Just a short one today, trying to get back in the swing of making some more posts. Its been a real busy time lately and I have fallen behind. My father and I hung this door together in advance of the coming winter. We purchased a Marvin door which we got a great discount on. It was a bit of a tricky installation as the opening was not exactly square but we think it came out just perfect. 
New Pipe
The plumbers loaded in all the black pipe as they have completed most of the piping demolition. We have decided to go with American made Charlotte pipe with no hub fittings. While you can find significant savings using the cheaper Chinese made piping, it is often of inferior quality and will ultimately cost more money in the long run as it generally does not meet the rigorous ASTM standards. It is more prone to cracks and dimensional inconsistency.
Looking forward to seeing the plumbing work get completed.
Old Plumbing
There was a pile of old plumbing in our building much of which could not be seen when we purchased the property. At some point long ago, somebody did some random plumbing renovations and judging by the decay in the cast iron pipe it was some 80 – 100 years ago. In the corner of one of the bedrooms there portion of sewer pipe that was boxed out by drywall. When we opened the drywall to access the pipe to do some demolition we were shocked to realize that the sewer gases had not been venting to the exterior as they should, but because of a large crack they were simply venting into the interior wall cavity.
This is the image below of cracked sewer pipe leaking sewer gases into the interior wall cavity of the building. It is almost as if it collapsed and I am surprised that none of the black water actually leaked into the walls. Totally gross. I love this image because it is a great example of the problems that are often hidden in the walls of old buildings and what to be wary of when making a purchase…
Thankfully we are replacing all the existing plumbing with new cast iron pipe and we should be good for another 100 years…
Some Days Chicken, Some Days Feathers
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…
Framing
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…
