The Great Wall of Uxbridge

There must be some gene or something that makes a man want to build a wall - even those men who have no business building a wall. I've built several walls - or at least wall-like structures - shelves, and work benches, and similar things - and I have no business building walls. So, of course, I set out to build a wall.

Let's back up. We've had several problems with our furnace over the years, water leaks, start up failures, and, recently, the power vent that pulls the exhaust out had started making terrible noises. I went out to take a look at it one day and found that it was rusted, corroded, and missing major pieces - like they had been eaten away. I guess this is normal - the sulfur in the fuel oil mixes with the rain water and makes - you guessed it - sulfuric acid! This eats away the metal and destroys the vent. We had the furnace guy come and look at it and he said we either needed a new vent or we needed to put in a chimney. He said the vent would be about $800 and the chimney would be about $1500. Right, so we called up friend John and had him start the process of putting in a new vent.

The problem was however, that all the while the vent was being destroyed, it apparently wasn't pulling enough exhaust out the flue. We noticed that we had a fine layer of soot all over everything in the basement. It was then that we decided that we should wall in the furnace so that if this happened again, it would be contained in the furnace room. This also afforded me the chance to build that wall and dabble in a plan to finish the basement. Of course, I really didn't know where to start. I had a Time-Life book on building walls that I had gotten a long time ago so I pulled that out and had a look. My, it looks so easy in the antiseptic "lab" they used for the photos. Funny, they don't seem to have all these pipes, and wires, and beams, and poles like I seem to have all over my basement. Luckily, our friend John Cote is a general contractor and does this for a living so I gave him a call and told him what I was thinking. He told me to pick up some lumber and he would be over to get me started.

On the appointed day, he showed up with all his tools and we got started. Getting the walls laid out properly is the critical first step. The book has you drop a plumb line down from the header so you can figure out where the sole plate needs to be but no, we don't use no stinking plumb line. John whips out this device that spins a laser light that "paints" a line along the floor, up the wall, and across the ceiling that tells you exactly where everything should be. We snap down some chalk lines and cut the sole plates. John then gets out his hammer drill, drills holes in the plate and the floor and we pound in concrete anchor "nails". Repeat for the studs on the walls. He pulls out another laser devices that makes a perfect 90 degree angle for the corner and we snap those lines and repeat the process. As he's having me cut studs and nail them in, he stops everything and says "OK, we have to go to Home Depot. We have to get you an apron." By apron, he means a tool belt - something to hold the hammer, square, nails, tape measure, and a pencil. I'm not too keen on the idea but he insists saying that it is really necessary. I give in and we come back with a new belt, a tape measure, a utility knife, a small square, a big T square, and a 4 foot level. I strap it all on (well, not all of it) and get back to work. After a little bit, I have to admit, it *is* much more efficient. I'm no longer looking for my pencil, or the hammer, or the square after each use - it's all right there. So John leaves and I continue over the next several days. By the next weekend, I've finished framing the wall. It was not without its difficulties of course. Measuring for studs and then actually cutting them the right length is a skill that mostly eludes me. The tolerances are ridiculous. A 16th too short and the stud sways in the wind and can't be nailed to the top plate. Too long and you can't wedge it in between the top and bottom plate. It's better to have them too long than too short and taking off one blades worth is usually too much so I end up leaving them long and bashing them into place laboriously. Toe nailing is another skill that I don't have and that's what this process mainly consists of.

Today, I worked on getting light into the new room. Once it gets walled in, the light in the basement will be outside the room so I had to figure out how to get light in there. Awhile back, I had run a new electrical circuit over to my work bench so that I could hang a fluorescent light and have an electrical outlet nearby. For the new light, I decided to tap into that circuit. I still had about a mile of Romex left from that project so I spliced into a junction box, ran wire along the header inside the room, down to a box for a switch, and then back up to the ceiling for a receptacle. I moved my light into the room, plugged it in to the new receptacle and - there was light!

At this point I'm basically ready to try my hand at drywall. According to John, this is actually the hard part so it should be interesting.

Civic Duty

It's great to have Kyle home from school but it does present somewhat of a dilemma - transportation. With Carly driving and working, and Deb working full-time now, there is no vehicle left for Kyle. Of course, he wasn't real thrilled about finding a job so it was looking like it wouldn't matter but I knew he would have to get *something* so we started the process of figuring out what vehicle to get.

There were quite a few options of course - just perfect for people who can't make decisions. I could get a car for me and give him the Camry or I could keep the Camry and get some junker for him. The wrench in the system is that he's going to be back in school in three months so the extra car would end up sitting through the whole winter gathering dust (and chipmunks). As we were pondering what to do, we couldn't help but look at cars and we found that we really liked the Honda Civic. Well, after a bunch of hemming and hawing, we hatched a plan. We would get a new Civic and then sell the Camry at the end of the Summer. Next Summer, we would find something else for him or me to drive.

Have I mentioned how much I hate the car buying process? This one actually wasn't that bad. We shopped around a bit and found a dealer that wasn't too bad. The hardest part was finding the right color/model. I decided I wanted white and Kyle was pushing to get a manual transmission. Turns out there was only one white, manual transmission Civic in New England - or so the dealer said. Anyway, they found one, we haggled, and then drove off in a new Civic. It's a very nice car. It's roomy, and fun to drive and gets great mileage. I'm not sure the manual transmission was the best decision. It's fun for awhile but then it's just work. Oh well.

Kyle and I are trading off driving it - although he seems to get it more than me... That's OK, he'll be back at school soon enough. I'm re-thinking about the plan to sell the Camry however. It's still in good shape and I'll need it again next Summer so it might be cheaper just to hang onto it over the Winter.