Author Topic: A little work around the house..... basically building a new house.  (Read 14225 times)

Offline B.D.F.

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Re: A little work around the house..... basically building a new house.
« Reply #40 on: September 07, 2017, 12:57:32 PM »
Not yet.....   No. And no plans for one either but there is a 1,500 watt electric heater in the ceiling for those chilly 'sits' (Read it again!).

Brian

Does it have a heated seat?   :)
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Offline B.D.F.

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Re: A little work around the house..... basically building a new house.
« Reply #41 on: September 07, 2017, 01:04:01 PM »
Passed rough electrical inspection. No warnings, no faults and no changes required.

Inspector complimented us on a nice, neat job and an outstanding job of documentation; we numbered all power wires throughout, and then noted where they go to so basically there is a list of every wire and what it connects to as well as where it terminates (both ends). This is not required nor normally done for residential wiring but is standard for industrial wiring, which is what I am more familiar with so I just went that way. So we have a three page spreadsheet of every circuit upstairs; it might come in handy when adding something as it will make it easy to find an appropriate junction box and circuit to tap into.

Anyway, that is out of the way and a big relief 'cause I was kinda' expecting at least some re-work required. The inspectors in this area have been outstanding though and besides not being nit- picky, they actually go the other way and are very tolerant of reasonable variations as long as they are not sub-standard or 'scary'.

Now to finish up...... <sigh>

Brian
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Offline Rhino

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Re: A little work around the house..... basically building a new house.
« Reply #42 on: September 19, 2017, 10:53:22 AM »




That teepee looks like it could be turned into a pumpkin chunkin trebuchet  ;)

Offline B.D.F.

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Re: A little work around the house..... basically building a new house.
« Reply #43 on: September 20, 2017, 12:20:56 PM »
Yeah, that does look like a trebuchet. And it is pretty rugged and tall so.... no, no, I could not do that too, to the neighbors, they have been through more than enough watching this project oozing along. :-(

Besides, that teepee is gone now. Found a contractor who gave me a reasonable price on R&R'ing the porch along with building the wall over the sidewalk and building a new entrance-way covering. We got all the vegation cut down last weekend and he started on Monday (note the power teepee lying on the ground in front of the camera):



The great thing about hiring a crew is that they move so fast. In a matter of hours he had the roof stripped, was cutting the roof off and finally knocking down the 'walls' (really the uprights holding the roof up, this is an open porch). With a touch of grace and a firmly swung sledgehammer:



By the end of the day, the porch was gone and the entire area cleaned up:



And then covered in plastic and tarped for the baby hurricane passing up the coast on Tues. and today:



Materials ordered and construction begins tomorrow. This is the architect's rendering of what we are shooting for, bearing in mind that the picture is idealistic and probably too close to a silk purse..... add in a little bit of 'sow's ear' and we might get to that point..... someday:



Brian

That teepee looks like it could be turned into a pumpkin chunkin trebuchet  ;)
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Offline just gone

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Re: A little work around the house..... basically building a new house.
« Reply #44 on: September 22, 2017, 12:51:01 PM »
Looking at that second photo in the larger format makes me wonder if that man tearing down your porch did it with only one arm (unintended optical illusion?), and is he bleeding from his right ankle?

I like the Arch's rendering, but the porch roof line seems a little off?...the gable over the side door- the peak ridge starts above over the center line of the door-correct? It appears to start at the corner of the house in that drawing..at least to me it does.

Offline B.D.F.

