Scary Cabin

Work on prepping the upstairs drywall was going really well, right up until it wasn’t.

We started the weekend sanding. Starting at one end of the upstairs with Genny sanding the lower half of the walls and Bob sanding the upper halve. We got everything sanded down and ready for another coat of mud. For some areas, like the bathroom, this should be the final coat of mud. For others, like the closet, we might need another coat, but overall, it’s getting really close. However, we still had one corner that didn’t even have drywall yet because it’s behind the pile of flooring. Once we finished up with the mud, we cleaned up and started moving floor. First we moved most of the stuff out of the back bedroom. Then we placed as much of the sub-floor as we could. Next we moved the remaining stack of sub-flooring out the way and then moved all the boxes of laminate into the other room. Finally, we could get at the wall and finish installing the drywall. With the drywall up and the joints taped, we felt pretty good about what we had accomplished.

In addition to the drywall we installed the dining room light. The chain isn’t long enough to allow it to hang at the proper height, but it’s there and we now have a working light over the dinning room table.

Only thing left to do was clean up and watch a movie. So we thought. While getting cleaned up, we noticed that the tub wasn’t draining too well and the toilet didn’t want to flush. Uh-oh. Work with a plunger didn’t seem to help but the other drains seemed OK. After a while, the tub would empty. Maybe it’s just something plugging up the drain from the tub and toilet? We had a spare wax ring and the upstairs toilet just sitting there. Maybe that would work better. So 30 minutes later, we have a second toilet and it seems to flush OK.

The next day, I’m under the house, looking at the drain pipes and realize that for the tub and toilet to drain slow, the problem must be in the main line between the house and the septic. The other drains only seemed OK because they’re higher and have more pipe to hold water until it slowly drains out. We tried a long piece of old electrical wire to clear it, but it didn’t help. We also dug up the septic lid and verified that it’s not full so that’s not the problem. It’s just a normal plugged up drain pipe between the house and tank.

After spending most of the day digging and messing with the plumbing and now without fully functioning plumbing, it seemed like a good time to leave. The remaining drywall sanding and mudding will have to wait.

Last time I had this breakdown for future work. Where are we now?

weekend n+0 - drywall prep (October 17/18th did some, not as much as planned)
weekend n+1 - finish drywall prep for texture
weekend n+2 - texture & prime
weekend n+3 - paint & start bathroom floor tile & finish bathroom electrical
weekend n+4 - finish bathroom tile & re-install vanity & toilet
weekend n+5 - install doors & start knee wall framing
weekend n+6 - install laminate
weekend n+7 - finish laminate (baseboard & casing?)
weekend n+8 - knee wall work
weekend n+9 - knee wall work
weekend n+10 - knee wall work