May 22, 2009: Bricks delivered, basement poured, more ducts

On Friday, the basement was poured and bricks were delivered (to start on Monday), and more ducts were run. Unfortunately, we didn't make it out on Thursday to see the rebar mesh for the basement floor.

Preethi inspects a brick (half thickness);

The pile of sand, presumably for mixing with cement, lime and what not for the mortar.

The initial pile of bricks. They're covered with plastic in anticipation of rain this weekend. (Bricks are supposed to be a little wet, but not soaked for construction)

A pile of bricks.

Cement blocks for the below grade portions.

As seen from the main level, the basement floor was poured. They had just finished smoothing (screeding I assume) when we arrived.

Looking at the basement floor from the basement door (southwest corner) back towards where the stairwell will be.

Looking across the den in the basement and the smooth floor. There's both rebar below and a vapor barrier (seen in earlier pictures)

Duct work leading from the stairwell back to where the top zone air handler will be (over the bedroom whose ceiling is not open to the roof)

Some of the ducts running in the attic.

Looking from the master bath into an adjacent (non-master) bedroom, you can see the freshly added ducts.

Close up on a duct leading into a vent.

The front door was delivered, though it won't go up for a while (don't want it damaged during the construction). It's 5' wide and 8' tall and made our of mahogony. Oddly, this was FAR cheaper than the equivalent 6'8" door made out of fir. Turns out the higher-end door is kept in stock while what should be the lower end door has to be custom made.

A little casing was built around the cold air return in the pantry.

Some additional water pipes were run. These are in the garage and connect to some earlier rough-ins in the master bath (above the ceiling on the right side of the picture).

Two 20A wires through the floor of the kitchen for outlets on the island.

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May 14, 2009: Shingles, basement prep, wiring, and plumbing

With the house frame up, a lot of different things can happen in parallel. For instance, on the 14th, more backfilling was done, shingles were started, prep work was done on the basement for pouring the floor, and more wiring and plumbing rough-in work were done.

Shingling started and got through about 1/3 of the roof.

The shingle guys are set up for the backside on the great room (see the brown packets of shingles)

Dan was busy finishing off the backfill while we were there. They were trying to make the house as nice-looking as possible before the bank came out the next day before approving the first draw.

The mound of dirt being used to finish off the backfill.

More backfill / leveling in progress. I just thought it would be cool to have a picture of construction going on outside of the house from inside the house through a window.

Pipe for water spigot by the garage.

Looking into the guest room from the garage. The electricians move fast as none of these rough-ins were there yesterday.

A lighting fixture in the attic positioned on a collar.

The attic fan. There will be a whole house fan approximately right below it.

Some of the intricate wiring runs around the steps.

Rough-in for a toilet in the master bathroom.

Rough-ins for one of the master vanities. Unfortunately, we got an offset vanity and they were assuming a centered vanity, so the pipes and wires had to move a little to the right. (That's also an example of why we're out there every day - to catch things like this early before they become big problems later)

Looking at the rough-in for the jack-and-jill bathroom,

On the top floor, most of the cables in the electrical boxes were stripped so the switches / outlets can be quickly wired after the drywall finishes (1-2 weeks in the future).

We also had to move the pantry door towards the kitchen so we could fit in the main-level's cold air return. Also see the mass of wires running through the pantry wall and down into the basement.

Wiring continuing in the great room. A bit slower there as it's a little harder to reach up high in there.

Rough-ins and wiring looking from the dining room back towards the garage (coat closet and bathrrom to the left, stairs to the right).

Wires for an outlet on the (covered) front landing

View of the basement floor from the entrance to the basement. The plastic sheet is there to cut down on water wicking back through the concrete after it's poured (plus I think it's required to meet code).

View of the basement floor from the main level.

Fritz couldn't wait to see what had gotten done in the house. Silver (in the back) preferred a little more stately approach to the house.

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