Wires Wires Everywhere!

Getting good pictures for the inside wiring is much harder than framing pictures!

So wiring this week:  We have electrical wiring everywhere!  We have a lot of outlets, 4 outlets in the front of our house plus our holiday outlets for lights, two special outlets in the garage on their own circuit, as well as one in the closet of our media room.  Then we got wired for 'cable', our TV wires are everywhere, then we got Cat6E in many rooms so we'll be ready for google fiber if it every shows up!  We also got wired for our audio - we have 4 different channels of audio with switches to turn the audio on and off.  We chose our great room/kitchen, master bathroom, outside patio and study.  We can easily add more speakers if we want them to share one of the preset channels.  They are bluetooth connected so you can play from your phone, with each channel playing their own thing if you want to.  Sounds cool :)  

In other news our BBQ outlet is now relocated to the correct location.  We also got our 'termite spray' yesterday, so our boards are all green on the bottom now!  Our fireplace is officially hooked up to the gas line, and it has an electric starter so we can push a button to turn it on.  Sweet!  No more singed eyebrows!!!

As you can see below, we had our first block party!  The architects/engineers and higher ups came to do a walk through on my plan.  Apparently when we added the loft, we weren't supposed to also be able to do the vaulted ceilings like we chose to.  The design center let us do it anyway since that's what we wanted.  Well it added 2 feet to the ceiling...which adds to how far the stairs have to go up, which changes where the stairs end up.... which changes a bunch of little things it looks like.  The architect is redoing the plans and may not allow the high ceilings in the future but if they do, the plans obviously can't be the same as the regular ceiling!

We are marching quickly towards being ready for our pre-drywall inspection.  This is when we do a final walk through and point out anything that we see that may be incorrect before the insulation comes in and everything gets dry-walled.

Prior to our walk through the project manager does a walk through and signs off, as does the frame engineer.  Then once WE sign off it goes to the city for inspection.

We are told we should be ready for our walk through in a week.  

Lots of wires!

First step for our 'mud set' shower

Fiberglass Coating before tile

We have so many cables we have TWO electrical boxes!

Second electrical Box

Audio cable installed

Termite spray and wiring

Partial shingles

Wires in closet - audio, cable and internet

Dirpy stairs :)

Frame Finished - 'Mechanicals' started

Progress this week:  Completed Gas Lines (mostly), Roof and tar paper, HVAC system, Internal Plumbing.  Also sheet rock has arrived.

The process of building our home has been very exciting for my husband and I.  We love seeing the small progress every time we visit.

No process this big is ever 100% smooth though.  We haven't experienced any issues that weren't either immediately taken care of or else we've been given a timeline for them to be taken care of.  We made several changes to the default plan on this house and the loft we are putting up is something that was never done before so there were some framing mishaps along the way.

The roof/truss system itself was something the engineer wasn't happy with and they came in and redid part of our roof, which was part of the reason for delay.  For some reason, on the framing plans they had our garage sink and the garage door to the back yard in the same location.  Obviously that didn't work and that has already been fixed.  They also forgot to put the door into our bedroom.  We requested it but for some reason it didn't make it into our framing design.  Then when the gas lines went in today they put the bbq outlet at the wrong location.  This was irritating because our project manager put a big orange arrow and labeled it bbq and the outsourced gas crew still didn't put it where it goes.

The last thing is a result of the loft - the loft stairs cuts off part of our closet.  They put on the original design they could move the linen closet over to give me more closet space and take about 2 feet out of the 'entrance' of the bedroom, so the bedroom is square instead of the 2 feet 'entrance'.  They didn't do this to begin with though, they did the design the same as they would have if there was no loft.  I was told that my bedroom entrance was more 'dramatic' this way.   I informed my project manager that I didn't need a dramatic entrance to my bedroom as I wasn't that kind of girl!!  I'd much prefer another 2 feet of closet space.  So they are moving my wall to give me more closet space.  Sorry guys, no dramatic bedroom entrance for me!

The door is super easy to add at this point and will go in before we get to sheet rock phase. The gas dudes have to come back now and fix the bbq grill location and the closet walls will get moved likely this week.  All in all, nothing has been a 'big deal'.   The place looks super cool.

House with Roof and Tar Paper

Fireplace installed

HVAC system upstairs

Upstairs Bathroom in loft

HVAC Pipes

Gas Fireplace

Windows are weather proofed and sealed

Bathroom tub in place

Silly people can't put the gas line properly - seems pretty obvious

Water Heater location

Driveway and Windows!

This week has been a bit slow.  The framers weren't happy with some of the roof line so they ordered additional wood to redo some spots before they continued framing.  It makes the progress look slower but I'd rather it be done right to begin with.  

They worked on the driveway this week as well.  I really like how it turned out.  It was very 'boxy' at first but I asked them to make it curved.  They brought in special curved wood and curved it for me, I think it looks amazing!  I did go and write in it (pic below) but the crew came back and wiped it smooth.  :(  Was much sadness but I was told they weren't sure who did it and they wanted a smooth end product.  

The frame crew finished yesterday - so we have a roof now as well. Roofing comes next!

Progress- Frame continues, roof begins!

Wow - what a difference a week makes!  A week from today at 7 A.M. we had just a foundation.  Now they are starting to put up the roof!  Yesterday's walk through was fantastic!  Our builder requested we come meet with them to discuss our driveway.  They wanted to give us a 'bigger' driveway (seems plenty big to me already!) but wanted to know how much lawn we wanted.  Well I'd rather keep more front yard at this point and 17 feet seems like a lot of space to me, so I am good with it.  I was super happy with the pretty curves they are putting in it.

So walking inside, we have STAIRS and we have an ISLAND and the outlines of our FIREPLACE and our SHOWER BENCH!  Was super exciting.  I can't get over how beautiful our living room/kitchen will be.  I know we have neighbors on both sides, but you'd never know we weren't in the middle of a forest from standing in our living room.  That was the reason for the lot :)

In other not so great news our neighbor to the right is building a 2 story and will likely be angled to see our side yard.  Our back porch won't be visible from either side though so complete privacy there. We're going to wait and see how the neighbor's house/windows look and we may build a gazebo/pergola over where we want our hot tub to go so we have more privacy.  For sure a wait and see!

Shower Seat!

Frame continues - 'weather proofing' begins

Day 2 of framing was truss/upstairs work, Day 3 was stick building our roof 'edges' and water proofing the windows. The guys are super quick.  The guy at the bottom measures the wood, cuts it and tosses it up.  The guy at the top catches it with one hand and starts nailing it into place.  So fast and precise!

The crew took the weekend off from the frame but Saturday we did have someone come and dig out the area for our driveway so that's also in progress.

The house looks huge!  I know that's because the base is so big but Jeff and I were still surprised at how big it looks. It's not much bigger than our last house, but because it's mostly a 1 story the base is much larger.  Optical illusions there :)  Excited to see what happens this week.  The 'lot' is now 'the house' :)