2015 - We Begin Again!

Tomorrow starts the first full work week of 2015. We are very hopeful that we will make some good progress while the weather is kind to us. The forecast is dry all week with temperatures around freezing. Wednesday is the exception when, while still dry, the high is only supposed to reach 11⁰F. As mentioned before, we noticed a person in the alley early last week looking at the power pole and taking photos. Our assumption was, and still is, that this was an Ameren representative. We hope they will show up early this week to complete the power line relocation. We did not notice, until pointed out by a neighbor, that the underground utility locator has been back, marking the utility lines in the alley around the power pole. We are not sure who requested this latest survey since we should have completed all the digging needed for a while. That locator service probably does not need directions to find our house since they have been out so many times over the past few months.

What Is Not Started, Is Never Finished

It has been 10 days since our last post and 21 days since any physical work has been attempted in back yard. Last week, I did spend some time cleaning up the mess left by the electricians in the basement.

This past Monday (December 29), we did get a call from "Our" Mike saying he has been talking with Frank (HVAC) about our question of being able to fit the interior heat pump unit above the vaulted west gable. Mike intended to drop by on Tuesday to take some measurements so that they could finalize the answer. Mike also said he had some invoices to drop off. I also suggested we review the drawings and ensure we are all in agreement with respect to the plan for the sunroom trusses. I mentioned to Mike that I noticed a person in a reflective vest out in the alley Monday morning looking at and photographing the power pole. We assume this was a representative of Ameren, the power company, in preparation to route the power line through the new underground conduit. Mike reminded me that the original promise was to have this done within 28 days of when the application was submitted. My memory was that Mike originally told us 21 days, but his memory is better than mine (at least that is what he tells me). Anyway, that means they now can get it done the first week of 2015 and still be within that time frame. Of course Mike tells me that the work has to be coordinated with the electrical contract (Rob) who, up to now, has not been very responsive. If it is accomplished, it will at least be after our holiday guests have departed. Our daughter (Laura), and her family, have been visiting from Texas since Christmas.

Tuesday afternoon, Mike did arrive and we reviewed the drawings. We are in consensus that we will vault the west girder truss and the first truss next to it (the one that would form the "box" on the west gable). This is contingent on Mike getting a confirmation from Frank that the wall space above the vaulted truss will accommodate the interior heat pump unit. The other sunroom trusses will stay with Tyler's original non-vaulted design. Mike said a shipment of trusses was coming from the Jefferson City, MO truss company next week so that it was possible that our new gable trusses could be included in that shipment. If so, then once we get the power line moved, we should be ready to lift the trusses. Mike said he is still talking with the crane guy about bringing in a crane what can navigate down the alley.

During Mike's visit on Tuesday, he seemed very upbeat about getting back to work on the project. He did note that, for the most part, we have had very nice weather during December 2014. I agreed it was unfortunate we could not take advantage of this unseasonably nice weather. Maybe we will have a nice January as well. Once we get "under roof", the weather factor will diminish. He had three invoices for us, two from the lumber company and one from the electrician.

We also briefly discussed the option of the grade of pine to use on the interior roofing and the interior gable surfaces. T is willing to accept the No. 2 pine, while I would go with the Select grade. T said she would bow to my desires. Mike said he still had not determined the linear footage required, but I am still estimating 1,000 feet for the roof surface. I have not calculated the gable surfaces.

On New Year's Eve, we visited the granite store again. T wanted to get Laura's opinion on the material to use on the bar counter top. They took the sample of floor slate with them and they liked the Cambria "Buckingham" quartz. Not necessary to make a final decision yet and the lady in the shop said the company was coming out with new colors in mid-January.

Winter Solstice

Yesterday was the last full day of Autumn 2014. Today, in about an hour (5:03 CST), the Winter Solstice occurs. We've had about four inches of snow so far this season, all of it in November. December has been relatively mild. Forecast is for rain tomorrow, with mild weather through Christmas. It appears we will have no "white" Christmas this year.

