MORE STAIRS

I finished installing the balusters on the stirs and it sure made a big difference in the appearance. As is not uncommon, I ran into somewhat of a snag. Without going into all the ugly details, I had to cut the balusters to length with part of it coming off the top and part of it off the bottom. Many tasks are simplified with jigs and/or fixtures and this one was no exception. I built a simple jig to hold the balusters so that I could make the cuts. I used a thin cutoff wheel in my 4" grinder and it proved to be the ideal tool for making these cuts.

Remember that tangle of wires that I showed pics of when we were framing? Earlier this week, I cut a hole in the closet wall and exposed all of the wiring. My main objective was to get access to the wires for the smoke detectors since these need to be operational for the inspection. After we are moved in, I will deal with the security portion of the system. Shown below is a shot of the control panel and the collection of wires. Although it had been 25 years since I last installed a fire/security system, everything started coming back to me and the installation and startup when smoothly.

Yesterday we had final inspection for the plumbing and we finally have running water, operating toilets, hot water and other amenities. Even though we have sump pit, I was hoping that we would not be required to equip it with a pump. That might sould strange but the main reason I wanted a sump pit was in case I ever need to install radon mitigation. The fact is it will probably never see a drop of water from the footer drain. Well, the plumbing inspector said that I have to drain the water heater pan to the sump and thus I need to also have a pump installed. This despite the fact that the only way the pump would ever need to operate would be if the water heater leaks or if the pressure relief valve was to actuate.
Since I will have a pump in the sump pit I will now run the softener drain to the sump as well rather than to the sewer pit.The good news is that the inspector will allow us to move in even though this work is not complete.

Speaking of moving in, we have the final inspection for the other items (i.e. electrical, HVAC, etc) scheduled for this coming Tuesday and have the movers scheduled for the 7th. We're keeping our fingers crossed that there are no surprises Tuesday and that we can proceed as scheduled.

Today I set the door between the utility room and hallway. Since there was so much traffic through this doorway, I decided to leave it till this point in time. Tomorrow I will be working on some baseboard that had been left undone because adjacent items such as the stairs and aforementioned door had not been installed. The electrician will be finishing up the last items on his list over the next day or two so that we will be ready on Tuesday.

GETTING CLOSER

I know, I know....it's been forever since I have posted. My recent time has been spent finishing the stairway. This is undoubtedly the most challenging of the jobs I have chosen tackle. In order to get the newels mounted solidly, I installed heavy oak boards in the holllow portion of the newel and extending out of the bottom. The oak was then mounted to the rough framing below the floor. Consequently, the newels are rock solid and all of the fastening takes place below floor level and out of sight. For the upper newel, I even removed a portion of the HVAC sheet metal so that I could gain acess to a beam to which I lag screwed the oak extension. Cutting the handrail and getting the angles and length correct is somewaht nerve wracking. I tend to measure often before making a cut. Since all the parts were stained ahead of time, matters are complicated if you have to scrap a piece because of a mis-cut. I am happy to report that everything came together nicely and most of the joints are pretty decent. In order to provide a durable stairs, we used maple for the treads while all else is poplar. All the other woodwork in the house is poplar so sticking with poplar on the stairs made sense. Cutting the treads was also a bit tedious. Since the stairs is closed on both sides, the treads need to be cut precisely to butt up tight against the skirt board. Due to slight variations, none of the ends are exactly 90 degrees so I made a simple gage to measure each tread and then transcribed those measurements to the tread itself before cutting. This approach worked well and saved me the cost of buying an expensive "store bought:" gage that I would only use once. Oh, I also spent $60 on a brand new blade for my radial arm saw and that proved to be a smart move as well. I now have to install the iron balusters on the stairs and will be finished. Ran into a little hiccup on that phase which I will not get into at this point.... I am expecting the security panel and smoke detectors that I ordered on-line to arrive soon. Once I have those installed and the plumber and electrician spend 2 or 3 days finishing up, we should be ready for final inspection. I am shooting for getting approval for occupancy by September 30th.