I spent the better part of the day working with Kyle on his basement renovation project. Today we focused on framing. The future kitchen area posed the greatest challenge as we had to work around existing plumbing and drain lines. Almost every stud required special treatment and took much longer than building a typical wall. The results, however, were very satisfying and you can almost see the kitchen layout starting to take shape. Kyle has been a terrific apprentice and I would venture to say that he has graduated to an entry-level journeyman. He certainly looks the part with his tool belt and chop saw. We enjoyed delicious roast sandwiches during an extended lunch run to Mikey’s Famous Roastbeef. As we were wrapping up for the day, Kyle observed that we could expand the size of the new living room considerably by shrinking the mechanical room which will be possible with the new much more compact equipment.