Yesterday afternoon, Spenser and I were again enjoying our new connecting porch when a couple of Tyler's girls stopped by for a drink out of one of our backyard mud puddles. Perhaps they were fishing for shrimp.

I also found a piece of slate on the connecting porch. I assume this was left by the slate roofer in response to my request to be allowed to review and approve the slate they intended to use on both the sunroom and garage gables as well as to replace missing or damaged tiles on the main house. Their proposal specified this as a non-fading green slate attached with copper nails. T said she would call it a grey-green color and asked "why copper nails?". While the proposal does not specify the warranty, I assume it is probably 100+ years. While we will not be there in 100 years, the copper nails will be.

While T has the final call, I was concerned that it was not anywhere near the color of the slate we have on the main house. There are two questions to answer. First, will this slate on the gables of the new sunroom and garage coordinate with the main house? Second, is this slate acceptable to replace missing or damaged slate tiles on the main house?

I have several pieces of slate that have fallen off the house over the past 12 years. Here is a side-by-side with the proposed new slate. Spenser is waiting for his dinner, that is why he is showing interest.

This comparison does not look too bad, that is to me, being color blind. T indicated she would accept the proposed new slate on the gables of the new sunroom and garage. That answers the first question.

 I also took photos of the existing slate on the three sides of the main house.

West Gable

East Gable

North Gable

The east and west gables appear, to me, to be much lighter color. The north gable is a mixture, probably reflecting past tile replacements.

T has the final call and she is going to sleep on it. I am afraid we have plenty of time for her to consider the answer.

Weekend Wrap

No outside work was attempted this week. Next week is Christmas week and the weather is not forecast to be as nice as this week. Other than the update we got from "Our" Mike on Thursday and a short followup phone conversation Friday morning, no other news from him. We are still hopeful we might get the new power line installed before the end of the year, getting that behind us.

We did get a note from Tyler (architect) informing us that Mike had relayed to him our desire to see what the design of vaulted trusses in the sunroom might look like. He said he would come up with a "good looking" truss profile which could then be turned over to the truss manufacturer to be modified for structural requirements. Later, Tyler sent the following profile.

This looked pretty good to both T and myself. We would have to see if and/or how the truss manufacturer might modify it to achieve structural requirements. For comparison, below is the last rendition of the original truss. The new design still has the same basic concept, just slid up with the center point of the truss.

Along with the new profile, Tyler fulfilled his "obligation" to point out that he did not "think this will look as good as the original flat bottom profile of the trusses". He went on to observe that:

"By pushing up on the bottom chord, the truss will effectively disappear up against the ceiling.  The profile becomes very shallow, which is further exaggerated by the height and the angle of view from below.  When the bottoms are flat, then they hang down in the light of the glass roof vault to become highlighted for full view, which was the original intent.  It is a more interesting and rich layering of the design in my profession view."

I thanked Tyler for his opinion and told him we would take it into consideration in making our final decision. From his note, I am not sure what is his current opinion of vaulting the west gable trusses. Originally, he had them with a "flat bottom profile" and "wrapped" so that the view of the glass roof was partially blocked from the sunroom. How his original design contrasts with what he is saying now, that the flat bottom profile of the trusses would "hang down in the light of the glass roof vault", I am not sure, but it does not sound consistent.

We will ponder the issue over this weekend, but talking with T this morning, my new default position is to go with the vaulted trusses on the west gable, but keep the originally designed, non-vaulted, sunroom trusses. While T may have an epiphany at some point which would change my mind, she believes there is no wrong answer (which comforts me). She had held the belief that I had a strong inclination towards vaulting all the sunroom trusses. I reminded her that my suggestion for vaulting all the trusses was in response to the views presented by both "Our" Mike and Tyler that, if we vault the gable trusses to view the glass roof, the remaining sunroom trusses would still obscure the view of the glass roof. One solution therefore was to vault all the trusses. Otherwise, as I assured her, I only want the solution that she believes we will enjoy the most!

If anyone has any suggestions or comments on the truss design, we welcome it!!

