Status Report, 13 Nov 2023

Big Picture: Where are we?
Progress on concrete permits, and working on vestibule

Corp Update

Revised plans for hardscape have been submitted to the City of Pgh. We had a bit of back-and-forth, but seem on a path to getting them all finalized in the next 10 days. Working on getting updated bids from a small subset of the original bidders.
The front door is installed and getting good use. In that process, I’ve uninstalled and reinstalled it a couple of times to get it exaclty right. While this seems crazy to some, I intend for this door to be in place for 50-100 years, so it matters to me. I’m pleased to say that it’s now exactly plumb and square. I need to tweak some of the weather stripping so that the smart locks work correctly, but that’s a relatively small item.

Next step in the door process is cleaning up the installation and finishing the vestible. Outside, that’s going to mean milling some custom trip around the door (quarter-round, but wider than normal to account for the fact that the frame isn’t 100% plumb). That will also involve some steam-bending. I won’t actually get to that work for a little bit because I’m working on the inside of the vestibule first.

Inside, the first thing to do is put up drywall. The front wall of the house is made up of several wythes of brick. The door is installed in the rough opening, but I had to pull most of the plaster off that front wall in order to install the door. So now, we have to put that plaster back up, and then trim around the door. In parallel with that, I’ll float up the other walls in the vestibule so that they are nice and smooth. Kath wats to install wall paper, and that would look terrible over the walls we have currently, but it’ll get sorted out. Then there’s the trim- the front door has an arched transom, so that’s going to be a custom piece I’m going to have to make. door is installed in the brick (exterior) wall over the brick wall around the front door. Finally, I need to finish rehabilitating the interior vestibule door. That’s a couple of days in the shop, but it’s classic woodworking, which I’m going to enjoy.
We had a big “shop day” at Hack to rearrange the tools, and we staretd installing the custom wall cabinets for the miter saw station. There are a few things to sort out with the board before we finish that work, so I’ll focus on the house in the meantime.

I did take a class in TIG welding to expand my skills. May be helpful when we’re fabricating the railing for the driveway.

Goals for November