The House Project: An Overdue Update!

First off, I must say that Bruce has been VERY busy with the house over the last few months. The pictures I am going over in this post are from work done in October and November, so there is more to come in my next post! The big accomplishments for this post are the completion of gas lines, an AC return vent, and some prep work for the hall bathroom.

Below you can see the gas lines he ran in the kitchen for the range top.

The valve you see in this picture will be used to turn the gas supply to the stove on and off. Since the knobs for the range will be in the front of the stove, this is a future child-proof precaution.

This picture shows the flexible gas tubing running up through the ceiling.

Here you can see the flexible tubing that will supply the oven with gas.

Don't let the simplicity of the pictures fool you! It was a lot of hard work! After the gas lines were run Bruce had to make sure they were airtight so they would pass inspection, and, well, because we don't want gas leaking out the lines on a regular basis! He subjected them to stricter standards than they will have to meet for inspection, and after much tweaking and sealing off areas, they passed his approval!

The next step with the gas was to paint the external pipes for protection from the elements, and seal the areas where the pipes exit the house to prevent insects and varmints from having a way in! I was able to help with his part! Bruce put a coat of paint on the pipes, and I went back and sealed them and put on a second coat.

To all those who like to take "selfies", try taking a picture while caulking around a pipe. You are not allowed to mess it up!

The finished product!

Below are some pictures of the painted and sealed pipes! I was pretty proud of it!

Another small matter was the mechanism to keep our french doors closed. The two doors in the middle have a normal knob, but the two on the outside of each set don't. We got full-sized doors instead of side lights, and to keep them closed Bruce installed a pin locking mechanism, and we stitched straps to attach to the pins. It worked out pretty well! They are situated in the hinge of the two inner doors, to where they aren't visible when the doors are shut.

At this point Bruce started working on the hall bathroom as well. He placed boxes for wall sconces to go on either side of the vanity mirror.

He also built a pony wall between the toilet (which will go where the box is sitting) and the shower. If you saw the house before we started, you know that the shower is in the new addition, and the original bathtub was off to the left in what is now part of the dining room!

In this view you can see the big picture, with the master bathroom in the background. We will have glass over the pony wall, and a shower door to the left.

Finally, Bruce did a wonderful job installing this air conditioning return. It has intakes on two sides: one facing the dining room and the other facing the master bathroom. That way we have sufficient air flow in both spaces. Below is the dining room side.

Here is the side facing the master bathroom:

And another closeup, this time from the dining room again:

And finally, from the Bathroom side again. It took him much time and care to get everything situated properly in just the right spot!

I am super stoked about the project right now! It is moving forward with some great momentum and we are hoping to be able to move back in this summer! At that point, we will have everything done except the finishing work on the master suite. We still have a ways to go, but are so much closer to being able to put the walls in!