31 March 2016
Sonny
and Brandon continued putting in the study cabinets. Tom Morrissey continued the master bathroom
tiling job. Tim Ryan stopped by to check
on the quality of the painting his guys did earlier in the week.
30 March 2016
The
beautiful boat cleat door / drawer pulls that we bought don’t fit on the raised
panel of the 12″ wide base cabinet drawers!
Merde, alors… if you’ll pardon my French. That panel is exactly 4″
wide and the feet of the drawer pulls are 4¼″ wide. So
close and yet so far! Fortunately, there
are only about 40 gazillion cabinet pulls available online; now we just have to
find one we both like.
Sonny and Brandon finished the kitchen crown molding and started installing
the study cabinetry. Tom Morrissey
continued tiling the master bath.
29 March 2016
Sonny
and Brandon started putting up the kitchen crown molding, that will go around
all of the wall cabinet tops. They also
put on the kitchen cabinet toe kick trim.
Tom Morrissey continued work on the master bath shower tile
installation.
28 March 2016
24 March 2016
Sonny
(‘till noon) and Brandon started putting in the kitchen cabinets, hanging the
cabinets on the north wall before Sonny left and then Brandon installed the
lazy susan that will be at the west end of the peninsula and the sink base next
to the lazy susan that is centered under the kitchen window. Tom Morrissey put up most of the rest of the
Densboard® in the master bath shower and “leveled” the shower floor pan so that it
will drain properly.
23 March 2016
Chree
and the dogs left for Vermont shortly after 8 and arrived safely 8¾ hours
later. Right after she left, a two-man
team of professional house cleaners arrived to restore some of the luster to
our Springfield abode. Sonny and Brandon
finished laying the bamboo floor in the sun room by noon, which is when Sonny
left. Brandon spent the afternoon pawing
through all the boxes in the garage, then moving into the house and uncrating
the first of the kitchen cabinets that will be installed. Tom Morrissey put in the waterproof membrane
in the floor of the master bath shower, then poured the rest of the concrete
pan for the shower.
22 March 2016
Darren
Rose, Bobby, and Rocky from Hilldrup Moving were at our house in Springfield
all day packing and crating our household goods. A crew from East Shore Drywall sanded the
lower level of the new house. Sonny
worked until noon installing the bamboo flooring in the kitchen and
pantry. Sean went by early on to drop
off supplies. Brandon Connel, the very first
Goose Creek associate, joined Sonny in the floor laying endeavor at 8:30. Brandon continued work on the floor
installation until the end of his normal workday. By that time the pantry and part of the kitchen
and were done.
21 March 2016
Darren
Rose, Bobby, and Rocky from Hilldrup Moving were at our house in Springfield
all day packing and crating our household goods. A crew from East Shore Drywall sanded the
lower level of the new house. Sonny
worked until noon installing the bamboo flooring in the kitchen and
pantry. Sean went by early on to drop
off supplies. Brandon Connel, the very first
Goose Creek associate, joined Sonny in the floor laying endeavor at 8:30. Brandon continued work on the floor
installation until the end of his normal workday. By that time the pantry and part of the kitchen
and were done.
18 March 2016
Sonny
worked until noon, again,` back-priming the 1x6’s and the two 1x8’s. The 1x6’s will become the house baseboards;
the 1x8’s are for the pocket door jambs trim.
He did about 70% of the 1x6’s, preserving the option of returning some to
Goodro’s if we don’t use them all. And
since Sean ordered 20% more than we think we need, that is a distinct
possibility.
17 March 2016
Left
Fern Lake well before dawn, towing the trailer, and arrived back in Springfield
8¾ hours later. Light to moderate
traffic the whole way until I got to DC where, even at 2:30 on a Thursday
afternoon, there was stop and go congestion everywhere. Hopefully this was the penultimate time of
having to put up with that nonsense.
