Geeze, it's been almost a month since I took down the wall between the workshop and the laundry room, and I've finally reached the point where the new wall could go up. Here's a shot where I was laying out the sole plates. Because of all the pipes (and other stuff) in the ceiling, I had to build the wall one stick at a time. I laid out the sole plates and used a good ol' plumb bob to figure out where the top plate would go.
I used Tapcon bolts and my hammer drill to fix the sole plates to the concrete floor, then just cut cut cut. So here it is...I don't know why the picture makes it look like the studs are out of alignment, but believe me - this is the only plumb and square wall at 173!
And from the laundry room side...
Then it was time to put up the sheetrock. I decided to go with 1/2" Hardiebacker cement board. Even though the basement at 173 is dry and there's not been any mold...I figured what the hey! Besides, it came in 3'x5' sheets which meant I could get it home in my car, that was probably the real reason! So here's a fun little thing...part of the wall runs behind the hot water heater with about 2" of space behind and on the side. There was no way in hell I was going to get my hand, let alone my drill in that little space...
Well, as it turns out, a bunch of years ago I found this really long Phillips head screwdriver on the ground in a parking lot. I've had it in the workshop ever since and had never had a need to use it - until now. To get screws in that cement board behind the water heater, I taped the screws to the screwdriver, and they went right in!
It took about two hours, but here it is - the new laundry room wall!
Another shot...
Still a long way to go to wrap up this project, but it's coming along and I think, somewhere out there I think I see a little flicker of light at the other end of the tunnel!