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.