Vegas!

I was out of town for a few days this last weekend having a great time with some long-time pals. We all met up in Las Vegas and from there drove to the Hoover Dam and the Grand Canyon. It was lots of fun! (And I won $15)

Of course not much got done on the house, and I was anxious to get working Sunday afternoon when I got home. The immediate project needing attention was the front door’s exterior trim. I don’t think everyone knows this (I didn’t, until recently), but much of the structural strength of a door installation is from the trim. Doors are typically shimmed into place in about 6 spots around the perimeter of the jamb, and nailed into place through those shims with long finish nails. This lends some strength, but these 12 nails aren’t much when the door weighs a hundred pounds or more. The trim ties the door jamb to the wall framing and adds a lot of strength and rigidity.

In any event, I finished the trim Sunday afternoon and it looks great. Along with the increased strength, the draft we had from the gap around the door is gone – a good thing considering the temperature at night around here lately. I also installed the threshold and weather-stripping which closed a nearly 2” gap at the door’s bottom. The interior trim will have to wait until we have walls; hopefully that isn’t too far away.

Last night I went to hook up the thermostat module for our boiler, which has been running simply by timer for the last couple of weeks (we set it to come on in the AM before we get up). With the aforementioned cold weather approaching quickly, we’d like to have our floor regulating a more constant temperature program. Unfortunately the wire for the thermostat doesn’t appear to be hooked up inside the boiler, so I need to call the contractor to come out and lend a hand. Oh well…

I’ll post pictures of the exterior door trim soon.