Weeks Four and Five

Even though it is the middle of Week Seven of The Ugly Lake House project we will go back in time Marty McFly and Doc Brown style to Weeks Four and Five.

I would consider these weeks to be the midpoint of the project and also the slowest weeks.  I've been told that with any construction project that the middle always seems to progress fairly slow and a lot less visual things seem to happen. 

During Week Four the plumbing passed it's initial inspection which means the Master Bathroom Shower and Guest Bathroom Tube were installed.

This is was a pretty dramatic change from the tub and shower that came with The Ugly Lake House.

Also during Weeks Four and Five the old windows complete with plywood window panes were removed and some new, way more energy efficient, windows were installed.  To be honest, they aren't that energy efficient, but anything beats single panes and plywood. 

It's pretty amazing what windows can do for house aesthetically.  If only new siding was in the budget.

Old Windows

While Rob the Plumber was installing the new shower and bathtub and Tom and his sons were installing windows, Mike the Boiler Guy installed a new boiler.  It was late April/early May at this point and in theory heat should no longer have been required.  But due to dismal spring, we did get to fire up the boiler and it works great.

I took a bit a gamble when I purchased The Ugly Lake House.  I had no idea what condition the plumbing was in, and the house had been winterized for almost two years.  When I had my home inspection there was now way to test the plumbing for the boiler or for the rest of the house.  I had a bit of a scare when the boiler was installed and pressure tested.  After a few hours the system loss pressure indicating a leak.  For those of you not familiar with baseboard heating, hot water heated by the boiler is piped through baseboards and heat is given off through a series of baseboard heaters.  The Ugly Lake House has probably hundreds of feet of pipe connecting the baseboard heaters.  A leak could have been any where but luckily the only two leaks found were in a valve near the boiler and in the mudroom ceiling where some new drywall was being hung. 

After the installation, the boiler was inspected and the mechanical inspection passed.  If you are keeping score at home, two inspections have passed leaving only the electrical and building inspections.  More on that later in Week 6.

Roy Boy and Roy Man help me build a wall!

About a week ago my buddy/old roommate Roy aka "Roy Boy" and his dad, Dennis, aka "Roy Man" came over to help me build a partition wall to create a den.  The project went really smooth due to the presence of Roy Man and an awesome pneumatic framing nailer I borrowed from my Dad.

I guess I can give credit to this idea to my buddy Bryan.  He suggested, and I barely remember this, to frame off the area to the left of the front door (when walking in) to create a den.  Also, he apparently thought of the idea to add French Doors in the opening.  Again, I really only remember him saying something about how cool French Doors are.

Roy Man (you may not see him, since he is wearing a camo jacket) suggested that we frame the opening as if we were building a complete wall.  If you notice on the bottom of the frame, a footer runs across the entire span.  This kept the wall more square. 

In these pictures it appears that Roy Boy is doing all the work, Roy Man is supervising, and I'm not really doing anything.  I would say that is about 90% true.  Thanks Roy!!!

The finished wall.  Notice that the footer has been cut to create the opening.  Now I just need to buy some French Doors to finish it off.

The wall makes the first floor narrower but makes the floor plan less random.

Thanks again to Roy Boy and Roy Man!