Sweating the small stuff

I’ve hit the point in the remodel where I need to tie up a lot of loose ends. Basically need to prep for drywall which means everything inside the walls needs to be located, nailed in, smoothed out, tightly secured, etc. I’ve got a list of about 20 small things to complete which would typically annoy me. However, the other night I pounded through a bunch of them:

1) Fixed the leaking shower drain pipe.
2) Blocked in the shower plumbing
3) Installed the shower fixture and trim kit
4) Blocked in for drywall in two corners
5) Blocked in for the shower rod
6) Blocked in for the medicine cabinet
7) Installed the 1x2s to thicken the wet wall

The nice thing about the small stuff is that is goes pretty quick.

The electrician is supposed to be by tonight to polish off his work… hopefully that happens and while he is working I can pound out another 7 items.

One item I need to complete is patching the holes in the subfloor. An incident the other night not only demonstrated this need but emphasized my agility.

I was trimming a warped board in my ceiling structure. Jared knows what I’m talking about and it’s a little hard to explain but basically before we can hang drywall everything has to be pretty straight, unfortunately, 10 foot 2x4s are almost impossible to get unwarped and I had some significant warpage that I didn’t realize was an issue until it was installed. No big whoop, but required a little effort to trim it down to get it even with the rest of the ceiling. Jenn was out somewhere and I was working on trimming this wood. Good thing she was gone because I was making a massive amount of sawdust. Anyway, I was on the ladder using the circular saw one handed making this somewhat delicate cut…. I’m literally trimming about ½- ¼ of an inch off a 2 x 4. Keep in mind also, I have my typical after work attire for home improvement on… a white t-shirt, mesh shorts, black socks and sandals. I did have my safety glasses on, until I took them off because I couldn’t see. So anyway, just as I neared the end of my cut as I hit full extension with my arm and body I felt a strange movement below as the ladder began to tip over. What the buff!!!! Sure nuff, the ladder had wiggled its way to a hole in the floor (for those who know, it’s the one that is near the dining room that I formed when I was ripping out the very first cabinet) Not a big hole but it has been annoying because every time I dropped something, a screw, a pipe fitting, a pencil, it fell through that hole to the garage… never bounced and then fell, always feel straight through like I was Reggie Miller behind the arc,. Anyway, the ladder leg started to go through and as it tipped I reacted quickly with spinning saw blade in the right hand I grabbed the joist with my left arm to hold myself up. The ladder teeter tottered a bit and then settled back in place as I dangled from the ceiling with saw in hand. Not even a scratch.

I’m not out of the woods yet but I’d like to point out that I have finished the majority of the dangerous portions of this remodel with not even one trip to the hospital. I thought for sure when I started this I would be posting weekly things that destroyed the project and a related injury that required medical attention.

Yay for me.