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Re: A little work around the house..... basically building a new house.
« Reply #45 on: September 22, 2017, 02:18:05 PM »
Yeah, the way the bottom of his shirt is hanging in that photo does make him look like Richard Kimble is looking for him..... But nope, he has both arms and was using virtually all of them to knock down that 'wall'. The part I found funny was the Welcome Friends sign hanging on that 'wall' while the place was being demolished. :-)

Yes, the entrance-way over the side- door is centered, more or less, around the door, and it is about in the middle of the original building (which was 30' long, note that the second floor is now 40' feet long but the first floor is still 30' for the first 10' shown on the side with the side- door (the west, or driveway side of the house). But that particular angle is generating optical delusions (of course I mean optical conclusions) because it has no depth; what you are seeing is the outside of the entrance-way wall, to its right is the door itself, and to the left is the window about 6' further down the building's wall from that entrance-way. Look at the actual photograph above and you should be able to see both windows and the door, and the entrance- way starts right at the door casing's end.

This is the new one starting to go up as of yesterday; today the crew is enjoying tropical storm Jose from the comforts of their homes (I assume) 'cause it is windy and raining here. This is taken from about the same angle the rendered image shows but you can see through the entrance-way frame and the building / door behind it. And that paper taped to the window on the side door is a line drawing of what they are REALLY going to build; it is very similar to what the architect drew but has a bit more pitch in the sidewalk and porch roof, and a bit less pitch in the entrance-way roof, and the entrance-way roof overhangs the entrance-way by about a foot.

Brian



Brian

Looking at that second photo in the larger format makes me wonder if that man tearing down your porch did it with only one arm (unintended optical illusion?), and is he bleeding from his right ankle?

I like the Arch's rendering, but the porch roof line seems a little off?...the gable over the side door- the peak ridge starts above over the center line of the door-correct? It appears to start at the corner of the house in that drawing..at least to me it does.
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Offline B.D.F.

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Re: A little work around the house..... basically building a new house.
« Reply #46 on: September 23, 2017, 03:57:39 PM »
23 Sep 2017, Saturday and the end of this week's work. Excellent progress this week, much of it <not> in actual building but a lot of problems solved and starting to build. The sole or mud plates are down and anchored, the foundation has been capped with concrete and anchors (into the sole plates) and the uprights and bearers, side and front, are in place. We worked through all of the 'it ain't square', 'it ain't level', 'it ain't..... anything' problems and found an acceptable solution on all areas that are questionable. The house is not square so it is not possible to build a square around it and maintain the same width; so I split the difference and picked datum points.

Overall, and this goes all the way around the side- door:



Foundation repair and prep, new face plates on porch floor end and sole plates down, along with the four uprights (4 X 4's) which will be the front / top wall of the porch (screened in):



One of the new bearer plates in position. Note the string, this will mark the bottom of the fascia when complete (still needs plywood and the other bearer installed):



It ain't as much as we had hope for but more than we feared might happen so overall, all is well. I worked with the boyz today to do the layout of the structure's end points; both the fascia as well as the roof peaks and the points where it attaches to the building; I have a rotary laser and receiver which makes life easy to 'shoot' lines anywhere / everywhere. The Egyptians did it with water but I prefer electronics. Here is to hoping I am as successful as they were (the great pyramids are straight, square and aligned to particular stars w/in 1/4": not bad for people who had not yet discovered iron).  ;D

Brian
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Re: A little work around the house..... basically building a new house.
« Reply #47 on: September 24, 2017, 09:45:33 AM »
That's great Brian, just think what your life is going to be like when this is all finished.  :)
You'll have to take up a hobby or sumthin to fill in all that free time. You can only polish your
razor collection, and your brass just so often. Hmmm..maybe motorcycles?...ya think?

...And if anybody notices the fudging (aka "split the difference") on alignment, tell them you aligned it with certain stars. They won't check it.  8)

Offline B.D.F.

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Re: A little work around the house..... basically building a new house.
« Reply #48 on: September 24, 2017, 11:51:44 AM »
It has gotten to the point where I really cannot remember NOT having this albatross of a project hanging over me like a cloud.

As far as the time goes, every now and then a C-14 will show up at a great price and I really have to force myself to turn away. I start to think I could sneak in a little riding here and there but really it just is not going to happen and I would just have another one in the garage, taking up space I do not have.

