Lots of Little Stuff

 Most of what has happened this week is not very visible unless you know where to look. Plumbing and HVAC has been the big thing on the docket. Lots of time, and most of it won't show in the end. 

Upstairs bath. We decided on a 6ft tub so us adults can fit. 

Shower tray in the downstairs bath. The worker had a few choice words re: the builder! 😃 He needed to use a sledgehammer to slightly shift a wall, and said the floor wasn't level enough so he had to take the tray in and out a few times to get some shims to the appropriate thicknesses. 

Doggy bath in the mud room. The space underneath will become a pull-out step and a drawer to hold shampoo and other doggie paraphernalia. 

While looking at this completed work I had a Duh! moment. The small duct just above the floor is the dryer vent for the laundry room next door. In anticipation of how things would go together I had assumed the vent would go up to the ceiling then over to the wall. In EVERY house I have lived in, the vent went up. Hot air rises, right? I was briefly confused when I saw this vent. But this laundry room is NOT in a basement! In 37 yrs, I have only had 2 laundry rooms that were not in basements, and those were both in the middle of the house and still had to go up first.

This picture below may not enlarge enough see it, but just about everywhere you look there is evidence of this week's work. Pipes, hoses, and ductwork everywhere! 

I think a silver alien octopus has made a home in the mudroom ceiling.

And also many bits and pieces of framing stuff:

Drywall added to the garage/house wall to keep the heat in. 

The wrap-around part of the stairs and the base for the railing framed in. 

The under-stairs area progressed. This entire side will eventually be bookcase. One of the jobs Sid will finish up later. 

The wall at the top of the workshop stairs underwent an amputation. The plan is to finish this space down the road, so only the downstairs was going to be insulated and heated at this time. But, this required that the upstairs be totally closed off, and the downstairs ceiling be insulated. There isn't enough room at the base of the stairs to put in a door that meets code, so this wall was built to the ceiling, with a door at the top. Decided to insulate the upstairs now instead. It will need it later anyway. 

The wall between the workshop and its garage got drywall on the garage side. Through the doorway you can see the shower for this bathroom. I think they are going to have to remove a stud or two to get it in. It's bigger than the doorways. 

This window was intended to go at the base of the workshop stairs, but the inspector required a door there as a potential fire escape from the upstairs. It had to go somewhere, and this was the best spot. I had previously wished I had thought sooner of putting one here, and it will be nice to have daylight in the attic. 

And the icing on the cake this week- House Keys! Somehow that feels like a milestone reached.