This week brought many aesthetic changes to the house! Those ones tend to be much more exciting than the others :). The stone was finalized this week, the drywall almost completely hung, the sewage hooked up, the electric hooked up, the siding progressing, the furnace set and in progress, master bath-shower in place, hot water heater, drainage and the garage door installed.
I decided to do photos again versus a full video. They are faster for me to upload! Here’s a rundown:
Stone
The stone on the exterior of the house was completed this week, which was very exciting for us to see. It turned out really nice. We’re very happy with it. We also got a quote for doing the chimney on the back of the house, but the cost couldn’t be justified right now. Maybe down the road. I’d rather save that money for the deck! You can see the finished product above.
Drywall
It’s amazing how much it starts to look like a house when the drywall gets hung! You saw some of the drywall in my last post, but they made a ton of progress in 4 days! It’s sounding like they will be done in about a week and a half. Then I get to start painting.
Here’re some shots of the drywall progress:
Siding
After several weeks away from my job, the framers/siders came back this week to get rolling on the siding. They made great progress. My wife and I are very happy with the siding/trim/keystones/shutters. Here’re some photos:
Sewage Hookup
Last week the plumbers ran the PVC pipe up to the sewage main and tapped in. They needed to come back today to hookup the sewage grinder-lift pump that we need to pump the sewage up hill to the road. The pump sits below ground with a man-hole cover for access if needed. Here are some shots of the tank and tank work:
Drainage
The interior and exterior drains around the foundation along with the basement + garage floor drains all drained out near the walkout part of our basement. This obviously provides a wet walk down to the yard! Today, while the backhoe was there, they extended our drain pipes away from the house quite a ways, so water shouldn’t build up around the house. Here are some shots of the PVC going in:
Furnace and Hot Water Tank
The GC made some progress this week on getting the furnace set in it’s final place and starting the major ductwork to the ducts placed around the house. Looks like it won’t be long until we have heat! Good thing, it’s starting to get cold!
The plumber got some of the work done for the Hot Water Tank, but hasn’t gotten it hooked up yet. I think they’ll finish up on Monday.
We Have Power!
The electrician has had his conduit underground and service in the house ready for a week, but the electric company finally came out today to get the wire pulled underground and to the house. The contractors are VERY happy as they can now say goodbye to their generators and the giant extension cord that ran from my in-laws house to our house.
Master Bath Shower
The shower that we ordered for our Master Bath is custom made by the manufacturer, American Bath Factory. When we ordered it, we didn’t know that or the lead time they needed. It ended up taking about 6 weeks to get the shower, causing pain and suffering to our plumber because they couldn’t rough in the plumbing. Luckily, it showed up yesterday, just in time for the plumbers to come back today, plumb it, and allow the drywallers to finish the room directly below it and the walls next to it. Here’s a shot of the actual shower we ordered:
Here’re some pics of the shower during installation at the house: (they didn’t finish it)
Miscellaneous – Garage Door, Home Theater Wiring
The garage door was finally installed, less the motor. We were happy to see it in place, especially from a security standpoint.
Like my networking, cable TV, and phone wire runs, I made sure NOT to leave anything out with my home theater cables. Because we are mounting the TV over the fireplace, I wanted my cables run behind the scenes to the back of the fireplace, with ALL of the current options for connections including:
- 6 HDMI
- 2 Component with Audio
- 2 VGA with 3.5mm Audio
- 2 RCA
- 3 Network
- 2 S Video
- 2 RG6 Quad Shield Coax
- 2 Toslink fiber optic cables for audio
- 7.2 Channel Surround Sound Speaker Runs with 12 AWG cable
For the time being I just ran them to the hole I need them in, and dropped them down to the basement. The plan is to then run them up the chimney chase, away from the heat and behind the TV. I will do a full post on my Home Theater plans.
