Lots going on!

It's only Tuesday and the week has seen alot of activity already!

Joe told us that by the end of this month the house will be "basically done"... then they'll have a few days' worth of detail touch-ups to pick up before the Parade begins on the 11th

Yesterday, Ken's crew came out and poured the concrete driveway slab. A requirement of the Parade of Homes is to have a concrete driveway poured out at least 24-feet from the front of the garage. (Ken has been doing all the concrete work at Mom and Dad's farm all this time)

After letting it cure overnight, Ken and one of his guys came back and sawcut the driveway slab and poured/sawcut the sidewalk.

The plumber was also on-site today. He's just about finished with everything after spending the day there, he only has a few minor things to come back for.

The faucet in the half-bathroom has been replaced.

Lyndsey's sink and faucet

Rachel's sink and faucet

The girls' tub faucet and showerhead

Down in the basement the water softener has also been hooked up now, so we have water in the house!

The finish carpenter was also on-site today....

Lyndsey's walk-in closet shelving

Rachel's walk-in closet shelving

the trim is done for the wall of windows

Minus the carpeting (area between the dark wood), the stairs are almost done

Tomorrow's schedule has the finish carpenter returning to continue his work. He has most of the doors installed, all the door hardware (handles, etc) arrived and were installed today too.

Also tomorrow, the mason should be starting work on the fireplace. I don't know how long that takes for him to do that.

The painters should also be returning tomorrow to do their final bit of touch up work, etc.

Weather permitting, while those guys are all working indoors, the excavator will be finishing the grading outside and matching the dirt up to the edges of the driveway and sidewalk.

Also weather permitting, the rain gutter guys should be starting their work.

Once those last two are done with their work, the lawn guy can begin his work. The first thing he'll do on Friday is to dig some trenches for me to lay the drain piping underground from the downspouts out to the ditch, then he'll come back on Monday and install the lawn.

That's all for now! Tons more to come soon!

Paul

The a/c is on...!

This past week has been somewhat quiet, save for a few pretty substantial advancements... (many of the subcontractors were working on other projects during some or most of the days... thus there's not as many photos this time around and only the one update since last Sunday)

Tuesday saw the most significant item when the granite countertops arrived in the kitchen.

The cabinet suppliers were back on Wednesday and installed some of the remaining few cabinets that weren't in yet and added all the door and drawer hardware to the cabinets too. Also, the first appliance showed up and was put into place;  the dishwasher was the first one installed (by the plumber).

in the kitchen

our dishwasher is here!

the master bathroom tower

tower again...

the laundry room cabinet hardware

the laundry room

Also this past week the replacement countertops showed up for the girls' vanities....

Just to see what it'll look like, we set one of the sinks into the countertop in the master bathroom.

It was getting dark out, so I thought I'd light up the outside and see what it looked like, since the electrician has been at the site on and off this week getting more and more items finalized.

The electrician in on vacation next week, so next weekend we'll be delivering all the light fixtures to the site so he can install them the following week.

The plumbing and hvac sub contractors have been busy this week.. with the hvac work looking like it's nearly completed. The air conditioning is now working at the new house, a fact which I'm thinking will make the guys working in there happy next week.. lol

Ken Stencil is scheduled to arrive Monday to pour the driveway and the sidewalk, so Robin and I laid out the path of the sidewalk using a garden hose to mark it.

The finish carpenter has begun working on the stairs.... we'll have some photos of that this week.

The painter is schedule to be on-site this week as well, to do all the finishing touch up work he has to do.

The gutter and downspout installer should be there this week too, as should the excavator to complete his grading work after the driveway is poured.

I know the lawn installer will be itching to get out there this week too.

We're still on schedule for our final inspection date of August 6, with the carpeting scheduled to go in August 3rd, the same day the rest of the appliances are scheduled to arrive.

By the end of next week the house should be really close to being completed!

Paul

Whew!

My apologies that I've not updated this since earlier this week.... It's been a very busy week at the site.

Tuesday came and so did the drywaller. The siding also was getting some more attention this week. The well driller came back and finished the hookup to the house from the well too. I had several meetings with both lawn installers and concrete contractors for the driveway along the way.

First, the drywall...

The supplier delivered the drywall on Tuesday. They opened up Lyndsey's bedroom window and used the truck shown below to unload all the upstairs drywall thru that window.

yeah, all the drywall on the truck is for our house!

carefully.. carefully...

While that was going on, the girls found entertainment in playing with the muck that was left after the well drillers capped off the well that had been running onto the ground for 3 days.

At the same time, the siding installer was putting up more of our siding, and the concrete contractor came back and sawcut the joints into the garage slab and porch slab.

Wednesday saw the siding guy make some more progress... 

...and, it saw the interior begin to get alot more "finished" looking as well when the drywall began going up!

the living room - fireplace wall

the Wall of Windows

patio door in the dining area

hallway behind the kitchen

stairway divider wall

piles of drywall up in the loft

looking down over the front entry foyer

the view from the front door

 Down in the basement a third type of insulation went in;  spray foam insulation is used down here at the exterior wall end of the floor joists.

The top arched window is now in place.. the Wall of Windows is complete!

Thursday the drywalling continues...

view from the front entry

hallway behind the kitchen

stairway divider wall

kitchen wall (stove)

the girls wrote on the drywall, leaving notes for the workers :)

Friday was more of the same.... drywalling and siding.

fireplace wall

the Wall of Windows

looking into the kitchen/dining area from the living room

the overlook above the living room

the kitchen/dining area

the master bedroom reading nook

the master bedroom tray ceiling

Rachel's room

Robin and I were scheduled to be insulating and drywalling the garage walls on Saturday. I took Friday afternoon off and bought/delivered all the insulation to the site. The drywall for use in the garage showed up that afternoon as well.

In talking to the drywaller early Saturday morning (he arrives around 4am each day) on-site, he said that his boss had ordered 24 sheets too few of drywall! D'oh! So he had to use the stuff that was supposed to be ours to use in the garage for the house instead.

I called the builder about this... he was a bit ticked. He told us to just get the insulation put up in the walls and he'd make certain the drywaller's boss felt compelled to hang the drywall himself at no charge due to the slip up in order.

So we got out of that part of it anyway.. lol

Robin and I worked our butts off in the heat that day. At least it was overcast most of the day. But we got the insulation put up.

The siding guy got a bit more siding put up.. in the front of the house this time. You can see both the siding and the dark bronze colored trim together now.

Sunday (today) the drywaller was scheduled to come back and finish the drywalling the house. I'm assuming he'll be doing the garage then on Monday.

The plasterer is going to be starting putting the plaster up on the interior walls tomorrow (Monday). Things will begin to appear to move much more slowly from here on out.. but the differences should be very apparent in most cases nonetheless!

This past week I had meetings with 3 concrete contractors to get an estimate on doing our driveway. Also, I met with 2 landscapers to get prices for installing our new lawn. Once I get the last of those numbers in we'll have to make a decision on both of those items.

We met with Debbie the interior designer on Saturday. She's also a Parade "requirement". We'll get to keep the window treatments (blinds, curtains, etc) that she installs. She also is responsible for basic staging of the house during the Parade, and we'll get the opportunity to buy anything she uses in the Parade if we want to afterwards.

Paul