Tipsico

Now we have plaster! We are in a holding period while we wait for the plaster to cure.

We got a bit ahead of schedule which meant we had a few days where nothing happened while we waited for the sub-contractors to arrive at their scheduled time.  Monday, we got new insulation, which is much better than having old torn-up insulation. And Friday we got drywall on almost all the walls. After too many microwaved frozen meals we opted for some good pub food at a local restaurant We remembered we have this handy air fryer which is basically a portable oven. The spinach pie was surprisingly good.

 We had sub-contractors work this week. HVAC was completed Tuesday Here is our new duct work for the hood exhaust. Here is a very boring photo showing the new location for heating/cooling. Basement view of new duct work.   Rough Plumbing was completed Wednesday New Reverse Osmosis (RO) water system installed in the basement. Rough wiring was completed Thursday All of the wires hanging out of the ceiling will be new lighting. They needed to remove insultation to install the wiring for additional outlets and under-cabinet lighting. The insulation will be replaced but it is bad timing for the anticipated arctic cold front arriving soon.  

 FYI:  The "Day #" in the title is the number of days I am without a kitchen.  This will include weekends and days where the contractor nor any sub-contractors show up to work.  We're ready for the HVAC work.  The white arrow points to the repair in the ceiling and the green arrow points to the new location for the exhaust to our new hood.  This is a slight relocation of existing duct work that goes through our attic and out our roof.  This is the space where our dining table sits.  Today they removed the molding along the floor. I think this will be a great wall to place some new artwork.   This photo looks no different from the last one I posted. But if you look closely, you'll see that they added about 1/4" to the edge of the studs.  They did that on the opposite wall as well.  I assume it has something to do with the drywall and plaster they will install after the plumbing and electrical work is completed and approved. This...

 I thought we were past the deconstruction stage but I was wrong.  The electrician, plumber, and HVAC folx can work more efficiently if we just rip out the wall.  We're going to upgrade and replace the insulation on this outside wall.  And as long as we're poking around, we're also going to stuff some more insulation into the roofline. We also have our first unexpected finding and slight change in plan. The ceiling behind the wall has partially collapsed.  The duct work for the exhaust fan is going to be re-routed through the ceiling so we will just re-enforce and secure this collapsed ceiling at the same time as we cut a new hole for the exhaust.  The contractor was expecting to climb around in our attic to install the exhaust duct work. We changed that plan because it will be easier to just work from the interior of the house to access the attic.  We have a low pitch roof and there is little, if any, space to crawl around the attic.  In other ne...

  Yesterday they removed the soffits and today they removed the original 1960 linoleum flooring.  We knew that there was asbestos (25% Chrysotile) in the flooring.  Rather than adding another layer of flooring over the existing we decided to take out the old stuff.  Given the amount of safety equipment for the removal in 2025, I'm wondering how the workers who installed our floor and many others in 1960 fared.    I think the deconstruction is done and building can commence.

The workers quickly detached and removed the counters, cupboards, and appliances today. Both Jim and I worked from home.  I was not bothered by the noise, but Jim struggled to hear his co-workers over zoom today.  The workers kindly gathered things they found that we might like to keep.  We recognized some missing hot pads, marbles, and utensils, but these recipes are not ours. Meanwhile we are getting used to our temporary kitchen conveniently located within our living room, and our temporary coffee bar in our guest bedroom.  I have no idea what is happening tomorrow but Wednesday we are leaving the house while the asbestos removal specialists can remove the old flooring.