More ghetto goodness

We were on vacation last week, so I didn't do a thing. This weekend, I started to install the interior perimeter drain, rebuilt the half wall in the storage room, and did a bunch of cleanup.

Our plumber came while we were gone and started to install the new oil tank - we're pulling out the old underground one when we do the excavation for the exterior perimeter drain. Despite us asking him no fewer than three times where he wanted to install it, he never would say. When we came home, we found that he had moved my entire pile of various sheet goods, leftovers, old shelving, what have you. Then, apparently, the new tank wouldn't fit there, so he had to send it back.

Once the new tank is in, I'm going to remove the old underground tank. Stay tuned for more homebuilt gantry action.

This weekend's primary focus was to get the storage room put back together so we can sort of reclaim some of our life - the playroom is currently full of everything that used to live in the storage room.

Before we decided to rip the whole house apart, remove the deck and excavate the back yard, I had decided to try an interior perimeter drain first, as a much cheaper alternative to removing the deck and excavating. I got the parts from Squidgee Dry for about 400 bucks delivered. Basically, it's a plastic gutter that gets glued to the floor, and then drains into the existing sump. You glue the pieces together using a polyurethane adhesive that comes in a caulk tube, and glue the whole works to the floor. A sheet of plastic directs any water down the foundation wall into this gutter, where a bit of tubing leads it to the sump. I have the parts already, so I figured I'd install them in a sort of belt and suspenders approach.

First, I glued all the pieces down.  This was quick, painless (except for getting the caulk on my phone...) and easy.  The next part was to chisel out a bit of concrete so that the tubing from the drain was out of the way...

Safety first...  Concrete dust makes for some seriously crusty boogers. 

The rotary hammer made short work of cutting the channel:

Then it was just a matter of running the hose from the outlet:

 

into the sump, and patching up the concrete.  I'm probably overthinking this part, but I hate having crap on the floor that gets yanked on or tripped over or otherwise causing a hassle. 

I popped upstairs to find Steph working on the kitchen paint job:

She hasn't done a lot of painting, and she wasn't too thrilled with the task. 

Paint on the notebook...  Oops. 

Once I got the perimeter drain installed, it was time to rebuild the half wall.  If you have to get nails into concrete, you get to play with a Ramset.  If that word doesn't make you feel butch, I dunno what would.  Say it out loud.  See?  Don't you feel testosterone coursing through your veins?  It uses a .22 shell to drive nails.  Playing with explosives in the house, and not even getting in trouble for it.  What could be better?

RAM-frickin-SET!

Toolbelt and Ramset in a single shot - even Charles Bronson would give this the thumbs up. 

Then, a few carefully crafted tubaforz later, and I have myself a wall.  I had to notch the studs to clear the perimeter drain and the bit of wiring that was there, which took up a little time.  In retrospect, I did this kinda backwards - I should have just measured everything, then built the wall as one unit, then dropped it in.  It would have been faster than what I did, but it worked out OK in the end. 

Not bad for a total rookie:

Another area that I didn't properly think through - I should have leak-tested the perimeter drain before I built a wall over it, rather than after.  Luckily, with Naomi's help, I was able to leak-test everything, and it was watertight. 

Up next, it's insulation and wallboard, and we'll have our storage room back again, woohoo!