Building a new house and shop (1 Viewer)

[1911]

Been making a fair amount of progress lately, getting a good rhythm of getting up early, doing paid consulting work for 3-4 hours, going out and working on the house until lunch time or after, then a nap some days, then more consulting and/or house work in the afternoon and evening.

Plastering the concrete is almost done! Only one or maybe two sessions left. I used to dread doing this, but I've done enough now to get pretty good at it and be able to do it much faster. I don't mind doing it now; very satisfying. The later results are much more smooth than the earlier efforts (probably hard to tell from the photo):

Concurrent with drywall going up on the interior framed walls, I terminated and pressure tested all my interior propane lines. Was pleased when they all held 2.5x working pressure for 48 hours with zero drop or change.

Drywall mostly up on one side of all interior framed walls, and insulation going in. The insulation is mostly just for sound; not really needed for temperature.

Hallway at the back of the house (completely underground):

Master bedroom:

Also, switches and outlets are going in.

Part of master bath:

 

[1911]

Part of master closet:

Part of Mrs. 1911's sewing and craft room, construction opening closed in except for doorway to the closet for that room:

Kitchen/dining dome module completely plastered with cement and first coat of mud:

I should be completely finished with plastering cement after tomorrow, but several rooms still need more coats of finish mud before texturing and painting.

I'm cleaning up all the threads in the outlet and switch boxes so that switch and outlet installation can continue.

Need to lightly grind the concrete floors in the showers of both full bathrooms, so that the mortar build-up of the shower pans will stick.

After insulation is complete, then the rest of the drywall, and taping and bedding begins.

 

[WarDamnEagle]

That is simply wicked awesome. When is the house warming party? What can I bring?

 

[greenbeast]

That is simply wicked awesome. When is the house warming party? What can I bring?

Ditto, I’ve got tons of craft and sewing stuff of the wife’s I’d like to relocate…

 

[knuckle47]

Ditto, I’ve got tons of craft and sewing stuff of the wife’s I’d like to relocate…

My goodness, I know exactly what you mean !!

 

[waiting for time]

Congrats on your progress, it’s looking great.

 

[1911]

Congrats on your progress, it’s looking great.

Thanks Michael!

I Hope your health has improved / is improving.

 

[waiting for time]

Thanks Michael!

I Hope your health has improved / is improving.

As we get older….but still it would be nice to be pain free every now and then.
I still have some nerves that are causing like a belt around my body at the bottom/below my rib case.
Meds seem to work ok for now so we will see.

 

[knuckle47]

Geez guys, I am sorry to read about all of your aging issues. I know I’m not the only one but either way it sucks. I got back involved heavily with cars and land cruisers when I turned 67. Had my first class pole barn built bought a few cars and decided that the Land Cruiser fever never faded…I just enjoy being around them. As more time in the week becomes available for these “activities” I also find myself too achy, cold or tired to run out there and enjoy them. All aches and pains are a buzz-kill

Went for a second left knee injection yesterday and doc said… “I have many patients in their 80’s and 90’s that were recommended knee replacements 20 years ago who turned them down. Today they are miserable with their ability to move around due to worn out and bad knees”. “ I suggest you do it sooner than later. Health never improves at this stage and surgeries are riskier as you get older”

Not my first foray in this surgery arena so my visit to him next week is “ to hell with those injections…schedule the surgery”. I won’t be able to step on a clutch for a few weeks but I can still go sit in the shop and stare at them, check the oil and smell the vintage exhaust.

All I can say is anyone who has had a knee replacement …wishes they’d done it sooner.

In a more perfect world, we’d all have a lesser burden. Wishing any of us to feel better.

 

[greenbeast]

Went for a second left knee injection yesterday and doc said… “I have many patients in their 80’s and 90’s that were recommended knee replacements 20 years ago who turned them down. Today they are miserable with their ability to move around due to worn out and bad knees”. “ I suggest you do it sooner than later. Health never improves at this stage and surgeries are riskier as you get older”

Dead on what would tell my patients. It’s a quality of life issue! I can’t begin to recall how many patients who would say “I wish I would have done it sooner”.

Injections whether steroids or viscous supplementation are patches. They buy time and how much is good indicator of the need to have replacement. If pain controlled and someone has good quality of life with couple injections a year, don’t get replacement. If an injection only lasts a month, move on!

 

[knuckle47]

Went for a second left knee injection yesterday and doc said… “I have many patients in their 80’s and 90’s that were recommended knee replacements 20 years ago who turned them down. Today they are miserable with their ability to move around due to worn out and bad knees”. “ I suggest you do it sooner than later. Health never improves at this stage and surgeries are riskier as you get older”

Dead on what would tell my patients. It’s a quality of life issue! I can’t begin to recall how many patients who would say “I wish I would have done it sooner”.

