Actual Progress

I'm going to do something I don't like to do. I'm going to tell you what I'm about to do  instead of waiting until I've finished. Too many people are begging me to post something on this here blog here, and I've been meaning to for a while anyway, so here goes.

Mario has given over the running of the addition project to his second-in-command, Nick. Nick has been coming through fairly well. I feel like I got the ball rolling by contacting some insulation contractors and getting bids. They came in and did a pretty good job. Got right to business and were generous in the amount of foam they applied. I emptied three cans of foam into little places they missed or that pulled away from the studs. Their chemical, Isinene, I think, expands and hardens within seconds of being sprayed on, but if the surfaces are too dirty, the foam can pull away as it does its almost immediate 1% shrink. It's impressive to watch. The photo shows the guy holding a pipe in place so the foam won't bend it out as it expands.

The next weekend I laid out the pattern for the radiant heat tubes, and Nick's guys came in and fastened it all to the floor, under my direction, sort of.  The picture shows the two main loops. They have to be shorter than 300 feet (or the water will get too cool to do much good by the time it reaches the end of the loop), so that meant two loops for the main, L-shaped room. Martin, the best neighbor in the world, and I tweaked the layout until the loops were equal. The bathroom has a smaller, third loop, and the tubing is spaced closer together there, too, so the room can warm up quickly.



The next day or so the cement truck came and poured two inches all over the floor. I forgot to make sure there was a slope to the shower drain. We told them too long ago, I guess, but we'll be able to make that up when we tile. Anyway, we have a smooth, flat floor. The boards on the floor in the picture are so the cement-laden wheelbarrow doesn't crush the tubing. The boss contractor wanted to put up the drywall before we did any of the floor so we wouldn't damage the tubing by dropping screws. I talked him into doing the floor first (signed a release) to protect the walls from the concrete. Martin's comment: "What! That much concrete will stop a bullet!"


This week the drywall guys came in, got right to work, did the job without any monkeying around, and by yesterday the final sanding was done. We talked the finisher/sander to join us for lasagna. Nice guy.

You can find lots more photos of the project on my Picasa site.

This morning Val bought $500 worth of paint (ouch) and applied most of the primer. I have lots more news to report, some of it rather dramatic, but now I'm going to go finish the priming.