Day 68

DeColores Painting has been doing an outstanding job painting Big Tub’s exterior. If you look closely in the top right-hand corner of the picture below, a fog of paint can be seen from Gil’s sprayer as he paints the acreage of the other wall.

I guess it’s a generational thing, but when I paint, the radio usually keeps me company. Nowadays, people carry on cell phone conversations while perched on a ladder holding a can of paint! No complaints from me – this young man did an excellent job of cutting in the trim.

The sheetrock has been sanded, and will be trimmed out before DeColores applies De paint.

Modern-day, multi-glass-paned exterior doors do not actually have individual panes of glass but rather one large pane of glass mounted with a framed, plastic grid work to give the appearance on many panes. This grid work is attached to the window’s perimeter with recessed Phillips-head screws. For whatever reason, the doors are delivered with special tapered caps for covering the screw heads in a bag taped to the door instead of being installed.

I have noticed, after visiting many new-construction homes, that these caps many times never get installed, and the homeowner is forced to look at the screw heads from there on out. Installation is an easy enough task, but needs to be done before the door is painted because once the holes get paint in them, the caps can not be pushed in.

Sitting at my desk at work, I decided to worry about just who was on the hook to actually install the caps since painting could start any day now. While the trade unions are not involved in my construction, it was conceivable that each crew who worked on or around the doors would think cap installation was someone else’s responsibility. So I called the builder and asked who was going to install the caps.

“Uh, uh, the Painter usually installs the caps, but let me make a note to make sure it gets done”, the builder stammered out. Unassured by his response, I decided that personally installing the caps after getting home would be a good use of my time.

Well, I owe the builder an apology. I got home and found that the caps had been installed. Unfortunately, I had neglected to request that the caps be installed right-side-up:

The situation was just plain laughable – Every time the door was shut, a cap would fall out on the floor. Since we did not want to lose any caps, Kim went around and collected & installed the caps the right way.

BTW, I know who initially installed the caps, and it was not one of the painters. But let’s just say “Bless his heart” and move on.

Now this is more like it!

Sheetrock dust, being as it is such a fine powder, is really tough to get rid of. While the bulk of it can be swept, getting rid of all of it requires a vacuum cleaner. The problem is that the powder will clog a filter bag in minutes if not seconds. In the past, with small jobs, a wet-or-dry vacuum cleaner has been used with success if the paper filter element is removed, and the bucket filled 2/3 full with water. The water would catch most of the dust, and an old wet towel draped over the exhaust outlet would minimize what blew through.

Well, Big Tub just laughed at our cleaning efforts; there was too much to clean and the dust just ended up being redistributed in the room.

So, taking a chapter from Rube Goldberg’s book, the exhaust was ported through a 10 foot long section of 2 inch PVC pipe out the door:

This worked well enough, but the vacuum cleaner was tough to move around with all that water in it, and it was LOUD. What was needed was a powerful vacuum cleaner located outside with a looooong hose on it capable of reaching most parts of Big Tub’s interior. Something akin to a central vacuum cleaner system.

Wait! I’ve got one of those in my spare vacuum cleaner collection! It was a gift from Grillmeister Jay when he remodeled his house. Placed into service in my shop, the vacuum cleaner had performed well until its original long hose gave up the ghost a year or two ago. Acting on a recommendation from Kim’s mom, a 35 foot long swimming pool cleaning hose was purchased rather inexpensively from the local home improvement store, and placed into service.

I believe I heard a gulp from Big Tub as he realized the victory was ours.

The trim crew should finish the interior in the next couple of days. Then we’ll be ready for paint. Stay tuned!