Finish Carpentry, Stucco, and Paint

Well, its been a couple of weeks since I updated, but that's because a lots been happening.  Unfortunately, its all been stuff that just takes a while to finish.  They got through mudding and taping around the 16th or so, but that seemed to take forever!!  They kept on adding more layers of mud and round-corner edging and it just seemed to go slow.  The tile guys also showed up that week.  I happen to go to the house during my lunch break one day and found that they had laid out all the mesh subfloor in the kitchen/dining area.  I quickly had to stop them and told them that we were putting laminate in there, not tile.  I guess there had been some miscommunication.  That would have been messy to pull all the tile back off the floor! Good thing we caught it just in time. The next week (week of the 18th), the finish carpenter arrived to put up all the trim and finish the closets, stairs, railing, etc.  The finish carpenter was pretty nice.  He took me to the closets and asked how we wanted them arranged.  I told him that I wouldn't mind shelves in them instead of so much hanging room.  He readily obliged and didn't even charge us extra!  We have some pretty pimped out closets now! :) This week (the 25th), the painters are in and painting.  They won't be done until next Tuesday.  Also during this time, the stucco guys have been working.  They got our house all prepped up by putting the chicken wire base on the exterior walls, tented the whole place up (to help the stucco warm and dry during the winter months) and took off.  About a week later, they showed up to actually put the stucco on, and then a week later they put on the color for the stucco.  It's been frustrating having to walk under a tent in order to get in the house.  The first time they had the tent up, I walked around the house looking for an opening.  One of the workers saw me and showed me where the opening was.  As I walked in, crawling through and dodging all the scaffolding, I heard a faint hiss.  I stopped and looked down.  In between my feet pointing strait out was a propane torch with a five foot flame heating up the area.  One more step and I would have lit my foot on fire.  Anyways, here are the pics.

Here's Rebecca checking out the trim in the Master bedroom.

Here's part of the Master closet.

Here's one of the kid's closets that they added shelving in.

Here are the stairs and railing that go to the bonus room.

Another look at the stairs.

This is the railing that looks down on the kitchen.

The finish carpenter also put in a toybox for Sarah's room.  She is so spoiled.

The painters have primed the house and painted the trim and doors.  This is the back of the Front door.  The front of it is painted a different color.

Here is the Master Bath in the middle of painting.

Here are the extra trim pieces laid out for paint.  They will be installed after the laminate floors are in.

Here are the doors set out for painting.

This is the closet and extra shelves in the bonus room.



Here is the house after the tent was lifted.  It still needs facia, soffit, gutters, and cement work, but looks mostly done.



Here's a view from the other side.



The rear of the house.




The other side of the house.



Finally, the front of the house.  It is so difficult trying to pickout brick, rock, two stucco colors, soffit color, and door paint that matches.  Hopefully, everything works out.

The Brick is On!

This week involved finishing up the mud and tape phase of the interior and then beginning the exterior finishes.  The bricklayers showed up on Wednesday and finished up the brick on Friday.  It was interesting to watch the brick go up because the bricklayers had to tent up the sections of the house they were working on and heat the area to allow the mortar to set properly.  Friday afternoon, the stucco guys showed up, set up their scaffolding, and then left so they could begin on Monday.  Saturday, the rock guy showed up and set up some of the rock on the archway just outside the front door. Here are the pics:

Here is the "before" picture.

And the "after" picture.  The brick runs halfway up each side of the house as well as sections of the front.  The rear will be exclusively stucco.

Another shot of the brick on the garage.

The rock on the archway.

Another picture of the rock being set.

Sheetrock, Mud, and Tape

This week, the four way inspection was passed off by the city on Monday.  The builders started sheetrock on Wednesday.  This really made a difference in the way the house looked.  They started around lunch time on Wednesday and sheetrocked the basement that same day.  They worked their way up throughout the house over the next few days, finishing up at the end of the day on Friday.  Friday afternoon, the tapers showed up and taped all the seams Friday night.  In fact, we had gone to Temple Square that night and on our way home, stopped by the house.  The tapers were working by worklights at 8:00 pm.  That is one thing I have been impressed with so far with this builder, there haven't been too many wasted days and people work long into the night and on most Saturdays to get the house done.  In fact, today (Saturday), the tapers were mudding with a new coat of mud on all the seams and the screw holes.  They put the bullnose edging everywhere today as well.  Here are the pictures.

Here are Josh and Daniel checking out the mayhem of the sheetrock crew.

Here a worker is cutting out the windows in our Master Bedroom.

Here Rebecca is checking out Josh and Daniel's room.  (They will probably still share a room because Becca wants a craft room.)

Daniel checking out the basement bedrooms.

The kitchen and garage entry with the edging and first coat of mud on.

One of the workers mudding the house on stilts, something I will never be coordinated enough to use.

The Master Bedroom.

One half of the bonus room.

Here is the current view of the exterior of the house.  There is plastic and wood on the garage door openings to help keep the heat in the garage to dry the new tape job in there.  The furnace is on as well in the house to help dry the mud.

Plumbing, Heating, Electrical, Roof, Insultation, Etc.

