tv up(date)

The basement had its first official guests this weekend and things went well; the couch got high marks for two nights of sleeping two adults and two kids, and overall things got a round of thumbs up from everyone seeing the progress so far. It was gratifying, especially since I don't think I'm going to get to baseboards or tiling the fireplace anytime soon so this might be as finished as things get for a while.

The calm before the storm

Of course, that didn't stop me from saying "absolutely" to the wife's question on whether I thought we should put a tv up for our guests before they showed up. So after getting things all taken care of, it was with a mixture of dread and excitement I found myself drilling more holes in my freshly mudded and painted walls. I loved the tv we picked out, but I was terrified at the thought of screwing up my beloved basement. And of course I did.

Aww dammit.

But the tv is up and looks good, and even better I caught the GoT finale on it last night after the kids had gone to bed thanks to our HBOnow trial. The wife came down to check on me and was worried I looked a little too happy, and I can see where she was coming from.

UUUUUGGGHHHHH

Today is a slightly different story, as I paint the patch and try to figure out the mess Comcast made of our whole-house splitter when it was first set up. Typing the word "Comcast" is enough to give me the shakes, let alone speaking it, so hopefully this is the last cable-related work that goes on for a while.

They're good problems to have though, and if today ends with broadcast television in the basement then I'll have gotten things to where they need to be.

Mistakes are okay (as long as you can do something about them).

I will admit to hitting a rough patch on the basement this week. A lot of that has to do with not having power for a few days while I waited for an electrician to repair the damage ComEd did to the house getting the power back on, and frustration in dealing with them and the fence company not being able to get us back on their schedule. But while this is going on I’m trying to get the outside molding corners right, and I keep seeing other imperfections and they’re kind of driving me nuts. 

The electrician had to trim some of the drywall to replace a couple of outlets last night; it’s not a huge deal but I had them looking pretty good with the covers on. Oh well. I know I can patch. Apparently the wife wants to put new covers on anyway so it can wait until we’ve picked new ones out.

One thing I can do is deal with a smaller mistake that’s been driving me crazy, the coaxial cable sticking out of the wall. What I should have done was bring it more toward the center of the wall so it was closer to where the tv will end up and not running along the wall from the corner. If we can afford a tv, paying an electrician took a nice chunk out of that budget…anyway, too late to change it that now. What I did do, however, is put a prior work box in there so the cover has something to screw into and sits there properly, even if it’s in a dumb place.

When even the simplest sounding jobs get complicated, sometimes it helps to take a break. Literally. Break something.

I thought this would be an easy fix; get the jab saw out, mark the guidelines, and viola, outlet box attached. Of course not. I forgot the foundation was sticking out in that corner, and there’s a stud just to the right of it so there wasn’t even room to cut the hole properly. Thankfully, with a quick mod to the box via breaking the top swing arm off, the box fit in with one side resting on top of the stud. And the screw that would close the swing arm just went right into the stud, so it’s probably on there better than it would have been anyway.

Yeah, that looks better, even with the crappy corner mud job behind it even if I do wish it was about 4 feet to the right. I’ll take some joy in a small victory though, as I try again to get the outside corners lined up. 

I also got a new shop buddy to keep me company while I work on stuff, and to be honest having Batman in the shop with me kind of made my day. I'm going to ride that feeling to the end of this project.  

Maybe I can make him a better perch later.

Purchase list

Prior work box

new coaxial cable cover

Batman

cleaning up the shop

I’m not always the neatest person, and my workspaces often reflect that. I can handle a certain amount of mess on my desk, in the shop, or on the kitchen counter. But if I let it go too far it becomes impossible for me to new work without cleaning. I think my shop recently got to that point. 

It was easy to let things get to this point with such a big project going on, but the basement is winding down and I needed to find some space to paint and cut the moldings. Looking at everything I had left over from drywalling I was wondering if I was ever going to get the space ready to do any other projects but as it turns out it was a new project that helped me clean back up.

At least I had room to frame some of this up.

I had a bunch of 2x4s left over from thinking I was going to have to do more framing on the basement to clean up. It occurred to me more shelving would help get organized in the garage, but I didn’t want to make anything until I got cleaned up. Kind of a catch-22. Eventually I said ‘screw it, let’s just clean up by using these extra 2x4s to make shelves’ and here we are.

Not great looking, but there's potential...

This was with the wife’s blessing, and once I had the initial frame she even had the good idea to leave the bottom half of one side open to store some of the bigger stuff we’ve got in the garage, like the kids’ wagon. She’s so cool. Even after I told her I would need to take another trip to HD to get more 2x4s to achieve the finished product. While I was still trying to clean up left-over material. Yeah, that went over well.

Bingo. Let's get organized.

Somehow I found the room to frame these up and fill them out. I started with 8-foot 2x4s and chopped 17 inches off each one to make the shelf brackets. At 17 inches wide that’s big enough to make each shelf out of 4 2x4s but instead I just used 2 and covered that with left over drywall. That meant fewer new boards to buy AND better use than just trashing the extra panels, a win/win. Getting all of this out at least gave me room to paint the molding, and now I don’t feel like I’m on the edge of a nervous breakdown when I walk into the shop to cut it on the miter.

Much better.

Purchase list: 

12 left-over 2x4’s, already purchased plus 10 more
50 pack of 2 ½ inch kreg screws

What a difference!

After an eventful weekend things are starting to round into shape in the basement. Even after not having power for several hours on Friday and still not having power in most of the basement. It’s funny, doing the basement myself has mostly gone fine but hiring someone to put a fence in lead to a main getting cut and a weekend of waiting patiently for Monday to come so I can repeatedly call to see if we can get moving again. Not fun. 

Thankfully there's enough room in the shop to paint a few lengths of molding before they go up.

But putting up the crown molding hasn’t been terrible, so I’ve got that going for me, which is nice. Actually, painting it and getting it on the wall has been surprisingly pleasant, if not especially fast-moving work. One more day should see everything on the wall at least, if not caulked and re-painted. 

First one on, and I already know this was the right decision.

I had my doubts about going with a plastic-covered foam molding but I have nothing but good things to say about udecor and the moldings we choose. They shipped quickly, are easy to work with, and for what we spent add so much more to the room it’s kind of unbelievable. If they had baseboards I thought might work I would go with them again in a heartbeat. This was perfect for putting them up on my own, as soon as I had the first one up I knew I had made the right decision. Thumbs up all around for udecor.

Still no power, so a bad photo of unfinished molding will have to do for now.

Sadly at this point it seems figuring out the baseboards will have to wait until after our guests leave next weekend. I had planned on getting a tv this weekend too but now want to wait until the power situation gets sorted out…I’m OCD enough that leaving this issue unresolved is causing me no small amount of grief, but I’m not about to start mucking around with electrical stuff. Part of enjoying DIY is knowing what not to get into, and I’d rather not get electrocuted, thank you.

Purchase list:

16 8-ft lengths of crown molding from udecor
1 extra tube of liquid nails for paneling
1 tube paintable caulk, probably more