Day 16 - 9/23/2010

Again, another day of beehive activity most of which were mechanicals.  This was Andy's toughest day so far.  Since he works at home, he just can't escape from the bedlam.  The electricity was out today while the electricians worked.  Of course no electricity means no air conditioning, no internet connectivity and no electricity for the laptops. Fortunately, Andy has two Thinkpads for work and he was able to utilize both batteries for about 5 hours of life.  His productivity was not particularly great the last few days with all of the noise, activity and interruptions.

The roofers finished up their last bit of roofing this morning.  It's is nice not having to keep a worried eye on the weather and wonder if one of those sudden afternoon downpours will pop up.

The framers were back.  They had some things to correct such as moving a window over about three inches to line up with the french doors below.  They framed the upper walls around the staircase, framed the attic access door, removed some old roof joists that are no longer needed opening up the attic space, build a platform for the new upstairs HVAC unit and many little things that I probably missed. 

The most obvious item was opening up the entry way.  They took out a few feet of the living room wall to open up the stairway more to the entry.  They also raised the headers of the passage ways resulting in a nice and open view as you enter the house.

The entry looking from the landing of the stairs.  The passageway into the front room is now angled off to the right as you enter the door.  It opens up to an expanded passage way into the stairway.  About three feet of wall was removed.

  The framers also created eyebrows for several of the doorways in the new downstairs area.

It may be difficult to see but both of the large openings to the eating nook have eyebrow arches.  The two doorways into the kitchen also have the same treatment.

 The HVAC guys were here as well installing the upstairs unit.  They have the all of the inside unit installed in the attic above the garage and have run new ducts to the office, storage room, upstairs nook and upper part of the stairway.  They still have to select a good location for the return and to install the compressor outside and get it all hooked up.  Then they start hooking all of the old connections back up.  We really need to replace all of the old ductwork that was originally installed in the house as it has deteriorated to the point that the insulation was falling off.  They will also enlarge the vents in the old office//new TV rooms.  We have always had a problem with that room.  It faces south, has vaulted ceiling and was exposed on three sides and the temp difference between that room and the connecting hallway could be as much as 5 degrees.  Another AWA for replacing all the old ductwork and the new vents and returns. $$$ huge kaching $$$

New A/C system for the upper floor

The plumber also came and moved gas lines to route them around the new addition instead of across it.  Of course, Andy thought it was fun having gas pipes two inches off the upstairs floor.  He thought it would be "cool" to add computre controlled gas jets and have a fire show.  The plumber also moved the ice maker plumbing over about two feet to accommodate the new fridge location.

The electricians were here all day installing boxes and electrical cable all over the place.  They really wanted to get this part finished today and worked until well after 7pm.

Windows and doors have been selected and ordered. 


The granite guy finally made it out to measure the granite for the master bath vanities and the accent tiles for the master bath also were delivered today.  Hopefully the granite will be in next week. and Andy can see how it looks before designing the floor and tub surround tiling.


Andy also received 1000' of RG6 and 1000' of Cat6 cabling which he will run to various rooms over the weekend before the sheetrocking begins.


Things are really moving along but still a lot to do.  We still have our fingers crossed that the Swiss will have a fairly comfy, maybe not yet pretty, place to sleep.