Happy Holidays! And some house blah blah.

Christmas may have come and gone, but it's not too late to wish you a belated Happy Holidays. Here's a little gem that made our Christmas a little merrier, courtesy of the Sani-can company:

Just picture a homeless man living inside and you're all set.

I think I will be keeping that card forever.

Things are happening in rapid succession at the new homestead. I'm pretty sure that nobody believes me anymore when I promise to take pictures and post them, but I do promise and I will I WILL! Rough electrical and plumbing is done and has been inspected, and the siders started working on Monday, beginning with installing windows, which is so very exciting seeing as how Monday was also the day it started raining for what looks to be a very long time. I have no other explanation for why this December was one of the driest on record other than someone up there wanted me to have a dry house. Sorry to all you agricultural types.

Jeff and Steve worked all day Monday laying out felt which will serve as the underlayment for the concrete on the main floor. Jeff tells me that the tubing for the main floor is all in place now, waiting for the final pour, which must be happening soon. I'm a little nervous for that, the concrete guy doesn't have the best track record at this point. 

All the siding should be up by tomorrow at the latest and then from there all the focus will be on the inside. I (finally) got our finish plumbing fixtures that I ordered a while back. Hans Grohe, I think you might be dead but that's not going to stop me from loving you (but not like that- ew). I still can't commit to any light fixtures, this might have to be decided with a dart and a blindfold. There was also a rather tense day (for me anyway) last week where I decided suddenly that the bathrooms should have marmoleum rather than tile flooring. And so it goes.

I'm including a photo I took on the 24th of our boarded-up house (to deter the thievin'). I wasn't going to take any pictures that day but Jeff wanted to have a memento of when our house looked, as he called it, like a crack house. So here you go:

No actual crack for sale here. Move it along now.

Surprising why anyone would want actual windows when you could just nail up some plywood, don't you think?

So, as always, more pictures to come. It really is starting to look amazing, though, and I'm beginning to believe it might actually be done someday.

Happy Holidays!

Thievin'

It had to happen sooner or later.

There have been some random things go missing from the job site, namely ladders that had been left behind and a crappy old cordless trim saw sans battery that I meant to lock in the POD but never quite made it further than the door. But in the last week the thefts have been stepped up, sadly around the time that the electrical work started. I'd been kind of worried about our plumbing getting jacked but most of that has been in for a few weeks now and the plumber has had no trouble. Of course, I'd been expecting copper pipes but what we got was PEX (I hadn't seen the bid), which is fine- PEX obviously doesn't fetch the high dollar that copper does.

Sadly, romex still has some street value and so the trouble has begun. Even more sadly, the first electrical items to go missing were the electrician's own tools- a ladder and nice floodlight, along with a big roll of Romex. Our friendly electrician, Todd Harding, arrived on site early that morning (6:30ish) to find those things missing and a big pile of all the unsecured cans and pretty much anything else of value piled in the driveway. Meaning that someone was coming back for that.

Now last night apparently some enterprising meth head clipped a bunch of already-run wiring. I say apparently because I haven't actually been there yet, but I am in the process of filing a police report and Steve & Jeff are in the process of buying a bunch of plywood to secure the doorways & lower windows. We are getting close to windows and doors, but they are to be installed by the siders who won't start until next week, and we can't put a garage door in until they have the trim up around the garage, so we are still a ways away from security, and Steve says the wiring must go on.

This may be a new house, but we aren't new to the neighborhood, so these thefts shouldn't have been surprising, especially in light of the home-away-from-home sani-can incident. Still, this kind of stuff happens and you have to start wondering which of your new "neighbors" is having a meth-tastic christmas at your expense, and if this kind of thing is going to go on, and on, and on...

Sigh.

I haven't taken any pictures lately, mostly because it overall looks pretty much the same except for plumbing lines and electrical wire. I do need to get some photos, and soon. I'm sure I'll be sharing them on the blog... sometime. Don't know how jazzed any of you are at seeing the details of rough-in. I myself can't wait to see siding and therefore windows and doors soon enough.