Sonny was at the new house all morning back-priming the poplar boards. He got about ⅔ of the 1x4’s done before calling it quits for
the day. What, you ask, is “back-priming”? These boards are going to be used for window
and door trim. If you don’t paint the
backside of the boards (the side that will go against the wall), then, when the
other sides are painted, the boards will tend to cup because moisture can enter
/ exit the unpainted wood fiber. So, to
prevent that, that backs of all the boards are coated with primer paint before
they are put up. Kevin also was at the
house briefly, cleaning up the woodstove alcove stone and collecting his tools…
plus the check I left for him on the alcove mantle.
16 March 2016
Eric
was here well before 7 and finished mudding the lower level, packed up, and was
gone by noon. Only the garage now needs
taping and mudding… to be done at some future date to be determined. The Goodro’s truck arrived shortly after
Sonny at 9, delivering 2,400 linear feet of 1x4 and 1x6 poplar boards that will
become the interior door and window trim and the wall baseboards. That is a heap big pile of lumber! Sean, master timer that he is, showed up
shortly after we finished unloading. He,
Sonny, and I then went over the cabinetry plan in detail, so that that
installation can proceed while I’m away.
We also looked at a spot at the intersection of the basement floor and
the east wall of the storage room where water has started to appear. Is this residual moisture from the propane
heater or is water getting into the basement from outside? Stay tuned for news at 11… Kevin also arrived mid-morning and (with
grunt labor help from the geese and me) put in the triangular stone that is
both the top of the woodstove alcove and forms the mantle on which stocking can
be hung with care. Kevin also put in the
stone that will be the bottom of the wood box.
Early afternoon the much-anticipated delivery truck pulled in with all
the Kraftmaid cabinetry for the house.
That load filled half of the garage; what you might call a heap of a
heap big pile of boxes! Beth Buckman
came back mid-afternoon with a paper we overlooked during yesterday’s loan
signing marathon. Bri Desautels from
Countryside Carpet & Paint used her GPS navigator to try to find our
place. It took her to the nonexistent
1750 Lake Dunmore Road address… in Salisbury.
She eventually wandered far enough south on Lake Dunmore Road to find
our place in Leicester. Bri took
measurements to refine how much carpet we will really need to order for the
house. Went over to Marty & Merry’s
for another of Merry’s experimental repasts.
No surprise, the dinner was great (a shrimp fettuccini) and the company
even better.
15 March 2016
So
I was eating breakfast at 6:30 when I noticed, observant person that I am, that
all the lights were on over at our new house.
Abandoning nourishment in favor of security, went over to investigate,
discovering that Kaleb Roberts, Matt Pratt, and Brendin Roberts from Ryan’s
Quality Painting had arrived to prime the main level walls. Seems they like to start work at 6… No screwing around with these guys: Kaleb and
Matt wielded 18″ rollers while Brendin worked hard to stay ahead of them doing the
cutting in. Eric got here at 7 and
worked on applying the third coat of joint compound to the lower level
walls. He had done as much as he could
for today and left at 2, along with Matt.
The two Roberts brothers stayed another hour to finish the painting. I went into Middlebury late morning to return
the dehumidifier to Taylor Rental and meet with our National Bank of Middlebury
loan officer, Beth Buckman, to do the closing on our construction loan. To make a very long story short, Beth came
out to Fern Lake on her way home at the end of the day to have a tour of the
premises… and bring me all the corrected papers so that we could finish the
signing process. Jeffrey Many arrived
soon after Beth and quickly replaced the broken shed garage door control wire,
for which work, once again, he refused payment.
In and around the loan meetings, I wired in a temporary light and switch
in the master bedroom, moved all the extraneous “stuff” out of the shop and
into the storage room, and totally clogged the shopvac filter three times while
removing dust from the main level floors.
14 March 2016
The
geese took a break today… something about them getting time off for good
behavior. Eric spent the day putting a
second coat of mud on the lower level walls and ceilings. John came back for about 6 hours to finish
sanding the main level. Kevin finished
building the two soapstone walls that form the rear of the woodstove
alcove. That included using a jigsaw
(and several blades) to carve a hole in one of the stones through which the
flue pipe extends. VERY, VERY fussy
work, as the distance between the edge of the stone and the hole was only ½″ on one side,
and soapstone is very brittle. But, ace
mason that he is, Kevin did the deed without breaking the piece. The finished walls and hearth are absolutely
GORGEOUS!!!! I connected all the
zillions of wires (actually, there were nine) that feed power to the woodshed
and control lights in that area.
