3.13.2016

First day of Daylight Savings Time...so we lost an hour of sleep and it always seems to take a couple of days to get back in sync.  And to change all the random things in the house/car that show the time.

Grading of the upper driveway is coming along.  Jim is also trying to get a better drop off on the right side of the driveway (in this picture) so he's having to build up that area. 

Jim fabricated the last of the joists in this section - the one that has to connect to the ridge.

You can see Jim's bridge mounting plate worked great!

 

Jim spent the remainder of the afternoon putting all the fasteners in the joists - most of them he had held in place with just a few screws so it was a good time to finish them.

 

Before he had to come home to get cleaned up for church, he spent some more time working on the grading.

 

High 53/Low 33

 

3.12.2016

This is some of the grading work that Jim did at the end of the day yesterday.  The beginnings of the upper driveway were just rough cut last year so that we could use it - he wants to do a better grade now plus it will need extended back towards the eventual house.  Since he's scraping off top soil, he's putting it over what was the original old driveway cut in by the original owners.  We want to get some grass seed and put it down in the spring to keep the weeds at bay.  This will be a work in progress but Jim can work on it a little at a time.

I had a big mailing to work on this morning so when I went out at lunch, Jim had been doing some preliminary work for the outside double doors.  He had to cut a small piece of plywood to bring it out even with the sheathing - then he covered all of that with the flashing tape.  The sill is just laying there temporarily as a reminder for us to step over it and not tear the tape.

He also made this cool flashing - similar to the plastic ones we used when we installed the windows.  This will go at the bottom corners of the door.

A weld was broken on one of the mounting brackets when we opened the door boxes.  Jim got his 240 volt receptacle live and was able to plug in and use his welder to fix it!

Putting some more fasteners in the landing...

After lunch, we transitioned to working up in the apartment.  Jim set up the scaffolding again...

Then after all this time, we got to take down the remaining braces! 

This was the first shoring post that we put in the upstairs to hold the ridge beam. 

All down! 

There was one remaining brace on the back wall - time for it to go too!

We did some cleaning up - we had a few piles of sheathing cut-offs from when we did the roof, so we took most of those out except ones we may use for storage space flooring.  The apartment space looks so clean and open now! 

The first space we wanted to chalk out was the bathroom.  It's going to be the toughest fit so we wanted to see what it looked like.  We decided we'll extend the wall out by about a foot into the hallway.  It was good to see the shape of the room and be able to talk about where things will fit.

The next project was to get ready to put up the last ceiling joist.  It's a different fit than the others because it goes to where the ridge is on the front wall so there's not the normal connection area.

Jim made this bridge connection piece that he will use to attach the joist.

 

At the end of the day, Jim did some more grading before he came home.

 

High 58/Low 34

 

 

3.11.2016

I started my day early today - with a trip to Sam's Club in Albany to get my tires rotated.  I've learned that the only way to get it done without a long wait is to be there when they first open at 7:00. 

I was hoping to be able to pick up our flashing on my way home, but Jim said it wasn't in yet.  Unfortunately, that didn't change all day - the flashing was supposed to arrive today to the roofing company by UPS but didn't show.  Which means that we now have to wait until Monday for it.  It's not that there isn't a lot of other things to do, but the plan for this weekend was to get the flashing so that Jim could make the drip edge for the stairwell roof.  Then we could get the underlayment put on.  Jim also needs the flashing material to make flashing for around the double door.

So it was back to Plan B.  Jim worked on more electric wiring...he had to drill holes and use more conduit in the areas where there are multiple studs.  That done, he was able to get more receptacles installed and the breaker put in so that they are now live.

At lunch, we went to pick up the cold-formed steel that Jim had ordered to do more fascia backing.

Another project today was to change the oil in the Bobcat - never seems to be a good time for vehicle maintenance but it is definitely important to keep all the equipment working well. 

In the late afternoon, we had a visit from our insurance agent.  He had called Jim yesterday and said he just wanted to stop by and see the progress.  Who does that?  He just took a tour and chatted for awhile - he was very impressed with all the progress since he had seen it last time.  Never in all our years of paying insurance did an insurance agent just stop by our property to see it!  We feel very lucky - we have had so many experiences like that since we moved here.

At the end of a little discombobulated kind of day, Jim spent time doing some repair work on the driveway after the winter weather.  Plus he was able to start doing some grading up on the upper driveway. 

