Status Report, 17 Oct 2022

Big Picture: Where are we?
Mintwood, Powder Room completed. Ext doors delivered.
Pearl, Tenant handover is complete!
Duncan, punch list remains to be completed.

Corp Update

• Heading into a very busy Q4. Lots of visitors on tap and a bit of travel too.
  • Oct 8-17 Mom (sans Diane) (ARRIVED!) She’s been very busy knocking items off her trello list. 🙂
  • Oct ~18-30ish Doug to CA
  • Nov 3-8 Ed & Nana
  • Nov 10-17 Doug & Kath on vacation
  • Dec 20th-ish kids arrive for the holidays
• Scheduled inspections for Pearl St.
• The workers’ comp audit (in person portion) completed. I need to call SWIF and get them to change my classification code.

Major Accomplishments

• Ext doors received.

Accomplishments

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Mintwood St

• Allied Millworks delivered our new exterior doors this week, complete with hardware installed. They look gorgeous, and I’m anxious to get them painted/ protected sothey can be installed. I will try to get through all of the finishing this week, so that when I return from Calif I can get onto the installation.
• Mom has been hard at work on her trello list. She completed a number of key tasks:
  • touch up plaster and paint in niche (princess suite)
  • clean and seal kitchen floor
  • touch up sanding on new balusters
• The interior doors (basement and powder room) will arrive on Oct 20th. Delivery has been confirmed w Baird Brothers. These should be fairly vanilla installations, except for the fact that the jambs are a custom (narrow) size to fit the stairway walls. I should be able to install both doors in a single day, probably Saturday October 22nd.
• I finished installing the powder room on the first floor. Once the door is installed, we can deal with getting a final plumbing inspection. I’ll likely call Mertz to have them come back for that, provided they don’t charge me an arm and a leg for it. If the cost is excessive, I can do a permit take-over and get the plumbing signed off myself.
  We did have some challenges with both the toilet and the sink. The toilet turned out to be a 10″ rough-in, so we exchanged the unit we’d bought. We also had to do some work because the flange was below the finished floor height. The quality of an American Standard toilet is significantly lower than a Kohler, but A/S was the only 10″ rough-in toilet that was in stock. At some point in the future, we might upgrade, but not right now. The vanity also seemed determined to be difficult. I disassembled the drain no less than 6 times before finally getting it closed up and sealed. The original parts to the rain just were not capable of making a watertight connection. However, it is now complete, and the only thing that powder room lacks is a TP holder and a door.
• We installed some base cabinets in the living room by the fireplace. I’ll finish those up this week and build some custom shelves for above those cabinets. Kath is *very* excited to get a real living room again.
• We met with an interior decorator (not to be confused with Katy Popple, our designer). She’ll be guiding a few of the rooms to completion. Seems like someone we can easily work with, so we are excited.
• We are expecting the landscaping plan this week, for submission to the city of Pgh. The real reason we need to submit to the city is because we’re redoing the driveway, and we are building a retaining wall along one property line. These issues trigger a city review. I don’t expect it to be terrible though. (See above comments about working WITH the city, not fighting them)

Pearl St.

• The final inspections on Pearl St were concluded on Oct 11th, and the building permit is now closed. This is a big milestone. I ended up having to manage the plumbing inspection myself, and of course the various other inspections (electrical rough, electrical final, wallboard, etc.) I’m pleased that it is closed out.
  
  It is worth commenting on the inspectors for the City of Pgh. Most contractors and many homeowners seem to a very negative view of the inspectors. I hear “they’re out to get me”, “they don’t know what they’re talking about”, etc. on a regular basis. This has not been my experience. In my dealing with the inspectors, they are knowledgeable of the building code, and their only motive is to ensure safe, well built dwellings. If you try to cut corners, they’re going to be difficult with you. If you are interested in working *with* them, ask questions (“how would you recommend we handle this?”) I find they are a good source of information and aren’t dogmatic about the regs. It hasn’t always been perfect – they seemed a little less than excited for me to entrust my insulation certification to the computer model (as permitted in the code), but in fairness, it was the inspector who first told me that was even an option. They are certainly overworked/ under-resourced, but it is on us to recognize that and plan ahead in our work.

Duncan St.

Punch list remains, but we’re focused on Mintwood right now.

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Goals for Week of 17 Oct

• MINTWOOD
  • Finish cabinet installs in living room.
  • Get primer and paint on kitchen door. Get spar varnish on front entry door.
  • Update SWIF classification code.
• DUNCAN
  • none planned
• PEARL
  • minor clean-up items (house numbers etc)