Ducts, Paint and The Deitz Work Is Done

Today was for the most part more of the same. Sheet metal going up in the basement...painting outside.  Doug installed more large duct work coming off the furnace and heading toward various sections of the house. I continued my front porch painting. The entire west and north walls of the front porch are now primed. The "only" PRIMING that remains is the south front porch, the south trim board and all the "wow that's high, I need a long ladder" sections of the addition and the replacement boards in the exposed eves. Once those are primed...we can start all over with PAINT.

The front of the cottage is primed. It's starting to look normal again.
The sides and risers on the steps will be white, too.
But I have been counseled to let the treated wood dry very well before painting.

The furnace now has the supply air duct attached at the top.
Doug is fitting the filter rack into the return air duct to the right.

There is a lot of sheet metal in place already.
And there is quite a bit yet to be installed.

When I got tired of painting, I decided to move some dirt around. The spot where the air conditioner compressor unit will be located was no where near at the fnal grade; nor was it level. While the unit won't be installed until next week, I wanted to get some sand built up in the area where it will reside so the rain predicted for this weekend has a chance to help compact it.  There was nearly enough excess sand near the spot to bring the ground to grade...but I also borrowed a couple wheelbarrows full from the north side of 3283. The borrowed sand came from the next to the two basement windows where I installed window wells.

Is there anything more boring than a picture of window wells?
The [eventual] topsoil will add 4" or so to the ground elevation.

The AC unit will sit in this general location.
Since there won't be topsoil under it, the grade
needed to be higher than the surrounding sand.

But, the most significant "event" of the day was a visit from Dan Deitz. Dan owns Deitz House Moving Engineers. As those who have followed this blog from the beginning know, Deitz is the contractor I hired to do the majority of the work completed so far. He lead a team of contractors who each handled their special part of the work. The Deitz Team was responsible for:  

• supporting the structure;
• installing lifting beams;
• jacking the house up off the existing foundation;
• excavating for a 9 foot deep basement;
• constructing a full concrete block foundation under the house and an addition;
• constructing interior support walls and beams;
• pouring a concrete basement floor;
• building steps to the basement;
• back filling around the new foundation; and, 
• disconnecting and reconnecting water supply [well], sewage [septic], natural gas, and electricity. 

Their work is done. So, Dan's visit today was an "event" since it was to pick up my final check. We walked around the site and looked over each aspect of the work. I am very happy with their work product. They completed the effort substantially on budget and with the only delay caused by me. The only extra costs were for some small items that either I requested or improvements to the original concept that Dan or a sub-contractor recommended. I would, and will, unquestionably recommend Deitz to anyone who has a similar project in mind.

I did hire some of the team members to do additional work on 3283 that was outside the scope of the Deitz contract. That work was to complete tasks I expected to hire out or do myself once Deitz was done.

I have been asked who all the contractors I have used so far are. Within the next few days I'll devote a blog to providing a "contractor list" identifying each, the work they did, and giving contact information. But, today I'm done typing. I'll be away from the site until Monday. More blog posts after that.