Paint and Electrical Progress

Half of the great room upstairs and E's room is "Napery".  We got the first coat on.  The second coat will hopefully go up on monday.

 I don't think Kyle was super excited about my idea to paint one wall up in the cooling chimney, but he went along with it.  He's a good sport (and a good climber).

We taped off the stripes in the boys' rooms downstairs. 

We put the second coat of gray on last night.  

 Kyle and I both did a little wiring.  This is one of the plugs I did. 

Kyle got some lights up in the storage room. It's amazing to have lights that turn on with a light switch. Now just picture this room full of food storage and a freezer.

More Siding, and inside work coming along.

The siding guys were back today.  They finished the back porch, and around the kitchen and dining area windows.  

This is the base for one of the porch lights. 

Last night Kyle spent several hours trimming around the new window.  It was decided that it was easier to trim around it than it would be to fix the drywall.  

He's also covering the 2x4's with plywood, then he'll fill the holes, caulk the cracks and paint it with the rest of the trim.  

This is the solar tube in our closet.  We have one in our bathroom and one in the hall bathroom as well.  He just has to finish installing the tubing and then attaching the bottom piece to finish it off.

I noticed that at some point (maybe the first day they were here) the siding guys put the ceiling of the porch up.  I can't wait to see the green siding with the rock on the front porch.

The last of the finish carpentry (I think)

The headers above the doors on the main floor were installed today.  Don't they look great?

Front door.

This window in the cooling chimney was installed awhile back but I can't remember if I took a picture of it.  The drywall people will have to come back and fix the drywall now.  It was supposed to be two windows, but we weren't able to get two windows with motors attached so we had to improvise.  There will be a switch to open the window and a fan to pull the hot air out of our house in the summer.

Insulation and Drywall

Kyle finished up the electrical last week, and the next day, we had the 4-way inspection, and a few days later, the insulation was done.  That same day, the drywall was delivered, and the framers came and covered the south wall with plywood (something to do with how much glass in on that wall).  

These are all kind of out of order, but here's looking up into the cooling chimney.  The exposed joists will be wrapped and painted to match the trim.

Standing in the kitchen, looking out to the living room.  The dry wallers only did the ceilings on the first floor on saturday.  Hopefully they'll come back on monday.  

The garage ceiling.  This picture also shows how the exterior wall insulation looks.  It's a plastic sheet, then they punched holes in it and blew in some sort of cellulose fill.  It's pretty cool.  Interior walls have the regular pink batting.  The insulators also sprayed foam in any cracks to seal the house up really well.  Joints on plywood, electrical boxes.  They were pretty thorough.

It's been awhile..

The water meter is in and the water line going to the house is down.  I'm not sure if it's actually connected up to the house yet or not...

We've had three or four different trenches dug up the entire length of the driveway.  It would have been nice if we could have just done one trench and been done with it, but all the different utilities needed their own trench apparently.  Now we're just waiting for gas or electric to come do their trench (I can't remember which one isn't done yet...).  Then we can cover everything up and be done digging up the driveway.

The rock guy has been prepping for putting the rock on.

The window came.

And were installed in an hour.  They were fast.  One window got broken during installation, so hopefully they come back and replace it soon.  There are two windows in the cooling chimney that we ordered from another company, so we could get them on an electric switch so we can open them by remote.  Cooling chimneys aren't very useful if you can't open the windows.

Just looking at the light coming through the windows makes me happy.  It was really warm in there even without the house being sealed up all the way.  The back corner was actually too warm.  That's why we have to have the layer of quickset and tile everywhere on the first floor- it will moderate the heat so it doesn't get too hot in the winter. I can't wait to see how it works, and if it affects our utility bills at all.

Kyle picked up the exterior doors, and Frank from our builder came and installed them.  This is the only one that was done when I walked home from school with CP.  This is the garage to outside door.  All the other doors are more interesting to look at.

The fire sprinkler people came and finished up in a day.  They still have to connect the system to the water source, but other than that, fire sprinklers are done.

Kyle finished framing the basement, including around all the hvac ducting.  

This is the shower for the guest bath, and in the background you can see my soaker tub.  Kyle's going to need it after all the work he's been doing.

They cut a floor in my living room and build a cement block wall to support the (future) fireplace.  It will all be covered up again, but it will be there down the road when we are ready to put in our fireplace.  

Kyle also ALMOST finished the roof.  He has to put a few pieces of flashing in, and shingle the top of the cooling chimney.  I think that's the plan for tonight, if he can get to it before it gets too dark..  Looks like rain and snow in the next few days, so hopefully he can get it all done.

The rock did get dropped off today, I'll have to go out and look later to see if they started putting it up.  

They still haven't done the stairs...

It's become a joke, that the stairs seem to be the last thing the framers are going to do.  It's okay because they've got a lot of other things done.

Roof extended over gable

I don't think the scaffolding is OSHA approved

Cooling chimney

Cooling chimney from inside

Finishing sheathing

Last sheathing to be placed

Cooling Chimney

I haven't told everyone yet how much I liked our architect.  I think that she did a great job and this is one feature of the house that I am excited to see.

South Elevation

The cooling chimney, located right on the top middle of the house, sits over our great room and, theoretically, during summer months when the house is hot and the outside air is cool, we will be able to cool the house with an open window and a ceiling fan located in the cooling chimney.

I didn't realize the coolness of the architect until I examined the truss plans.  Here is what the truss manufacturer gave us for the 3 trusses that will entail the cooling chimney.

Cooling Chimney Truss Design

At the top of the house, the cooling chimney will be 4'x4'.  Where it intersects the ceiling of the great room, it will be 4' wide, with an exposed beam in the middle, and go from the apex of the ceiling all the way to the top of the wall - almost 8' long.  After the drywall goes in, I will finish the exposed beam with some oak or other hardwood plywood to make it look nicer.

Like I said, I think our architect did a great job on the house, but I think that this is a superb job.  It is a nice feature that adds so much.  I am looking forward to this part of the house.