Day 180 - Oh Blogger Where Art Thou?

I can almost hear the bluegrass gospel playing in the background :-)

So it turns out that January really isn't a good month for blogging.  Between the cold weather, lots of work & a ski trip to Colorado, I just couldn't find the time to blog.  Fortunately, it was a great month of construction at the house!  There has been a TON of work accomplished since I wrote the last post.  With so much having gotten done, I'll just break it down for you section by section.

Plumbing

All of the plumbing is roughed in.  Nick from Hoffman Plumbing did a great job.  Here is what our Manabloc looks like along with some random picks of all the PEX tubing.

Looks pretty good!

This is the jungle of tubing/pipes/wires coming out of the mechanical room.

Check out that bundle of water lines heading to the 2nd floor!

Red = Hot.  Blue = Cold.

Vent pipes above the laundry room.

Emily’s tub finally arrived!  It was a bit of an ordeal to get it here, and to be honest until I saw it with my own eyes, I was beginning to think that we might never actually get it.  We ordered the tub online from a website called Homeclick way back on 12/9/13.  They had the cheapest price by over $150.  Needless to say we jumped all over that bargain.  It was a 4 week backorder (with other websites it was a 12 week backorder!).  Well, 4 weeks came & went with no confirmation that our tub had shipped.  We spoke with 3 different very polite (but clueless) customer service people from Homeclick.  One person said the tub had shipped and already been delivered.  A second person told us the tub was still sitting in the warehouse.  A third person told us that the freight company had it and there was nothing more she could do for us.  Ultimately, the tub got delivered safe & sound on 1/22/14 while we were on vacation in Colorado.

Baby blue.  Sky blue.  Powder blue.  Whatever.  They all work!

The alcove tub in the kids bathroom has also been installed.  It's 6ft long & 3 ft deep.  Lots of room for the kids as they grow. 

No quite as fancy as the other tub.

 

HVAC

All the HVAC ductwork is installed.  All of the seams are either sealed with tape or painted with mastic to minimize air leakage (Yep, I just used the work leakage).  The only hiccup with the ductwork occurred after it was installed.  While framing a half wall in our entryway, Al decided to test his aim and shot a few nails through the subfloor and directly into the HVAC duct sitting between the trusses below the wall.  I think it's time for Al to holster that pneumatic nailer!

Say hello to the wall that caused holes to be shot into the ductwork!

Temporary electric heater.

A little bit of everything in the basement ceiling.

Electric

It just so happened that the week we left to ski in Colorado was the week Brian from Kummet Electric was wiring our house.  I was very glad that I had gone over the blueprint with Brian before we left.  There were still had a few questions that came up while we away, but they were easily handled over the phone.  Brian did an awesome job wiring the house.  Running the electrical in a SIPs home is probably the single biggest challenge compared to a traditionally framed house.  All of the SIPs have electric chases predrilled into them.  Extreme Panel marks these chases every few feet with red lines on the OSB.  Unfortunately, sometimes these red lines get covered up by tape of framing from the interior walls.  That meant Brian had to occasionally take his best guess to find the chases.  Other SIP manufacturers mark their chases all the way across the panel with a continuous line to avoid that problem.  Once the chase has been identified, the electrical wires need to be fished through the chases using a stiff metal wire.  In order to connect panels with each other, Brian had a ~6 ft long drill bit that he used.  Yes, I had just a little drill bit envy.

External recessed lighting

Under the front porch

Kind of looks like a horses tail

The wall below has been reframed 3 times so far.  First they forgot to frame-in an opening for the pantry door.  Second, we had to reframe the door to make room for the pantry shelves.  Unfortunately, we had to reframe the doorway again to make room for the electrical box!  Hopefully the 3^rd time is the charm, and the wall can stay put!

The most impressive thing about the electrical work however was how Brian recessed electrical outlets into the wooden beams in the ceiling.  Some of the beams were over 20 ft in the air!

Click on the pic to check out the box way up in the beam!

Master bedroom ceiling

My brother-in-law, Chad is an electrician.  He came out after we got back from Colorado and helped me install the speaker wire for the home theater system in the the family room & in the basement.  Thanks to Chad, we got all of the wires pulled and stapled into place in just a few hours.  With me in charge, it would have taken at least 2 full days!  Thanks Chad!

dChad, Lyssa & Harry taking a lunch break

Spray Foam

After the electric was inspected on 1/29/14, Tri County Foam Insulation out of Carlos came on 1/30/14 spray foamed all of the areas that didn't have SIPs.  The main area that required spray foam was the garage ceiling.  This was to finish insulating the bonus room above the garage and provide a vapor barrier to prevent exhaust fumes from seeping into the bonus room.  we also had all of the garage door headers, the rim joist around the basement & a cantilevered area in the basement ceiling.  Initially we accepted a bid from a different spray foam company, but after they came to the house and remeasured the job, their quote almost doubled!  Tri County Foam honored their original estimate which ended up being several hundred dollars cheaper than the competition.  They did an excellent job.  They were quick, professional and cleaned up after themselves before they left.  Emily took some great action shots of the foam being applied!

Beep...Beep...Beep...

Mmm...Self expanding, sprayable petroleum products... ;-)

I was hoping they would use purple foam, so I could call this pic "Purple Haze"

Finished Garage Ceiling

Foam close-up

 Dry Wall

PJW Drywall began installing the Sheetrock on 1/30/14 at the same time the spray foam was being applied.  So far the upper stair well and all of the bedroom ceilings are done.  You can really start to see the rooms taking shape!  On the down side, pretty soon I will no longer be able to walk through my walls!  I would like to take a moment to let you know that my sheet rock installer rolls very high class.  Since he arrived on the jobsite a microwave, a can of Maxwell House coffee & an actual ceramic coffee mug magically showed up!  It's like some kind of exclusive, member's only coffee house inside my very own laundry room.  I wonder if he takes call ahead orders?

Decaf Iced Carmel Latte with Extra Whip anyone?

General Carpentry Stuff

Lots of little things (& some big things) to report on this front.  All of our windows are officially in!  Exciting, right?  The last window placed was the window in the master bathroom that needed to be reordered.

We had a small section of siding up on the exterior, so we could see what it looked like in person.  Well, were it is:

Lighting isn't great, but it's a "Country Red"

Lots more interior framing has taken place.  Here are some pics of the mud room stairs:

Before

After

Stairs leading above the garage

The fireplace is in!  Sure, it's not much to look at right now, but you should see it under a disco ball!

Well,  that's all the news that's fit to print!  We'll see you later!