Day 300: Exterior lights, and MAJOR milestone!

Saturday

I just noticed that today is a huge milestone for us...Day 300 of the house build! Unfortunately, this is a milestone I never thought we'd hit, since I expected us to be done by now. Ah well, the more the merrier.

We've made some good progress lately. Today I put in quite a bit of electrical trim out, i.e. outlets, switches, lights, etc. I finished the craft room, laundry room, closet, powder room, master bedroom and garage. I also put in three outside lights above the garage. They're wired to a dusk-to-dawn sensor, so they'll come on when it's dark and go off in the morning. They're LED and only draw 7W each.

Abby was my electrical helper. I taught her how to put on plate covers using a screwdriver and a level, and she followed me along as I installed the devices. She eventually got faster, so that she was waiting on me to finish each time.

Reed finally found a job that he liked, and took to sealing our tile grout seams, painting on the sealer with a small brush and wiping off any excess. Emmy also helped with this endeavor.

Emmy also cleaned all the drywall mud off the girls bathtub while I installed a toilet.

Did someone say toilet? Yep, we have one now. Hello indoor plumbing. We got the new eco-friendly toilet that has two buttons on it: a small one for number one, and a big one for number two. The kids thought this was the funniest thing they had ever seen. Who know saving the planet could be so hilarious.

This week we also more-or-less finished painting the interior walls and ceilings. Since we have a 26 ft vault (who's idea was that?) we had to be a bit creative. We opted for a long extension pole instead of scaffolding. I rolled the highest parts, because I'm so tall.

Wednesday I took the day off to take advantage of our 70 degree weather and finish the ridge cap. I've been dreading this part of the project for some time now, since it involves being on a 12:12 (45 degree) pitch metal roof, which is a pretty fast and dangerous slide. I ended up getting some S-5-S roof clamps to secure a 2x4 to the standing seam. I put in about 20 feet, and would then have to slide the clamps and 2x4's down, which was a precarious and time consuming feat. I thought it would take a day, but it took all day Wednesday, several hours Thursday evening, and another couple hours Friday evening. Steve helped, and I couldn't have finished it without his assistance.

Daily Stats		Hours Worked			Cost
	Day	Trevor	Family/Friends	Contractors
Today	300	12	20	0
All Time	300	878	876	1637	$13,496.75
Summary of 1/31/2015		Work Done Today
		Painted vaulted ceilings, electrical trimout main level, exterior lights above garage, installed first toilet
		Materials Used Today
		Who Helped Today
		Emmy, Abby, Mandy, Reed, Will
		Contractors On Site

Day 281: Let There Be Light!

Monday

It's funny how certain little bits of progress on the house seem to have a big impact. For me, its the things that start making the house more functional. We made progress in a couple of those areas recently. One of them was getting some interior lights installed and working on the main level.

Since one of our goals was to build an energy efficient house, we're using almost all LED lighting. For the main level, I installed recessed can light housings on all the flat ceilings, and purchased LED lights to go in the cans. Mandy worked hard during the day to get the ceilings painted, giving us the green light to get some lights working. Since I returned to work full time today, I only had about an hour in evening to work on the house, and lights were the focus. Steve installed the lights in the cans, while I wired up a few switches to get them working. Here's a shot of the lights installed in the hallway from the garage entrance to the master bedroom door.

Daily Stats		Hours Worked			Cost
	Day	Trevor	Family/Friends	Contractors
Today	281	1	12
All Time	281	805	671	1637	$13,496.75
Summary of 1/12/2015		Work Done Today
		Painted ceilings, installed interior can lights in hallway.
		Materials Used Today
		Who Helped Today
		Steve, Mandy, Kim, Reed, Emmy, Abby, Will
		Contractors On Site

Day 275: Sheetrock is In!

Tuesday

It's been a while since my last post...expect some catch up posts...sometime. Being busy on the house means less time to update the blog. We've had a lot of things happening lately and hope to bring you up to speed.

One of the most exciting areas of progress is the sheetrock in the interior of the house. We decided to hire out the sheetrock to a pro. It was actually one of the easiest and earliest decisions we made. I know my strengths, and I'm not a good mud and tape guys. I'm too slow and too much of a perfectionist to ever be satisfied with my own work.

So, on Dec. 19 we had Juan and three of his pals from Hi Definition Drywall show up and start hanging sheetrock. It took about three days to hang it all.

After hanging was done, another crew came to do the mudding. It took about three days as well for the mudding to be complete.

