June 6, 2009: Bricks, drywall, and insulation

I was out of town for a week-and-a-half (3 trips, 2 *very* brief stays in Lynchburg) but it rained quite a bit so not so much happened on the outside, though several things happened indoors.

View of the front of the house. Bricks have started. The doors are open, presumably for airing out the house.

One of the keystones that will be going in the jack arches over our windows.

Bricks wrapping around from the front to the garage.

The brick ledge underneath the windows.

It was too muddy to walk out into the backyard to take a picture, but this is what the back looks like leaning out from the basement.

Insulation in the garage. Except in a few places, the insulation is done.

We had the ceiling of the shelving wall in the main-level bath lowered.

Stairs out of the basement have started. That's the framing for landing that you're seeing on the left.

View of the landing from the basement.

Preethi is standing in the great room and the insulation is in. More importantly, the opening for the whole-house fan is now in.

We had to cut back on some of the shelf space in the master bedroom to make room for some venting in the attic. This also meant we had to eliminate a recessed light (just hanging for the moment)

Insulation and duct work in the master bathroom looking towards the shower rough-in.

The rough-in for the arch in the opening between the kitchen and the great room. Loosely, this is supposed to mimic the arch at the front of the house.

Drywall for the kitchen ceiling is in. Also a recessed light was moved a little for balance on either side of the window.

Drywall going in on the great room ceiling. As you can see, we're leaving the ridge exposed. It'll eventually be stained to match whatever color we use on the floor.

All of our drywall is being screwed in as opposed to nailed in. This should cut down on nail pops, though screw pops have been known to occur.

The first room finished with hanging the drywall (but not the mudding) was the attached closet (originally just wasted space) over the entrance.

As you can see some water got into the house in the heavy downpours (roofs not quite finished). So here's the front door open wide (both sides open up to give us a 5' wide opening to move through furniture) to help air out the house a little.

Before they packed up, the workers got the gypsum boards off the ground to avoid the water.

A new pile of dirt to for some of the remaining grading (I think we'll need at least another load to do both the back by the garage and the front).

In addition to the rain, the house was attacked by a tripod from War of Worlds. Or maybe this is just duct work waiting to be finished off in the basement.

Two flooring colors we're considering for the hardwood. Currently we're somewhat conflicted as we like the darker color, but it's smudging too easily (as you can see if you look closely). So we'll need a different hardwood solution.

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May 16, 2009: Rain, wiring, and plumbing

We didn't make it out on Friday, but did on Saturday with Bruno and April (current neighbors). Friday it rained in the afternoon and a lot in the evening, so not quite as much happened.

Electrical rough-ins in the garage.

Bruno and Preethi look at the Great Room. Wiring for the recessed lights is above. We're not quite certain if that's in the right place as we want the lights to be further up on the ceiling than where the wire is, but the large loops may indicate that the electrician is planning on it being higher than it is.

Rough ins in the great room with Cable / Phone lines running. The fireplace will be about (slightly to the right) of where you see those two higher boxes.

The wire for the great room fan is hanging down here.

The doorbell wire at the entrance.

A couple more pipes were added for hot and cold water to the washer in the laundry room (on the left).

Preethi, April, and Bruno look out the great room bumpout.

Wires (orange / black) running up for what I assume is the upstairs air handler (sits in the attic).

Coils of wire awaiting the final run out to the air handlers.

One of the master bath vaniy rough-ins. If you're really attentive, you can tell that the rough-in for the electrical and the plumbing moved to the right by about 8 inches.

Looking down from the stairwell into the greatroom. Mostly, this is to show the blue box on the ledge that will be used for track lighting in the great room to illuminate some paintings.

Plumbing vent up through the roof. It may have already been there, but I just noticed it.

Because the gap between supports for the door and windows in the Great Room was so small, the electrician had to get creative attaching the electrical boxes (in this case for a switch). Here, screws had to be sunk into the side of the box rather than nailed as is typical.

Here's what an electrical box is normally attached - simply by nailing the in on the top and/or bottom (with depth set to match the dry wall).

Another example of what had to be done to work around the tight framing around the windows / doors in the great room. Here an angled hole that cuts through some of the supports was made to get access to exterior wall between the french doors and the window.

View of the south side of the great room. If you look closely, you can see the roughed-in wires for the lights that will go over / next to the door on the deck.

Some of the wires for the lights that will go outside of the basement entrance. In theory, this is supposed to mimic the appearance of the French doors opening onto the (eventual) deck above.

We got 3 inches of rain overnight, which was more than our poor little silt fence could bear.

The rain also washed out the driveway some with gravel distributed down the culvert. According to forecasts, this week will be dry.

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