29 February 2016
Steve
(the plumber) wanted to be sure that he got full mention in the blog
today. He arrived somewhat late ‘cause
his in-heat female black lab escaped this morning for a tryst with the
neighborhood. Once he got here, he
installed the thermostatic control and on/off valves in the master bath
shower. We then discussed how he wanted
the hole filled in the guest bath so that he could still adjust the exact
positioning of the shower drain after the concrete was poured. I used a piece of 4″
PVC pipe, wrapped in some of the plastic wrap from a bale of Roxul® (so
that the PVC can be extracted from the set concrete), to give Steve ½″ of
wiggle room all around the 2″ drain pipe.
Sometimes I’m just too clever for mere words. Meanwhile, Eric Mills from East Shore Drywall
spent the day taping and mudding. He got
the first coat of joint compound on most of the main level walls. He’s amazing!
What he did in 5 minutes would have taken me an hour… and would not have
been nearly as well done. Sonny and Doug
put up the drywall in the pantry, built the soffit to hide all the ducts,
pipes, and wires in the shop lavatory ceiling, and then dry walled that
room. Craig Powell stopped by
mid-afternoon to see how Eric was doing and to inspect the drywall
installation. Craig rejected one of the
seams in the sun room vaulted ceiling that wasn’t done to his standards. So Sonny and Doug took down the offending
piece of drywall as their parting task for the day. I took care of a few more electrical details
in the morning, mixed and poured concrete early afternoon, built a wood insert
for the south shop wall that will house the valve to control the waterline down
to the sauna, then swept up the day’s debris from the house main level. Attended the annual Leicester town meeting in
the evening… along with 33 other residents.
28 February 2016
A quiet Sunday. Recorded all of the as-built interior house measurements,
then calculated the wall and floor / ceiling area in each room. As near as I can figure, we have 11,000
square feet of walls and ceiling that will need to be painted. In case you were wondering (and our insurance
company did want to know) the flooring breakdown is:
Concrete 39%
Carpet 35%
Bamboo 11%
Slate 10%
Porcelain
tile 5%
The dehumidifier had
to be thawed out again this morning.
While that was happening, thoroughly cleaned the new house main
level. The heat pump, when running,
emits a medium frequency hum that is much louder than I was expecting. If that is normal, then some more sound
deadening is going to be needed for the guest bedrooms. Or maybe we can convince folks that what is
keeping them up all night is therapeutic white noise… Steve came over for sauna… and brought me a
thanks-for-sharing-your-sauna gift in the form of JW’s eco-friendly
distillation. Had a taste just before
bed and boy, oh, boy is that stuff s∙m∙o∙o∙t∙h!!!!
27 February 2016
Chree
(Ms. Lead Foot) and the dogs departed for Virginia a little before 8, arriving
safely 8½ hours later… with 2½ stops en route.
She said the traffic was heavy but flying the whole way. Uh, huh…
The new house was nice and warm but quite humid inside when I checked
things this morning. Discovered that the
dehumidifier coils were completely frosted over. So unplugged the beast, moved it upstairs
into a patch of sunlight, and left it for the morning to thaw out. Usual Saturday morning cleaning routine at
Kate’s followed by hours catching up on bill paying and the construction
finances spreadsheet. Created the
summary budget that the bank wants as the final piece of paper (yeah, right!)
before they let me close on the construction loan we need to finish building
the house. When we first bought the
property, Chree said she wanted the house to be oriented exactly in accordance
with the cardinal directions, i.e., north / south / east / west. Checked the as-built orientation by reference
to the sun’s azimuth this noon. The west
wall of the house is “pointed” at 177.6°T or 2.4°east of the intended direction. Not too awful bad given how we guesstimated
where to put the stakes demarking where the foundation hole was to be dug. Perry came over for sauna.