After mudding, another came in and gave it a good sanding.After a couple days of sanding, it was time for the final coat. We opted for a "Level 5" finish in the great room. A level 5 finish consists of a thin coat of mud and primer mix that was sprayed on like paint. After drying, the coat was sanded smooth. This level of finish is typically used in areas were there is a lot of light or long walls/ceilings that would show minor imperfections in the walls.

Day 246: Catching Up

Monday

If you've been following along, you've probably noticed that there hasn't been much posted lately. Lets just say we've been a little busy lately. Fortunately, busy means progress. And progress is fun. Here's a string of pictures showing recent work, in no particular order.

After debating what color to paint the house, we settled on gray and got going. Jeff and Max Bingham brought their painting skills, while Dad helped me put up siding on the board and batten areas.

The 12:12 pitch on the metal roof is a little treacherous. Matt's ladder is coming in handy.

We finished the cedar and board and batten siding on the back of the house. Still have a little more gray to paint on the bottom cement.

With the outside mostly complete and cold/muddy weather, we moved inside. We set the electrical meter can and disconnects outside, and then set the two 200A panels in the house and pulled 4/0 wire to them.

Last but not least we now have gravel all the way back to the house. I put the geofabric under the back of the driveway to keep the gravel from sinking into the clay. We'll see how that theory works.

Well, that's all for now. Big thanks to all those who've helped us on the house recently!

Daily Stats		Hours Worked			Cost
	Day	Trevor	Family/Friends	Contractors
Today	246	12	10	10
All Time	246	569	496	1446	$13,496.75
Summary of 12/8/2014		Work Done Today
		Electrical rough in,branch, started water main
		Materials Used Today
		Electrical
		Who Helped Today
		Dad, Reed
		Contractors On Site
		Owen Rogers

Day 230: Roof Moving Along

Saturday

Today was a productive day to end a productive week. The cold weather prevented me from getting up on the roof for most of the week, as temperatures didn't get high enough to melt the ice and snow from the roof. Friday was a bit warmer and turned the snow to slush, and then on Saturday it rained enough to wash off the slush. By afternoon, the rain stopped and it was warm enough to dry off the roof. We were able to get some roof work done and some additional exterior siding.

Daily Stats		Hours Worked			Cost
	Day	Trevor	Family/Friends	Contractors
Today	230	10	4	10
All Time	230	441	474	1436	$13,496.75
Summary of 11/22/2014		Work Done Today
		West end siding,dormer roof, rear window trim
		Materials Used Today
		Who Helped Today
		Mandy, Reed
		Contractors On Site
		Jeff and Max Bingham

Dad 226: Cedar Siding Underway

Tuesday

Over the past week we've had record lows. The high has been below 40 degrees for over ten days, and the low was in single digits this morning. Despite the cold temperatures, I've had a lot of help. Dad and Krishn came up last week and helped last Tuesday through Friday. We worked on the cedar siding on the exterior of the house. We had pre-stained the siding a month or so ago and it was good to finally get around to putting it up.

Saturday, Monday, and today I worked on the PEX plumbing. I installed two manifolds in the basement to which the water supply lines will be attached. I'm using a "home run" system, meaning every water using device (shower, tub, sink, etc) will have it's own pipe running all the way back to the manifold for both hot and cold water. The manifold allows me to turn the water supply to each device on and off independently.

Daily Stats		Hours Worked			Cost
	Day	Trevor	Family/Friends	Contractors
Today	226	10	3	0
All Time	226	405	454	1420	$13,496.75
Summary of 11/18/2014		Work Done Today
		PEX install
		Materials Used Today
		PEX
		Who Helped Today
		Reed, Emmy, Abby
		Contractors On Site

Day 211: Roof Progress and Driveway

Monday

Today we had another great day of fall weather. We were able to make progress on two fronts.

Foremost on our agenda is the roof. It's part of getting the house weather-tight as soon as possible. Today were got half of the long 20 foot pieces on the front of the roof installed. It was a windy day and it took four of us to get it done. Mandy and Kim were on the ground and handed the pieces up to Steve and I on the roof. Steve stood on the 4-12 roof and passed them up to me while I stood on the ladder on the 12-12 roof.

We also had Vanderford Construction on site today. They poured the driveway and our short sidewalk. The kids were disappointed that they didn't get to carve their initials in the wet cement. That ship sailed when they weren't out there for the back porch pour.

Daily Stats		Hours Worked			Cost
	Day	Trevor	Family/Friends	Contractors
Today	211	10	12	24
All Time	211	281	352	1393.5	$13,496.75
Summary of 11/3/2014		Work Done Today
		Poured driveway pad, front roof
		Materials Used Today
		concrete, roof
		Who Helped Today
		Steve, Kim, Mandy
		Contractors On Site
		Vanderford