As to the fudging, the carpenter was really good about the whole thing. We went over the problems, picked a method to deal with it and he moved on quite nicely. Sometimes people get a little cranky working on things that do not lend themselves to fast and easy solutions but he adapted well. It is not all that bad, the sidewalk side is about 1" out- of- parallel, and that has been pretty well disguised with a Trax decking that hangs over the concrete..... a little more on one end than the other but it is not visible. And I already warned him that when he starts connecting the rafters to the main structure, he is almost certainly going to have to trim at least a few, and likely all of them, individually rather than making them all from a template. And so far, he has been quite reasonable about these little annoyances; a few things have added cost but I think his charges have been quite reasonable and I am very happy with the quality and method of his repairs / compensations so overall, I still think this project is progressing very well. Anyway, he will be back here 6:30 AM tomorrow (really) and has three days of clear weather by the looks to get a frame up and sheath at least the porch.

Oh and BTW, we talked to the woman who lives next door yesterday and she seems THRILLED by the porch being built. Poor people, living next to this.... this.... eyesore, and they are the neatest people on the planet. Seriously, their property is maintained perfectly and never needs anything- they take care of it before it starts to look shabby in the least and they are living next to this project. Shiver their timbers. But they are taking it fantastically well, at least it appears so when we talk with them, and it would be great if we could get the house sided this year to take some of the horror out of their lives.

Brian

That's great Brian, just think what your life is going to be like when this is all finished.  :)
You'll have to take up a hobby or sumthin to fill in all that free time. You can only polish your
razor collection, and your brass just so often. Hmmm..maybe motorcycles?...ya think?

...And if anybody notices the fudging (aka "split the difference") on alignment, tell them you aligned it with certain stars. They won't check it.  8)
Homo Sapiens Sapiens and just a tad of Neanderthal but it usually does not show....  My Private mail is blocked; it is not you, it is me, just like that dating partner said all those years ago. Please send an e-mail if you want to contact me privately.

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Offline Rhino

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Re: A little work around the house..... basically building a new house.
« Reply #49 on: September 25, 2017, 11:23:32 AM »
Hurry Bian... Winter is Coming...

Offline B.D.F.

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Re: A little work around the house..... basically building a new house.
« Reply #50 on: September 25, 2017, 11:32:01 AM »
We are dried- in and close enough to insulated on the first floor to winter over..... again if we have to.

The only thing that may be season dependent now will be plastering. They have a minimum temp. but even that I believe I can maintain as long as the second floor is dry-walled, which it would have to be to be plastered in the first place. I <think> I can maintain, say, 50F + upstairs even if the ceiling is not yet insulated, though the walls will be insulated because they have to be done before drywall goes there anyway.

Brian

Hurry Bian... Winter is Coming...
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Offline B.D.F.

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Re: A little work around the house..... basically building a new house.
« Reply #51 on: September 25, 2017, 04:06:38 PM »
Well, it is starting to look like a porch again. First though, some <perhaps> interesting photos of the old vs. new structure.

The building was originally built as a barn in 1905, and converted to a house in 1948. The original structure was post and beam, and actually very well constructed. But when whomever it was who came along and 'housed' up the barn got here, he / she / they had no regard or it seems understanding of building practices or even much common sense.

This is the front of the house with the original barn posts, the cross- braces, and the new floor trusses 'flying' over the original structure and anchored only to each side of the building (span is 24'):



The old, dark wood is the original structure, cut- off and the light colored trusses and cripples are new construction, built upon the first- floor cross beams. A closer look reveals some really cool things such as cutting a main bearing post entirely out of the building to put in a front door on what used to be a barn wall:



I believe this is generally called 'Running where angels fear to tread.' and it was a really, really bad idea. The entire second floor was cut up, as was the attic, again to make room for things such as walls and ceilings, without regard to structural integrity. Frankly, it is kind of amazing that the building stood as well as it did for all the years since '48 'cause it was certainly structurally compromised..... all over the place.  :o ::)

Anyway, the ceiling joists are in for the porch:



I had a little communication trouble with the carpenter and he cut the cross bearing beam off even with the front of the porch. That would be fine but the porch roof is going to extend out to the house width, and additional 24". Sigh. We talked about this and he wanted to build a 'ladder' to extend the roof-line but will use lookouts instead, that is the better, stronger solution IMO and IME, and is actually easier for him  if he stops where he is now and adds them. The front bearer can be sistered and extended the 24" to make the front rafter and joist bearer.

