Made what I hope is my last trip for lumber today. I picked up some 12’ and 8’ 2x4s to strap the ceiling for drywall. While I was at the store, I also picked up some 12/2 and some 14/2 romex, single gang blue boxes, 6” recessed light fixtures, wire nuts and a fancy new romex stripper. After I got home, I was able to get 90% of one side of the basement strapped. I had to stop because I had just about enough of trying to do it myself and value my back a little (a little). I still need to go back and shim as necessary for level and finish off each run. Tomorrow, I’ll make a good effort to finish the ceiling and inspect for any areas that need some wood for the drywall. Hopefully I’m running electric this weekend…

One interesting thing I ran into tonight was the water pipe RIGHT on my 16” center and of course another water pipe about 3” off of that. As you can see in the picture I’ve got my 16” spacing for the outside straps and the middle has a bit of an uneven spacing. I’ll be running the drywall perpendicular to the strapping and it’s under 8’, so as long as I know where they’re at, we should be good.

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