Day 206 - Drywall is Finished!

And it looks great! Mike & his crew from Justice Drywall did an awesome job! Thanks guys!  After they finished taping & mudding the walls, they sprayed on a "Level 5 finish."  Yeah, that didn't mean a lot to me either.  If you're in the drywall/painting business though, you would know that it means you put a skim coat of mud/cover material over the everything.  This ensures that the paint is taken up evenly by the walls.  If you don't do this, in certain "high light" situations, you can see the tape lines on the malls because the paint has a different sheen.

Mudding, taping & spraying this coating takes a lot of water, so now our house now feels like a sauna inside.  Great for my sinuses, but really bad for the window & to get things to dry.  It also poses a problem with trying to install the bead board ceiling, window/door trim & hardwood floors.  Any wood you install needs to acclimate to the same relative humidity as the room it will be installed in.  If you don't do this, the wood will warp & crack after you install it.  Since our house is made with SIPS, it is extremely tight.  Unfortunately, since we can't run our ventilation yet (still in the "construction phase") the moisture has no way to get out of the house!  So... we're doing it the old fashioned way.  We borrowed some dehumidifiers from friends (Thanks Feltman & Thomas clans!) and have one placed on each floor running continuously.  We also have a basement window & upstairs window open to help ventilate.  Hope it works.  the plan is to start installing the beadboard & trim next week
 
I included a Hodge-podge of pics from today.  Sort of radom:

Selfie!

Getting ready for the trim

Kleen Sweep gets thrown on the floor & helps to sweep up the drywall dust

Linus is a Kleen Sweep kind of guy!

Interior doors - Cherry

Drywall looks great!

More drywall

You want me to sleep where?

Cabinets & doors waiting for install

Off to the Twin Cities for a Birthday Weekend!  Pawning the kids off with Grandma & Grandpa!  We're picking out cabinet hardware!  It's going to be very romantic.  In a Bob Villa or Red Green Show kind of way.

Day 205 - Goof Off!

Just some pics of the kids & I goofing off!

PS - The Drywall is finished!  More pics to come..

Day 207 - Soft Water

The mechanical room is starting to fill up

The water softener & hot water heater were installed yesterday.  For the water softener (on the right in the picture), we went thru Ecowater out of Long Prairie.  Duane from Ecowater installed the system.  The small tank on the floor & the 3 white cylinders on the wall are a reverse osmosis system for the drinking water/ice machine in the fridge.  We have the 2 outside faucets bypassing the water softener.  Apparently softened water is bad for plants due to the sodium in it.  Who knew?  Maybe that's why I keep killing all of the plants in my house.  Oh wait, that's because I don't water the plants at all!

The 2 tanks on the left are the hot water system.  The bigger, 80 gallon tank on the left is the actual hot water tank.  The small, 50 gallon water heater is a buffer tank that will preheat the water using energy from the geothermal system before it goes into the actual hot water heater.  I haven't researched the water heater, but it's the standard heater that our plumber offered.  The Energy Star sticker says it costs the most to operate compared to other hot water heaters.  Oh well, just one more thing to replace when it eventually wears out.

Overall, water will flow from the municiple water supply into the water softener.  From there the cold water goes directly to the Manabloc and out to the rest of the house.  The hot water goes from the water softener to the buffer tank (a.k.a. the desuper heater) where it gets preheated during the summer months using heat fromt he geothermal unit.  From there it goes to the hot water heater, the Manabloc & finally to the rest of the house.

Day 202 - We Have Cabinets

Now those are some nice looking cabinets!

Gered made the trek up from Sheldon, IA to Sauk Centre today and dropped off the 1st load of cabinets.  They look great!  Since the garage doors only have the vertical track installed, they had to take off one of the garage doors, so Gered could unload the cabinets.  It's a bit hard to tell what goes where, but so far we've identified the fireplace mantel, a bathroom vanity, the fireplace built-in benches, the pantry shelves, and the pantry ladder.  Only one problem identified so far.  The fireplace benches are 22" deep, but the opening in the wall for the electronics is only 17" from the wall.  My mistake on that one.  We lowered the electronics opening, and I didn't remember to account for the benches.  Grr...  Gered is going to figure out some sort of solution, but I'm not sure how it will work out.

