3 December 2015

Ian and Doug got here somewhat after 7, having stopped en route to retrieve Sonny’s Ramset^™ gun (the device that fires nails into concrete using .22 caliber blank cartridges).  We set to work Lumber Lock^® gluing and Ramset^™ nailing the wall plates to the basement concrete floor.  Got all done (except for the closets in the two guest bedrooms) and realized that the first plate we’d put down was 1¼″ out of position, since overnight we cleverly forgot about the change in wall position made late yesterday afternoon.  Fortunately it takes Lumber Lock^® 72 hours to fully cure, so prying up the miscreant piece and reattaching it was not difficult.  And good practice for later, as you shall see…  Then we moved up to the main level and the fun began in earnest, as the upstairs wall plates zigzag all over the place, with many constraints on where each one had to be placed.  The computer floor plan drawings were of limited use because the 3D Home Architect program I use only shows 4″ or 6″ walls, which allows for ½″ drywall on one side of the wall, but not both.  So which side of the wall has the drywall, i.e., which line on the computer drawing shows where the wall plate is supposed to be?  Only Johnnie Walker knows for sure!  Turns out the “mistake” that Sonny and I made with the guest bathroom wall (setting it ½″ wider than the vanity) was not a mistake after all, as Ian and Doug both assured me that doing the same thing in the master bathroom was a smart move that will be much appreciated when it comes time to install that vanity.  So that’s what we did.  By sunset (which was spectacular tonight!), we had all but a couple of wall plates glued and screwed into place… and only had to remove and re-cut one of them 4, yes f∙o∙u∙r, times as we fit the puzzle together.  A good day’s effort, but oh, so very, very stressful!!!!