Hardwood floors finished!

Master Bedroom...


Rebekah & Sarah's room... (actually all the bedrooms are done, including closets)



Downstairs bedroom/game room...


Stairwell landings...

Solar panels finished and hardwood flooring begun

The noble pioneer with his trusty screwdriver.

The last solar panel goes out the window and up to the roof. Yay!

Left side panels (7 on each side).


The hardwood installer began working on the family room floor. By the end of the day, he had completed that floor. He hopes to complete the whole house by end of day Monday.

working on solar panels...

Let me first say, the hardwood flooring was delivered:


Yay! And we found another hardwood floor installer who can do it this weekend!
(applause, please!)


So, here's where we stand:


Rajah and Josiah got a couple of solar panels on the roof, and are working on putting up the rest of the rails.






All I can say is: "Don't look down."


Oops! You looked!

Laundry chute!

Just some fun with Sarah while we make some siding decisions. Stay tuned!

More drywall and some more insulation

Here's some more pictures of the drywall:


Stairwell (looking down from the top floor):

kitchen:
long view of kitchen from family room:

Main floor view of stairwell:
Rebekah and Sarah's room:
Master window:
hallway upstairs:
Hannah's room:
Josiah's room:

Insulation to finish the walls in the laundry room:

Drywall underway

They started putting in sheet-rock on Wednesday. The rooms look so very different with walls! Josiah helped to fix a couple of framing issues together with Chuck and his son Mark. It's such good experience for him to be involved in the process.

We also spoke to the Duron/Sherwin-Williams paint guy this morning. We're hoping to use a low-VOC (volatile organic compound) paint, like the kind they use in hospitals and schools to keep odor and fumes down. I think the paint guy thought we were a bit nuts to put that in our house, but we're pretty sold on the idea. No accounting for taste, I suppose.





Let's see...we've ordered the cabinets and countertops. Flooring estimates are coming in for laminates and hardwoods. Next week they should start the siding (we're using a Certainteed product for that). So things are finally moving along pretty well!

Blue fun in the walls?

A few months ago, our family purchased a whipped cream which was supposedly raspberry flavored. To punctuate this exciting flavor, the company had added blue coloring. Our family nicknamed this strange concoction "blue fun". Surprisingly enough, the foam insulation which they have been blowing into our new house's walls looks very much like this "blue fun". It is actually a "closed-cell" insulation which when dried, is very much like a Styrofoam cup material. Don't ask me why it's blue, it just is. But the house is very air-tight! It's supposed to keep the inside a very consistent temperature and retards insect activity in the walls to boot.

Tomorrow we hope to pass insulation inspection as well as finally passing the framing inspection. Then next week: drywall & siding!




We also placed the tubing on our solar tube which will bring light down into the darker hallway in the master bath (during the day, at least!). Eventually when the ceiling is in, this will have a light fixture cap to diffuse the light just a bit.


Here you can see the difference between the wall before and after the foam is sprayed on.

Clean up

Everyone pitched in to clean up the house and prepare it for the next phase of construction. Sweeping, vacuuming with a shop vac, and picking up trash were all on the agenda for the morning.





Wow. It looks much better!

You might not be able to see it, but we were approved for electrical (yay!). Hope to hear about framing soon.

Doors are in!

Front Door:


Garage Door


Porch Doors (eventually they will be glass, these are called "dunnage" doors and they are temporary)

The front door looks pretty from the inside too. You can see the transom window has the same pattern in it.


Mechanical and plumbing have passed inspection. Electrical has a second inspection on Monday, and framing should be inspected Tuesday. Assuming they pass, insulation could start Wednesday or Thursday. After that is finished we can move into drywall!