26 February 2016
Sonny
brought a couple of bucks of staging today so that he could safely ascend to
the far upper north- and south- west corners of the house to drill the 4″
diameter holes into which will be inserted the pancake junction boxes to which
the backyard outdoor spotlights will be attached. After the electrical wires for those lights
were pushed through the wall, Sonny joined Ty and Doug in finishing all of the
sheetrock, except for the garage, on the main level and all of the sheetrock,
except for in the shop lavatory, on the lower level. Steve got the heating loops for the north end
of the house purged and operational.
With the heat pump putting out only 105° water (and the door to the unheated garage
missing in action) the house is a uniform 65°… and feels even warmer. Steve also made the final rough-in plumbing
drain connections for the master bath and the guest bath. Bryan continued laying floor tile in the
master bath. 60 gallons of joint
compound, a case of drywall tape, and a couple of large cartons of metal corner
bead were delivered today, supplies needed for the drywall taping and mudding that will start Monday. Chree and I spent the day on a five figure spending
spree, putting together the carpet order at Countryside Paint and Carpet (and,
in typical small town happenstance, bumping into Perry), ordering the stranded
bamboo flooring at Planet Hardwood, contracting for Silestone quartz
countertops at Lowe’s, and ordering another light from The Lighting House. We also took Alverta out for a delicious
lunch at the South Burlington Olive Garden.
25 February 2016
Sonny,
Ty, and Doug went crazy again today hanging sheetrock, getting a lot more of
the lower level walls done. Goodro’s
delivered a couple of sheets of water-resistant drywall that were installed in
the guest bathroom ceiling. Chree so
likes the color (purple) that now she doesn’t want that ceiling painted. (Just kidding, but just barely.) Doug is getting so good with the dremel tool
used to trim and cut out openings in the drywall, that he carved a replica of
the State of Vermont out of one door opening and then signed his name. Hung in the shop, this is our first artwork
for the new house. A major milestone was
achieved today! Steve (with some help
from Dennis) got the geothermal heat pump operational. By quitting time we had 85°
water (climbing steadily towards 120°) circulating in the southern half of the house
under the basement slab and under the main level floor. Turned off and disconnected the propane
heater. Bryan put down the Schluter® Ditra
underlayment and then started laying the Cæsar Snow porcelain floor tile in the master
bathroom. (The tile was made in Spezzano
di Fiorano, Italy, ‘cause we believe in buying local.) He also served on the Esthetics Board,
helping as Chree and I wrestled with room paint and carpeting color
decisions. Sean was here first thing to
go over design details with Chree and me.
We three also took another look at the LED color temperature options and
decided to go with all 4000K lights, most all of which will be controlled by
dimmer switches. Chree and I went into
Middlebury to meet with Joan Donahue, our attorney with Connolly and Foote,
Ltd. about an amendment to Chree’s trust.
Then we spent some quality time at Countryside Carpet and Paint working
with Brianna Desautels on preliminary carpet selections for the house. Returned to Fern Lake, we took all of our
samples (paint, slate, & carpet) over to the house to look at them under
the 4000K lights temporarily installed in the living room. Glad we did, as the sample colors look much
different under the LED lighting than they did under the florescent lights at
Countryside.
24 February 2016
Ty
and Doug pushed hard and got quite a bit of the lower level sheet rocked,
including all of the first guest bedroom and as much of the ceilings as I could
allow due to electrical runs still needed in and around the mechanical
room. Goodro’s delivered another 3,000
square feet of sheetrock, which had to be unloaded in the pouring rain. Not a lot of fun, especially as we had to
keep each two sheet bundle intact (i.e., had to unload two sheets at a time) in
order to keep the faces from getting wet.
A lot of HEAVY lifting in miserable conditions. Steve continued making connections and installing
controllers for the heating system in the mechanical room. He also finished insulating the supply and
return water lines from / to the wells.
Bryan got here mid-morning bringing all the tile for the master and
guest bathrooms. He started the layout
and preparations for installing the master bath shower and floor tile. Tom Morrissey was here today to work with me
on (we thought) finishing the electrical work.
Unfortunately everything I touched today went wrong, so progress was not
as rapid as needed. As well, Tom
suddenly discovered that we had never run the 10-2 wire from the electrical
panel to the under-the-stairs water heater.
