Big Picture: Where are we?
Inside, Plumbing rough inspection is complete. We still need an electrical inspection, but that is gated on the roof repairs. (See detail below). Collecting bid & finalizing contracts for insulation and drywall.
Outside, Sewer line repairs are complete. Roof repairs are scheduled for 1-14 August.
Goals from Week of June 19
- Finalize sheetrock selection
- Contracts for Mintwood sheetrock.
- Roofing preparation
Accomplishments
- Ordered kitchen cabinets.
- Arrangements completed for roofing work.
- Received bids for insulation
Corp Update
- Dick Dufner, one of the founding members of Team Grey, passed away this week. He will be sorely missed.
- We scheduled a visit from Team Grey Leader (mom). She’s set to come out August 13th-26th
- Within the next month, we need to finalize our workers comp insurance (they have questions about our employee count), and also renew our contractor license (by 25 August).
Mintwood St
- Demolition: Work is complete. See blog post
- Roofing. We’re ready for the start on August 1st. This week I contacted DLC to arrange removal of the power lines. Scaffolding will be dropped off July 29, and my scaffold guy will build it on July 31-Aug 1. The team from Wm Prescott Roofing will arrive on August 2. I have confirmed with one of the neighbors already that it’s fine to build out the scaffold on their property.
- Carpenters (no change from June 6) Carpenters have finished the over-framing. After inspection of mechanicals, we’re ready for insulation and drywall.
- Windows: (no change since May 16) Windows were installed this week on May 13-14. This actually included the odd sized window in the kitchen, which was good news.I haven’t inspected the final results yet, but will review on Monday.
- Insulation I’ve received a couple of bids for insulation. ONe is 100% fiberglass, and the other is fiberglass plus spray foam. The second bid is *really* high, so I need to check in with them and see what options there are. Expecting to finalize the bid this week.
- HVAC HVAC is all tidy. We haven’t placed the furnaces yet, but we’re waiting to do that until we get the roof fixed. (We are having the HVAC guys run some ducts for the bathroom fans, and that won’t be possible until the roof is complete.)
- Plumbers: Found out that one of the sewer employees urinated on the neighbor’s porch last week. This has caused strain with the neighbors, which I’m working on. The things I have to say out loud…
(No change form 19 July) Mertz Plumbing returned on Monday and Tuesday as planned. The inspection was pretty quick and we passed rough plumbing on Tuesday, I noticed that the mixing valves for the office shower and the upstairs bathtub are not anchored- that will need to be addressed before drywall.
Mister Sewer came out on Tuesday as planned. There was a bit of drama around the configuration of the new line. Mr. Sewer spoke with a supervisor at the plumbing inspectors office and was told that it was permissible to put a straight line from the house to the main due to the fact that there wasn’t a trap there previously, particularly since the line coming from the house was “Pittsburgh 9″ (meaning 9″ pipe). When the inspector arrived, he said we could downsize the 9″ to 6″ and install a house trap. This wasn’t welcome news to Mr. Sewer, but we did work through it and they agreed to change out the 9″ for a 6” with a house trap. - Electrical: (no change this week) The electricians are 98% done. They’ll come back once the roof is complete to install the exhaust fans.
- Masonry (completed week of 12 July) Rob completed all of the masonry work. All of the fireplaces and exposed brick has been repointed. He also punched through the back wall for the powder room and the range hood exhaust. However, after careful consideration, we decided NOT to penetrate the side wall. The masonry is tricky, and there isn’t much in the way of working space. Instead, we’re going to route them out through the rear mansard. This will require the return of the HVAC team and the electricians, but it’ll work out reasonably well.
- Plaster: I’ve reached out to Jim Lamont Drywall and informed them that they are selected for the job. We need to execute a contract, which I’ll aim to do this week. Likely they won’t be in the building until after Labor Day.
- Finish Carpentry I found a place in Pgh that will strip doors for $250-300/ door. Next week while the roofing work is going on, I’ll take all the hardware off the doors and strip any stray nails from the millwork. Then we’ll start the process of getting the doors done.
- Design: Kitchen cabinets were ordered this week. We’ve also finalized selection of faucet, cabinet hardware, lights, vent hood, and various other times. Design board is available here, though we made some slight changes after this board was produced.
Next Steps
- Finalize sheetrock contract.
- Get ready for roofing work. (Last item is to contact Anthony for permission to be on their steps.)
- Contract and timing with a paint stripper.
Pearl St.
- Front door trim is complete. Now I’m moving on to the back door, which is a lot harder bc the brick door jamb is 2″ out of square. (yeah, you read that right.).
- Next up will be Zoe’s door.
Next Steps
- Trim the back door.
Goals for Week of 26 June 2021
- Finalize sheetrock contract
- Roofing preparation
Entropy Properties LLC 