2.21.2018

It was a crazy warm day for February - the high got to 64 degrees!  So Jim took advantage, opened up the garage door, backed the Bobcat out and did a little cleanup.  The floor gets pretty messy with the Bobcat dripping snow and gravel after plowing.  Plus it allowed Jim to do a little organizing while he was at it.  Good timing because snow is in the forecast for tomorrow!

 



 

Jim did some sweating of the supply run to the stairwell manifold that he was fitting yesterday.  He's waiting on more parts to be able to go too much further.

 

So he turned his attention to putting up some drywall on the outside of the utility room!

 

Door's all cut out and the beginning of this wall is all finished!  Makes it look even more like a real room!

Later in the afternoon, Jim transitioned back to plastering.  Besides just a couple of loose ends, the master bedroom is all done!  He even got started on the tapered joints in the living room!

 

High 64/Low 27

2.20.2018

Jim was able to get up the driveway without too much issue this morning.  Good thing, because he had a bucket of plaster as well as the back wall of our shower stall to unload. 

 



 

Jim worked more furnace design this morning - figuring out the supply run from the pump to the stairwell manifold.  Getting complicated to see individual runs with so much plumbing here, but this run is the top horizontal line that goes diagonally down to the back wall where it will connect to the manifold.

 

He put a coat of primer on the area where the mounting board will go so that it will be protected underneath.  He did the same in the woodshop bathroom behind the urinal so that can be mounted also.  In this picture you can also see that he figured out hardware to attach the filter to the bracket so it's ready to go too.

A coat of primer on the mounting board...

 

Then it was back to plastering in the afternoon.  He has the corner joints done except for a few loose ends and started working on the corner bead.  The second coat on the screws is done and he started putting the final coat on those.

High 53/Low 47 - some drizzles

 

2.19.2018



Thankfully, Jim was able to get up the driveway without too much trouble today.  This will be an interesting week with lots of ups and downs in the temperature forecast as well as rain and ice so we'll just have to see how it all affects the driveway conditions.  Right now, we're thankful for every relatively easy traveling day!

 

Jim did some more joint soldering today on the furnace but no pictures - it's getting difficult to pinpoint specific joints when there is so much plumbing going on!

 

But he did a lot of prep work for the water softener today - that's going to be next on the agenda.  He did some taping and plastering of joints so that they were covered.

 

 

 Then he made a backing board - even beveled the edges!

 

This board will be used to hang this inline water filter that the water will go through first before going into the water softener.  Jim mounted the bracket to the board - the filter will hold water so it will be heavy.  It didn't come with the proper mounting hardware so Jim has to look into that but this is another exciting step.  He'll be ordering the water softener soon!

Jim went back up into the apartment and worked on more plastering in the master bedroom, working on all of the corners.

He knocked off work a tad early and went to Lowe's to pick up one of the pieces of our shower stall surround that came in. 

High 40/Low 37

2.18.2018

We did end up getting 2-3" of new snow last night.  Unfortunately, it didn't make Jim's trek up the driveway any easier.  You can see from these tracks how it went - he was able to get up so far and then he just started sliding.  The rear end of the 4Runner ended up in the snow bank and was stuck there with the car parallel to the driveway.  But he was able to turn the wheels all the way to one side, put it in reverse, and let gravity and the ice take over to turn him around so he was facing down the driveway.  He went down, got a faster start up, and was able to make it up the driveway.  I would have been a wreck but he just takes it in stride.  He made it down by hugging one side of the driveway where there's snow.  We've got a wild weather week again so it's going to continue to be interesting!

 

 

This was a short day because we are heading to church this evening, so Jim did some prep work for the furnace.  He wanted to make a bracket to help support some of the copper piping to alleviate any stress on the furnace.  He got pieces cut from angle and all ready to weld.  He needs to get new batteries for his welding helmet and then he can get this finished up.

 



Then he spent the rest of the afternoon in the master bedroom.    The closet is all done as well as the second coat on the screws.  He's working on the corners now - looking amazing!
 

