Adventures in Plumbing!

I can't tell you how relieved I am to be done with all the plumbing work. One headache of incompatibility after another. No ones fault in particular, but some communication was definitely lost at times. Nonetheless, it all worked out!

You might remember that we started with this:

Whole lotta assumptions, fingers crossed and lucky guesses in the image above, it turns out. 

Under the dust and dirt...

There is a halfway decent looking concrete floor!  It was quite a relief to see, actually. This pic is just a tease of some of our long term plans for the floor....

Let there be light!

The electricians have been busy. It's fun seeing our plan for lighting come to life.

Note: the following pics are not the final configuration or bulb types. No outdoor fixtures yet or lamps inside, obviously. 

Tile you were waiting...

.. for a new blog post, Sebastien has been helping me make a big push on tiling the master bathroom. Thanks dude!

Started with a base of cement board. 

Which needed smoothing out with some thinset, and waterproofing with a membrane layer of redgard. 

Friends and paint and stuff

Thanks to Dave and Ari for helping us paint some ceilings!  Meanwhile, I focused on the master bathroom tile prep.

Evolution of a kitchen

Getting there!  Hate to spoil it before it's totally done, but it could be a while yet. 

The first bit of paint.

Felt good to do some painting again. Nothing fancy, just one quick coat of primer in the kitchen so that Greg could get started on installing all our cabinets this week. (Whoo!)

Big pile of cabinets in the way:

Cleared out and prepped:

Annnd, primed!

Our House is Getting Dressed

Boom!  Siding is going ON.  Can't wait for the ladders to come down so we can see the whole picture!  No more teasers until it's done!

The latest architect render.  Wait, what is that extra window doing in there above the screen porch? (more on that soon).

A few drywall updates after the break.

MUD.

Blarg!  The mud. Oh, the mud.

Thankfully the majority of our native soils are sandy. This part of the driveway, however, is not native soil.  It is crap-slop, and I've yet to fully remedy the situation.  As soon as the ground thaws fully it'll be fine, but until then.... crap slop.

I am also thankful for this 4wd diesel beast that loves to pull around the crap-slop.

As well as carry all the things!

Dry-wHAAA?

It's like a real-live home now, almost!  sort of.  Getting there, anyway.

 View from the loft.

Deciding on Siding

The snow is finally melting! whaa-hoooo!  We can see dirt for the first time in months.


Of course, that means we're into mud-season now.  blarg.... lot of melting still to go, too.  The burn-able wood pile continues to grow though (bonfire, anyone?)

Our cedar siding is on-site. Yum.

But yeah, the exterior siding is underway!  All the soffits and fascia boards are now done as well.  Looking more like a real house every single day.

Here is the siding plan.  Makes sense, right?  3 materials, mostly just because we could.

Getting the walls dry, then, drywall

Well, it's about to get dusty in here.  Drywall is all stacked and staged.  We had to hit the brakes for a couple frantic days of last-minute preparations though!  And give time to keep running the heater and de-humidifier for a couple more days.  Still kinda steamy in there.

Hot damn.

Well, I'd say the insulation is working.  It sprayed in a bit damp though, gotta get that humidity down before drywall!  I was literally greeted by a blast of steam when I opened the front door early this morning (it was around -10° outside).

And here is the source of all this heat.  10 kilowatts of electric fury. 

(first electric bill is gonna be a doozy....)

Insulators finished up yesterday and completed filling up the roof assembly.

Tightened UP and HOLDING the HEAT!

Finally, it is warm in house Gladwin.  Rejoice, good humans, for the heat shall now remain.
Or something like that.

But yeah, very pumped to have it insulated!  Pictures of foamy and fuzzy goodness to follow:

Entryway room ceiling/roof done in all spray foam (thanks to whoever decided that!)

Each piece of blocking installed right between rafters and side overhang supports was blasted with a thick picture-frame of closed cell spray foam to keep the roof assembly air-TIGHT.  No vented roof for this house...

Closer look at the foam.  Also notice the extensive caulking around headers, top plates, etc.  Good stuff! 

 

And then the cellulose went in the next day!

Holes Through the Roof

We have four of them now.  And hopefully that's all we'll ever have.

Wood stove, plumbing/septic drain vent, passive radon vent, and the range hood exhaust fan.

They are now underway with the roof overhang soffit and fascia boards.  Closing in on ready-for-roofing status (once the f&*#ing snow finally melts)!

Shut the front door...

We have a front door!  With a lock!  That is all. 

I'm in Sweden this week so hopefully there's all sorts of good progress to post about after I get back. 

(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!