Miscellaneous Project Week

As the heat of summer continues, I took a few days to work on several separate projects to setup work to be done in the fall.

First up I had to take care of a plumbing infrastructure item because there was an immediate issue. When the contractor put in the new plumbing drain to the septic, they put in a temporary vent stack to vent sewer gasses. Here’s what that looked like:

This was put here as a temporary solution because I’d ultimately like to run this vent up an inside wall and through the roof. However, that wall doesn’t yet exist, so we needed a temporary solution. And since it was temporary, they just used the leftover materials they had, resulting in a open vent right under a window. With that window open, sewer gas came back into the house. Yuck!

Since it will be awhile before the interior wall is framed and I might leave this in the current location anyway, I completed a potential permanent solution. And since the materials cost less than $20 and it took me about an hour, no big deal if I remove it later. Here’s the final vent stack:

It’s worth noting that this assures the vent is above the roof edge and also adds a 90° bend to the top of the vent to assure that rainwater doesn’t enter into the system.

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Next up, “Greenboard”

The next project was to put in a couple of pieces of Greenboard, which is effectively water resistant drywall. This is used in damp locations like bathrooms to assure that the drywall doesn’t grow mold and/or rot. It is not waterproof and isn’t designed for use in full wet locations like showers and tubs – those will get cementboard.

The first piece of Greenboard was needed behind the existing toilet in the new bathroom. I wanted to get this installed sooner than later because the vanity we’re installing in that bathroom is wall-mounted and this assures that I’ve got the right clearance needed when installing that. And I’d like to install that soon so I can start having some running water! I put a quick shelf in here using some scrap wood as well.

The second piece is for the mudroom where the plumbing manifold was installed and the tankless hot water heater will be mounted later. This is on an exterior wall, so I needed to put in the fiberglass insulation as well to complete this wall section. Thankfully, there isn’t any electrical being run in this section, so closing up this wall now makes sense.

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And now for some aesthetic efforts – exterior paint!

I also took the time to get started on the exterior paint. This will be a project that takes multiple days, and needs to get done sooner than later to assure all the building materials are protected from the weather. I also wanted to get a section complete to show Tracy the colors we selected so we can make any adjustments before doing the entire house. Here’s that section:

This section of the screened porch is the color combination that we’re envisioning. With the siding painted in a dark-ish gray and the trim in a black tone, it gives the house a modern aesthetic while still fitting in nicely with the country style of a mountain house. The window on the left has a second color that we were considering but I think we’ve already decided against it. That lighter color is nice, but the darker trim gives a more modern look that we think is more appealing in modern times.

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Other Projects?

Also this week I handled a few smaller projects. First, the exterior door inside the screened porch above is new, and we decided to change the swing direction. For this reason I needed to take about an hour to relocate the wiring and light switch for the ceiling fan on the porch and sconce lighting to be installed later.

Related to that new door, I needed to replace the door hardware with the keyed locks that I already had on the previous door.

I also had to deal with some “smart home” setup. Three of the switches in the house right now are Wemo smart switches that I took from my NYC apartment. In the apartment I’ve mostly moved to Lutron instead as they match current aesthetics and they are way more reliable. And since Wemo recently changed their setup, I couldn’t get these online without a cellular signal (which I do not have at the house!) A Wemo rep took me patiently through a workaround that took about an hour, but now that it’s complete, I should be able to add others easily in the future.

I also spent a little time removing the remains of two honey locust trees on the property. These trees grow extremely large and threatening thorns, so I really don’t want to deal with these. I’ve got them down to the stumps, but unless I uproot or kill the rest, they will keep growing back. So I have to tend to these one way or another before they mature and the thorns get seriously dangerous.

That’s all for a few weeks – going to enjoy the rest of August by hiking and swimming more while up at the house!