I’ve been meaning to post, but I’ve been out of town a lot, not a whole lot is happening at the house AND the digital camera is not working correctly right now and won’t let me save more than one photo at a time. So this will be a quick update in words; I’ll add some pictures as soon as I figure out the camera problem.
A couple of weeks ago, the stove guys came back and finished the installation of both wood stoves. For the Morso stove, however, they said the installation was not to code because the pipe/collar going through the ceiling was too close to the beams around it by several inches. Unsafe. We had McKernon back last week and they cut and chiseled the beams back so that we now have a legal six inches of clearance all around the pipe.
At the same time, McKernon added the mantel behind the Morso. The mantel is a sawn off section from one of the unused ell posts. It looks very nice. Also finished that week was the barn board and trim for the soaking tub, some plastering (spots that still needed to be done or redone for various reasons), and several other small items on the interior punch list. We’re getting there…
This week, we have some painters working here to prime and paint the interior side of all of the new windows and door frames (something like 22 windows and 9 door frames). This is time-consuming, exacting work and we just weren’t up to doing the job correctly. We can do the big flat surfaces (walls and ceilings) decently, but were pretty sure we’d be unhappy with the results if we painted the windows ourselves. Money well spent. The main painter, Amy, is here every day starting around 8:30 and leaves around 4:00. She’s careful and nice, and loves animals. Amy is the first woman to work on the house (aside from me and Alix, of course), and it’s really nice to finally see a woman as part of the team.
Also this week, we’ve had one outfit come out to give us an estimate on raising the grade at the front of the house by building a retaining wall so we can get rid of the ridiculous set of wooden stairs and have just a few stone steps leading to the front door. The more we use those steps, the less we like them, and I hate watching poor old Phoebe trying to leap up them several times a day.
I believe we have another group coming to give us an estimate on the same project tomorrow.
In a way, there’s lots of activity, but not a lot except painting is actually getting done right now. I expect things will get busier again in the next couple of weeks when McKernon returns to do the final outside work and the last of the interior punch list.
More soon, with pictures…
Grongar 