Rockin the joint

Last week, on Wednesday the insulation was finished in the morning and inspected later in the day. On Thursday the drywall crew came on site and staged 550 pieces of 4x12 drywall and other various materials throughout the house. On Friday twelve wiry guys returned at 8:00 AM and by 5:30 PM they had totally dry walled the house, filled up a 20 yard dumpster with scraps, and swept up the place. It was absolutely incredible to see these guys in action. No s—t, I watched one guy single handedly lift a 4x12 sheet of gypsum, slide it up the wall to the nine foot ceiling plane, tack it in place with a couple of nails, then screw it in a matter of minutes! Do the arithmetic, that’s 26,400 sq. ft of drywall installed in 114 man hours. On average each guy would’ve put up 46 sheets that’s roughly five sheets per hour or one very twelve minutes.

Of course the finishing will take a little while longer but at the rate we’re moving painting and other interior finishing isn’t too far away.

Check out the latest photos.

Getting Ready for Drywall

A lot's been happening over at a Shorething. The HVAC work is complete, the plumber, electrician, gas company, and central vac guys have completed their rough ins and everything that needed to be inspected at this point has been. It was especially gratifying to hear the building inspector say that we have a well built house.

With the inspections out of the way we could begin the insulation. The pictures show the first part of the process where all of the exterior walls are being sealed with a 1/2" of sprayed foam insulation then traditional batts will be added on top of that.

The way the insulators are moving along its quite likely that the dry wallers's will start the end of this week. They'll hang all of the sheet rock in 3 days or so then there's the tedious finishing process over several weeks.

We've provided our kitchen layout to a couple of cabinet shops, one in Ohio and one closer by in Seaford, Delaware who are working up some proposals for semi-custom cabinets -- not crappy particle board in these.

We've ordered the hardwood, a little over 2800 sq ft of brazillian cherry for the first floor and that'll be delivered the end of the month.

Only a little work remains to be done on the exterior trim, but we're already take full advantage of our porches.

At this rate we may be finished by the end of the year, and are certainly on track to move in full time next summer.

Here's some new pictures.

Moving forward

It's been awhile since I've updated you on the construction, almost a month, and I'm delighted to say that things are moving along very well. These pictures are from last weekend and show that the roofing is finished and the siding and porches are almost done. The HVAC guys have installed three of the four furnaces and I've done a walk through with the electrician to locate receptacles, fixtures, etc. We've actually installed a couple of circuits and hopefully the electric company will energize the panels so that the guys don't have to keep dealing with extension cords run from the carriage house.

The other day I met with the guys who will be dong the garage doors, the central vac and the insulation. We plan to have all of the sheet rock up by early July so there's going to be a whole bunch of activity between now and then.

Since the exterior is pretty much done I was able to clean up the grounds and grade the site which had really been trashed out over the winter. It great to have a tractors and the right.
landscaping tools.

Thanks larger to the efforts of my construction manager we haven't run into any big problems and so far things are within budget.

That's it for now, I'll have more up to date photos next weekend.

Happpy Hour on the Back Porch

I spent last weekend at a Shore Thing so I could do yard work and catch up with construction. Betsy hung out soaking up the view and generally charging up her batteries for her next surgery.

Construction is progressing nicely. A couple of the furnaces have been placed up in the attic and HVAC ductwork is being put in place. The roof is pretty much done, the workshop floor has been poured and the garage floor will be poured next. The porches are all ready for decking and before too long I'll be able to start exterior clean up and landscaping. The plumber has things pretty much roughed in and once the HVAC ducting is all run the electrician will start his work..

Here's some of the latest pictures.

Moving on to mechanical

Construction progresses well. I met with my HVAC contractor earlier this week to go over the work he'll be doing. I looked long and hard at sustainable and renewable heating and cooling which would have been supplied by geothermal heat pumps. Conservatively for the four zone system that we are installing the price would've been in the neighborhood of $100K . Even with the 30% tax credit the cost would've been a budget buster. I'm really suspect how this guy could do it for a net of $10K.

Our system is a hybrid, also known as dual fuel -- one that marries up high efficiency propane fired furnaces with air source heat pumps. The heat pumps are the primary source for cooling and heating, that is until the outside temperature dips below the optimal one for heating. At that point the furnaces will automatically kick it. Pretty cool or warm as the case may be. Four strategically located air handlers will ensure good distribution without taxing any one zone.

One trusted source considers "dual fuel to be state of the art in the heating and cooling world and a notch or two less efficient than that of current best available geothermal systems."

As you can see from the pictures the windows and doors are all in, the roof felt is down and the shingles are staged for roofing.

My next update will be at the end of the month. Stay tuned.

The beat goes on

For a number of reasons I didn't get down to check on things for almost a month and in that time a lot went on. As you an see from these pictures the framing is pretty well done, the porches are under way and the windows are in. The guys couldn't work for about a week because of the snow but once they returned they started on exterior trim work since the weather was going to cooperate. Our plumber has started his rough in and before too long I'll be meeting with my HVAC guy. Things are moving along well --by the end of February the exterior should be done.

Stay tuned

Framing Update

Betsy and I went to check up on things yesterday. THIS is what we saw and as you can see things are progressing nicely with the framing. The mason is building piers to support the front and back porches and we are getting ready to bid those jobs out. The first of the mechanical trades, our plumber will be starting some of his work shortly.

If anyone is interested in what's been used to frame the house so far, there's a list HERE. On that list you'll see a number of items Referred to as TJI and LVL. These are engineered lumber components for a for a Weyerhaeuser product, iLevel. The rest of the stuff is pretty self explanatory.

On a seperate, but not totally unrelated note, blog reader asked me about the pine trees that are on the property. In March 2002 we put 5 of the parcel's seven acres into a forest stewardship program which notes "2 rows of indigo bush were planted at a 5'x10' spacing along the western and southern property lines. The rest of the field was planted with loblolly pine at a 8'x10' spacing with the rows running in a north Isouth orientation."

Since then I've been tending to the 2,200 pine trees seedlings which are now 15 to 20 or more feet tall.

After 8 years, on average, each acre of my pines sequesters about four tons of carbon monoxide per acre per year.

Never let it be said I'm not doing my fair share to save the planet.