Cherry ladder to reach the pantry shelves

Hello again!

More Drywall

Drywall continues to move along nicely.  The primer/"Level 5 finish" arrived today.  They should have all of the drywall sanded, sprayed and ready for paint by Friday.

Gallons & Gallons of mud.  Don't I look happy?

Design Stuff

If picking the interior details were left to me, there is a very good chance our house would end up looking a lot like PeeWee's Playhouse!  That's why Emily is meeting with Ashley, a designer from Ravnik Interior Design, to finalize the flooring and tile for all of the bathrooms.  We are also struggling a bit to find the right lighting for everything.  We bought a nice chandelier online for over the dining room table, but we're not sure if we're sold on the color.  Things always look different in person than on the internet.

Plumbing/HVAC

Nick is coming tomorrow to install the plumbing for the hot water heater & for the water softener.  Hopefully we can get the water softener installed later this week as well, because Brian with Albany Heating wants to get the geothermal loop filled with coolant and hooked up soon.

That's about it for now.  Progress continues!

Day 198 - Drywall, Doors & Avoiding Disaster

Lots of trucks must mean progress!

Drywall news

Random thought:  Have you ever noticed how drywall has a millions different names?  Drywall, sheetrock, plasterboard, wallboard, etc.  Fact of the day:  According to Wikipedia (It's my blog, and I can site Wikipedia if I want to!), drywall is called gib board in New Zealand.  It's short for Gibraltar board.  

 It news a bit closer to home, our drywall installation is progressing nicely.  P.J. has finished hanging all of the drywall.  Mike and his crew are now taping, mudding, sanding & priming everything. They have been working hard and should have things finished by 2/27.

Drywall is definitely NOT a clean job!

Stilts are just plain cool.

 A Near Miss

Today we narrowly avoided a major problem with the thermostat.  In all of my infinite wisdom, I told the electrician to put the thermostat in the busiest place in the entire house, a wall along the main staircase.  When I realized this, I started seeing images of Harry and Linus tearing down the stairs & ripping the thermostat off the wall every other week.  Needless to say, I decided to have the thermostat moved to a less dangerous location behind the broom closet door.  Unfortunately, all of the sheetrock had already been taped & mudded.  When I told Mike that we needed to move the thermostat, he was not very happy with me.  We both began having visions of needing to tear down the sheetrock in the basement ceiling, putting Mike waaay behind schedule & causing me to go even more over budget.  Fortunately, my electrician is awesome!!!  I called Brian, and he simply says "No problem."  He drove out to the house later that day (from Pierz!), pulled the wiring back into the mechanical room and fished it back up through the wall without disrupting a single sheet of drywall!  I can't even begin to express how happy I was.  Brian has simply been an amazing electrician to work with.

Garage Doors

The garage doors were installed today!!!  Never mind the fact that the horizontal tracks haven't been installed yet, so the doors don't actually open.  Details, details.  The doors were installed without a moment to spare.  Gered is planning to deliver the first load of cabinets to the house next Monday.  Our appliances were initially also scheduled to arrive any day.  I ordered then during a Black Friday sale back in November.  In a very weird role reversal, we have been finding creative ways to stall delivery of the appliances as long as possible because we have no place to put them!  I think the freight company, J.B. Hunt, is getting a bit tired of holding our stuff!

Anyway here are some pics of the garage doors:

FYI - Emily waded through 4ft high snow drifts to take this picture.  She almost didn't make it back alive!

Before

After

Exterior close-up

Siding News

Tom, Travis & Al spent the day getting the Tyvek Stuccowrap put on the house.  Stuccowrap is very similar to regular Tyvek except that it has crinkles in it almost like a corrugated tin roof.  It is designed to allow moisture to drain better than regular Tyvek.  This was very important to me because I want to protect the OSB panels from moisture damage as much as possible.  According to Tom, Stuccowrap is a bit more difficult to install compared to regular Tyvek because it stretches due to the crinkles.

Harry Chillin' like a Villain

It's always a wee bit dicey when Al is driving the lift!

And with that, Super Linus says goodbye!