On Friday, we did get over to the office of Bob (cabinetry) to pick up the sample of Sapele. Here, it is shown with the smaller sample of Tiger wood (for the hot tub decking) and the sunroom ceramic floor tile. T noted that the similarity and compatibility of the Sapele and the Tiger wood was the reason for choosing them. She claims the finish on the bar, made of Sapele, will give that windowless side of the room a "glow" and will be charming! T believes she has a very clear vision of all the surfaces in the sunroom and how they will all coordinate. I am very thankful to have her.

Update: Tyler just wrote to clarify that he is now supportive of vaulting the gable trusses as opposed to the original flat profile design. He still is not in favor of vaulting the remaining sunroom trusses. I have sent a note to Mike asking him to get with Frank (HVAC) to reaffirm that the interior unit of the heat pump can be mounted in the area on the west gable above the glass roof. If so, then the gable chapter of the truss drama is concluded. Only the sunroom truss mystery remains to be resolved.

Update Thursday

It was a week ago yesterday that "Our" Mike had anyone here working. Since then, no work. While it rained this past Monday, otherwise, the weather had been good.

Yesterday was a bright and brisk. Spenser and I spent some time sitting out on the new connecting porch. While I read and synthesized vitamin D, Spenser was entertained by Tyler's girls. Tyler and Elizabeth have five chicken hens who decided to check out the bugs along our west fence line. Spenser kept watch through our yet-to-be installed connecting porch door.

Yesterday, we got an email from Bob (cabinetry) telling us that he has obtained a sample of the Sapele wood that we can pick up to do some staining tests. I need to send a note to "Salesman" Mike (Marvin dealer) asking if we can get a representative sample of the window frame to include in our testing. We already have plenty of samples of truss wood.

This afternoon, we got a call from "Our" Mike with some updates. He said he had received cost quotes on replacing all the existing sunroom trusses with vaulted trusses. The quote was much lower than either Mike or I expected. I asked if he could send us a sketch of the vaulted truss design? He seemed surprised that Tyler had not given that to us, but said he would send it to us. I was surprised that Mike indicated that Tyler had designed the trusses since Tyler told us that the truss company would design them, not Tyler. Anyway, I told Mike that I was concerned about how "dense" the design had become and if we might run into an air flow issue. We had decided to mount the heat pump interior unit on the west gable above the glass roof. If the truss design gets too "dense", we might have an air flow problem. Mike did not believe that was going to be the case. We will see when we get the design. Mike said we could expect the new trusses in about a week after we place the order. Of course the holidays may impact that prediction.

Mike also said he had received prices on the 1x6 pine board options for the roof. He had brought us samples last week of two different grades, a #2 (top board in picture) and a "select" grade (bottom board). The price difference is roughly twice as much for the "select" grade. It is knot free and straight grain. The #2 grade can have knots up to 2" in diameter, but they should be "tight", with no holes. Since these boards will be stained, undoubtedly the knot-free boards will have a more uniform and formal appearance. The price information is on a linear foot basis. While Mike is going to determine the number of linear feet we would need, I had previously estimated we needed about 480 square feet. Therefore, I am guessing we would need roughly 1,050 linear feet. The price differential is $0.84/ft, so the cost of going with the select grade would be an additional $882. I think I would go with the "select" grade, but, T will make the final decision.

Mike had talked with Rob (electrical). The request to Ameren to relocate the power line to the new underground conduit was submitted on December 11. Ameren said they would have someone out within one to three weeks. That would put it by the end of the year, but again, with the holidays, we are not holding breaths. I forgot to tell Mike that I have taken down the telephone wire.

Yesterday, Mike forwarded to us a proposal (dated December 3) for the slate work. When I got the proposal, I responded that we would want to review and approve the slate to be used and the proposal needed to specify if it included repair of the slate on the main house that we had requested. Today, Mike said he was getting some slate samples for T to review and said he would have the proposal modified regarding the main house slate. From what Mike said, I do not believe the proposal included the repair work. I told Mike I do not want any more surprises and will no longer accept any assurances that are not in writing.

