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Post date: Jul 24, 2015 2:46:51 AM
Today the plumbing-and-heating (it is actually more ventilation than heating) contractor installed more of the ductwork. In the process he again discovered that he could not run a 14” inside diameter duct through an 8” gap in the roof truss. So I consulted the architect and we added two beams under the roof, allowing the plumber to remove the diagonal (effectively making it no longer a truss).
Yesterday we moved a couple of warm air diffuser locations to accommodate the duct runs between (rather than through) the trusses. The heating engineer approved of the different model furnace, so I hope the ventilation can be completed.
The water lines have been under pressure for two days (testing for leaks) and Ray promises that the house will be ready for inspection on Monday, even if that means he has to work on the weekend. Approval of the water and ventilation will allow us to be inspected for framing (which the electricians and plumbers tend to mutilate). Once we pass framing inspection we can insulate, then drywall.
I spent a while last evening ordering plumbing fixtures, as Ray managed to get that excluded from his contract. I want a kitchen faucet with spray that does not revert to stream when the water is turned ‘off’. They are few and far between. Actually, I drove to Santa Fe this morning to buy one from a dealer who phoned the manufacturers to identify a model that meets my requirements.
While I was in Santa Fe I visited Trader Joe’s, who carries frozen gyoza. I take my cooler and blue ice so I can keep them frozen on the 1 1/2 hour trip back to Taos. I think the last batch lasted two months. (I do, occasionally, eat something else.)
The building crew has mostly been preparing to plaster the outside. This prep consists of a white house wrap with little bumps that allows condensed water to drain out the bottom (rather than rot the wood) covered with a heavy chicken wire plus expanded metal lath. The details around the windows, lintels, sills, vigas, and scuppers all take time. It will take them a week, I estimate.The west wall of the house dropped off rather steeply, making ladders precarious and scaffold impossible. So Eli brought his bucket loader to work today and shaped the dirt into a shelf for the scaffold. At the same time he removed an ugly dirt pile in front of the house and one around back. All that dirt-moving exposed a lot of large rocks that I want to rake out. I am hoping my plantings can grow unimpeded by large rocks.
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