Moving Along at a Steady Pace

We are down for the long Memorial Weekend. It is HOT here, been in the 90's every day. We work some in the early morning and seek out air conditioning in the afteroon/ evening. Good thing I put A/C in the camper, makes it a nice place to get out of the heat and for sleeping comfortably.

See the pictures below for the progress we have made and what we have been working on.

Here is the A/C condenser to go with the furnace. It is a 5 Ton 16 SEER unit, can't wait until that is up and running, sure will be nice but that is a couple months away at this point.

"The Girls" as I call them came visiting again this morning. They are around all the time and we see them almost on a daily basis.

They have started framing the "back" porch. This is an 8' by 30' gravel floored porch so I have a place to put my tractor implements to keep them out of the weather without taking up shop space.

We brought the boat down with us this trip, it is in the "storage" area with the mustang now.

These are the door handles and lock sets for the exterior man doors and the doors in the shop areas.

We started staining/ sealing the windows and window frames. The windows are wood on the inside so we wanted to seal the wood before the drywall goes up and the dust gets into the wood pores. We chose a very, very light stain, mostly clear with urethane for color and protection.

The rough-in for the wiring is nearly done in the house, we have 45 recessed/ can lights that have to be installed and a few other odds/ ends and the electrical will be roughed in. Should be done by the end of next week. Then they will start on the rough-in for the shop areas. I am just having the garage door openers wired and one light in each room for now out there.

A shot of the front of the house this morning as the sun came up.

We will have "county" water. Our water tap has been installed down at the road. So I put a water hose connection on it so I can go down and fill up water when I need it. We went down this morning and filled up some water barrels and my sprayer for weeds/ bugs. From this location, it is 1,400 feet back to the house, we will trench that back some time over the next few months, I am in no big hurry since I know it will mess up the driveway again. But at least this time, it will be summer and should be dry.

The House is SOLD!

We closed on the old house on Wednesday 5/16 at 5:15PM. On Thursday 5/17 at 3:40PM we received the call that the title ownership had officially transfered. On Friday 5/18, the net proceed funds had showed up in our checking account, nice!

So that major milestone has passed and we are very happy and in a good place financially to finish out the new house the way we want. Overall not a bad experience when we look back. We had 21 showings in 9 weeks and negotiated an offer and everything went fairly smooth during the sales process.

Time to shift focus South. We took the Mustang down and put it into the "storage" room. We completely cleaned and removed everything from it and told everyone hands off that room and stay out. The only person that will now need to go in there is the Electrician to run power to the garage door openers and install some lights/ outlets. He drives a Mustang and knows how much mine means to me so he will be extra careful I am sure!

Lorrie and I ate our first meal on the front porch last night and really enjoyed a nice evening together just the two of us. She is mailing off a letter to her customers tomorrow informing them she will no longer be taking appointments after Thursday June 28th. After that time she will be able to spend more time at the land and more actively participate in the building process, especially the finishing process when we get to select all the finishing touches.

The Plumbing, HVAC and Electrical are about 70% roughed in. We are targeting everything being roughed in by about Friday June 1st. Then we will need to insulate, then we will be ready for drywall. I estimate we will start the drywall either the week of June 11th or June 18th.

The Mustang in its new home!

Porch, windows into my office and the "front" door.

Back side of the porch, left lower windows go into our master bedroom, upper window into one of the two upstairs bedrooms, first left window under porch is above the kitchen sink, the door and right window go into the dining room.

Electrical getting roughed in, in the kitchen.

HVAC duct work and plumbing getting roughed in, this is in the ceiling of the hallway bathroom.

Furnace in the "utility" room. We went with a HEIL unit, 95% efficient, 125K BTU.

Start of the PEX water pipping in the utility room. These pipes go to the upstairs bathroom sink and shower.

Fireplace, Porch and Electric

The fireplace has has now been rough framed in, the front porch concrete has been poured and the two 200 Amp power feeds have been pulled into the house. They have also started to frame the roof of the porch and should finish that today, then start putting the metal roof on the porch. The eletrician will be back today to finish mounting and wiring the two main electrical panels, by end of day today, we should have power inside the house at the panels.

Heading home today so we can move everything out of the house and into storage. By the end of this weekend, we should be moved out of the house. Closing still set for next Wednesday.

Fireplace rough framed, need to put pipe in, then ready for mesh, plaster, then stone.

Pouring and finishing front porch concrete.

Trench from power pedestal to house conduits.

Conduits inistalled, closest one feeds house panel in utility room, the far one feeds the electical panel in shop areas.