Mike also said he got a call from John (solar). John had promised us that he would continue checking with Mike. Mike said he suggested to John that he should check back in a couple of weeks. I doubt much will be different in a couple of weeks however.

I asked Mike if he expected to be back out to do more work before the end of the year. While he said he would like to, he made no promises. I am not holding out much hope that anything significant will take place between now and the end of the year, with the possible exception of may be getting the power line relocated. After the first of the new year, weather may have more influence than it has up to now.

Beautiful Friday

Sunny, mild, calm, dry. Perfect weather to be outside working. Unfortunately, no work in our backyard today.

We did get an email back from Tyler (architect) confirming the plans and dimensions for the interior fireplace hearth. In my note of thanks to Tyler I noted that due to the unexpected duration of this project and "the apparent number of inconsistencies, errors and omissions in the drawings", Mike is having to make a lot of judgement calls during the construction. I emphasized that we expected Tyler to be very diligent in keeping track of Mike's progress to ensure nothing is overlooked which might necessitate costly rework or result in a less-than-perfect final product. I do not anticipate this will change what Tyler was planning to do anyway, but I wanted to make our expectations clear...again. We've had three costly errors show up over the past two weeks. I believe theses are due in part to the less-than-accurate construction drawings and the amount of time that has elapsed (four months since we received the construction permit and nine months since we hired the architect).

I also got a confirmation from the fireplace vendor (Bobby) confirming the installation documentation we should be using. All this information has been passed on to Mike. No further word from Mike on truss designs or costs or on the cost of the pine roof boards.

The weather next week, last full work week of the year, is not forecast to be as nice as this week. High probability of rain on Monday.

Thursday Respite

No one showed up this morning to do any project work. Not surprised. We have had roughly 2-1/2 days of work this week, which is actually about average over the past four months. Unfortunately, it turns out that some of the work accomplished this week will have to be undone and/or redone due to a breakdown in communications. Don't know if there will be any more activity this week or not. The weather is supposed to remain good through the weekend.

I did go out and look at the work done by the cable company yesterday, hoping to acknowledge a job well done...finally! The job was not overly complicated and they finished almost all of it. The only thing they failed to do was to hook up the ground wire on their junction box located on the back of the house. In all fairness, this wire was probably cut by the electricians when they relocated the power meter over to the new meter box. There is a red tag on the ground wire cautioning that the cable company should be notified if the wire is removed. Why the cable guys did not reconnect it, I do not know. Obviously they considered it not worth their effort. "Our" Mike also told me that, as he was leaving yesterday evening, he asked the cable guys if they were going to remove the existing overhead cable after running the new cable through the underground conduit. The told him that if he would cut the overhead cable at the house, they would remove it back to the alley pole. Really?!?!? Mike cut the cable (snip!) for them, and they did pull the cable down. I guess they are not permitted to use sharp tools. I found the wire in the dumpster this morning, which I believe is illegal. We were not impressed at all with Charter Cable and doubt we will be a long term customer. I hope I have the opportunity to let them know what I think of their service. If they are smart (no indications of this yet), they will not ask for a review of their performance.

Disconnected Ground Wire

New Cable At Alley Pole

Yesterday "Our" Mike told us that the City had completed their electrical inspection and we are now ready for Ameren (power company) to come out and relocate their overhead power line to the underground conduit. Let's hope someone has so notified Ameren. Once that is accomplished, the overhead lines will no longer be an impediment to starting the truss installation. Mike says he still has some more work to do before the trusses can fly however and he is still trying to determine the best means of lifting the garage trusses into place. He said he found a crane that is adequate for the task and which is mounted on a truck small enough to navigate down the alley, but it is on another job over in Illinois. 

Not having any adult supervision in the backyard today, I decided to take down the telephone wire. It is coiled up and hanging on the alley pole.

Telephone line along west side of house

Coiled telephone line on alley pole

The only overhead line remaining is the power line.

An Einstein Moment and a Busy Day

Albert is given credit for this definition of insanity:

"Insanity: Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."