Framing is Done!

Finally, something goes right. Framing took about a week and a half, which seemed like practically overnight after everything that had come before. We especially appreciated the framers working over thanksgiving weekend in order to get things done quickly. It's a house now for sure!

Of course, since I took these photos, the roofers have come and gone, meaning we have a roof, too. I don't have pictures of that yet. Soon. I mean, it's a roof. Use your imagination.

I took the following pictures on an amazingly sunny morning last Thursday (?). The dry weather has been amazing, although I know it won't last. Two more weeks (or two months :)) and we'll have windows!

I think these pictures are in backwards order, sorry... Looks like we're starting upstairs:

Future master bath. Which is almost exactly the same as the main bath, plus a window.

Looking out from the master BR. Yes, that is a little balcony off the back. Yippie!

Bedroom #3. As seen from BR #2.

Laundry Room. I'm not sure if I'm more excited by an actual laundry room or by the window in the laundry room. Pretty sure it won't make folding clothes any more fun though.

I think this is the main bath upstairs.

Master closet. The original plans actually called for a bigger closet. Kind of like an extra bedroom.

Master BR windows. I did say random order, no?

Now we're on the main floor:

By the front door, living room looking into dining.

Where our entry level but still expensive gas fireplace will live.

Front door & stairs to 2nd floor. Sorry, no entry now- no one can get past a 2x4.

Future kitchen.

Mudroom at back of kitchen. It's pretty big but there is a wall just to the right of the frame.

 Back to the basement:

Egress windows along west side.

Main room in basement, looking east. Puddles drying up nicely.

Garage entry.

Car hole.

I'm pretty sure that special tree fence is never coming back.

In all it's glory.

From the back. You can kind of get a sense from this picture how much taller our house is than the neighbor's...

Tuesday (tomorrow) the plumber will begin the rough in, and heating is supposed to continue soon as well. The electricians are very busy fellows so won't start until late next week. From now on there will be a lot of things happening at once and the juggling has already begun. Fortunately Steve is on it like the pro he is. Our credit card has already had a major workout from buying finishes and we are just getting started. When this is all done we'll be able to fly somewhere nice with all those miles we're earning; too bad we won't have any money to spend once we get there :).

Here's hoping for lots of progress to show in the next few weeks...

Framing: End of Week 1

Framing has begun! And even though they were only able to work 3 days this weeks they got a lot done. It's really starting to look like a house now. Since next week is a holiday and all, I'm not sure if the framing will be finished by the end of next week, but at this point I'm starting not to care; slow progress is still progress.

So here are a few pictures from the end of the concrete pour and just before framing:

Basement floor in place

Still no fence around the tree!

This is the rough in plumbing and gaskets for the hydronic heat. There is a line of bolts you can see that will be a wall. That metal tie-down sticking up was supposed to be in line with the bolts. As you can see, it's not. Just another mistake by the concrete guy.

Shiny!

From the back

Close up of that tie-down. Oops.

The the framing started. Here's what it looks like as of Friday afternoon:

Still no fence around the tree. I don't know why I seem to be the only one who cares about this. Jeff told me that he was going to put it back up soon, but really, shouldn't the person who took it down be the one to put it back up?

From the front. The framers got to the main floor level, and have more then half of the floor joists in. Also, that little guy in purple is Gram, who was determined to kill himself on some dangerous implement as quickly as possible.

There he goes. Oscar was also ejoying stomping around in all the standing water from the recent rain. Boys.

The garage. FYI, we don't actually plan to park here.

Looking into the main room of the basement.

West side

This will be our amazing storage room. It seems so big now, but I'm sure it will fill right up when we put shelves & all our crap in there.

Stanfing at the front, looking toward the back down the hallway. There's that pesky tie-down.

Stairway to heaven. Or the main floor. Whichever.

View from the top of the stairs. Oscar said "you can see everything from up here!"