The sidewalk is framed in for the joists and rafters also:



The bottom of the front and side of the building will have hip walls, and the top nothing but 4X4's covered with vinyl sleeves and screen panels installed between them. The vinyl post covers are in place and once the walls are built, will be raised up and tacked in place. The objective here is to make the entire structure maintenance- free as much as humanly possible; all fascia, soffits, trim adn finish, wherever possible, will be vinyl, either siding or that really expensive 3/4" thick vinyl 'plank' and should not require any attention in my lifetime.

This shows the sleeves installed around the posts:



I do not have a decent photograph but the area just behind the outer wall of the building has also been insulated with fiberglass batts before the joist plate was installed. The gap was 24" and wide open to the world other than a 7/16" piece of Zip OSB so insulation will prove to be a really good idea I think.

Brian
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Offline B.D.F.

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Re: A little work around the house..... basically building a new house.
« Reply #52 on: September 28, 2017, 04:45:07 PM »
The crew is making good progress. As of end of business today, the front roof is up, complete and sheathed. Both sides are started and should be finished tomorrow.

We had a slight oppsie with the wiring coming down from the soffit: somehow, the three cables ended up in three different frame bays, one of which is NOT touching any wall:



They pulled that rafter out, slid the FIOS fiber optic over to the same side with the COX cable and all is well.

We cheated just a little bit and left the east side, the short hip side, fly 'free'. But it is only 24", and then it was reinforced with a pair of 2 X 6" lookouts:



From inside:



Note that those tails will be cut off and only the portion supporting the 2 X 10" ridge rafter means anything.

The front is sheathed, as is the west corner hip:





The east ridge (hip) rafter is in and a couple of side- rafters are in also:



These folks did a fantastic job of framing. This is what the inside of the porch structure looks like with hurricane tie downs in place, all joists and rafters in place, all hanging on the front bearer beam:



The front of the porch is now free of any scabs or any temporary supports and is fully supported by the permenent uprights. They are 4 X 4's with vinyl covering the upper (exposed) portion, which is in place in this photo:



Same but from the east side:



Tomorrow they should finish the framing and maybe the sheathing. Then it will be time for short walls on the front and east side, fascia and roof shingles. Time to trim and finish the ceilings inside also but not quite sure how we are going to do that- leaning toward vinyl sheeting and a simple flat ceiling wrapped around the building.

Brian
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Offline B.D.F.

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Re: A little work around the house..... basically building a new house.
« Reply #53 on: March 06, 2018, 12:24:42 PM »
6 Mar 2018: Long time, no updates  and little progress.

Fired the last contractor due to my inability to get what I wanted, and I was not willing to pay for what he wanted.  ::)  The entranceway roofline looks like church steeple, and he gaffed the roofline around the electrical feed.

Looked like this:



Long while finding another contractor but finally did and first thing, he tore down that ridiculous looking thing and replaced it with a new one. I designed this new layout knowing it would be asymmetrical and was hoping it did not look too ridiculous. It actually turned out far better than I had hoped!



