Serious business - Stained Glass window - transom windows

One step closer to having the Electrician and Air Condition hooked up and running.

We feel very accomplished this weekend. We finished all T&G wall boards up to the highest electrical outlet. The last few steps, before calling the Electrician in and Air Condition installer, will be installation of light fixtures and the island. 
We even installed 4 out of the 5 interior doors. Thanks to Youtube and THISISCarpentry. His video with a 5 step process worked great and by door number 4, we had it down!  They are square, plum and look great!

In the laundry room we opted for sheets of beadboard on the walls behind the washer/dryer, dog kennels and shelving. These will be painted white to brighten up the small room and give it a clean look. The 3 boards installed easily, even with the 5 cuts outs in the middle section. Measure twice - cut once!

We bought and delivered the kitchen island cabinets. After many hours of discussion, we decided on prefab cabinets from our Builders Warehouse with oak front drawers and doors. The three cabinets (2-30", 1-18") will give us about a 7' island. We are shopping for live edge cedar, or other hardwood, slab for the island countertop.

We changed our plan on the floor, instead of staining or painting we are going to install, can you guess?

 And the REAL fun begins. We have color!!  We have 4 beautiful stained glass windows. All four windows are going to be installed like transom windows over the 4 hallway doors. We did a dry fit of one window and it fit perfect with the custom framework!  This colorful antique window is over the laundry room door.

A little homesteading on the side.  Onion sets IN! More, much more to come.

Insulation and Exterior Complete!

We hit a slow patch in our diy build.  But the insulation and building exterior are complete!!

The interior foam insulation was blown in using closed cell around the windows and open cell on the remaining walls and ceiling. The insulation makes a great difference in temperature inside.

The exterior has been completed by Huff Welding. They installed the last  pieces on the porch.

We moved over the swing to the front porch and moved over the fire pit and made a sitting area.

Now the interior building for us begins! We will be installing plywood in the closests and painting them at a later date. A few concrete anchors have been installed and two doorway thresholds removed.

We are in the process of finding the tongue and groove boards for all the walls. Not an easy task when you need 6000sq ft of boards (approx 900 10' boards). Hopefully, we will have that figured out in the next week and the boards on order. Until then we have alot of wall anchors to install and many other little items. 

BTW: We squeezed in a "little" garden to take care of in our "spare" time. Oh, and we have fun doing some wild blackberry pickin'.

Subcontractors Subcontractors and more Subcontractors

We have had a lot of activity in our build. We have had subcontracts and more subcontractors working on different projects. The money in our wallet is flying out as we near the end of the big expenses. That is all fine because that means we are getting nearer to having a finished home.

The electrical rough in is done!  Coordinating the A/C, electrical, chimney and insulation guys has been fairly easy. Each of these companies have been accommodating and very professional with meeting our needs.

Culpepper Electrical worked with us to place outlets and fixture junctions where we needed them. Bryan Culpepper made suggestions that improved the overall installation.  Here are a few photos:

With the electrical roughed in the air condition was roughed in also. The inside unit of the 4 ton 18 SEER American Standard heat pump was installed. Platt Heating and Aircondition is completing the installation of the unit.  They have been there when they said they would be and most importantly worked with us to keep the attic space clear. The unit in the attic space is suspended.  Here is what we have:

Just yesterday the chimney was installed thanks to Huff Welding. Another very highly recommended company. Mr. Huff and his staff cut the hole in the perfectly good roof to insert the chimney pipe, attached the supports and cap.  It looks great! We are expecting very high winds today so that will be a good test.

                          



















We took a little time off to start a "test" deer plot.  We are fortunate to have a nice clearing to work with. I mowed the 1/4 acre location and then my husband turned over the ground using the box blade on the tractor. Alot more work is to be done to get this spot ready for seed. Second photo is me helping.

Our fantastic guys from Culpepper Electric were out very early this morning to trench and prepare for the electric line to be run underground. We are getting very close to having live electricity! They also helped us trench our septic and water line locations.  We (I mean my husband) dug and placed the 200gal septic for our grey water yesterday.

That tank reminds me of the Gilligan's Island episode where the little oriental man shows up on shore in a tiny submarine looking thing. Doesn't it look like that?

Next up: Insulation in the next few days....stay tuned.

Moving right along

  This last week has been exciting!  

  We are moving right along with our preparations for the electricity installation and heat pump install.  To have everything ready for the electrician we needed to finish attaching 2" wide wood strips to the metal wall supports.  This will enable the electrician to place all the junction boxes where they need to go. We had a walk thru with our electrician and feel confident he will do a great job.

  The electrical rough-in is this week!  Although this weekend was nice and cool 50 - 60 degrees, the heat is coming!!

  Since we have purchased the outdoor lights, they can be installed this week. We are very excited about this because we almost finished installing the shutters. Once the lights are installed we will just about have a finished exterior.




Here are photos of updated exterior with shutters on side complete!

The shutters were a bit of a pain. Each one took a bit more time than we expected. But then most everything usually does. 😊

  With the "R" panel sheet metal "hills and valleys" we had to insert 1" thick spacers strategically behind each shutter so that they were secure and flat against the panels. Occasionally, we had a bolt in a seam of the panel that required a slight cut out on the backside of the shutter. Using carriage bolts we secured the shutters nice and tight.

  We have two lower windows and the three upper windows on the front to finish another day.

  They look terrific and we installed all the ones the electrician will need to help him place the outside lights.

Wall strips installed above and below all windows and on all upright wall supports. The tongue and groove wood planks for the walls will be nailed right into those boards. We chose this route instead of installing another framed wall to keep the depth of the walls and window frames to a more desirable size.

 We are starting to be able to purchase interior items. The small bathroom dresser/vanity is being refinished and we placed our blue and white vessel sink on top and it looks fantastic. The copper exposed plumbing with the blue handles will look great too!

 The trees think it is Spring already!

Break for Deer Season

Just a quick post :: After our Break for Deer Season and our First Annual Thanksgiving Family Dinner, we are getting back to building.

The rafters are going in slowly and carefully. Ladders don't take kindly to your knees after continual usage. Never the less, as of today, we have rafters up and over 1/4 of the rooms.

Oh and deer season went well:

Beam me up!

Oct 22 2016 Beam and wall framing

One man - SOOO many boards

After a brief hiatus we are back at it! All the walls are framed up to 10'. The wall in the center of the house separating the living space from the bedrooms is 90% complete. Wall sections above the 10' height are being completed now.

Photo of center wall. The ceiling in the living area is a cathedral ceiling. The wall up to 10' was built in sections and lifted up and bolted down and to the adjoining sections and floor. Above 10' is a work in progress.  An opening on the left will remain there until the A/C and plywood attic flooring is completed.

The last two days we have focused on our 24' foot exposed I beam in the center of the living area and preparing it for rafters. First we attached a 2' x 10' to the top and bottom of the metal beam. These 2 bys will make installing the 40 rafters easier and more stable. Then we added two metal straps for just a little extra support. The straps will not be visible once the ceiling boards are installed. Finally, we added 24" wide plywood on both sides of the beam.  Our final vision is for the beam to be finished off with a nice finishing wood. It is way up there!

While waiting for the sun to rise high enough to work inside, we installed our first set of shutters. We tested out a few ideas and finally have this set installed with supporting block between the shutters and the exterior wall ridges. We think it looks great! What do you think?