Thursday day began very early for me (I usually sleep all morning) with a trip to Hart Acoustical and Drywall Supplies to buy more tubes of SC-175 acoustical caulk. This is the most friendly lumber yard, and you enter you pass several big office areas on the way to the little Acoustical Supplies office in the back. You might think you're invading a private area but no one gives you any hassle. The first time I visited I asked for directions and people were very friendly telling me how to get to the Acoustical office. The guy in the Acoustical office is also always the nicest guy ever, letting me spend as much time as I want reading labels, and hesitating, but producing an order form nearly the instant I have made my decision. These incredibly huge tubes of SC-175 which is thick heavy lifetime never-shrinking permanently flexible caulk go for about $5 apiece still. I bought 7 tubes this time and the guy gave me a break on price even though it wasn't the "ten or more" usually required. Somehow, everyone in the Acoustical office has a DJ voice too.
I was back home by 9:20 AM and Tom arrived at 9:35. Right now he's continuing to seal cracks where the ceiling hits the wall. Today he's using Sher Max lifetime caulk from Sherwin Williams (which he prefers to the SC-175 for small cracks in paintable areas. Wednesday afternoon he used 20 minute mud to seal the largest cracks around the wall/ceiling junction. You could already see lots of cracks, but after he ripped out torn and damaged mud paper, there was a very large crack up to 1" half way across the west wall. In one of these areas, just over the closet, he was feeling warm air. Sure enough, after he ripped out the paper, you could see a 1 inch square hole leading straight to daylight, just below the eaves.
I have asked that no expanding foams be used, because I am wary of the chemicals in those products. So Tom is just using mud and various caulks. I try to check out the chemical in every product used also. I feel very good about low VOC latex paints, and latex caulks generally. After Tom painted the Queen's room door on Tuesday morning, I rested right next to that very door in early afternoon, and also later that evening, and disn't smell or notice any ill effects. We are using Behr Premium Plus latex paint, which is low VOC. I'm somewhat scared of the nanoparticles and other things used in the more expensive Ultra and Marquee paints, and I think Premium Plus is good enough.
That first day, Tuesday, was interesting because I also had to be at eye doctor's office for eye measurements, pre op for forthcoming cataract surgery, at 3:30 PM. I had a friend come over to watch Tom when I left and lock up afterwards. She nearly didn't show up on time; after many text warnings I was already marching Tom out of the house at 2:39 (because I had to rush to doctor's office all the way across town in midday traffic) when she finally arrived. Then, after all that, Tom only stayed about an additional half hour anyway. In addition to painting Queen's door, he removed all the carpet and trim from the master bedroom. We had only discussed replacing the trim in King's room that day, and also installing TV mount and curtain rod in King's room, that morning. We agreed to $600 additional cost, or it would have been $400 for only the trim.
On Tuesday night I measured curtains, tried to make a trip to Lowes to buy the trim (but turned back because of poor vision from glare from oncoming headlights), and opened up the TV box. Good thing I checked out the curtains and verified the fact that my friend wanted to use the curtain hooks we bought. The curtain package said the curtains were to be slipped over the pole, which would have given a different measurement. We agreed to a curtain height of just above the trim.
On Wednesday morning Tom and I re-measured the curtain rod height, and he hung the curtain and TV. Then he added the seals to the Queen's door. It was impossible to add all 3 seals recommended supplied by Sound Isolation Store. The door wouldn't come close to closing with only two. We were able to add one 3 tine seal all the way around except the top, where we used the 2 tine seal. That was the most we could do and still get the door to seal. He then re-adjusted the strike and the door now works great. It only takes a little bit extra force to close the door to compress the seals. On Wednesday night, I noticed an eerie quiet, the quietest I have ever experienced in this house.
Also on Wednesday my Air Conditioner service company installed the air return jump duct from the Queen's Room to the hallway. On the hallway side it attaches to the same vent and box that the King's bedroom has used for a decade. Tiger Services stuck to the same low price I had originally been quoted, and the work looks to be perfectly done. One of the technicians was the same man who replaced my A/C compressor 5 years ago under original factory 10 year warranty. Tiger Services had the entire replacement covered. A competitor claimed the Trane authorization only covered half the cost and would have had me pay $2000 additional. I have had 8 years of excellent service (two service visits yearly) from Tiger since they took over my contract when my original installer/servicer Burrows went out of business.
