Week 21 - Finishing the Concrete

Well, the contractor planned to finish up this week but, sadly, that didn't happen. We are down to the "punch list" --- things that still need to be done or fixed, and I seemed to have moved down the urgency pile. Actually, not very much at all happened with the contractor, except the driveway walls. Oh, and the final electrical and plumbing inspections were done. That leaves the "final" inspection.

Because one retaining wall had to be repoured, there was a rather obvious line between the new pour and the old one. Because of that the subcontractor did something called "sacking" which involved grinding down the high spots and coating the wall with a mixture of mortar and a bonding agent.

The result was nice enough that I think I'm going to have to learn how to do it and do the rest of the foundation after the actual project is over with. I'm told it isn't that difficult.

As a bonus, they sacked the wall on the other side of the driveway as well, and ground a bevelled the edge to match the bevel that they put on the new wall.

For my part, I finished the casing around the bathroom doorway, which only leaves the window and a towel rack in that room.

I also finished another of the pocket doors and hung it, at which point I realized that I would not be able to do the trim on any of these doors until all three were hung ad adjusted, because they all need to close together. So I slid it into the wall and out of the way, and went on to the next thing.

Originally, I had intended to focus on the window casings this week, but the weather forecast says rain is coming, so I decided to move outside and get things done there instead. While the concrete guys were here they made short work of the rest of my extraneous retaining wall, so I finished sifting and spreading the pile of dirt/trash/gravel in the front. It made a big difference to the look of the front of the house.

The remaining gravel and rocks removed from the pile, were carted around the side to be used as underlayment for the path I'm laying there.

While the inspector was here, he told me that the transition between my sidewalk steps and my porch steps will not pass code, because they are too close together, but not a full step height. It can be made a full step height, if I level the ground and lay pavers, as I eventually intend to do, but the face of the cement pad must be dealt with first.

Rather than do that at this point, since I don't have all the materials I intend to use anyway, he suggested that I simply slope the ground between the two sets of steps. And since it is probably going to rain next week, I decided to dredge up all the pieces of stone, slate, etc. that I had salvaged from my original yard and relay them as a (very short) path. This should suffice for now, or even until next summer.

I also began working on my next pocket door, and stripping the remaining closet doors. When the weather changes, activity will move back inside.

The most exciting discovery during the hot weather this week is that my heat venting concept combining a high ceiling in the office, a reversable fan, and upper windows in the office really seems to be working. In spite of loosing the thermal barrier of a large, dense hedge on the west side of my house, the inside stayed bearable. In the past, when the temperature outside hit 95 or higher, the temperature inside would eventually reach 90. This year it stayed at or below 85, and I expect that to improve when I am able to reestablish greenery on the west side of my house.

I'll be interested to see how the new, better insulated space and more protected front porch will affect winter temperatures as well.

Week 22 - Punch List