A Warming Trend

It's actually been pretty cool in the mornings and we had a heavy cold rain last night. I think the warm summer is officially finished! But the temperature inside the hosue has definitely gone up!

Got all the insulation today! Blow-in in all the exterior walls, Batts in the lower floor ceiling for the in floor heating, Batts around the bathroom and laundry for soundproofing, and Batts in the existing crawl space. The blow-in performs better than batts on the exterior because it feels voids better around wires, plugs, etc.. It all makes a huge difference already. It's quieter and feels more like rooms. Even with the big openings it is warmer inside already. The T&G cedar is going on the outside at the Lower Patio and Upper Deck. We had a slight delay due to some material issues but we are moving ahead now and it just looks beautiful! A little stain and it will just pop. Note that we are not triming out around the doors and windows. The idea is to keep it simple and clean, just carefully cut the T&G and be done. Also note the window at left is the larger window for the second bathroom. Anyone need a 1'-0" x 3'-0" Pella sliding window? Brand New :-)

I need to get some pictures of the Mechanical Room. The Boiler and all the rest of the equipment will be in tomorrow and we should have heat by the weekend! PLus Gas and water service shuld be hooked up tomorrow. We are getting ready for sheetrock asap!

Too Tired to Write!

Couple of long days at the jobsite juggling lots of different trades on the job and working on numerous tasks.No more temporary power:-) Permanent power goes over to the right corner of the garage and actual outlets work in the house! My buddy Russ brought over his tractor and we rough graded the front yard too!We dug out the old rock pile and started building some new rockeries in the Front YardThree small rockeries terrace down the wall out front

Photo Update

The guys got most of the front done today. They patched in exisiting siding down below and finished the side of the front porch. The old siding looks a little dark in the picture but looks great "in person". It was a lot of work to save and sand down the old bevel cedar siding..........plus it probably cost us way too much! But I am glad we did it. It reminds me of what we started with but will integrate well with all the new work. All that is left is the areas of smooth Hardy Panel with flashing trim(area w/black paper). This should be in next week.

Permit Approvals, as in Many!

A big day at the house. We had the city inspector by and got multipile items approved and signed off:

Electrical Rough-in - Had to add one plug but otherwise no problems

Gas Piping - Straight forward/done

In Floor Heating - All the second floor tubing, piping and thermostats approved

Framing - All the framing for the house approved

This sets us up to do the insulation and drywall next. Everything is moving along nicely :-)

Plus the siding continues. We are actually 100% done with the garage/west side and the front of the garage now.

Electrical, Deck Covering & Siding

All the electrical rough-in is now complete. This includes all the low voltage stuff, ie speaker wiring, cabling, phone and TV. Here is the bundle of wiring for the speakers throughout the house. Ready for a centralized system if the budget allows :-)

The first coating is on the deck for the waterproof "Elasto Americ Coating System". After four coats we will have a finished waterproof tile patterned no slip membrane. Pretty impressive
to watch the process.

Front door is rough cut to width. 4 feet wide and eventually 8 feet tall. This should give us a very dramatic entrance!

The back of the existing portion of the house has been re-roofed and the siding has been patched. Plus the bevel siding has been installed above.

The front of the house has the bevel siding installed. I really like the look of this. It will make for an interesting mix of new above the old existing siding, which will get filled in to the right on the lower level.

Imagine if You Will.........

Plumbing might not be too exciting but if you have a little imagination you can see a great Master Bathroom Shower stall!Three knobs spaced abuot 20" apart with about 22" to each side of the shower One overhead "Rain Shower" and two wall mounted shower heads, his and hers :-)


A little tough to see but the Hardi Panel "Board & Batten" siding is 90% complete on the side of the garage. This will be painted a uniform color when completed. This siding also goes on the front of the garage and at the side of the Entry. I really like the way it is turning out.


The 5/4 x 12 ledger continues around and lines up with the deck trim. A nice clean look.

I would take a picture of all the wiring and the new gas line but it's really not too exciting yet. Wait unitll we finish out the electrical. I did run gas for a gas stove top, two outdoor heaters on the patio, one outdoor wallheater on the deck, a gas fireplace, and a gas BBQ!

Living Right

We must be "Living Right" Since our roof just got done on Friday and it has spent the last three days in Seattle raining pretty hard, off and on! Having the roof feels gooooood :-)

Got the electricians started today and I finally got some temporary protective covering down on the concrete floors. This will save them from getting all beat up during the construction.

Tomorrow there will be four crews onsite so wish us all a peaceful and productive day :-)

1. Plumbers - Back to adjust the location of the Master bathroom shower heads. A minor thing but we might as well get them right where we want all THREE of them.
2. Framers - Working on the siding, specifically the Board and Batten Hardipanel siding on the side of the garage. I have simplified the elevations and eliminated all of the metal and will go with the B&B instead. Looks good.
3. Gas Piping Installer - We finally got the outside meter relocated so now we can run all the inside gas lines for the boiler, future fireplace, etc.
4. Electrician - Running all the wiring, cabling and speaker wires. Plus wiring the panel

MIlestones

So today was an exciting milestone, especially with rainy weather heading our way. The roof is now 100% complete! If you haven't been through a major construction process in the Northwest you really can't feel the importance of this! Let's put it this way. A couple of weeks ago we had a pretty heavy rain shower and I woke up in the middle of the night, from a sound sleep, which is a rare thing, and then couldn't get back to sleep. I heard every rain drop and imagined it soaking all the beams and framing inside the house. We have had a great summer for construction and I have been spoiled. We only got the place wet a few times and it is nice to know that it is no longer an issue to worry about.

The siding is now going on and the in floor heating and plumbing are both roughed in. Next up is the electrical rough in and the gas line work. I am trying to push things along so we can be doing the drywall sooner than later :-)

As a side note, school has started again around here which means lots of people walking by the jobsite since we live three blocks from a school. It's nice to hear all the positive comments and the framing crew has been commenting on all the house tours I have been giving :-) Hopefully one of those will lead to more design and construction work!

Spiral Staircase and The Roof

The Spiral Staircase from Craigslist was a little short but I wouldn't let that deter us :-) After a ferry trip to Whidbey Island, borrowing a big truck and a full day of running around, we negotiated a deal and brought it home! It is now in place on the corner of the deck. It worked out real slick.We are going to build up a support for the post and a few steps coming directly towards the camera. In the end it will work out real nicely at a fraction of the cost for a new one!

The roof is done and as you can see it looks just fine. It's not as attractive as a metal roof but at about half the price it saved us some $. Plus this is really the only view you see any of the roof.