Feb 16, 2011: The Deck Begins

"Hey", you thought, "wasn't this house already done?"

Well yes and no. We had put off adding the deck until later. Now is later. So I'm going to update this blog with pictures as the deck is built.

Forms (boards) and footers (boxes) being prepped for pouring concrete later.

It's not officially a construction project until the porta-john arrives.

When we built the fence, we put in a gate so equipment could get in easily (primarily for bushhogging the back lot, but also for this deck work). Guess where I'll be reseeding in a month?

View of the forms for the deck from West side of the house.

Fritz (right) and Wolfie (left) checking out the deck on the South side of the house. It's a wrap-around about 1/2 up each side (slightly more on the West, slightly less on the South)

Dirt mounded up to fill in and level before the gravel and concrete. Also you can see the Romeo and Juliet balconies we left in anticipation of building the deck later.

Click to read more.

September 18, 2009: Range vent, carpet, and quarter-round

We made it out to the house late Friday night and the grass seeding was done (I think), a vent for the range hood had been installed, insulation was put in the attic, and carpet was put in over the padding.

Spray-in insulation in the attic.

The outside portion of the hood vent.

The hood vent running through the garage.

And the hood in the kitchen.

Carpet on the floor in the main level bedroom.

Carpet in the top floor bedroom on the east side. If you look closely, you can see that there's plastic sheeting on the floor, presumably to mostly keep the carpet clean during construction, but possibly also for the paint touch ups to come.

Vents on the walls on the second level.

Bathroom hardware to be installed next week.

Fritz looks at the seeded backyard. In the back, you can see a leaf-filled gutter. (The gutter guard was missed out on when fixing the gutter after the tree fell. The gutter guard will be added back and the gutter cleaned, I think next week).

Seeding on the south lawn (over top of the drain field).

Seeding on the north east corner of the lot.

Quarter-round in the upstairs hallway

Quarter-round in the great room.

Click to read more.

September 8, 2009: Staining and driveway begin

We made it out to the house on Monday, though not much visibly had been done (Dan was busy prepping for the seeding guy, but that was mostly smoothing out the soil). On Tuesday, however, floor staining and the driveway installation began.

The stained great room floor and stairs. The stain color is English Chestnut. This (and all the floor stain pictures) were taken leaning into the front door as we can't walk on the floor for a while.

The dining room floor.

Looking across the great room.

The driveway was graded and crushed stone began to be put down (by the garage), but then a rather large rain storm came up. Not so conveniently while I was there making a small change on a corner of the driveway.

From Monday - the ridge was stained and the dormer was painted.

The outside units for the air conditioners were installed on Tuesday (no inside pics - mud + stained floors),

On Monday, I also noticed that electrical boxes were put in on the kitchen island.

On Monday, we also took some "family" shots on the front porch. From left to right: Fritz, Preethi, Silver.

And here's Fritz, me, and Silver.

Click to read more.

May 19, 2009: Electrical Rough ins Done, Heating / Cooling Begin

We didn't make it out to the site on Monday, but did on Tuesday. Some more work had been done on the shingles, plumbing, heating / air, and the electrical rough-ins are now "finished".

View of the house from the tree on the north east corner. Most of the shingling is done now.

View of the shingles on the back of the great room.

Electrical rough-ins on the outside were also completed. This one is next to the garage door.

Preethi inspects some of the cans for recessed lighting in the great room. More cans have been hung in the back.

Cans for recessed lights in the kitchen. There's two over the sink, two over the range, and two over the kitchen desk. (You can only see two in this photo).

Stair light rough-ins. Effectively night lights so you don't fall down the steps.

The huge set of wires that will go into the electrical panels in the basement.

Pipes for water for a bath/shower. Hot and cold are mixed and sent up the single pipe.

View in the shower/bath. Still need to add some fixtures (faucet, shower head).

A different view of a shower where you can see the water pipe extending above the the top of the surround for the shower head.

Underneath a shower rough-in.

Tubes that will eventually be filled with freon to connect a compressor with an air handler (we're dual-zone).

Cold-air intake on the main floor situated on the side of the pantry closest to the dining room (for the lower zone).

Cold air-intake at the top of the stairs (for hte upper zone).

3 vents in the master bedroom. On the top floor, the vents will be in the ceiling as the air handler will be in the attic.

WIth the vents, plumbing, and electrical rough-ins in, it's starting to crowded in a few places.

View of the registers in another upstairs bedroom from a closet. You can also see a wire hanging down that will eventually power a fluorescent light.

On the main level, the vents are currently on the floor. However, we wanted them off the floor to cut down on the amount of dog hair that falls into the ducts.

View of the main level vents from the basement,

More of the freon-filled (eventually) tubing that connect air handlers and compressors. One of the air handlers will be in the basement.

Fritz checked out the basement on his own.

Silver verified that the silt fence had been fixed after last week's storms.

Probably close enough to merit cutting down, but it's leaning away and it's a real nice looking tree.

Click to read more.