leveling floor in old porch

They have to level the floor in the porch that is transforming into a jack and jill shower/lav/toilet combination and the two walk in closets. A porch floor slopes towards the outside but the new areas have to be flat. One walk in closet is finished in the photo. All the flooring will be cork. The jack and jill areas will have radiant flooring below the cork.

no photos but have heat

It turned cold and the taping and spackle is having trouble drying out. So I asked the heating contractor to turn on the heaters. They are on and I have to turn them off when next the wall board workers come to sand. I also bought extra filters so I can change them every week until the house is finished. Expensive but a repair to the heater would be worse.

2nd taping in progress

amazing to see the men working so easily on stilts to do the high ceilings.

front walkway sealed while 1st taping coat dried

No more rain and decent temperature gave the wall board tape and mud time to dry. Also meant the front and side walkway could be scrubbed to get rid of remaining marks from person who walked on the powder and then covered with sealant.

turkeys and sheet rock

The turkey family is 12 strong and peck under the leaves for bugs. Wall board is up and makes the living/dining room area echo and seem cavernous.

construction adhesive, tacks, and screws hold up the ceiling

drywall coming in on boom truck

The truck has a boom crane to lift a dozen sheets of drywall at one time. It needed to avoid the large limb from the big oak in the front and get the drywall as far as the porch where it could be hand carried into the house for installation.

door knobs and more electric

No photos this time. Door knobs and locks were installed on the exterior front and back doors and the sliding and french doors to the porch and breezeway respectively. Found out the the electric controllers for the windows in the attic that light up the first floor have rain sensors that will automatically close them so you don't have to be home for that. Also, if little fingers push the screens out the windows will close too. Great safety features those.

rest of insulation; lots of repurposing projects

The rest of the insulation was put in for inspection tomorrow. The dry wall installers came by to see what the general contractor still had to do so they can sheet rock on Thurs or Friday. Some planing of the framing is needed to get it all flush and there are still nails to come out from the original plaster lath and framing.

New gutters went up on the existing old garage. I painted the existing fireplace screen to make it brown hammered finish instead of this old brass that was rusted and just the wrong color. I also painted an old chandelier white to hang it down in the basement where the original kitchen cabinets have been rehung for storage. The original chestnut wooden grill that allowed air flow when the house was heated by one big central register was cleaned up with Watco refinishing oil and is now ready for its new place of honor between the old house and the new addition.

And, guess what the contractor used to scour out the footsteps some ignorant person left on the stamped concrete? Dirt. It acts as a slightly acidic grit and voila, the tread pattern disappears. This delayed sealing the front walkway by one day. Hope the weather holds.

from ordinary concrete to slate look alike

Ends up looking like slate but the magic is in the rubber mats that add the pattern; the releasing agent that adds the color; and starting with smooth concrete.

stamped concrete walkways taking shape

Lots of curve for the front to add some flow to the linearity of the front facade.

doors in; so is insulation

Sun light not quite revealing the modern stained glass in the front door; workman adding insulation around the door; back door has a modern take on multipaned glass insert.

passed plumbing inspection ...

So work continued on removing all the old nails from the lath and plaster work that was taken down. The nails have to come out before wall board is put up.

Work was also done replacing the back door. The old threshold had to come out as there was age decay and some termite damage too. So, new flashing, new threshold, new door jamb etc. It was too dark because of time change to capture photo of completed door. Will get it tomorrow.

gas fireplace insert in place

It is a direct vent gas fireplace from Kozy Heat called a Trimont as it is visible from both living and dining rooms. The pipe going up is double walled, with fresh air coming in from the outer pipe and waste air venting along the inner pipe. The whole installation took less than 3 hours. Of course, the face of both sides including mantels have to be done. The fireplace is raised about 12 inches from the floor to create narrow exterior hearths, safer to keep little hands off the glass. Can't test it until the plumbing inspection is complete because the gas line is capped off until then.

found inexpensive spray paint gun that works

The old garage needed painting desperately. It was covered in the 70's with T-111 siding and a bright blue paint that was peeling badly. T-111 is not fun nor easy to paint with a roller or a brush. Found a Ryobi paint gun at Home Depot and tried it out. The new paint color is called Mineral Deposit and is a light gray. As you can see lots of leaves have come down now too from the pink dogwood.

oil tank out of basement

4 men; 1 jack, sawsall to remove 5 inches from each leg, add lots of swear words and 1 old oil tank comes out of basement room.