This morning I called the cable company for the fifth time in the past two weeks. Thus far, I have talked with Agents Adam, Eileen, Kay, Dee, Charmone and Supervisors Brian, Walter and Mike. This morning, I talked with Supervisor Mike's Supervisor, Eric. When I asked Eric who I would talk with next, assuming results of today's discussion will be similar to my previous results, he said the next level would be an Operations Director. I told Eric I hoped that would not be necessary.

I patiently went over the situation again with Eric, but explained to him that I felt I was reaching my Einstein moment. I also told him that, while shear incompetence is a potential explanation for their inability to execute our simple service request, I was starting to believe there might actually be an elaborate conspiracy afoot to lose our business. I suggested to Eric that it would be far easier to just tell us to "go away". Eric assured me that, despite all indications otherwise, they wanted to retain our business. If so, then I must conclude that we have indeed struck a rich vein (the Mother Load) of incompetence within their organization.

As always, Eric was very pleasant, calm and sympathetic. I give this company credit for training their people on how to remain calm with irate customers. He said he is located in Florida and would personally call me back with a status report before the end of today (4pm CST). In turn, I explained to Eric, as I did to Walter yesterday, that we are getting close to the point at which this issue will become a delay to our project. When that happens, I will cut their cable.

"Our" Mike and Nate are in the back yard this morning and Matt (electrical) is again in the basement. The weather is brisk and I noticed a few snow flurries during my walk this morning with Spenser. Mike and Nate are spending the day building up five layers of 2x4 on top of the hot tub bay window framing, on top of which, the new glass window will be positioned. It looks very stout indeed. Mike pointed out that the end of each member is beveled so as to overlap, providing a solid foundation for the glass roof structure. We found out later that they were going to have to remove two or three of these layers. Apparently Tyler had notified Mike of this back in September, but that information was forgotten. That is another problem with how long this project has stretched out.

I took a few minutes this morning to modify a sectional drawing of the sunroom to reflect the possibility of vaulting all the trusses to conform to the glass roof contour. When I brought this up to T yesterday, she was skeptical. When I suggested it to Tyler yesterday when I talked with him, he was definitely against the idea. Therefore, with this encouragement, I decided to see how the drawings would look if we went forward. The first drawing below is how the glass roof will appear with the current truss design. The second drawing is the view of the glass roof with a vaulted truss design. The exact design of the vaulted trusses is not known at this time.

Current Sunroom Trust Design

A Vaulted Sunroom Truss Design Approach

While I was working on these drawings, T informed me that, upon overnight consideration of my suggestion of making all the sunroom trusses vaulted, she is now of an opinion that this approach has merits and may indeed be the correct answer. I showed her my drawings and she suggested we ask "Our" Mike to stop by and talk us before he leaves for the day. When I later approached Mike, he said that he had given Tyler the new design for the girder truss this morning (presumably, designed by the truss company). While there may not be a wrong answer as to which truss design to use, it was absolutely wrong that the promise to explore this issue was not addressed prior to the trusses being fabricated. If we go the direction of a vaulted truss, and the existing trusses are abandoned, it will represent a significant waste of time and money, and an issue I will bring to Tyler's attention.

Matt ran out of supplies and left shortly after noon. He did get the new 240V recepticle moved to the west wall for the dryer. T is very happy and, therefore, so am I. Matt said he was not certain when he would return.

It was about 1500 hours when the main surprise of the day occurred. A cable company truck drove up and a man came to the door saying he was here to reroute the cable. This evening, it has been done. I will inspect it in the morning before announcing a successful end to this unbelievably stupid drama.

Mike stopped by as requested to talk about the trusses. We reviewed the drawings I put together and debated whether we should vault all, some or none of the sunroom trusses. It became apparent that the main resistance to vaulting all of the trusses stemmed from not wanting to waste the ones that we have already had fabricated. Once we got beyond that concern, it was easy to reach a consensus to replace them all. Yes, we should have had this discussion prior to fabricating the trusses. This was what T and I believe we had all agreed upon four months ago. Yes, it will cost us several thousands more to replace them all. Mike is going to have the truss company work up the designs and get a cost quote, but I have little doubt we will replace them all. This evening, Tyler sent out dimensions of the new vaulted girder truss. I sent him a note telling him that we expected to replace the others with vaulted trusses as well.

