Our Castle

Pocket Door Installation

Authors: vez

We have finished installing the three pocket doors that we will have in the basement. Here is a brief description of the process used for installing the doors.
  1. Framed the rough opening to be 1.5" wider than double the width of the door (e.g. 61.5" for a 30" door) and 3.5" taller than the expected height of the door.
  2. Screwed 2" wide
  3. ...

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Bathroom Vanity/Sink Options

Authors: vez

When planning the wall of sliding doors for the basement, we knew that we wanted to be able to access both the washer and dryer at the same time; in order to make this happen, we had to add another 3-4 inches onto the span of the sliding doors. In doing so, we reduced the size of the bathroom by this same amount. Accordingly, as it...

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New Hose Connection

Authors: vez





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Video: Custom Pocket Door Installation

Authors: Andrew

Here is a time lapse video showing the installation of one of our basement pocket doors (it actually took just over one hour, but we sped it up so the video is just over one minute).
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Tub Installed

Authors: mer

I could not procrastinate installing the tub any longer, so Meredith's Dad helped me install it last night. I had planned to take photos of the process, but sometimes getting the job done is just more important. The instructions provided by Rona and the tub manufacturer were basically useless, so this was the process we followed:
  • Framed
  • ...

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Basement Wall #1 Framed

Authors: vez

I got a little help from my friend and got a bunch of framing done, including the first wall with a pocket door.


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Water Supply Upgrade

Authors: vez

We got the water supply to our house upgraded last month. In order to take advantage of this increased pressure, we upgraded the main lines inside our house to 3/4" pipe this weekend; we now have 3/4" pipe through our water heater and to the main branches of our plumbing.


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Plan for Sliding Doors

Authors: vez

We have decided on a plan for the sliding doors to cover the appliances in the basement. We considered a number of different options for the sliding doors, including building them ourselves, but we finally decided on getting custom sliding doors from Komandor. It will be a while before the doors are installed as we need to finish the...

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Stairwell Insulated

Authors: vez

With the tight stairwell down to the basement, we did not have much space to add insulation. We installed 1" thick pieces of insulating styrofoam on that wall, which has an insulation value of R5. I expect this will do little for insulating the house, but hopefully with the addition of vapour barrier and drywall, at least this...

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$5 Pocket Doors

Authors: vez

We were exploring different options for doors in our basement, and had decided that pocket doors would be the best option because they would save on space. Because the doors would have to be a bit of an odd height (i.e. short), we would need to custom build the pocket door frames and custom order the doors. I did not really like the...

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