Busy Monday

"Our" Mike, Nate and "Little" Mike showed up this morning and finished framing of the connecting porch before starting on the fireplace. Mike said that, while it is muddy, the ground is firmer this week than it was last week. Mike asked me if Tyler (architect) had been given the specifications for the fireplace to develop his drawings. I assured him that he had. I later checked and found that I sent Tyler the dimensions and specifications on April 25. The fireplace, along with the hot tub, were decided very early in the project. The reason Mike asked is that the foundations, poured per the drawings, don't seem to be quite right for the dimensions of the fireplace. Mike said they would make it work however.

We can actually step out our back door for the first time in about four months!!

Connecting Porch

Fireplace

Josh (electrical) showed up with a helper and began installation of the new 400 ampere power meter box on the back of the main house. It will be significantly larger than the old 200 ampere meter. They knocked out a brick in the basement wall to bring in the new cable. "Our" Mike said they will need to shut off the power for a couple of hours tomorrow morning to make some tie-ins. Once they are finished with their work, it will be inspected by the City before Ameren (power utility) will come out to relocate the main power cable to the new underground conduit. Mike assured me that they will relocate the 240V outlet for the dryer so we can relocate it to the west wall in the basement.

New Meter Box

Chatting with Mike at lunch, he said he got the note I sent last Friday and would get the price information on the select pine boards versus the Ponderosa pine siding. He also mentioned he got a call from Tyler about the gable trusses. It turns out that Tyler's offer to discuss the matter with the truss company, in reality, actually meant he would call Mike and ask Mike to talk with the truss company. I apologized to Mike but he said it was not a big deal and he would let us know.

Mike said he got the quote for the gable slate and asked if we wanted to use 10" wide slate tiles or 12" wide. He said the 12" wide are actually less expensive, but the main house has 10" so we will go with that for consistency.

Mike also said he was expecting an updated quote from the Lincoln door/window supplier. Mike asked us to confirm which way (inwards or outwards) we wanted the doors to swing and the handings of the doors. Conferring with T, we determined all three should swing outwards and the primary door will be on the right when exiting the garage. This means the doors will all be right-hand outswing doors.

The insurance agent came by as scheduled this morning and we had a nice chat. No surprises.

The time window for delivery of the new 65" television was between 1500 and 1800 hours. It arrived at 1715 hours. They hauled it up to the MIL room, unpacked it, installed the stand and placed the unit on the table. They suggested not to plug it in for a couple of hours to let it warm up. While they were supposed to haul away all the packing materials, they declined to do so. The Chromecast streaming unit showed up as well. We will enjoy learning what we can do with the new toys.

We had a hawk overseeing the progress today. No doubt protecting us from marauding squirrels. We're glad we did not cut down the Ash.

Guess what? The cable company did not call today as was promised. Not surprised, just frustrated.