2 May 2016

Tim, Kaleb, Matt, and Brendin were joined today by Jason Many (yes, of course he’s related to Uncles Mike, Pikey, and Jeffrey) and Brett Rubright, two independent painters who Tim brings on when he needs extra help.  The painting gang concentrated on getting a second coat on all the window trim, prepping baseboards, and “painting” the shop ceiling with drywall primer.  Sean came by for a couple of hours in the morning, doing a walk-through inspection with Sonny and Brandon, during which they put together a preliminary carpentry punch list, i.e., a list of items to be done before the house can be considered complete.  Sonny manufactured a wood finish piece from which the sun room chandelier will be suspended.  He also manufactured doors for the wine cellar rear access and the master bath / laundry clothes pass-through.  Brandon started to manufacture pieces for the railing top caps from the Ifelele (a tropical hardwood) that I brought back from American Samoa in 1981… and have been saving ever since for this very purpose.  Now that’s what you call staying ahead of the airplane!  I spent the morning putting varnish on the second set of interior doors.  After lunch Chree and I headed north for our weekly spending spree.  We retrieved all of our previously-ordered wall lights and floor lamps from The Lighting House in Shelburne, in return for a largish check.  We cleaned out the entire supplies of 20 amp white Decora electrical outlets at both of the Burlington-area Lowe’s… and still came up 10 short of what we need for the house.  We then met Kevin Haight over at Trowel Trades in Essex Junction to select the masonry products that will be used for the patio, an eight foot diameter flower planter Chree wants in the middle of the patio, and an outdoor fireplace I also want on the patio’s east side.  We made those selections in a bit of a hurry, as it was pouring rain at the time of our visit, and all of the displays were, of course, outdoors.  Hope we like what we picked when it gets installed!