12.31.2017

 

Our deep freeze continues and add to that a wind chill advisory - that just equals to scary cold.  Jim ventured out this morning though - and thankfully our carriage house continued to keep temps above freezing.  It's scary for Jim every time he heads up the driveway at the property because you never know if something happened like a power outage that could cause a major issue. 

 

Jim worked this morning on the stairwell door area.  He had to finish stuffing insulation in the right side of the doorframe and then was able to get the J-channel and drywall done.  Looks great!

 

In the afternoon, Jim switched his attention to the water heater that had arrived a few days ago.  When Kyle was here, he helped Jim move his desk into the utility room - it gives Jim a nice place to work right now.  These are all the parts and pieces of the water heater plumbing...

Here's a picture of the furnace before...

And this is after Jim put lots of the plumbing fixtures on!  You can see how complicated all of this is but wonderful progress!

At the end of the day, Jim headed up to the apartment to make blocking for the TV mount.  This is 3/4" plywood and Jim had to drill holes, countersink the screws and will still have one more layer to put on top of this. 

So Jim was feeling pretty good at the end of the work day.  As he cleaned up and headed out to leave, it was almost 6:00, pitch dark and absolutely freezing.  And he had a completely dead battery.  Apparently, somehow he had left his parking lights on and between that and the cold, it drained the battery.  Thankfully, he had pulled the battery out of the other 4Runner, but trying to jump the battery with frozen hands in the pitch dark was quite the challenge.  Then it took awhile before he could get it to turn over.  He even drove home with no heat on to conserve the battery!  Now we just pray that it will start in the morning after sitting out in these horrid temps - it's to go to -13 overnight.

High 7/Low -13

 

12.30.2017

Kyle and Julia headed back to NYC late this morning and we were glad to know that they arrived back home safely.  We sure enjoyed having them here with us and all of the help!

 

It was a short day for Jim at the property.  It was later when he got there and he had to come home early so that we could go to church here in town.  It's just too cold to travel to our normal church.

 

He continued some drywall work in the stairwell - he got the last piece installed underneath the window opening as well as the next wall piece.

 

Before he put the wall piece up, he wasn't real happy with the piece of flooring that was next to it.  It was a tiny bit too long and Jim wanted to get it perfectly aligned with the edge of the landing.  So he took that piece off, which involved taking out lots of screws, took it down to the workshop, trimmed it just a hair, and put it back in place.

After that, he started the drywall around the door!  The stairwell has really transformed over the past couple days!

High 11/Low -6

12.29.2017

Another bitter day - Jim and Kyle headed out late morning to continue stairwell work.

 

This is the area where the half round dormer window will eventually go - but in order to get occupancy, we need to have all the insulation covered.  So Jim put up drywall temporarily to cover this space.

 

Then they got the first sloped ceiling piece on this side up in place...

They beveled the edges of the drywall for a perfect fit into the hip corner...

All fastened...

Next piece up and fastened...

 

At this point, Julia and I came out to see all the progress.  I ended up driving their Jetta out to the property - my car is still encased in snow and ice!  So we got to watch them put the first piece on the other side...

They have to work on a single plank above the open stairwell - a bit scary to watch.  It was so nice to have Kyle help Jim - this is the 5/8" plywood so it's nice to have someone with strength to help!

Next piece all up and fastened...

Working on top of the sloped wall...

Jim used the Rotozip to cut all the edges around the window opening and they got all the top pieces in place.

Final pics....there's just one little piece left under the window opening but everything else on the sloped walls is done!  A great pic from below...

The front view....

Side of the stairwell...

And the back view...

Then it was home where we had a nice ham dinner and watched Storm of the Century (very fitting!).  We took a dessert break and shared a traditional holiday beverage in our infamous Moose mugs that Kyle bought us years and years ago (made famous in Christmas Vacation).  It was a great holiday with Kyle and Julia and we appreciate them fighting the elements to come visit for a few days!

 

 

High 2/Low -19

 

12.28.2017

Kyle and Julia arrived last night and we had a good evening.  This morning, we had our Christmas celebration...

 

Complete with stockings...

Then Julia and I stayed home and baked most of the day while the guys went out to the property.  The work was concentrated on doing drywall in the stairwell.

A good picture of how the drywall is attached to the angle that Jim put up.  Then they put a cleat up on the first piece to help hold the second one in place until they can get it fastened...

