The gift of wrap

The house has finally had enough fog and wind and is now being wrapped in a nice, warm, and cozy layer of tar paper covered by a layer of wire mesh, basically a cross between a chador and a Farady cage, very useful for a woman venturing out in an opressive Islamic country during a lightning storm. Here's what the house looks like with its new covering:









Of course, this covering has little to do with forced modesty during inclement weather and has a very practical purpose. The black paper keeps the house sealed against moisture and the elements in general, and the wire mesh keeps it tightly in place against the house, and the whole thing provides a clean base for stucco (basically, a thin layer of -- you guessed it -- concrete sprayed over the outside walls) to cling to and tightly seal up the house.

Inside the house, the moment as finally arrived and plywood and Sheetrock brand Gypsum panels are covering the framing studs inside the house. The first room to get actual walls is the master bedroom, with the floors below getting closed in turn. Here's the master bedroom's new look:




Ok, so it's not all the way done, but it is a good start.

In the master bathroom, the red rubber waterproofing seal for the shower pan is installed and is being tested by holding on to the water stored in it for a few days. Looks like a pretty good seal to me.




Part of getting the house is getting wrapped and prepared for stucco is to figure out where exactly the front door is going to be. We don't need the whole door, just the door jamb and here it is wrapped in blue protective plastic sitting on top of a big pile of Sheetrock brand Gypsum panels:




It should come as no surprise that this is not an ordinary jamb, and the door it is going to support is no ordinary door. As you may guess from the massive steel construction of the jamb, the front door is going to be an equally massive stainless steel and hurricane resistant glass affair made by Neoporte in Los Angeles. Here is what the door will look like from inside the house (minus the glass side panel):



Another custom-designed peice of metal fabrication, although nowhere as massive as the front door, is nevertheless critical to the house. These two non-assuming metal devices are custom-made duct elbows that are part of the kitchen exhaust system:



The custom elbows connect to the ends of the duct silencer that is part of kitchen venting system:



The point of all this is too very precisely position the silencer to align it with the hood and the range that will be sitting under the hood when the kitchen is finally done. Here is where the duct silencer is positioned without he custom elbows:



In order to line up properly, the left vertical duct opening must line up approximately with the light fixture closest to it and as you can see in the preceding picture, using standard elbows, the duct is about 5 inches out of alignment and, we hope, the custom elbows will correct the misalignment.

Finally, here is a gratuitous shot of the elevator hoistway, or shaft if you prefer, only because we have not seen this structure in some time and once the elevator installtion begins next week, we will not be able to see it like this again:



Next week, more wrapping, more Sheetrock, and getting decked with Ipe.