And where that wire should have been run was an area that I had already
cleared for sheetrock. So, when Chree
and the dogs got here shortly before 5, Tom and I were still engaged in snaking
the water heater wire wherever we could in order to complete that
connection. After her long drive from
Virginia in pouring rain the whole way, and after my very stressful day, we
opened a bottle of quite delicious port wine, made a small salad, and called that
dinner.
23 February 2016
Ty,
Doug, and Steve comprised the crew again today.
Ty and Doug pretty much finished the main level sheetrock, then moved
down to the lower level where they got about half the ceilings hung. The two macho men also helped me pull the
Romex cable out of the too-small conduit that runs out to the woodshed. Steve did more of his plumbing thing in the
mechanical room. Sean came by for
lunch to inspect progress, give me the next in the continuing series of Goose
Creek invoices, and review the construction budget status (which is looking
just fine, by the way). After Sean left,
I ran errands in Middlebury and Brandon, including two stops at Green Mountain
Electric Supply just because I like Jordan and Alex sooooo much. Procured the THHN wire needed for the
woodshed run, plus assorted goodies for the mechanical room wiring. Upon return to Fern Lake, wired up the load
end on the heat pump and jury-rigged a light in the master bathroom (the
correctness of both to be verified by Tom Morrissey tomorrow), then did some
serious vacuuming on the main level, now that the sheet rocking is mostly done
up there.
22 February 2016
Ty,
Doug, and Steve here today. The two
geese continued sheet rocking the house main level, getting the vaulted ceiling
and the stairway completely done. Only a
little bit of the kitchen and sun room walls to go before they start on the
lower level. Steve worked some more on
the plumbing for the geothermal heating system.
I spent the morning and much of the afternoon on the phone. What little work time I had was consumed by running
AWG 10-2 wire from the mechanical room electrical panel over to the heat
pump. Marty and Merry came up for the
scheduled 12:30 tour of the house, oohing and ahhing in all the appropriate
places. In the evening, went down to
their place to ooh and ahh over another fabulous stuffed salmon dinner.
21 February 2016
Mostly
a quiet day of cleaning in the new house.
Did a few electrical odds and ends.
Perry came over at noon for a couple of hours to help me with a two-person
carpentry task. Took a bunch of “scrap”
Roxul® down to the sauna and started to insulate the dressing room. Finally got around to removing the last five
lights from the string powered by the upper transformer on the wood walkway. One of these days I will reconnect those
lights so they are powered by the lower transformer. Perry and Steve came over to enjoy the much
improved ambiance on the sauna deck… and a delightfully hot time. Sauna temp hovered between 205° –
210°, which was absolutely perfect with the outside temp in the mid 20’s.
20 February 2016
And
the roller coaster ride continues: the temperature today topped out at 52°…
which means now there is a layer of soupy mud on top of the frozen ground in
the driveways. Spent the morning, as
usual on Saturday, cleaning and laundering in Kate’s house. Perry came by at noon to scope out a small
project he and I will be doing. Spent
some time in the afternoon establishing an account on ForSaleByOwner.com and
getting preliminary information onto that website about our house in Virginia,
soon to be put on the market.
19 February 2016
Ty,
Sonny, Doug went crazy all day putting up sheetrock on the inside of the
exterior walls on the main level. Steve
continued building his piping labyrinth in the mechanical room. Think he may be trying to rival the hydra
monster that Tom Hobbs built with the air handler and HRV ductwork. I left at 7:30 for appointments in
Burlington, and then, because I was already there, provided transport back to
The Residence and got Alverta resettled after an overnight stay at the UVM
Medical Center. That latter task took
the entire afternoon. Finally got back
to Fern Lake at 6, having stopped en route for a Big Mac lunch / dinner in
Ferrisburg. Boy did that burger taste
GOOD after having eaten nothing since breakfast.
18 February 2016
Ty
Zimmerman joined Sonny and Doug in the dry walling mission today. The three geese made excellent progress
towards finishing much of the main level interior walls by quitting time. Tom Hobbs was here most of the day finishing
the ductwork. He was joined for a couple
of hours this afternoon by Logan and Marc.