Surprisingly, when I turned on the woodshed circuit breaker in the house
mechanical room electrical panel, there were no sparks, no smoke, no fire, and
everything worked as advertised. Went
into Middlebury to procure 20 gallons of PPG 6-2 Speedhide latex primer paint
at Countryside Paint and Carpet. I then
fixed the drill press switch that was broken when we were unloading the beast
after its sojourn from Virginia. The
switch now is better than new: the housing is metal instead of flimsy plastic.
13 March 2016
Borrowed
Perry’s 1¼ ″ auger drill bit and, with only moderate difficulty, reamed out the hole
in the wood shed oak beam sufficiently to align the PVC conduit with couplings on either
side of the beam. Glued together the
whole shootin’ works, then ran all the wires that will be needed to power the
woodshed, and various lights, from the house main electrical panel. Connecting all those wires, well that’s for
another day. After lunch, it being too
nice to be inside, took the hose and a sponge to the Tacoma, removing most of
the winter’s salt buildup. Then took the
vacuum cleaner to the areas on the house main level where the drywall was sanded
on Friday. Needless to say, there was dust everywhere you can imagine… and even
some places you can’t imagine, e.g., 8″ inside the chimney flue. Perry and Steve came over for our usual
Sunday evening hot time.
12 March 2016
Spent
the morning cleaning Kate’s abode plus a couple of piles of dirty clothes, then
worked some more on the For Sale By Owner (.com) listing for our Virginia house. Merry and Marty came up for the noon tour of
the new house. After a late lunch,
discombobulated the wiring nightmare in the lower level of the woodshed,
including removing the circuit breaker on the temporary electrical panel that
heretofore fed power to the shed. So,
until I get everything put back together, no electrons will be visiting the
nether regions. While trying to move an
AWG 18-2 wire (that controls the shed overhead door opener) out of the way for
hole drilling, managed to break that wire into several pieces… I am so not
GOOD!. Then very laboriously bored a 1⅛″
hole though one of the 8″ thick oak beams… and missed my mark on the
other side by a good inch. That means
the ¾″ PVC conduit that has to go through that hole doesn’t line up with the
fitting into which it must be inserted.
#$@%$#&^#%$!!!! (Translation:
somebody pour me a scotch!) Tom
Morrissey had told me that hole was going to be pretty hard to drill. That he was exactly right really isn’t much
consolation.
11 March 2016
Ice
out! Overnight the last of the ice
around our dock left for summer vacation.
Sonny and Doug finished putting in all of the interior doors except for
the three pocket doors. No sense in
installing the latter until they have been preserved with polyurethane. Eric spent the day taping and mudding the
lower level. Wade and Nick came to sand
the upper level drywall. Arriving late morning… they then took a lunch break
before starting work. They got some of
the sun room, kitchen, pantry, living room, and upper hall done before leaving
at 2 o’clock. I ran errands in
Middlebury first thing in the morning, then did a lot of cleaning and a few odd
jobs for the rest of the day. That
included installing the weather stripping around the attic access hatch to
further seal that opening.
10 March 2016
Sonny
and Doug installed another 5 doors, getting the two guest bedrooms and the
guest bathroom pretty much hung. Sean
was here all morning supervising the cutting of the woodstove hearthstone and
mantel piece. Sean suggested that, instead of one corner of the hearthstone
being cut off at a 45° angle per my design, the corner should be cut to mimic the 12″
radius curves in the arched doorways.
Once again, Sean’s eye for design resulted in a much more attractive end
result. Soapstone being very
soft, was able to use my router with a carbide tipped bit to put a ¼″round
over on all the exposed edges of the hearthstone and mantle. My pad sander with plain old 100 grit sandpaper
did a nice job touching up the rounded edges.