So Wednesday was big, and I'm not finished yet. Though I had decided on the "extended colonial" (my term) moulding on Tuesday night, I hadn't been able to drive to Lowes at 8pm due to vision problems. So on Wednesday I headed out to Lowes at the first opportunity, around 6 PM after Tom left. Looking at the hardwood moldings again, I decided to go for the biggest and heaviest moldings for acoustical as well as aesthetic reasons. The Victorian style seems to weigh about twice as much as the $19 per stick colonial, but only costs $8 per stick extra. I decided it was worth the extra for the weight alone. But I was a bit shocked to see the final price of $270 for 9 sticks. Though all the sticks were near perfect, I rejected three out of the 12 I looked at for being more warped or knotty than the others. These are all very fine looking molding sticks, as they should be for that price.
Then after a stop to Subway for the first and last big meal of the day (I had a double meat Turkey/Roast Beef sandwich), I went to Home Depot to get the high gloss black trim paint. I selected some black colors from the displays but then the clerk told me I could just get a pure high gloss black premixed. So I did that, and they shook the can for me.
Then I hit two big remaining things I had to do. I vacuumed all the dirt around where the baseboard used to be. The 0.5 to 1.5 inch gaps below the drywall were filled with dirt. So I vacuumed them all out (they were slated to be sealed on Thursday with mud). Then I pulled all the wires that used to feed the King's Room from the Computer Room. There were about 15 such wires because as I upgraded the main video feed, I had just left the previous version in place, and I did that several times. But before I could pull the wires through the holes in the wall I had made, I had to clear the impossible corner. The impossible corner had a big stack of stuff including video monitor, video converter in a large wood case, and Large Advent loudspeaker. All in a narrow corner blocked by computer towers, a 75 pound UPS, and other things. On flaking sides of the corner are an 8 foot high Scandia shelving unit holding hundreds of pounds of equipment, and a large desk holding computer monitors. The challenge is to pull the Large Advent speaker out of the corner straight up about 4 feet so it can clear the desk and shelving on either side. By the time I had cleared all the other stuff out of the way, it turned out not to be as impossible to lift up the Large Advent loudspeaker as I had anticipated. I think I might even be stronger than I was 15 years ago, thanks to a couple years of body building I did since then (but not so much recently).
When Tom asked me when John Jones (my Electrician) was coming out, I called the number. John Jones was out by 10:30. They inspected the old ceiling box and said they could replace it with a good fan box for a reasonable price (given to me just before they left) without entering the attic or cutting the ceiling. They could also run double boxes through the wall where I used to run wires from King's Room to Computer Room. They checked the wire gauge on the circuit that feeds all three bedrooms (though just one outlet in Queens) and determined it was 14 gauge. They then replaced the inappropriate 20 amp breaker on that circuit with 15 amp matching the wire gauge. And they replaced the dead fluorescent security light fixture with a new LED lamp fixture.
I was back home by 9:20 AM and Tom arrived at 9:35. Right now he's continuing to seal cracks where the ceiling hits the wall. Today he's using Sher Max lifetime caulk from Sherwin Williams (which he prefers to the SC-175 for small cracks in paintable areas. Wednesday afternoon he used 20 minute mud to seal the largest cracks around the wall/ceiling junction. You could already see lots of cracks, but after he ripped out torn and damaged mud paper, there was a very large crack up to 1" half way across the west wall. In one of these areas, just over the closet, he was feeling warm air. Sure enough, after he ripped out the paper, you could see a 1 inch square hole leading straight to daylight, just below the eaves.
I have asked that no expanding foams be used, because I am wary of the chemicals in those products. So Tom is just using mud and various caulks. I try to check out the chemical in every product used also. I feel very good about low VOC latex paints, and latex caulks generally. After Tom painted the Queen's room door on Tuesday morning, I rested right next to that very door in early afternoon, and also later that evening, and disn't smell or notice any ill effects. We are using Behr Premium Plus latex paint, which is low VOC. I'm somewhat scared of the nanoparticles and other things used in the more expensive Ultra and Marquee paints, and I think Premium Plus is good enough.
That first day, Tuesday, was interesting because I also had to be at eye doctor's office for eye measurements, pre op for forthcoming cataract surgery, at 3:30 PM. I had a friend come over to watch Tom when I left and lock up afterwards. She nearly didn't show up on time; after many text warnings I was already marching Tom out of the house at 2:39 (because I had to rush to doctor's office all the way across town in midday traffic) when she finally arrived. Then, after all that, Tom only stayed about an additional half hour anyway. In addition to painting Queen's door, he removed all the carpet and trim from the master bedroom. We had only discussed replacing the trim in King's room that day, and also installing TV mount and curtain rod in King's room, that morning. We agreed to $600 additional cost, or it would have been $400 for only the trim.