Steve continued building his copper pipe matrix that is the heart of the
heating water distribution system. Tom
Morrissey and I installed the doorbell wiring and transformer and tested to
ensure that the video doorbell would ring the doorbell chimes. Then we tackled the job of getting power to
the woodshed from the mechanical room electrical panel. As you may remember, currently the woodshed
is powered from a temporary subpanel on the electric meter pedestal. We quickly discovered that pulling two AWG
12-3 and an AWG 12-2 wire through a ¾″ conduit just wasn’t going to happen. With much difficulty (had to bring in
strongman Ty to help pull) we managed to get the 12-2 and one of the 12-3 wires
through the pipe. Assuming I can pull
those Romex wires back into the cellar again, we’re going to have to switch to
THHN wire to get all the circuits I want out to the woodshed. C’est la vie!!!! Sean got here just before 4:30 and spotted
several spots where outside air could leak into the house, e.g., the chimney
thimble. Used duct tape to seal off the
culprits. Matt Sargent from Efficiency
Vermont arrived shortly before 5 and did the inspection required at this stage
in the construction process. He also did
a blower door test on the house to determine the air tightness of the
structure. Obviously, the less air
leaking in or out, the more energy efficient the house. Efficiency Vermont has a tiered set of
standards: the top tier requires a leakage rate of no more than .6 air
exchanges per hour (ACH) at 50 Pascals pressure difference between the inside
and the outside; their Gold Standard requires that there be no more than 1 ACH;
their Silver Standard (to which we’re building) requires that there be no more
than 3 ACH. (In the picture on the left, the left hand number is the inside/outside pressure difference [54 Pascals] and the number on the right is the number of cubic feet per minute (CFM) that the blower fan is moving [543]. To get ACH, multiply the CFM number by 60 and divide by the air volume of the house [~ 26,040].) To the full credit of
everyone who has had a hand in building a very tight house for us, we currently
are at 1.25 ACH, and expect that number to decline substantially as
construction continues. J!!!!
17 February 2016
Sonny
& Doug spent most of the day doing small carpentry tasks: finishing the
storage soffits, lowering the lower hall and cedar closet ceilings by 1½″,
extending the lower hall soffit, furring out the master bath shower walls, and
reducing the mechanical room door frame to fit a 2868 vice a 21068 door. Sonny also duct taped closed all the plumbing
and duct work openings to prepare for the blower door test that (I hope)
Efficiency Vermont will be performing tomorrow afternoon. Sometime
during the morning Dave Todd, our across-the-street neighbor, sanded both Kate’s
and our driveways. Such GREAT neighbors
we have!!!! Late in the day Sonny and Doug put on their
sheet rock installers hats once again, working some more on covering main level
interior walls. Now that the major
mechanical room equipment is where he wants it, Steve started fabricating the
copper piping, valves, and pumps that will link it all together. Sean came by late morning. At noon, Craig Powell from East Shore Drywall
arrived to estimate the cost for the taping, mudding, and sanding work his
company will be doing. After Craig left,
Sean and I carefully checked the interior door list I had put together. I’d like to say the list was perfect before
we checked it, but that would not be accurate.
Took the, now assuredly perfect, list to Goodro’s, only to find that Tim
Combs (their door guru) was out sick today.
Stopped at Green Mountain Electric Supply for another wire and goodies fix,
then went over to Glen Peck’s shop to steal procure the last AFCI
circuit breaker that I need, but that Lowe’s never has.
16 February 2016
Hard
to believe that the temperature two days ago fell to – 17 °
and today we topped out at 55°. During
the transition there was a period of freezing rain, which made the roads
extremely hazardous this morning. Sonny
and Doug made it here, late but safe.
