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How To Texture A Wall With Joint Compound

From Chris

There are probably as many textures as there are people willing to pick up a drywall knife or any other tool for that matter. That said, here’s how I texture the wall to sorta match the texture of our original plaster walls. It’s basically a heavy skip trowel technique.

I use an all purpose tapping/topping joint compound for this. It’s a drying type compound so you have a lot of working time with it. Ours comes in a box, but some come in a bucket. Either way I like to put it in a 5 gallon bucket, add about half a cup of water (for a full box), and then mix it to a creamy consistency. Some people add dishwashing soap or other things to make the mix more creamy, but water alone is fine for me.

Normally I like to use a hawk and trowel because I find it faster than a 6″ drywall knife, but either works. I press the trowel into the mud to create a bit of suction and pull it up. When you do this right it creates a lot of dippling on the trowel, similar to the look you get from thinset when you pull tile off the substrate.

With the trowel or knife loaded, I skip it across the wall lightly. I run it parallel to the wall surface letting a bit of the compound come off the trowel at a time.

If it looks like I want it to look then I come back and knock it down a bit so nothing is too high.

If it doesn’t look right I can always come back and add some more or take it off and start over.

Then it’s just a matter of adding more and more layers to it until it resembles the same plaster pattern as the original walls

Here is the finished textured wall in the back bathroom (before it was painted)

And this is the original texture throughout the house

Not a perfect match, but it’s close enough to the original that no one has been able to tell that we applied this texture ourselves.

Venting A Bathroom Fan Through The Roof

One day while Meryl was out running errands I decided to hook up the bathroom fan. We chose a Panasonic for their reputation as being reliable and quiet which was important since it’s a bathroom right next to the bedroom. Normally I would prefer to vent through a wall instead of through the roof, but the location of the fan was pretty far from the nearest available exterior wall so I decided to go straight through the roof instead.

 The directions call for a about 2′ of horizontal run before going vertically through the roof, so I spotted the location for the roof penetration and drove a screw through the roof. Once on the roof, I set out all my tools and materials and began laying out the vent location. I marked the width of the vent and I cut through two layers of shingles to expose the tar paper underneath. I was able to locate the vent in the center of one course of shingles because I had some flexibility in the attic space, and there was only one nail in the way, so I got kinda lucky.

Once I determined the location and cut the middle and bottom shingle out of the way, it was time to drill a hole for the vent pipe. I used a 4 1/2″ hole saw to cut the hole. Next I used a flat prybar to separate the courses from each other so I could slip the vent flashing under the middle course. I also separated a section of the middle course from the bottom course so I could drive additional nails to keep the shingle down. I covered the nails with caulking – Geocel 2300 is an excellent roofing quality caulking meant precisely for this kind of application.

Finally, it was time to drop the vent into position. I ran a generous bead of caulking in an inverted “U” around the hole in the roof and slid the vent flashing under both the top and middle courses of shingles. I nailed the vent flashing in the sides and top to secure it to the roof deck. I finished it all off with more caulking on the nail holes and vertical lines of caulking under the shingles on either side of the vent which allowed me to press the shingles into the beads for a watertight seal.

After the work on the roof was done the last thing I needed to do was connect the fan to the roof vent. I chose to use a flexible ducting instead of a solid one because it’s easier and we had it on hand. I clamped the ducting to the fan exhaust and roof vent with a screwgun. I then did my usual belt and suspenders routine by using both foil duct tape and water based duct mastic to eliminate moist bathroom air from leaking into the attic. I also wrapped some pipe insulation around the ducting to reduce the chance of condensation forming on the ducting (because of the warm bathroom air meeting the cold attic air).

Job done.

Plumbing the Back Bathroom

From Chris

On my most recent day off I decided to tackle the bathroom water supply.

