First Remodeling Project


pghmyn

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I'm on break from school, and have been really enjoying having my 4 days off a week - since I work the other 3. But, it came time to get to a project that I have been wanting to get to for awhile. I like open concept, but not full studio apartment open concept. The house I purchased is your stereotypical 1950's Cape Cod. All boxed in rooms with a centrally located hallway to navigate between them.

 

To walk to my living room from my kitchen, I have to walk a full circle around my house because of a wall in the way. I can't watch TV while I cook or just eat breakfast at my dinner table. I know I could bring all my stuff in the living room, then I would have to walk full circle again to bring all my dishes back. Yeah, I'm lazy, but it's what I want :)

 

So, I went to the planning department with my proposed floor plan and acquired a building permit. These are non-load-bearing walls, and it was a simple, "This is what I want to do." ... "OK, here's my signature."

 

I didn't think to take better pictures along the way, but these are from me sending texts to my fiance while she was at work.

 

Here is the before looking from the living room:

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Yup, that's the original paneling color on the bottom, later painted white. Scary stuff.

 

This is the paneling ripped off:

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As you can see, they ripped open the drywall to install an outlet. But, the kicker is, they didn't bore a hole through the studs. Just run the wire on top of the studs in the drywall trench. Wonderful to open up to.

 

Here is the first bit of opening up:

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I prefer a clean as you go method, so as soon as the pile would get too big it went out to get wrapped and stacked, ready for pick up. The small stuff is swept into the garbage, and then cleaned up with the shop vac.

 

Wash...rinse...repeat...

 

Framing started on the top to have a small header/beam look. The ceilings aren't the same height because the living room has these tiles up. They are all intact, and exceptionally clean. I don't mind the look, and I don't want to take them down and replace the drywall. I can live with them. But that means there wouldn't be a smooth transition from ceiling to ceiling, so this is a worthy workaround. It also helps provide room for some electrical if need be.

 

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More framing was done, and after running up and down stairs all day while doing laundry that day, someone stopped in the middle and didn't feel like following me anymore.

 

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She needs a haircut to get rid of her puppy hair, she looks like a mop :)

 

So, by now, all the rough in framing is done, although I forgot to get a pic of that. Have to get the electrician over to get all the new wiring done, and then inspector checks it off, and I finish it of.

 

I'm debating of building the handrail myself, or having it professionally done. This is the look I am going for, although the railing and trim will be painted white:

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She does let me drag her around on the floor with her chew toys. Gotta love having this little pooch around.

 

Have any of you ever done stair railing work before? Is this easy enough for me to do myself? It's going to all be painted, so as much as I would like to prevent gaps at all, it can be covered as I learn.

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I've come to the point where I am putting in the structural part of my newel posts as the bottom of the stairs. Securing it to the stringers of the stairs going up, I can't think of any other way to strengthen this connection.

 

Is there an acceptable amount of deflection at the top of the post? Over a 42" span (not cut to final length yet), I think it deflects just over 0.125" in both directions perpendicular to the wall/stairs.

 

I know that the further I am able to move my connection up, the better, but I can't go above the height of the tread.

 

Here is a picture of my connections:

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Sam, I would do two things here. Your left most two by I would take 1.5" lower. This would mean trimming the plate back and will allow you to fasten into the plate. I would also remove the left angle bracket and cut a tight fit cripple before reinstalling that plate. This may require bolting instead of lagging but offers one strength. Your newel top will be limited a bit more by that two by that runs the angle. This may be overkill, but that is what I would do short of running that left most two by completely through the floor to brace in the sub floor framing.

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Sam, I would do two things here. Your left most two by I would take 1.5" lower. This would mean trimming the plate back and will allow you to fasten into the plate. I would also remove the left angle bracket and cut a tight fit cripple before reinstalling that plate. This may require bolting instead of lagging but offers one strength. Your newel top will be limited a bit more by that two by that runs the angle. This may be overkill, but that is what I would do short of running that left most two by completely through the floor to brace in the sub floor framing.

I thought I would just go ahead and do a worst case scenario and really start to wiggle those posts. The deflection doubled, and is now much easier to move. Clearly these brackets aren't enough. I didn't want to if I didn't have to, but I am looking into bolting to framing below. I went below the staircase and directly inline with the post is a doubled up 2x8. My solution now is to use a sort of gusset plate design to hold the posts in place. For each post, I will get two 0.125" - 0.25" plates and bolt them on both sides of the posts and beam below the floor. I am planning to do a slight draw bore method to pull the post securely down.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Small updates, since there have been many set backs since starting my projects.

 

Some of you know that I have passed initial inspection, and have started with drywall. Other than that, that's about where I stand with this project. I haven't taken any pictures since everything pretty much looks the same...except with some drywall on it now :)

 

Other than that, I have been slowly working on some small things that I have been meaning to get to. I improved the lighting in my laundry room 7 fold. Started with 1 pull chain light over the center of my washer and dryer that I had to walk across a semi-dark room to get to. Upgraded that to 7 bulbs equally spaced throughout the room controlled by a switch as soon as you get to the bottom of the stairs. The room is very bright and that is exactly how I wanted it. I plan to eventually add walls to the laundry room, make shelving, and add a nice large folding table in there.

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