9.12.2018

Jim and I both want to take a minute and thank everyone who has sent cards, gifts, emails, texts congratulating us on moving into the carriage house!  We deeply appreciate everyone's thoughts and prayers on this journey - they help motivate us every day! 

Another thing to be thankful for - this morning I headed down towards Albany to take my car in to Sam's Club.  When Jim was replacing my front brakes, he found something in the tire.  It was kind of close to the sidewall so Sam's told me over the phone that it may not be able to be repaired.  However, they were able to fix it so we didn't have to budget for new tires right now!  Here's what they found in my tire...

While I was out, I dropped off a quote to Home Depot for pole barn materials.  They already got back with Jim so he'll be deciding on vendors and getting our order in!

Jim contacted the dealer who has the snowplow today because he was supposed to send Jim the invoice and he hadn't.  He apologized and said he would.  Meanwhile, we have to be content looking at the picture!

Another big task that had to be done before winter was figuring out the bathroom fan vent.  There were a number of ways he could do that - vent it out the side of the wall (but there wasn't enough room below the copper); vent it out the roof (major amount of work right now); and tie it into the microwave vent.  So tying into the microwave was the best option, but now there has to be a way to make it work!

It has been very hot up in the attic, of course, so Jim was waiting to do this job until things cooled down a bit.  You'd think with the cool nights we just had it would be cooler but it was still really warm.  It doesn't help that you have to practically crawl through the attic on your belly either!  Plus, Jim said he took a toolbox of things he thought he would need with him, but he kept having to go up and down for various things.

Here's the before - Jim's beautiful duct work and brackets tying it all into the rafters.  He had this wye already up in the shed.

Since none of the duct work can be moved, Jim had to splice into the steel.  He first used a hacksaw to make a cut and was then able to get his shears in the cut.  But this was hard, tedious work.

All done - at least this step.  But figuring out the plan is always the hardest part.

Here's how Jim will tie into the vent...a PVC wye with some couplers he made to line up with the steel duct work.  He has to find some rubber collars to connect the two.

 Once he went as far as he could, time to do a few other tasks.  He put up my dish towel holder in the kitchen.  You'd think this would be easy to find - a just wanted a cheap one for now.  I had a really nice pull out one in Ohio and once we figure out cabinetry, we'll do something like that again.  But for now - I just wanted cheap.  And couldn't find it anywhere.  I finally had to order it from Amazon and it took almost 2 weeks to come in.

But it will make life much easier now!

Jim got another window sash stained...

And some drywall cut for the stairwell...

Jim left a bit early to go to Lowe's to find collars he can use for the vent work.  While we were outside, we checked out the grass we planted on our former topsoil pile.  It's really growing!  I can't believe how quickly this has come up - it must like the cooler temperatures and rain we've gotten.

Jim couldn't find any good couplers at Lowe's so he'll get online tonight and find what he needs.  The temperatures are going to warm up over the next couple days so it won't be good attic work time anyway.

High 74/Low 62