Tom Morrissey decided that discretion was the better part of valor. The ersatz carpenters finished putting in the
R‑23 Roxul in the sun room vaulted ceiling, then worked on dropping the lower
hall ceiling an inch and a half (so the sheetrock will cover the steel beams)
and putting in the storage room soffits (ditto, and to hide assorted plumbing,
ductwork, and electrical runs). Bryan
Arnold was here for a couple of hours this morning, bringing supplies needed
for the master bath shower (including the trench drain we’ll be installing) and
having Sonny made some modifications to the shower framing to accommodate the
waterproofing system he will be using. The
Goodro’s truck started down the, by now, glare ice driveway just after lunch
and got stuck. I took the Tacoma up to
transfer the cargo and then, in a fit of bravado, slid it down Kate’s driveway
(her pine tree was looming large in the windshield for a couple of seconds
there) so we could unload into the basement.
Thank goodness for ABS. Took two
tries, but back up the hill she climbed without any angst. (Although, let’s admit that studded snow
tires, vice all-season radials, would have been nice.) Meanwhile, Brad (the Goodro’s driver) had a
bag of sand on his truck, so with a little casting, he was able to extract the
truck from the driveway and go on about his appointed rounds. A short time later Bill Mills from COMCAST
arrived. He installed an amplified 8‑way
splitter in the mechanical room for the house’s coaxial cables. Unfortunately, his van had neither FWD nor
snow tires, so when he went to leave he just sat there, tires a spinnin’. Used up most of the sauna stove ashes to get
him moving, but he got stuck again just before where Brad had sanded. Fortunately, Steve had several bags of sand
in the Ryan’s van, so we got Bill unstuck and on his way in short order. Steve finished building the rack on which the
de-super heater tank is to sit, and then we found that the rack was too high
for the tank to fit under the HRV. So
Steve cut an inch off the legs, and then decided he didn’t like that three-high
arrangement (HRV over de-super heater tank over heat pump) at all, so he moved
the heating system hot water tank to under the HRV and moved the heat pump and
de-super heater tank to where the hot water tank had been sitting, rebuilding the
rack yet again. PPPPPP! I spent much of the day cleaning, removing a
dozen garbage cans worth of Roxul® scraps to the dumpster. Also did
a few more small electrical runs and drilled some holes to prepare for the electrical
work that Tom and I plan to do Thursday.
The dehumidifier is making a huge difference in the house moisture
levels: very little condensation left on the windows and doors, though the
Blueboard® under the Roxul® in the basement still is
quite wet.
15 February 2016
Sonny,
Doug, and I worked on putting in the more of the Roxul®
insulation. I left at 11 to deal with an
smoldering issue at the condo we own in South Burlington. Sean arrived as I was leaving, so we talked
via phone while I was headed north. Big
concern remains the excessive moisture in the house being produced by the
propane heater. So, on my way back to
Fern Lake late afternoon, I stopped at Taylor Rental and took away one of their
industrial-sized dehumidifiers, which now is working overtime in the basement.
14 February 2016
Woke
up to – 17° on ye olde weather station readout… which the small propane stove in
Kate’s living room wasn’t able to keep up with, as the indoor temp was down to
59°. Bundled up appropriately, left
at 7 for Calais via a stop in Burlington to pick up Alverta. Was – 15° at the cabin when we arrived… but toasty warm
inside courtesy of my brother’s Hearthstone wood stove. Shortly before 10 Steve married Mary
Richards, his longtime girlfriend. The
short, sweet, and very informal ceremony was performed by Eva Morse, family
friend, justice of the peace, and (before retirement a few years ago) the forever Calais Town
Clerk. After the wedding, Steve and Mary
treated the family to brunch at J. Morgan’s Restaurant in Montpelier. Mr. Pig is here to tell you that eating
anything again anytime in the near future is just not going to happen. Rolled Alverta out of the truck at The
Residence mid-afternoon, then went to Lowe’s and The Lighting House to spend
more money on things electrical. Got
back to Fern Lake at 4:30 and spent a delightful hour visiting with Marty &
Merry while Kate’s house was warming, up thanks to the oil burning forced-air
furnace.
