Greg finished yesterday's work while we were out shopping, and upon leaving, tried to force the exterior basement door shut. This door is in one of its seasonal obstinate moods, binding badly and not wanting to close completely, making it impossible to turn the deadbolt. When it is forced to close, it does not want to reopen (I had to use a pry bar on it over the weekend). When we arrived home yesterday afternoon, I noticed Greg had not thrown the deadbolt when he left. When I tried, I could not get the deadbolt to turn. For overnight security, I barred the door with a 2"x 4" dedicated to this purpose. We slept peacefully, knowing the basement door was secure.
This morning, about 9:00 am, while making coffee for T, I heard two loud thuds from the basement. I immediately knew that Greg had arrived and was employing his "universal door opener" on, what he thought was, a stuck door. By the time I got to the basement, my door frame was shattered and Greg had a sore shoulder.
Today, Greg ran the copper water lines to the sink and toilet in the basement bath, as well as the three water lines (hot, cold, purified) and natural gas over to the south wall. These lines will pass through the south basement wall, 42" below grade, to supply the sunroom and garage. The water lines to the bath were not hooked up today since the water supply valve in the basement leaks through and we could not find the outside valve. Undoubtedly it is buried somewhere in the front yard. Since they are brazing the copper lines, it has to be dry. They will have to bring their metal detector next time to locate. He also ran a new 2" vent line to the first floor bath, but it still needs to be tied into the vent line in the first floor bath. Finally, he installed the drain for our to-be-named new utility sink, to be located over by the washer. As he was leaving for the day, he said they would be back to pour the new floor either this coming Friday or next Monday. Still a lot to finish on this "small" portion of the overall project. They still need to pour the new floor, install the old sink and toilet, attach the vent line in first floor bath, finish removal of the floor under conservatory, pour the new floor under conservatory, remove the old tub and kitchen sink, bore the holes in basement wall and run lines to sunroom and garage. But, I guess that's all the plumbing work we are going to get done this week. A lot of this was not in the original scope for the project, and we still have never scoped the outside downspout drains. Greg did put the door back together and hung a sign saying "Knock Before Breaking Down Door".
I called Mike yesterday evening to find out if he still expected "Bobcat" Tom to be out this week to excavate in preparation for next week's installation of the foundation footings. Mike said that was still the plan, but he had yet to make contact with Tom.
I also mentioned again to Mike that he needed to make the call on when to place orders for the long lead items, like the windows and the fireplace. The quotes we have are at least 30 days old and some of these quotes have expiration dates. With Mike's encouragement, last night I sent notes to both "Window" Mike (Marvin dealer) and "Fireplace" Bobby (Lennox dealer) asking for updated quotes and asking how we could protect ourselves from price increases until we place our orders. Today I received a reply from "Window" Mike saying the quote for the sunroom windows and doors is good through the end of the year. I hope that is long enough!!!
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