Water and Phone Line

The drywall is all hung and they have started to tape the downstairs, they will continue finishing the drywall over the next couple of days, then do the ceilings downstairs, then another person will come in and do the "knock down" in the great room and hallway.

They started on the water line and phone line yesterday. They worked a long day and were able to get the entire 1,400 feet trenched and the water and phone line layed in the trench and about 80% covered back up. The driveway was passable when they left. They will be back today to finish up the job.

It is supposed to be near 100 degrees today and for the next several, looking ahead it will be in the 90's so no relief in sight.

Last of the Great Room drywall going up.

Another view of the Great Room towards the loft above.

You can see the drywall in the hall and master bedroom is all up also.

The start of the trench for water and phone.

They found the "rock" on the hill heading down the driveway. Gotta have a few problems......

Back in action, making great progress.

From the side of the drive out to the county water "tap".

The water line and phone line comes in 1,000 foot rolls, this is the location where the junction will be.

Painting Has Started

The upstairs drywall is fully completed and the upstairs bedrooms, bathroom and storage areas have been primered. The entire exterior of the building is now done and ready for gutters. They have started drywall downstairs and all ceilings have been hung. We have selected all the paint colors, we have also selected our tile for the kitchen, baths, laundry and entry ways. The kitchen cabinets and bath vanities have also been fully designed and will get ordered next week, supposed to take about 3 weeks to be built and ready for install.

The excavator is lined up to run the water line back the driveway this coming week. The tap is in at the road, but they will trench in the ~1,400 feet of water line and also lay the phone line in the same trench. It is hot and dry and he will use a trencher and lay/backfill all at the same time, so we hope for much less mess and much less need for a bunch of new gravel this time.

Drywall in the two car garage that is under the house.

R38 Insulation in ceiling of "Great Room" this is about 3/4's done and wow, what a difference in the temperature of this room! Much Cooler!

Primered upstairs bedroom.

Exterior is now 100% done, the front porch is my personal favorite! This is the side porch, kitchen window on the left.

A picture of what our exterior door handles look like around the building.

Foward Progress

The upstairs drywall is all up. They will begin putting drywall compound on it tomorrow. The plan is to do the upstairs fully  to allow us to move forward with painting upstairs, while they are working on downstairs. The crew worked on siding today also, another couple of days work and the siding should be done.

Upstairs balcony area, looks different with drywall on it.

Scrap drywall, they told me to spread it out on my deer food plot, run over it to break it up and the next time it rains it will dissolve into the soil. Redneck way of getting lime on your food plot I guess (I'm gonna try it....).

Front porch with lower siding just about done. They will be back tomorrow to work on the upper portion.

R38 insulation for the ceiling (this is only part of it). They will put this up, then put the pine board up after the painting is done.

Another "big ass fan". It's getting hot in the house with the hot summer days and no ceiling insulation yet so I had the building center throw one on the truck the last delivery. It is 42 inches in diameter and really moves the air nice!

We have Drywall

The drywall guys started today. They were able to get the larger storage room upstairs complete, one of the bedrooms upstairs completed and a portion of the stairwell from the storage area down into the garage complete. The Amish crew worked on siding on the back of the building and the roof on the porch. We also has the cabinet/ vanity person out yesterday and we are nearing the final stages of ordering those. I also spoke to the tile flooring guy and his will be out one evening this week to go over the job. One more, I also talked to the excavator about trenching water back, we plan to meet one evening also.

First pieces of drywall!

The front porch is 80% done, still have the far ceiling to do and the soffit.

Upstairs bedroom.

Upstairs bedroom.

"Storage" area.

Drywall Starts Tomorrow

We had 10 people working at the job site today, nice! We had 6 Amish, 1 Electrician, 3 Plumbing/HVAC. Everything is ready to start drywall tomorrow. The upstairs drywall was delivered today and they carried it up to the rooms it belongs in. All insulation is completed except the ceiling, since that will be wood, it will be done after the drywall is installed. They are almost finished with the cedar on the front porch and started installing the ceiling in the front porch. See today's pictures below.

This picture was taken out the window of the camper.

Drywall being delivered.

Porch ceiling, looking good!

Nice corner braces! Porch won't fall down now :).

Drywall staged upstairs, ready for installation.

One last shot of the interior insulation. We insulated the interior walls downstairs also for sound proofing.

Another shot of the porch post bracing, down the back side of the front porch.

Just About Ready for Drywall

I am finally back from all my business travel. In the past 6 weeks I have been in Florida, Texas and Colorado, glad to be back so I can keep better tabs on things. Things are moving along. the Plumbing rough-in is now complete, the electrical and HVAC rough-in needed to start drywall will be completed tomorrow. The drywall is getting delivered on Monday and the drywall guys will be here to start hanging it upstairs on Tuesday.

The "back porch" has been roughed in, just needs some finishing touches and it will be done. We are leaving this one with a gravel floor and open ceiling. We plan to put tractor implements under here to keep them out of the weather.

We ordered a "Big Ass Fan" for the great room. It will be 9 feet in diameter, with a silver motor and walnut blades. It moves the air of 9 52" ceiling fans and consumes the power of 1!

  

Picture of the great room with insulation in the side walls. The ceiling will be T&G pine so it can be insulated after the drywall starts, once the electrician has the recessed lighting installed, which will be next week.

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.