Building the house ... August 2012

Building the addition ... Phase 2 ... part 3

July 31 ... the majority of the roof is on the main part of the house. Major rain, wind and hail came through the area which cut the day short.
August 1 ... a slight change in plans. The siding and windows that were supposed to arrive today (originally scheduled for a week ago) have again been postponed until Friday. Due to that and the rain scheduled for today, Mo went north to attend to things there. Aaron stayed here and worked on a number of little things that had to be done.
August 2 & 3 ... Windows and siding did arrive Friday morning. The porch went on and Mo and Aaron spent a couple of days doing some necessary fine-tuning. There were some issues with the level and plumb of the concrete walls, so a good deal of shimming had to take place for the sheathing that the siding would attach to on the lower level.
August 6 ... Mo and Aaron finished up the sheathing and other "fine-tuning" and by the end of the day there was house wrap on part of the western side. They also got three windows in.
August 7 ... A sailor would say we were on a full run today. The sails were out and we had the wind at our backs and things really got done. Butch and Matt joined Aaron and Mo so there were four people working on the house. The only framing issue left was with three windows that needed the openings re-framed. The rest of the house got wrapped, almost all of the windows are in and some of the siding went on.
August 8 & 9 ... the past couple of days have been spent installing one more window and more siding, as well as some soffit and fascia. The guys broke early on Thursday to head north. A brother who now lives in California who they haven't seen in about a year is home and the family is getting together. All of the windows and most of the siding are on the west side. Siding is on the upper section facing the road and all but one window and part of the siding is on the east side. There is even a section of the old part of the house that now has insulation board and siding on it. We have reached a point where we are now waiting on some materials that haven't yet come in. Most of this should arrive by the end of next week so much of next week's work will be on the heating and electrical inside.
August 13 ... A crew from a tree contractor was here to look at the three small trees by the front of the garage. When the excavation was done, most of the roots on the west side were ripped out. We were concerned that without the root network, those trees wouldn't last long and were going to fall down in a good wind. The contractor agreed. We were hoping that they would top them and then we could cut them down, but they dropped all three for us. We cut them up and removed the brush, gave the wood away to neighbors and now have three less trees!
August 13-16 ... A lot of work got done this week, but not all of it immediately visible. Some siding was added, but we are in a holding pattern waiting for more siding and corners. A lot of the fascia and soffit was done and efforts shifted toward the inside where most of the electrical boxes were mounted and much of the wiring was run. On Thursday, we picked up the stone for the exterior sections where that will be used. We also got the rest of the bathroom accessories and all of the ceiling fans.
August 21 ... Today started with a delivery from Barden. The rest of the siding, corners, fire-rated doors and all of the interior trim were on the load. We have suspended outside work to focus on the interior to get ready for the sheetrock finisher/painter.
August 22 ... As things progressed on the electrical work, today was a big day. The electrical inspector gave the green light on all of the wiring. He indicated that he only needs to come back one more time to see everything in operation. The code officer also gave us the go-ahead. Insulation and sheetrock went up in the afternoon. By the end of the day, which was a late one, most of the insulation was in the upstairs and much of the upstairs ceilings and some of the walls were sheetrocked.
August 23 & 24 ... Things continued on the inside. Electrical wiring, wiring for TVs and computers, heat tubes, plumbing, insulation and more drywall were all on the agenda. The garage door contractor arrived Friday morning and started to install those, but found that he had been sent the wrong hardware. Hopefully the right stuff will come on Monday and he can continue on that.
August 27 ... By the end of the day, all of the wiring had been run in the living area, 98% of the drywall was up and some work had begun in the lower area. The garage door contractor was also here this afternoon and finished installing both doors. He will be back after the finishing work is done to install the openers and keyless entry system.

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