Bonus points for identifying the 3 different super heros in this picture!

Day 186 - Oops!

Hammers are a very useful around a construction site.  They frame walls, hang drywall, install doors, put in electrical, break windows.  You know, the usual stuff.  This was the site that greeted us on Saturday afternoon as we got ready to leave town for some family birthdays.

Oops. 

PJ, our sheetrock installer, was climbing down from his scaffolding when his hammer caught an edge of the scaffold.  It subsequently fell behind the plywood sheet that he had up to protect the window.  From that point, it was all Murphy's Law.

A new window is on the way, but I'm not sure when it will get here and be ready to install.

 Other that the window mishap, the sheetrock is going up quick.  The taping and mudding however is going to take ~3-4 weeks.

Hey good looking'!

View from the dining area into the front entry

Drop ceiling over the kitchen

Other Odds & Ends

• There were a few areas that Tom had to reframe because once the drywall got hung, they looked funny.  One area was above Betsy's closet.  The other was the loft above the mud room.
• We picked out a newel post for the main staircase.  Bayer Build is going to make it.  It is going to look similar to this.  Timeline for the newl posts?  5-6 weeks!  Yup.  Just keep smiling :-)
• They have finally started to put the housewrap on the exterior.  We are putting on DuPont Stuccowrap.  It is basically Tyvek except with a little bit of corrugation to it to help drain moisture.
• Gered has most of the cabinets done and will be bringing the first load up to Suak Center next week.  We are going to have to rent a storage unit to hold them because we aren't ready to install yet.  Grrr...
•  We decided to go with flat texture for the walls/ceiling with slightly rounded corners (Not the larger 3/4 round)
• Application has been submitted to have the gas line trenched in sometime after April 1st.
• We are working to get the flooring & lights finalized.
• Bad news about the basement bathroom tub surround that I ordered.  It wasn't a good one.  It was a 3 piece unit instead of a 1 piece.  Nick, the plumber, recommended that we don't install if over concerns about leaks.  So, we are going to tile the surround instead.

Day 184 - Say Hello to My Little Friend!

Hello!

Betsy made a trip out to the new house with me today!  She & Linus actually make frequent trips out to the house, but they usually stay in the car sleeping or watching a movie.  Today Linus was sleeping soundly, but the Bets wanted to hang out with dad while I met with Tom to take measurements for the stair parts. She had a good time.  PJ, the drywall hanger had some music playing, and Betsy decided she wanted to start dancing.  Super cute!

 

Betsy's best pretzel impression

Drywall

PJ has been really cranking out the drywall.  The upstairs drywall is almost completely hung & he has started on the main floor.  Mike Justice from Alexandria will be coming next week to start taping & mudding.  We are hoping to have all of the drywall finished in 3 weeks.

That doorway is looking a bit low don't you think?

Ahh!  Now I get it!

Betsy's Bedroom

Arch leading into the living room

Lighting

Some of our lights came today from Barn Light Electric.  They look pretty cool!

Light for over the kitchen island

Light for the mudroom

 Issues with the Island

Remember back when I mentioned that the wall in the kitchen was magically 13 in. closer to the kitchen in real life compared to the blue prints?  Well, we made adjustment for the perimeter cabinets, but we forgot to change the width of the kitchen island.  That only left us with ~33" of clearance for the walkway between the island and perimeter cabinets.  Definitely not wide enough,  Doh!  As soon as I realized this, I called Gered, our cabinetmaker.  Bad news:  He had already finished making the island!!!  After thinking about things, we decided to bite the bullet & have him shorten the island by 12 in.  In the long run, I think we won't regret having the wider walkways.

 

Optimistic Construction Timeline

• Drywall finished by 2/28
• Cabinet installation 3/3-3/7
•  Housewrap & Siding: No clue :-)
• Trimwork 3/3-3/21
• Install hardwood floor 3/19-3/23 (if possible we my move this up a week)
• A family friend will be helping me out with this
• Install tile 3/3-3-14
• Start interior painting the last week in March
• Should take 3-4 weeks
• Install carpet after paint
• Fireplace masonry after paint
• Install lighting & plumbing after paint
• Official move-in date? - Sometime in 2014!!!