Well, a lot has happened in the last two weeks.  The framers finished up at the beginning part of the week before last.  The plumbers were the first to come in after that (Wednesday).  They did their work in about a day, even putting in our tubs, which was kind of cool to see.  Later on that week, we had a walk through with the electrician to go over what outlets we wanted where and what upgrades we needed done.  Man, they really do get you with those upgrades.  Anyway, the heating guy came in over Friday and Saturday that week and put in the heating system.  We are having them put a zone system in where the bonus room will have its own thermostat, the main level will have one, and the basement will have one.  They all run off the same furnace, though, so that is cool.  Hopefully, we can save money with it and keep the house temperatures under control.  Bad thing about it was that there was a lot more unexpected duct work that had to be run which makes our ceilings in the basement a little on the low side, but it's still workable.

On Monday, the electrician came and put in the electrical.  Man, does he work fast.  He finished up on Tuesday morning and they had the four way inspection on Tuesday.  I had a few things I wanted to put in the house, electrical-wise, myself to save money.  Nothing big, just some speaker wire in the ceiling and more ethernet connections in all the rooms.  I got a call on Monday late afternoon that they were going to put insulation in on Wednesday, so I needed to run my wire on Monday and Tuesday nights.  Well, Monday night was pretty much shot already, but my brother in law Bryan came to the rescue with some lights and labor.  We were able to run all the ethernet wire that night, which was a lot of work.  Thanks Bryan!!  Then on Tuesday, I took half a day off of work to run the speaker wire into the kitchen.  I had to get on the top of my ladder to attach the wire to the trusses in the vaulted ceiling (about 18 feet in the air).  I am not good with ladders, but was able to get wire enough for four speakers in the kitchen.  I wanted to run some in the family room as well, but my bravery and the daylight were waning, so I called it good.  On Wednesday, the insulation guys came in and put the insulation in.  I spotted a spot that needed insulation for sound proofing, so on Friday, I came in with Josh and Daniel and put some insulation in the wall between the family room and the master bedroom to keep the TV noise to a minimum in the bedroom.  That was fun, and I found out how much a pain in the butt insulation is to cut and work with.  Still, it only took me a couple of hours to put it in, so over all it wasn't too bad.  The next day, Saturday, the roofers came out to put shingles on.  When I went into the basement, I noticed that there was no insulation in the ceiling in the finished area.  I guess it is considered an extra, not a standard.  I looked at the time and it was about 4:30 in the afternoon.  Great. So I grabbed my headlamp for light, got in the truck, and ran to Lowes to pick up, yet, some more insulation to put in the ceiling of about 1/3 the basement.  Some is better than none.  I remembered to get my respirator and my coat and gloves.  I forgot about goggles.  When I worked on the wall in the upstairs, it was in an open area and my eyes weren't bothered by the insulation.  Not so in the basement.  I bought two bags of precut batts and it was all I could do to put those in with fiberglass falling down into my eyes.  My eyes were stinging the rest of the night, but the insulation is now in place.

Here are the pics of the work (except for the basement work, which I haven't taken yet.)



Here is the roof with the tar paper up.



Here is Rebecca's new jetted tub.  YEAH!

Here is one of the kid's tubs.

Our 2nd Washer and Dryer hookup in the basement.

Ductwork, Ductwork, and more Ductwork!!

Wiring for my control center at the desk we are having put in.  I added two extra ether net cables, 4 pairs of speaker wire (for speaker use or general use), and a coax line for a cable modem.

My new ladder getting good use running extra wires.

The fireplace is added.

The roofers are putting on the shingles, a job I would not want to do!!

Insulation in the Garage under the bonus room.

My wall of insulation that I installed.

Framing is almost done.

This week the framers worked on sheeting the roof with plywood, not an easy task.  This required filling in the gaps between the angles of the trusses to blend the roof together.  They also have almost finished framing the inside.  All they have left to do for framing install the windows, hang the front doors, and finish up some work in the basement and the bonus room.  They should have that done tommorow and then HVAC, electrical, and plumbing can start this week.  They had a mixup with the front door, so we are waiting to get the right one.

Here are all the windows waiting to be installed.

Same with the doors, although they delivered a nicer one than we ordered.  Hopefully, we get to keep it.

Here is Matthew looking out one of the bonus room windows above the garage.  This will be a toy area/guest bedroom.

Here is a shot of Rebecca in front of the 3/4 bath in the bonus room.

This is the view of the kitchen/dining area from the bonus room entrance.

Here is one main level bedroom.

Here is another main level bedroom.

Here is Becca standing in the Master Bedroom.

This will be one of the downstairs bedrooms.  The framing isn't quite done here.

Same with this one. A basement bedroom without framing yet.

Here is the one basement bedroom where the framing is finished.  Just to the left is the basement bathroom.

Here is the view of the great room from the entrance into the bedroom area

Here is a shot of the back porch.

Another shot of the back of the house with all the roof sheeted with plywood. 

Here is the view of the front of the house.  It has changed a lot in the last couple of weeks!

Here are the boys doing their usual playing on the dirt pile.  I don't know what we will do if the builder ever hauls it off.