3.31.2018 - More water!

The wall that Jim painted yesterday in the master bedroom looks awesome...

 

 

 

 Jim worked on opening and testing more water circuits today.  There are a few crucial connections - those within walls - like for the dishwasher, refrigerator, washing machine and shower.  Jim didn't want to close up drywall on any areas he wasn't comfortable with that could possible leak.  So this morning, he tested the dishwasher line.

And the washer line...

 

Both of those were especially crucial because they are hot water lines.  That means that the water has to go through the system, into the manifold, into the water heater (pictured between the two gauges below), and back out to the dishwasher or washer connection - all without leaking!  Everything worked perfectly - no leaks!  A huge sigh of relief!  This is the first water going through the copper tubing!

 



 

Once that had been tested out, Jim was able to fasten the last piece of drywall that was cut but not installed behind the dishwasher connection.  He started taping and plastering...

 

 

In between, he's continuing to work in the bathroom.  You can see he has the corner of the shower all plastered as well as working on the joints and screws.

 



 

 Jim spent the rest of the afternoon plastering in the bathroom and laundry room.  He got the rest of the piece taped in the laundry room.  This is the LAST piece of drywall in the apartment and the last taping job!  Amazing!

Although it hasn't been real warm, the ground is thawing out enough that the water is percolating through and our driveway is basically surface hard in most areas.  That's good news too!

 

High 50/Low 36

 

3.30.2018 - We have a working bathroom!

Jim did work in the control room this morning - very exciting work!  After having air pressure in the water lines, he finally decided to turn on water and see what happened.  He bypassed the water softener so the water went through all the new plumbing for the filter then to the manifold.  From there, he just turned on the line that went to the woodshop bathroom.  Check it out!

 



 

He also has the toilet valve open and it's working now too - SO exciting to have a working bathroom!  But the best news is that there NO leaks anywhere through the system at this point - what a giant relief!

 

That pretty much made the entire day but of course Jim didn't rest on his laurels.  He started putting together the furnace exhaust system using the new polypropylene plumbing parts.

 

He's also working on a sign post to attach at the bottom of the driveway - another requirement for occupancy is to have street numbers posted.  We'll also post a new Private Property sign here.  This property was vacant for a long time and people still are curious about what we're doing!  I picked up sticky reflective numbers at Home Depot yesterday so this will be coming together soon.

A few pictures from yesterday's work - Jim put up the drywall at the top of the plywood, put the J-channel on and got it all taped and plastered.

I always love to see the primer dry when I go out!

Jim picked up where he left off on priming the master bedroom side wall...

 

 Rolling the high wall section...

Starting on the entry wall...

And the corner section...  We just have one portion of wall left to go and this room will be all primed!

 

Redoing the primer on the valley area Jim touched up yesterday...

 

 

 My mom had asked me if all that snow was gone from in front of the garage door...not quite but it's getting there!  We still have some areas with quite a bit of snow cover but we're seeing more and more ground now.

 

High 48/Low 25

 

 

3.29.2018

As typical, Jim started off in the control room this morning.  He got a box of ordered parts and one of them was a shut-off valve that he inserted in the cold water line to the hot water heater, just in case he wanted to isolate that line.

 



One of the requirements for occupancy is that all the Kraft paper needs to be covered.  Jim wants to eventually build a wall underneath the beam on this wall leading to the stairwell.  So he made and installed some steel blocking in this area so that he will be able to attach the wall framing.  There will be a door there so it needs to be strong.

Then a lot of drywall work finishes up yet another wall!

Over lunch, Jim headed to the Drywall Center - he needed to pick up more of the new corner bead.  Once he had that, he was able to finish off the corners on the bathroom shower wall area.  He also started the next coats of plaster on the joints and screws in this room, as well as finishing the last coat of plaster on the ceiling corner joints in the laundry room - that ceiling is ready for texturing!

Always the perfectionist, Jim wasn't happy with one of the seams on the valley wall in the kitchen.  So he touched up some plastering work!

We started getting some mist and a bit of drizzle in the late afternoon - Jim caught this picture of a deer looking back at him along with a big wild turkey in the background too!

High 46/Low 41

3.28.2018

Jim read up on the arc fault breakers and realized they had to be wired into the box differently.  So he did that first thing this morning (they are the big ones sticking out in the picture below) and everything works perfectly now!

 



After that, he headed up to the apartment bathroom to work on details around the shower.   Because he had to extend the shower wall a bit using the wood, he wasn't sure how he was going to handle this little area...

So he made a block out of wood and attached it...

That allowed him to be able to connect drywall so he got the top piece and then the outside corner.

He had to cut a piece of drywall to extend the back side too...

Next, he cut a piece of drywall for the top of the front wall in the shower.  However, he's now trying to screw through 2 pieces of drywall into steel!  He didn't have long enough drywall screws.  He tried predrilling.  He's going to end up using a different type of screw.

 

This is a picture of the taping he did before he came home last night - because there are so many intersections of tape in this little area, he has to do it in stages.

Mid-afternoon, he switched to priming, starting up again in the master bedroom closet.

Finishing up the closet...

Moving to the walls in the room.  Goes a bit slower having to work off a ladder.

Finishing up this side wall...

Back wall is just about done....

 He used up the rest of the paint in his tray to make a little start on the other side wall...

Then he switched to taping and plastering in the bathroom...  He did a couple more areas in the laundry room ceiling before heading home!

High 49/Low 32

3.27.2018



Jim got a little bit later start today because we were going over some preliminary tax info (never fun, but especially not with a home business!).  Jim has had to squeeze in all the messy tax work into his late evenings.

 

Once he got to the property, he started doing some electric work.  One of the requirements for the electric inspector is that we have special (expensive!) arc fault breakers in the living room, hallway and bedrooms of the apartment.  So Jim took 2 of the breakers from the box in the woodshop and used them in the metal shop, wiring up the furnace into the box.  That box is pretty much ready to go.

 

Unfortunately, when he replaced the breakers with the arc fault breakers, the circuits kept tripping the breaker.  Jim's not familiar with these breakers so has no clue what the issue is.  He'll have to investigate them this evening.  (Isn't it always something?)

 

 

Moving up to the apartment, he made and attached the last piece of drywall on the side wall where the shower head will go.  Then he taped and plastered all the joints, corners and screws...

 

 

Finishing up...

 

 

 Then it was on to primer, finishing up the other side of the hallway...

 

Moving onto the last wall in the kitchen hallway...

Then it was time to move into the master bedroom!

Working on the west side wall...

And outside the closet area...

Before using the rest of his paint up to do the corners inside the closet.

At the end of the day, he did some plastering in the laundry room around the small ceiling area.  This is going to be where we do our first ceiling work so Jim has to do some finishing first.

High 45/Low 32