Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Basement Skylight

Luckily the basement skylight was temporary. While it was operational I was a bit worried about somebody walking in the front door, dropping through the floor wylie e. coyote style.

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While exposing brick is already a hot trend, I'm thinking exposed electrical is the next big thing.

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Why, hello there Dadolescent.

6 comments:

pops said...

Just some guick comments/suggestions:

On anchoring the kneewall:
Option 1 - Use a 4x4 on the outside corner and cut a hole through the floor and bolt it to the floor joist with at least 3 carriage bolts(like a newel post on a stair railing). Then use that corner for your bracing and frame the wall with a 2x4 anchored to the wall.
Option 2 - Mount your framing on the wall and floor surfaces and use a heave gauge steel L-bracket on the inside of the framing on the outside lower corner to make it more rigid.
Option 3 - Mount a bookcase or cabinet on the backside of the knee wall facing into the room and bolt it to the knee wall and the floor to add rigidity.

I like the partition wall in the upstairs bathroom. What about putting an armoire-type cabinet in the vanity portion of the room to be your linen closet and then clear out the existing linen closet and installing a stackable washer dryer?

Keep up the good work and I hope you're putting my tools to good use.

Pops

Anonymous said...

Pops has some good ideas on the knee wall and the amoire style vanity for the upstairs bathrooom.

Also, we did some looking for a front door replacement on the internet. We weren't able to find any standard 28 inch wide doors. A custom made door could be expensive. Maybe you can locate a narrow door at the Loading Dock.

I am over the shock, now I am in awe of all of the work left to do.

Corey said...

Pops,

1. We doubled up the 2x6's on the free edge, but I'll check on some carriage bolts. We also anchored a 2x6" to a piece of wood in the brick wall about 20" up, so hopefully that adds some stability.
2. We added a couple of steel L-brackets, but I didn't put one on the bottom, so I may switch one bracket to this location.
3. Good idea on the bookcase, but will have to check how this would work with the room. I moved an outlet to be in the knee wall, so a lamp atop a small table would look good, but it doesn't provide any stability.... We even considered laying plywood over the room side of the knee wall, and applying a beadboard. The plywood would give it some extra strength and the beadboard would hide the plywood.

The hallway closet is a bit tight, so not sure the stackable would fit. If I added the wash/dry in the space it would most likely cause me to move the wall which contains the current bath plumbing back, then I'd also have to reroute plumbing to handle the washer drain, vent the dryer from the middle of the house (no small feat), add dedicated circuits for the wash/dry, shorten the tub with is already only 5' long (which I am hoping to re-glaze, thereby minimizing re-framing, re-plumbing & new tub costs). Pretty complicated, and coupled with that is I have no money in the budget for any of it. I'll also have to take a look to check the possibility of bumping the hall closet out into the hall to allow for the wash/dry, but again, not really budget for the plumbing and electrical.

I'm not sure a larger armoire will fit in the vanity portion of the room without looming over you, but if I rerouted the door layout like I showed before it may fit in the toilet/shower area of the room.

Corey said...

dadolescent,

The door is definitely a special order, but I should check The Loading Dock or Second Chance, Inc. to see what they have in stock. I'd like to price out a custom door with a frame and transom, but I'm wondering if it may be possible to just do the door itself and figure out a way to independently change out the transom, or add another pane of glass to pick up some energy efficiency.

With all of the 28" doors in Baltimore I am surprised there isn't a place with them standard - maybe I just haven't found it yet.

Glad to hear the shock wore off.

Mrs. Limestone said...

Just found your blog. Looks like you're getting a lot done. Can't wait to see the end result.

Corey said...

mrs. limestone,

Your place looks incredible, and I will also be watching your house progress.