4 Appliances Enter. 1 Appliance Stays.

A.L. arrived with 4 appliances about 4 pm today. The dryer wouldn't even power on. The washing machine's drain hose leaked ALL OVER the utility room floor. When they were installing the oven/range the cracked the glass top. Only the refrigerator was successfully installed and running. They took the other 3 appliances back. Frustrating.

The refrigerator was succesfully installed. 

The installers cracked the glass top on the range.
The washer and dryer were D.O.A.

I installed all the outlets installed in the basement kitchenette; had to troubleshoot and found that a neutral hadn't gotten tied in -- quickly rectified. Installed the mini-fridge in the cabinet. At leasy *my* appliance install went ok.

The basement kitchenette.
(The green tape marks the studs for upcoming floating shelves.)

Spent a goodly portion of the day with my son-in-law, Colin, getting the stair and landing railing in place and ready for stainless steel cable. 

Call installing the bottom stair railing post.

Need one more post for the stairway. Complete success with the main floor railing. And installed the railing on the top floor landing (but forgot to take a picture.)

Main floor railing in place, now waiting for stainless steel cabling.

Countertops Arrive

Katie met the countertop fabricators on Tuesday to install the quartz countertops in the kitchen and downstairs kitchenette. I went up Thursday evening to install the faucets, disposal and drains.

Countertop installers in the kitchen.

Kitchen countertops installed.

Faucet, garbage disposal with countertop switch, and drain installed.

Downstairs kitchenette countertops installed.

Kitchenette faucet and drain installed.

Finished up about 11:30 PM. Now I just need to caulk the sink-countertop joint.

Finish Electrical Progressing

A couple weeks ago we got the help of a good friend (and master elecrician) for a day to help sort out a bunch of finish electrical details. He got our electric hotwater heater heater hooked-up: three 50-Amp circuits to power this bad boy. Of course I was short a couple 3/4" PEX fittings so we couldn't fire it up that day.

Electric hot water heater installed.

He installed all the electrical boxes, including the hot tub circuit breaker, on the exterior near the doors.

Hot tub circuit breaker.

Back door outlet.

Garage door outlet.

He also got most of our switches hooked-up, and I've been tucking them in and installing faceplates. (Sorry, no pics.)

Prior to his arrival Katie and Sylvie had been installing power outlets on the top floor. When he arrived, he caught that our outlets were not "tamper resistant", which is now code. So Katie had to uninstall them all and put in new ones. And of course, I accidentally purchased almond colored ones instead of white, so it took a while to get back on the right track.

Katie installing outlets in the basement (with the circuit breaker off).

White double and single outlets on drywall.

Black outlets on wood walls.

We also had to find a couple rough-ins burried beneath the drywall -- a light rough-in, and stairwell switch, and a dryer vent.  Thankfully, Katie video'd everything last year before the drywallers showed up. (But we still haven't found the lost light switch rough-in....)

Screenshot of Katie's video showing the sconce rough-in we needed to find.

Finding the dryer vent proved more difficult. I ended up cutting a larger rectangle to allow me to fish around for it. Turns out the insulation contractors covered it up and we didn't notice before the drywallers showed up.

It's painful to cut a big hole in pristine, painted drywall.

The dryer vent is now showing with the first patch drywall patch around it.

Labor Day Drains

When I test fit the garbage disposal last week, I discovered that my kitchen sink drain rough in was about an inch too high. If you look online, all the guidance says "between 18 and 22 inches off the floor."  Mine was set at 18. Still too high.  <huge grumble> <heavy sigh>

I spent Labor Day under the kitchen sink mustering the courage to cut in to a perfectly good drain pipe. I purchasd a bunch of different fittings at BigBox to give myself options. I was wanting to install a rigid ABS tee, but trying to fit a rigid drain tee between two immovable pipes on both ends was going to be more heartache than I was willing to bear. I ended up with a rubber tee secured with hose clamps on both ends to retrofit the new rough-in directly below the old one. 

