The parlor has really become the material receptacle for all the contractors working on the job site these days.  Every morning there is quite a bit of hustle and conversation in this room about the goals and tasks for the remainder of the day…

Last week was a bit slow with all the snow that we received.  There were a lot of half days and not as much was accomplished as we would have liked.  As my father likes to say, some days chicken and some days feathers.  Unfortunately it looks like there was a lot of feathers last week and not much chicken.  There is a pace and a rhythm to a good job site and you need to recognize when you need to put your foot on the gas and when you need to brake in order to accelerate through the corner…

Pretty excited about this… They framed up our first wall last week and I have to say it looks pretty straight.  I am optimistic about these guys being able to pull this off…

Every renovation runs into budgetary constraints, but there are plenty of tricks to either shrink the budget or find a little extra bread if you are determined enough.  When I was a kid my father who was a contractor used to send my brother, a fellow by the name of chunk and myself to do the demolition on buildings before the fancy carpenters started construction.  At some point in the process he would send us to the scrappers to recycle the metal we had pulled from the building.

We harvested this copper from our building, primarily from the heating system, kitchens and bathrooms that are being demolished. It may not look like much, but it is about 180 pounds of copper.

The metal mongers currently pay about $2.30 per pound for copper, which is about $414. They pay cash. That is 2 new toilets that I don’t have to buy. Bonus.

Just be careful, when you go, I took this photo inside the yard and immediately a group of burly looking Irish men came out and started yelling at me… Who knows.