 

The ceiling area facing the front is all done now!

 

 

Then they moved over to the side ceiling area - this piece is complicated by the angle canned light fixture that straddles two pieces of drywall/

Jim wasn't sure if he would be able to cut the light fixture out with the Rotozip but he gave it a try - while standing on two different stepstools!
 

Bottom part of the fixture came out great!

Doing the rest of the fasteners...

 

 Next piece is up and in place and Jim is doing the beginning fastening...

Starting to cut out the top part of the angled light fixture...

Kyle took this picture just as Jim made the final cut and the piece fell...

Then they put the final piece up on top - looks amazing!

Julia and I hope to go out tomorrow to check all this work out in person!

High 7/Low -11 - brr....

12.27.2017

We are definitely in our deep freeze now with really scary temperatures starting.

 

However, we are so grateful that the carriage house is able to maintain the heat Jim puts in it, thanks to how tight its built and all that insulation. 

 

Jim spent all day working in the stairwell.  He first had to work on the floor.  We had put the Advantech down originally and had to order longer screws to put it down.  So it wasn't all fastened down.  Jim worked all morning on it - he had to move everything out, vacuum really well including between each board, and then use the crow bar to get everything perfectly aligned.  Then it required predrilling and finally putting all of the screws in.  So that job is done!

 

After lunch, he moved on to angle work.  He had first bought a special piece of splayed angle for the hips with one side really wide.  But after doing the other hip a different way, he wasn't happy with this side.  So he took it all apart!  Then he redid it, using smaller pieces of angle that fit between each rafter - and of course he had to do that on either side of the hip.

 

You can see how everything comes together at the bottom.  He was able to use the angle piece that he took off for the top of the wall.  He's much happier with this approach - it will make a better end product when he attaches the drywall.

He had cut some pieces of drywall for the front side but nothing was attached.  He got that all attached and started working around the side.  He had to take apart the receptacle and then got that wired back.  Looks amazing!

 

As I write this, Kyle and Julia are on their way here to celebrate Christmas with us!  We hated to see them travel in this brutal cold but are excited to see them.

 



High 15/Low -8  Brr.....

12.26.2017

Today was the warmest it will be for at least a week and a half - scary temperatures are on their way.  It's so cold that Jim doesn't like to have the cars out unless necessary, so he came home and picked me up after lunch and I spent the rest of the day with him.  Which means - lots more pictures!

 

I got to see first hand all the work Jim has been doing - the drywall outside the bathroom looks awesome.  And the saw blade clock has a new home!

 



The side wall of the bathroom is all done now too - this is where Jim really had to work to make sure things came out okay with the breaker box.  That's not even accounting for all the trusses, conduit and plumbing he had to go around.  But it all came out great.

The view from outside...

In the utility room, he got a piece of drywall up next to the furnace area.  This is the first piece of drywall that is attached to the insulated concrete forms!

The little piece of drywall next to the doorframe is all done...

Because of the frigid temperatures, Jim made the decision that we needed to get the water out of the line going from the house out to the lawn hydrant.  He shut the pump down and blew air through the line, causing first water and then air to come out the lawn hydrant.  He shut off the valve leading to the lawn hydrant so we will be able to get water from the pump if we need to but it won't go all the way through the system.

Then we went back to installing drywall in the wood shop.  Jim had this piece cut and moved over - he just had to slide it down the wall into place...

Up in place and cutting out the receptacles...

Doing the rest of the screws...

Next piece up...

This is the last big piece on this wall so Jim has a long way to slide it down...

Up and fastening...

The shop really looks amazing - when you walk in, all you see is drywall! 

When we moved up to the apartment to work, I got to see the plastering that Jim had done in the second bedroom - he's got second coats on most of the joints and started doing the screws!

We were at the end of our banjo bucket so I scooped out what was left into the plaster bucket Jim has been using and Jim added more water to make a new banjo bucket.

Then we opened up our 5th bucket of plaster - that's progress!

Jim started taping the wall/ceiling joint in the master bedroom...

After resetting the ladder/scaffold, Jim did the small ceiling joint close to the wall...

Then was able to resume taping the wall/ceiling joint...

After he got that done, he moved to the last corner joint...

The only taping left in the master bedroom is the tapered wall/ceiling joint on this wall!  But it was 6:00 and Jim had to make sure all the heaters were full and we closed up for the night.

High 18/Low 0 - cold wave starts