Another Snow Storm

We had a nice little dusting of snow on Sunday. It was enough to run the snow blower, but just barely.

This morning, I woke up to another five inches of light fluffy whiteness. 

I know that picture above is a little dark but trust me when I say it shows a good solid five inches of snow.

I have been out and started to get ready for a blow. However, it is still snowing. It’s pretty light right now. I’m not sure how much more is on the way. My weather apps show there might but more snow in about an hour but no indication of how much.

I’m heading out now to blow. I’m not sure if I’m going to cover my whole area of responsibility or just the driveway and sidewalks.

I suspect I’ll do it all.

1 Hour, 55 Minutes Later: I did it all! I am beat. Barely have the strength to type. I’ll be back shortly.

1 Hour Later, 11:25AM: Okay, I am refreshed. I shall continue.

It appears the snow is done for awhile and I’m glad I got out when I did to get the snow blowing completed.

As I said, I did everything. The snow was deep enough and heavy enough that I had to go pretty slow and sometimes take only half a swath of snow.

So, I did the driveway, the alley, and the sidewalk for most of the block. it took almost 2 hours. But now it's done and I'm ready to face the rest of the day.

Yesterday, I completed the drywalling for most of the kitchen. I have a couple of places that I still need to do some repair work on. And I haven't finished the floor yet.

I'm waiting for a call from Craig at Anderson Sheet Metal to arrange an appointment to look at my ducting problem.

Susan is painting the window in the pantry as I write this. It's a big step forward but we still have five more windows to strip.

Tomorrow is a ski day so nothing will happen from me. I best try to be as productive as I can today.

Brick Wall

Well, I've run into a problem as far as dealing with my down draft fan for the kitchen island. I am running across information that is indicating that we may not be able to use the down draft the way we want.

I have decided to consult with somebody who knows more about this than I do.

I've called a guy at a place who does sheet metal, ducting and deals with gas. I'm hoping I can get some info from him on how to run the ducting for the fan.

My original plan is not working out. I have an alternative but I need to know if it's workable.

In the meantime, I still have to finish closing in the floor and then I'll get to drywalling and the taping and mudding that goes with that.

More details to follow.

Remodel Remodel Remodel

I am surprised to discover I haven't posted lately. I guess we have been making so much progress that I haven't had time to write.

Most of the electrical work is complete. We have a new sub panel and a bunch of new circuits.

Susan continues to work on stripping the many layers of paint off the windows. She has about 25 hours into the window in the pantry. She has been working with heat guns and strippers and scrappers. She went out yesterday and bought a new heat gun at Harbor Freight. It has made all the difference and she says she will never strip paint with anything but a heat gun.

I've been working on closing up the floor. I'm getting there but it's slow. I think I have figured out how to deal with the venting for our down draft fan. I'll know more in the coming days. 

Once I've finished the floor, we can finish drywalling and get the mudding and taping accomplished. At that point, we should be ready to start installing cabinets.

I don't think we're going to make our one month deadline. It's okay. We're not suffering that badly with our makeshift kitchen arrangement.   

Workin’ on the Weekend

I haven’t been posting but that doesn’t mean we haven’t been working. Except for a Ski Day on Thursday, we have been making progress.

We made really good progress on Wednesday when Jerry was here. We created chase ways to run wire for all the outlets and switches we want.

We are adding a sub panel below the main panel because it is just too full. We’ve made lots of accommodations to separate some circuit and reduce the load.

The one that had me concerned was moving the light switch in the Pantry to the other side if the Dining Room door. I ran the wire yesterday through the holes we drilled and it is hooked up and working  like it should.

I also ran wire for the dedicated microwave outlet and more wire to reduce the load on the outlets on the southeast corner of the kitchen.

Today I kicked ass on the old drain pipe shown above that was at one time the drain for the sink in the original kitchen. It’s hard to believe that the pantry area was once a kitchen. It's so tiny.

I hammered this 2x4 into place between the wall studs to create a brace for the vent pipe to sit on. I know it’s not very pretty but nobody but you is ever going to see it again.

We have to run out and get some caps for those two cut pipes and then I can patch the wall.

I think I’m going to spend the rest of the day cutting up an old cabinet for more fire wood.

It’s still winter here.

Smells Like...

We have been plagued with the smell of skunk for three days now. Tonight is the first time I have noticed that I haven't noticed it. 

It rolled in pretty strong last night while we were watching TV and I smelled faint whiffs periodically throughout the day.

Electrical Jerry was here today and we started mapping out what needs to happen for the wiring. It took some work and the schedule sheet we have for the electrical box is not terribly accurate. We'll be fixing that.

In the meantime, I spent about 200 bucks on more wiring stuff and Jerry will return tomorrow to continue the wiring project.

Gassy Monday

It is 8:45 and we have a new gas line into the kitchen. Two guys from Anderson Sheet Metal showed up at 7:45 and they were done in an hour. I’m pretty impressed. I was quoted $1,134.00 for this job. I hope the estimator over estimated the time it would take and the final invoice will drop a little.

So now that the gas line project is out of the way, it’s time to continue with electrical considerations while Susan will continue taping and mudding.

I’m trying to get some prep work done because Electrical Jerry is coming tomorrow and I have to get the most out of his valuable time.

But What About the Yard?!

I woke this morning to the smell of an angry skunk. The whole house had minor but distinct smell of skunk. It's still here at 3PM. It's cleared out of the neighborhood but you definitely notice it when you come into the house. Maybe a skunk has moved into the basement.

We did more work in the kitchen today. Susan worked in the pantry with more mudding and I tore out more drywall for my wiring.

It's a half decent day out today with the thermometer hitting 40ish. I was outside looking at the front lawn and it does not look pretty.

The lawn is coated with thick wet leaves that will take some intense, prodigious raking to get up. I would prefer to wait until the leaves dry out a little more but that could be April.

Day Three Without a Kitchen

Today, we worked on putting up drywall in the pantry area. Once we got the drywall up, Susan went to work with taping and mudding.

I started tearing into the wall in the kitchen where I am going to do some rewiring.

Now that we are into living without a kitchen, we've discovered it isn't that bad. We cooked dinner on the barbeque tonight as well as help from the toaster oven and the microwave. We bought a small hot plate to use for cooking and that came today.

I probably should clarify...I don't think that living without a kitchen is that bad. Susan may have a different opinion.

However, I think we will make it to our goal of March First for getting a semi working kitchen back.  

The Day of the Plumber

We are having the Plumbing for the new sink done today. I have reimagined how we are going to do this and I am hoping Tracy the Plumber will agree that this is the way to go.

My plan is to connect with the existing drain line where the island was, and will be again. It’s going to require tearing up the floor to some extent but that seems to be the easiest way to go.

Tracy is arriving shortly and then we shall see.

11:51AM: Remember the part about partially tearing up the floor?

It turns out it will be a fairly substantial tear out? But my plan will work, which I think will save us some money in the end.

Here are some more pictures.

The good news, neigh, great news is that we are ahead of schedule and underbudget.

Todays completion of the plumbing cost $750.00. Awesome!