With muscular help aplenty, we hand-carried the hearthstone into the
house and put it in place with minimal fuss and bother. Okay, so maybe the fuss and bother weren’t
minimal (that critter is h∙e∙a∙v∙y), but nobody lost any fingers or toes. While putting in the second of the soapstone
pieces that will form the back walls of the woodstove chase, Kevin broke the
aluminum supply air duct we had installed the other day. He went out and got some standard 3″
duct pipes and was able to fabricate an acceptable repair. Eric finished all of the main level mudding
and then started taping the lower level.
Arrived this morning to find that the replacement dehumidifier had peed
all over the master bedroom floor. Bad
doggie! Arranged to return the miscreant
to Taylor Rental, but then waited all day for a FedEx envelope from Chree
containing some urgent paperwork. By the
time FedEx finally delivered, was too late to return the dehumidifier. To pass the time, finished installing the
electrical outlets in the shop and then put in the two DISC lights over the
workbench. They are so bright that you
almost need sunglasses when working in that area. Methinks there is a dimmer switch in their
future.
9 March 2016
Sonny
and Doug continued installing interior doors, getting another 4¾ done today
(linen closet, half bath, pantry, storage room, and first guest bedroom). Kevin finished building the concrete block
walls that will isolate the woodstove alcove from combustible house
framing. He then scared me half to death
by calling to say that the woodstove would not meet fire code requirements
because the hearth is too small. (Fire
code requires 18 inches from the front of the stove to the edge of the
hearth.) Turns out Kevin was measuring
from the wrong point on the stove (which he found out when he read the
installation directions), and all is fine after all. Eric continued mudding the main level all
day. Mr. Renaissance Man, aka Tom
Morrissey, came by first thing to gather all the details about the tile and
slate work he will be doing. As soon as
Tom left, I headed for points north.
Returned the leaking dehumidifier to Taylor Rental (retrieving a
replacement when I came back south), dropped off the “final” construction loan paperwork
at the bank only to be told that “they” had screwed up the documents Chree
signed when she was here last, and that those would have to be redone. Grrrrr…
Ordered 51 WAC 4000K DISC lights from The Lighting House and picked up a
couple of other lights that had arrived from previous orders. Filled a shopping cart at Lowe’s, per
usual. Visited and had lunch with
Alverta. While liberating our bamboo
flooring, had a nice chat with the owner of Planet Hardwood, a Stamford
graduate, who noticed the Stamford shirt I was wearing (a gift from Alex) and
off we went.
8 March 2016
Sean
was here most of the morning, helping Kevin with the layout for the woodstove
alcove, coaching Sonny and Doug on his (Sean’s) preferred door installation
technique, reviewing the construction budget and collecting money from me, and
introducing me to Tim Ryan from Ryan Quality Painting (not to be confused with
Tim Ryan from Ryan Plumbing and Heating).
Sean also made a McDonalds run, returning with a bag of breakfast
sandwiches for the crew. Such a nice
boss! Tim came by to scope out the house
interior painting job, talk about some of the details, and give us a ballpark
cost estimate. In the bad news
department, Tim thinks it will be early May before he can get to this job…
which means our April move in date just went bye-bye. Eric was here all day mudding away. He was joined for a couple of hours this
morning by an East Shore Drywall sanding crew: Brian Deroisia, Wade Longway,
and Nick Clogston, who got the storage room ready for painting. Kevin laid 4″ solid block to protect wood structure from flue
pipe heat. He and I also ran 3″ flexible aluminum duct from where the rear of the woodstove will be,
through the concrete block wall Kevin was building, then down through the floor
into the mechanical room to connect with the previously-installed 4″
duct that runs out to a vent hood on the house west wall. That ductwork will bring combustion air
directly into the stove from outside, important in a super-tight house to
ensure the stove draws properly. After
procrastinating for many, many, many months, I finally tackled the task of
converting the woodstove from a top flue to a rear flue. Randy, the manager at The Chimney Sweep where
we bought the stove, had said doing that conversion was a miserable job. He didn’t lie. Got ‘er done, but neither quickly nor
easily. Had a few choice words to say
about the stove’s designer, too. After
quickly putting up a sheet of plywood that will underlay the north pantry wall,
Sonny and Doug spent the day installing interior doors. They got the master bedroom, coat closet, and
study doors in, though not without a fair share of frustration. The laundry door also is almost done.
