2.28.2018

Jim was so happy that he found all the table saw pieces yesterday in the shed; however, he realized that he was missing a crucial piece - the bracket that was used to attach the guard to the saw.  Jim trekked back up to the shed and went through everything to no avail.  He said it kept haunting him about where it could be, even when he was trying to work on something else.  He figured he would have to call the potential buyer back and say it was missing and that he would take some money off so he could order the part.  But Jim's mind kept working and he actually found the bracket in one of his cabinets!  It's mind boggling how many cabinets, boxes, parts and pieces Jim has in the shops and to think he could locate this random piece.

 

To stay on subject, the guy and his wife came around 4:00 to look at the saw.  They were very nice and stayed around close to an hour chatting.  They bought it so all that trouble was worth it, even though it has been kind of a time sink for the last couple of days!

 

Jim worked on the urinal this morning and - ta da! - all the connections worked and the urinal is on the wall!  Jim even put some water down to make sure there were no leaks after the plumbing surgery and all seems well.  Even though he wasn't expecting to have to work on all this, his solution required the least time and effort - definitely better than ripping apart all the plumbing which he thought he may have to do.

 

Jim continued working on the furnace plumbing too - he now has the supply line figured out and mostly soldered in place.  He needs to get another big piece of copper plumbing to make the last connection.  You can see how he had to step out the straight run in order to fit in the supply connection to the manifold.

In the afternoon, Jim got back to putting the skim coat on the walls.  He first started in the second bedroom closet to finish that up...

Then we moved into the kitchen...

Finishing up the nook area...

And onto the outside kitchen wall.  Jim got most of this wall done before we had to stop and clean up tools before the saw transaction.

Jim worked on a few loose ends after I left - he had a couple of plastering spots he wanted to touch up.  Then he got holes drilled in the support bracket he made for the return manifold on the furnace - it is ready for attachment to the super strut now.

Today almost felt like a spring day - the sun was out and it got to the mid-50s.  However, the weather forecast is for a nor'easter coming in - we are supposed to get 6-10" of snow on Friday!

High 56/Low 33

2.27.2018

Jim worked in the control room this morning - you can see the return line to the stairwell manifold much better from this picture.  He's waiting for another parts order that came in this evening to be able to move forward, but he continued designing the runs.

 

Jim is selling his contractor saw that he bought before we even had a building on site.  Now that he has all his tools, he no longer needs this one.  Someone was supposed to come look at it today, so Jim and I carried it down the stairs into the metal shop.  Turned out he didn't come - he called about the time he was supposed to be at the property and had a question about a safety guard.  Jim never used it so said he would have to look for it.  Unbelievably, he found the new guard, the book, even a dust bag all in the shed!  Maybe this guy will come tomorrow or else Jim has had other inquiries.  At least it's downstairs now.

We also unpacked the shower stall back piece - Jim wanted it upstairs in the bathroom so he can see how things are all going to fit together.

Mid-afternoon, we got all ready to do the rest of the skim coat in the second bedroom.  Jim and I had good teamwork going - he put the plaster on his roller and rolled it on the wall...

Working in small areas, he would then scrape the plaster off into his trough.  Once he was done, I scraped the trough clean and put the leftovers into another 5 gallon pail while Jim started rolling the next section.

This wall is all done...

Working on the sloped wall...

The main room is all done and Jim started working in the closet.

We got everything done but a small section in the closet.  Jim is really happy with the way it is turning out - the first wall he did is really smooth and he hasn't sanded once yet!

High 49/Low 29

2.26.2018

Jim worked in the control room this morning.  Now that he has the fittings, he was able to connect all of the Pex tubing to the stairwell manifold and get the tubes crimped in place.  Then he used another of his new chromed brass fittings to connect the return line to the manifold and get that all soldered in place.

 

Then it was back to work on the urinal plumbing.  He worked a little more on cleaning out the hub and then this picture shows his trial run of getting the adapter fit in the hub.  He was happy with the fit and placement so he then glued it.

This picture shows the urinal adapter attached.  Jim didn't want to tighten it down yet until the glue really had time to harden, but he took measurements and is pretty convinced that everything will work out now.  Plus, he was able to insure that the holes on the urinal match up with this adapter so that was big too!  He's made such immense strides into getting this to work after thinking just a couple days ago that he was going to have to totally cut out plumbing and rebuild it.  Such good news!

After that, Jim headed back into the apartment.  He got the living room totally done and finished up a couple loose ends in the master bedroom.  The next step is a trial one - Jim wants to put a skim coat of plaster over the areas that have no plaster, just drywall.  Supposedly, when you put primer on, it will adhere differently to the drywall area than it does to the plaster - makes sense since drywall is porous.  But this technique requires really thinning down plaster and rolling it on, taking care to scrape it off before it has a chance to harden. 

Jim also spent a little time in the bathroom, figuring out the steps he'll need to take in the shower area.  Originally, we had planned to put tile in the shower, so he made provisions for drywall and Durock.  Now that we are using a shower surround, he needs to see what adjustments he will have to make.

High 45/Low 21

2.25.2018

Jim continued working on the urinal issue this morning - he continued cleaning out the hub of the Y pipe fitting.  You can see it looks pretty sparkling!

