sunday started with mathew’s head up in the ceiling. he was wrapping the vent air duct with duct insulation (imagine thick aluminum foil bubble wrap) and he was pretty grumpy. [there was not enough room to turn around, and I kept hitting my head on the old gas pipe that comes out of the ceiling. -turtle] (left) his mood was understandable considering the confined space and the angle he had to work in! (right) i always love the unexpected art that comes from the walls in progress. it looks unconventional now but will soon be beautiful.
more patchwork wall “art” ready for plaster. of course most contractors would tear everything out of a room and dump it into landfill, they would install brand new gypboard and use drywall tape and be done. during the entire remodel/restoration of this house mathew and i have tried to be as environmentally conscious as possible, this includes recycling and reusing everything that we possibly can. it takes more time, but we produce the same if not LESS trash than our neighbors who are not restoring their homes!
while mathew worked on the ceiling vent fan, i cut and installed recycled wood backer strips for the wainscoting to attach to. [we used backer strips instead of a whole plywood backer because we could reuse old scrap wood, and we had the old wallboard to reuse (otherwise it would end in the landfill). we’d have had to buy new plywood backer. -cheapturtle]
[mole said i love cutting thin “dangerous” pieces of gyp board, when she saw me cutting out this piece of board to fit in the ceiling. they usually break, but the board that’s been used in this bathroom has fiberglass embedded in it, so it holds together well.] when mathew finished with the vent fan he brought the ladder outside to do more roof leak prevention. [actually, it’s more like leak-guesswork. i thought i’d got it twice already and it’s still leaking. we’ve got tarp hanging down the side of the house, and roofing tar pasted all over the roof. i’ll leave the drip catcher under the leak just in case… – turtle]
(left) while mathew was outside i continued cutting and installing backer strips on the bathroom walls. i felt like a carpenter! the process involves measuring between studs, cutting wood to fit, pre-drilling holes on end pieces (so that they don’t split) and screwing the pieces onto the studs. (right) and before i stopped for the night, i cut and installed gypboard between the backer strips, on one of the walls.