Update: floors and cabinets coming next!

The wood floor has been acclimating in the addition for the past week, and installation began today.

It should be complete by Monday, and the kitchen cabinets should arrive next week.

The concrete slab is another matter. We have a floor drain in the laundry room, but it turns out the slab slopes away from the drain, not towards it. And, the floor slopes towards the egress window overall. A slab prep contractor ground down the laundry room floor so that water drains towards the drain, not away, and poured a self-leveling product.

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Addition progress

The last few weeks have been very busy. In my last post, I wrote about the progress with the roof, which is now nearly done. In addition, our builder has also made considerable progress on many fronts.

After installing the drywall, they have taped, mudded, sanded, and primed all of the walls.

The soffit trim has been a long-standing issue. After installing the windows, we realized that we couldn’t open them without the window bumping into the soffit trim. Worse, the trim that had been installed was not appropriate for outside installation (due to an error translating the approved plans into the final plans) and was damaged and warped by the weather.

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Porch roof and gutter carpentry

The porch on the front of the house was not originally enclosed. It doesn’t have a basement under it (who knows how it is supported), and it has sagged and settled over the years. Its roof sank in the middle, causing the internal gutter to pitch backwards. Little rain reached the downspout at the very front of the roof, and during heavy rains, most water overflowed onto our heads as we walked up the sidewalk to the front door.

I had walked on the roof several times to clear out gutters and downspouts and inspect the second floor gutter, and noticed that the roof felt rather spongy in places, so I was expecting this to be a major job.

Our objective for the porch was to repair the damaged spots and cosmetically fix the roof to create a straighter appearance. Ideally, we would also pitch the roof for a sensible downspout location.

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Other progress – roofing, stairs, and pump

Some progress on the renovation continues, albeit slowly.

The roofing delay we experienced was mostly due to them running out of shingles. The shingle was a special order, and only part of the shipment arrived. So they stopped for a month or so while they waited for the rest to arrive.

Fortunately, it arrived last week, and they returned to finish the addition’s roof and proceed in the main house.

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Roofing update – addition roofing is complete (almost)

The roofing for the addition is finally complete. Well, almost.

Here’s a photo from a few days ago that shows the shingles are complete. The lead vent pipe flashing and the kitchen exhaust vent are also installed.

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How much water can a sump pump pump?

Water continues to be our enemy. The new basement has flooded twice more since the original flood.

Only an inch or two in our latest flood

After re-routing the sump pump into the existing discharge pipe, our front yard has become a swamp. Water constantly drains into the street from our discharge.

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