Living Room — Part 2

This is the sequel to The Fireplace Must Go!  With the inside part of the fireplace gone, I rebuilt the west living room wall, adding the missing 3.5" of thickness.  After removing more of the old drywall, I discovered there indeed was a stud wall underneath (not just the chimney).

But first, some updates.  I managed to trim out the new windows in the master bedroom:

And I applied the elastomeric stucco paint to the new outside wall.  Here is a photo of the front of the house when I bought it (summer 2013):

And here is what the new stucco looked like before the two coats of paint:

I sort of liked that look, but the paint nevertheless went on:

Clearly a different look.  New tan shingles will replace the reddish ones, and there eventually will be a small covered porch protecting the front door.

And now back to the new living room wall.  This is what I saw as the old drywall came off:

I also found some severe insect damage, but it was confined to one board (replaced), and there was no sign of insects.

With all the old drywall removed from the recessed section of wall, I built a new 2x4 stud wall flush against the existing wall, and attached to it.  I had to chip away some more fireplace brick that protruded a little too far, and cut and chisel part of the warped header that was over the old fireplace for the same reason.  The whole process was relatively straightforward.

I tacked the wall bracket for the TV onto the studs to show the doublers I had to add so the ends of the wall mounting plate could be lag screwed into solid wood.  It was designed to be attached to two studs, but as it turned out, the center of the base fell squarely on a stud, and it wasn't quite wide enough to span three studs.  While the wall was open, I also wired two new electrical receptacles (obviously there was none in the fireplace, where the TV will now go).  I also ran speaker wire (inside the wall) to where the two surround speakers will go.  They should ideally be mounted on the side wall (or rear wall), but the left wall was crowded and inaccessible, and there was no right wall (open to the kitchen and foyer for the bottom eight feet).  The ceiling is twelve feet high at the right end of the living room, but there is a "wall" between eight and twelve feet.  Because of the difficulties, I chose to mount the surround speakers on the front wall, aimed to bounce their sound off the side walls, such as they are.  A compromise, to be sure, but the living room TV is for casual viewing only, so no biggie.

Moving along.

Walls are for insulation.  Here it's almost all installed, and showing the fireplace underneath.  Later, when I take down the chimney, I will fill in the fireplace opening with studs and insulate, for a total of seven inches. 

The drywall went up.

The corners around the sliding glass door got the bullnose treatment.

The seams and screw heads were filled in with joint compound.

And here is the finished wall (save for a couple of details).

The 52" (for scale) TV is operational, although the main left-right and center-channel speakers are not in place in the photo, and I need to build a suitable low cabinet to house the receiver, blu-ray/CD player, and center-channel speaker.

This is the first time I have wall-mounted a TV.  I used a simple fixed unit, that installed easily.  The wall bracket lag-screwed into the studs.

Two hanging brackets screwed into the back of the TV.

The TV just hangs onto the wall bracket, and a locking bar slides in from the side to keep it in place.

At this point, I would have liked to put down the bamboo flooring in the living room, added baseboard, and called it done.  But before that can happen, the bamboo in the long main hallway has to go in, after all that ceramic tile blasted away.  Not ready to do that.

I've started work on the guest bathroom infrastructure — water supply lines, heating duct, electrical — with the vanity cabinet and adjacent shelves coming along for the ride.  I just bought the new casement window for that bathroom (final new window in the house, except for the garage); that should go in soon.  The back yard's water supply now comes off the same line as the guest bathroom toilet water supply.  I need to run a separate line for that when the wall is open; outdoor water will not go through the water softener (when that is installed).

And work on the master bathroom shower tile continues in fits.

Sigh.