Final inspection passed!

Monday, Dec. 19:

A Lake Forest city building inspector came out this morning and gave me the final sign-off on my project. For the city's purposes, it is done – and legal.  The only remaining paperwork is to send a form to the Orange County tax collector so that I may pay a bit more in property tax each year.

I've installed the french doors, though the door trim and paint will have to wait until 2012. Anne says this now looks like a balcony in "Romeo and Juliet." We really like the coziness of the dining room with the lower ceiling.  It was cold and drafty with the original vaulted ceiling.

In addition to the door trim, I'll need to install baseboards. New carpet will have to wait until we deal with the stairway, which is one of my 2012 projects.  (I want to edge the stairs in wood and get rid of the cheesy-looking carpet that wraps through the spindles.)

The closet doors, trim, baseboards and door hardware will also have to wait until January. (I have temporarily propped the left closet door into the opening.)

I painted the walls with Behr antique-white-flat, and the ceiling with Vista swiss-coffee-flat. I still need to touch up the paint on some of the edges.

The final inspection essentially was for the electrical outlets (tamper-proof) and carbon monoxide/smoke detectors.

One last thing before Christmas:  I will install shutters over the window and spread a doggie blanket over the floor because Chris will have to sleep in here on an air mattress this weekend.  (The other two guest bedrooms are reserved for our honored guests flying over from England.)

'Tenting' the upstairs for sanding and texturing

Tuesday, Nov. 29: On the weekend following Thanksgiving I applied the final coatings of drywall compound to the Tea Room and the new wall along the bridge. I was careful to go over and over each wall, floating and feathering out the imperfections as much as possible to minimize sanding – some of which is always inevitable.

Sanding walls is dreadful work.  To minimize the dusty mess, I decided to "tent" the upstairs – that is, seal off the construction zone from the rest of the house.  Otherwise, the entire inside of the house would be coated with fine white dust.

My strategy was to "paint myself into a corner."  I would seal the construction zone and then access it from the outside window using a ladder.  Maybe even some of the dust would happily float out the window toward Trabuco Canyon.

First, I sealed off this opening into the office.  I then climbed out a window in one of the front bedrooms and went down a pre-positioned ladder.

Using flimsy painters' drop-cloths, which come cheaply by the dozen at Lowe's, I taped up a dust barrier from floor to ceiling.

This is the new room, ready for sanding and texturing.  Prior to sealing it off from the rest of the house I brought most of the materials and tools up – because once it was sealed off, the only way in and out was the window and I didn't want to have to carry everything up a ladder. (Note the top of a ladder propped into the window from the outside.)

All access to the room was via this ladder.  It may seem like a hassle, but it's well worth it to prevent the dusty mess from floating all over the inside of the house.

Above and below:   The dust barrier.

When you make a flimsy barrier like this, it helps to close every window and door in the house to minimize air flow.

This view shows the two small closets in the Tea Room. Once everything was sealed, I donned a mask and began sanding.  I found that a pole sander worked well on the walls, but an electric sander was necessary where the new walls joined the old ceilings.  The metallic rounded corners next to each closet required sanding by hand.

 Texturing: This was the fun part. I used a large paint-mixer on the end of a drill to thin out a bucket of drywall compound into a texture that was the consistency of pancake batter. I just kept adding water until the consistency seemed right.  Then I poured the mixture into my Homax sprayer, connected it to an air compressor, and sprayed the hell out of all the walls.  It came out great.

"Orange peel splatter" texture effect.  It's actually smoother than it looks in this close-up photo, and will be even smoother once coated with latex paint. (The opening is a switchbox – all of the wires are covered with tape.  I'll just have to clean up the edges a little to be able to screw the switches into the box.)

As it stands now:  The room is ready for paint.  Once painted, I will put the electrical fixtures in and obtain my final inspection.  Then it's a race to Christmas:  I need to make this room habitable for my son, Chris, to sleep in over Christmas weekend.  We won't yet have carpet, but I have to get the door and window-shutters installed.