Kitchen sink drain test fit

The downstairs kitchenette was much simpler, but it also does not have a disposal.

Kitchennette P-trap set and ready to receive the drain.

I test fit both P-traps, but then set them aside to hook-up after the kitchen countertops are in.  The countertops were supposed to be installed on Labor Day; then they rescheduled to Wednesday; then the called this morning to inform me that the satin/matte finish quartz we ordered was not stocked locally, so it's going to be another 7 to 10 days before that arrives. So it's looking like countertops will be in more like mid-month.

Dinner at 59-er Diner, then a 2+ hour drive home over Hwy 2 in holiday weekend traffic.

Templates, Pipes and Porches.

On Tuesday morning, I met three different contractors at KnArrow Haus. The loan inspector verified our construction draw. Another measured for the shower glass door and surround. And the countertop contractor templated for both our counter tops. The glass will be installed mid-month, but the countertops are going in the morning of Labor Day.

I took Friday off work, and spent the day installing the final final and vent pipes on the main floor.  It's always a bit sobering when you're drilling a 6 inch hole in a wall, especially an exterior wall. Check for studs. Measure offsets. Check for studs again. Measure some more. Mark the spot. Think everything through once more. Then go for it. The 6 inch hole saw generates an incredible amount of dust.

The vent pipe extending from the bathroom in to the mudroom.

Pipe in to mudroom on the right, to exterior on the left.

The final vent cap through the side wall, amply caulked. 

With the vent cap on the outside weatherproofed, that should be the last time I need to go up a tall ladder on to the side of the house.

I chickened out running the vent pipe through the mudroom wall in to the kitchen for the vent hood, mostly because I was tired. I don't think straight when I'm tired. I also needed an 8"-to-6" adapter for the ood. And I'm slightly perplexed by the wiring in the vent hood -- so I want to get that straight before drilling through that wall. Next week.

I got everything cleaned-up, then went and grabbed dinner at the 59er Diner, fifteen minutes down Highway 2 towards Leavenworth, at the turnoff to Lake Wenatchee. Club sandwich, onions rings, ice water. (Their onion rings are above average.)

Norm arrived about 7PM bearing gifts. 

• Angle iron: Earlier in the week I ordered a bunch of 2" angle iron to complete the posts and railing on the stairs and uppper and lower landings. One of the pieces was 18 feet long, a little too much for my mid-size SUV. Also an 11 foot piece for the upper landing, an 8 foot piece for the main level railing, and five 4 foot pieces for the posts on the stairs.
• A custom metal post to support the left side of the front porch. 
• A super-custom rod (with chain, bracket and angle-iron brace) to support the cantilevered right side of the porch.

It's pretty delightful to watch an experienced craftsman at work. I lended a little bit of "hold-this" assistance, a couple tools, and moral support. 

Angled post supporting the left side of the front porch.

Norm cutting some of the deck flashing to fit the angle iron support post underneath the front of the porch.

Four inch angle iron supporting the front of the deck with ample SDS bolts.

Minor surgery on the angle deck post to receive the rod and bracket.

The victorious result: A beautiful cantilevered front porch without an temporary support timbers.  

Norm and I spent a few minutes admiring his handywork. Love the result. So clean. So cool. We pulled out about 10 PM. 

I was burned out on Saturday. We arrived during the noon hour. My objective for the day was to prepare for the kitchen counter install on Monday.  

I discovered pretty quickly that my kitchen sink drain rough-in is about 1" too high for the disposal. (UGH!)  I'm going to have to retrofit a drain -- not very fun working under a sink cabinet, and work I was not planning to do.

I mounted the drain in the downstairs, kitchenette sink, and made sure all the cabinets were screwed together with recessed screws. Katie and crew finished wiring the electrical sockets on the top floor. Our final task was loading cardboard and garbage in the back of my SUV to bring home and dispose of. 

A final stop at Ezell's for some dark meat, spicy chicken with cajun fries, mashed potatoes and gravy, and bakes beans completed the day.

Stay tuned for quartz counterops arriving Monday.