Then ice and water shield, drip edge, and shingles and it is looking much, much better:

The new asyymetrical roof is also projected out one- foot from the building side, which provides a nice line- break I think. The inside of the triangle will be finished in the gray siding of the house and the rest will be white trim:





So the porch is dried- in and in fact, is being finished right now (6 March). But in the meantime, the gents moved inside the house and rebuilt the stairwell and stairway:

The old stairwell:



Gutted:



This turned into a pretty big problem because there is a closet under the 1/2 of the staircase, and there is a header in the way of the stair stringers. After a LOT of re- design, we ended up going with a plate- mount set of treads rather than stringers. This is the rough stairway (the 'real' treads will mount on top of these):







Ignore the furring strips standing vertical, they are dunnage just sitting there and not part of anything:



And the ceiling needed to be cut back to allow more headroom over the stairs to meet code. This required cutting out a header, supporting the old ceiling (which used to be the second floor floor) from the new second floor, which floats above it:



Not finished in this photo; the ends of the header on the right are now cut off flush with the stairwell:



And so we move slowly ahead. Porch is being finished now though snow / rain happening tomorrow so probably another break in the work. Typical for New England in the winter so nothing to get too excited over. Will post photos of the porch finished.

Brian
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Offline mikeyw64

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Re: A little work around the house..... basically building a new house.
« Reply #54 on: March 07, 2018, 12:57:07 AM »
take it you've come to an amicable agreement now with the electricity company?
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Offline B.D.F.

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Re: A little work around the house..... basically building a new house.
« Reply #55 on: March 07, 2018, 07:00:05 AM »
Nope. They left the threat dangling, and I went ahead with the project. I do not believe I will ever hear anything about this again honestly. I think it was just a 'small minded bureaucrat with a rule' in action.

Small potatoes in the scheme of things and we have to move forward.

Contractors not working today, storm passing through. Going to be a lot of precipitation and the big question is how much of it will be rain. The snow prediction stands at 5" to 8", which will slop all work until at least next week. But hey, New England in the winter is always risky and spotty working outside, some years projects are shut down for months due to accumulated snow. So far, we have actually had a very mild winter overall, with an especially cold, harsh December but I did not have a contractor at that time anyway so no construction time lost.

Brian

take it you've come to an amicable agreement now with the electricity company?
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Offline Pilgrim

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Re: A little work around the house..... basically building a new house.
« Reply #56 on: April 14, 2018, 08:27:56 AM »

What's new?

Offline B.D.F.

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Re: A little work around the house..... basically building a new house.
« Reply #57 on: April 14, 2018, 04:09:56 PM »
Well, a little progress, a little regress.

Got the porch done- finished, inside and out other than the siding (and any last strips of roofing, etc. that will go in with the siding, J-channel, etc.). The guys did a great job and they will be back mid- May to begin siding the entire house. They had some other work to do first but again, I am happy with them and their work so more than willing to wait the six weeks they needed.

New design on the entranceway; got rid of that ridiculous looking pointy- spire roof and went with an assymetrical design to knock the angle way down, as well as extending the other side (left side looking at it) further out as was originally intended. I was wary of it because it IS assymetrical but now that it is done, we are thrilled with the way it came out, how it looks and what the carpenters did. On their own, they included a thinner, partial return on the bottom of the triangle and I think that really adds to the overall look too:



Now, the entire interior, soffits and facias are done so other than siding, and painting the T-111 inside the porch sub- walls, and adding the doors on the west side,which I will do at a later time, it is finished. The header over the inside of the west side of the porch is where the doors will go.

From the west side:


From the southwest, showing some of the inside ceiling / soffits and fascia:


From the south, or the street view:


Now remember that little bit of regression I mentioned..... well, it seems I was walking down the new stairs when a 'sudden gust of gravity' came along. OK, I was walking backwards down the stairs, video recording the new hatches at the top of the stairs and gravity remained pretty constant if I am honest. But let me tell you folks, when you reach back with your next foot to put down on the landing but you are still one step up the stairs, it sometimes does not end well...... Fortunately, I did not break the video device (whew!) and the stone floor, steel door, and wooden end- table were there to break my fall. With a stiff constitution and clean living, I was able to shrug it all off..... almost.... except the left wrist. The pain was a little bit much and it was not very mobile the next day so I went off to a "Doc in a box" and had them take a look. Lucky for me, it was not broken, it was broken in four places! Also lucky for me, instead of wearing a silly cast for months, all I needed was a little screwing, which I thought was OK but it turned out to be nothing like I was envisioning (Easy Boys!). So last Tues., off to the hospital for a genuine titanium alloy screw put in my schaphoid bone to bind the three pieces together. Also required a small bone graft. I am supposed to be getting a "bone simulator", which I thought might be like Woody Allen's orgasmatron but alas, it is something I strap onto my wrist and it stimulates the bones to knit..... <sigh>

