2.28.2017

Jim was back doing some steel details and then working on our attic floor today.  This picture shows new steel angle pieces he put up for nailers in the hallway and for the attic floor.

This is the view from the master bedroom, looking up - this area is basically all finished.  Jim used up all the big pieces we had left over from other jobs which is great - didn't have to buy as much new and cleared up some floor space in the shop!

Jim even moved on to the middle of the apartment and got about 8' of attic floor put down.  There's not much room for Jim to work in this area because of the high ceiling here.

At the end of the day, Jim spent a little time trying to clean up some of the driveway - he brought up a little gravel and spread it over the entrance area so it's not as muddy. 

 

High 50/Low 41

 

2.27.2017

I went out to the property for a bit this afternoon - Jim is working on putting down flooring in the attic spaces!  We saved all our old plywood and sheathing and now we'll be able to put that to good use.  This is the view from above the entry/laundry room looking towards the other end.  You can see that we'll have to crawl through to get to this part but we figure it will all be good space to stash stuff (read way too much leftover kid stuff!).

The view from in the laundry room - after I turned the new light on!

Doing fastening...



Since Jim has to carry this all by himself and get it up in place, he cut a piece of the sheathing in half to make it easier.

Bringing it upstairs...

 

I helped get the piece in position from the bottom and then Jim dragged it up into place...

He's putting H clips in this area to make things a little more solid in the area that we will be more often.

This view is from right inside the secret door to the attic - I'm watching Jim fasten the sheathing down to the steel joists.

 

Jim knocked off a tad early today and we headed to Lowe's to pick up the new microwave that came in as well as some electric parts Jim needed.  It was good because we checked out the microwave displays to see what the distance looks like above the range so that Jim can install the receptacle.

 

High 49/Low 28

 

2.26.2017

Thankfully, the driveway was okay when Jim headed out today - we had some pretty hard rain in the evening and we were worried about erosion.  But the temperatures dropped overnight too so things firmed up a bit.

Even on a short day, Jim got lots of electric work done.  In the laundry room, he got the GFI receptacle all wired in as well as the light switch.

Then he got blocking made, attached and then attached the dryer receptacle and got it all wired.

He finished wiring up the light in the laundry room and now you can turn it on when you walk in!

Plus, he had used 3 wire to wire up that light box so that he could take power up into the attic space.  If you look up on the rafter, he installed a receptacle and got it wired.  He then mounted the first of 3 light boxes.  He also got another piece of sheathing attached up in this space.

 

High 33 (30° drop from yesterday's high!)/Low 22

 

2.25.2017

Jim was back at work on kitchen electric today - here he's working on bringing wire from the dishwasher receptacle down to the breaker box.  Jim always starts this way so he doesn't waste any wire.

Putting the wire through the conduit down to the breaker box....

Getting things wired up in the box...

 

Once things were wired up in the box, Jim retraced the wire back to the dishwasher receptacle, fastening it down well and using lots of wire ties to hold everything neatly in place along the run.

 

I stopped out for a little bit this afternoon to take a peak at everything - Jim had put a couple light bulbs in the kitchen area so I had fun turning on all the lights and checking it out!  I was also able to do some clean up work for him.

 

After I left, Jim continued working on the electric.  There's only one circuit left in the kitchen - for the microwave above the stove.  Jim needs to check the appliance specs for exact placement of the receptacle for the microwave.  So once he had things pretty much done in the kitchen, he moved over to the laundry room.  He got the receptacles all wired and pigtailed.  He decided to put a few lights in the attic space, so he ran 3 wire to the light box in the laundry room and he will take the attic lights off that.

 

We had another warm day but change is coming - it was really windy all day and as I'm writing this we are in the midst of a fairly heavy rain shower.  Unfortunately, all these ups and downs have been hard on the driveway and this rain won't help.  Jim's a bit worried about the insulation delivery - hopefully by then the temperatures will be more normal and everything will firm up.  At least it's good that the ice that was on the driveway is gone!

 

High 63/Low 36

 

2.24.2017

Another day of kitchen electric work...this is the 2nd day that Jim has spent a good part of his day on a ladder working above his head.  A good way to end up with a stiff neck by the end of the day!

He got the living room fan box wired to the switch.  We had decided that we wanted a light on the fan in this room so that required using 3 wire.

He got both switch boxes wired up in the kitchen...this is for the bank of recessed lights - the empty space will be for fan controls.

Although it looks almost the same, this is the switch box for the light above the sink - the other space will be for the lights above the table in the nook.  He also got 2 GFI boxes wired up in the kitchen.

The next task was to get power to the light circuit in the kitchen.  So he ran wire from the box, across the hallway and down to the breaker box.

However, once he was down at the breaker box, there were 11 circuits hanging!  He didn't want to add any more to the mix without wiring up all those first.

Part way through the job - most of the circuits are done except for the heavy-duty range wire.

Look at that beautiful wiring job! 

 

Once all those circuits were wired into the box, Jim then connected the kitchen light circuit into the box (12th circuit today!) and ran the wire back up to the box.  He'll get that wired into the box tomorrow.

 

He even powered up the range circuit and checked the voltage - all good to go!  (Hmm...does that mean I can start cooking there?)

 

High 58/Low 48

 

2.23.2017

I headed out to do some errands this morning, including stopping at Lowe's to pick up more recessed light fixtures.  Afterwards, I stopped at the property to drop them off to Jim.

He was busy finishing up the wiring on the range plug...

All done and with the new cover on.

Once he had the new recessed fixtures, Jim put one in place temporarily to double check that we liked the placement (yes, we do!).

