Exterior Trim

The exterior trim is going up.  We're still waiting for the cement board clapboards to arrive.  But at least we're seeing some progress out here too!

I love how it's coming out.  I think the architect did a really nice job on the design.

Another small (but necessary) thing accomplished was extending the pipe that goes to the oil tank.

Covering Pipes

These were all still at "Sheetrock- Day 10", but I thought the issue warranted it's own post!

We weren't even thinking about the two radiator pipes that run up the wall in the family room.
Now that it will be a doorway right next to them, the contractor & drywall guy brought up the fact that they are much more accessible now than they were when they were just against the back wall.  This means that there's the higher possibility someone could get burned if they grab or even brush against them as they pass (they get SUPER hot).

Although we HATE boxing stuff in, we decided that was the best option here.

Adding drywall

Framing it out

There was also significant progress closing in where the back window used to be...

I'm approximately a week behind in my posts... things are moving along!  The breaking news is that the cabinet installation has been scheduled for Oct. 27! (Our contractor told us he'd be ready for that October 19, but the 27th is the first date the cabinet installer had available.)  Now we're making the final countertop decisions and getting that scheduled for Oct 29th, as advised by the cabinet installer.

Plumbing- roughed in

From the kitchen, you can see the plumbing work that goes up to the master bathroom.












In the downstairs half bath, it looked like the hole for the toilet was placed too close to the sink fixtures.  We already have the vanity & toilet, so we brought them in o check the placement of the plumbing...

They had to move the hole a few inches to the left so that there would be enough room for both pieces.







Master Bath plumbing isn't as far along... they ran the pipes to the second floor but needed to check the shower & tub fixtures and placement of them with us.




The laundry room is looking great...











For the new drain pipe to connect to the septic system, they were going to run it through the basement.  But the pitch that was needed meant that it would cut right through the middle of the "room" and we'd have to be ducking under it.  We don't plan to have much down in the basement, but we still weren't crazy about the sound of this.  Mike talked to the plumber and they decided they could connect outside, but it required a trench to be dug and a bunch of our forsythia bushes to be moved... but we are happy with this solution!

They have a few odds & ends that need to be finished up before the plumbing inspection can take place.  It was supposed to happen Thursday... delays, delays :(

Good news is that the inspector did the rough electrical inspection on Thursday and we passed! 

Once the plumbing gets done they can inspect that and the framing.  Once we pass that, they can start working on the exterior siding & interior insulation!

Quick Spray Paint Fix

There are a bunch of radiator pipes around the house that weren't really "finished off" where they entered the floor.







The couple of pipes that did have the floor rings around them, looked like this... Not pretty!

So, we bought some new rings, which needed painting so they wouldn't be bright, shiny silver.

We used Oil Rubbed Bronze spray paint and painted some old ones, while we were at it...

A couple of hours to dry, a few minutes to snap them into place, and we were done!

It's not a huge difference, but something that was irking me for a while now.


In other news... today we got a roll-off box delivered to get rid of all the debris in the barn.  You know what we'll be doing this weekend!

Lots of not-so-glamorous-yet-very-necessary stuff we're working on!

Vent Pipe & Roof fix

Even before Hurricane Sandy was blowing in, we knew we had to take care of a leak around the vent pipe that comes out of our roof.  News of the hurricane approaching spurred us on...

Here's a photo (taken in the spring) where you can see it in the middle/front of the main roof.

During big rain storms, it had been leaking, and we didn't know what might happen with it during a hurricane!  So Mike got up there with the big ladder...

Here's a view from inside the attic:

Close up

This is the vent pipe that was attached to the stack that Mike replaced earlier this year.


The close up photo shows where the new bathroom vent got attached into it.




We hadn't replaced the very top section of the cast iron pipe, since it went up through the roof (and we weren't confident about messing with the slate roof!)

But now was the time to do it!


Here's the old pipe:

We replaced it with PVC, which we painted black to be less noticeable.
A bonus was the chance to clean out the gutters while we had the big ladder out.

Here's a photo of it taken the day after Hurricane Sandy...

...Whew, fixed just in time!