Day 185ish

Today, Briana and I worked on the concrete floors!  Cleaning and rinsing and acid etching and rinsing and rinsing and shopvaccing and sealing.  The first coat of sealer is on in the laundry room, mud room, kitchen, pantry and tv area.  I'll get a second coat in all those rooms and a first coat on some of the other areas.  Saturday and Sunday I built the front patio roof and stalled the metal roof.  It looks great!  Another thing I did today was make all the connections for the radian floor system.  I will fill it and purge it tomorrow.  Then all we need is power and we can start heating the floor.  We have been running the wood stove when we are out there.  It gets pretty toasty!  I'll post some pictures when I get them loaded from my phone.

A

Day 172ish

A lot has been happening at the house since the last post. Elec, plumbing and HVAC got roughed in. Sheet rock is done. I'll start spraying the inside walls today if I get out of work on time.
My dad I put most of the tile backer board up Sunday. The wood stove is installed and ready for a fire, but it's covered in plastic to prevent overspray. When the walls are painted we'll fire it up.
The septic lines are in. Just no tank yet. Hopefully this week. Power will be connected to the house by 12/2!

Day 152 - Outside

So here are the pictures as promised.  I wanted to wait until the weekend was over so all the work could be seen.  The rocks are not there yet, but will be soon!  The front door is in!  The west wall of the house is DONE!  The south side of the house is in the works!  The roof is closer! The chimney/wood stove will be installed this week!!  And so on and so on!

This was the end of day 152

So now that you know what the exterior plans are you can start thinking and wondering what the inside is going to be like!  Sheet Rock will go up next week and then paint and trim!  Still a lot to do, check back again soon!

A

Day 150 - siding, front door, etc.

So yesterday was day 150 since breaking ground! On that 150th day we got one exterior wall (the biggest one) completely completed. Siding, trim, paint, everything! Today (Sunday) we will break down the scaffolding and set up on the front of the house and continue. We also finally installed the front door. It looks amazing! I will post pictures of everything at the end of the work weekend.

A

behind the scenes...

It has been a few days since our last update, but alot has been happening. Exciting, productive things. The plumbing and HVAC have been roughed-in and the electrician started working on Tuesday. The rate that Joe Hecke and his team have been working, they will probably be finished this week. We've gotten backfill in around the house and up to the garage. Our septic tank has been installed. We also got a second septic tank installed. Insert toilet humor here. (Side note, Milo loves the word toilet). The second septic tank will be our rainwater holding/collection tank. I'm very excited about this! All of our {future} gutters have been run to the tank and we will be able to use the rainwater to water our garden. We had discussed a large above ground cistern similar to the picture. I love the look of the galvanized cistern, but the second tank seemed to be an easy alternative and it is below ground. Picture is by Texas Metal Cisterns.

Next, we will prep the interior for the spray foam man to spray under the trusses for sound proofing and the 2' section of exterior wall where the trusses are. Soon after we hope to have drywall!

This weekend hopefully, the rest of the siding will go up and I'm in charge of priming the cedar battens. Joey, at Sherwin-Williams was a heap of help and I'm pretty sure I asked all the questions I possibly could muster. We will use an oil based primer on the cedar to seal them before we install and paint them with an acrylic based paint. I've got to call our rental place for scaffolding today. So, that is it in a nutshell.

Siding

Started hanging exterior siding today!!! It was too windy to put the upper tyvek on.

A

Day whatever.....

I ordered the siding today. I hope to finish wrapping the house this weekend and start putting on siding panels. The roofing materials arrived today and started prepping the roof for the metal. The plumber got things laid out today too. More ducting is in and getting closer. More info and pictures later this week.

A

Day 117 - Chain smoking.....

Since when is it OK for someone to chain smoke in your house?  Even if it is under construction. 

The HVAC guys today thought it was OK.  We informed the company that we didn't appreciate it, and they were very apologetic and informed the workers to refrain from smoking in or near our home.  Now I just hope they install the system correctly.

Master bathtub.....

Duct work started.....

Vents.....

Air handler.....(ERV is not shown)

A lot did get done out there today.  I can't wait until I get to work this weekend.  Plans are to put on the Tyvek, extend the entry roof to cover the front porch, and put the little roof over the breeze way between the house and garage.  Should be a fun weekend!

A

Cross section of the Rheem Marathon water heater we purchased.  WOW!

We installed windows and doors this weekend.

I am really starting to get tired.  I might take a weekend off soon.

A

Pictures from the weekend

Just a few pictures for the weekend activities.....

Saturday

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Sunday

So, I guess we are in the dry as far as the roof goes.  Installing windows now and doors as soon as they arrive.  Good times!

A

Roofing underlayment.....

DONE!!!  So I guess we are in the dry.  And 2 windows installed! Only 16ish more.  Very exciting!  More windows going in tomorrow, and I'll post pictures.

We will order our metal roofing this week.  Get the plumber in to rough in his part.  Then HVAC and electric.  In the mean time, I'll get the house wrap and exterior trim and get started with all that as the windows get finished up.

A

Weekend plans.....

Weekend list:

• Go to storage unit to get windows and garage doors
• Cut SIPs for window openings
• melt foam and place 2x4s in window jams
• install windows
• spray foam, caulk & flashing tape around windows & other cracks, etc
• finish roofing underlayment on garage/shop

Anyone think I was talking about a vacation or some fun activity in the subject line?  Hopefully fun activities will be an option in the next few months!

A

Day 104 - In the dry? Almost!

Quick update:

All SIP panels are up!  Roofing underlayment is on the main house and one strip on the garage/shop.  The Skytrak is gone for now.  This weekend:  cut out window holes and install windows, finish roofing underlayment, and more!

A

Roofing underlayment, etc.

I started attaching the roofing underlayment last night after work. I got the entry roof done and most of the master bedroom roof done. I hope to get the garage/shop roof panels installed this weekend. This is the last weekend I'll have the skytrak unless I renew the rental. Things are starting to move fast now. It's really exciting!
A

Floor Plans

upstairs plan

main level

Finally, here are the floor plans. I resisted putting them up because I needed to bring back AutoCad skills from four years ago. Changing the background of my screen to white so I can export the image. Sounds easy, right? Yep, but I haven't used that part of my brain in awhile. So much for my college education....

We've been making some changes on-site, so these plans are totally accurate, but close enough.

Adam's shop really is that big....big enough his own personal bar. A bar he can stand behind! (A silly side note.... when I was working as a designer we had a client that was very adamant that he had a bar that he could stand behind. He was very passionate about that bar).

There are several things I'm especially excited about that doesn't convey on the plans. For example, we are going to have a laundry chute from the boys bathroom to the laundry room below. In theory, I think it is a great idea. Although, I'm a bit concerned that one of the boys will somehow find a way down it via rope or pushed by the brother. I'll post the front elevation in a bit!