4.25.2018

Jim continued troubleshooting the furnace runs this morning.  He retested one line again overnight to make sure things were isolated because there was a leak in one line.  It was good overnight so then Jim turned on the next line - this time all the way to the manifold for the woodshop.  There were a couple of leaks on the manifold connections themselves. 

 

At the end of the day, Jim unpressurized that line and took those connections off.  There are O-rings in the connection so he replaced those with ones he had bought previously - no leaks!  So it's charged again now overnight so we'll see how it does, but this is getting huge - he has tested the lines to both the wood shop and stairwell manifolds!

 



 

 Then he worked on electric in the apartment.  He got the receptacle done for the washer - so now the laundry room is all ready for inspection.

Then came the big job - figuring out how he wanted to connect the dishwasher.  He had decided to hardwire it in using armor cable - you can see how it looks from the back.

He got it all connected and it now turns on!  Another huge checkmark!

 

 The bathroom ceiling is almost dry and looks amazing!

Then Jim started repainting the walls with the new matte paint sheet - double work but we really like the way the walls look with the new paint.

Working on the short wall...

Jim got the room all painted before heading back down to the control room.  Another day of great progress!

High 54/Low 45 - rainy

4.24.2018



Jim continues to work in the control room, isolating runs and troubleshooting any leaks that occur when he pressurizes the line.  There have been no leaks in any of the soldered joints but he's had some issues with unions and even the fittings around the shutoff valves themselves.

 

 

He also continued the electric work today.  He had to add the GFI breaker for the dishwasher which required moving a few things around.  Mid process there were a few hanging breakers!

 

 

 But it's now totally complete!

We are thrilled with the sheen of the closet that was painted yesterday so this is what we will use going forward.

The master bedroom ceiling looks great all painted!

Today we tackled texturing the ceiling in the bathroom.  We weren't sure we were going to do this so Jim had the ceiling finished and primed.  But the texturing turned out so well we decided to do the bathroom also.  Starting...

Working down the room...

Stomping the pattern...

Since it was a small area and the vapor barrier primer kept the plaster from drying quickly, Jim was able to do some painting tasks before coming back and laying down the pattern.

 Back in the second bedroom, Jim started trimming the ceiling edges...

  

 

 Rolling the paint on...

While Jim was painting, I started in the master bedroom working on sanding any plaster drips from working on the ceiling.

End of the day pictures...wall newly painted - can't wait to see it tomorrow.  Now all of the walls in this room are the same color - just not the same sheen!  That's work for another day.

 

Bathroom ceiling all finished!

High 67/Low 43 - gorgeous!

4.23.2018

Exciting control room news - the first pump run that Jim tested held pressure all night - yay!

 

But then today he opened another line and pressure tested it.    This run also involves a mixing valve (you can't quite see them in this picture) so it really ended up pressure testing a huge run - and no leaks!  Jim did have to brute force tighten one of the unions but everything is holding - SO exciting!!

Jim did more electric work also.  He put up the smoke detector in the woodshop.  This was one we got to test out the compatibility with the other ones.  It worked so we'll need to get a few more.

Jim also worked in the breaker box installing the last two arc fault breakers.  He just has one more GFI breaker to put in for the dishwasher and the box should be good to go!

 

 

After lunch, Jim switched to apartment work.  He got the master bedroom ceiling all finish painted white!  He was just doing some final trim work in this picture...

However, we had a change of plans in the second bedroom.  We really like the color of this paint - the pictures don't do it justice!  But we weren't thrilled with the finish.  We have always used flat paint but decided to try eggshell this time for the added durability.  Neither of us liked the sheen.  We had only bought one gallon so I headed back to Home Depot and bought 2 gallons in a washable flat finish.  Before...

 

 

 

Jim decided to try out the new paint in the closet. 

 

 

Using the trim roller...

 

Starting on the slanted wall...

All done!

High 64/Low 33 - beautiful!

4.22.2018 - First wall paint!

Kyle and Julia left after breakfast this morning to head back to NYC - we sure enjoyed their visit!

 

As promised, a picture of the rearranging work that Jim and Kyle did yesterday in the woodshop.

 

But the focus today was on our first wall paint in the apartment!!  It is SO crazy that we are at this point right now - you talk about it and imagine it and now it's here!

The color is Pewter Gray for the second bedroom - Jim started in the corner...

Then the careful, steady hand trimming of the wall/ceiling joint.  This is what Jim does so well - he makes such a nice edge with the ceiling work, then finishes the top of the wall with ceiling paint.  That way, he goes right up close to the ceiling and it leaves a beautiful edge at the top.

Jim unfastened the temporary light fixture and is working around it with his trim roller...

Rolling the paint on...

One wall done - onto the short wall...

More beautiful wall/ceiling joint work...

 

 Working on the slanted wall...

More trim work...

Finishing the west wall.  Jim stopped after doing this wall - he had to clean up and then come home to get ready for church.  We'll definitely need more paint to finish this room too.  But we are absolutely loving the way it's coming out and so very excited to be painting walls!

High 58/Low 28 - beautiful!

4.21.2018

Kyle and Julia arrived Friday night in time to eat dinner with us and watch the Cavs lose their playoff game (groan).  Besides that, it was a fun evening with them!

 

Kyle and Jim headed out to the property to catch up on all the happenings since they had been here in February - which was a lot!

 

They also got a lot done before lunch - they moved one whole stack of flooring up to the apartment which opened up some area in the workshop.  Jim wanted his bandsaw moved to that area and then they moved a couple of other tools around.  It really looks nice - picture to come!

 

Julia and I headed out for lunch so that she could check everything out.  We ate lunch in our nook!

Because of all the snow, we really hadn't been out back to investigate anything but Jim discovered a big branch fell perilously close to the house!  Jim is anxious to get a couple of these trees cut down for this very reason!  Thankfully all was okay this time.

After lunch, Jim and Kyle worked in the master bedroom.  They got the ceiling scraped, all the edges sanded, all the edgework done, and then the ceiling primed.  Good teamwork!

 

Once that room was all primed, they were able to work in the living room - they got the ceiling scraped, the walls sanded, and the edgework done!

They also took apart the scaffolding that was in the living room and got it out of the apartment, along with the heater which they put in the woodshop.  Hopefully we won't need it anymore and if things cool down, Jim can heat up the woodshop to get some heat in the apartment.  Great progress!

In the afternoon, Julia and I headed out to the Habitat ReStore.  This is a newly-opened store that accepts donations of household and building materials and then resells them to profit Habitat for Humanity.  We have taken some small donations there previously and took a few more today.  We are going to be in the market for a temporary kitchen sink.  In order to get occupancy, they require 8' of counter space along with a working sink.  The counter can be plywood so the type of sink we will use will depend on the counter surface we go with.  Julia and I found this Kohler stainless steel sink for $40 - a good bargain!  Once we're done with it, we can resell or donate it back.



After a great day's work, Kyle and Julia wanted to take Jim out for his birthday so we headed into Saratoga Springs.  This was a reenactment of Jim blowing out a candle on a surprise birthday treat Kyle ordered!

We came home and watched a movie (well - they did; I fell asleep right away!).  It was a fun day and we're so glad they were able to come up for a visit. 

High 54/Low 28 - beautiful!