NEW DUNBURY

… has been a slow one.

The only new mud is on the ground. Seems the drywall guys took the week off, but no one knows for sure. Our project manager is off this week.

We had some of the framing crew in on Thursday and a couple on Friday. The porch is roofed and covered with tarpaper and they have started on laying the decking (after much preparation of the raw boards.) The western end deck has gotten its corner uprights, and the not-quite-emplaced post for the stairway arch is now in place.

Friday’s surprise was running into the tilers, who were just packing up. They’d brought in the rest of the tile and set up the cement board in the guest shower. In yet another case of the-sub-has-his-own-ways-of-doing-things, they ripped out the shower curb and are planning to put in their own, supposedly more narrow one. We’re supposed to get together with them next Wednesday (when they’ll be back) to talk grout and decorative band heights.

Despite this early appearance of the tilers, things remained backed up on the schedule. This was pointed out to us yesterday when we got a call to check on the suitability of the appliance delivery date. All we could say was “uh, probably not.” Time to have another scheduling discussion. Color me “not thrilled.” Michael is supposed to be available again on Monday, so that’s the earliest for the “fun.”

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And on, and on, it seems. Every day there’s a bit of visible progress and, I presume, more somewhat less visible progress. I know I said I wouldn’t be posting much in the way of pictures of this part of the process, but I couldn’t resist showing off the arches in the passageway from the master bedroom to the master bath. Still in progress, of course.

Yesterday the framing guys were MIA, but they were back today adding the roof to the porch. (Picture in the Exterior album.) These guys were not the core team, whose last act on Tuesday was to set up the header for the basement stair opening and support it with a couple of props. They had previously been “convincing” the timbers that separate the aisle from the dining room that they wanted to be where they were supposed to be. (Picture in the Interior album.)

So while the framers were MIA, the brick and block guys showed up to put a second coat on the garage foundation, this time with a dark gray mortar. Verra nice. It’s mostly covered up with tarps right now.

Another surprise yesterday was the discovery of stashes of tile and mortar in the master bath and guest bath, and a stack of cementatious board in the main area. Looks like we had a delivery. I thought tiling wasn’t supposed to start till January, but it shouldn’t hurt to have the product on hand.

I also added a couple more pictures to the Mechanicals album showing off the geothermal unit, now that it’s had its piping connected, and the associated “hydro center” that appears to be the flow control device.

I am reminded that this blog layout is not the most friendly for finding the link to the photo albums. My early attempts to jigger weren’t succesful, and I haven’t had the time to delve deeper for a better solution, which means that we’re stuck with the built-in method. So if you’re having trouble finding the albums, scroll down the blog page, watching the right hand column. When you find “photo gallery” click on it to go to the pictures. You’ll need to use your “back” button to get back here.

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And it looks like we will be for some days yet.

In other news . . .

Last Thursday I met with the painting supervisor for an update. He left me with the swatch books so we could pick interior colors. We had originally planned on doing the interior painting (beyond the priming) ourselves, but we’re considering letting them do the main area where the really high stuff is. I’ve got a ladder, and not a small one, but I’m not sure it’s enough to get from the great hall floor to the roof peak. They, on the other hand, will have scaffolding.

Last Friday the brick and block guys were on site, covering the blocks of the garage foundation with cement. Now it’s all smooth instead of blocky. On Monday, I found out that they also finished the last little bit of edger brick on the house foundation. It looks like they didn’t use up anywhere near all of the bricks left on site. This is good. This means we will probably have enough to make that exhedra seat for the garden. Yeah!

The exterior deck & porch move slowly as the reduced-size framing team (Michael is still working at the restoration project) have been preoccupied with setting the timber elements that will define the dining room. I may get some pictures of that today. We’ll see.

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Most of the action on site over the past few days has been the mudders. Their necessary work is not very photogenic, though, so I won”t be documenting it particularly. They did get enthusiastic and drywall the opening for a certain area that is to get a non-standard door, but we caught them before they put corner bead and mud on that area.

Today, the porch got rafters and the deck got basic supports. With Michael finishing up work on a restoration project, Joe has been team boss and today he was working with a new hire. Student work. Could be a cause for shivers, but Joe said that fellow did good work.

Over the weekend, I went out and cleared dirt from the bases of many trees we hope to save and rescued rocks from being plowed under. One can never have too many rocks if one wants to build things with rock.

Speaking of rock, it turns out that the piles of rock dumped on site to do the walls are already billed to us. Having them cleaned up for a materials credit, would cost us a notable amount. So it looks like we have a copious supply of rock for small projects. Eric, are you reading this? Anytime you want to start, you just let us know.

The brick is in the same boat, so to speak. (If it were a real boat, it’d probably be sinking from the weight.) Some still needs to be set on the last row of foundation toppers under the porch, but there are probably going to be enough left to build a classic exedra seat for the garden. Pretty cool.

The cinder block, however, is easy enough to move, so that’ll be going back to the concrete supplier for a credit.

This AM I met with Michael to talk about a number of things. We settled the design for the porch. I got a few clarifications. He angled for more work to go their way since he believes we’re doing well on the budget. Specifically, he’s thinking we ought to use their painters for the interior as well as the exterior. I told him we were thinking of letting them paint the really high stuff.

Also we commiserated on the delayed arrival of the fancy exterior doors. (The basement door is waiting at the supplier’s warehouse.) The doors are seriously late and the manufacturer has no good excuse. Right now, we’re being told January delivery. There may be a credit lurking in this delay, which would be fine. Meantime, we can’t wait for those doors or we won’t be able to ge the flooring in, which would chain the delays beyond reasonability. Sooooooo, the interim plan is the close up those openings “temporarily,” install the basement door, and have all house entry go in through the basement.

Mid-February finish is looking pretty unlikely right now.

In the good news department, I can report something that will make Liz sleep easier at night. I have a copy of the engineer’s report, certifying the timber frame as structurally sound and within code for the job it is slated to do. Yippee!

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It ain’t no Jaynestown, but we had mudders around today. They seem to be working in a “ripple” effect where someone patches and gets ahead, then someone lays tape and follows on, finally another comes along actually feathering in the mud over the tape. The result is that different parts of the house are in different stages, but the basement is pretty well along. I’ve added a couple more shots of the more completed upstairs to the Drywall album.

Good thing, too, since the basement saw a fair bit of activity in the mechanicals area. The last of the geothermal pipe got laid and connected to the house. There’s a new hunk of machinery on the wall to control flow to the pipes and honking, black insulated pipes running to that and thence to the main unit. I suspect someone needs to come and check the balance or something, but the “heavy lifting” on the HVAC part of the project appears done.

Outside, the framers were working on getting the main posts for the porch cut and set into place. There’s a shot of man at work in the Exterior album along with a few documenting the completion of the retaining wall, which did get finished yesterday, shortly after the bit of snow we got that day.

On my way back to the rental, I startled some raptors in the woods. Three, to be exact, so I’m guessing a mated pair and their nearly grown offspring. They looked to be switching plumage to winter mode. One settled in a tree long enough for me to snap a picture. It’s long-distance and through the branches and so not the best, but it’s in the wildlife album.

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