3/21/2013 Things are moving along quickly in my absence.

3/21/2013

Things are moving along quickly in my absence.  The crew has finished framing the basement and installing the stairs.  No more sliding down that muddy hill outside to get into the basement through the lower walkout area.  Watersource was in yesterday putting in all the HVAC ductwork and cutting in for the registers.  Today the plumbers are coming back to finish the rest of the rough-in and do some partial shower installation in the main bathroom.  I found out they do not do shower pans, so I will have to tackle the custom sized shower base in our master bath, along with all the tile work myself.  Tomorrow the electricians are returning to finish the rest of their rough-in, so we can line up insulation and drywall. 

Real indoor stairs to the basement now!

Framing for windows and the lower level walk-out.

Lower level rooms all framed and ready for future expansion.

3/14/2013 As I predicted earlier, everything is happening at once

3/14/2013

As I predicted earlier, everything is happening at once now.  We were going to move ahead quickly to finish the basement floor, because so much revolved around that completion.  I ran a little short of Radon rock and had to send for some additional.  As this was being finished, we decided to push for the weekend with a finished floor, which required, in order: finishing the Radon rock leveling, putting down the two inch insulation, having the Geothermal folks come in and lay the in-floor heat, followed by the concrete pour.  In this part of the Northland, as Spring approaches and the frost begins to leave the ground, many of our county roads have their weight limits reduced because of the softening ground.  This thought occurred to me in the middle of laying insulation on the basement floor yesterday morning, so I called to ask about it.  Timing is everything because we found out that the limits went in to effect the next day.  Had we missed that little deadline, we could not have gotten our concrete trucks in for weeks.  Several hurried phone calls got the Geothermal folks in that same afternoon, and the concrete company the day after.  The cement trucks were given a grace period to finish on the same day as the restrictions went into effect.  The floor will be ready for foot traffic tomorrow, just in time for our first building inspection.  Starting Monday, the crew will frame the basement, install the stairs, and will be followed quickly by HVAC, plumbing, and electrical completion.  Yeeha!

Laying the floor insulation on top of the Radon rock

Putting down the in-floor heat system.

Four inches of concrete will be poured over this heating system.

Concrete going down.

Pour complete.  Final finishing work was being done about 3 hours after this was taken.

3/8/2013 The roofer finished shingling today

3/8/2013

The roofer finished shingling today, and the cupola is on the peak.  The plumbers were in yesterday and roughed in about 80% of the house.  Can't do anymore until we get the basement floor poured.  With that in mind I started spreading Radon rock in the basement this afternoon.  Tough manual work, but gratifying to see something moving forward, no matter how slow.  We should be able to finish the rock and have most of the insulation down on the floor by the end of the weekend.  Then we'll be ready for HVAC to come in and lay pipe for the in-floor heat.

Basement plumbing roughed in and starting to spread Radon rock throughout.

3/2/2013 No work today

3/2/2013

No work today, but drove out to the farm to check on the furnace and fuel supply and see how the basement thawing in coming along.  The frost and ice is melting nicely, and we're hoping it will be sufficiently defrosted for the plumber to do his thing on Monday.  Plus Debra wanted to see the interior results thus far.  (We're already measuring for furniture placement :-)  The roofer is almost finished and just has a portion of the garage to complete on Monday as well.  We finalized the last details on our kitchen and placed the order for the cabinets today.  One more batch of back-ordered tile for the entryway, and we'll have everything except the hardwood, which will also be ordered this coming week.  Like I said earlier, pretty soon everything is going to start happening at once and we may have to push some items back so we can get in and do the parts we want to do personally.

Having the shingles on really makes the house appear more like a house.

Looking about half way back up the hill from the south.  We've already discovered this makes a fantastic sledding area.

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3/1/2013 Finished all rough carpentry inside yesterday

3/1/2013

Finished all rough carpentry inside yesterday and the crews are out of here till next week.  The roofer came back today and says he will be finished by Monday.  Electrical showed up today ahead of our scheduled appointment.  It was my impression we were going to do our walk through only, thus giving me time to ask questions and let them know how much we intended to accomplish on our own.  What actually happened was they showed up over an hour early and had already installed quite a bit of the electrical before I even had a chance to talk to them or express our intentions.  Misunderstanding on both our parts, but things are back on track now.  The temporary furnace in the basement is working very well.  I think it's safe to say, we'll be thawed out enough for the plumbers to get back in to do rough-in by Monday.  Once that basement floor is finished, things will start happening too fast to keep track of.

Shingling the roof.