Day 25

The weekend is over -- back to work!

Here's a shot of our fireplace as you walk up the stairs. There will be a pair of pocket doors in the hallway (with fluted glass) that we can close if we want privacy. But we'll probably just leave them open most of the time. What a view!

Let's see....last time I "blogged" I was rambling on about some inspections. Well, we passed two, failed one, and post-poned three more. Let me explain:


Mechanical -- passed. Yea! Thanks Jeff!!

Plumbing -- passed...sorta. Everything was fine with plumbing except for the piping to the fireplace. The inspector wanted to see a different kind of piping used or an extra shut-off valve. Fine -- we'll fix it on Monday.

Roofing -- those stupid roofers. If anyone is the least bit familiar with construction, you will share in my agony that getting subs to show on-site is BRUTAL! My roofers are very skilled at what they do, but horrible when it comes to committing to being at my project. I hate it, just hate it. I am at their mercy....or I fire 'em. But I've got two things, no three things going for me.
1. They've done great work, and we are completely flashed in and water-tight.
2. It has only rained one day at our house since we began this project.
3. I haven't paid the guys a dime!
Anyways, we will push off the roofing inspection until later this week. Stupid roofers!

Electrical -- my electrician wasn't able to button up the rough-in before 5pm on Friday, so I pushed off the inspection until Monday morning. Wish us luck!

Framing Rough -- since I didn't have electrical inspected, I couldn't get my rough framing inspected. Bummer. And the mech. inspector kept pointing out "deficiencies" in our framing...items that I'll have to find in the code book for exceptions. One thing he said was that ALL walls, full-height and cripple and pony walls need to have double-top plates. If this is true, we'll be busting out the saws-all for quite a bit of demo. But he also said it was to the discretion of the inspector. WISH US LUCK!!

We did get the okay from the inspectors to sheet-rock one side of the studs. So this weekend Jeff, Nate, and I labored to hang quite a bit of rock. It's fun, because this is the stage in which the interior spaces start taking shape. Two of our friends: both named "John" checked in with us this weekend to lend us a hand with drywalling as well. Thanks Johns!

This is a shot of our bedwall (looking east). Notice the pony wall at the bottom. Man, we're hoping the inspector doesn't make us double-top plate that sucker!!

So this week will be spent trying to get the rough frame inspection complete so that we can finish the drywall and get a screw inspection by Friday (hopefully!!!!!) so that we can spend the weekend mudding and texturizing.

While Jeff and Nate were working on the smaller drywall pieces, I was working on getting the fireplace chimney and window trimming roughed-in. I had to cut out early to go to my hockey play-off game...should have stayed and worked on the fireplace!









And a shot looking west to our balcony doors. From this angle, the fireplace is on the right, the pocket doors on the left. You can just see a glimpse of our bathroom in the distance, on the left. The beam in the middle is about 11-feet off of the floor. The door in the distance is 7' to the top of the transom window.



There you have it. It's looking great! Can't wait to move in!!


Nate made us dinner tonight: Pheasant Parmesan. FANTASTIC! I think this is an action shot of Nate cooking....taken from Kaleb's viewing angle. It's been great having him around this summer.....he's already asking if I plan on building another house next summer. YIKES! But it has been a fun one......and completely impossible without his help!







Here's a shot of the kids goofing off at the sidewalk art show today. Jade is turning 8 this week! AHhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!