WALLS CLOSING IN

The drywall hangers finished their work last Saturday so their are no more shortcuts through the stud wall when walking around the house. Needless to say, it really took a giant leap towards looking like a finished house.

One of the hangers was named Keith and both Barb and I agreed that he reminded us of my brother Keith. Built somewhat the same...and when he backed up to the corner of a stud wall to scratch his back as Keith Batty was prone to do, the similarity was really evident!

KEITH THE DRYWALL HANGER

HANGING DRYWALL CREATES A

MASSIVE MESS

I finally hung the mahogany front door a couple days ago. The place where I purchased the door had given me the incorrect dimensions for the rough opening. I knew about this the day I picked up the door but had some degree of confidence that it would still fit without reworking the opening.

As it turns out, I was able to wiggle it in with little room to spare. I didn't use any shims in either jamb and am not sure there was enough space to get them in anyway. I like to set entry doors with screws rather than nails so I don't think the door will move at all. The advantage of using screws is that if you ever need to make jamb adjustments it's much easier. We will just use nail hole filler matched to the stain and cover the screw heads so it won't even be noticed.

FRONT DOOR IN PLACE

Earlier this week I installed the entry door between the garage and laundry room and yesterday I set the one between my workshop and the living area of the basement. I still have to install the entry door from the outside entry to the workshop and the outside entry to the garage.

Yesterday, Jon Pothast came out and blew the attic insulation. So, the house is about as tight as it is going to get at this point, except for the workshop and garage. This should make it much easier to heat so that the drywall mud will dry properly. Hopefully, that crew will be able to start next week.

I will probably be picking up the overhead garage doors on Tuesday and working on installing them. All the exterior trim was delivered yesterday and we plan to apply at least one coat of paint before it gets installed. Since we will do that work in the garage, it will be cramped quarters in there for a few days. Once the overhead doors are in place, we should be able to heat both the garage and workshop with my kerosene heater without any problem.