Changes

What difference almost 2 years makes. I have finished a few cabinets and a small cabinet my daughter gave to my wife.

Wow a Year goes quick

I am going to post.
I am going to post.

Fun and long weekend last weekend went to an auction where a couple of widows were clearing out a lot of woodworking stuff. Boy a lot of it went for way too much money including several tools that went for more than new. But on to me.

I picked up my first Bedrock plane in a box of other planes. Will get picture but I'm afraid is does have a lateral and should.

Sunday once more

More prep for base coat

Had to strip away more than I wanted and could not finish the corner to start the final coat. I did get the wall reinforced by the Wally's. It is not going to be fun putting in the mesh and I was really hoping to try the topcoat. This is where the closet will be so I am hoping I can hide my mistakes.

Sometimes I think maybe I should strip more wall because it is really thin on this wall so I will build it up to the normal thickness.

The most used tools

This is the start of a few articles about the tools and things I really find useful. I really resisted the idea of both a screw driver and a drill. I really love both of these. I first got the Milwaukee drill and found it would handle both big spade bits and taps cons. The only issue with it is the weight and the speed. It has way too much torque and acceleration for for when you are reaching into the confined spaces that are the norm when working on a house.

I tried a lot of smaller drills and drivers includes the small Ryobi, the Bosch i-driver, and this Dewalt. The Ryobi was 4.6v loss leader in the Home Depot black Friday sale and thought it would be nice to try for cheap. The Bosch i-Driver had great torque and could be used in small spaces really easily. It even drove spade bit bits well. The battery life is really good and it is great tool. The drawback is that it still has a lot of torque and I found it hard to start the small screws and in limited space. I settled on the Dewalt at 7.2v as it has really great speed control and it works in smaller spaces.

More shopping

I went out at lunch and got the matching white switches and cover for the bathroom to install the vent fan switch. This will let the fan run after we leave for a fixed amount of time.

Sunday, finally got more done

More Wally's and removed more plaster

This is the wall where the closet is going to go I filled in all of the patches except the bottom where I decided the plaster was too loose and now I have to do the matching corner.

I think it can come out pretty well and this will be the first wall I will put a finish coat on as it will be hid by the closet. It has been 20 years since I have put on a final cost of plaster.

 

Windows wall

Worked the corner and tried a paper baked metal corner as the condition was not good but i thought the metal corner too think. So far it looks pretty sharp. It feels weird using drywall supplies with plaster but if you can't tell I'm mostly making this up as I go along.

I also touched up the rest of this wall as this will be the next wall finished as I need the height of the plaster to finish the trim for the walls. 

Where the real action is

Decided what to do with the heat register. I have removed the plaster from above and below as I don't think the keying was working and there isn't much to attach the register to so I'll start from new. You can see the fine cover I am using for now.

The outlet box is terminal frustration. I thought I had it sized right but it was the old metal box size. I had closed up the opening to make a nice fit. It was too small and I had to reopen it and remove some of the metal lathe I had installed making the opening too big. So I got to make it smaller again. The other problem is the room is on one circuit so there is no lighting to move the wires into the box. I can't close the wall until the wires are in the right place.

 I also had some left over base plaster so I started to close up the wall by the door. I need to rebuild the wood lathe to support the metal lathe for the base coat. Got more stabilization of side wall done.

 

More shopping

Got a new bulb shade for the hall light fixture. Tall enough to hold a big compact fluorescent to try to light up the stairs. I really have to add another fixture to light up the stairs. Shopped the ACE sales and got this and some General Finishes Oil and varnish I wanted to try for half off.