9.26.2017

It figures that we would have very warm temperatures when my mom is visiting.  We decided to beat the heat a bit and my mom and I took a drive to Vermont.  Unfortunately, the leaves weren't quite changing as much as we had hoped, but it's still a beautiful drive and we had a fun day.  Our main destination was to go to the King Arthur Baking Store...

 

We walked around the store and had lunch in their café before heading back.  We stopped in Quechee, Vermont, where there was a beautiful gorge.  We took a selfie that really didn't end up showing much of the gorge!

 

 

A better view from one side of the road...

...and the other.

We stopped at the property once we got back.  Poor Jim had no escape from the heat.  This was one of the hottest days we've had and since it's been hot for a few days, the carriage house had warmed up quite a bit inside.  And Jim had some of the worst jobs to do in the heat.

Check out all the insulation he got done in the stairwell!

And he took down all of the scaffolding that was in the back corner.  We'll have to build scaffolding in this area again once the furnace venting needs to be done but for now, we'll be able to do some grading and get this area filled in.  Another hard job in the heat.

He also got the fascia boards up on the side of the house.  Then he was able to figure out the dimensions for the last two pieces.  He got one cut but he was 3/4" short on having enough board for the other piece!  We'll need more trim board for around the stairwell but it was a little disappointing to be so close to finishing this section!

 

Jim also worked on the ductwork for the microwave vent.  The 6" stainless steel flange came in the mail yesterday, so he was able to put the two pieces of duct work together with the flange, screwed them together and used aluminum tape to seal everything.

Then he had to crawl up into the attic space (yes, on an incredible hot day!) and lower the ductwork into the kitchen.  Then he screwed the flange down to the floor of the attic so it's very secure.



 All of that work then enabled him to be able to do all the insulation around the ductwork and wiring and put the plastic vapor barrier in place.  What a huge accomplishment - we can now work on kitchen ceiling drywall!

 

These are the flanges for the dryer and bathroom vents that Jim will use to connect the ductwork to the vent outside.  He gave them a good coat of paint just to help with condensation issues.

 

 

 One of the next projects Jim has to do is to vent all the rafters in the stairwell, just as he did on the valley rafters in the apartment, by drilling big holes in the steel to allow for venting into the next cavity.  This is a ton of work and really difficult to keep the hole saw steady.  He came up with a jig to help...

It worked really well so he was able to get started on drilling some holes...

High 86/Low 60 - hot!