Life in Rehab is BACK! Get ready for a slew of new projects for the new year! We just can't promise we know what we're doing!

Visit Life in Rehab's new Etsy shop
And because we're good friends by now,
our readers get 25% off
by entering the promo code
REHAB when you make a purchase!
So deck out, do some early holiday gift shopping,
strut your stuff and make a statement!


I'm on a mission. If I have never EVER not once replied to your comments, you may want to check this out: No Reply?



Friday, May 10, 2013

Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Hard Core Remodeling but Were Afraid to Ask Part 12!


 
 All right, listen up, Besties, today we start the fun part.
We destroyed the house.
Now, it's time to put it back together!
And to do that, we need a truck load of walls!
 So let's load the prurient parts on a rented truck and go at it like guests on Jerry Springer!
This is, of course
Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Hard Core Remodeling but Were Afraid to Ask!
And I drove the truck!
We need to start with the basics.
 We'll need insulation.
This is rated R-13, a perfect grade for walls.
We chose a fiberglass free product so no one would have to handle it carefully.
 
Drywall is made out of gypsum, a word which may not mean much to you. 
Gypsum itself is made out of the chemical calcium sulfate, a common mineral that occurs naturally in the earth. To form drywall, manufacturers add additional ingredients 
that make the drywall construction worthy.
Drywall is mixed wet, wrapped in heavy paper, then fired in a large kiln to dry.
 The resulting board is only semi-flexible, quite firm and somewhat water-permeable.
 This is green board, which is for bathrooms and other high moisture areas.
 This is 1/2 inch wallboard, suitable for any other space.
 And THIS is a chalk line.
The body of this baby is refillable with powdered chalk.
 And this is what it does.
You measure the wallboard, put the chalk line on either side of the board,
pull it taut, and SNAP!
Instant straight line.
This is a drywall T-square.
It helps you make nice 90 degree angles.
So once you have measured, and have your chalk line snapped, take a blade and cut through the paper
of the drywall.
Fold the piece over, then cut through the other side.
This puppy is a rasp.
Any uneven or ragged edges can be cleaned up easily.
It's kind if like a cheese grater for drywall.
And THIS is a drywall driver.
It helps you select the depth at which you want the screws to sink.
Why is this important?
Simple.
As I said, drywall is sandwiched between two layers of paper.
Believe it or not, that paper is load bearing.
We don't want to break it, tear it, harass it, miff it, disturb it, perturb it, confuse it,
overuse it, or lose it.
When you sink a drywall screw, you want it below the surface,
with a dimple in the paper.
See that?
We took a scrap piece and a bit of leftover lumber and practiced.
Minion #3 was all over it.

Still scared?
Relax.
It just takes a couple of tries.

Okay, she's got it.
Minion #1 was a duck to water.

Of course The Redhead got in there.
I have an unfair advantage of course, since I've done this before.
The end is magnetic, so the idea is to set the screw in place and just drill straight in.
Keep your tool perpendicular, and you're going to be perfect.
"What? What do you mean I messed up? You're high."
Monday, let's get this stuff on the wall!

Thursday, May 9, 2013

Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Hard Core Remodeling but Were Afraid to Ask Part 11!

We're about to get all kinds of construction-like up in here today!
Are you ready to get your hard hat on?
Seriously, it's a great way to disguise a bad hair day.
And here at LIR, we're all about getting it done and looking good with
Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Hard Core Remodeling but Were Afraid to Ask!
So let's get back to that nasty crumbled cement edge that wants to be a dining room/
living room border.
These are Tapcons.
Basically, they're screws that will go into concrete and hold on with
the kind of death grip Sylvester Stallone has on his career.

That board I cut so perfectly is going right across the lip of the edge.
 It's a tight enough fit that is wedges in without me having to hold it
while I work with it, and that's what you want.

 We're going to use this nifty little hammer drill set on, well, hammer.

We drilled pilot holes
(holes you drill first to put screws through)
with a masonry bit
(a drill bit specially designed to go through concrete.
And I'm not showing you a single technique or tool that I didn't use a minute later to finish the job.
Yeah, you can do this.
Or are you gonna let a middle aged, weak little redhead show you up?)
You can use a screwdriver for this, but a drill driver makes short work of it.

You want your screws in pairs every 16 inches or so, one on the top,
one on the bottom, slightly diagonal from each other.
Always stay about 2" from the end of the board so you avoid splitting the wood.
Now that that's firmly in place...
...and level with the floor...
(Oh, he checks my work!)
...it's time to fill in the gaps!
We're going to take 1x4s and create a lip by nailing them to the boards we
just screwed to the concrete.
We're going to mix small bags of cement in a 5 gallon bucket
in a 1:1 ratio...1 part cement to one part water.
I'm not using the big cake mixer attached to a drill this time.
My highly specialized tool?
A simple garden trowel.
You do not want to mix any air bubbles into this.
Air bubbles will crack the dried cement, but relax, it's not gonna happen.

Now, glop some of this stuff up next to the lip.

Using a scraper, spread it out, pushing it into the crumbled edge.
Pretend you're just frosting a cake.
Put more pressure on the side of the scraper furthest from the lip
so that the edge near the lip is slightly higher.
Looking good, eh?
Nice and even, huh?
It actually looks a lot better than my cakes!

Go allllllllll the way across, completely covering that nasty crumbled edge cake
with delicious gritty cement buttercrea...this metaphor is officially out of hand.


And yeah, he handed over the scraper and let The Redhead have at it.
(Those are my new footwear of choice.)
We'll take the leftover cement and fill in any cracks and uneven points.


Once this dries, we can use the floor leveling compound and
then we'll have a whole new floor!
As long as I still have a little left, these deep gouges can get filled,
and we'll save some money on the floor leveling stuff.
Sweeping immediately afterwards with a stiff broom will get up all
the extra sandy grit and high edges.
Nice manicure, huh?
Hey, we're all over this, and it's the last of the dull, drab,
prep type stuff.
This morning, we're picking up drywall.
Oh, and 1100 square feet of glorious bamboo hardwood flooring!
Ready for the pretty stuff?
Let's get to creatin'!!!

Tuesday, May 7, 2013

Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Hard Core Remodeling but Were Afraid to Ask Part 10!

Ready to learn a trick to do something you never knew needed to be done?
 Grab the toolbox, Besties, it's time for
Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Hard Core Remodeling but Were Afraid to Ask!
This is the edge of a step leading into the living room.
Not terribly neat and pretty, is it?
We need to get from here...
...to here.
See that nice sharp edge?
It's easy and inexpensive to do with just a few steps.
Grab your goggles, we're going in!
Now, start with the stair tread and measure the length.
Always measure twice.
Why?
Do you see those TWO pencil marks on my 1x4?
Lil different, huh?
Exactly.
The one to the left is correct.
I ended up measuring three times, but my cut was right.
Use your square to mark an accurate line.
Wood plus this...
...equals this.
Now, what happens when you end up a little off on a cut?
Position your square with the lip at the bottom of the board.
Line up the saw blade on the pencil line and butt the square
against the guide and this will help you shave that little bit of uneven crap.
Tip: saws don't actually cut wood, they remove it.
They turn the wood into sawdust.
And here's what we're left with.
Perfect!
Tomorrow...
what do you say we play with CEMENT!!!?
It's like mud...but it really doesn't clean up so well.
Anyway...