Plumbing and Electrical Rough In

Well, the rough in is not complete, but we are moving forward...  Actually, both of these will probably be finished in a relatively short time, so then the work on low-voltage wiring, ceiling insulation, and cleaning / sealing the floors will need to be done...  That will take some time as I am doing all of that, but we are moving forward!

Here are some pictures of the plumbing / wiring progress...

Laundry Room and Kitchen...

Half Bath and Master Bath

Family Room / Living Room Wall

Getting Cold Again

Quite a bit of the snow around the house melted over the last few days, but it got cold again last night and today...

Here are two pictures of the "mud pit" around the house is now in the middle of (currently frozen mud)...

And, here are a couple of pictures of the dog house.  The dark gray is caulk over the screw heads on the roof, and the dark brown is weather stripping to seal it up when the roof is closed.  It isn't finished yet (we are actually going to insulate it)...

Thank God for My Wife!

You may have noticed in various pictures that there are places in the house that are very clean, and others that are very disorganized with tools, wood, and junk scattered around...

Well, if you see a clean area, then my wife, Dawn, has been there...  She cleaned the entire living area a few weeks back, and today, she worked on helping clean up the garage / workshop.  She has done a great job, and it really does help because now I won't be tripping, losing things, and maybe I'll be able to maintain some sense of order now that she has worked so hard to get things cleaned up...

And, she took a couple of pictures of me working on (or in) the dog house...  It is a double dog house, and it will be insulated all the way around when I'm done.  My wife said she thinks it will be a nice place for me on occasion...  And, as you can see, the roof will open to clean it out, so I will definitely fit...

Here are the "before" pictures in the garage today...

Here are some after pictures...

Here are the pictures of me in the dog house...

Door Frame for Furnace Room

Well, it has been cold here, and we have some snow -- it is very pretty out there, though not ideal for working in an unheated house...

I was able to get most of the frame made for the two sets of double doors of the furnace room.  This room will house the furnace in one side and it will hold the plumbing manifold, water softener, bottled water system, and, eventually, the central vacuum system in the other half.

Because that area needs to be warm, I am insulating it from the garage, and so, I am going to actually make doors to fit this area, and I will put insulation inside of them instead of normal hollow core doors.  I am building these for under $200 for the frame, doors, insulation rather than trying to find these prehung.  Since it is the garage, I'm not all that worried about what it will look like, but we can paint them just to cover up the imperfections -- since I'm no cabinet maker!

Here are some pictures of the snow and the door frames.

And, we did make some progress on the dog house also...

Dog House...

Well, we haven't made much progress this cold weekend, but we were able to start building another house -- a dog house...

We have two dogs that we need to get moved from the house in Tennessee, and they will need somewhere warm to live...  So, we decided to spend some time building a double dog house that we will insulate, and they can keep warm...  We are also building an area where we can put their dog dishes that will be somewhat sheltered...  It looks like quite the dog mansion!  It will have carpeting and a front porch (where the dog dishes will set)...  We have the frame just about finished.

We did do some other little things this weekend, but we had to spend just a little time there each of the last few days because it was just too cold.  Here are some pictures of the dog house frame...  The camera viewer is broken, so I can't tell when it is centered -- hence, the last two pictures are not what I intended...

Brrrrrrrrrr!

Guess we're not going to get much done this week!

I was wanting to get the heat in and turned on before too long, but it turns out that I can't get it turned on until I have the insulation done...  Because we're using Geothermal loops, if we turn the heat on without the insulation in, it will be like heating the outside, and we risk freezing up the ground where we're drawing the heat from, and that would last through the rest of the winter!  And, so I thought we could turn it on and off just to take the chill off when we're working, but because we're using radiant heat in the concrete slab, we can't risk having the water in those loops freezing up, and cracking the slab!