13 February 2016
Wow! What a difference being almost fully
insulated makes! After my usual Saturday
routine at Kate’s, spent a couple of hours this morning cleaning the new
house’s basement. The temp inside when I
arrived was 40° (just where I try to keep it when workers are absent). The wind chill outside was – 2 at that
time. The propane heater didn’t come on
once while I was there, even with three windows cracked open (for putative
moisture control) on the house main level.
Perry and Steve came for a mid-afternoon sauna. With the wind chill then down to – 11, for
some reason nobody wanted to sit outside during our cool-down cycles… Bunch of wimps!
12 February 2016
Tim
and Roger were here promptly at 7, as was Sam Latreille with a second Black
Diamond spray-foam trailer. Tim finished
the attic and Sam did the sun room vaulted ceiling and the area in the basement
under the porch. Saying something about
pizza and beer, the trio departed at noon.
Sonny spent a couple of hours this morning doing “real” carpentry work:
reducing the opening size on a couple of doors, beefing up the area behind
where the clothes dryer will go because we’re probably going to have to drill
the vent line hole right through a load-bearing wall stud, and finishing the
wall sheathing under the stairs, ‘cause I wouldn’t want anything but the finest
accommodations for our water heater and water softener. Then Sonny joined Doug in Roxul® purgatory
for the rest of the day. One more day
should see that miserable job complete. The Orkin guy came at noon and did absolutely nothing about the squirrel I believe has taken up residence in the attic over the bedroom I am using at Kate’s house. Steve showed up unexpectedly this afternoon for a couple of hours and started to build the rack on top of which the de-super heater tank will sit (above the heat pump). Off and on during the day I ran a few more electrical lines, including a bear of a pull (Sonny and Doug had to help) of AWG 10-3 to power the mongo shop dust collector that I will be ordering. After I got back from doing errands in Middlebury mid-afternoon, I asked
the guys what I could do to help them.
Doug said, “Roxul” and pointed to the area above the soffit in the
hallway outside the guest bath, which has got to be one of the worst nightmares
to work in due to all the wires, tubes, and ducts in that soffit. I think Doug was a bit surprised when I said
okay and got to work. After the geese
flew the coup for the weekend, I went down to Vermont Specialty Slate, met the
owner, Jim Sauder, and paid for the flooring that Bryan Arnold had ordered for
us.
11 February 2016
VERY
busy day! Tim Paquette and Roger Marcoux (Black Diamond Builders) were here
before 7, getting ready to spray-foam the attic and sun room vaulted
ceiling. They left just before 5, having
put 2″ of insulation on top of most of the main level ceiling, which will seal
the attic from any moisture intrusion. Andy
Tracy also came by mid-morning to see how his guys were doing. The Roxul® twins, Sonny and Doug, finished insulating all
of the exterior walls on both levels, then started putting in the basement
ceiling insulation. Everywhere there is
radiant floor tubing between the floor joists, R-15 Roxul®
has to be put in to trap the heat against the main level floor, thus keeping
Chree’s tootsies toasty. Tom Hobbs, Logan
Marsano, and Marc Swenor (Boot Hill Metal Benders) were here most of the day
continuing the ductwork install. They drilled
four large holes through the west side band joist (hitting the previously
installed KOMA® blocking dead center each time!) and put in the vent hoods for the HRV
intake and exhaust, guest bath exhaust fan, and woodstove air intake. Tom also added a couple of arms to the hydra
look-alike air-handler monster in the mechanical room. Dennis was here for a couple of hours late
morning, reviewing Steve’s work and consulting with him on how the geothermal
heat pump will be setup and controlled. Steve
will be trying to get the geothermal heating system online by the end of next
week, as the propane heater still is causing major moisture condensation issues
inside the house. Sean arrived just
after Dennis left and spent a couple of hours with me inspecting recent
construction, wrestling with the budget, and planning next steps. Our current concern is that 25% of the
drywall installation budget has been spent and far less than 25% of the drywall
has been bought and put up, never mind being taped and mudded. So what did I do today, other than direct
traffic and answer questions? VERY
carefully, used my diamond-tipped Skilsaw and Steve’s spade bit-equipped Bosch hammer
drill to chisel away the concrete where the guest bath shower drain needs to
go. Found not one, but two PEX radiant
heat tubes hiding in the area being demolished, and managed to get the concrete
out without damaging either one. Amazingly,
neither tube will be in the way of the shower drain J-trap. I was sweating bullets by the end, and not
just because of the unaccustomed physical labor involved. Also did some more electrical wiring, but
that is just so passé at this point.
