Scary Cabin

Picked up where we left off last weekend working on the dog cubby walls. They needed another coat of mud at the seam to get them mostly flat, then some texture. The prep work masking off the ceiling, floor, and the rest of the room took almost as much time as spraying on the texture. For smaller areas, and this was about as large of a small area that’s practical, a hand pump texture spray gun works pretty good. Certainly, it’s a lot less messy than the big compressor powered hopper. The results are between acceptable and decent. After drying overnight, the walls were primed and painted.

We built some framing for the drawer units so that there’s a platform for them to sit on. Also worked on framing the front edge of the kneewalls so that the 5.5” baseboard trim will align flush. To get everything at the right height required 29 3.5” long 2×4 blocks. The vision is starting to take shape. I need more 2×4’s.

We picked up, what should be, the last of the window/door casing. One piece was needed to finish off the bedroom side of the pocket door. That’s done and it turned out really nice. The rest is needed for the doors and window in the utility room. So we’ll be storing that for a while. All the casing was painted so it’s ready to be cut and installed.

To be filed in the should’ve planned that a bit better file. When ever anyone walks into the upstairs bath, they reach to the right for the light switch, only to be disappointed when it’s not there. The switch is located on left, mostly hidden by the door as you open it. Why is it there? When running the wire for the light, it seemed like the best spot. For some reason, which I can no longer remember, we didn’t put it on the right. Some combination of thinking it would be hard to get power there and not sure how it would fit with vanity, backsplash, and mirror. But whatever, it’s not there now and I’m not ripping down the walls to add one. Enter Insteon to the rescue. Insteon makes a single switch remote and a wall mounting bracket that looks just like a normal decora light switch. It only require two screws to mount it to the wall. So that along with a micro module in the real switch and we have a working light switch on the right. The only downside, since it’s battery operated, it will need to be recharged every 6-8 months or so.

The final bit of electrical work was to add an Insteon dimmer switch in the back bedroom box. This box will have the light switch and fan controller. With an Insteon lamp dimmer attached to the one table lamp in the room, we can now enter the dark room, it the switch and have light. No more fumbling for the ceiling fan/light pull chain. Ain’t technology great!

Where are we now? Last year we had a goal to get most of the upstairs done before Christmas. Well, we got far enough that we can sleep upstairs, but done? Not even close. Seems like there’s always a few things that take much longer than anticipated (stairs anyone?). At this point, there’s light at the end of tunnel, but I’m trying not to underestimate the amount of work still needed. So maybe it’s time to start up a new ToDo list for the upstairs.

Back bedroom

1. Dog cubby baseboard
2. Dog cubby outside trim
3. Figure out kneewall design
4. Kneewall door trim
5. Build/install bookcase
6. Install hangers for clothes
7. Install drawer carcasses
8. Install drawer boxes
9. Install drawer trim
10. Install baseboard
11. Trim wall to ceiling corners
12. Install conduit for ceiling fan
13. Build new ceiling fan mount
14. Install new ceiling fan

Front bedroom

1. Paint balcony door
2. Frame kneewalls
3. Trim knewalls
4. Door for closet
5. Drawers and doors for kneewalls
6. Install baseboard
7. Install wall to ceiling corner trim
8. Install conduit for ceiling fan
9. Build new ceiling fan mount
10. Install new ceiling fan
11. Install grill cover for vent fan
12. Install window blind