Friday, July 15, 2011

House Update - 15 July

This is a relatively "picture-free" post.  The builders finished up the roof and installed all the windows except the master bath.  Here's what things look like now:


The only windows not installed are the master bath windows and that's just because they need to get the tub in through the window.  Its possible to get the tub in through the doorways, but its just easier to lift it through the window with a crane...after all, its a cast iron tub!

We're supposed to have the electrical walk-through soon.  I think this will be one of the hardest things to do.  How do you decide where you want electrical outlets?  You have to kind of know where you want things in the room to make sure you put outlets where you need/want them.  Probably the only room that will be "easy" is the sewing room....just put lots of outlets on every wall. :-)

I probably won't have a lot of pictures of the house unless they put the siding on soon.  As we get into doing the interior (dry-wall, etc) then I'll be able to show more of the insides.  The pictures I have of the interior are a little hard to understand since you can "see through" the walls right now.

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

House Update - 12 July

Before I jump into progress on the house yesterday, I wanted to share some pictures of the flowers at our rental.  When we first moved into the rental, I was a little bummed out that I wasn't going to have a lot of flowers this summer.  At our house in Scotia, we had lots of flowers and it was nice seeing them bloom all summer.

Earlier this spring though, I noticed that the woman who used to own the house we're renting had a few roses.  I've tried to clear out the grass around the roses, but its a losing battle!  However, over the past two weeks, I noticed some daylilies blooming next to the house.  They were hidden by some sumac that was taking over the area, so when my parents were visiting last week, my mom and I tore out all the junk plants around the daylilies (including a very invasive sumac and american grape vine).  In doing so, we've uncovered a ton of daylilies that are now clamoring for the sun.  Every day I see a new color pop-up.  Here's the colors so far:

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This was the lily I first noticed since it was on the outside corner.  This one spurred the tearing out of the rest of the junk in that corner.  Its absolutely gorgeous!
So onto the house...

The framers/roofers finished the shingles on the main portion of the roof yesterday.  The roof cap isn't in yet, but I'm hoping it will go on today to help keep water out of the house.
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They also framed out the chimney on the back of the house.  Even though the fireplace isn't in yet, the chimney is started and they have the materials for the flue.
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The windows were also all delivered yesterday.  I didn't upload any pictures of them since they're pretty boring sitting in their boxes. ;-)  However, we have all the windows at the house including the sliding glass door for the back.  I'm hoping the builder will get the windows installed today....next will come siding! :-)

Monday, July 11, 2011

House Update - 11 July

I haven't posted in a while since I was on vacation last week. A much needed vacation I might add. :-)

Rich and I didn't really go anywhere for vacation, but it was enough not going into work every day.  We spent some time with Rich's parents at Peck's Lake, some time with my parents at the rental house, shopping for house stuff, shopping for work clothes (we both needed them desperately) and spending time at the lot.

We saw quite a bit of progress last week.  At the end of my last post, we had the first floor framed.  Now we have the entire second floor framed, too.  The roof decking is also installed and they even started putting shingles onto the roof.  Here are some pictures from last week:

Family Room -- right side are windows, straight in the back is a fireplace (where its framed)
 
Roof trusses on the 2nd floor

Our builder even uses hurricane clips.  While we don't get hurricanes very often in upstate NY, its nice to see that he's doing things really well to make sure we won't have any problems with high winds.

Picture from the back of the house with most of the trusses up.  If you look over the right hand end of the house, it looks like there's a flat spot on the peak of the roof.  They just hadn't put up the peak trusses yet.

All the roof trusses are up and the decking started.  On the left hand side of the picture, you can see that the peak trusses are now up over the master bedroom.
View at the front of the house now that the roof decking is up.


Back of the house with the shingles started.

Today is another warm, sunny day out so we expect the framers to finish up with the roof today.  I think our windows will probably go in soon, too.  yay!  I can't wait to see the siding go up on the house!

Friday, July 1, 2011

House Update - 30June

I haven't posted anything about the house in the past two weeks, but there's definitely been progress.  The last pictures I posted were here.  We had the footings poured and the forms up for the walls.  At this stage, they have completed:
  • Pouring walls and removing forms
  • Waterproofing and back-filling around the walls
  • Rough grading of the property
  • Basement-to-first floor joists installed
  • First floor completely framed!
I don't have all the possible pictures online to show, but here's a good synopsis of the progress on the house.

This is from Tuesday, June 26th.
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    This is from Wednesday, June 27th.
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    This is from Thursday, June 28th.
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    There has been quite a bit of progress in a short amount of time.  Its quite exciting to see the walls being constructed and the house actually taking shape.