Framing and Furnace Moving from 6-14-09 to 7-5-09

Lots of stuff has happened in the last several weekends. Basically, we have framed about 13 different partitions, ran our new HVAC lines, moved our water heater, installed a new furnace, and moved our gas line. Needless to say, I am exhausted. Here are some pictures in chronological order:

June 12th to 14th:

We got new HVAC lines run. There were no dedicated HVAC lines for the basement. This made it very cold. We installed 5 total, but here are the new lines for the family room, second bedroom, and our bedroom:




On the same weekend we also got a wall in our closet done plusa ledge wall. You can see that in the next picture. This is in our future bedroom. Additionally, you can see I constructed the ledge by extending it over the bottom plate of the extior wall will 3/4" plywood for the top piece. This makes for a super strong ledge! Additionally, it creates a void space between the wood and the concrete that will be filled up with spray foam. You don't want wood on concrete contact or it may eventually rot your wood if it is not treated or a speicies that is naturally water resistant.


Around this same time I also got the old furnace removed. Here is what that looks like:



On the weekend of 6/27 and 6/28 we got a ton of framing done. Here is all that framing:

Second Bedroom Doorway and
Wall with Cold Air Return

East Ledge in Our Bedroom

For the ledges it is worth showing that I have been using brackets tied into the concrete to make them more stable. They are already very stable, and with the spray foam they will be even more stable. However, I wanted to give them extra strength. What I did is used angle brackets that are screwed into the concrete with Tapcon screws. I also construction adhesive the bracket to the concrete to make it that much stronger. Finally, I nail the bracket to the stud. That ledge isn't going anywhere! Here is a picture of a bracket:

The same weekend we got up the south wall in our family room. That was pretty hard because the wall was 16 feet long! Here is a picture:

Finally, we got a small wall under the stairs done. We are finishing the area under the stairs so the kids have a cool little place to play. Here is a picture of that wall:

The 4th of July weekend was a long weekend. Not only because I was off work, but because there was a lot of work to do! This is what we got done:

First, we installed a new furnace and moved our water heater. That was a huge project that took a ton of time, but I'm glad its done. We also moved the gas line this weekend. The importance of that is now we are able to run the gas outside for a future grill hookup someday! The furnace and water heater looks a lot better than the old one did:

After that we did a bunch of framing:

The next picture shows the center wall of our closet. Since I didn't show this before let me explain. Our closet will have to separate walk in sides, but we will share a shelf system. So its like we each have our own walk in closet but we really don't. In the center, there is space for a 37" HDTV. This is a built in ledge as you can see below (some stuff is in front of it). Behind it I will have a shelf for the Dish Network STB

Second Bedroom West Wall
With Ledge (this is where we sleep now!)

Second Bedroom Closet Door and
Wall with Ledge in Closet

Storage Room West and North Walls

Sorry for the giant post! I've been working so hard on the weekends and even some during the week on this it is hard to find time to post. Oh well, now its time to go to work!