But the staff was great and we actually had a pretty good time although the anethsthetist was resistant to my humor (took four jokes to get him to chuckle; he rather liked the 'old man' jokes involving bodily fluid) and so I am back home, knitting. Not stimulating yet but knitting. Though this is one of the very slowest knitting bones in the whole body so maybe not knitting very fast.

I complimented the surgeron on an outstanding job of centering the screw, aligning the bones, and burying the entire screw head sub- flush. We cut a deal where he will give me the identical screw (Boys!) but in my palm rather than installed- I want a souvineer of this little debacle:





My son and D-I-L were kind enough to send me a little something for this event. For normal people, it would be a 'Get well soon' card or some such nonsense but I raised my kids right and they found the humor in this situation and so send along the perfect gift I think.....



So, in summation: porch done, ready for siding. Me not done, I need several more visits and perhaps a very disappointing version of a 'bone simulator'. The good news is that this whole medical episode, along with a couple of other diagnostic tests and evaluations, will kick me well over the max. limit for 'out of pocket expense' for the calendar year. Yea me! $18,000 for health insurance, a $2,250 deductible and the rest is free, all FREE I tells ya'! Please understand, I am not complaining, I had simply outstanding care through all of this and I am grateful such services are available, I am merely whining a tad, most likely due to the disappointment in the reality vs. the image of the 'bone simulator'......    :rotflmao:

Brian (glad to be living in a first- world country where truly superb medical care is available even to us peons.....)

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Offline Rubber_Snake

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Re: A little work around the house..... basically building a new house.
« Reply #58 on: April 14, 2018, 08:18:08 PM »
Holy cow, Brian!  I’m glad all is well now. 

You DID miss quite a few “easy boys”.  You mentioned: bone simulator, strap on* and stimulates in one sentence!  Yikes.
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Offline B.D.F.

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Re: A little work around the house..... basically building a new house.
« Reply #59 on: April 14, 2018, 09:13:34 PM »
Well, not sure about 'all is well now'; left arm / hand is about useless and wrapped in some nasty, bulky packaging too boot. Months away from a full heal / no splint needed or so they tell me.

And as far as the 'Easy Boys', well, I certainly do not want to over- do that situation.  :rotflmao:

Not sure if I am going to make it three weeks with this splint / covering on the arm either- it is already getting dirty and it has not been a week yet. Showering with a plastic bag wrapped around it works pretty well but I may get sick of the whole thing and cut the bindings off, keep the splint and re- wrap it after cleaning it (both the incision as well as the forearm). It really is the rigid splint on the bottom that immobilizes the arm and hand (and hence the wrist joints), so re- applying it with new wrapping should be as good as new. On the other hand, letting even a minor surgical infection go for three weeks is absolutely a mistake, and a big mistake IMO, so taking a look at the incision is probably a good idea....

Brian

Holy cow, Brian!  I’m glad all is well now. 

You DID miss quite a few “easy boys”.  You mentioned: bone simulator, strap on* and stimulates in one sentence!  Yikes.
Homo Sapiens Sapiens and just a tad of Neanderthal but it usually does not show....  My Private mail is blocked; it is not you, it is me, just like that dating partner said all those years ago. Please send an e-mail if you want to contact me privately.

KiPass keeping you up at night? Fuel gauge warning burning your retinas? Get unlimited peace and harmony here: www.incontrolne.com