Philip, Jen and Peyton's Pages

Rough ins almost complete this week

This week in updates, we have had a lot of progress not only outside but inside, too.  On the outside, the roofers have completed our roof.  It looks great and we can now imagine how it will look next to the green siding.  Also, the foundation got its finish this week and it looks great (picture below).

Inside, there is a lot of progress.  The electricians began their rough-in and completed it this week.  HVAC rough-in was started and almost complete.  We expect the air handler to be installed in the ceiling today.  All of the duct work was installed and some of the returns were installed last week.

I had a good conversation with the builder last Thursday.  They are expecting structured wiring, security and HVAC rough-ins to be complete and an inspection to occur on Wednesday.  After that — drywall.  We are also expecting vinyl siding to be installed this week.  The roofing crew was getting preliminary measurements as they finished up the roof on Wednesday.  So we expect the job site to be “stocked” with new materials mid-week and alot more progress after that.  Sometime next week, drywall may be complete.  I expect that will take us well over the 50% completed threshold!  So, it is exciting and everything continues to move much faster than expected.

Lots to update this week

Unfortunately, updates on the site have slowed.  I have been a little under the weather, but I have a batch of photos and a quick update of the progress from this week.

Early in the week, the house was wrapped with vapor barrier and the roof was completed and felt was laid on the roof.  The windows were delivered and put into the openings on the house on Tuesday.  Later in the week, they fully installed the windows.  Shingles were delivered on Thursday and are sitting on the top of the roof.  It has been raining today, so guessing that shingles will be laid next week after everything dries out.  Also, the main support posts were installed for the porches this week.

On the inside, the plumbing rough-in was completed this week.  Electrical boxes and the main power panel in the house have been put into place.  The reset of the electrical rough-in will be completed this week, too.  Some areas (like behind the fireplace and behind the tub/shower inserts) were insulated.

Raising a roof

Yesterday, as expected, the crew began raising the roof of our house.  Early in the morning, there was a crain on site to begin placing the trusses on the walls.  By 10am (the first picture below), the main section of the house looked to be in place.  By the time that I made it to the site (shortly after noon), the crew was already gone and all the trusses were lifted in place.

There is still a bit of work to do with the roof before it can be sheeted and ready for felt and shingles.  Most of this work will probably be done by hand with the crew, rather than requiring the crain.

Slab poured, foundation complete — now time for some walls!

To my delight, I drove out to the new homesite and found that the slab has been poured for the house and both porches.  When I got out to the site, the crew was busy taking down the edges of the porches and setting everything up to cure.  I am so excited that everything is poured.  Our family Bible has been encased in concrete in the block foundation under what will become our front door.  Friends of ours suggested how cool it would have been to slide in some photos along with the Bible, so that has lead us to a new idea for our kitchen – aka the heart of the home – but that will stay an surprise for now.

Preparing for the slab

This week, everything is heading towards the goal of pouring the concrete slab for our house on Wednesday morning.  Yesterday, the crew was on site laying down plastic vapor barrier between the fill sand and where the concrete will lay.  The plumbing that we had seen over the weekend was complete and all additional plumbing within the rooms will be done in the wall.  The crew was also digging out under the load bearing walls and adding rebar to those areas where a deeper section of concrete would be poured.

Today, we expect an electrician to be by to put in a couple of floor outlets in the living room.  I assume that it’ll only be conduit of some kind installed.  After that, we should have an inspection and once that is complete, the pour should happen tomorrow morning.

I can’t say that this is an exciting week, but I know that once the concrete is poured, we can proceed with walls and that is extremely exciting.  More to come…

Foundation, fill and plumbing

It has been a very busy week out on our property.  At the end of last week, our foundation was nearly complete and over the weekend, Harry (the builder) began putting fill into the block foundation.  On Monday, several more loads of sandy fill were loaded into the foundation and everything was brought up to a level and compacted.

After the fill was mostly complete, the plumbers began digging the fill back out and running the wastewater pipes and supply lines for water in the slab.  As of today, it looks like almost all the plumbing in the foundation is complete.  I see a few supply lines missing, but the plumbers may just not be finished, yet.

The next step is getting the electricians to run the conduit that they will use to bring power to the breaker box, a couple of floor outlets in the living room.  After that, one side of the foundation needs to be blocked (this is the side they are using to load in fill dirt) and then I think we are close to being ready for the slab to be poured.  So things are coming along.  Below are a few photos from this week’s progress.