It has been a few weeks since our last post but we are still going strong. COLD...but strong. Working in these temperatures has not been the most enjoyable experience. Lots of layers and a couple of kerosene heaters is what keeps us going.
We have been focusing on wrapping up the electric and plumbing to prepare for our rough inspections. Curiosity did get the better of us, though, when it came to the fire places which do not need to be completed for the inspection. Each of our fireplaces were covered in years of various cements, plasters and wood. Last weekend, we took the plunge and demoed a few of the chimneys. It was difficult, pain staking work to chip away all of the concrete and plaster without harming the original stone. The outcome was worth the trouble.
Living Room
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| Living Room (after) |
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| Living Room (after) |
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| Living Room (during) |
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| Living Room (before) Den |
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| Den (before) |
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| Den (after) |
Guest Bedroom
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| Guest Bedroom (before) |
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| Guest Bedroom (after) Master Bedroom |
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| Master Bedroom (before) |
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| Master Bedroom (after) |
More Discoveries
When we removed the old plaster from the master suite's ceiling (which was only 7'), we discovered that the original roof was intact and the new roof with a greater pitch was built over top of it. It was a neat find but not usable. We carefully disassembled the roof (including the tin) and saved the wood for future projects.
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| Originally an exterior wall |
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| My Buddy Joe helping out |
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| Our salvage pile. Looks like a new custom kitchen table to me!
After removing the old roof, we discovered that our new master suite would be huge! We have plans to raise the ceiling rafters a few feet and keep them exposed to create a huge cathedral ceiling. We will be consulting with a structural engineer before we tackle this.
We finally got back on track and focused on tasks for the coming inspections. First up was installing the guest bath tub.
 This concrete pad will match the height of the radiant heat flooring   
Next, we framed out the master bath's shower wall to hide the vent and water feeds.
  
Then came what I had been dreading... organizing all of the plumbing pipes and electric in the basement. What a mess.
    
What a difference! Once all of the water lines were gathered in one location, we installed the water supply distribution block. Both the hot and cold supply lines will be 1" pipe and all fixtures have dedicated 1/2" lines. Never again, will one of us be taking a shower and have to yell "are you doing laundry?" or "turn the dishwasher off!"
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Another great feature of a distribution block is every line has its own shut off. If we ever have a leak, we can shut down just the faulty line and not the entire house.
The last step in preparing the plumbing for inspection was to leak test all of the PEX. Between the hot and cold lines and the radiant heating there are thousands of feet of PEX in the house. Even a pinhole leak could be devastating down the road. Plumbers typically use a hydronic pressure pump to test for pressure drop. That tool costs about $400. We have more important things to spend $400 on so with $22 and a little creativity, we made a custom pneumatic PEX pressure drop tester! With this and a compressor, we can quickly and easily test each line for pressure drop to show even the smallest leak or weak joint. All we have to do is pressurize each line to about 75 psi and close the shutoff valve. If the psi is still exactly 75 after a few hours, we can be confident that the line is leak free!
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| Our controlled test to make sure our homemade device worked properly |
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| And it did! |
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