4 February 2016

Ran down to Brandon at crack of dawn, getting to Aubuchon Hardware just as they opened.  Unfortunately, they only had two of the 4″ round ceiling boxes I needed.  Rats!  Sonny and Doug spent a couple of hours sheathing the area under the stairs with plywood so that Steve could start installing the cold water manifold and associated equipment in that space.  Then the sheet rocking duo went back to putting up ceilings.  With many distractions, they got part of the living / dining room done today.  Steve continued the plumbing rough in for part of the day.  Due to some confused communications, the floor under the walk through closet will be in the heating zone controlled by the study thermostat rather than (as was intended) in the zone controlled by the master bedroom thermostat.  Oh, well, at this point it is what it is…  Sean was here for much of the morning to talk about the next month’s work schedule.  Jim and James Ploof showed up unexpectedly mid-morning to see if I wanted any work done now that the ground is again thawed.  Answer: yes… and they’ll start tomorrow.  Brian Thomas (Black Diamond Builders, the insulation subcontractor) was summoned when Sean and I couldn’t agree on how to insulate the area where the kitchen flat ceiling transitions to the sun room vaulted ceiling.  Brian was on-site within the hour and successfully mediated the discussion.  The end result will be that the entire main level ceiling will be insulated to R-60 vice R-39 over the sun room and R-60 elsewhere.  Me likey!!!!  Me checkbook, probably not so much.  Goodro’s truck showed up mid-morning with vast quantities of R-15 Roxul insulation and the 20-minute fire-rated door that will separate the garage from the mud entry.  Tom and I continued work on the electrical wiring.  He linked all the smoke and smoke / CO detectors together with 18-2 wire so that, if one goes off, they’ll all go off.  Tom also made up many more of the electrical panel connections, discovering in the process that the previously installed utility room circuit breaker not only was in the wrong slot, but couldn’t be moved to its proper location because the wires were too short.  Solution: the utility room shall hereafter be known as the mechanical room… a term that everyone was already using anyway.  Late afternoon I made a mad dash into Middlebury to retrieve 5 AFCI and GFI circuit breakers that Glen Peck graciously is selling to me… saving me another run north.  Also stopped for my daily electrical material fix at Green Mountain Electric Supply.  Over to Marty & Merry’s for another fabulous stuffed salmon dinner.