So, we're sort of stuck right now...  We have to finish the plumbing and wiring rough in (A/C ducts are already in), and get it inspected, then we can put up the 1.5" Styrofoam insulation, and THEN we can get the heat turned on...  We can have the geothermal loops installed, and the furnace itself installed, but we just can't have water put into the radiant pipes and turn it on until after we're done with the insulation...

I've worked on insulating the furnace room this week so we can get the drywall up in there, and get the furnace put in.  I'll try to get the plumbing and wiring moving next week when things are a little (stress LITTLE) warmer than they are this week...  The high today was single digits, I'm sure, and the high for tomorrow is supposed to be 3 degrees...  It isn't as cold as a lot of places, but the garage doors are not in yet (on order 2 weeks ago), so the wind is keeping the place really cold...

We may be in a holding pattern for a little while here at least until I can get the garage doors in, and hopefully, we can get some of these things done pretty quickly after that...  We'll just have to be patient for a little bit...

No pictures -- they would all be white right now...  Not to mention my finger would have problems pushing the tiny button!  Can't push it with gloves on, and my fingers barely work without gloves!  Check back in a week or two, and maybe I'll actually have something new...

Grading, Tiling, and Septic Line...

No pictures today, but we were able to get some good work done today...

We completed the tiling and started trenching it away from the house -- as well as getting the septic line out away from the house to where the tank will be placed.

We had to get the mound of top soil moved so we could have the geothermal lines put in, so that is taken care of...

We are going to be able to get the driveway finished around to the garage doors now, too...

So, even though it wasn't a lot of work, it ties up some loose ends and allows us to get the heat in, the driveway in, and the septic, not to mention having the rough grading done...  It is pretty muddy and yucky right now, but we'll have to wait until spring to seed and try to make it pretty...

Silent Night...

There was an unusual calm tonight as I walked to the van.  The snow floated softly to the glistening blanket of white that covered the ground.  It was a reminder of the "Peace on Earth" that was declared by the angels that special "Silent Night" so long ago...

And, I was able to get a little work done before enjoying that scenic walk to the van...

I was able to get the insulation in the ceiling of the furnace room tonight.  I'm trying to get the insulation done and ready to have the drywall done so that we can go ahead and have the furnace put in...  I'm ready to have the heat turned on!

Here are a couple of pictures of the ceiling of the furnace room -- though they aren't very good pictures...

Saturday

Well, it has been a few days since I posted anything.  A few things have been done, but not a lot.  We have power in the house now!  Both boxes have main power, and they added an outlet right below each box to make life easier until they get the house wired.

I also was able to mount both the well pressure tank and a dehumidifier on the basement wall (just in case the sump fails -- wanted them up a little ways).  They also put lights and power into the basement, so that area is looking pretty good -- other than being filthy because of the times it was flooded because I didn't have power to the sump...

I've also added some shelves to my workbench -- trying to make it a little more organized since I keep losing things!  We also got the lights stacked in the corner of the garage a little more out of the way than before...

Sorry -- the lens cover wasn't all the way opened on these first two pictures :(

Cold Tuesday and Wednesday!

Well, we did find the camera, and so I'll load a couple of pictures, but we're still not moving as fast as I would like...  It's mostly me that is moving slowly, but I have to keep my day job...

So, here is a picture of the front of the house with snow yesterday...

Here is are two pictures of the "control room" where I have my office set up right now...

And, here is the outhouse...

Slow Monday

Well, still haven't found the camera -- that's ok -- not a lot to show anyway...

We were able to put the well pressure tank up on a shelf in the basement so that when the sump pump fails, it will take more than 3 feet of water to trip that circuit breaker.

We also worked on putting up insulation on the wall that divides the living area from the storage room / garage areas.

We did some picking up outside to make it look a lot better especially from the road.  The house living area is very clean -- my wife did a lot of work sweeping several times as I keep tracking mud around the house...

I relocated the port-a-potty to the back corner of the garage, and put up a couple of pieces of the insulation to provide some degree of privacy, and maybe a little less "breeze" :)

We started to put together the pieces of wood that snap in to look like window panes, but we found that they are about an eighth inch too wide, which seemed odd to us...  We called our supplier, and are waiting on them to find out what we should do...

