(Almost) Done Roughin' it.

No... The Gladwins are not done roughing it in our current housing accommodations, and all ready to move in.... don't get too excited.  I just mean that our building crew is almost done with all the rough framing, electrical and plumbing.

Sorry for the long post delay, we've been busy/travelling/snowed-in.  etc.

 The last windows go in.

An entryway (mudroom) is finally built!

I think this ladder is a bit big for Zachary.  The master bathroom window is in!  Wonderful.

 My folks joined us to check out the progress!

 Our fancy HRV (Heat Recovery Ventilator) System.  More on this setup in a future post.  But basically, we plan to insulate our house so tight that the air quality would suffer if we didn't intentionally ventilate.  This unit allows us to do that without wasting too much energy by exchanging enthalpy between the outgoing and incoming air streams.

  Master bedroom view.

 STAIRS!  Finally.

 The woodstove flue pipe will go through the roof here.

Master bathroom window is in.

I am excited about this deal right here.  A nice flat roof over the entry porch and mudroom.  In the future, it will have a neat extra feature.  Excuse the trash pile in the foreground... there's too much snow to put it anywhere else right now.

Our "control room" is coming together.  Going to be a lot of important functions packed into our little utility room.  Water pressure regulation/filtration/conditioning, electrical circuit control, storage, washer/dryer/freezer, and various technology hubs.

I love how organized our electricians are. This panel rocks.  A lot of circuits for a little house!

It snowed a lot.

Ok, not Boston-grade snow, but we still got a decent wallop recently.  Thank goodness the roof on the house is solid and water-proof already!

Ol' Crusty was an absolute demon beast in the 16" of fresh snow, and charged right back to the shed so I could get the tractor out to plow. 

After plowing:

Interior Framing Continues...

Some new details inside helped things feel just a bit more real.  Many of these camera angles might not make sense to anyone reading this.... but that's ok.

Closet by front door

Back of kitchen island.

View of kitchen from loft.  Small wall at end of cabinets on left.

Upstairs bonus room is framed out now.

Stairs will go here!  Speaking of which...

They should be going in soon.

The master bathroom ceiling is finally opened up!

Something like 14 feet tall at the highest end.  A window is going in right above the superior wall

 Upstairs storage area is accessible now.  (Picture it stuffed with storage totes and camping gear, etc)

And the master bedroom bump-out is finally up to full size.  Little more framing to do here yet though (probably after the stairs go in?)

And this is how a cheap-skate avoids paying for a dumpster.  I took our first haul of 7 fully stuffed 40-gallon contractor garbage bags last night:

More stuff, here, and there.

Well I suppose as our home build becomes a bit more mature, these update posts of mine will become more random.  A lot of tasks are going to be overlapping now!

So it's ever more fun to stop by the site after a few days away.  Jayden came with us and scampered up to the loft with me.

Keen observers may note the first few electrical outlet boxes are installed.  Electricians are on the job!

A window of opportunity

Well, it's still very much winter. With the roof water-tight, the crew moved towards getting the house all sealed up (so that we can heat it!). Meaning, it's time to put in some windows!

Stash of windows awaiting installation. 

The obligatory distance shot.

 Nice and dry in here now.

I think these window specs are pretty good?  Embarrassed to say I didn't even research it. (Just trusted our architect here)

I don't mind the snow so much when we have a completed roof!

Da Roof.

We have a roof!  Well, most of one.  Like, 96%.

They ran out of sheathing else it would have been all wrapped up today.  But at least we'll be staying dry inside now!  Probably only another week or so before we can turn on some heat, too.

I love pulling in after work and seeing tons of progress and guys still working.

I couldn't resist scampering up to the peak!

Sheathing is Believing...

... or something like that.  But after a week off with repeat snowfalls, and more sub-zero degree air approaching, I needed to believe in something.  We have to get a roof on this thing.

Thankfully, everyone on our team fully agrees with this sentiment, and work resumed today.  I took in a truly beautiful sunset after work today to snap some pics.

Rafters!

That is my creative title for this post.  Which, by the way, is current!  Only current progress updates from here on out, folks.

After finishing up the exterior wall, and interior load-bearing wall framing, it was time to start on the roof assembly.  Which depended on one kick-ass beam in the kitchen area, and a slew of very long, special-ordered 2x12s.

The framing team got all the rafters on before New Years, but then we hit a weather delay.  Can't blame the guys for not wanting to hang off a roof 25 feet above the ground when it is zero degrees and blowing snow.  Ugh.  Winter time is here for real now.

