We had a long day of work today. We were up just after 7 AM, had a light breakfast of toast, fruit juice, and coffee, read a few blog posts, and got to work. My first task was to apply a second, light coat of drywall compound to all of the divots in the wall.
Our main morning task was the installation of the fold-down ladder for the garage attic. It was definitely a two-person job. Per the instructions, we installed temporary installation boards to support the assembly while we secured it in place. The installation required one of us to be in the attic and that job fell to me. We put the assembly on top of a plastic shelving unit to get it close to the ceiling. Once I was in the attic with all of the tools I would need, including a headlamp, Linda slid the shelving unit so the assembly was directly under the rough opening. It was still too far from the ceiling for me to reach from above so she placed two footstools under it. I was then able to reach one end from above and pull it up into the opening while she lifted the other end into position from below.
We read and followed the directions carefully so we already had the pull string and T-handle installed. That allowed Linda to move the plastic shelves out of the way, carefully open the door from below, and position the step ladder. I dropped her the cord for the worklight and then had enough light to work comfortably. We temporarily secured the unit with deck screws. They were cheap screws and the heads tended to strip easily, but we got them in far enough to hold the unit in place while I installed the lag screws.
The 10 lag screws got installed through pre-drilled holes, six of which went through metal hinge plates. The instructions said to drill through these holes into the trusses and headers, but the folding ladder hardware made that difficult, and my drill buts were all a bit short to do much. By cutting the zip ties and partially unfolding the ladder I was able to get all 10 lag screws most of the way in with my drill. They all had to be shimmed. The final tightening was done with a socket and ratchet.
We took a break for lunch around 1 PM and had leftover miso soup, tofu hot dogs, and fresh apples. I made a quick run to Lowe’s to get some additional electrical parts I needed to install lights and a light switch in the garage attic. While I was there I also bought a baby gate for our basement stairs. Up until now we have blocked the landing for the basement stairs with a couple of chairs when grand-daughter Madeline has come to visit. Now that she has successfully spent the night at our house we anticipate many more such visits and wanted a more permanent solution.
The device I bought had a gate with a latch. It was designed to be installed under tension, but the directions said it had to be anchored to the walls if used at the top of a flight of stairs. We were not thrilled about mounting it to the walls, but we did. The installation took about an hour to complete.
Back in the garage I found an old, unopened drywall sanding/finishing sponge. It had a 1/4″ thick coarse pad on one side for sanding. The regular sponge side was used to wipe off the drywall and slightly wet the areas to be sanded. I let the sanded areas dry, wiped everything down, and applied a coat of white exterior semi-gloss to the area of the two existing walls and the ceiling that will be inside the utility closet.
The probability of rain rose steadily though the day and finally resulted in thunderstorms around 4:30 PM. Steve said yesterday he would be here today and I tried to get him to understand that based on the forecast he needed to be here early. He wasn’t. He showed up with the excavator about an hour after the rains, by which point the retaining wall work site had turned to mud.
He took the excavator back there anyway and we watched him work while we had dinner, which consisted of a very nice green salad with strawberries and the rest of the Pad Thai from last night. (Even left over it was still exceptional.) He was moving boulders and a lot of dirt trying to get rid of the small mountain range that blocked the flow of water away from our lower deck and was spreading the dirt around in an effort to create some of the final grading. He brought a helper with him and they had long lengths of drain pipe that I think the intended to install. But the skies darkened, the rain started, the wind came up, and the warning sirens came on. He shut off the machine and the two of them made a run for their truck and left. More rain is forecast for tonight with a chance of thunderstorms, possibly severe. The probability for rain on Tuesday is currently 60%, and stays at 40% through Wednesday. At this juncture it appears that they won’t get much work done here this week, and their machine may be stuck here until it dries out.
After dinner Linda and I finally built the base for the platform where the library HVAC unit will be installed. It’s a 40″ deep x 46″ wide box with center cross bracing. It’s made of pieces of 2 x 12 on edge. We set it in the northeast corner of the garage, leveled it with shims, and secured it to the studs in the walls with 3.5″ nails. I had to make all of the cuts with my Rockwell 8″ circular saw as the chop saw won’t cut something that wide. I did not cut the plywood platform as I need to install it after the new (west) wall of the utility closet is in place so I can nail through the base into the wall studs. I will, however, cut the plywood tomorrow before the wall is built as I will be able to set it on the base and trace around it on the underside to get a perfect fit.
My goal for tomorrow is to cut the platform, build the west wall, set it in place and anchor it, and install the platform. Linda has a 12:30 PM dentist appointment, so I will have to do most of this work by myself. By that point I will need to get cleaned up, shift gears, and get ready for a 4 PM FMCA Education Committee work session.