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.