Rafters.  Lots of 'em.

2nd Floor Action

Framing continues.  Fun!

Getting the 2nd floor joists on.

Starting to picture it!

Walls are goin' up!

Now we're really getting into the heart of the build.  Entire new walls would start going up daily.

First exterior wall is built!  We're using the waterproof green "zip-system" sheathing.  Structural exterior sheathing and moisture barrier in one step.

Before I knew it, multiple walls were up and the house was starting to take shape.

Framing for pow-ah

Turns out, we had to frame out the bathroom walls in order to get electricity working on-site....  Huh?

Well, DTE Energy, our benevolent local electricity supplier, would not bring a power line and meter up to our home until we had the foundation completed and back-filled to final grade.  This makes sense, mostly, because they need to ensure they are burying their electrical line to a sufficient depth below grade as it approaches the house.

So, simple enough, let's just backfill the foundation wall and get DTE going on the electrical line and meter, right?  Not so much.  Superior Walls would not let us backfill the foundation wall until it was properly braced; meaning, with most if not all of the framing work complete.  In addition the Superior Walls team decided to throw us a major curveball and require some extra footing and sill-plate details before they would completely sign off on backfilling.  Ugh.  This presented a serious conundrum, as the framing crew really didn't want to run off a generator every day.  We decided to find a compromise of sorts, and to backfill the foundation wall only very locally, where DTE would be bringing in the underground power conduit.  This required a minimum amount of framing while using the generator, albeit with some extra temporary bracing in place.

Bathroom walls are up!  Complete with extra diagonal bracing.

Framing the Conversation

We've finally entered the most exciting phase of construction! (or so I've heard).

The framing stage is generally awesome because things really change rapidly, and you finally see the shape of the house, window layout, and overall proportions.

Framing team is on-site!  I love it.

Nice to see so many machines and vehicles on site.

Before DTE got our power flowing, this lil' generator did admirably (Thanks Steven!)

One thing about superior walls, is that the studs are already in place.  If you have an interior wall hitting in between them, you still have to make up some framing to receive it.

More framing updates soon; we'll wrap it up to current time and cover all the framing steps to get there (here?).

Fall Hikes in the Woods

One great thing about building a house, is that in order to check out the progress, you have to get outdoors to do it.  And if you're building that house smack dab in the middle of some acreage, might as well take a hike around in the woods while you're out there.

Handling Sewage

Now that's an appetizing post title, eh?

But getting the septic system install right is a big deal.

I'll start from the beginning on this one.  One of the first things we did was try to verify the soil type on our little slice of land.  Thankfully our county has an amazing free GIS mapping tool available online: http://gisapp.ewashtenaw.org/mapwashtenaw/

Soil type "OsB".... oooh k, is that good?  Google it:  "Oshtemo sandy loam".  Sandy loam?   That sounds good.

Pouring the Flooring

So there we were in mid-November with frigid cold temperatures, snow on the ground, and not much of a house.

Anyone who has dealt much with concrete knows that it can't be poured much below freezing.  The mix is about 20 percent water, and if it freezes... you're screwed.  So after waiting through a record cold week in November, we had to just go for it and keep things moving.

A big smokey concrete truck rolls in. yum.

A couple old guys are hard at work smoothing it out.

Rough Plumbing and Prepping the Slab Pour

So as you've probably figured out by now, our house is gonna be a little different than most.  With Superior Walls foundation and slab-on-grade construction, we had to run most of our plumbing beneath the slab.  Once the slab is poured, there's no changing things, so it has to be perfect.

Our concrete guy Joe meets the team on-site

Our Foundation Walls are Super(ior)

So we'd been pretty set on this foundation wall system since first stumbling across it on the interwebs.  Thankfully Giraffe was also eager to give it a shot.

The basic concept behind Superior Walls is that they are pre-cast concrete panels, made in a factory to our provided home plan specifications. Then they truck the panels out and use a crane to set them on a specially prepared stone footer.  The entire foundation installs in one easy day of work, and the benefits include:

• Uses up to 70% less concrete than pouring a standard foundation wall, with zero job-site waste
• High strength, high pressure concrete exterior requires no further waterproofing
• 2.5" of built-in insulation gives an R-value around 12.5
• Pre-framed with metal studs on the inside.  Ready for finishing!
• 6" wall cavities are ready for that much more insulation, so about another R22 or so, giving a total wall R-value of around R-35.  Pretty excellent for an underground foundation wall!

On the day of the wall installation, I couldn't just sit at work and miss all the action, so I shot out during lunch.