rented cars for cheap so we could pick out flooring, pick up supplies. We'd cleaned out the basement. Mom and Dad to the rescue again, helped relocate the previous vinyl plank flooring we'd been using upstairs to the basement. I put things I wasn't using on Craigslist, put a few items out on the curb. FANTASTIC!
All because our friend Steve was going to be over this weekend to help us with this project. We can do easy stuff. He can do drywalling and building stuff. The hard stuff. He also offered to pick up the flooring! YAY STEVE!
But Thursday night, it turns out he couldn't do it - that meant that all the drywall and wood he was going to pick up wasn't happening either. Time for team Cathy-Gordon to swing into action. I got to Home Depot at 7:30pm on the advice of the associate that I called. Waited in line for 15mins to find out I wasn't allowed to rent their vehicle because I don't already own a car and have car insurance. NO, car rental insurance on your credit card is NOT enough. Um, what?! So if I don't already own a car, I can't rent theirs. Boo.
Gordon brings with him from the pub some friends. One of them has insurance. YAY FARZAD! So we load up the truck and unload at home, bring back the truck, buy everyone beer and pizza. YAY FRIENDS!
Next day, Steve arrives and we start with the Roxul Safe 'N Sound. It's awesome easy. All insulated in a half-hour. Steve measures and cuts some drywall, Gordon and I start screwing it in while Steve works on the next piece. Mix up some drywall compound and start taping and mudding. Lunch at 3pm while drying commences.
Steve starts building the header for the closet. Gordon and I start taking the baseboards in the rest of the room in preparation for the new floor. Gordon's drywall starts coming apart under the window.
This is where it gets bad.
We open up the drywall. Mold. LOTS of mold. Behind the drywall, the wood is a bit soggy and moldy too. Open up more drywall. Suddenly, I'm digging into dark beach sand in the wall. It's bright red-brown. Uh oh. That's brick. The brick is disintegrating. And suddenly I can see outside. Right through the wall. (See more photos.)
OK, time to stop digging and call in a professional. We track down what's happened - thank you, old owners for covering up that mess and selling it to me, knowingly!
We decide to demo the whole outside wall and start from scratch. SIGH. Just the extra project I need right now! I plug up the hole with some gap filler until we can get someone here to fix it for real.
Today on the agenda: get to Home Depot, get more supplies (with a rented vehicle - does anyone have insurance?), fix the soggy wood, put in vapour barrier, insulation, drywall. Start all over. Get someone awesome to come and fix the outside part. Add another month to the renovation project.
The joys.
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