For the most part, I decided it would be easiest to basically start from scratch, rather than work with the existing crap that was in place. This was especially true of the hot water supply which was 1/2″ copper and needed to supply: the bathroom sink, the shower, the laundry room sink, the clothes washer. A quick note about sizing: an easy rule of thumb is that a 1/2″ copper line can supply 2 fixtures, but there are plenty of tables available for you if you want to do the exact calculation for your situation. For cold water there’s no downside (other than cost) to erring on the high side. For hot water, the downside of putting in a pipe too large for the fixtures you are feeding is potentially having to wait longer for the hot water to arrive at the fixture.

After cutting out the section of hot water pipe that looked like a mess I cut the new supply lines to size. Working around existing wiring, piping, HVAC lines, etc. can be the biggest challenge when plumbing and plumber’s are somewhat notorious for their liberal use of the reciprocating saw.

(no visible cuts into joists here, but you see the maze of existing piping to work around)

This is precisely why planning out your layout beforehand is a good idea. Just use common sense – straight lines and 45 degree bends are better than 90 degree turns because they don’t slow the water down or increase likelihood of water hammer, try to avoid the aforementioned obstacles, running pipes under joists is easier (and better for the structure) than running them through them, and try to keep in mind where you will strap the pipe. If you must go through joists or studs make sure you’re aware of the notching/hole guidelines. Studs: on bearing walls studs can be notched 25% of their width and holes can be up to 40%. On nonbearing walls the notches can be 40% of the stud width and holes can be up to 60%. Joists: No notching in the middle third, notching at the end can’t be more than 1/4 of the joist depth, notching elsewhere can be up to 1/6 deep with a length no more than 1/3 the depth of the joist. Holes have to be more than 2″ away from the top, bottom, and other holes and can only be 1/3 the size of the joist depth.

A word about securing pipes. There are a lot of different kinds of straps out there – plastic nail on “talons,” plastic screw on straps, copper straps, bell hangers and probably more.

I like to keep each of them in stock in case one suits the application better than another. Bell hangers are harder to find in some big box stores like Home Depot, but they’re sturdy and keep the pipe off the lumber which can be nice if wire or something else is already running on the same path. Generally speaking, you want to secure the pipe every 6′ or less. Don’t use nails (ever) or those nail-on wire hangers in seismic zones.

After I was done working on the hot water line I started work on the cold water line. I wanted to do them separately so I wouldn’t get confused.

Working on this can be somewhat zen like. Plan a creative and smooth path from A to B, cut pipe, clean all mating surfaces, flux, heat, apply solder, and clean joint. It takes a long time, but it’s my favorite part about plumbing.

Fence Build Process

Side note from Meryl: Hooray! Chris is writing posts now! I’m trying to figure out how I can write who this post is published by at the top of the post instead of at the bottom so you can more easily tell who has written a post now that I have convinced Chris to start writing posts 🙂 But here is a post that has been long in the making that Chris wrote up last night. I hope this helps! (we’ve had lots of emails of fence questions and this post is very delayed)

Here are some basics on how to build a wood fence.

1. Determine layout of posts and mark the ground. The easiest way to do this is to find your beginning and ending points and attach a landscape line to each so you have a nice straight line to follow. You’ll also use this line to help you align the posts.

2. Dig holes for posts. Depending upon the size of the posts and your location (frost depth) you’ll have to go deeper/wider than we did, but we made ours about 10″ in diameter and 18″ deep.

3. One by one, put the posts in the holes and fill in with concrete around the post. Bring each post up to the string line so that it’s barely touching the line and then use your level to get it plumb.

A post level is a great time saver here because it determines plumb on two planes at once.

Brace each post using 2x4s. If you make the concrete stiff, you shouldn’t have to fiddle too much with bracing. Periodically check the alignment of the posts with the string line by sighting down the line and making sure they all line up nicely.

4. Once the posts are in and the concrete is set (24 hours is best), it’s time to assemble the fence. Our fence design was pretty simple – 1 2×6 positioned vertically fastened with 3″ screws toenail style into the posts, 1 grooved 2×4 with groove up attached with pl premium and 3″ screws to the 2×6, 1×8 slats dropped into the bottom 2×4 groove, and 1 grooved 2×4 with groove down fastened to posts with 3″ screws and to slats with pl premium and a 1 1/2″ screw every 2′.