On Tuesday night I measured curtains, tried to make a trip to Lowes to buy the trim (but turned back because of poor vision from glare from oncoming headlights), and opened up the TV box. Good thing I checked out the curtains and verified the fact that my friend wanted to use the curtain hooks we bought. The curtain package said the curtains were to be slipped over the pole, which would have given a different measurement. We agreed to a curtain height of just above the trim.
On Wednesday morning Tom and I re-measured the curtain rod height, and he hung the curtain and TV. Then he added the seals to the Queen's door. It was impossible to add all 3 seals recommended supplied by Sound Isolation Store. The door wouldn't come close to closing with only two. We were able to add one 3 tine seal all the way around except the top, where we used the 2 tine seal. That was the most we could do and still get the door to seal. He then re-adjusted the strike and the door now works great. It only takes a little bit extra force to close the door to compress the seals. On Wednesday night, I noticed an eerie quiet, the quietest I have ever experienced in this house.
Also on Wednesday my Air Conditioner service company installed the air return jump duct from the Queen's Room to the hallway. On the hallway side it attaches to the same vent and box that the King's bedroom has used for a decade. Tiger Services stuck to the same low price I had originally been quoted, and the work looks to be perfectly done. One of the technicians was the same man who replaced my A/C compressor 5 years ago under original factory 10 year warranty. Tiger Services had the entire replacement covered. A competitor claimed the Trane authorization only covered half the cost and would have had me pay $2000 additional. I have had 8 years of excellent service (two service visits yearly) from Tiger since they took over my contract when my original installer/servicer Burrows went out of business.
So Wednesday was big, and I'm not finished yet. Though I had decided on the "extended colonial" (my term) moulding on Tuesday night, I hadn't been able to drive to Lowes at 8pm due to vision problems. So on Wednesday I headed out to Lowes at the first opportunity, around 6 PM after Tom left. Looking at the hardwood moldings again, I decided to go for the biggest and heaviest moldings for acoustical as well as aesthetic reasons. The Victorian style seems to weigh about twice as much as the $19 per stick colonial, but only costs $8 per stick extra. I decided it was worth the extra for the weight alone. But I was a bit shocked to see the final price of $270 for 9 sticks. Though all the sticks were near perfect, I rejected three out of the 12 I looked at for being more warped or knotty than the others. These are all very fine looking molding sticks, as they should be for that price.
Then after a stop to Subway for the first and last big meal of the day (I had a double meat Turkey/Roast Beef sandwich), I went to Home Depot to get the high gloss black trim paint. I selected some black colors from the displays but then the clerk told me I could just get a pure high gloss black premixed. So I did that, and they shook the can for me.
Then I hit two big remaining things I had to do. I vacuumed all the dirt around where the baseboard used to be. The 0.5 to 1.5 inch gaps below the drywall were filled with dirt. So I vacuumed them all out (they were slated to be sealed on Thursday with mud). Then I pulled all the wires that used to feed the King's Room from the Computer Room. There were about 15 such wires because as I upgraded the main video feed, I had just left the previous version in place, and I did that several times. But before I could pull the wires through the holes in the wall I had made, I had to clear the impossible corner. The impossible corner had a big stack of stuff including video monitor, video converter in a large wood case, and Large Advent loudspeaker. All in a narrow corner blocked by computer towers, a 75 pound UPS, and other things. On flaking sides of the corner are an 8 foot high Scandia shelving unit holding hundreds of pounds of equipment, and a large desk holding computer monitors. The challenge is to pull the Large Advent speaker out of the corner straight up about 4 feet so it can clear the desk and shelving on either side. By the time I had cleared all the other stuff out of the way, it turned out not to be as impossible to lift up the Large Advent loudspeaker as I had anticipated. I think I might even be stronger than I was 15 years ago, thanks to a couple years of body building I did since then (but not so much recently).
When Tom asked me when John Jones (my Electrician) was coming out, I called the number. John Jones was out by 10:30. They inspected the old ceiling box and said they could replace it with a good fan box for a reasonable price (given to me just before they left) without entering the attic or cutting the ceiling. They could also run double boxes through the wall where I used to run wires from King's Room to Computer Room. They checked the wire gauge on the circuit that feeds all three bedrooms (though just one outlet in Queens) and determined it was 14 gauge. They then replaced the inappropriate 20 amp breaker on that circuit with 15 amp matching the wire gauge. And they replaced the dead fluorescent security light fixture with a new LED lamp fixture.
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