I apologize for the sporadic reports lately. First, I have been busier than a young boy chasing snakes. It has been an insane week...made more so by the never-ending snow. Rather than being an armchair supervisor, I have had to be quite active, especially with our carpenter gone. I am also the grounds maintenance man, laborer, clean-up crew, and jack of all trades. I am used to having Nancy's help, but she is recovering from surgery, and has been busy tending our daughter. I have had precious little time to take videos or pictures. Having our first grandchild arrive midweek was an added distraction. Like I said...busy week!
More snow to clean up. Wednesday's storm shut off most highways leading to and from the city, so I waited it out until after lunch to go over and blow 6" out of the driveway so the crews could get in to work Thursday. While I was doing that our daughter went into labor and Nancy headed to the hospital with her. I'm glad the roads were better by the time they left...they were horrid after lunch.
Thursday I hacked my way through a log so we could run a dryer vent. It still angers me that the contractor neglected it, and then moved it, requiring alternate materials and a lot of work, but at least we got it done. They also got the chimney moved and the range hood vent fabricated and run at long last. I guess my hissy fit accomplished what it needed to do. They got a lot of the heating ducts run, but the use of that system is still a few months off, since we need the ground loops for the geothermal unit and can't deal with that until Spring. Meanwhile we got the propane delivery that was suppossed to happen Wednesday but didn't, so the temporary furnace is doing its job. It just pumps out into the basement and we move the air around with fans, but it is drying things out and warming them up. It has improved as we finished the ceilings, and finally the ceiling insulation.
Today they continued with hanging wallboard. They got the ceilings done yesterday. Most of the walls are hung now, except the top foot of them all, one side of the stairwell, and the supporting wall in the basement. We weren't going to finish that, but we need the structural sheathing to stiffen the wall. The garage remains to be done...probably next week. They likely will tape and mud next week, too...then start to plaster. I kept busy caulking the top plates ahead of them, and then fabricating and installing casings for the garage doors. They are needed before the wallboard, and are necessary for the garage door installation thereafter. The insulation crew came and blew the attic insulation. We now have R-60 ceilings, R-30 walls, and R-12.5 basement walls. It should hold the heat.
We got 3" of snow yesterday and another inch last night, but I didn't shovel, I was too busy. I'll blow it out Sunday, after it finishes snowing tomorrow. We are already above average for the season, and have more snow on the ground than anytime since 1979. That was due to a big snowstorm, but this is just day after day of snow. It snowed 22 days in January alone. I'm not sure I have seen that kind of accumulation from repeated snowfalls in my lifetime. There are many of you who are sharing this relentless winter this year. Hang tough...we will ride our Spyders again some day.