If we are lucky, the power will be put in to the main boxes inside tomorrow, and then we will be able to have water from the well!  That will be great because then we can start power washing the floor...  Hopefully, the color will come out, and we'll be able to get it sealed soon!

Sunday Odds and Ends

When we had the phone and internet set up, we got a bundle which included satellite TV, and so the dish was actually isntalled on Saturday (yesterday), and we got the receivers then also.  So, we had the dish installed on the meter center outside, and I have cables running inside in the same conduit as the phone / DSL line.  Today, I finished putting the ends on the cables both inside and outside, and hooking up the satellite boxes...  Now I can watch TV while taking a break...

Also, we bought a cheap toilet seat, and I used a Home Depot bucket and a little bit of scrap wood to make a port-a-potty...  I'll try to post a picture tomorrow ;)  My wife thanks me very much ;)

I also put an outlet strip and a light (along with a switch) on my workbench.  So, I just plug in the workbench, and I have light and power...

While I was working on the workbench, my wife was sweeping and vacuuming the house, and it is beginning to really look nice.  We plan to work on power-washing the floor and using a heater and fans to dry it so that we can get it sealed.  That will be a major milestone!

Sorry, no pictures today -- couldn't find the camera -- it's probably somewhere in the van which has become my roaming workshop...  Or, is it a dumpster on wheels?

Long Saturday...

We had some things done today, but no pictures to show for it :(

We had a little bit of digging done for the conduit to be laid so that we could finish getting power from the meter center in to the two main boxes inside the house.

Also had some caulking done to finish sealing up where the ridge cap meet the corner caps.

Then we finished getting all the remaining rooms cleaned out and swept.  We will need to sweep it again before we get ready to seal the floors, but it does look 200% better now!

I also was able to get a lot of the scrap from the siding and trim picked up on the outside...

Every day is just a little bit of progress, but it sure doesn't seem like much to write about it!

Siding, Trim, Downspouts Finished

Today, John and Irvin Miller and their guys finished the siding, trim, and downspouts.  We have been almost done for quite a while, but they were able to get all the little details finished up today, and it was a nice warm day for it too!  38 degrees here right now!

Note that I still have many of the deck and porch railings to finish, and it turns out that the shutters were about 4 inches too short for the windows!  So, we will be returning them and getting some the right size...

 

  

 

Pictures -- desk, shelf, work bench...

Well, I finally remembered to bring my camera -- AND I am here AT THE HOUSE using the new DSL to make this blog entry...

I build a little desk off a wall in the "control room" -- where the phone, satellite will come in and the computer modem / network will be located...  Also built a little shelf for the DSL modem and router (to be installed)...

Then, I built a big work table that is free standing, and will later be my workbench.

The siding on the front of the house is complete except for the porch gable, and I finally got a couple pictures of that.

Note the all important coffee thermos that my family got me for Christmas :)

 

Work bench...

 

Happy New Year! 2009? Wow!

Well, this is the year -- we will certainly be completing the house this year!

Forgot to put the camera in the van this morning, so pictures will have to wait until tomorrow...

Here are a few of the things we have gotten done the last two days...

• Siding on the front of the house is done -- except the front of the porch gable.
• Some of the trim covering the deck and porch headers is up.
• We had the phone line put in and I have run that into the house now -- DSL, 2 satellite cables and an extra CAT5 cable...
• Built a temporary shelf for the DSL modem, router, and power strip.

Not a whole lot, but we are getting ready to really start moving...

Hopefully, this will only be another two months, but stay tuned...  As a first time builder, I'd rather take my time and get things the way I want them rather than get done quickly, and then wish that I had done several things differently...  I'm sure we'll still wish we had done some things differently, but that would be even more true with a "real" general contractor!

Stay tuned for pictures tomorrow evening!