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.