Basement bath.

This will be our tiny guest bedroom. Hey, at least we have a guest bedroom.

The main basement room. It won't always have 2" of standing water in it. Let's hope.

That's it for now. Hopefully we'll have a main floor soon, and then a second floor, and then a roof, and then siding... oh, my wish list goes on and on. But hey, yay for walls!

Next step: Framing!

I'm really looking forward to framing for a number of reasons. I think that after the house is framed, it'll look, well, like a house. Not to mention that the start of framing will mean the end of the foundation work, which has been not exactly disastrous, but also not the smoothest sailing ever. I have an excellent picture which will be posted in the not-too-distant future of one of two tie down straps which was poured into place in the middle of our future hallway floor. Oops! Missed the wall again. I guess no one should be surprised that the other tie down was put in backward. Sigh. At least it's over. Except for that tie down that needs to get fixed still.

The start of framing means that a bunch of other stuff is about to start as well. So far, between the bank taking their sweet time and the foundation guy taking his sweet time, I was starting to think I could take my sweet time making final decisions about stuff, like our shower fixtures, which I have been putting off deciding on because every time I try to pick something out it seems more and more expensive. I'm learning (as if I didn't already know) that I have highbrow taste and a lowbrow budget. Unfortunately, the valves are going to be roughed in in about 3 weeks time, so I'm going to knuckle down and hit up eBay or rob a bank or something.

I've also been doing a fair amount of obsessing over lighting. We're going to have a lot of can lights which I do like but don't care about, and then a few pendants in the kitchen & dining room. It's the pendants I'm obsessing about. I have spent countless hours looking at lighting online and in person at places like Rejuvenation and Schoolhouse Electric. Every time I think I'm making a final decision I find something completely new that I love, like barnlightelectric.com. With my options continually expanding, I think I could outfit at least 100 houses with lighting I love without any repeats. Not the worst dilemma to have, I suppose, but I'm starting to envision an house with maybe no pendants, just the junction boxes with the wiring hanging out for months if not years until I can make up my mind. Hopefully having an actual shell rather than just blueprints will spur me towards a decision.

While I've been doing the heavy work (ahem), Jeff is the one who has been actually dealing with the day to day activity of the foundation saga. Let's just say that I can't wholeheartedly recommend our concrete guy (who shall remain nameless, at least for now) for your foundation work. I believe he was actually fired at one point, but then it was decided that he might was well finish what he was working on, and then it was thought that maybe he should just keep going because at least he was a known quantity. And because he has already billed us for his entire bid, even though he has quite a bit of concrete work to do yet (main floor & both porches). All I can hope is there are no more tie downs for him to place. His track record's not so good.

So here's to new phases and new beginnings, and hopefully some swift decision making in the next few weeks. It's all going to go swimmingly from here on out, right?

One month in: Still pouring the foundation. With pictures!

 The title pretty much says it all. Our concrete guy is pouring the foundation in stages, which depending on who you ask, may or may not be the best way to do this. And when I say "stages," I mean weeks in between pours. There was even a pre-arranged week-long hunting trip in there somewhere where work came to a halt, but he got his elk, so I guess that's what's important. Now we are looking at the final pour sometime this week, with framing starting on the 14th of this month (that's November, for those of you who need additional orientation). I was looking at some of my old emails to various subs from a couple of months back indicating that framing was just a couple weeks away. Ha! Ha ha! If I have learned anything from this process, it is that "construction time" is something akin to dog years, where instead of 1:7, it is more like 2 weeks=2 months. Just my observation.

So now about these pictures. There are a lot, because I finally have taken the time to upload essentially 4 different stages. So without further ado, here we have:

Part one: Excavation!
One of my favorite parts of this whole process has been seeing the carefully constructed (and somewhat expensive) tree plan completely ignored. I can't remember anymore if there is a picture in a previous post of the special tree fence when it first went up, but as soon as excavation started, and pretty much every point since, the tree fence was moved/dismantled if it was at all in the way. Not exactly the point. Also at various points the tree guy would stop by and have a major hissy fit to whoever happened to be there at the time, with no increase in observation of special tree boundaries. I have not seen this in action but I'm told it is humorous. Below is the first of the fence moves:

It's a big hole, ya'll!