After I left, Jim spent the rest of the afternoon continuing on the wiring.  He brought the power line into the fan box in the kitchen and got that pigtailed out.  In the second bedroom, he had wire from the fan box to the switch, but had to bring power into that fan box also and pigtail everything together.

Then he got the other two recessed light fixtures attached and got all the wiring between them done and pigtailed - again, with all four lights turning on together, this requires a more complicated wire job.

 

Another unusually warm day - Jim had the kitchen window open while he was working. 

High 62/Low 39

 

2.22.2017

Jim started his day by going over all his calculations and making his final order for insulation before heading into the Drywall Center to get it ordered.  There's an urgency to get all this ordered because the price is going up and they said they would give it to Jim at the old prices if he got his order in right away.

When Jim got home, he said he got everything ordered - but none of what he had gone in expecting to order!  Using the unfaced insulation batts require using metal stays to help hold up the insulation in the wall cavities - and especially in the ceilings.  However, they were unable to find any 24" stays.  So Jim ended up ordering the faced insulation - in a typical wood structure, there are tabs on the edges that you staple to the wood studs - done.  Of course we can't do that.  While Jim was there, his rep called a contractor to ask him how he handled the process (he started talking chicken wire, yikes!) but basically, Jim will use the faced and glue it down to the studs like he did with the plastic over the unfaced.  Mike gave him another can of glue to try - this one supposedly doesn't dry as quickly as the other one.  Jim brought one package of insulation home to try but went ahead with the order.

While he was out, he stopped at the electric supply company and got a nice range plug connection - it fits right around the plug so will work great.

Jim came home for lunch and headed to the property afterwards.  He called and said the driveway was passable, so I headed out - Jim wanted to confirm light and fan placement with me.  The driveway is actually soft in places - the ground is still frozen but the warmer temps has thawed out the top surface and there's nowhere for that water to go - hence mud.

But it's always fun to go check out all of Jim's progress!  The banquette nook is now all framed and Jim has both lights up.  He still has to put another piece of steel up for the last light to connect to, but wanted to make sure I was happy first (I definitely was!).

Jim was working on more kitchen wiring when I got there - wiring up the garbage disposal receptacle and switch.  We went over the recessed lighting and fan locations in the kitchen - all good - so he'll be able to start working on all those.

Jim also came up with this insulation backing system for the knee walls - he put up pieces of angle and then cut foam board to go on top.  This way the insulation will have a "back" to keep everything where it's supposed to be.

 

After I left, Jim continued to work on wiring - he got the blocking put up at the end of the banquette area so that he could attach the second light and then got these lights wired up.  These lights will obviously turn on together so the wiring was a little more complicated.

 

 

He also ran wiring from the ceiling fan in the second bedroom to the fan in the kitchen - that was a long run that required drilling holes in the studs as well.

 

At the end of the day, he decided to bring up the toilet base and put it in its rightful place! 

 

High 54/Low 35

 

 

 

2.21.2017

Now that we have our new range plug, Jim spent quite awhile hooking up the wires to the plug.  You can see how thick the wires are so they are very difficult to bend and get them where you want them.  Unfortunately, Jim got it all wired up and then discovered that the plug won't fit in the adapter!  So he had to take everything apart.  He'll have to find another adapter.

Jim finished up the framing details in the ceiling over the banquette in the kitchen.  You can see he has all the angles for attaching drywall in all the different locations.  Since he lowered the ceiling and moved the intersection with the rafters, now there is room for the light boxes and they can be centered over the table.  He got the first light box installed.

He also worked in the kitchen and installed some recessed light boxes.  It's difficult to find the exact right spots - you have to project where the upper and lower cabinets will be as well as the appliances.

Jim redid some of the wiring and broke into the circuit to allow for the garbage disposal plug and switch (we forget that originally - too much to think about!).  So he got it all back together and wired up.

Jim got his second pneumonia shot yesterday at Target while we were out.  He felt absolutely fine until about 3:00 when his arm started aching and he couldn't do any more work above his head.  So he changed gears and unpacked our new toilet!  Jim wanted to make sure there were no cracks so he opened up the box.  This was extremely heavy - over 100 pounds probably - because they had the tank, the toilet and seat all in one box. 

 

I had planned on going out to the property this afternoon but Jim called me and said that the driveway was all iced up again because of our warm spell and subsequent freezing.  In fact, when he first got to the property this morning, he turned into the turnaround to then back up towards the house like he always does (makes it easier to just drive out straight in the pitch dark!).  However, his car slid and turned sideways into the snow pile at the bottom!  It took him quite awhile to inch his way out and be able to get up the incline.  I would have been terrified - so I stayed home!

 

High 44/Low 13

 

2.20.2017

Jim worked today on the ceiling modification for over the banquette eating area in the kitchen.  This unfortunately required lots of tear down before building things back up! 

We are only taking the slightly lower ceiling height to the end of the banquette - so Jim had to make blocking to attach the ceiling joist on the rafter side.  This picture shows new joists and the blocking...

He had to make clip angles to attach the joist to the blocking and make more blocking for the drywall nailers...

But you can see that modification is about finished now!  Jim has all the angle nailer pieces on and even put the wood framing on the front!

He knocked off a little early, came and picked me up and we went to Lowe's.  The bathroom sink and toilet we ordered were in so we picked those up, along with more electric supplies, wire, and the range plug (how does it make sense that you pay all that money for a range and it doesn't come with the plug?).  Jim said he has enough supplies to keep him busy for the week now!

 

High 39/Low 13