Summer 2010

Summer has come and gone and the build continues. We have been able to get a lot done in these last few months. The plumbing is complete and just waiting for the water hook up. The electric service is about 95% complete - there are a couple minor issues to troubleshoot and we will be done except for all the lighting. July we lost a lot of time due to the electric inspection. Long story there but the electrician had an inspector come out an he wouldn't inspect - this after our electrician told us there would be no problems. He tried another inspector who was a no- show. After three weeks or so I got hold of the home inspector who came out and inspected without issue. Again, it goes to prove that if you want anything done right - do it yourself! Especially in this business.

Since we are doing this ourselves, we decided to do tongue and groove paneling on the ceilings in the kitchen and great room. Since the ceiling height is 18' and 21' respectivly, getting sheets of drywall that high would have been difficult. We bought unfinshed maple board at a great price and Kathy applied the polyurethane coating to seal them. It took us quite a while to put up but looks great! Kathy ran the saw while I set the boards and nailed.

Once we got the inspection done, we had the drywall hung and now we are in the process of finishing it.

Spring updates

February was a loss for production on the house. We had way too much snow - more than what has been seen since the 50's. Walking the driveway was very common over the entire winter but February was the worst!!

John had a new contractor bid finishing the outside of the house. That just got finished Thursday. The weather has been rather nice since the last snow 3 weeks ago. The remaining snow finally melted this week. There was about a 6' pile behind the house from John shoveling the roof. There isn't even a puddle now because it's been sunny and ridiculously HOT for 3 days. We had 80 degree temps! Hoping this was just a fluke an not a trend!

We took advantage of the weather and I painted 2 of the 4 fiberglass doors. John wiped the stain after it dried a bit. They are looking good! I'm by no means an expert painter so we have a lot of touch-up work that we will have to do. I'm thinking about doing something like stain glass treatment around the edges of the glass to add something to the door. Will look into but want to make sure the view is not obstructed.

Now we have to focus on finishing the inside of the house. We are going to have to talk to folks about plumbing, drywalling the peaks and possibly the walls, and possibly finishing the wiring once it's fully roughed in. The only rough-in left is the master bath, dryer, washer and the recessed lights.

January 2010 - New Year

We have been able get quite a lot done in the last five weeks on our own. We have got more siding up and I have been working on insulation. January has been unusually cold with lots of snow. Over the first 10 days, we got 42" of snow and there were a few days in the single digits. One evening I was putting up insulation and it was 8 degrees in the house!
Our electrician has showed up more that the contractor but that is not saying much. He has at least got the loft and second floor bedrooms done and finally wired up the heat pump and condenser. We tried the heat pump last weekend and it works good. I have the second floor bedrooms insulated as well as the loft so we can start drywalling up there soon.
I want to get the first floor wired as soon as possible - that way, as soon as I am done insulating, we can start the plumbing and drywall.
We do not have the wood burner ready to go yet. That has been much more work than I expected. We had to punch a hole thru the foundation for the flue. That was fun as we hit one of the cores filled with concrete. Once through however, it was not too bad getting the terra cotta pipe cemented in. On the out side, I had to cut a square out of the chimney for the cleanout and cement that in place. Also had to cut the flue liner to fit up to the pipe coming through the foundation, then cement everything in place. Once all that was done we could start laying the chimney block. Slow going. When the chimney is done, all we need to do it wire up the blowers and we can start a fire.

Years End

Christmas is a week away. There has been essentially nothing done the entire month of December. It appears that I am going to have to take over the finish of the house. We do have power to the house now and the trench is closed and all back filling is done. The HVAC crew put in the heat pump so the system is about 99% complete. They need to get power to the units so we can at least run the wood furnace. I am going to aks the electrician to get that done this week as well as a temporary outlet box on the first floor. The second floor is rough wired so once the first floor is done, we will be ready for the light fixtures. I started putting on siding about two weeks ago. It is not that difficult but when it gets too cold, the siding becomes brittle and virtually impossible to cut. As long at the temperature is over about 25 degrees, it goes ok, below that - not so much. With the holidays next week I probably won't get too much done but I would like to get more siding done and maybe lay some chimney block next weekend.
I would like to have the wood furnace fully functional by the end of January.

November - week one

We have had some good progress in the last two weeks. Since the last post, the deck is finshed (except the railing) the remaining windows are in as are the doors. We also had the trench opend up to lay conduit for the electricity and the sewer pipe installed. The trench is closed and we are waiting to the inspector to come out and inspect the electic service. Once that is done Allegheny Power can pull the cable and connect us up. Hoping the shingles and siding are next.

October

A month has gone by since the last post and quite a lot has been completed. The exterior does not look that different with the exception of the deck. The set the posts last week and have the entire deck framed in now. They should lay the boards down tomorrow and may be able to finish the railing or at least start on it. Inside, the electrician put in temporary lighing in the basement and started pulling wire upstairs. The HVAC crew also has the system about 70% complete. We have a heat pump and a wood burning furnace as the primary source of heat. The 'finish' framing inside is also complete and our stairs are in.

Main focus next week will be to get shingles on the roof, the last few windows in and the siding on.

We also started backfilling yesterday and installed double french drains. Fill in the back is almost done and the sides are close. They should hopefully dig the trench for the electric service tomorrow.

More Progress

A couple of weeks have gone by and the roof decking is done and for the most part papered. Started on the windows yesterday and are almost all in - at least on the first floor. Apparently, the deck is going on next so they will be able to put in the second floor windows. The electrician was up today to install temporary lighting in the basement. I will be starting on the basement finish in the next few weeks. I will be calling the HVAC contractor soon so they can begin.