Status Report, 9 May 2022

Big Picture: Where are we?
Mintwood, 95% complete on second floor
Pearl, roof leak.
Duncan, No change this week- COVID outbreak.

Corp Update

• Mom’s trip in May has been canceled due to an injury she has. She swears her doc said it’s not Mintwood related, but I’m not going to let her on site for a while. (Happy Mother’s Day, Mom)

Major Accomplishments

• Finished the windowsills on the second floor.

Goals from Week of 2 May

• MINTWOOD
  • Complete as much of the staircase repairs as I can with the tools I have. Need to get access to a bandsaw for the curved sections. {done}
  • Finish the odds and ends on 2-3. {90% complete}
• DUNCAN
  • (repeat from last week) Although I think it is unlikely we’ll complete *everything* this week, we should be getting close. I want to get it paint ready in most of the rooms this week. {not complete}
• PEARL
  • Plan for the additional plumbing work. {complete}
  • Get the roof inspection scheduled. {not complete}
    

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Mintwood St

• Finish Work
  • Staircase work is done, except for the curved returns. I was able to retain the original wood in most cases, but I did have to mill a few new parts here and there. The staircase looks really good. I still need to mill the curved returns, but I’m confident I know how to do that once I get my mitts on a bandsaw. I’m still looking for a solution for the “curved baseboard” problem.
  • I spent a few days repairing the window sills in the master bedroom and dressing room. The old ones had suffered a lot of moisture over the years, and were splitting apart. The trim work was also in rough shape. I milled new sills out of staircase treads (9 milling operations to get exactly what I wanted) and then custom cut some trim for the jambs. Definitely worth the effort, though.
  • Started trim work in the kitchen. One of the windows is substantially out of plumb (about 3/4″. which is a LOT). I’m trying to figure out whether I mask it with clever trim tricks, or actually re-open the installation and square up the window. In the image here, follow the green laser line to see the issue.
    
• Painting: Kathryn worked on painting the office this weekend. It’s looking pretty dramatic with a very dark navy accent wall, which really makes the trim work pop.
  Executed the contract with the painter for the woodwork. He won’t start that until later in May. Meanwhile, Mom has been busy priming rooms on the 2nd floor. Kathryn also painted the WC room in the master, to make it easier to install the toilet.
• Design:   Kathryn is making solid progress on the various light fixtures for the hallways and upper bedrooms. Feels good to have this getting taken care of. Thanks, Love. We keep looking for the right pieces for the LR and DR
• Design board is available here, though we made some slight changes after this board was produced.
• We decided NOT to do the basement floor after all. There are just a lot of other things we want to get done first, and this would hold up progress. It means we’ll have to be careful when we do it later, but the priority is on getting done and moved in.

Pearl St.

• {no change} I spoke with a plumber I know about doing the work at Pearl St. He’s pretty busy so I’ll evaluate a couple of options. This is work I could definitely do, but I’m trying to focus my time at Mintwood.
  We had our finish plumbing inspection, but did not pass. There are 4 updates to make. They aren’t difficult items, but need to be done before we can pass inspection.
  • Install double check valve at water meter.
  • Remove spigot near water meter.
  • Install expansion tank on HW heater.
  • Install backflow preventer on outside hose bib.
• Painter stopped by to look at the flaking problems we’ve had. It appears that the oldest layers of paint are splitting off from the wall. (The newest latex paint is adhered to a couple of layers beneath, and they’re coming off in a group). So I’ll need to skim it up with setting plaster and then repaint.
• We had a heavy rain this weekend, and the roof leaked. Grrr…. I’ve called out my roofing “fix it” guy to take a look on Monday. I’ll need to do a bit of painting / clean-up in the bathroom ceiling.

Duncan St.

Limited progress due to the COVID situation with the crew. Joe was able to come out and continue plaster work, but not too much. Hoping they’ll be doing better this week.

• Electrical: {no change from 21 March} The rough-in electrical inspection was completed on Wednesday, March 16. We are now good to hang drywall.
• Framing/ drywall: All compound and sanding work is complete.
• Kitchen: Countertop was installed this week, as was flooring.
• Bathroom: Flooring installed.
• Plumbing: Rough inspection passed on 7 March 2022.
• Painting: We executed the contract with the painter. They will start the first week in May.

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Goals for Week of 9 May

• MINTWOOD
  • Install laundry drain pan and laundry bifold doors
  • Case windows in kitchen
• DUNCAN
  • (repeat from last week) Although I think it is unlikely we’ll complete *everything* this week, we should be getting close. Painter starts on Thursday.
• PEARL
  • Plan for the additional plumbing work.
  • Get the roof repaired and inspection scheduled.