10 February 2016
This evening, while I was making a final walk-around inspection of the premises as I
closed things down for the night, discovered that I’d left out one segment in
the telephone wire daisy-chain. Without
that segment, none of the phones in the second guest bedroom, master bedroom, or
study would have worked. Oops! Fixing that oversight ended the day. Actually, a really tasty gin and tonic ended
the day, but that’s another story. The
beginning of the day was just as bad. As
I looked at the master bedroom this morning, I realized that the primary
telephone jack was going to be on the “wrong” side of the bed for convenient
usage. Fixing that faux pas meant taking
a sheet of drywall down to expose the wiring.
Glad I caught that error before the drywall was taped and mudded! Sonny and Doug spent an hour this morning
finishing the master bathroom ceiling sheetrock installation. They spent the rest of the day installing
Roxul® insulation, getting almost all of the main level exterior walls
done. Steve ran all the thermostat wires,
finished putting in the ductwork for the master bathroom vent fan, moved the
hot and cold water connections for one of the master bathroom sinks (they were
going to be too close to the vanity cabinet side ‘cause, in a senior moment, I
told him we were going to have 24″ wide cabinets instead of the 21″
that we actually ordered), and ran a hot water feed line from the mechanical
room to under the stairs. That line will
bring warm water from the heat pump de-super heater to the electric water
heater. [Note
to file: in case someone ever wants to make the two guest bedrooms into their
own heating zones, there are thermostat wires in the wall above the first guest
bedroom light switch and in the north wall above that light switch for the
second guest bedroom.] Got a Valentine’s Day card and
gift from Chree in yesterday’s mail. The
card read: “I love you more than pizza.
Don’t tell pizza. Pizza is less
expensive!” The gift was a check for many,
many thousands of dollars. So I went
into Middlebury this morning to deposit the check and, to celebrate being flush
with funds once again, got my ears lowered at a shop in town. Jim Ploof stopped by mid-afternoon to be paid
for the work he and James did last week.
In the midst of some final (I thought) electrical wiring after Jim left,
I got a FedEx package from Chree containing our video doorbell and some
paperwork Middlebury National Bank had requested. So drove back to the bank through a sleet /
snow / really weird shower. Stopped at
Green Mountain Electric Supply on the way back south for another 250 feet of
AWG 14-3 wire. Guess I’m not as done
with the wiring as I thought…
9 February 2016
Snowed
an inch overnight, which certainly makes things look more like winta’ in
Vermont. Denver won the Super Bowl and
Bernie tromped Hillary in the NH primary, so life is good! Not only that, but the overnight pressure
test that Steve did on all of the PEX tubing was 100% successful. So, we’re a smilin’! Sean was here for most of the morning and, as
usual, stayed for lunch. We reviewed
progress and he prioritized Sonny and Doug’s work list. We also reviewed the overall budget and the
cost estimate received from Bryan Arnold for the tiling work he will be doing,
then gave Bryan the go-ahead to order materials and start work. The dry walling duo spent the morning putting
up more of the same on main level interior walls in which we think (fingers
crossed) all the plumbing and wiring has been installed. After lunch Steve bored the 4″
hole through the north wall of the house for the master bath exhaust fan
duct. Unfortunately, the hole he drilled
missed the center of the previously-installed KOMA®
blocking by an inch. Fixing that misstep
cost Steve, Sonny, and me a couple of hours.
In the afternoon, Doug started to put up Roxul®
insulation in the exterior walls of the study, when he wasn’t being distracted
to help with the exhaust fan SNAFU. In
fits and starts over the course of the day I finished putting in all of the
telephone wires.
