Interior Work Begins

After the siding was done, the final electrical, low voltage and insulation work commenced.

Thanks to the heroic efforts of my Uncle Dennis and Cousin Colin, we ran over 1,800 feet of Cat6e cable, not to mention hundreds of feet of coaxial and some speaker wire. Now the house is wired for a great network and audio/visual experience!

But before the insulation goes in, and the walls get covered, I took 175 interior photos covering every wall and ceiling. Now, at any time in the future I can reference where pipes and wires are BEFORE drilling or nailing:)

Unfortunately, the plans for the house missed a required egress window in the basement, but nothing a concrete saw can't fix. Once that's in, the drywall begins, with interior painting in about two weeks. Things are getting real!

My Uncle Dennis expertly drills the path of a piece of conduit we ran from the basement to the attic. #futureproof

In all, we added 1,894ft of Cat6e cable, 238ft of coaxial cable, 184ft of speaker wire and 11ft of conduit. FYI: I estimated we'd need 1,815ft of Cat6e, 310ft of coax and 145ft of speaker wire. Nailed it.

All our runs terminated to this extra large LV box in the mechanical room, making it the network and audio hub of the house. From here....I can rule the world!

Michele and I swept and vacuumed the entire house so the place could be sealed. They now want houses essentially airtight, and in doing so, even seal the bottom crack of the baseboards of exterior walls.

Not to be missed, internal piping was sealed as well.

It was wild to see the insulation in. This is the corner wall of the MIL. Where you once could see through walls, everything now was isolated, giving you a better sense of the spaces. It was also eerily quiet. Our hope is that with this thicker insulation and z-strips, we can keep the sounds to a minimum for whoever lives in the MIL.

This is the spot in the MIL wall where a future door has been framed. Whenever we want to connect the two sides, we'll just knock out a 2x4 and slam in a door.

Exterior work started moving to finishes too. Here are some corbels. Gotta love that Craftsman look!

Siding started wrapping up last week as well. Some folks thought the house was going to be yellow. No. That's just the primer.

All sided up!

Look at those beautiful corbels!

Siding!

After some more delays, we're back to work.

Siding, electrical and some final framing has been done over the last couple of weeks. But a delay in getting the gas installed has set us back even further. Regardless, the house is really starting to get some character now!

The south wall is essentially done. Don't those caps look nice? :) Pay no attention to the corner...

Plumbing is basically done. It's incredible how much house materials have changed in just a short while. Now water lines are color-coded flexible plastic. Didn't know that.

The main water line. I explained to the boys that if there's ever a catastrophic leak, you run down here and throw this lever. Kind of like in this next photo...

(Actual photo of me training the boys to turn off the water main in our house.)

The new front porch started to take shape this past week too. First, some initial trim work.

Then another base layer of plywood before the seal is put down.

After the plywood, a super-sticky, rubbery grey goop stuff (official name) was laid down. Then on top, rubber popcorn pellets (again, official name) were strayed on. Later, a couple layers of gluey-sealer (office name) gets sprayed on.

This half wall ended up being quite the ordeal, with the framers having to trim all the 2x4's so the wall would expose the cool beam at the end and still be flush for drywall.

Another fun feature is this little nook by the stairs. Taking votes on what we should put in here.

This is the last thing our laundry will see before falling into the pit of despair (a laundry basket filled with dirty laundry).

The living room windows were put in too, and they look great. We liked the large front window of the old house and wanted to keep a similar feel.

For whatever reason, I was really excited to see the house get wrapped. It's like a warm blanket on a cold day.

Once the wrap was on, the siding guys came and started slamming out the hardy plank. They have these super light and cool raising platforms to make the work go quick.

Nothing like a trimmed window to get you excited!

Tyvek really knows how to market . My house is basically a billboard for their product over the next week.

The first siding! It's almost a real house!

No, this is not the color of the house.

Nice big main electrical box. I can see all my peripherals plugged in and charging nicely now...

I don't why I took this picture.

Back of the house with most of the trim. The hole is because a window needed to be re-framed.

This is the MIL entrance getting it's rain guard.

Almost ready for renters....in like 5 months.

And here's the house as of July 1!

Lots of Progress

Over the last couple of weeks, the plumbing has been put in, HVAC is mostly in, water and gas is in, and lots of little framing fixes and final touches have been done. Huge hat-tip to the new framers.

We passed our structural inspection the other day (Thanks Andy and Albert!), and now we're prepping for electrical install, siding and windows.

Along with the above mentioned projects, we also did a lot of work in the back yard to prep for landscaping, including moving the massive cornerstone of the old house to the opposite side of the yard. Enjoy!

Here's where we were about two weeks ago.

With roof done, the attic started to look really cool.

Before the HVAC went in, Dad and the boys bought Gatorade and bubblegum and sat in the attic for a Man Town party late one afternoon. Was a great moment. As Matthew said, "This is the best day of my life!"

The roofers left these great low-profile anchors in after their work. Now I can clip in whenever I have to go up and clean gutters, etc.

A nice sunset from the master bedroom window. When the sky is clear, you can see the tops of the Olympics to the left of the large tree.

The MIL will have its own heating source. Whoever has the first bedroom is gonna have to share closet space with this mini-split. Sorry! But its efficient...

The HVAC team started installing everything in the attic, which created this massive spider-looking like creation of conduit.

With the HVAC system  (gas, forced air) in the attic, that left lots more room downstairs for our family room and storage. It also meant a lot of the runs in the house go a lot easier to manage. Gonna get hot up there...

Front door!

Starting to get ready for the siding and windows. Exciting to see the house take shape.

The massive corner stone was in the upper left of this photo. I rolled it with excavator to its new home on the other side of the yard. You can see the compacted path it took in the dirt.

The new home of the old home's corner stone. This will be one end of a fun project I'm working on with all the stones from the old house's foundation.

Sweet, sweet precious backyard gas line. Never again will I have to fill up a propane tank. Never again...

Some of the old house foundation stones we're using to build up a garden bed.

Peter was a big help driving the excavator.

Last but not least, we've started building the north retaining wall. When it's done, we'll finally be ready to start on the west walls - the big ones along the street. Each of those stones weighs 80lbs...