Look! Wires!

Lots of work yesterday, including electrical, plumbing, roofing and the well guy finally came out to replace our well pump. Looks like some roots came up with the old pump but they don't think it's too much of a problem. Our water might taste a little piney. :)

Here's the one and only shot of the roof halfway done. The guys were on lunch break when I shot this. By the time we got back yesterday afternoon the entire thing was done.

These are the can (recessed) lights in the kitchen.

This is the hole cut into the back of our coat closet for access to the space where the water heater will be.

This is the loft upstairs, showing the electrical work in progress.

Close-up of the loft wall, showing receptacles and wiring.

And here's our tub surround! It's just sitting there, not placed property or secured yet. But at least they got it in there. This is in the upstairs bathroom, the master bathroom shower is all tile.

Today it looks like the plumber and electrician are back down there. Tomorrow is the open house!

More Roughing Photos

Just a few shots today. More work by the plumber and the HVAC team and we met with the electrician for a walk-through.

Roofing shingles have arrived. This is only about half of them, the rest were delivered to the other side of the house.

You can see the metal trim they're putting on the edge of the roof in this photo.

This is the water feed for the entire house. Capped for now until the guy comes out to install the new well pump. The vent above it is for the dryer. It can't have been fun to drill through bricks.

There's a drain in the master shower now. Always a good thing.

And this is the rough hardware for the master shower. That's all for now. We'll have shots of the new roof tomorrow!

Roughing In!

We are officially at the rough-in stage! I know this because Schumacher asked us to release their second draw of funds which was due after framing was complete. Anyway, onto the photos!

Hello, future commode. You don't look like much yet.

OMG they cut through the roof! That's so gonna leak!

This is our future kitchen sink. That wall behind it is actually the frame for the kitchen island.

This is the master bath. Two sinks are going in there and this is the plumbing taking shape.

Yes, we crawled into the foundation. It's actually nice and clean down there for now. No snakes have moved in yet. You can see the plumber has some work to do down here.

Creepy underside of the house. Hope I don't have to go down here often but if I do it's easily nine feet tall at this end so I won't hit my head.

That's some sort of distribution box in the trusses up there that then goes to heat/AC vents on the ceiling of the second floor. To me it looks like a giant alien creature with tentacles has taken up residence in our attic. Will I ever sleep soundly in this house knowing what lurks in the rafters?

There's two vents way up in the ceiling of the great room.

Hey, they've done more work in the big shower of the master bath! They have a lip on the edge to keep water in, they've added insulation to the outside wall there and some sort of water barrier to the floor. You can also see a heat/AC vent in the floor right outside the shower wall.

This is a big return for the heat/AC system. Eventually it'll be clogged up with dog hair. Bet on it.

And if you look closely you can see one of two air handlers hidden up there in the attic. I could not get closer because the pull-down stairway hasn't yet been installed. Maybe later.

This is the return for the second floor, up in the ceiling of the hallway.

And this is more plumbing details. For a sink. One can assume there will be shutoffs in there somewhere eventually.

That's it for now! The HVAC, Plumber AND the electrician are scheduled to be working today and roofing materials just showed up, so more exciting pictures are on the way.

Framing is complete!

We're pretty sure framing is now complete. Here is the result:

That's the exterior front with all the doors and windows in place.

This is a view of the loft upstairs. The stairs to the first floor are at the end of that little bridge over there. Obviously the hand rails are temporary, they're having an open house next weekend and don't want people to fall.

This is one of the upstairs bedrooms. This will be a home office.

This will be the guest room. If you come to stay with us you'll end up in here. We promise to have a comfy bed.

This is the other home office.

This is the upstairs bathroom. It'll be a full bath with a door separating the toilet and shower from the sink. Apparently that's a thing now. I've only really seen it in hotels, but whatever.

This is a view of the loft from the other side. I'm standing at the top of the stairs.

Standing in the same spot, but looking to the left down over the great room and the kitchen. You can see the giant windows in the great room from here.

They finally put in stairs! I think the 2x4 steps are temporary, again for the open house. We'll be getting nice wood and a carpet runner in the end.

This is at the front door, looking out over the open space of the first floor. Dining room, great room, kitchen and way in back is the morning room.

Another shot of the U-shaped stairway. To the right in this photo is the coat closet.

This is the master bathroom. The cubby on the left is a little commode room with a door (again, weird). The U-shaped space dead ahead is going to be the big shower area. No doors, just tile.

The master bedroom. If you look closely you might be able to make out a big X marked on the top left window pane. It has a crack and needs to be replaced.

Another view of the master bedroom, showing the door that leads out to the back porch.

I'm standing in the morning room looking at the kitchen and the beginning of the big kitchen island. The plans only call to frame the two 'walls' where people will sit. The other 'walls' of the island are formed by cabinets, I guess.

Looking from the mud room down into the garage. They still haven't installed this door or the stairs down into it. Maybe they need to cement the floor first (it's still gravel).

And finally, the morning room, where you can see the double door. It's not a sliding door (we're not big fans of those), one panel is fixed and the other opens like a normal door.

That's it for this phase! We're not sure what they'll be doing next or when it'll start, but we'll keep the photos coming when it does.

Windows & Doors

Just two new photos today. I snuck out there while the guys were working to capture them putting in the windows.

For the first time you can see the final shape of the front of the house here, with the front door and windows finally framed, the roof structure complete with felt on it and the house fully wrapped. They've got most of the front windows in already. I presume they'll be putting in the doors today as well.

This is the side and back of the house. They're still putting up the house wrap here and only have about half the windows installed.

Getting there!

More photos! These were actually taken last week but I'm just posting them now. Today the windows were delivered so I may have more photos tomorrow.

This and the photo below are the front of the house with the roof lines nearing completion and roofing felt in place. You can see the house wrap getting some attention also.

Here's the view from the kitchen side of the house. The little section to the left is the back side of the third garage. The three windows up high are for the three bedrooms upstairs.

Here's the back of the house. The roof lines are defined now and they've started to finally frame the final wall that they've been leaving open to get in and out of the house.

Inside shots! This is the first floor, from roughly where the front door is. To the immediate right is the dining room, the big double-height great room is dead ahead, and the kitchen it to the right and way far away is the morning room. The great room has big windows that overlook the back porch.

Here's a view of the double height great room and the trusses that make up the roof. Where I'm standing you can also see the framing for the three bedrooms up there and the hallway leading to them. This area seems cavernous right now but once the trusses are hidden by wallboard it'll seem less massive.

Here's a view of the back wall of the great room. It has three giant windows looking out onto the covered back porch and then three windows up high to let in lots of sunlight.

This view is from the kitchen looking at the great room. Beyond the great room back there is the framing for the master suite and also a small guest bathroom.

This is the master bedroom. As you can probably tell, our builder likes big windows.

The view out the back of the master bedroom. Just woods back there but it'll be a dog yard eventually.

A look up at the trusses in the master bedroom, which are a little different since we paid for a cathedral ceiling in there.

And this is the back porch, which has a cover now, but no floor still. This is taken from the doorway that leads from the master bedroom out onto the porch, and across the way you can see the other entrance into the house which leads to the morning room and then the kitchen.