Front of Zelda is Primed

We drove back to Zelda Monday evening with a short pit stop in Hendersonville, NC. We picked up the last remaining required mantel from a ad Brent saw in Craig's List. This mantel came from an old home in Charleston, SC and will make a great addition to Zelda.

The weather is cool so having a working heater for the house is great. We got the paint sprayer out and primed the complete front portion of Zelda. Wow what a difference. All the work last week of caulking, scraping and repair work makes even the prime coat look great. Brent was able to apply the coat in about two (2) hours. Not much wind but a lot of going up and down the ladder. Things are coming together.

Zelda Has Gas

This week we had a late start in heading over to Zelda, as Brent was on a day trip to Houston, TX on Tuesday. Brent's parents arrived in Tennessee on Monday and drove over to Zelda with us on Wednesday, so Brent put them to work.

We were able to accomplish a lot this week in a short period of time. Lynn and Brent worked mainly outside on the front of Zelda to get it ready for the paint primer. It took two (2) full days on Thursday and Friday to scrape, repair patches and to caulk the front of the house, but it is ready to be primed. Lynn also grouted the laundry room and walk in pantry and put a prime coat on the bottom section of the courtyard area of the house.

Paw Paw Neal, Brent's Dad, installed door knobs on all the upstairs doors, put in two (2) access doors for the fireplace

shut-off valves, fixed a split door and put up some cove molding. Grandmother, Brent's Mom, swept, cleaned and swept some more at Zelda. She also painted all the remaining baseboard and crown molding before it is installed.

On Thursday morning, the City of Kings Mountain approved the final mechanical inspection on Zelda and the gas was turned on. Shortly after lunch our HVAC contractor arrived and checked out the system and turned on the heat. Zelda now has gas and we have heat.

We headed back home on Saturday afternoon, but not without stopping first at the Jarrett House in Dillsboro, NC for supper. We ate well all week long and had a good time working and appreciated the extra hands.

Not sure if our "free" labor is up to another week. Today, November 1st is Paw Paw Neal's 78th Birthday. We spent the first part of his birthday in the emergency room in Sevierville, TN, because Grandmother had a swollen left leg and we feared a blood clot. After several hours and an ultra sound of her leg, thankfully there was no blood clot. The doctor did advise she should keep the leg elevated and cautioned about any additional work. It is amazing what lengths she will go to not to work at Zelda.

Primed But No Gas

We braved the cold in Kings Mountain, as Cookie, Lynn and Brent arrived at Zelda on Monday. Without having the HVAC system checked out, the first night was cool inside Zelda as the outside temperature was in the mid 30's. We did have a propane heater downstairs and an electric heater upstairs.

Monday night, Brent planned on installing the toilet in the master bath, but during the installation of the baseboard, he was able to find the water supply line to the toilet with a nail. This required turning off the water to the house and an emergency trip to Home Depot. He was able to repair the line and turn the water back on that night. In his spare time, over the next few days, he was able to patch the drywall, install the base board and we now have our second working toilet in Zelda.

Our HVAC contractor arrived as scheduled on Tuesday morning to check out the systems. With the permanent power connected we were able to start and run the heat pump upstairs, but without gas, the gas-pac unit downstairs was on standby. When we changed the size of the stove from a 48" to a 36" width we added some additional cabinets, which now requires the gas supply line to be re-routed. When then called Kings Mountain to have the gas meter unlocked. The technician arrived promptly but we did not have a final mechanical inspection to allow the meter to be unlocked. We were a little confused as we thought this had passed, but the town's only inspector is on vacation so we had to schedule the new final mechanical inspection on Thursday, October 29th.

As the temperature warmed on Tuesday, we were able to prime some small areas on the side of Zelda and continued to scrap and caulk in preparation for the application of prime paint. We also continued to attack the stairway.

On Wednesday, the temperature a little higher and we moved to a major repair area on the alcove which was an addition to the house about 40 years ago. We had to remove siding and replace with other board we had salvage during previous rework. There was alot of work performed around the door and the header board at the top. Then we scrapped and caulked. We also continued with the tile work on the floor in the laundry room.

On Thursday, the assault began on Zelda with installation of a prime coat. We started on the left side on the house. We used a paint sprayer so we need to strain the paint and add a chemical to the paint to operate in the spray gun. We started about mid morning and only took a short break to eat lunch. We were able to finish the entire left side and the very back of the house. There were only a few areas we found that we missed scrapping, so after the paint dried, it was scrapped and re primed. We finished just as the sun went down. We were tired but did manage

to install a few more tiles in laundry room and pantry.

Friday was scheduled to continue with the priming of the house, but the weather soured with a damp, intermittent rain, so we decided to lay tile. We were able to finish the entire laundry room, pantry and install missing areas under the dishwasher and stove. The rest of the day was spent cleaning up, packing and driving back home. It was a productive week.