Primed

I couldn't get inside this afternoon because the painter was still at it in the astronaut uniform with the spray gun and the buckets of primer. They will start working on the colors on the walls tomorrow, as we finally made up our minds on all of the rooms. The trim is now being stained in the builder's shop.

They also started with the siding and trim today on the garage and the west side of the house.

Porch, Garage, and Plastered

Neither of us made it out to the house today, but I did hear that the plastering is finished, and the concrete pouring for the garage and porch will happen tomorrow morning.

Tuesday

Today the plastering crew did the dining room, master bedroom and bathroom, mud room, back hall, guest bathroom, and laundry room. The only thing left is the kitchen which I'm assuming they'll do tomorrow morning.

The garage and front porch were both prepared for concrete which will be poured tomorrow. This included flattening the gravel, putting down re-bar, and installing a floor drain in the garage.

Plastered

Dad and I went out on Sunday and gathered fieldstone from the vacant lots in the neighborhood, which we hauled back and piled up near the site of the future retaining wall on the east side of the house. We figured that we collected about 3 tons of stone. I put up an example picture of what I'd like to turn it into.

The plastering crew got to work today and did the living room, front hall, and everything upstairs.

The siding, soffit, trim, and facia were also dropped off today.

Ready for Plaster

On Friday the plaster crew was in and prepared the house for plastering on Monday, putting black construction paper on all of the floors, finishing the seam taping with fiberglass tape, and putting up wire mesh corner bead on all of the edges/corners. The bags of plaster and mixing drums are ready to go.

Taped

Not very exciting progress today... Seam tape was put up on the sheetrock on all seams in preparation for the plaster.

Basement Stairs, Sheetrocked Garage

The staircase was put in to the basement on Wednesday, and the floor was cut in a grid. The garage was also sheetrocked, which was not supposed to be done... so it's on the builder's tab. The drywall mess was cleaned up and I think the plastering starts today. One of these days they'll also get the exterior going I'm sure, as the frame was put on the garage doors today.

Sheetrock Finished

Today they extended a few walls for us because we wanted to close up the openings into the living room a little bit from the front hall and the dining area. They also finished putting up all the sheetrock. It looks like they did some finishing/polishing on the basement floor, and the garage was graveled and leveled so I'm guessing the garage floor will be poured soon.

Basement Floor, Front Door, and more Sheetrock.

The top picture is the floor that we chose at Basemen Floors this evening, that we'll have in the entrance, front hall, kitchen, dining room, laundry room, mud room, guest bathroom, and upstairs bathroom. We went with the 3"/4"/5" Hickory (a mix of the different widths).

Then we got Kristin's picture in the baby's room, followed by a shot of the newly poured basement floor, and then some deer tracks that I found going through the back yard.

Basement ready for floor

The ceilings are now all drywalled except for the living room. Now that the basement is dried out, they poured a bunch of gravel down a makeshift funnel that you can see in one of the pictures. It was spread out and we're ready for the floor to be poured Monday.

Sheetrock

Today they began putting up sheetrock on the ceilings upstairs. The pictures are of the bathroom and the two bedrooms.

We met with Brett Griffin this afternoon to make several decisions including the window/door casings, baseboard, the staircase ballusters and newel posts, crown molding, and sound proofing.

It turns out the roofing crew was fined $1,500 for not wearing hard hats and safety glasses while working on our house when an OSHA agent stopped in for a random inspection. They also forgot to fasten down the house wrap after finishing with the shingles, which allowed rainwater to come through the roof last week.

Anyway, they have a heater and fans in the basement to defrost and dry it out so that they can ready the floor tomorrow so that the floor can be poured on Monday. They will continue with the drywalling, and probably put in the front door.

The next two weeks will be pretty busy with picking all the different flooring, the paint colors for all the walls, and stain colors.

Oh, and I also got a key so that I am no longer locked out!

Finally some pictures!

The gravel pile was being moved when I got out there today so that the delivery of sheetrock could be made this afternoon. The roughed-in plumbing in the basement was finished this morning, including the bathroom and the drain for the future bar. The basement is ready for a load of gravel and then the floor will be poured.

Locked Out

I wasn't able to see today's progress because they are now locking the door at the end of the day. The drywaller pulled his truck into the driveway where a load of gravel was dropped off today.

Kristin picked out the cabinets and countertops today for the kitchen, bathrooms, and the laundry room.

Insulation

Not much happened last week, except for the inspector's visit and a few minor corrections.
Here are the inspector's comments:
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BUILDING: Girder support - Girder above stairway and ? front door header
HEATING: 4/5/07
PLUMBING: 4/5/07
ELECTRICAL: 4/5/07
INSULATION:
UNDERGROUND:
INSPECTORS REMARKS: Garage door LVL needs lateral support. Need ladder to get into basement to check Building.
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Today the insulation was put in all of the walls (including the garage), which were then covered in clear plastic. The water/ice/slush was pumped out of the basement and the sump pump and piping was installed.

Sorry, I didn't have my camera today, I will make sure to bring it tomorrow.

Inspections

Nothing photo-worthy today... most of the changes were fix-ups for the inspection. The blanket of straw on the basement floor was raked out, so they must be preparing to pour a floor soon. They'll have some standing water to deal with first, though.

Plumbing, Electric, Speakers!

This weekend Dad and I wired the place for ceiling speakers in the master bedroom, bathroom, kitchen, dining room, deck, and garage. The electrician and the plumber are now done, and we're ready for inspection, then maybe some drywall this week.