toilet paper party

 

Miss Mouse having a ball while unsupervised

ceiling work cont

Things have been at a bit of a standstill here. I was still deciding what to do with the soundproofing . After doing many many hours of internet research (Conibear curse to over analyse) I decided we should mount metal track to the joists using special sound insulation clips . They are clips lined with rubber that holds the track so minimise noise transference. I had to order them from the States ( 6 bucks US..... 9 Canadian !) as I needed at least 75 clips it would save a lot.

My lovely assistant Mitch :) came over to put up the track while I gave helpful and insightful advice ........








where are your safety glasses !!!!?? hhmmmmm????

 
 

Renos Continued

I didn't take any pics on Tues .... We just went around and shimmed and glued every floor board to every joist and all cracks inbetween. Not very exciting . Managed to keep the glue off the wals though so that was good :)

Mitch did 2 trips to get the sound insulation material. So handy to have a truck!

So its just a matter of filling the gaps between the joists with the batting . Easy peasy. Nasty stuff tho . Itchy. We were lamenting the fact that we didnt have scaffolding and how much easier it would be ...... Then I remebered an old table top I had(my old desk from the other apartment ) So I threw that on top of the bags . Voila ! Instant scaffold. It didnt take long at all to do this bit . Each bag 30 bucks and covers about 55 sq feet . I decided to double up layers in the living room . Cost about 250 altogether. It has made a huge difference already . With glueing and batting its better than it was before so once I get the final layer of special soundproofing drywall it will be brilliant !

more mess... sigh

The mountains look lovely covered in snow. It actually snowed a lot Monday but it didnt stick in the city. Cold today though (weds) -2 c Brrrr

Side Project

As well as the ceiling I had the bedroom to deal with . There was a crummy built in closet in the corner of the bedroom which was poorly made and small. I got a shiny lovely new Ikea closet system when they were on sale last week. Thats a whole other thing I didnt blog . Tok a week of evenings to put it together. I will show you pics later. Anyway thats installed behind the door on the right .

We haphazardly taped some plastic up to keep the dust out of the bed. Sigh .Less than ideal working conditions . Mouse was in her bed somewhere behind the plastic. She didnt even poke her head out during the teardown of the wall !


its fun bashing at walls with a hammer . So dusty tho!

Buh-Bye ugly closet. Hello big mess.

There is a hole in the floor that Im hoping I can find some laminate to patch and put a rug over it . No problem. When the drywallers come to do the ceilig I will have them skim coat the walls to match existing and then throw a coat of paint on the match too . Ha home renos ..no problem.

Calm before the Storm

So I decided it was a good idea to soundproof my ceiling . Heres some photos to show what I ve been up to so far.


I don't have a lot of 'stuff' so it was easy to put the sofa on the balcony along with a couple chairs and the rest went into my bedroom

The Storm

Well...no going back now ....... gulp




Thankfully there were no major surprises once we got going . There was a live wire left loose in the ceiling so Mitch tidied that up and removed a couple of odd unused lines. It all went very fast... 2 hours to pull it down and about another 2 to put it all in large binbags and haul it away to the dump. Phew .

As you can see even in the chaos a little bit of the Conibear OCD comes through. I was putting all the mess in piles.... you can see on the right ...bigger chunks of ceiling ..... insulation. Mitchs pile on the left however ...not so nice .

there all cleaned up and tidied away. I actually really like the lighting like that . Reminds me of a modern gallery.

The Morning After

It doesnt look too bad in the cold light of day. There is dust EVERYWHERE though. Should have covered the kitchen area a little better in hindsight ... sigh

Today we will be tackling the squeaks from the floor above. I have already been talking to my neighbour upstairs and we will be getting him to walk around so we can see where the bad bits are and then glue/screw the heck out of everything. Once thats done we can put in some insulation .Im going to special insulation stuff called Safe and Sound ... gives you a warm fuzzy feeling doesnt it?

The drywaller called this morning and may not be able to come for 2 weeks so I may be living without a ceiling for a while .

OK OK! ...... Ready for Catch Up??

I have been a bad blogger. My brothers are putting me to shame so here's a selection of summer camping trips , visits to Oslo and much,much more !!!!!!

Camping Aug '09

So I suppose I should start at the beginning and introduce my latest flame. Everyone this is Mitch Baker. We met in June and did a few camping trips over the summer ...local and across the border to Washington State.




Mitch and his dog Yoda trying to read the map



our campsite in Elaho Valley ..about 2 hours from Vancouver



Yummy camp breakfast ..bacon and eggs! and leftover carrots




It was very very very hot this weeekend plus the horse flies were out in droves
Mitch retreated to the truck to eat his breakfast in peace away from bugs