Holidays Work

Hi friends. We had a great vacation in Utah just before Christmas. It rained a lot right before we returned, and our flight was cancelled at the last minute. We got on the phone (at midnight, no less) and two hours later had arranged to fly into Nashville and rent a car. We were happy to get back on time because I had to work Monday and we got to attend my grandparents 70th wedding anniversary party!

However, when Levi went to work Monday, here is what he found in the basement:

8 inches of standing water! Apparently our sump pump had gotten clogged up and stopped working. Levi took it back to Lowes and demanded they replace it, which they did, even though it was outside the warranty period. Yes!

Work has been slow through the holidays, as it should be!  Levi cut a piece for his table saw to hold the wood flat. 

 Then he ripped down the oak joists to size so they are ready to be hung in the back of the house. We also found some unfinished oak flooring to be the subfloor which you will see from below, obtained from our friends at Goodman Lumber.

Before cutting, the oak is lots of different sizes

Levi has wired the electric for the entire upstairs and is working on the downstairs. We were using this wood as a step, so that when you looked down you saw the depths of the crawlspace. Thankfully Levi built two stairs to replace the landing we tore out. 

We are trying to decide what to do with our stairrail. We can replicate the existing rail for the missing side, or replace with something more modern. 

I love the look of this metal stair rail.  Finding someone to fabricate this in Paducah is proving to be problematic. Anybody know anyone?

Our new window glass for the upstairs windows came, and we are halfway through glazing the windows. This involves placing the glass in the window, securing it with little metal triangle points, and placing a putty called glazing around the edges. This will dry for two weeks and then we can install the windows. 

With the upstairs windows being well on their way, we turned our attention to the downstairs. It is a little disheartening to look at, but the guys started scraping and we are slowly making progress. 

 For now, we have battened down the hatches in anticipation of another snow storm. We are hoping for a weather window next week so Levi can hang the joists, lay the subfloor, and build the upstairs walls and roof. After that, the initial rough inspection can be done.

We did take a break to go to a party on New Years Eve! We went to the Snowball, an annual NYE party put on by the Charity League. We wore the same outfits as last year. We took New Years Day off!