7.4.2018

Hope everyone has a safe and happy 4th of July!  The town where we are currently is celebrating their bicentennial this year with various celebrations over the summer.  The adjacent town where we are building was first settled around 1786, and in 1793, the town was formed.  Amazing to live in an area with so much history!

 

Jim spent the first couple hours of the day investigating the furnace system.  Now that things are progressing with the gas company, Jim needed to make sure everything was working to the best of his knowledge.  We know the system works with water in it but that's been the extent of testing.  So today, Jim turned a thermostat on as if it were needing heat to see how the system would operate.  There was still some air in the lines that Jim bled out, but everything worked just the way it was supposed to.  The screen on the front of the furnace cycles through and starts the process.  The pumps turn on (you can see the lights below) and the manifold flow meters work.  Once the system doesn't fire, it shuts down. 

 

Hot water was another thing to investigate.  We're used to big water tanks that heat water and hold it.  Here, as soon as Jim turned on the hot water tap, the furnace display said it was heating domestic hot water!  The furnace is smart enough to put hot water for the home as first priority over heating if need be. 

 

Jim is thrilled that everything seems good to go - we just need some gas!

 

 

Another one of the things Jim had to figure out was how to make the transition of the bamboo flooring to the bathroom and laundry room flooring, as well as the main entry door sill.  He dug out some of his oak pieces and put his woodworking hat on - that hasn't happened too much during this project!  The floor heights are different as well as Jim wanted a bevel on the edge to make for a nice transition.  He figured out a way to do this - he made a runner that held the wood to the right position...

 



Then he flipped it over and put the opposite side through his jointer...

Ta da!  Magical perfect beveled edge!  He also put cuts on the bottom to relieve stress so there is no cracking issues from repeated walking on it.

He made his screw holes through the top for fastening that he will later peg.  Trying it on for size!

We had bought stain awhile ago, matching it to the flooring.  Jim tried it on both the oak sample and some of the pine that he will probably use for other moldings - good match! 

All stained and drying outside.  Jim needed to get the door sill on so that he can start working on the rest of the door jamb for the bathroom door so that we can get a door up.  That's not required for occupancy but kind of required for us!

The next big project was installing the glass shower door - this was kind of a daunting process!  Everything has to be very precise at this point - plus you're dealing with this giant piece of glass!  Jim took it out of the box and put it on its side in the stairwell so that he could work on attaching the pivot points.

 

Once that was done, he had to carefully take it upstairs...

Then he had to carefully put it into place...

Making the adjustments...

This was really stressful - the next step was to put this bumper on the other side.  It's a long, flexible plastic strip with sticky tape on the side - but you had to get it at the precise spot and make sure it was level.  He went really slow to make sure it was in the right spot - looks great and works perfectly.  We are thrilled with this door too - much better than the original one we purchased.

Meanwhile, I worked on cleaning up the cabinets we picked up yesterday.  As you can see from the picture and the cleaned left side, they really cleaned up well!

 

All clean!  These are going to be a great temporary solution - Jim won't have to worry about making that a priority.  All of these cabinets have drawers in them so I'll be in good shape.  Jim already did a layout in the kitchen for placement.  We are required to have 8' of counter space before occupancy so it will work out perfectly.

 

 

Once Jim got home, we loaded up the other cabinet from the dentist's office.  We'll put this one near the store and it can hold the microwave on top, plus it has drawers in it also.

High 90/Low 67