How I Spent My Birthday...(kennel renos) - Page 1

...also titled "what made me think I could run this kennel without a contractor's license?"

Here I am in my Hazmat suit removing mouldy, dirty insulation that was also heavily contaminated with mouse poop. The original owner put insulation right up against the underside of the garage ceiling, then covered it with vapour barrier. As any contractor will tell you, that's a good receipe to burn out your shingles in short order. Since the roof was leaking when I bought the place last year, and I spent a small fortune having it fixed, I'm doing some preventive maintenance. When I have the money, I hope to insulate the roof properly by putting in a dropped ceiling.

You can see the walls are also undergoing renovation. They were covered with a square of hardboard here, a rectangle of chipboard there, a slab of plywood, over there, interspersed with rectangles of plastic waferboard salvaged from old signs to give it all some colour. Oh, wait, I forgot to mention the pegboard....

Some of the wall spaces were insulated, others were not. As you can see in the 'after' photos, I removed almost all of the wall covering, upgraded the insulation to fireproof, mould proof Roxul, and covered it with hardboard. It's not exactly a professional job, but it looks one heck of a lot better than what was there before!




 

And the after pictures! Nice, bright lights, most of the 'sphaghetti' wiring gone, walls freshly painted. I had a friend who is an electrician do the wiring for me, He nearly said 'no' to doing the job, because it was SUCH a mess. And if the inspector finds two mistakes....even if they weren't HIS mistakes...he can lose his license! But he took out most of what was there, and greatly simplified what he left behind. It's been inspected already, and passed with no trouble.



  
 


OH LOOK! There's even a window now, with an air conditioner in it! 



And here's what the outside looks like. A fence has been added so the garage now connects with the north kennel runs. We are planning to use it for a doggie daycare, and also as an overflow kennel area.




And one more, just because he's sooo handsome!  Here's my heart dog, my most recent rescue, who is now my Hearing Ear service dog. He's nine years old now, and having a few problems with one of his hind legs. Other than that, he's healthy, but I am counting every day, and wondering how many more we will have left together.  Can you imagine that his former owner was planning to shoot him??? 


 

Good job!!! Just a couple of ideas..... If you can afford it, looks like there is enough space above that it could be useable?  Imsulate above the dropped ceiling and that way the room is "enveloped" for both warm and cold air. If the room is heated all the warm/hot air will just rise and escape. Costly. You could lay ply at least on half of length (if not all) and you have storage now. You could also put the "waffle" insulation in the ceiling joists then insulation under that that way you have the space for the hot attic air to escape out the ridge vent?

Well, have fun. Love when a plan comes together.......

OH FORGOT; Happy Birthday

Aloe, that;s the whole purpose of the dropped ceiling, so I can insulate above it. The only thing I haven't decided is the material I'll use. The joists are 18" on centre, which is too wide for drywall, unless I put in additional joists somehow. So I will have to use plywood or maybe the sort of ceiling tiles that rest on metal strapping.

I'm hoping to persuade my nephew to actually do the work. I think it's the sort of job that's too tricky for an amateur like myself.

I worked at work on my birthday, yours looked to be a job well done, & very satisfying! Care to come & help with mine next? Remember that dog spraying diarrhea story I believe you told? Well, it happened to us today, only it was projectile vomiting instead! The dog seems none the worse for wear, but I seriously think my living room, the scene of the crime, now needs a remodel. At least tearing out the wall to wall! It smells so bad! No amount of scrubbing will clean this! Good thing I have off tomorrow!

So congratulations to you on a job well done! And Happy Birthday!


jackie harris

BTW, my birthday was in May. That's how long I've been working on this project!

The end is in sight now, though. Just a bit of painting, one more panel to go in over top of the door, then the trim around the door and window. Once the painting is done, I can put up the peel-and-stick baseboard at the base of the walls.

The poop-spraying story? Oh yeah. Took me a moment to remember that one! That was after Ranger and Star both fell into a beaver pond in the spring, and must have picked up giardia!  I was just cleaning up Ranger's mess, which had splashed on the walls, the TV and the VCR, when Star barfed on the carpet. Did I mention I had an absolutely terrible cold at the time?

Jackie, sorry to hear about your dog. I gave up on carpet, especially wall-to-wall, a long time ago. I do have two area rugs in my living room, but I'm not sure how much longer one of them is going to last. My youngest dog started chewing on the binding this week. My second youngest destroyed nearly all of my rugs before she outgrew the puppy chewing stage!

BTW, I used the search function and found that thread! http://www.pedigreedatabase.com/german_shepherd_dog/bulletins.read?mnr=451305#451325

The last post in the thread is one of the reasons I do NOT believe in feeding raw, or giving a dog bones.

I have wall to wall in my living room, & I HATE it! I'm hoping this is the straw that finally allows me to get rid of it. Of course that means DH will have to finish installing the hardwood flooring he started putting in ....oh....5 years ago! LOL! My first reaction to "Honey the dog got sick!" Not "Is she OK?" or "Are you OK?" but "Where's the exacto knife to cut the carpet?" LOL! My house must have been built by the same guy (or gal) who built yours....every thing is piece-mealed together, & the wiring is just plain unsafe. We have been slowly renovating now for 10 years, & there's always something else to fix.....*sigh*! We've replaced the plumbing twice, the roof once, the doors, windows, sinks, toilets, inner doors, the porch.....!!!

BTW--your old gentleman there is very handsome! Shame on whoever would think to shoot such a sweet soul!

jackie harris

Sunsilver,

Depending on what R Factor your looking/hoping for go with the Styrofoam boards/sheets. 2", 3" can't remember if it comes in 4". Either cut it with a circular saw and straightedge or take a putty knife and grind one edge and then you have a nice foam knife. I just use the circular saw and straight edge. If you don't know what I'm talking about Lowes/HD has it. Usually blue, green or pink.    

Awesome..  You go girl... 
I need to do the same thing to my garage in Aug.  I am taking time off for my Birthday and that is the plan.. 
Something about Insulating for your birthday.. Sounds fun..  haha

KIM

justk9s