It was in the mid-40’s when we got up this morning so Linda made oatmeal with walnuts, dates, raisins, cinnamon, and a little brown sugar. It was a hardy and satisfying breakfast on a chilly morning. I checked in with some of the blogs I follow using Feedly on my iPad and then, as we were getting ready to work, Steve showed up with four workers (Kyle, Tommy, Spencer, and Mark). Steve did not stay and work today but Mark operated the excavator and the guys got a lot done. By the end of the day we were finally able to see how it was all going to come together.
Our focus today was the utility closet in the garage. Much of what we did required two people, and we made a long day of it. We finished framing the west wall, stood it up, got it into position, plumbed it, and secured it. We then framed the south wall with the rough opening for the door.
The installation of the door was challenging. All the framing was plumb in two directions but our first attempt at installing it resulted in the bottom latch side not closing by almost an inch when the top latch side was seated correctly. Everything was plumb on both jambs, the door was level and plumb, but something was obviously wrong.
As we started to break for lunch I got a call from Darryll. He was wondering if we could run the 2” iron gas pipe through the attic from the east end of house to the west side of the garage. I told him I would check the access and call him back. While he was on the phone I got clarification on the size and location of the HVAC unit and the ducts for the conditioned air supply and return. As a result I will have to move a duplex outlet I installed the other day, run a new/longer wire up the sub-panel, put insulation into the lower half of the wall cavities, and install/finish a piece of drywall.
We spent the afternoon trying to figure out what was wrong with the door installation and fix it. Everything was plumb and we thought everything was square. It turned out that the two ends of the wall were out of alignment which was forcing the bottom of the door out. (The inside angle between the west wall and the south wall was less than 90 degrees.) Once we realized what was wrong we were able to fix it.
We had a green salad and Amy’s roasted vegetable pizza for supper at 6:30 PM. After relaxing for a while on the deck with a glass of Leelanau Cellars Summer Sunset wine I secured the plywood platform to the base with screws and then caulked the two edges where it met the back and right side walls.
We drove to Lowe’s at 8 PM to get a box of steel cut masonry nails. I need two or three to secure the free end of the bottom plate of the west wall. While we were there I got a set of new blades for the Milwaukee Sawzall reciprocating saw but forgot to buy more shims. We always like to leave a reason for a return trip to the home supply stores.