5. The last step was to cut the top of the posts off to make them flush with the top of the fence.

6. Finish the fence with whatever product you want, or leave it as is and allow it to naturally weather

(some of the photos in this post are taken from other fences we have built, but the instructions build the fence in the last two photos above)

The Porch Mud Job

Yesterday while I was away at work Chris worked on the mud job for our front porch. Yes, that might sound really strange because most of the time you associate “mud job” with your bathroom shower floor and tiles will be going on top of it. But for us, this meant working on our front porch. We will also have to do a mud job when we FINALLY get to the back bathroom, so this was good practice for him.

If you remember, I had scraped and cleaned the porch, so it was looking like this

Now it’s starting to look a lot better.

First up, Chris used this bonding agent (like last time) over the existing porch so that when he laid down the mortar of the mud job it helped the mortar adhere to the existing bed

Then he used this tape to wrap around the drainpipe where the mud job would hit so that it would protect the downspout


And then it was time to get started. He mixed up the mortar and began setting it in

The most important thing when you do a mug job (well, at least when it’s outside on your porch, because inside in your shower floor properly waterproofing is right up there too) is making sure you pitch everything properly. You never want the water to just sit on top of the bricks, or to run up against your house and sit next to your foundation, you always want it to run away from your house so that it drains out into your yard.

In our porch that was a tall order because we only have one 3 foot wide opening and 2 weird nooks


Chris had to make sure that these two areas pitched into the main porch area and then that the main porch area pitched into the front of the yard to carry all the water off of the porch. Kind of a difficult task.

But just like when we laid down the pavers for our patio, he used two metal rods, put the mud in between and then used the level to get the pitch correct. He used a wood float to really press all the mortar into place and condense it down so that there were no air gaps

Then when the two rods had the pitch right and he pressed the mortar down with the float, he’d slide the level over all the mud to flatten it all out and make it even. Usually the level would carry away some mortar, or there might be gaps, so he’d slap down some more mortar where it was needed and either slide the level over it all again or fine tune it in smaller areas with just the float

And then it was just a matter of repeating the process over and over again in small increments to make sure the pitch was always correct. After every small area was done he’d set the level on top to make sure the area he just did had the correct pitch, then he’d use a longer level over larger areas to make sure the entire pitch was still correct




The consistency of the mortar is also very important

You want it to be wet enough to hold its shape.

At the end, all Chris had to do was finish it off where the water will run off into the yard

He used a 2×8 to press up against the edge to make sure that it was a nice clean line. You can put a release oil on it if you’re worried that it will stick when you take it off, but you don’t really need to (and we didn’t)

And then it was done!

And it looks ready for me to paint those steps 🙂

It’s important to give everything at least 24 hours to cure before you walk around on it or do any work around it, so although I could probably get by with painting the steps by not walking around on the new mud job, I’ll wait till this afternoon to get started

I can’t wait to get the stairs painted and Chris will work on laying the bricks in the rest of the porch area this weekend while I’m working at the A’s. And I may or may not have purchased a little A’s welcome gnome to stick at the top of the stairs… 🙂

Cleaning Up and Tile Waste

Clearly I have been a TERRIBLE blogger this week. Work has been crazy busy and we haven’t really done anything on the house since we got back 4 days ago. Chris however was super nice and amazing and after I opened my email when I got to home from work tonight (A’s beat the Yankees, woo-hoo!!!) I had a lovely new email titled “post” from him. He’s the best. So without further ado…

a common problem when tiling or working with cementitious materials is what to do with the waste. my method is the best i’ve found in my experience working for a tiling contractor, speaking with other contractors, and doing tiling jobs on our house.
find an out of sight corner of the yard and dig a hole, you’ll use this for the last bits of leftover. at the end of the day you’ll have a variety of tools and buckets leftover from grouting or tiling that will need cleaning. scrape off the big chunks and dump them in the trash. put two inches of water in the thinset bucket and use a sponge to clean off all your tools and buckets with the water from this bucket. add more clean water as necessary to get everything clean, but always dump the dirty water into your main “trash” bucket. if you have babies around, cover this bucket and leave it out overnight.

