Oct 4 - watching paint dry

I stopped watching.  I went for a bike ride.

When I left the house just after 10 am, Brian had arrived (removing tile); the Harrison Electric people had arrived (guess what) but not Luke.  Jim had shown up first thing and concluded that we'd be able to request an inspection but of course that depended on completing the rough-in.

I figured that by the end of the day things would be done ... and they were.  It took both of them -- electricians and plumber, another 3 hours.  It's hard to believe that it took 3 hours for Luke to re-route two water pipes, but hey, what do I know ?  The electricians' time was probably reasonable, given the pace that things had been moving.

I talked to Jim at the end of the day and asked if I'd be able to do the final plumbing and electrical and he said yes ... whew.  Some is pretty quick -- add a receptacle to a box with wires already in it ... some is not -- finishing the under-cabinet lighting, range hood etc.  -- but those things that are not take more mechanical time than electrical.

Anyway ... it's all going to be to code.  They even pulled another circuit to the panel for the under-cabinet water heater.  I could have shared the circuit with the food disposer, as before, but this is better.

It was a very hot ride.  I stopped in Daytona and paid Greg for the X5 work and picked up the key.  Sandy and I picked up the car at the end of the day.  Greg was going to be leaving at 4pm and I didn't want to be rushed.  The camber is better, but still out -- expected -- a wheel alignment will tell the tale as to how much difference it made.  The car has continued life at this point :).

Brian has a lot of the living room floor mostly tiling ready -- pulling up the tile is the quick part; scraping up the old thinset/mortar is the slow, dirty and dusty part.  He's done the kitchen, mostly, and now the living room.  The dining room and laundry room remain, but they're small, comparatively speaking.

Once Brian finishes up the living room, the stove, fridge, dishwasher, washer and dryer will be moved into a corner of the living room, out of the way.  Tiling can then start.

My goal is to have all the really dirty work done by the end of this coming week.  That's actually not too bad, considering that they only started destruction last Monday.

Monday's work for Tony includes:

1) removing that corner of garage at the kitchen entrance-way
2) removing part of the landing, prep for attaching staircase
3) removing the short wall at the landing and the den railing

I will re-route the fireplace vent, put in the vent for the range hood (attic work) and do some electrical work after the inspection.

Presumably Tony will then start hanging drywall.   Jim figures that drywall finishing will be a one-day job.  I've got some work in that department as well.  I did some patching yesterday before heading out on my bike.

Oh -- down here they call it sheetrock.  Whatever.  Cutting and hanging will raise some dust but not as much as destruction.

Tiling should start either Wednesday or Thursday.  The kitchen will take 2-3 days and then we're ready for cabinet installation, then plumbing ... I'll be busy ... that's good.

I've booked myself into the Florida 1000k next weekend.  That's while tiling is taking place and before the cabinet install.  I did this 1000k a couple of years ago; it leaves from Melbourne.

Sandy will be going down to Melbourne to look at granite on Monday morning.  She has to make her choice, cast that die.  Then she can order the sink.  We need to pick faucets.  That's usually a Home Depot exercise.

I'll get some riding in this week, hopefully, keep the legs ticking for next weekend.  

I'm scheduled to hook up with Jim Griffin to review the Randonneurs Ontario financial reports.  I can't get the books to balance; there's something going on with last year's transactions and I don't have all the detail.

What else ... not sure.  Oh, hopefully I can get to Tire Kingdom today, Saturday, for the wheel alignment.  That's a "hover" item, because I want to see where we stand and be able to take a look at things once the car is up on the hoist.

Couldn't sleep.  I was up shortly after 2am and even the TV couldn't put me to sleep.  If the house was next door, I'd be there working -- that's the way things went up north during our build.  Go over to house, start working, come back to feed Abby and have breakfast, go back to work.

We had salmon on the little Weber grill last night.  That worked out.  It will be interesting to see how many meals I can cook with one 16 oz container !  I guess that we're up to three now.  The containers come in packs of two for $6.something, if I recall correctly.

Anything else ?  Don't know.

Onward !