8 February 2016
Sonny
and Doug spent most of the day sheet rocking (i.e., putting up drywall to the
sound of loud music). They got all the
main level ceiling done except for part of the master bath (waiting for the
duct to be run from the exhaust fan to the house exterior). They also continued putting up interior
partition drywall. Only had to take one
piece down when we suddenly remembered that thermostat wire hadn’t yet been run
in that wall. Goodro’s made two
deliveries: 30 more sheets of ½″ x 12′ drywall and 78 bales (approximately 4,460
square feet) of Roxul® insulation. That’ll keep the
boys busy for an hour or two! Steve
worked on the radiant floor heat manifolds in the mechanical room and may
have gotten a good air test on those loops.
You may recall (see the picture of the cellar floor on 29 May 2014)
that, when we poured the cellar floor, we left a 16″ x
16″ void in the concrete, in the dirt under which is the piping that the guest
bath shower drain need to connect to.
Steve and I discovered this morning that the actual drain hole in the
base of the guest bath shower will be 8″ southeast of the void. Even worse, you’ll perhaps recall that the
PEX radiant heat tubing is right under the concrete and I distinctly remember
running the tubing really close to the void’s edges to ensure that the shower
floor would be toasty warm. More to
follow…but do you have any bad words I could borrow? Casella Waste Management delivered a 30 cubic
yard dumpster (the super-sized model) that was placed next to the woodshed and already has received
many “deposits”. The dumpster delivery
driver was quite accommodating in spite of his nickname, Option Two. Rumor has it that during past dumpster
deliveries he has been known to say: “Option 1: I can put the dumpster over
there, or Option 2: I can take it back away.
Your choice.” Jim and James came
back to continue building the garden retaining wall and start leveling out the
patio. Unfortunately, the ground has
refrozen (high temp today was 28°) so, after an hour, they had to give up on the
latter endeavor until spring. Jim did
take down the dead maple next to the patio: one swipe with the big excavator’s
bucket and the tree was on the ground, still attached to the roots. Now that’s power! Cary and Larry came back late afternoon and
ran the alarm wires for the sun room French doors and for the motion detector
that will monitor the kitchen and sun room.
I spent the day doing lots of little electrical wiring jobs, including
putting in the cans for the flush-mounted 3″ swivel accent lights that will illuminate the
woodstove. A tricky job but (three tries
later and with some crucial help from Sonny) ultimately done to
perfection. At least, that’s my story… Got the 2016 Addison County phone book in the
mail today. Now know why we keep getting
calls for Sandie Ayer at our new house number.
7 February 2016
Well,
I had every intention of cleaning the lower level of the new house today. Best laid plans, etc. After getting the blog posted and catching up
on the house construction finances, installed 1½″ Blueboard® around the sauna pocket door to slow down some
serious air intrusion we’ve been experiencing.
With the outside temps around freezing haven’t been able to get the
sauna much above 180° lately (somewhere between 185° and 200° is about optimal). Then it was off to Burlington to find that,
once again, Lowe’s didn’t have any Square D QO 20 amp plug-on-neutral circuit
breakers in stock. If that sounds like
Greek to you, imagine my surprise when the person staffing the electrical
department said the same thing.
Stopped at The Lighting House in Shelburne on my way back south and,
once again, they had everything I was looking for… and at very competitive
prices. That’s not to say that I didn’t
leave half a grand on the table when I walked out, but at least now I have the
closet and accent lighting fixtures that have been holding up the ceiling
drywall installation. Perry and Steve
came for our weekly sauna. Lit the fire
at 4:30. At 5, with the door to the
dressing room open the whole time, the sauna was up to 130°. At 5:30 it was at 190°. When we entered the compartment
shortly after 6 the dial read 217°… and eventually topped out at 223°. Obviously, the air intrusion
problem has been solved! Now 223° is
pretty toasty. So toasty, in fact, that
the Blueboard® on the sauna side of the pocket door partially melted, thereby causing
the door to almost stop working.
Ooops! Me thinks we may be going
back to the drawing board…
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