Framing the roof on the ftont porch, going to be nice for some "front porch sittin".

Electrical panel in shop area, mounted and nearly ready to be energized.

Moving Step 1

Everything is still a go for the sale of the house in Streetsboro. We moved everything to Christopher's apartment over the weekend. Unless something comes up last minute, we will move everything else out of the house to storage this coming weekend. Then next Wednesday 5/16, is our loan closing and we will have officially sold our old house!

I moved the camper from in front of the electrical pedistal in preparation for the trench to be dug to run electrical to the house. Concrete is/was supposed to be poured tomorrow for the front porch but it is supposed to rain tonight and tomorrow so I doubt that will happen. The weather still looks fine to dig the trench for the electrical on Wednesday, we will see.

Shop area siding, 2/3rds complete, still have the back side to go. Looks great.

Finally starting to look clean and finished. Just need to get the front porch poured, then framed/ roof on, then the remaining doors and windows can be installed and we can be weather tight and secure.

Moving Right Along

The 7 garage doors and their openers are installed and working, every mans dream "7" garage doors! The windows and exterior doors were delivered and the first exterior doors have been installed in the shop areas. All the shop walls are now framed including the framing for our walk in cooler in the deer processing area. The electrician has started and as I type, is continuing this evening installing the boxes for outlets, switches and light fixtures. The front porch concrete did not get poured, though they are ready. It was too hot today and the first delivery time slot of the morning was already taken and it is taken for the next couple of days. They have it set up for Tuesday morning next week. Also, Wednesday morning next week is set up to dig the trench from the power "pedastal" to the house, then the conduits will be laid and the two 200 Amp feeds will be pulled. By the end of next week we will have power in the house!

I have now selected the plumber, HVAC and boiler contractor (same person) so that work should start hopefully next week. We need to get the rough-in for those going also. I talked with the drywall person today and gave him a heads up that we are within 4-6 weeks being ready to start hanging drywall if all goes well.

Two storage areas doors done.

4 front garage doors done.

Some of the windows and exterior doors, ready for installation.

Framing for walk-in cooler being finished, can't wait to install the cooler!

First electrical item being installed!

Front porch leveled, plastic down, mesh panels down, ready for concrete next week.

First exterior siding being installed. The bottom 3 feet will be Green, the rest of the siding will be Ivory.

Chillin!

It has been hot here this week, 90+ today and hotter tomorrow, sooooo, I broke down and bought a window air conditioner. Now I'll be "chillin" in my redneck home away from home.

More Great Progress

I was away for a week at the HDI Conference, before I left, we had our annual "shooting weekend". We usually have it at Kyle's farm but this year I invited them to our place. We shot various weapons, drank plenty of beer and did a shot of Jack to the late George Reichert 2nd. We miss you George.

While I was away, they made great progress. The soffets were framed and the actual metal facia and the soffet materials were installed, the upstairs walls are all framed, the small walls around the shower stalls are now framed, the great room stairs are now "roughed" in and usable and the cedar posts for the front porch are all in place and ready for concrete.

The garage doors are nearly complete, the installers started on Friday and now have 3 full days invested, they estimate a half day tomorrow and they will be all wrapped up.

The crew is working on framing the interior walls of the shop areas and have one wall complete and another nearly ready to stand up. The windows and exterior doors were delivered today and a load of gravel needed to finish preparing to pour the concrete on the front porch and a portion of the metal siding was delivered today also.

The electrician is starting tomorrow, the crew will finish framing the shop walls and prepare for pouring concrete, currently planned for Thursday. Then they will begin framing the roof on the front porch and shortly begin framing the fireplace.

The most exciting news, we have a "SOLD" sign out front of our house in Streetsboro. We close 2 weeks from tomorrow and so far, no show stoppers or major surprises. Still waiting on the appraisal and one plumbing inspection, then we are home free.

The shooting weekend crew, from left to right:
Me, George Reichert 3rd (aka G3), Danial, Kyle Perry and Christopher

Cedar 6x6 Front Porch Posts, Set and Ready for Concrete

Great Room Stairs Roughed In

Upstairs Walls All Framed - Left and Right Doors are to Bedrooms, Center Door to Bathroom

18' x 13' Garage Doors Installed - These Lead to the 29' x 48' Storage Area

First Shop Area Wall Framed

Garage Doors Installed - Left 2 are "Garage Area", Center is Automotive Work Area, Right is ATV/Tractor Area



Sure Nice to See This - 2 Weeks to Go!