7 March 2016
Goodro’s
delivered the 21 interior doors first thing this morning. Sonny and Doug took an hour to finish
building the heat pump anti-noise enclosure. They then spent the rest of the
day finishing installing the drywall in the garage… which finishes the drywall
installation for the entire house. A
small round of applause, please!
Meanwhile, Eric continued his second round of mudding on the main level.
Tom Roorda and Bret Williams from Spafford & Sons came mid-morning and
removed the loudly chattering guts from the non-return valve in the well supply
line. With that fix and the insulation
around the heat pump, the second guest bedroom now is a reasonably tranquil
place. Kevin Haight delivered the
soapstone pieces that will line the woodstove nook. Fyles Brothers came and took away the three
100 pound propane cylinders that are no longer needed to heat the house. Perry came over to liberate some “scrap”
lumber and have it cut to the sizes he needed for a repair project he’s doing
at Marty & Merry’s. I spent the
morning catching up on construction accounting and paying bills, then did
errands in Middlebury in the afternoon.
Marty & Merry had me down for another fabulous dinner… lamb chops
that were to die for! And as an added
bonus, Merry’s world-renowned orzo salad.
Yummy!!!!
6 March 2016
The
Kubota and I spent the day over t’ Lynne and Perry’s helping the latter drop
trees and skid them to where they can be cut and split into next year’s
firewood. Was supposed to start sauna
preparations at 4:30, but didn’t get back to Fern Lake to light the fire until
almost an hour after that. Guess Perry
and I were having just too much fun in the woods… Even though we got a late start, Perry and I
enjoyed some fine heat therapy anyway.
5 March 2016
Doug
was here shortly after 6:30… so much for sleeping in on a Saturday. With me doing the cutting in and caulking and
Doug doing the rolling, by 11 we had put almost two coats of primer on the shop
walls and soffits. “Almost” because I
had procured 4 gallons of paint and we really needed 4¼. I’ll fix the holidays with the next painting
session, scheduled for some time this coming week. After lunch, I took the snow blower off the
tractor, put the backhoe back on the tractor, moved the backhoe outside the
woodshed garage, took the backhoe back off the tractor, put the front loader on
the tractor, used the forks to move the snow blower into the woodshed garage,
put the 3-point hitch on the tractor, loaded the tractor onto the trailer, and
gathered together all of my logging paraphernalia… all in less than two
hours. This guarantees, by the way, that
we will get 2½ feet of snow week after next.
4 March 2016
Sonny
and Doug put in the MDO for the east pantry wall and the nook where the glass
knickknack shelves will be installed, fitting the MDO around the adjustable
shelf tracks I bought the other day.
Sonny drilled the 4″ hole in the KOMA® blocking that will house the pancake junction box to which the exterior
light over the shop door will be attached.
That done, he discovered that there was no electrical wire running to
that blocking. “That’s strange”, says I,
“;cause there is a wire for that light in the switch box.” So down came the plywood wall covering and
then down came the ceiling sheetrock in that area. Traced the wire coming out of the switch box
until it disappeared under the ceiling sheetrock headed east to some
undisclosed location. Ran a new wire
from the switchbox headed west to the exterior light blocking… and we’ll
figure out what that other wire is doing next time Tom Morrissey is here. We semi-cleaned the shop, clearing the way
for painting tomorrow. That cleaning
included moving all the remaining hemlock boards out to the backyard under
tarp. At the end of the day we started
constructing a plywood box to enclose the Roxul®
encased heat pump, which I hope will further reduce the humming noise heard
when it is running. Eric consumed
another 20 gallons of joint compound today.
As thin as he is, I just don’t know where he’s putting it all.
3 March 2016
Sean
decided that Bryan Arnold will no longer be doing the Chez Perkins tile
work. So Bryan came this morning to
collect his tools and payment for work done and materials bought to date. Sonny and Doug put up the remaining drywall
in the master bath and the guest bath.
