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.

Hampered by the Weather

The carpenters started to put the roof on, but it is slow going.  The roof has a 9x12 pitch and is pretty steep.  Too steep, in fact, for anyone to walk up it on just wood.  They have to attach 2x4s to the plywood to stand on and work their way up.  They are saying it will be 3-4 days just to sheet the roof with wood.  Meanwhile, it was really windy on Friday and snowed on Saturday, hampering their work.  They have also started on the interior framing in the basement, hoping to stay mostly out of the elements.  I was concerned about the weather hurting the house, but everything should be fine at this point.  Here are some pics.

A look at the front of the house as it sits now.



A look at a bedroom and bathroom in the basement with a lovely and excited Rebecca.  That room is under the Master Bath.



Here are the stairs coming into the basement.



Here is a shot of Rebecca standing in the downstairs Family Room.  This will be left unfinished.  We hope to make it into a Theater/Game Room eventually.



Here is a shot of the main floor family room.  You are looking out the back of the house at the fireplace.

Here is a shot of the back of the house.  You can see the 2x4s attached to the plywood so the workers can stand up and work on the roof.

Outside Walls and Trusses

We now have our ourside walls put up.  They got those finished so they could put the trusses up today.  There are a few walls up inside as well, however, when I took the pics, I realized that I didn't have the memory card in the camera.  Here are the pics I do have. 

Here is the front door and living room window.  In the original plans, the living room windown was three skinny windows.  We changed it to one big one to make window coverings easier.  It turned out bigger than we expected.

Here is the extra deep section of the third car garage.

Here is a shot of the whole garage.

Here are the trusses being put in.  This is the front of the house.

Another shot of trusses being put in.  Right in the front of the picture is Noah's room.  Sarah's is next to it.  They are placing trusses over the garage.

Here is the trusses being put in over the garage.  These will make up the bonus room over the garage where we will have a bedroom and 3/4 bath.

Here is the covered patio.

Here is a rear view of the house.  On the left is the covered patio.  On the right is the fireplace with the windows Rebecca loves.