Before...

It's skylight day. I think the fact that it might rain will be a good motivator to be efficient and not take too many coffee breaks.



















During... early on, having just cut the hole.















During... Frame in, working on the flashing.















After!
















From the inside, blue sky mining.

Cable and Data Ready

Just finished pulling the Category 6 wires... they follow the cable lines. Skylight Friday? Oh I hope so.




Our future structured wire control box. It'll have the modem, a router, an amplifier for the cable signal, and probably the wireless router. It's like a network hub for the house.
















Through the first floor joists on the way upstairs. Cable on the left, data on the right. That's a media room speaker wire on the far left.

Passage to upstairs through the stair bay.

MBR-1 port. 2 more in the master, 1 each in the other bedrooms.

Side Project II: the 10 Year Kayak Plan

It seems like just 5 or 6 years ago, but it was actually in 1999 that I decided to build a Pygmy Kayak. This weekend, we got much closer to being able to paddle.

Of course, I am still in completely over my head. I needed some help.

We headed up to PT to visit the B.'s and to access Chris' unlimited knowledge of how to make or fix anything. There is a very nice symmetry here because when I first bought the kit, Chris and Reeb let me set up in their shop in the South Park Marina. Not only did they loan out their space, they were, as always, insanely generous with their time and knowledge. And now, we'll finish up the boat the same way.

We set up in the yard and the first thing to do was to make a decision about what the final finish of the boat would be: paint or varnish. I, being a water sign,

chose the path of least resistance- paint. Sand less and get done

faster. And start paddling.

Having decided on a against varnish, the next step was to fair the sides so that when it does get painted, the sides will be ridiculously smooth and sleek. We sanded, filled the pits and various dings, and then sanded a few more times.

When it did come time to paint, Chris had to put a wrench to the bench grinder to make it skinny enough to loosen some of the sprayer's bolts so we could clean it up.

Tool fabrication

Hope watching from the safety of the Tacoma.

Smoov.

Chris attempts to not ruin yet another pair of jeans.

The primer we used was called Hi-Coat or Hi Top or Hi Hat or something like that. It's a filling epoxy that will make things even sleeker and smoother.

Break time!

Cable Ready

The upstairs is loaded with RG6 coaxial cable for data and video. Woop. I didn't get the Category 6 wire in yet, but it will just follow the path of the cable, so that install will be pretty easy.

The only tricky thing was to make sure that the low voltage lines stay at least a foot away from the line voltage wiring and that they only cross at 90 degree angles. The line voltage wiring creates a magnetic field and can cause interference with the data, phone, and cable tv signals. Also, each individual cable receptacle has to go all the way back to the structured wire control box. I got 350' of cable and had exactly three feet left over. Perhaps cutting it too close.

Friday Projects

Before the weekend, we have some things to accomplish!







Morning project: add some headers to the client's closet and install an attic access ladder!





























Lunch project: construct... a taco!












P.M. project: run this cat 6 and cable wire to all the bedrooms! This part should be the most fun. I bought a structured media control box today where we can run all of our phones, data, and cable through. It's pretty cool. I'll put some conduit up to the attic from the basement as well for future upgrades, too.

Everybody's Wiring for the Weekend

We had a great weekend, weather-wise, here at project central. Sunny and hot, perfect for crawling around in a sweltering uninsulated second story. Heat radiating down through the roof. Sawdust and bits of fiberglass drifting lazily through any angled shaft of light. Fans moving hot air from over here to over there. If that sounds complainy, guess again. After the winter we've had, the sauna felt great.


It's mostly done. We'll need to connect up the home runs, but just about everything is pulled, stapled, and spliced.



All that's left is the cable tv and the phone and data wires.








The headboard. We'll move that pile of scrap lumber before we put the bed there.













Sconces for the stairs (thank god we got client buy off on that!). There's 4 of them.





















Master b. has lotsa copper.


















Light the master b! The little middle box is a fan.












The way to the basement, where 200 amps flows like a Sonoma chardonnay to a busload of thirsty tourists.


















Light the hallway! Light the laundry!







































The new and improved beauty station outlet center.












Perhaps the coolest feature, the smoke detectors are now hardwired, so that if any smoke is sensed anywhere, all of them go off.

skylight insanity!

We decided to put a skylight in the dining room! Well, just for storage until we can move it upstairs and install it.

It's so, so big. Like many things, I guess, the cost of a skylight is actually committing to the skylight concept. That's expensive. But once you've subscribed to the window-in-the-roof philosophy, then increasing it's size from 2 x 4 to 4 x 4 is pretty cheap.

Cheap is definitely the wrong word. But relative to the initial buy in, increasing your glass size, if your roof an take it, is cost effective.