While Mike was here, I asked him if he was aware of the interior hearth that we wanted on the fireplace. Based on what I am seeing out there, it was not clear to me that he was. Indeed, he was not and said he would have to modify the framing once he gets the dimensions. A couple of drawings show a hearth and other drawings do not. No where is it specified or detailed. I sent a note to Tyler for details.

Tuesday Tuesday

We got an email from "Our" Mike this morning with the latest Lincoln door/window quote attached. It looked OK except that the doors were listed as "in-swing" and did not specify either right-hand or left-hand. I replied and quoted the note I sent to Mike last night, specifying right-hand out-swung doors.

I called the cable company this morning. I asked Dee, who first came on the phone, to talk with her supervisor. After about five minutes, Walter came on and addressed me by name. I went through the whole mess with him again. In the end, trying to keep it as simple as possible, I told him that if the construction is stopped due to their cable, I will cut the cable line, throw it into the street and cancel service. Walter said he understood and would get back with me today. Why should I have any doubts???

This morning, we have the usual cast of carpenters ("Our" Mike, Nate, "Little" Mike) in the back and the electricians Josh and Matt (his new helper) in the basement. I asked Josh about the power outage Mike mentioned yesterday. Josh predicted he would cut the power around 1000 hours, with it being off for a couple of hours. Sounds like we will go out for brunch today.

"Our" Mike left around 0900. I call him shortly thereafter and confirmed he got my email about the swing of the garage doors. He said he did and forwarded the note on to the Lincoln dealer.

Nate and "Little" Mike left shortly after 1000 hours this morning. Don't know what they accomplished, but they were done for the day. Don't know when they will be back.

Without notice, Josh cut the power off at 0945 hours. Thanks! We left the house around 1030 hours and had lunch at Molly's, one of our favorite Cajun bars in Soulard. Their oysters on the half-shell were delicious! After brunch and going to the store, we got home around 1300 hours, expecting the power to be restored. It was not back on until about 1415 hours. But, the new meter box is in place, the old one is gone and the new breaker panel is install in the basement. The inspection by the City is expected tomorrow. Then we will await Ameren (utility) to pull the new power line. Matt will be back tomorrow to install the new 240V outlet for the dryer.

During lunch, we got an email from Tyler (architect). He said that "Our" Mike had talked with the truss company and they could design and fabricate a vaulted girder truss which would conform to the contour of the glass roof for a "relatively small" additional cost. Tyler asked us for permission to accept the offer and for him to work with them on the details. He got our permission plus a comment that it was what we had requested four months ago. I also asked if the trusses already built could be modified to the new configuration? Tyler responded that it would be cheaper just to waste the ones we had and build new ones (guess who pays for the ones we will not use). Later, I called Tyler and we chatted about this. He said he was surprised at the ease and "relative low cost" of this vaulted truss design. I commented it was unfortunate that this option was not explored, as we were promised it would be, prior to having the trusses built. He agreed it was unfortunate. I am sure he is not too upset since it isn't his money that was wasted! I also told him that I had suggested to T that we could consider modification of all the other sunroom trusses to have the same vaulted configuration. This would address essentially all of the aesthetic drawbacks Tyler had brought up in regards to changing the girder truss to a vaulted design, i.e., the inconsistency with the other trusses. While he acknowledged this, Tyler said he was not in favor of changing the design of the other trusses. He thought it would look better to have those trusses retain their original design. I am leaving the decision to T as I no longer have much faith in Tyler's opinion or judgement. If I see him tomorrow, I might ask "Our" Mike his opinion. I have not lost confidence in his judgement.

At the end of the day, no call back from the cable company! What a surprise!!! Tomorrow I call AT&T about new internet and TV service. Enough is enough.

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.