June 28, 2005
More progress on the project
No, that's not the final location of the toilet, that just happened to be a convenient place to stash it without any help. For your reference, those things are heavy. Shipping weight is 100 pounds
Yesterday morning, the guy that was going to help me with framing the walls came down with food poisoning. Bummer. But, he did tell me that framing the walls was no more complicated than anything I had done and he'd lend me his framing nailer and air compressor to get the job done. Well, he was right. It wasn't really complicated, just time consuming. With a few more pointers and advice, it took me about 6 hours to construct a wall. And I think it turned out pretty well. Not too shabby for a first timer I'd have to say. I was hoping to get both done, but I should be able to rent a framing nailer when we get back from Arizona and knock out the other wall fairly easily, then it's on the electrical work.
So, when framing, remember that the dimensions given on lumber are "nominal." That means that when surfacing the 2x4 studs, that they take off 1/4" per side for surfacing. So a 2x4 is really 1.5x3.5. This is good to know when laminating a beam to use as a door header like I had to do, since you have to sandwich in 1/2" plywood in the middle to make it come out right.
I also found out that there's *no* way that a 30" door will work to the bathroom. The depth of the room is 74". The rough opening for a 30" pocket door is 61". That would have the door open into either the vanity or toilet. Whoops. A 24" door seems to solve the problem as the rough in is 49". I measured, and a 24" door is what we have going to our bathroom right now, so I think that 24" to a water closet (and if you're claustrophoibic, do not go in there) should be just fine. Unless we sell the house to really fat people, but I figure that they'd get something without stairs anyway, like a ranch on a slab.
Posted by dlloyd at June 28, 2005 06:02 AM