Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Basement progress

This was a work in the basement day right from the beginning.  I had painted some of the walls last night, but today it was the small bedroom/office that I worked on.

I have not fired up the sprayer since I changed to the finish paint.  The paint requires back rolling, in order to apply the egg shell finish to it as is drys, so I have been rolling from the paint pan.  I could go purchase the fancy power roller attachment for $80 but it seems pricey just to have paint come into the roller thru the handle.

I say to myself that I will start the sprayer tomorrow when I have all day, but that hasn't happened.  After painting the smaller bedroom, I got started finishing the electrical work that was roughed in before the insulation went up.

As I am digging out the boxes that are full of drywall compound, I learned that the sheet rock hanging folks damaged a lot of the wiring with their roto zip tool.  As I was digging out the wires sometimes I was getting arching fire, where insulation was torn away with the tool.  Some of the wires just fell out on the floor once the drywall mud was scraped away.

As an old electrician, I am not overly religious about turning off the power when I install the duplex receptacles.  Just being careful not to short things out and make sparks is the rule of thumb.  But eventually I managed to short out the box where the insulation was gone, which blew the breaker in the panel.  So I guess that turned off the circuit by default.  And yes, every once in a while I will shock myself, but I am somewhat used to that.

Dad always said that the shock didn't hurt you, but it was what you jammed your elbow into behind you that did the damage.  But he checked light sockets by licking the end of his finger and touching the center button of the socket to see if it was hot!  I'm not nearly that brazen.

Late in the afternoon, I went over to Home Depot, and purchased some of the hanging ceiling panels and grid work for the small bedroom.  Once back home, I carried it all down stairs and began to install the perimeter metal pieces.  But by about 7:30 I was shot and turned out the lights.

Just working away in the basement isn't very exciting for blogging, but it is what is happening around here.

Retired Rod

1 comment:

  1. It was fun to read about your Dad's method for checking on light sockets to see if they were hot! That would probably knock me across the room!!

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