Bani, left, and Chris are back, continuing to work through the punch list for the kitchen cabinets. Above, they clamp a new piece of trim under the oven and microwave — one long piece to replace two shorter pieces that failed after the glue gave out.
Last week, Ron and Odell from Ranserve walked the house with Steven to organize the punch list.
Two days ago, Odell and Cris began adjusting pocket doors and experimenting with how to fill the holes around the balusters.
Today, Aaron arrived with Chris and Bani to begin working on the kitchen cabinets — smooth edges, filling holes, adjusting drawers and slides. Aaron remeasured for replacement panels.
Above, Chris, left, and Bani, right, adjusting utility drawers between the cooktop and sink.
Chris arrived from Granite Security to install the glass break sensor missing from the ceiling in Steven’s office — outlined in the black box in photo above.
Chris also added “water bugs” at the washer and both tankless water heaters — sensors that alert us if the washer and heaters overflow.
With apologies for a bad pun …
Jacquela asked for a new mattress. Today, Sleep Number delivered the C4 system — two California King FlexFit bases that raise and lower the head of the bed, two inflatable mattresses, a mattress pad and mattress protector, and a SleepIQ remote — with an Android App to download.
Out went the old mattress and box spring. Yay.
The bed comes with MAC address. Remarkable. A networkable bed. Come the apocalypse, we’re all going to sleep on dirt. For now, Steven can be halfway around the planet fiddling with bed and HVAC and door camera adjustments.
After adding the MAC address of the mattress to the network filters at the router, Steven sat on the floor with Nexus 6P in hand. Bluetooth sees the MAC address of the mattress, but refuses to pair. Twenty minutes with tech support later, we determine that the Android 7.0 and Bluetooth builds are not compatible with the current SleepIQ driver; we’re going to have to wait for an update. But … the iPad does pair — and two minutes later Steven is swiping up and down to raise and lower the head of the bed, and adjusting how firm the mattress is.
Cool.
Now, Jacquela gets to determine how high she needs to incline the head of the bed to switch off Steven’s snoring.
The main drain line under the slab, from the mudroom, under the kitchen, under the office, to the whole-house cleanout at the front of the house, plugged. Again. And flooded the mudroom bath. Again. With crap coming up in the mudroom through the shower drain and from under the toilet. At 830 pm.
Ron Dahlke from Ranserve asked Steven to call for help.
Jose from AAA Auger arrived about 930. As Steven donned rubber gloves to mop up the mess, Jose snaked the drain line from the cleanout in the garage at the back of the mudroom bath. No joy. Jose snaked the line from the main cleanout at the front of the house. No joy. We determined that bath 3 and Jadin’s bath still functioned. We arranged for Jose to return in the morning with a more-powerful snake and his camera.
About 930 am the next morning, Jose inserted the camera into the drain line. We discovered a “belly” in the drain line where it intersects with the line that drains the sink. Everything collects in the belly.
Steven asked Jose to call for the hydraulic power wash needed to flush the line clean.
Here’s the special nozzle fitted to the end of a standard hose. There’s a main jet at the front end of the nozzle; that jet dislodges the crap. A series of smaller jets at the back end of the flange on the nozzle push the crap down the line, flushing the line clean.
It worked. Yay.
Ron Dahlke arrived to consult. Jose alerted Ron to the belly in the drain line. Steven asked Ron to research a technique that “re-lines” the inside of the existing pipe — as an alternative to trenching under the foundation by hand, digging out the old pipe, replacing the old pipe with PVC, backfilling the trench — a labor-intensive process that takes weeks and costs multiple tens of thousands of dollars. The alternative approach sandblasts corrosion out of the old cast-iron pipe, sprays an epoxy onto the interior walls of the pipes, inserts a balloon into the pipe to hold the epoxy to the walls of the pipe, deflates and removes the balloon — and reportedly leaves behind a cast-iron pipe that is lined with a PVC-like material to which nothing adheres, which means the crap flows to the sewer line at the street — as it is supposed to operate.
Stay tuned.
We don’t want to have to do this again in six months.
Photo above shot by Jacquela Leon.
For my wife, Jacquela Leon, type 1, for Tim Bajarin, type 2, for the Singhs, the Teltows, Susan Schreiner, Dan Rosenbaum, and my brother Bob, sister-in-law Karen, Brody and Harley — thank you for powering this ride to the finish line in the Tour de Cure to stop diabetes.
And just as I crossed the finish line, my cousin Ellen Chodorow took me over another finish line — raising $1,000 to stop diabetes. There are not words enough to say thank you.
Steven rode 48 miles after training for months with Team Schwab — special thanks to Jim and Jason.
Here’s the route:
The official photo, shot by the official photographer, of Steven crossing the finish line.
Steven got his jersey today for the Tour de Cure, which takes place Sunday, 18 September.
He rides to raise money to stop diabetes. He rides for Jacquela, his wife, a Type 1 diabetic. He rides with Team Schwab, where Jacquela works. Jason and Jim have been teaching Steven to ride long distances. Steven is biking 48 miles.
It’s the 25th anniversary Tour.
Thank you to Avni, Arati, Annika and Ranjiv, Salina, Gunnar, Liam and Luca, Susan, and Bob, Karen, Brody and Harley, and everyone who donates to find a cure.