Injections whether steroids or viscous supplementation are patches. They buy time and how much is good indicator of the need to have replacement. If pain controlled and someone has good quality of life with couple injections a year, don’t get replacement. If an injection only lasts a month, move on!

Well @greenbeast , I am glad to hear your thoughts on this…‘I consider it my 2nd opinion. That first injection was the viscous supplement and lasted about 4 months. This last one must have been the steroid and requires 1 each week for 3 weeks…. as he explained it, the volume of injected material previously had some minor (ha-ha) discomfort the next day due to its expanding nature in a compressed space. My issue is once those benefits fade, the inside portion of the left leg joint is very tender and going down steps is better keeping that leg stiff using 1 step at a time and the lower leg lifting strength is noticeably less.

i am an active 70 yr old with a brain that thinks it is 30…. Also a great love of vintage auto and motorcycle restoration, land cruisers, garage stuff, big heavy tools and pushing my self (despite aging) to keep getting stuff done… my guess is it’s best to deal with this now so that when the weaker stages of life show up, I should be able to get thru it without too many complaints. I had put off many of my last 3 years of fun things for decades and now that their here, I‘d like to use the hell out of them without too many handicaps


EDIT: spoke to the surgical coordinator … “ don’t expect to hear from me until next week, I have scheduled 20 pre-ops yesterday from last week”
Did I miss the coupon?

 

[Waorani]

At the risk of turning this into a knee replacement thread, my mother had her first knee done in mid-90s and was so happy with it she couldn't wait to get the second one done. And did shortly after. I've got to believe the procedure has advanced tremendously in the last 30 yrs.

 

[knuckle47]

Yes.,,, sorry @1911

doc says used to be a 20 Year longevity but now is 30 years…and the procedure is much simpler

 

[1911]

No sweat guys; when friends get together it's natural to talk about more than one thing.

 

[65swb45]

No sweat guys; when friends get together it's natural to talk about more than one thing.

…however, it is one of the signs of old age when talk about health starts to predominate the conversation. I am keenly aware of this, as I am noticing more of it going on around me in my offline world.

Lee, I am looking forward to coming back to this thread when I get to the mudding stage of repairing my office, which was built in the buttonboard days (1939) and damaged in last winter’s storms. I am familiar with all the construction trades, but never apprenticed myself to anyone, so it has been a lifetime of trial and error, learning things piecemeal. For instance, I have been doing stucco since I was 18, and consider myself to be well above average. However I had to laugh out loud when I came home from work four years ago and found that my son, who I taught to stucco over a decade ago, had the resourcefulness to get into some tight corners on the scratch and brown coats with a kitchen fork! It had never occurred to me, even though my mantra is form follows function.

In reading your thread a while back, I remember being impressed with the research you did on the mud you used, and made a mental note to go back to the thread before my next job blending the buttonboard plaster with modern Sheetrock. All of which is to say that there is a lot of good tech throughout this forum.

 

[PAToyota]

…however, it is one of the signs of old age when talk about health starts to predominate the conversation. I am keenly aware of this, as I am noticing more of it going on around me in my offline world.

As my parents (in their eighties) - as well as many others - refer to it, "the organ recital"... Where you recite which of your organs - or other body parts - are having issues.

 

[waiting for time]

Last week we had to say goodbye to a close friend of 35 years.
He was 58 and just dropped down from massive heart failure.
I take my inconveniences over that.

 

[1911]

There's been fairly steady progress on the house over the last month and a half, but mostly boring stuff - putting insulation in the interior walls, screwing up more drywall, taping and bedding drywall, and skimming more coats of drywall mud on the domes. I'll take some photos to post later. We are getting the windows trimmed out with drywall too.

I'm pretty pleased that the house is maintaining 59-60 degrees temperature inside with no heat; the outside temperature is currently 13 degrees. I've been slowly adding more soil to the top of the house, to fill in low/thin spots. One of my grandsons and his friends are camping out in the house tonight.

 

[1911]

A few current photos to document progress:

Taping and bedding continuing; here is an example of blending a 2x10 framed wall into the surrounding concrete wall:

Building up the floor of the shower stalls with mortar, sloping them so they will drain.

Windows (and sliding door) all trimmed out with drywall and bull nose corners. This is the master bedroom.

 

[Rugy]

Nice to be at this stage, now to get rid of all the dust once your done.
Take care