Temporary electrical and sani-can.

So here's a funny story about the sani-can. The first night it was there we left it unlocked. I didn't even know they could be locked, but it turns out they can, and for good reason. That first night was rainy, and when the crew showed up in the am, there were obvious signs that someone had spent the night in there. By "signs," I mean that this person had sort of mucked up the inside and left some used needles in the john. Yuck, I know. But he also left his pants. For reals. They're still in there. For reals. FYI, the sani-can is locked now, in case you were getting any ideas.

Someone who won't fess up put this peace sign on our electrical box. It says "imagine" on the bottom. I'm trying to imagine... a finished house.

Tree root. Oops

This is a pipe that will drain water away from the foundation and into a huge French drain in the back of the house.

Looking toward the street. More pipe.

Part Two: Getting ready to pour foundation (I think this was actually pour number II, as I think the footings were pour I, but I didn't take photos of that).

Forms

Big truck

Big boom on big truck. There was no actual pouring while I was there as the concrete truck was late, but this is how the concrete went from the concrete truck to the forms. Kinda cool.

What tree fence? Also, I'm standing on the tree roots!!! Ha ha ha!

Oh, there it is. Guess it was in the way or something.

Inside view. I have to say I totally loved the look of the forms.

Looking toward the street, and toward the action, had there been any action.

Forms again. Love them.

From the outside. This is the front of the house.

Right side of the house. Or the west side. Whichever.

Left side/east side.

Cool form holder thingies. I took a bunch of photos of these. I think the concrete guys thought I was crazy, taking all those pictures. Actually, I was wearing pajamas, so it probably seemed likely.

Back of the house.

I was parked right behind the concrete guy's truck. I didn't notice his vanity plate until I got in the car to leave. Look closely...

 Part three: Backfill.

There's a foundation! Well, part of one anyway. Also, to the right is the back of Steve Giansante, our already long-suffering "consultant." And Oscar on the right, inspecting some random piece of equipment.

Actual work occurring. Setting the egress window wells, I believe.

From the back.

Oscar! Also, behind him is a huge rock, one of several that were on the property when we bought it. The excavators actually took most of them away, which I was kind of sad about at the time because I thought they looked kind of cool, but then I saw this one still sitting there and was suddenly filled with regret that it was still there. I told you, crazy. No pajamas this day, though.

Oscar watching the action.

Filled with gravel. This turned out to be way too much gravel, as there are several footings within the foundation that have yet to be poured, so Jeff and Steve spent 2 days hand digging the excess out. Good times.

This stuff is waterproofing. The black is some sort of rubber-like emulsion, and the blue foam... I'm not sure what the point of the blue foam is yet. But I'm sure it's very important.

Inside. Look at all that gravel.

Egress windows for the basement. It was discovered a few days later that they were poured a couple inches smaller than they were supposed to be. D'oh!

 Part four: Continued foundation pour

More walls. This time for the driveway retaining walls.

Footing for the west side of the front porch. This was hand dug per the tree plan. Because the tree plan is so important.

Tree fence seems to be migrating back into place. Except for the places where it's getting in the way.

Window wells.

Inside view facing the street. There is concrete mesh laid out over insulation over (almost) everything, and the red lines are our hydronic heating tubes. The black section toward the front is the garage- no heat there.

Footings for back porch.

Inside view. You can see rough in plumbing for the bathroom (3 pipes sticking up on the right) and the rough in for the hydronic heat (just behind the 3 pipes).

Hydronic heat rough in. Someday there will be a boiler here, making everything warm.

Water line at the street!

Yay! You made it! The photo marathon is over!!! Stay tuned for exiting updates. Should be just a couple more weeks. Heh heh.