it will look like this when you’re done, with all the sediment suspended in the water:

the next morning the bucket may have a thin layer of bad stuff on top, but it’ll be mostly clean water on top. it’ll look like this:

take the trash bucket with the settled sediment and pour the clean water off the top into the hole you dug earlier. stop pouring the water into the hole if you start to see cloudy water. the stuff left at the bottom is trash.
it’ll look like this:

if you’re doing more work the next day, just leave the trash in there and continue to use this bucket as your trash bucket – continually dumping the dirty water into it until it’s too full or the project is complete. if you’re busy enough with this kind of work you’ll fill up a bucket every few weeks and, at the end, just throw the whole thing away.

there are a few advantages to this cleaning method – the tools stay clean, the mess is always contained within the bucket, and you’re not going to kill your plumbing system by dumping thinset, etc. down the drain.

Thanks Mr. Christopher 🙂 Now if only I could get back on the blogging train…

Our Even More Dead Yard

Absolutely #1 on the list of re-doing our front yard is NO GRASS. Currently there is “grass” but it’s not attractive at all (because we don’t tend to it)

I’m not sure if our front yard can be qualified as green, but there are still bits of green that need to be killed.

Wendy and I looked through many articles and talked to a few nurseries about how to best kill the rest of the grass so that our front yard would be completely barren and ready for planting. Ultimately we decided to use Round Up. There were a variety of reasons, but the top ones were that it was a fast process and it killed things from the root. I found this article especially helpful, though I modified things a bit (mostly out of laziness and poor planning).

Here’s what our weeds looked like to start


Per the instructions I gave the yard a good water

You’re supposed to wait a full day before you do the first spray of Round Up, but it was really hot that day so I did it the same day. I bought a bottle of concentrate for $20 and mixed it in a spray bottle

Then I sprayed THE ENTIRE YARD. This sucked. Our yard isn’t even very big and it took me nearly and hour and a half crouched over spraying all those blades of grass, man eating weeds and dandelions. And at the end my forearms were very tired from squeezing that damn spray bottle.

It’s important to spray your yard when it’s warm outside and spray in the beginning of the day so it has the full day to bake in the sunshine and heat. Though I did it in the middle of the day and it still worked out fine.

I sprayed the yard two Wednesdays ago and per the instructions I gave it two days to work it’s magic. On that same Friday the weeds were looking like this



That Friday morning I sprayed round two. This time I spent another $20 and bought the pre-mixed spray container

While this went A LOT faster because its spray was wider than the spray bottle, it didn’t cover as much area. I only used 1/3 of the concentrate bottle during round one, and the pre-mix only covered about 1/2 of the yard. While it’s a lot more convenient, it costs a lot more. So I finished round two with the concentrate I’d already purchased.

Here’s what it looked like after round 2 and after I’d put the stakes in our yard to flag it off for utilities to know where we’d be landscaping to mark for pipes in the yard

And here it is a day later

Again, I waited two days till round three when I sprayed anything left that was green (that same Sunday).

Just a reminder, here’s where we started

And now, here’s our front yard after it’s been sprayed with Round Up three times and been baking in the sun for about 10 days

DEAD





I’m so excited to see everything dead. I know that’s a strange thing to read because normally we want front yards to be lush and beautiful, but we gotta kill the yard before we replant it.

What’s up next? This weekend we’re hoping to get all the dead grass ripped out and because the Round Up has killed it from the roots we’re hoping that it has a harder time growing back. Not to mention we’ve looked into all different kinds of weed block. We’ve also got to dig and build a couple french drains because we’re not super thrilled with how the roofers planned out our gutters (and didn’t talk to us about it before they installed them, just another reason we hate Westco/Berkeley Roof Services) and we also don’t have great drainage against the house. Hopefully next week we’ll have great progress to share!