Week 23 - Casings

At this point, everything that the contractor is responsible for, that doesn't either require the action of a subcontractor, the acquisition of materials or some experimentation, is done. The things that I am responsible for however ... still a lot of stuff.

Now, from a contract point of view, our goal is becoming to pass the final inspection. That means several things that are my responsibility will need to be done, which means rejuggling my projects again. As if I'm not doing that constantly anyway.

I got all the window casings installed and prepared. Now I need to paint them all.

The last and trickiest one was the small window between the office and the porch (I wish now that I'd made it taller or left it out -- isn't that always the way?). In any case, the stress panel that was added inside the wall, pushed this window several inches closer to the corner. There was no other option since the pocket door determined the placement of the stress panel. The problem is that it pushed the window far enough over that I am not able to put a full casing around the it because it's too close to the corner.

I love the internet. When I finally got around to deciding how to deal with this problem (after a period of mulling and procrastination), I made a picture of both of the options I was considering, sent it to all my siblings and solicited their opinions (plus any suggestions for other options they might have, all of which I got). Based on their input and my own esthetic sense, I chose the top option.

The result was, I think, satisfactory. Other than the best solution ... move the window over 4 inches, or removing it. Not surprisingly, my contractor vetoed both those choices unless I want to pay for it separately.

One frivolous thing I did was to take down the blades for the fan and paint them to match the rest of the trim in the room.

It is a small thing, but not difficult and it does make a difference to the look of the room.

Also, the handle meant for the screen door was sent over, so I have a handle for my storm door, though not the kind I expected, and there is still what seems to me to be a huge gap (1.5") at the bottom of the door. With a custom door, I'd expect the supplier to be more helpful about these things than this supplier has been.

One frivolous addition: after some research I found a local supplier for aromatic cedar boards (P&W Cedar Products) to line the front hall closets. They were very helpful there and I was advised that I did not need to line the whole closet to get the benefits, just one or two walls, or even the ceiling. I decided to do the side walls in both closets.

I also figured out how to put a new phone jack into my bedroom, so I finally have a phone in there again. Plus, if I wanted to, I can plug in my second line as well. In the process I have discovered a lot of confusing phone wire in the basement, some old, some new, some live, some not. I have decided to get a few more items and rerun all the phone lines, so that both lines will be available at each location if I choose. The old phone lines will end up being another item on the list of useless wires, vents, and pipes I intend to remove from the basement. There is an amazing amount of crap down there that people in the past just left when it became redundant or useless.

Week 24 - Miscellaneous