Patience Is A Valuable Commodity

As predicted, it rained off and on throughout the night, stopping by daylight. We had a good puddle in the trenches. Mike showed up and set sump pumps in both the sunroom and garage trenches. He said he would be back later to move them around. The trench surfaces were relatively firm, but it was pretty muddy and Mike had a hole in one of his boots. We are going to try again and schedule everything (forming, inspections, concrete) for Monday. The forecast is dry and cool for the weekend. Mark (indoor plumbing) also told both Mike and me that he plans to scope and, if necessary, cable the downspout drain laterals on Monday. Greg did not show up to work on the basement plumbing today. Maybe Monday?

In the early evening, when Mike was back to relocate the sump pumps, we were discussing what else needed to be done before we can back fill the trenches. The main item is the re-installment of the new downspout drain laterals for the garage. These had to be previously removed due to interference with the installation of the foundation footings. During our talk, I realized that Vern's boys had installed two laterals corresponding with just the northeast and northwest corners of the garage. There had been nothing installed for the south side of the garage. This seemed strange since the ridge of the roof runs east-west. Mike got out the permit drawings which implied that the guttering on the south side of the garage was connected to the guttering on the north side via gutters along the east and west sides. Mike stated he did not believe this was correct and was another issue that he will bring up with Tyler (architect). In the mean time, we agreed we should go ahead and, when the north side laterals are re-installed, have them extend these to provide downspout drains at both south corners. Not a big deal since we can run the lateral extension piping in the trench excavated for the footings. Just another 50'-60' of thin-wall 4" PVC piping.

I took the opportunity today to remove the remaining lath and plaster from the ceiling in east part of the basement, hauling it to, and completely filling, the dumpster. That took most of the morning and wore me out. But, at least now we won't have old plaster continually falling and making a mess. I found a number of mouse nests up in the floor joists (no one was home however).

Before

Before

After

After

Frank (HVAC) also sent a couple of pictures of the NTI boiler he is proposing for the radiant floor heating. Fancy, but it looks like you have to remove the front panel to see the blinking lights. I like blinking lights!

Have a good weekend!!!

Go Cardinals!!!