Downstairs Drywall

Submitted by Ana White on Thu, 05/09/2013 - 11:23

I am so proud to tell you that we have indeeded finished putting up all the drywall in the Momplex!

You know the upstairs has been done for quite a while.

But then we stopped and put in an above the floor heat system in the upstairs. We kept the downstairs free of drywall to hook up all the water lines to the upstairs heat system.

But that wasn't the only thing keeping us from finishing up the Momplex.

Biggest hurdle?

The weather. Normally, spring comes in April in Alaska for us.

Well, it's a month late, and it's still cold enough to need a heat system inside the Momplex.

That heat system is here borrowed wood stove.

Step 1 Diagram
Step 1

We are very thankful to have this wood stove to keep the Momplex warm enough to work in. But as long as this wood stove is here, we can't finish building the walls for the boiler room (it sits too close to the wall and would be a fire hazard).

If we can't finish the wall framing, we can't finish electrical and plumbing either.

But if we pull the wood stove, it's too cold to work inside.

After months of waiting on the weather to warm up, we finally just gave up and turned to our on-again/off-again buddy Craig S. List.

Step 2 Diagram
Step 2 Instructions

Craig is a hit or miss buddy of ours, sometimes he comes through, and sometimes he doesn't.

Well, he sure came through for us this time.

I don't think I could love a heater more than this slightly used, rather loud BTU blower. It's an Alaska girl thing - something about feeling your fingers and toes again make you get that warm fuzzy feeling all over and hover around it like a obsessed groupie.

Step 3 Diagram
Step 3 Instructions

With a new heat source, first thing we did was yank the wood stove and build the boiler room walls.

Step 4 Diagram
Step 4 Instructions

Then we ran the water supply and return lines to the plumbing manifolds.

Step 5 Diagram
Step 5 Instructions

The white lines are the drinking water lines. The red lines supply the upstairs heat system.

Step 6 Diagram
Step 6 Instructions

The heat system lines come in right above where the basement in floor heat system comes in, so when we do hook the permanent boiler system up, it's all right there.

The household water lines come in on the other side of the boiler room.

Step 7 Diagram
Step 7 Instructions

With the boiler room walls up, we can finally finish up all the electrical in the basements.

We are pretty excited to be putting away the electrical tools!

Step 8 Diagram
Step 8 Instructions

And hanging the rest of the drywall!!!

Uncle Bill, Grandpa Tim and the Ram's cousin Jared helped hang all the drywall in the basement.

Step 9 Diagram
Step 9 Instructions

With only three rooms per unit downstairs, this drywalling went really fast.

Step 10 Diagram
Step 10 Instructions

We also choose to use 54" wide sheets to minimize the mud seams in the basement, since we've got 9' walls downstairs.

Step 11 Diagram
Step 11

Why is it the mechanical systems can take so long, and just make a bigger mess? But one good day of drywall can look like a ton of work was done?

Step 12 Diagram
Step 12

Instead of buying access panel covers and boxes, we just framed the manifolds out in wood. I'll make a door for them later on.

You and I know what goes on inside these walls, but to everyone else - this is all they will every see.

Step 13 Diagram
Step 13

Doesn't that boiler room look a lot better now?

Step 14 Diagram
Step 14

And check out these stairs ....

Step 15 Diagram
Step 15

What a difference drywall makes! 

We are done will all of the drywall in the Momplex! 

So done, in fact, that we took all the scraps over to our other job site.

And went Mother's Day shopping ....

Yep, it's happening.  

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