 

 

High 38/Low 19

2.17.2018

I again started the day dealing with Jim's phone - this time, I went to a different Verizon store.  Unfortunately, there's nothing they could do to fix the phone and I just had to upgrade his.  Which was all fine, until I didn't know his iCloud password and couldn't call him to get it.  So that meant a trip to the property.  I parked at the bottom and carefully made my way up the driveway, staying only on the snow-covered part.  Because check out the driveway - it's a solid sheet of ice!  We were supposed to get a few inches of snow tonight which would have helped, but now they are saying less than an inch.  Plus, it's supposed to really warm up midweek again before getting cold.  What a strange winter.

 

All that aside, I got to check out all Jim's progress at the property which was great.  When I came in, he was busy soldering joints...

You can see he had to brace the bottom part of this run so that the joints at the end wouldn't be under stress.  He was showing me how everything will fit together.  Seeing all this work in person is really amazing - much more complicated than the pictures could ever express.  Plus, Jim has to think downstream and figure out how to incorporate the outdoor wood burning stove.  His plan now is to have the connection go from the vertical return line he's working on into a holding tank and then back into the furnace.  Hurts my brain to think about it.

On his lunch break, he's been working on finding all the parts and pieces to put our treadmill back together.  It's amazing that we took it apart years ago and there were so many pieces all over the place in multiple storage units but it's coming back alive.  He still needs to do a lot of cleanup work on it because some parts rusted, but another piece of "home" coming alive.

I also got to checkout the progress of the plastering in the apartment.  Things look so amazing and more finished.  He went back to work this afternoon in the master bedroom.  He got all of the tapered joints done on the walls and ceilings and the second coat on all the screws except for just a small section left.  He'll finish that up and then work on corners tomorrow.

Hopefully tomorrow Jim will have his phone back with him and can take some pictures.  And we can chat/text during the day which I miss terribly!

High 32/Low 25

2.16.2018

It was a strange day...Jim's phone hasn't been working for the last week or so which has made our daily communications like one of those "Can you hear me now?" commercials.  So I took it into the Verizon store who said they fixed it by blowing out the microphone (Jim had already done that).  It seemed to work in the store so I was happy.  Until we tried it later to no avail.  So it will be back to Verizon tomorrow and another day of no texting/phone calls.  I know that having this kind of communication is relatively new - Jim and I had enormous long distance phone calls when we first started dating.  However, you quickly get used to just checking in during the day and we both missed it.  Now it will be another day of it...sigh...

The fact that Jim had no cellphone at the property also means no blog pictures day (or tomorrow!).  So, we'll have to rely on good old-fashioned words!

Jim worked in the furnace room again this morning - he sweated all the joints for the return run that he designed yesterday.  It was difficult because many of them had to be sweated in place so that Jim could be assured of an accurate fit. 

Then in the afternoon he transitioned to plastering - the hallway is basically done and he got a good start on the tapered joints in the master bedroom!

The warmer temperatures have made the driveway really slippery again which is why I've stayed away.  Jim said he pretty much slid down partially sidewise coming home!  We are supposed to get some snow tomorrow which will actually help things.

High 41/Low 9

2.15.2018

Today marks the 500th straight day that Jim has worked at the property - how insane is that?  This man needs a vacation - or at least a day off!

I headed out to Lowe's this morning to pick up an order for Jim and to talk to an associate about shower enclosures.  Plus, I picked up a ceiling fan for the master bedroom - so fun to be buying finishing details!

 

Meanwhile, Jim worked in the furnace room on the return lines.  There's getting to be so much plumbing that it's hard to see the new pieces!  The return line goes to a return manifold and goes back down and into the furnace.  Looking awesome!  We got another box of parts today so Jim will keep adding parts and pieces.

He also did some finishing details - like putting on the striker plates and door handle in the utility room!

While he was at it, he put the door handle on the woodshop bathroom door too!

We had bought cool LED Edison bulbs for the outside lights - it was warm enough that Jim was able to go out and put them in.  I love the look - really looks like an old lantern!

Fast forward to when Jim was leaving and look how good the light looks! 

 

Jim spent the remainder of his afternoon doing plastering in the hallway.  He has the corners and joints done and tomorrow will be ready to put the last coat on the screws!

 



High 47/Low 34