Big Picture: Where are we?
Inside, Insulation Inspection passed and sheetrock is underway.
Outside, No changes outside.
Goals from Week of Sep 27
- Get second quote for replacement trim for Mintwood. {underway}
- Get insulation approved {done}
- Get sheetrock underway. {underway}
Accomplishments
- We passed our insulation inspection using the “model” approach. Sheetrock is now underway.
- Dumpster brought in, and site clean-up is underway.
- Met with RetiredWoodworker (Chris Kairys) up in Wexford. He may take on a few woodworking projects for us.
Corp Update
- Mom’s visit still on track for early November.
- Got an update from the insurance company about the increased rates. Although the GL insurance says it is based on “payroll”, apparently that includes subcontractors as well. Seems strange to me, since I provided GL certificates for all of my subcontractors. Liberty Mutual seems to take a very aggressive line on this though. I can try to fight it, but I’m unlikely to win. The one thing I do want to do though is to provide broken down invoices for all subs. The GL rates are tied to labor, not materials. If I paid a sub $15,000 to frame up $5,000 in lumber, that isn’t the same as paying $5,000 to use $15K in materials. Goal is to gather up these receipts this week.
- Taxes submitted to Uncle Sam.
- We put a bid in on the new property, and it has been accepted. I have some contingencies, so we are moving forward with inspections right now.
Mintwood St
- Demolition: Work is complete. See blog post
- Roofing. Due to the very high cost from the roofing “clean up” bid, I decided to pull out my roofing repair guy instead. He came out on Tuesday and flashed down all of the metal on the parapet wall out back. it was less than 5% of the bid from my normal roofer (who clearly wasn’t excited about coming in and doing a little clean-up project.)
- Carpenters { No change since 13 Sept } *Framing inspection passed on Friday*. This was a big deal. The actual inspection was pretty simple. I booked an “overtime inspection”, so that we could get one scheduled for Friday. Inspector arrived ~7:00am. We reviewed the plans, and he then looked at construction. He was mostly focused on the load paths, which makes sense. He had a couple of comments (wanted squash blocks in the basement, and also wanted the fireproof foam done on all three floors.). We were able to make some runs to HD and get the work done in time for him to stop by later in the day to sign off. This allows us to move forward with insulation next week. We also got the subfloor installed in the kitchen, which is VERY exciting.
- 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 As discussed last week, we moved forward with a computer model for the insulation inspection. We passed, so we are able to also move forward with sheetrock. The computer model shows we’re 19.1% more efficient than the standards require.
- HVAC Spoke with the HVAC company. They’ll set the furnace after the drywall is done.
- Plumbers: {No change from Aug 30} I have downloaded the completion certificate from the county website and submitted that to the City of Pgh as part of the “closing docs” for the framing inspection.
- Electrical: Power was reconnected to the building on Wednesday, and we now have electricity inside! This is a big help, even though we only have one working outlet at this very moment. I’ll start connecting outlets once the sheetrock guys wrap up this week.
- Masonry {No updates from Aug 30} Once again, Normandy Masonry came through for me again this week. The roofers pulled the fascia off the front of the building. Rob was able to come out and point the front of the house under the box gutter, so they could reattach the fascia.
- Plaster: The sheetrock is underway. I haven’t been thrilled with the crew. It appears that the guy I contracted with doesn’t actually employ anyone to hang rock- he subs that all out. Worse, he has little control over the subcontractor. They have made sporadic appearances, usually with only 2 guys. The also started hanging regular drywall in the bathroom, which I stopped right away. I informed them that they’re required to use MR (Moisture Resistant) drywall in the bathrooms and laundry.
I suspect I’m going to do a lot of follow/ clean-up with these guys.
All Schluter Kerdi-board is installed in all 3 bathrooms. I also picked up about 10 bags (500 lbs) of Schluter Allset (which is a challenge to find these days). - Finish Carpentry The Mars Lumber bid is about what I expected. Waiting on two other bids I’ve sent out. Should be ready to commit this week.
I’ve received 3 bids now for flooring. Two are pretty close, and one is pretty high. Will make a decision shortly. However, flooring won’t be installed until near the very end of the process. - Design: Not too much progress ordering more finish materials this week. Need to get back on that so we have materials to install.
Kitchen Cabinets are shipping this week. I’ve set a delivery date of 21 Oct, after I return from California.
Design board is available here, though we made some slight changes after this board was produced.
Next Steps
- Get second and third millwork quotes.
- Complete sheetrock
- order tile and get ready to start as soon as plaster is done.
Pearl St.
- Painter came and finished all of the paint work. The place looks fantastic. It’s amazing how much it improves to paint the last bits.
- Still need to close out electrical inspection.
Next Steps
- Paint door to Zoe’s room.
- Build small landing for 3rd floor stairs.
- Finalize electrical inspection, close building permit.
Goals for Week of 4 Oct
- Get second quote for replacement trim for Mintwood.
- Complete sheetrock
- Get insurance documents out to LM
Entropy Properties LLC 