It's a good time to do some grading - the soil here is so amazing!  We are just coming out of winter weather - which involved much more rain than it did snow this year.  Plus it was mostly a drizzly day yesterday.  But since the temperatures have been climbing up, the soil is thawing out and absorbing all the water.  There were no muddy spots today at all.

 

High 49/Low 25

 

 

3.10.2016

After a record-setting warm day yesterday, today was cooler and drizzly - which created foggy areas.  I took this picture around noon - there was a thick layer of fog on the Hudson River.

Jim worked on electric wiring for most of the day - got the new receptacles installed and ran more wire.

 

Mid-afternoon, we headed into Saratoga to pick up Jim's new safety glasses and then down to Albany to Lumber Liquidators.  We need to make a decision on what type of flooring we want so that Jim knows what, if any, additional underlayment will be required.  We found one that we really like - it's a strand bamboo, which is twice as hard as oak, so it should be perfect for the carriage house.  Plus we really like the look and color!  Of course, it's on a special sale only until Tuesday so we have some thinking to do!

 

 

High 55/Low 41 - drizzly

 

3.9.2016

Wow - today was just a gorgeous day - felt like spring!  We're supposed to get rain tomorrow but today was just a wonderful sign of things to come!  Notice in the picture below that today is the first day of the year that Jim has his ball hat on instead of a warm hat!

Jim worked this morning on finishing up the steel fascia backing on the side - so the stairwell is all finished. 

The corners came out really nice too - this picture shows the clip that Jim put at the top to hold everything in place.  Jim is happy with the way this worked out so he ordered more of this angle - he got a call that it should be in tomorrow.

After that job was finished, Jim moved to starting work on the door frame.  This door has to be done a little different because he needs to make sure that no water gets in this door.

He put the brackets up on top that the frame fits into...

After lunch, we switched gears again.  Jim wanted to finish up the landings now that we have the right screws.  So while he was finishing some door frame work, I got the landing all marked for where he needed to first drill and then put the screw in.  Jim wants this landing to be really solid so he's putting the screws in every 6".

He got about half of the upper landing done and he wanted to get the other landing going.  So he cut the last piece of decking material...

...and then put it into place on the landing.  Then I got that landing all marked.

 

We had to cut the day a little short - Jim had another doctor appointment in the late afternoon.  After that, we went into Lowe's to pick up a few receptacles.

 

High 70/Low 53 - beautiful!

 

3.8.2016

We had to be at the Endoscopy Center at 7:30 this morning.  Jim chose to have the procedure done at a location that took us about 45 minutes to get to, but this way they were able to do it now - otherwise it would have been in May.  Everyone was wonderful and we really like this doctor.  But the best part of the procedure is that it all went well, no problems detected at all, and Jim is on the 10-year plan for his next one!  For all the things that we are grateful for, and they are many, having good health is the biggest blessing of all.

Jim was actually bright-eyed and totally aware by the time I got to go see him.  It was a much different experience last time - he was groggy for quite awhile then.  After a big breakfast once we got home and a little resting, he was anxious to head out to the property.  He was under strict orders to not drive today, so I was his chauffeur for the day!

He got busy putting up more boxes on the front wall while I put the grommets on each of the studs on this wall.

Running the wire...

Working on the side wall...

 

At the end of the day, he got wire run for 2 circuits - a 120 volt and a 240 volt.

 

High 52/Low 40

 

3.7.2016

Now that we have all the sheathing done on the roof, the next step is to put the drip edge flashing on the bottom and then the underlayment.  However, Jim discovered he's out of the flashing material so he headed out this morning to the roofing company.  Unfortunately, because it's not typical roof season, they don't have any in stock.  They even checked with their other stores and no one has any.  Jim had to come up with a good solution that didn't require paying a lot of money to ship just one roll of flashing.  The downside is that the flashing won't come in until Friday.  However, there's still lots of work to be done other places!

Plus, today is Jim's prep day for his colonoscopy that's scheduled tomorrow.  Never fun but a necessary evil.  He came home for lunch after the trip to the roofing company so that he could enjoy a lunch of chicken broth and jello!

After lunch, he headed to the site and started working more on the fascia backing.  He's still figuring this whole thing out and it required a little modification on some of the rafter tails to make sure everything was perfectly aligned and flat.  It amazes me that it came out as perfectly as it did when you consider each of the rafters was made individually to fit on so many different angles.  Plus he had to figure out how he wanted to do the corner transitions.

At the end of the day, he got the rest of the right side done and went around to the back side...

He also got the front side done...so all that remains is a little section on the side!

 

High 31/Low 24