. . . Backcountry in Denali National Park Alaska, Scotland/trebuchet at Urquart castle, Roman stadium in Arles France, Angel's landing Zion National Park and Ade's many running adventures . . .
Monday, July 14, 2008
Reflections on Past Adventures
It is great therapy these days to take a minute to reflect on the many other adventures that we've had up until this point (what a blessing!) . . . we thought that we would share some photos with you from the past several years together over the next few postings (I think the digital pics only go back to 2002, which would leave out our Hawaiian honeymoon and Lake Tahoe adventures as well as many others that we haven't included here for lack of space since we've been together. . . Quebec, Kenya, the Caribbean, Germany and Switzerland, Hilton Head, Four Corners, Yosemite backpacking, Sierra Leone, etc..... ) . . . South Beach (Orange Bowl), Iowa football, Alaska/Exit Glacier
Friday, July 11, 2008
Tim and Rick - Dynamic Duo minus one
Tim and Rick continue to install windows, although Brian wasn't here to help during these photos that day. The three of them are the "Keysor builders" who have worked on our home from the get go (over the past 8 months). We refer to them affectionately with friends and family as our "Harrison boys". We are all similar in age, so it has been fun to get to know them and hear about their lives outside of work. They are all great guys (and daddies) and we are hopeful that they will come back down once their work is done to enjoy our big party (hopefully a pig and corn roast in the fall) so that they can see their work completed once we are all done with our portion of the build. They have done a great job. They continue here with the fixed glass window installation.
To add to the previous Andersen window order issues, 6 of the 8 fixed glass panel jambs were manufactured incorrectly (too wide) and 2 of the 8 were too narrow. So, 6 of the windows had to have jambs taken apart and "ripped" on the table saw to fit the appropriate depth of the front window wall framing. The other 2 will have to have the jambs removed and new jambs constructed to fit them (a bunch of replacement jamb lumber was shipped from Andersen distribution as a part of the Andersen rep's assessment of the damage).
Windows and Doors
Our Andersen window order through Rapid River's log home package has been our problem child since the third week of May when our building crew helped off-load the initial order. About one third of our windows were damaged in some way when the initial shipment from the Andersen distribution center in Minnesota was mistakenly split in two and shipped to Chicago and Marquette. We think that the damaged occured when the order was finally consolidated to a freight carrier to get the whole order to our property ASAP. Both the "consolidated frieght carrier" driver and our "Harrison boys" both noted the damage upon receipt. Anyhow, the windows sat around while the damage was reported to Andersen and a plan was formulated for an appropriate Andersen rep to assess the damage and come up with a plan of attack for repair. Fortunately, most of the damage occured to jambs and casings, but one of the panels on our French door patio sets needed to be replaced. Scott, the rep gave the go-ahead for our crew to install all of the windows (damaged one's included) and will be back to fix all of the appropriate problems when the installs are completed. Our front door is from Therma-Tru (woodgrain fiberglass) and is from the Classic Craft collection with wrought iron caming in the glass panels.
HVAC updates
Here are some photos of our geothermal heating and cooling unit (plus one of our hot water heaters and the water softener) as of mid June. We've since received our rough inspection approval from the city for our mechanicals. Aspen Heating and Cooling of Jackson did a great job. Much thanks to Jimmy Johnston and all of his help to us during this process.
My Grandpa Chauvin who ill be 89 years old on July 27th noted that he had a Bard brand coal-fired furnace growing up in Detroit in the 1920's. I believe that the company is based out of Ohio. I think it brought back childhood memories for him.
House Updates
Here are some updated pictures of our home from the field out back. Our stairs are complete going down into the basement (no more ladders or walking around and down into the lower level!) and we love our approved inspection stickers from our plumbing and mechanical inspector Carl Janson for the fireplace final and mechanical rough . . . yippee!
Amelia Comes for a Visit
Kim, Zac, Amelia and Ruby road-tripped out in their Wrangler for a visit Saturday July 5th to help on projects around the house. Amelia came all ready to help in her over overalls. She had fun playing in all of Aunt Corey and Uncle Ade's sand. She also had fun climbing on OSB and insulation sheets as well as playing with rocks.
Plumbing Updates
The plumbing work continues on . . . the PVC portion (drain, waste and vent) of it is nearly complete and the PEX and copper portion (supply) has begun. Fox and Boley Well Drilling of Jackson, MI drilled our well on June 12th. The well itself is 5" PVC drilled to a depth of 91'. The "well-system" that we chose was a Constant Pressure System (mostly for our geothermal heating and cooling needs drawing from the well) with a 1 1/2 horsepower, 25 gallon per minute capacity. We weren't able to take any pics of the actual install because it happened while we were at work both days.
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