It's taken a while for my energy to return after my Covid-19 adventure that started New Year's Eve. Last weekend I had a lowlands punch list to work on (Replaced the kitchen faucet and the front door handle).
This week we drove up to KnArrow Haus Monday evening. Since I'm working during the day, I resolved to check off at least one box each day on the long punch between me and a KnArrow Haus finish line.
Tuesday
Main floor heat: We've noticed that the entry/mudroom is cold. All the heat is in-floor electric and floor is cold, so I cracked open the main floor thermostat box to check the wiring (after turning off the circuit breakers.) After some head scratching and a phone consult to the master electrician at Pure Power, it appears there's a short somewhere in the first run of wiring that covers that part of the floor.
Really unfortunate. I know I checked the resistance when we first laid down all the wiring last Fall, but clearly something has happened between then, pouring concrete, drywalling, and now. I'm exploring options for a low-profile convection wall heater to bring the entry and toilet room up to temperature.
Wednesday
Snow track tension: Schneewagen's back tracks haven't been tightened since they were installed at the beginning of last year's snow season. The bolts were torqued down, and the crescent wrench I had available was going to strip the bolts. I keep the socket set in my car, but we drove up in Katie's car.Thankfully, my neighbor up the road graciously loaned me his socket set, and I was able to get the tracks tightened up over the lunch hour.
and pouring hot water to melt snow and ice.
Sliding door locks: We have sliding doors on both of the upstairs bathrooms. I installed the locks after dinner.
Thursday
Towel bar prep: We're using black pipe for the towel bars and coat racks. The problem with black pipe is it comes with a coat of oily, greasy gunk. Not something you want on your hands or towels. I used a citrus paint stripper to clean all of the pipes and fittings. I'll let everything dry thoroughly overnight before applying a coat of wax and assembling.
Friday
More work on the towel bars. I wiped then down, then applied a coat of wax, and assembled them. Realized I need some end caps for a couple of the bars to keep the hooks on. And of course, I don't have any of the screws to mount them to the walls. But at least I know what I need to still get now.
The sideboard has become our temporary project bench for the punch list.
I'm really pleased with the deal I got on the hook racks. Those rigging hooks are normally $8 to $9 a piece, and I found about 30 of them on clearance at Grainger for $1.27 a piece on clearance. A little iron pipe from HomeDepot and the project was complete.
Saturday
Installed a new "smart" door knob. Up here in bear country, we need to avoid door levers on outside doors, as bears don't have to be very smart to gain entry if the handles unlocked (...when we're here!) I found these round door knobs after some research. It shouldn't have been quite as big a project to install them as it was -- when I took everything out of the box, I dissambled the inside knob a little more than I needed to. When I sent to install things, it wasn't quite working out, and it took me a while and a few restarts to get it all back together.
After getting everything installed, I programmed it with my fingerprints and a code. But when Katie went out the door Sunday morning, she wasn't able to get back in -- I had to get out of bed to let her in. There's a "passage mode" that keeps the door unlocked for an extended period of time, but it only works for a single day, not for multiple days.
After I get the kinks worked out with the door knob, I'll install the other unit on the downstairs back door.
Sunday
As a low-key, sabbath activity, I installed the WiFi hub for the door knob so that I can access it remotely in order to let someone in when I'm not here. Probably need to switch out the deadbolt now so that I can do the same with it -- the current deadbolts only support a keyed-in code, no remote access.
We've received 4 feet of snow this week while I've been here, over 10" just last night. The base is now over 100".
