McHugh/Gant Hangar House

Day 496 - Wood Stove Installation

Wednesday, November 1 -- A lot went on today. There was not a moment for anyone to sit back and take a breather. The biggest event of the day was the installation of the wood stove--the last item on our final inspection fix-it list.

First, we put the slab in place, then the stove--after taking off every removable piece to lighten the load. Kelli and John helped Dave assemble the stovepipe and set it in place. The stovepipe length is over 17 feet high. As you see in the last picture, the 45 degree offset doesn't cut too much into the window view.

For those of you new to this saga, the stovepipe had to be offset because directly above the wood stove is a valley in the roof. The chimney location that you see in these pictures is the closest that we could get the chimney to the stove and still be within building code...

While Dave was up on the scaffolding, he took the final pieces of plastic off of the center window and balanced the large ceiling fan...

It was a very busy day onsite with the Rieke crew, painters, cabinet woodsmith, and glass company all working inside together...

Gary, Gary, Lance, and Richard worked on finish paint. A little bit of exterior painting got done in between rain showers. Most of the day, the crew was walking around in "socking" feet :-)...

John grouted the south wall tile so that the painters can get into the area tomorrow. I forgot an end-of-day photo of the new tile installation...

Rick and Dave started the day by framing for the garage apron. Rick laid and tied the rebar...

Just as it started to rain this morning, Phil brought over 10 yards of 5/8" crushed rock for the "party parking area." Dave used the skid loader to spread out the pile and Kelli raked the gravel around the edges. Phil then brought over another 10 yards and made a run to Callahan (on the over side of Scott Mountain) for another 11 yards. We will use the gravel for the driveway--after the concrete pour on Monday--and elsewhere on the site to cover the mud in the walking areas...

Our site wasn't the only place on the street buzzing with activity today. A couple houses down the water company was replacing a fire hydrant that was taken out last week...

Nicolet Glass came up to install our glass shower enclosure in the first floor bathroom and a glass wall in the master bath. They also brought up the large framed mirror for the guest bathroom. Dave worked with them to drill three holes in the mirror in order to install the vanity light on the mirror surface.

One hiccup was that a beveled edge in shower enclosure got chipped. So, a new piece has to come up. The silver lining is that they can bring up the mirror backsplash for the wet bar and install it, not us...

Scott came up to do some final touches to our cabinet work, but he wasn't given the wood pieces to fix our column tops. He did fix a number of smaller items--our refrigerator door opens completely now, the ice maker door opens the correct direction, trim strips are installed in the first floor bath, and we have filler strips need to complete the installation of the dishwasher and trash compactor. So, Scott will have to make another trip back.

Whew.