Tom Morrissey was here briefly to install the 40 amp circuit breaker in
the electrical panel and connect the AWG 8 wire that will satisfy the heat
pump’s robust thirst for electrons. After Tom left, Sonny and his two Dougs
reinstalled the sheetrock that had been taken down to allow access to the wire
runs. None of us noticed the pile of
Roxul® leaning up against the wall (nor the huge cavities in the wall where
the Roxul® used to reside) until a couple of hours later. So we took the drywall down again and… I think it’ll probably take a whole bucket of
joint compound (mud) to fill all the holes in those sheets when Eric gets to
that wall. Eric continued his mudding
and taping all day, putting second coats in some areas and first coats in
others, mostly on the main level. Craig
stopped by to check on Eric’s progress and bring another eight 5-gallon buckets
of joint compound. Sonny and Doug
installed the fire-door that will separate the garage from the mud entry. It didn’t quite take the two weeks they had
estimated, but it was pretty darn close!
When Sean was here this morning, he recommended that MDO be placed where
the TV enclosure is being created and over the wood bin where some built-in
cabinetry will be done. So, the ace
carpenters attended to that installation in the late afternoon. While trying to de-stress after Bryan left, I
did a bunch of cleaning in the basement and then built the framework for the
shop workbench. I also stuffed a bunch
of Roxul around the heat pump, which noticeably attenuated the noise emanating
from that critter. Marty and Merry came
over to enjoy a delicious chicken and broccoli casserole that Chree had
prepared for us. Marty and I also put a
dent in the Green Label. Okay, okay, I
was the one doing the denting, but Marty did help.
2 March 2016
Sonny
and Doug spent the day finishing putting plywood on the shop walls. A couple of coats of paint and some throw
pillows, and I’ll be ready to move in.
Eric worked all day taping and mudding the main level ceilings, getting
most of them first-coated. Ran the AWG 8
wire from the mechanical room electrical panel over to where it will feed into
the heat pump. Built a set of brackets
to hang up all my bar-, Quik-, and C-clamps.
First step in getting the shop organized. I left for points north at 9:30 to move
Alverta to her new, hopefully temporary, abode in the Burlington Heath and
Rehabilitation Center. Also visited Home
Depot and Lowe’s for a case of primer paint and the shelving unit tracks and
brackets for the pantry and knickknack shelves in the upper hallway. Got back to Fern Lake at 3. At the end of the day, Doug and I spent some
quality time cleaning up much of the s-storm that existed in the shop.
1 March 2016
Steve
easily extracted the 4″ PVC pipe from around the guest bath shower drain pipe, then installed
the shower pan and connected the drain.
He also let me know that the box I built yesterday afternoon for the
sauna waterline valve was not the size he wanted. So I spent part of the morning ripping out
what I had built and constructing a larger replacement, into which Steve ran
the conduit that will protect the sauna PEX waterline… if the conduit ever
thaws out. Sean brought a dozen Dunkin
Donuts to brighten up his visit this morning.
Craig Powell also stopped by, and we agreed that Eric would concentrate
on getting the storage room completely done by the end of the week so we can
use that space to store all the “stuff” cluttering the rest of the house. When Eric is up on his stilts doing ceilings,
he has to have a completely empty room to work in, for obvious safety
reasons. Sonny and Doug (with minimal
help from me) replaced the vaulted ceiling sheetrock taken down yesterday. They then started putting plywood up for the
shop walls, in spite of the miserable / completely cluttered working conditions
in that space at present. In the
this-is-why-I-drink-Scotch category: got completely sidewise with Bryan Arnold
this morning over how the master bath shower was being constructed, which took
Sean most of the rest of the day to straighten out. (Side note: general contractors don’t get
paid nearly enough for the crap they have to contend with.) Also, Steve tested the geothermal heat pump’s
current draw and found that it was sucking down 29.5 amps. He then found in the installation manual that
that heat pump requires a 40 amp circuit breaker (and, therefore, AWG 8-2 wire)
vice the 30 amp breaker and AWG 10-2 wire that we put in based on information
on the label plate on the side of the unit.
So four sheets of drywall will have to be taken down and the new wire
run before Eric can tape and mud that area.
Spent the afternoon in Burlington visiting Alverta (and buying a circuit
breaker and wire at Lowe’s). Sure,
Barkeep, I’d LOVE a refill…
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