 

 

This is the new adaptor that he will use instead of the stainless steel one.  He has the pipe cut to fit - it will go into the Y hub as well as the urinal adapter fitting.

 



So...first step is to get this side ready.  He got it all glued up.  He wanted to just let it sit and really dry before he did any more work on it.

 

 So then he transitioned to plastering in the apartment for the rest of his shortened day.  He pretty much has the living room in shape except for just a few loose ends!

High 36/Low 25

2.24.2018

It seems like it had been forever, so I really enjoyed getting out to the property for awhile this afternoon to check out all the progress!

 

Jim continued working in the control room this morning on the plumbing - he got the return line all sweated and started working out the design for the return line from the other manifolds.

 



His brass elbow came in so he was able to get that in place for the relief valve.  He got another anchor and installed that to the side of the furnace to hold the pipe in place.  Since that pipe kind of sticks out and isn't anchored at the bottom (it's just a way to get water out of the system in case of a catastrophic failure), it would be easy to bump and loosen joints above.

 

Another big chunk of the afternoon was devoted to seeing how to fix the urinal plumbing issue.  I knew Jim would come up with solutions!  He first wanted to try to "surgically" remove the glued-in threaded adapter from the drain hub.  He had to carefully use his vibrating tool to try and cut the pipe out.  A very difficult job made even more so now that drywall is in place.

He had to use his PVC saw in places too...

But finally he got it cut off!

The next step was even worse - he had to try and separate the part of the adapter that was glued inside the hub without breaking anything. 

He had to use a small chisel and hammer to try and chisel minute pieces out.

Part way through...

All out!  Now he just has to somehow clean all that glue and make it usable again.

His plan is to use a piece of 2" PVC to go inside this pipe and connect with another adapter for the urinal.  He cleaned out some of this pipe with sandpaper and was able to get the PVC pipe in part way so the plan is working!  He decided to call it quits on this project for the day and move up into the apartment.

The progress on the plastering in the apartment looks amazing - the master bedroom is basically done and the living room is getting there!



Jim worked on corners at the end of the day...

High 42/Low 25 - winter weather advisory out for tomorrow!

2.23.2018

Jim started work in the control room again, using some of the new parts he ordered.  This is the first connection from the copper pipe to a chromed brass fitting for the manifolds.  Each of these connections are expensive so just a little more added stress!

 



But the first supply run from the pump for the wood shop to the supply manifold is complete! 

If only all could go so well.  The rest of the day was clouded by a frustrating attempt to work on the urinal plumbing.  This is the first urinal Jim has installed and it's not like any of these parts and pieces come with real instructional manuals besides basic stuff.  The first part went well even though it was complicated.  Jim had to take precise measurements to figure out exactly where plumbing needed to end up so that everything would align.  This is the plumbing for the handle flush valve.

Jim had to cut it precisely and then sweat the threaded coupler on the end...

Flush valve connection on and looks awesome!

Unfortunately, here's where trouble set in.  Jim had to make connections from the waste plumbing line to the drain for the urinal.  While everything lined up as far as placement, once Jim got everything together you can see it sticks out about 1-3/4" too far from the wall.  He spent hours trying to come up with a solution for this problem.  Still not there yet so it cast a cloud over the rest of the day.

The drain for the urinal had to be placed way back before we poured the slab a couple of years ago so the fact that it's even there is amazing to me.  I know Jim will be pondering solutions all night in his brain - he's nothing if not persistent until he can figure something out!  Just wish things would go a bit easier sometimes...

He didn't get up to the apartment til after 4:00 but still managed to get the second coat of plaster on the screws in the living room and got the vertical corners done.

High 34/Low 31

2.22.2018

After a warm day yesterday, it was back to winter today with colder temperatures and 3" of snow this afternoon!  Thankfully, the warmer temps and rain have helped to thaw some of the ice on the driveway so Jim has been able to get up and down without issue.

 

He continued working in the furnace room...excuse me, we are now calling it the control room since it is definitely the hub for lots of activity for the carriage house!  He put up the mounting board and attached the filter bracket and then the filter.

 



The next step he worked on was shaping the conduit that will bring electricity from the breaker box to the furnace.  He needed to bend some conduit so he set up his jigs and made the first bend...

Then the next one...

Then he had to attach a coupler to the blocking he had put behind the drywall, then run the conduit along the back wall.  This is just the first part of this run but sure looks good!

Next he put up another piece of drywall on the outside of the control room up to the breaker box.  It's mostly fastened - all of the insulation has to be covered before final inspection.  However, Jim will be doing lots of work afterwards to bring electricity to the rest of the metal shop.  So he will make access panels to be able to work in the breaker box later on.  One big advantage of putting the drywall screws into steel - Jim can easily unscrew them and take down any drywall he needs to for better access to wiring.  Meanwhile, it's looking more finished now!



Jim also worked on attaching the angle piece he made to help support the weight of this copper run by attaching to the super strut.

In the afternoon, Jim headed back into the apartment.  He got all of the tapered joints in the living room walls and ceiling done and started working on the second coat on the screws.  Good progress!

High 32/Low 15 - 3" of snow