Multi Tasking

Sorry no pictures, yet. Sandi dug the garden this weekend while I dug the pool. Seems like a fair trade to me, although S may differ as I sat on the tractor most of the time. Anyway, we're well on our way to having a pool up for the kids (and the rest of us, rest assured). Had to dig a side to level it, now need to get a load of sand.

Our party weekend coming up may have a new dimension, depending on the weather.

Stay tuned, Sandi is surfing CL and is motivating hard to get the shop bathroom working. Well, a toilet anyhow. Lots going on at the DA!

Preparation

Getting set for a big project on this house is a big project in itself. We're three weeks away from the big power-and-light rough in, and there's tons left to do. We are expecting a reasonable amount of people to be here with birthdays and a general party-zone so there is that much more to prepare for. This time instead of renting a porta-potty we decided to put that money into sheetrock and parts to install the toilet and walls for the shop bathroon. Oh joy, another project with a deadline. I love those. Oh, and don't forget your swimsuit if it's warm, as we're also going to set up the pool. Or we hope to, anyway.

Normally a house this size would take a crew of electricians about a week to rough in. We're going to do it in a day. To that end, we are taking every possible step to make it a breeze. You'd think being in the trade and all that I'd have an easy time of it, but high voltage is way different than security and sound. And while several of our friends are working electricians, none are residential people and may be more comfortable if we put in a conduit system. Not going to happen, so we'll figure it out.

All of the boxes are up, save for a couple that need to be cut into the siding or shear walls. Most every recessed light fixture and ceiling box is up and whip locations are marked. I have all loads mapped and listed and will be color-coding some floor plans for easy in understanding what goes where. And while I've looked at the code book a couple of times, I'm sure I'll get some things wrong and have to make adjustments once we get inspected.

While the upcoming party is intended mainly as a wiring party, it is also a birthday celebration for Sandi (40!!!)and Amanda (12.5). The festivities will start sometime on Friday and wrap up sundown Sunday. Wiring set for 8am and food 5-6pm. The BBQ will be going, beer flowing and frisbee throwing.

We hope you can join us!

Lesson learned

So I went into the paint store and was looking through the thousands of color choices for just the right shade of warm beige maybe even - dare I say it - a bold tan! I was told by the very nice man at the paint store that I wanted to go a shade or two darker than I thought because it would look lighter in the sun. So I bought just a quart of this shade to try it out...

Kinda boring, right?

Nothing too bold, you say?

The same color that looks so boring up close, looks ORANGE in large quantities on my house.

Quart of paint - $10

Paintbrush - $7.50

Not living with an orange house - Priceless

Let's Party!

Hey, come on over to our house for a PARTY! Albeit, a WORK party... We are FINALLY ready to pull some romex. We've decided on June 18th. We have been nailing up boxes, marking plans and measuring routes so we will be prepared and ready to drill and pull wire starting at 8am (or whenever you can get here). If you're not into wiring, come by in the afternoon and help me say farewell to my 30's after the work is done. :-)

So much fun putting up outlets and switches!

OOOOHHHH, LIGHTING!

Radiator found!

It's been a long, cold winter, but ski season is finally over and we are re-focusing on the real house again! This is a radiator that Tom found on Craigslist a few months ago for a boost of heat at the front door. I wasn't thrilled with the idea of having an old-fashioned radiator at our entry door to be honest, but I understand the need for supplemental heat with the radiant floor system. He had looked at others but frankly, they were plain and kinda ugly. He sent me the link to this one and I loved it! I wish I'd taken a 'before' picture, but alas, I did not. It has this gorgeous scrollwork on each fin at the top and bottom. I had it sand blasted and powder-coated so it would hold up through the years. I think it came out pretty darn nice. I can't wait to warm my hands in front of it in the new house!!!

Absolutely love this!

Simply Gojus!

Aftermath and Moving On

A week after a damn fine party, thrown by my lovely wife and about 50 of our closest friends. The house is still semi-decorated, though it's coming down daily. Thank EVERYBODY for your thoughts and wishes whether you were there or not.



Now our focus goes back to work and the house.



We are so close to being done with the siding, with basically two sections left to do. The master bedroom face and the back deck and dormer area are what's left, and still a bunch of caulking.



I want to extend the perpetual invitation to anybody that would like to drop by and throw-in, regardless if we are having an organized "work party" or not. I'm going to try to keep a running list of things that need to be done, many of which really can be done or severely impacted in an hour or two or three. Practice your skills, challenge yourself if you like, be an extra hand for something, it's all here and if you don't know how to do something, we'll figure it out. That's how we're building this house, in fact, figuring out how to do stuff as we go. We've made mistakes, we correct them, we learn and get it done. Immensly rewarding so far, but we're impatient to get it done!



Here's an idea of things to do:

• Install siding


• Caulking


• Cut and screen vents


• Install deck ledger spacers and siding to cover tyvek


• Install door hardware on two french doors


• Dig up rain barrel to repair leaking connection


• Spread gravel under house


• Dig out sump pump under house, build brick wet-box for pump


• Route, plan and install vents for baths, kitchen, laundry, water heater (pending material)


• Route, plan and install gas piping (pending material)


• Route, plan and install vacuum system piping.


• Install soffet boards front and rear


• Mask windows for paint


• Paint the house (pending material)


• Connect the shed 110vac wiring feed from the house, final the hose bib there and cover the hole.


• Insulate (freeze protect) the exposed water collection lines where they enter the house.

OK that's it for now. Check back for updates, we'll see if I can keep this maintained. Sandi will at some point continue with the picture-post, but as you loyal readers know we're pretty hit-and-miss on doing updates.

Siding... with PICTURES!

Ok, only about a month behind in posting these... On our anniversary weekend (17 years... woo-hoo!) we had some wonderful family and friends come over to help us side our house. Nephew Matt was the first to arrive in the morning. Here is Tom and Matt setting up our anniversary gift to each other. My...ahem... OUR Bosch 4410, 10" sliding compound miter saw... can you hear Tool-Time Tim grunting right now? I really love that saw considering we did the entire north wall of the house with a Skil-Saw, the straight cuts of the Bosch are AWESOME!

I believe this is Tom and Wayne in the bucket putting up the trim pieces around the windows in the craftroom.

Here are Nephew Matt, my brother Matt and the fabulous Andria working on the backside of the garage.

Ed was our cut master that Saturday. He did a great job cutting for all the installing crews. There are a lot of angles on the different roofs and he kept up like a champ.

Mom, with her broken wing still carried boards from the cut station to the installing crews. She is amazing.

Wayne and Tom working on the trim boards at the craftroom door dormer.

Wayne and Queen Betty in the mighty chariot...

Hailey and Tom working on the front dormer over the garage.

Here is the backside of the house after the weekend work party. Sigh... ain't it purty?

Here's a closer picture of Hailey & Tom working on the dormer.