View from Living room - End of Oct 2007

Siding

We spent the majority of the weekend working on the siding. On Friday night, Larry, Bill and Spencer installed the corn stove in our new house. It could not have come at a better time as this weekened has been one of the coldest so far this fall. On Saturday, Bill, Elijah, and I got a good bit of siding done. We got the front left wing finished, it was a lot of work, then on Sunday my brother and Todd came to help. They could only help a few hours in the morning, so we did not get as much as I hoped finished on Sunday.

Drywall - Day 7 & Electricity is now installed

Today all of the drywall got taped and coated. It looks so nice, I can't wait until we paint, it will be awesome. We also finally now have electricity, it is so exciting, no more generators. Yippee!
Bill and Larry brought the corn stove to the new house, Bill is hoping to get it hooked up tomorrow night so the drywallers have heat for the drywall coats to dry more easily.

Drywall Day 6

The drywall is all but done, we have just a little in the basement yet to finish, we had to order more drywall for the basement since we weren't planning to drywall the garage and decided to. I saw an ad on Home Depots site yesterday that they had 20% off deck lumber, Bill went and ordered the lumber for our decks, we got a great deal with the 20% off. Home Depot will be out on Friday to deliver the rest of the drywall and the lumber for the deck, looks like we may be building a deck this weekend. This will definately make putting the siding on easier.

Drywall - Day 4 & 5

All of the drywall is hung on the main floor and garage. Tomorrow the drywall will be hung in the basement, then the taping and coating can begin. Vic is awesome, he did a great job and was fast.

Stydinger was out and back filled our trench before all of the rain came and washed away our stone dust again. Hopefully if it stops raining, we will have electric by the end of the week. Stydinger will come back next week to install the septic. The septic pipe entry hole is not in the right place so we will need to drill another hole and fill the existing hole with concrete and waterproofing before the ground is back filled back in around the house.

Siding has been put on hold briefly since it has been raining so much. Bill has been getting the lines in the electric panel hooked up and ready for electric before it is hot/active. He is not too far off from finishing this task.

Electric Power Poles

Two electric power poles were installed today, the transformer is on the pole closest to the house. Hopefully the final wiring will be completed tomorrow and we should have electric as of tomorrow. I guess it will be dependent upon the weather, since rain is likely we may not have electricity until Wednesday.

The drywallers were out again tonight, I have not been back to see what all was completed, but will update once I get back to the house to see the progress.

The insulators were out and insulated the garage and basement for us. Both of these rooms are now ready for drywall also.

Embarq was also out to install our phone lines in the trench. Our excavator will be back out this week to cover backfill the trench, widen our driveway at the entrance and install our septic system.

Siding Started

Today we had a house full of people there to help. Bill's mom, Rick, and Josh came out, as well as, Melinda, Bill, Xavier, Noah, Ben, Jacob, Leah, Dustin, Brya, Clay, Eve, Ava, and Farren. Dave and Heather also came and my Dad came out to help as well. Since the basement was the most important thing to get ready, Bill and my dad spent the morning framing the steps, and making sure the walls were ready for insulation. They also put the remaining foam board up. Then they got the starter strips up almost around the whole house to get it ready for siding. We were able to get almost the whole garage framed today. Bill and Melinda helped with getting some garbage cleaned up, which was a huge help. Elijah and I burned lots of wood scraps to get the house looking nice outside and ready for the excavator this week to install the septic. Dave and Heather also helped by cleaning up the basement so the insulators and drywallers could work better. This was a HUGE help. Josh, Xavier, Bill K., Dad, Bill, Dustin, Brya and Rick helped with the siding.
We served brats, dogs, chips, cookies, gatorade, and water. Mom was a big help in warming everything up for me today since I had worship at church and could not get to the house until afternoon. I made the brats the day before to make it easier on Mom Sunday afternoon.

Basement Framed

Larry came up and helped Bill finish framing the basement walls, they also framed the wall beside the steps and door way to the future bedroom in the basement. We have scheduled the insulator to be out on Monday, they will insulate the garage and basement for us. The drywaller will also be out Monday evening to begin Day 3 (Evening 3) of the drywall. Sunday we plan to finish framing around the steps in the basement and start siding.

Muddy Mess

Tonight we planned to get a lot done, but it was raining pretty bad and Bill got his truck stuck in the mud, he forgot to put it in 4 wheel drive, and ended up sliding into a hole by the electric trench. We were so upset because all of the stone dust that was put on the trench has run off due to the rain, since PP&L did not come out this week like they were supposed to. Now we will have to put more stone dust on, just another thing to add to our list of things to do.

Kitchen cabinets ordered

Island cabinets - Maple pearl white

Kitchen design layout

Corian countertop we want to go with

Laundry room cabinets

Bathroom cabinets - Maple toffee

Bathroom vanities - first two are for master bathroom, third is the kids vanity

Kitchen island - Will be in Maple pearl white

Maple Cafe cabinets for kitchen

We went over to Armstrong today during lunch to order the cabinets for the kitchen, bathrooms, and laundry room. We decided to go with an all-wood maple cabinets. We are going to go with cafe maple in the kitchen, toffee maple in the bathrooms, and all white in the laundry room. Since the laundry room has a small area, we thought the white would make it appear larger and seem more clean. The cabinet we chose for the laundry room also wipes down really nicely.

Well drilling

The well driller was out yesterday, a few days ago he drilled the well for the geothermal, and today he drilled for water. We were so excited to hear that he got 20 gallons per minute without going too deep, he said it was the easiest well he has drilled in a very long time. Hopefully the water is good water, he said it appears the water is good, until he goes down real deep, then it is sulfer, he said if he sets the well a bit above that though the water appears to be good. I am so grateful that we have water and it was easy to find and it is in abundant supply. The driller said that we could let our water run for weeks and not have to fear for our well to run dry. I am so glad for that, I just hope it tastes good, tests good, and does not smell like sulfer.

Drywall - Day 2

The living room was drywalled this evening. In addition, Elijah's room is almost finished, as well as the garage ceiling and back wall was hung. They will be back out tomorrow night but then will not be here at all over the weekend. This will give us time to get the basement walls ready for drywall next week.

We passed Inspection - Let the Drywall hang - Day 1

Steps going to the basement

Elijah in his room, he is anxious for the drywall on the walls now!

Hannah in her room, she is so excited.....

The inspector was out today to reevaluate the four things that needed done to pass the electric and plumbing so that we can proceed with drywall. We passed without any issues. The drywaller came out today and boy did they get a lot done already. Hannah's room is completely hung, the kids bathroom is hung, Elijah's bedroom the ceiling is hung, the steps ceilign and partial walls are hung, the laundry room, pantry, foyer ceiling are hung. Our bedroom, bathroom, and closet ceiling is hung. I could not believe how fast they were. There were five of them out today. They are going to come back out tomorrow to hang the other ceilings: Kitchen, Dining room, living room, and garage ceiling. It is really starting to look like a house now, it is so exciting.

View from living room - October 16th, 2007

The view is getting prettier with each passing week. The leaves are changing more now and we can see the stream much better now, as well as, the valley behind the stream and trees. I love this time of the year.

Insulation installed

The insulation was installed on the main floor today, it looks so different now. They just have to do the insulation in the roof yet, they will blow this in once the drywall is installed. I am so excited that we met the deadline and were able to get the insulation done today.

Bill and Dan worked at framing the basement, they got all of the foam board finished and over half of the basement walls framed, they just have to get the other half finished. Bill is planning to work on that tomorrow.