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.

More Finish Carpentry

I'm kind of wishing we had done two of these special baluster panels per section, but I think it will look better when it's all painted.

Handrail going down an the wiring for the stair lighting sensor.

Big newel posts.  :)

Handrail on lower section

This is just to show a little bit of what the trim looks like.  I like how wide the baseboards are.  The headers for above the doors aren't ready yet.  In the basement we're just doing plain trim all the way around but upstairs there's something a little fancier.  I can't wait!

I didn't know there was going to be a big post at the landing in the stairway, but I like it. You can see the stairs all finished too.  The stairs, if you remember this far back, were kind of a joke for us because they were one of the last things the framers put in.

This is the little storage closet we ended up with in our closet because the hvac didn't take up very much space.  I am not in love with the pieces of wood put in to make the "adjustable shelving" here.  I think we'll take it out and find something else a little less clunky looking.

Trim around the storage cubby.  Hopefully someday we'll be able to add doors here to keep my year's supply of TP, soap and shampoo out of sight (although it's behind the door, so it's kind of hidden already.

Closeup for Kyle's benefit, of the wiring for his light sensor.

View of the railing from the front door.

This is where we throw the kids over if they're being naughty.  Eventually there will be a half wall bookcase here for my recipe books and whatever else.

Finish Carpentry

Master Closet.

 Cubbies in the master closet.  The other closets are all done or nearly done, but it was too dark to get good pictures of them.

Kyle has been painting the garage- just with one layer of primer, nearly done.

Interior doors and trim work.  Most of the trim is simple, but upstairs we should have some that are a little fancier- we noticed that the finish carpenters put the basic stuff up there too, so hopefully we get it fixed.

Basement hallway-all the doors in place are making it seem so much more real.

 The lower section of stairs has the new treads and risers.

Electricity and (a little) painting

We have a power meter.

This is the only time is will read 00000, because today Kyle hooked up the furnace and a couple of plugs, so now our furnace isn't being run off of an extension cord from my parents house.

Because we're so far away from the street we have this (box in the ground) transformer.

Kyle wired two plugs in the storage room so that we could plug in a vacuum, a light and a radio.  The two lights show that it's wired correctly.  Phew.

Vacuuming the dirt in the storage room.

First coat of paint in the storage room.

Hopefully two coats will do it.  The cement is pretty bumpy.

In other news, the drywall is done, and we've met with the finish carpenter.  He'll have a bid for us by tuesday, and after he gets started he'll be done in three days.  Then we can paint everything, and lay tile.   After several days of snow, it cleared up today, and I stood in the house in front of the windows and enjoyed the warmth.  I could almost picture being moved in, it's getting closer.

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.

Rock and Stuff

It doesn't seem like anything major is happening right now, but the little things continue to move along.  Here's what's going on right now...

Kyle is still working on the electrical.  It's taking a long time, but he's plugging away at it.  I'm sure he'll be even happier when it's done than I will be.  

The support for the fireplace is in.  Kyle also framed inside of it, it will be a  second small closet of sorts for A, since his room has the smallest closet.  The support will have a slab poured over it.  Then we'll wait until we sell our old house to actually put the fireplace in.  That will be really nice.

I love my front door...

The gas lines are all run.  We have a gas water heater and dryer and this gas line for the cooktop, and a gas line run to the patio for the BBQ grill.

The rock is getting close to being done. 

Close up of the rock- this is the east side of the house.  

Kyle put some supports down through the floor into the joists so that when he builds the stair railings, they're sturdy.

The trench for the water line got filled in, so we're waiting for one more utility to come and lay their line, then we'll be ready for the driveway (although I think we have to get the drywall delivered before we can pour the driveway, and we need to get the electrical done and have the 4-way inspection, and the insulation done before the drywall can come, so hopefully all that stuff happens soon while we have such nice weather.

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.